Posts Made By: James Brown

Originally Posted by James Lacey

So, what prevents the next Democratic president from implementing an EO that seriously restricts 2A rights, even though it's unconstitutional? And while a court challenge takes years to wind its way through the process, it remains in effect. You can imagine a certain political demographic is not going to be happy about that.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

Well, it looks like all the interested parties are already banding together to file a class-action lawsuit to circumvent the limitation that only federal district judges are involved. And they have 30 days to get organized and do it? I'm not sure this ruling made much of a difference. It seems a little premature for the right-wingers to be claiming it's some great victory.

Originally Posted by James Brown

Good point, and no, the 2A crowd and a lot of other folks won't be happy about it.  If Congress would do it's job, potential executive overreach would not come up so often.

Originally Posted by James Brown

I'll have to check on this.  A class action case is only pending in one district, it just has lots of plaintiffs.  So maybe you misread the bit about it being a class action?  

The work around seems to me, if you insist on seeking a preliminary injunction, is to file parallel cases, one in each district you care about.   You may get an injunction in some districts, maybe you won't in others.  That is indeed how it used to be done in high profile cases.  I think the "nationwide injunction" thing is new.

I'm not sure this is a victory for right wingers,  but it is a victory for those who oppose forum shopping and for those who are uneasy with judges exercising nation-wide authority.  It only seems like a right wing victory now, as you noted, because of who is issuing the nation-wide injunctions, and who was being enjoined.

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

The school boards I worked for from the mid seventies to my retirement in 2006 always had a policy that a list of reading materials was sent to every parent in September...  Any parent could insist that their child could opt out of reading a particular book and be given an alternate book to study.  This mostly affected English classes. 



Dave

Originally Posted by James Lacey

I agree, it does put an end to forum shopping, which was a bipartisan problem. But it seems to me that all this has done is now forced plaintiffs to either file a class-action lawsuit that covers all 50 states, or file a suit in every state either one of which creates a lot more case load not only in the federal courst, but also for Trump's DOJ to handle, and from what I understand, they are already swamped and have no headroom to handle yet more lawsuits and cases. This is hardly a massive win for Trump and his desire to end birthright citizenship. Any sane person would realize it was a losing battle, and they would be better off spending their time and energy elsewhere.

Originally Posted by James Brown

Sort of.  If your litigation goal is an injunction, i.e. a preliminary remedy blocking a policy right now, and for everyone then you may have to file cases in every jurisdiction.

On the other hand, if your goal is to have a policy held unconstitutional for keeps, you can file in any one jurisdiction and wait while the case works its way up to the Supremes on the merits.

Or, if your goal is an injunction, right now for you, for example you argue you are being deported improperly, you can file in your home jurisdiction and ask for an injunction covering yourself.

I think the press might mislead people into thinking the preliminary injunction aspect of a politically charged case is everything.  Preliminary injunctions are Right Now!  and thus newsworthy.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

I just know the real pressing question has been, "where's Rod"?! 

Well, out observing, of course!...

Here's the rundown from the LAAS site last night (6-27), with my 16" f4.5 astrosystems dob:

1. Conditions: (As compared to Chuchupate) Clear, warmer during the day, colder at night (lower 40s or upper 30s), no wind, clouds or haze. I had the entire large and level rectangular dob pad to myself with one other guy who apparently lives on site in his camper doing imaging on the other side of the site, so, for all practical purposes, I had the site to myself. They added a large two piece two tier movable table to set your accessories on which made it convenient for me. They also added gravel on the road around the site so you don't drive through moon dust.

2. Darkness: The site, overall, was darker than Chuchupate, particularly to the large expanse of sky to the northwest. The above imager told me he has seen it at bortle 3 in that region of the sky and from what I saw last night, I believe him. I could see both the Milky Way in Cygnus and M31 far lower in elevation due to darker conditions than we saw at Chuchupate. SQMs: 21.25 overhead and 21.31 to the northwest.

3. Seeing/Transparency: Good/Excellent.

Observations:

1. Since the major groupings of galaxies in Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices and Bootes were descending to the northwest, I hit them first, followed by those in Draco. In regards to Draco, I observed everyone of those in the Observer's Guide, approximately 35 in total.

Specific to Canes Venatici, I hit the major ones, including those we observed on Wed. It is in this constellation that I had another of what I consider to be a "memorable moment". I had the best view of the whale and the pup I've ever seen, with the pup appearing of similar brightness to the whale with the latter seeming like somebody snuck in a NV device and lit it up for me! It was THAT bright...

Specific to Bootes, I hit the 5416 Group West and the 5492 Group East galaxy clusters and while they might be described as a train or trail of galaxies, it looked more like a goddamn parade! The Guide generally doesn't go deeper than about magnitude 15 but I'm sure I was going deeper than that! 

All observations of galaxies were with the 10mm Ethos and GSO corrector. I lost track of how many I observed but it wasn't until about 1:00am that I finally turned my attention to the summer constellations.

With the 10mm Ethos in place and the Lumcon 0111, One view, in particular, of the lagoon appeared similar to the images you see in hydrogen alpha of certain objects. THAT was another memorable moment for me.

I viewed M57 with the 4mm Angel Eyes (astrotech) 82 and I could see the central star blinking in and out with the seeing. Had the seeing been excellent, I'm sure it could have been steadily seen.

My last observation of the evening was of the cocoon in Cygnus with the H Beta filter. I tried several focal lengths and the best view thus far was provided by the 17.2mm Baader morpheus followed by the 10mm Ethos with lesser views in the 30mm Svbony-Vixen clone plossl and the 26mm meade Kowa plossl. I still, however, want to try a 20mm focal length just to satisfy my curiosity.

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

The big bill just passed the senate 51-50 with Vance casting the tie-breaker.  But why do other votes in the Senate get held up because of the 'filibuster' requirement of 60 votes....  Is it that certain kinds of bills require only a simple majority while others need the 60?  If so, which kinds require what?

Dave

Originally Posted by James Brown

hi Dave: there are special rules for budget bills. Presumably to keep the government moving, even when there is disagreement between the parties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconciliation_(United_States_Congress)