Some Are More Equal Than Others

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor doesn’t think too much of our Second Amendmen rights. It is also apparent that she thinks she is much too important to stand in line to vote like the rest of us great unwashed.

Photo by @jeffkrehely

The photo above was taken by Jeff Krehely and posted to Twitter. He called her his most famous neighbor.

The publication DCist is perfectly OK with this.

Would we hold it against Sotomayor for jumping the line? Of course
not—the court is hearing arguments in two cases today, after all, and it
wouldn’t be any good for her to miss those because she’s trying to cast
her ballot.

That is bullshit.

If she was so concerned about missing arguments, she had plenty of opportunity to vote by either absentee ballot or by taking advantage of the District’s early voting. According to the DC Voter Guide, they had early voting available in all wards beginning as early as October 22nd and this included Saturdays.

Nobody Tell Justice Sotomayor

New Scientist has a story today about a flightless ibis that lived in Jamaica over 10,000 years ago. What makes this bird, Xenicibis xympithecus, interesting is that it used its wing stubs as a hinged club similar to nunchucks.

Yale University research scientist Nick Longrich reported his finding in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. He has examined fossil remains of the birds. At first he thought they were just an isolated bird or two and then he found more that confirmed their use as clubs. He notes:

“We don’t know of any other species that uses its body like a flail. It’s the most specialised weaponry of any bird I’ve ever seen.”

It is speculated that this bird became extinct after humans arrived. Or as the New Scientist says, the “ninja-bird” ended “up in the pot for dinner.”

A few months prior to her confirmation as an Associate Justice, Sonia Sotomayor was part of a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals which denied the appeal of attorney James Maloney in the case of Maloney v. Rice. That case sought to overturn New York State’s ban on nunchucks even in the home as a violation of the Second Amendment. That case was remanded back to the Second Circuit for further consideration in light of McDonald v. Chicago in June of 2010. More on the case – including court documents – can be found here.