• Florida bans bath salts that may double as drugs. [link]
• China bans smoking. Smokers unimpressed. [link]
• Indianapolis bans texting while driving. [link]
• Appeals court undoes ban on government money for embryonic cell stem research. [link]
• White House bans “pen-and-pad” reporter Carla Marinucci from presidential access after she uses a cellphone camera to record protesters during an Obama fundraiser; then team Obama flat-out denies the whole thing ever happened. [link]
• Denver business district bans promotional sandwich boards. [link]
• Despite Snyder v. Phelps, the funeral-picketing case recently decided by the Supreme Court in favor of the protesters, Oregon attempts to ban protests at any funeral, burial, or memorial service. [link]
• Philadelphia bans questions about job applicants’ criminal past from application forms. [link]
• San Francisco may vote to ban male circumcision. [link]
• Minnesota Senate committee pushes bill banning same-sex marriage. [link]
• Following in France’s footsteps, Belgian politicians propose to ban Islamic face veils. [link]
• California aims to ban the use of tanning beds by all minors. [link]
To be clear on the proposed San Francisco bill, it would ban the non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors. Rather than a liberty-reducing ban, this promotes individual liberty where it’s not now protected. It prohibits a specific form of battery. No locale should need such a separate law, although California already has a law banning non-therapeutic genital cutting on female minors. But since this form of battery occurs and isn’t prosecuted under existing applicable laws, this proposed bill would do the necessary work of protecting the individual rights of male minors. It can’t be accurately grouped in the same manner as the others in this post.
with the US having the largest incarceration rate in history, I think the Philadelphia ban may be an unintended consequence of that. Two negatives still don’t make a positive…
No relation.