In a new case, Alexander v. City of Round Rock, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit considers the following question: If the police pull over a driver and the driver indicates he will refuse to answer any police questions, does it violate the Constitution for the police to retaliate against the driver to punish him for refusing to answer their questions? As I read the 5th Circuit’s decision, the court rules that (a) retaliation against the driver for refusing to answer police questions may involve acts that violate the Fourth Amendment, (b) retaliation for refusal to answer police questions doesn’t clearly violate the First Amendment, and (c) such retaliation doesn’t violate the Fifth Amendment.
Researchers led by Northeastern University professor Dan Distel just made history by unearthing the first living example of a creature that scientists have had a hard time finding for hundreds of years. The “worms,” which are actually part of the mollusk family, live inside thick, calcified tubes buried under the sea floor, allowing just two small tips of its body to be seen. Researchers have known that these worms exist for some time thanks to their durable tubes that remain long after the worms die, but have never actually found a living specimen until now.