Opinion: In today’s pages: Sexting! San Quentin! Scalia! Sotomayor! Senate!
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
In today’s Los Angeles Times opinion pages, the editorial board says it’s time to sell the picturesque state-owned castle, pictured at right, perhaps for condos. The castle, by the way, is the prison at San Quentin.
Selling San Quentin and building homes or businesses in its place would boost the state’s economy, lower prison operating costs and possibly provide a one-time cash infusion to the general fund, all without costing taxpayers a dime. Lawmakers should get it done, even if it won’t solve the budget crisis.
The board also ponders the diminution of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel after a recent Supreme Court opinion, penned by Justice Antonin Scalia, in the case of Jesse Jay Montejo. The ruling overturns a 1986 precedent and blurs what ought to be a bright line: that once a suspect has a lawyer, questioning should stop unless the lawyer is present.
And then there’s sexting, the practice of young teens, usually girls, of sending naked and other personal photos of themselves to boys -- who, too often, forward them to the rest of the school, the neighborhood, and all of cyberspace. So are we dealing with sex crimes? Child abuse? The Times calls on everyone to pause and take a breath:
By sexting, to quote one expert, teens are giving themselves ‘cyber tattoos’ for life. So although it may be necessary to bring charges in the most egregious cases, that shouldn’t be the rule. Education and attentive parenting will go further toward addressing this worrisome trend than new laws and tough prosecutions.
On the Op-Ed side, historic preservation comes to the moon. No, really. Louisiana State University School of Art graduate student Jill Thomas and professor Justin St. P. Walsh say we should worry about space tourists messing with the Apollo landing sites.
The sites of early lunar landings are of unparalleled significance in the history of humanity, and extraordinary caution should be taken to protect them. Armstrong’s iconic footprint and the American flag placed by the astronauts may yet be intact -- there is no wind or rain on the moon to damage or destroy them.
Election law maven, blogger, and Loyola Law School professor Richard Hasen calls for Al Franken to be seated in the U.S. Senate. Democrat Franken led incumbent Republican Norm Coleman by 312 votes after a lengthy recount in Minnesota, but Coleman has appealed to the state Supreme Court and may not stop there.
If, as expected, the court rejects Coleman’s challenge and confirms Al Franken as the winner, the U.S. Senate should be ready to seat Franken provisionally, even if Coleman vows further legal action and even if the state’s governor refuses to sign Franken’s election certificate.
And columnist Gregory Rodriguez takes up the Latino-ness of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent.
Because the media and the political elites make no distinctions among Latino groups, Mexican Americans may find themselves waiting a very long time for one of their own to be nominated to the Supreme Court.