1989—Displaying its usual disregard for the interests of local communities in maintaining minimal standards of behavior, the American Civil Liberties Union protests the written policies developed by the Morristown, New Jersey, public library to deal with a homeless man who camped out in the library, was belligerent and disruptive, stared at and followed library patrons, talked loudly to himself and others, and had an odor so offensive that it prevented areas of the library from being used by patrons and from being worked in by library employees. (See This Day for February 14, 1992, for the rest of the story.)
2023—In a ruling on a motion to dismiss (in Bullock v. Revell Enterprises), federal district judge Carlton W. Reeves can’t resist the urge to grandstand ignorantly about the Supreme Court’s ruling the previous week in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis: “In certain civil rights claims, we have just learned, a plaintiff can establish subject matter jurisdiction merely by expressing ‘worries’ about the defendant’s future course of conduct.” As law professor Richard Re notes, Reeves’s “incendiary” claim is “echoing Left talking points on social media.” But those talking points are “plainly incorrect,” as the Supreme Court in 303 Creative “approvingly recounted” the appellate court’s standing analysis, which “applied a ‘credible threat’ standard, consistent with settled caselaw.”