Back in March, I wrote that Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to be on course for a collision with himself over abortion. Yesterday, he collided in a spectacular way. Due to my testimony in Congress on the Lafayette Park case, I was unable to share the opinion. Continue reading “Roberts Collides With Himself On Abortion”
Month: June 2020
Two lawyers in St. Louis are in the middle of a firestorm after they were shown outside of their house with guns in a confrontation with protesters en route to the nearby house of Mayor Lyda Krewson. Mark and Patricia McCloskey are shown aiming their weapons at the protestors, including Mark McCloskey’s assault-style rifle. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has publicly declared that she is looking for criminal charges to bring against the two lawyers. That has led to many in the criminal defense field (including many who reached out to me) to speculate on what charges she might bring under these facts. While many have suggested that this would be a slam dunk prosecution or that the fact easily satisfy criminal definitions, it may be easier to get a charge than a sustainable conviction.
Twitter remorse is an emotion that millions experience daily. For most, a delete is sufficient until next Thanksgiving when a sibling brings it up at the table. For The Democratic National Committee, The Washington Post, and the White House there is no such thing as a deletion as shown this week. The week began with a controversy over President Donald Trump retweeting a video of supporters, including one screaming “White Power.” Then the Washington Post global opinions editor Karen Attiah was under fire for a tweet suggesting that all white women are lucky that they are not targeted for “revenge.” Most recently, the Democratic National Committee retweeted a message that Trump visiting Mount Rushmore was a “celebration of white supremacy.” Notably, none of these tweets were actually defended, just deleted.
This afternoon, I am testifying on the hearing on the controversy surrounding the clearing of Lafayette Park on June 1, 2020. I was called to appear to address the underlying legal and constitutional standards governing such mass demonstrations. For roughly 14 years, I was one of the lead counsels in the World Bank litigation that helped establish guidelines and case law governing such operations. I have been critical of the force used to clear the park as well as the attack on a team of Australian journalists covered the protests.
The operation to clear the Park began two days before with the plan to install fencing. By Monday, a small barrier was in place around the park itself and the clearing operation was to push back the crowd to a perimeter to allow the higher fencing to be installed beyond the range of debris or objects. The crowd was pushed back to I St. from H St. by the line of officers. (The hearing title and the testimony refers to the “Lafayette Park” or “Lafayette Square Park” generally. In fact, the immediate park was closed off and we are discussing the operation to clear the area for the installation of the higher fence).
As I state in the testimony, I believe the order to clear the area would be found lawful. It is the level of force (and a charging of the line of officers) that is likely to be the focus of any court. I still do not see the need for this level of force in the use of batons and pepper spray.
I have attached my testimony below.
The hearing went until after 2 pm.
Continue reading “Turley Testifies On The Lafayette Park Controversy [Updated]”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper that looks at three different stories attacking Attorney General Bill Barr as acting unethically and corruptly from the Flynn case to the Berman decision to the Cohen case. I have not hesitated to criticize Barr on his policies or actions. However, these are based on long-standing differences over constitutional and legal issues. It is the character attacks that I found notable in last week’s stories particularly in the absence of supporting evidence.
Here is the column:
Below is my column in USA Today on the D.C. Circuit ordering Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. After this column ran, new evidence emerged that further undermined the FBI and the targeting of Flynn, as discussed in another recent column. Notes from fired FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok show that former FBI Director James Comey told President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden that Flynn’s call to the Russian diplomat “appear legit.” Nevertheless, Biden (who denied having anything to do with the case) is noted as raising the idea of a charge under the facially unconstitutional Logan Act, a law that has never been used successfully to charge a single person since the beginning of this Republic. Comey of course was the one who later bragged that he “probably wouldn’t have … gotten away with it” in other administrations, but he sent “a couple guys over” to question Flynn, who was settling into his new office as national security adviser. We now know that, when Comey broke protocols and sent the agents, he thought the calls were legitimate and that agents wanted to dismiss the investigation in December for lack of evidence. They were prevented from doing so as Strzok, Biden, and others discussed other crimes, any crime, to nail Flynn just before the start of the Trump Administration.
If all of that seems “illegitimate” and “irregular,” it pales in comparison to how two judges on the D.C. panel viewed the handling of the Flynn case by Judge Emmet Sullivan. It seems that everyone from the President to the Vice President to the FBI Director to ultimately the federal judge have engaged in a dangerous form of improvisational law when it came to Michael Flynn. That will now hopefully end though many questions still remain.
It is possible for Judge Sullivan to appeal, though the upcoming hearing on Flynn has been removed from the docket.
Here is the column: Continue reading ““Irreparable Harm”: How The Flynn Case Became A Dangerous Game Of Legal Improvisation”
We have been discussing the destruction and defacing of public monuments, including the iconic bust of George Washington at the center or our own campus at George Washington University. President Donald Trump has issued an executive order imposing up to ten years imprisonment for those responsible for such destruction. In reality, he has no unilateral authority to impose such criminal penalties, but existing federal laws do allow for prosecution. There now appears to be a comprehensive effort underway with the FBI releasing images of 15 suspects who authorities believe vandalized a statue of Andrew Jackson recently near the White House. However, the poster contains an interesting reference.
