Court imposes Louisiana law on the rest of America

Reproductive freedom is a very important issue to hundreds of millions of Americans, and it must be respected. I might personally oppose abortion, but I am pro-choice. It is not my place to make this choice for others.

But now, in a Louisiana case, the right-wing 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked the mailing of the abortion drug mifepristone nationwide. Louisiana is one of many states that banned abortion after Roe v. Wade was gutted, but the federal court is absurdly saying that Louisiana laws apply outside of Louisiana - even if the sender and recipient of this drug never set foot in that state. The ruling even blocks telehealth prescriptions for the drug, even when the doctor and the patient are not in Louisiana.

You and your doctor could be in a state with the most permissive abortion laws in the nation, and the ruling would block you from getting this drug. This is after those who defended the overturning of Roe v. Wade said the power was merely returning to the states. So - once again - states' rights applies only selectively.

Louisiana has been at the center of a lot of weird cases lately. When the U.S. Supreme Court recently laid waste to some of the most important provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Louisiana announced it would cancel the congressional primary in which voters were already voting and gerrymander its map of House districts. In other words, the state canceled an election until officials knew they were allowed to rig it.

The Pelican State has also inexplicably sued to have the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975 ruled unconstitutional - just because. Nobody can figure out why. That was even after it was found that New Orleans schools were illegally denying entry to thousands of students on the basis of disability, which resulted in a consent decree involving the school system.

Now one state - which has had some of the strangest public policies - can control policy for the entire country.

Utah makes it illegal to post VPN instructions

With the recent proliferation of laws in America and around the world to block and censor websites, some people have turned to what are called VPN's - virtual private networks - to access banned sites. This is actually a step down. It used to be that there were free proxy servers to get around blocks that might exist, but most of today's VPN's charge a steep subscription fee. A post from 2018 - before the runaway stagflation of the 2020s - says a VPN cost $273 per year.

But now even zillionaires aren't safe.

Utah has just passed a new law making it illegal for websites to provide instructions on how to use a VPN.

This violates the First Amendment, of course. It's not as if the underlying ban on websites - which is what has prompted the instructions to be posted in the first place - doesn't also violate it.

But hey, who's counting?