Porn charges for UCSD student? A few weeks ago I wrote about the airing of sex tapes on the student-run TV station at UCSD. A male student engaged in a sex act with an unidentified female student. Thus far, no one has taken any punitive action against the student.

Some of you emailed and asked what would happen if he had appeared on the TV station with another male student. Not to be too cynical, but I suspect that he would have been charged, as he still could be, for distributing pornography to minors.

The TV station at UCSD reaches students residing on campus. Not only are there students under 21, but also UCSD has students under 18. Arguably, and I’m surprised it hasn’t happened, Steve York could be charged with knowingly distributing pornography to underage minors.

A fair federal judge?

Law schools throughout the country are embroiled in litigation with the Department of Defense over a rule that requires law schools to treat U.S. military recruiters the same as other employers. However, law schools have convinced a federal appellate panel that this law violates the schools’ freedom of expression and association.

Judge William M. Acker, of the northern district of Alabama, in Birmingham, told Yale Law School that he will not hire Yale grads until it changes its stance on military recruiters.

The law schools do allow military law recruiters access to law students, but they have pledged to take measures to point out to students that the military is hiring law students to prosecute openly gays and lesbians in the military.

Some argue that Judge Acker’s move is a form of bias against gays and lesbians. I’m not sure I see it any other way.

‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ soon to be gone?

The news of late has been very bad for the military. Because of so many casualties in Iraq, military recruiting goals are way down.

A recent report by Congress shows that the policy against gays and lesbians has cost taxpayers $200 million. Meanwhile, the British Navy is desperately trying to recruit gays and lesbians because it has discovered that they are fabulous! A bill in the Legislature would make it illegal for the California National Guard to engage in bias against gays and lesbians. There has also been talk that the various branches of the military may start to have “segregated” units, where gays and lesbians can serve openly alongside straights, who indicate that they are not offended or uncomfortable. It sounds awful, but we believe that “segregated” units would quickly become the units all would want to join, leaving the remaining units for people very uncomfortable with their sexual orientation.

Your medical records available on the Internet?

Kansas has Fred Phelps and the BTK killer. Of course we all couldn’t help but notice that the suspect is a church leader, a leader in the Boy Scouts and he was the “dog catcher.” The Attorney General is Phil Kline, an ardent foe of abortion rights. He’s trying to get confidential medical records from women’s healthcare clinics.

In Kansas, it is illegal for anyone under 16 to have sex. It is illegal for doctors to perform an abortion after 22 weeks, unless there is reason to believe that the mother’s health is at risk.

Kline wants to find out if doctors have performed illegal abortions on nearly 90 women and girls. He also wants to investigate potential child abuse.

The matter is now before the Kansas Supreme Court.

The implications of this are startling. If Kline succeeds in getting complete medical records, what’s to stop him from getting medical records from doctors who treat, for example, HIV-positive patients? Why would he want those records? He wants to know if any of the patients were “molested by their fathers” or “raped” or “sexually abused.”

The same attorney general wanted the names of all minors seeking treatment for ailments related to sexual activity. Why? He wanted to investigate whether they had been abused.

Obviously Kline has found a new way of intimidating sexually active youth and adults from engaging in sex outside of marriage. Once these “private” records fall into the hands of the Attorney General’s Office, don’t be surprised to see them become subject to open records laws and put on the Internet.