Continue reading “FBI Posts Pictures On Suspects In Defacing Of Jackson Statue”
George Washington University President Thomas LeBlanc surprised many faculty members yesterday with a public declaration of the university for making the 51st state. There is considerable support for statehood at the university but there is no indication that the faculty voted on such a declaration and there is no indication that even the Board as a whole voted on the matter. Some of us have long maintained that, regardless of the merits of a political measure, the university should avoid speaking for the entire institution out of respect to myriad of different voices and views represented in our community. This could well be a question upon which we should abandon our traditional neutrality as an institution and speak as one voice. As one of the oldest institutions in the city, the university may have legitimately wanted to be heard on the question. Yet, even when the school chooses to do so, faculty governance values warrant that the faculty should be given an opportunity to be heard. The staff and students also deserve to be heard as part of this process. This specific legislation has been pending for months and we could have presented the matter to the faculty, staff, and students for their input. If we did, I am not aware of it and the university did not suggest that such a vote was ever taken by the community. I have asked other faculty who were also unaware of any vote by the faculty, students or staff. The university itself could not cite any prior vote after an inquiry. The result is not necessarily different but the process is important. I would feel the same way (indeed more so) if the University announced opposition to D.C. statehood without faculty, staff, and student participation.
Continue reading “George Washington University Declares Support For D.C. Statehood”
Below is my column in The Hill on the ongoing destruction of memorials and statues. After this column ran, I learned that one of the iconic busts of George Washington University had been toppled on my own campus. I did not learn that from our university, which was conspicuously silent about this destructive act at the very center of our campus. There is something eerily familiar in the scenes of bonfires with police watching passively as public art is destroyed. Such acts are akin to book burning as mobs unilaterally destroyed images that they do not want others to see. There are valid issues to address on the removal of some public art but there is no room or time for debate in the midst of this spreading destruction. Even when there is merit to objections to literally or artistic or historical works, mob action threatens more than the individual work destroyed by such action. The media has largely downplayed this violence, including little comparative coverage of an attack on the Democratic state senator who simply tried to videotape the destruction of a statue to a man who actually gave his life fighting against slavery in the Civil War. As discussed earlier, history has shown that yielding to such mob rule will do little to satiate the demand for unilateral and at times violent action. People of good faith must step forward to demand a return to the rule of law and civility in our ongoing discourse over racism and reform.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “History Shows Free Speech Is The Loser In Mob Action”
The Daily Beast is out with another breathless account of the sycophantic, corrupt influence of Attorney General William Barr. The article entitled “Barr Reportedly Told DOJ Officials to Try and Undermine Michael Cohen’s Conviction” adds the subheading “The attorney general insists, meanwhile, that it’s nothing but a ‘media narrative’ to suggest he’s acting in the president’s personal interests.” The article bounced off a piece in the New York Times. The thrust of both the headlines and the story capture the total decoupling of reporting from factual or legal foundations. It could be denounced as a hit job but it completely misses its mark.
Continue reading “Barr and The Daily Beast: How The Media Misconstrued His “Intervention” In The Cohen Case”
Lisa Bloom has struggled for the last few years with what was a carefully maintained media image. There was the dust up with her former client Kathy Griffin. She then broke from her client Harvey Weinstein in a public reversal. Then there was her public statement that she believed that Joe Biden was a rapist who continues to lie about his crime but that she would still support him. Now she is in the middle of litigation where she is accused of preventing families of four special needs children from getting settlement funds because she wanted a cut. They insist that she abandoned them and never had a fee agreement.
The Supreme Court delivered a big win for the Trump Administration on immigration today with a 7-2 ruling that it may deport asylum seekers without allowing them to present their cases to a federal judge. It is a major component of the Administration’s effort to expedite deportations and discourage the use of asylum claims as a way of extending stays in the United States. The case is Dept. of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam.
Continue reading “Supreme Court Rules 7-2 In Favor Of The Trump Administration On Immigration”
We have been discussing the erosion of free speech on social media and the Internet. This includes calls from leading Democratic leaders for years to implement private censorship of political speech, a view supported by academics who have declared that “China was right” about censorship. The latest attack on free speech comes from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign which has asked Facebook and Twitter to remove posts by Republican President Donald Trump aimed at discrediting mail-in voting. While Trump’s statements have been widely criticized as without foundation, they constitute political speech. Biden however wants these companies to help censor such statements from his opponent and many are supporting the effort. Continue reading “Biden Pushes Facebook and Twitter To Remove Trump Criticisms of Mail-In Voting”
New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones was one of the journalists who denounced the New York Times for publishing the views of a conservative U.S. Senator on the use of troops to quell rioting in U.S. cities. Hannah-Jones applauded the disgraceful decision of the Times to apologize for publishing such an opposing viewpoint and denounced those who engage in what she called “even-handedness, both sideism” journalism. Now Hannah-Jones has deleted a tweet advancing an anti-police conspiracy theory. When Hannah-Jones and others objected to the publishing of the views of Cotton, opinion editor James Bennet reportedly made an apology to the staff. That however was not enough. He was later compelled to resign for publishing a column that advocates an option used previously in history with rioting. Unlike the editor of the Times, however, such theories are not viewed as cause for resignation or “both sideism.” The concern for many of us is that the media is not just losing its touchstone of neutrality but continues to apply vastly different standards for journalists and editors, even at the same newspaper.
There is an interesting charge out of Florida where Donovan Russell Jester stole and crashed a roughly $1 million yacht. He apparently lived on the boat for three months. He was charged with the grand theft vessel. What is interesting is that this crime comes with a potential 30 year sentence. Continue reading “Florida Man Caught After Crashing $1 Million Yacht and Faces 30 Years In Prison”