ThinSkull Blog

A California community recently announced they are considering publicizing the names of suspected drunk drivers on the police website, but will it have a deterrent effect?

Legal scholars are claiming that one sentence from a recent Supreme Court decision is 'tea leaf' that can be interpreted as the Supreme Court's opinion of gay marriage rights.

On June 26, 2010, Canada Gazette published an Order in Council dated June 17, 2010. The order contained questions for the 2011 Canadian census. The short document that would normally be of interest only to statisticians caused a national debate--not because of what it contained, but because of what it lacked. 53 detailed questions sent to 20% of the population in the past were not in the government's order. Only seven or so questions previously put on the short form will be sent to Canadians next year.

A recent report indicated that more and more individuals are representing themselves in court. In particular, the study indicated that individuals were representing themselves in many areas of consumer law.

If you read Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey or saw the film, you must know who Hal is. Good. Keep that in mind while reading this. So... South Korea 'deploys robots to detect and kill intruders.' I don't want to be a scaremonger by just waving Hal in your face. Let me give you two reasons why robocops, or battle robots, or judge robots for that matter are bad from the legal standpoint.

Did you know that the 'supremacy of God' is Canada's founding principle? Read the Canadian constitution, if you don't believe me. This is the preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: 'Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law ...' Recently, a Quebec Superior Court Judge Gerard Dugre relied on these words to stop the Quebec government from blocking one private school's religious curriculum. This caused secular activists to call for removing the reference to God from our Charter.

There is a dramatic development in the Khadr story. A Federal Court judge ordered the government to do something about Omar Khadr, and the government has seven days to comply. Justice Zinn handed down his judgement three days ago, on July 5, 2010, so if we are still a country of the rule of law we should hear from Ottawa around Monday or Tuesday. Although the judge didn't order the government to ask the US for Khadr's return, his repatriation may be the only logical outcome of the chain of events that Justice Zinn set off in Edmonton on Monday.