6. Texas expands its forced blood-draw program, where motorists accused of driving under the influence can be compelled to give blood samples, with police officers using force if necessary.
7. Just to show that it isn’t just individual civil liberties which are threatened: the California Supreme Court has ruled that private shopping malls must allow demonstrators on their property, even if it means promoting boycotts of the mall’s tenants.
8. An off-duty firefighter is busted by the cops for indecent exposure after a woman sunbathing topless in a city park asks to see his penis. See, exposing your breasts is legal, but bringing out Mr. Winky is a no-no.
9. You can no longer pack spare lithium batteries in your checked airline luggage, the TSA has ruled.
10. In this week’s Most Unenforceable Law segment, New Jersey has banned sex offenders from using the Internet.
11. Arizona enacts a “death penalty” for businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
12. Texas now allows cops to write tickets for misdemeanor pot possession, but few counties are taking advantage of the law, even when their jails are overcrowded—the very problem the law is intended to address.
13. A law in Washington state which allows prosecutors to charge people with murder if they supply drugs to an overdose victim may actually be causing more deaths . . . because people are afraid to call 911 when a friend ODs.
14. Illinois climbs aboard the smoking-ban bandwagon.
15. Collateral damage in the heroic war on drugs: a SWAT team in Lima, Ohio, shoots and kills a woman and injures her one-year-old child after storming the house to arrest her suspected drug-dealer boyfriend. Lima, it’s worth noting, is also the site of this outrageous asset forfeiture case (item # 4).