JONATHAN TURLEY
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Professor Jonathan Turley is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has written extensively in areas ranging from constitutional law to legal theory to tort law. He has written over three dozen academic articles that have appeared in a variety of leading law journals at Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and other schools.
After a stint at Tulane Law School, Professor Turley joined the George Washington faculty in 1990 and, in 1998, was given the prestigious Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law, the youngest chaired professor in the school’s history. In addition to his extensive publications, Professor Turley has served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades including the representation of whistleblowers, military personnel, judges, members of Congress, and a wide range of other clients. He is also one of the few attorneys to successfully challenge both a federal and a state law — leading to courts striking down the federal Elizabeth Morgan law as well as the state criminalization of cohabitation.
In 2010, Professor Turley represented Judge G. Thomas Porteous in his impeachment trial. After a trial before the Senate, Professor Turley (on December 7, 2010) argued both the motions and gave the final argument to all 100 U.S. Senators from the well of the Senate floor — only the 14th time in history of the country that such a trial of a judge has reached the Senate floor. Judge Porteous was convicted of four articles of impeachments, including the acceptance of $2000 from an attorney and using a false name on a bankruptcy filing.
In 2011, Professor Turley filed a challenge to the Libyan War on behalf of ten members of Congress, including Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (R., Md); Dan Burton (R., Ind.); Mike Capuano (D., Mass.); Howard Coble (R., N.C.); John Conyers (D., Mich.); John J. Duncan (R., Tenn.); Tim Johnson (R., Ill.); Walter Jones (R., N.C.); Dennis Kucinich (D., Ohio); and Ron Paul (R., Tx). The lawsuit was before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
In November 2014, Turley agreed to serve as lead counsel to the United States House of Representatives in its constitutional challenge to changes ordered by President Obama to the Affordable Care Act. The litigation was approved by the House of Representatives to seek judicial review of the claims under the separation of powers. On May 12, 2016, the federal court handed down a historic victory for the House and ruled that the Obama Administration violated the separation of powers in ordering billions to be paid to insurance companies without an appropriation of Congress.
Other cases include his representation of the Area 51 workers at a secret air base in Nevada; the nuclear couriers at Oak Ridge, Tennessee; the Rocky Flats grand jury in Colorado; Dr. Eric Foretich, the husband in the famous Elizabeth Morgan custody controversy; and four former United States Attorneys General during the Clinton impeachment litigation. In the Foretich case, Turley succeeded recently in reversing a trial court and striking down a federal statute through a rare “bill of attainder” challenge. Professor Turley has also served as counsel in a variety of national security cases, including espionage cases like that of Jim Nicholson, the highest ranking CIA officer ever accused of espionage. Turley also served as lead defense counsel in the successful defense of Petty Officer Daniel King, who faced the death penalty for alleged spying for Russia. Turley also served as defense counsel in the case of Dr. Tom Butler, who is faced criminal charges dealing with the importation and handling of thirty vials of plague in Texas. He also served as counsel to Larry Hanauer, the House Intelligence Committee staffer accused of leaking a classified Presidential National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times. (Hanauer was cleared of all allegations).
Among his current cases, Professor Turley represents Dr. Ali Al-Timimi, who was convicted in Virginia in 2005 of violent speech against the United States. In 2020, the federal court found that there merit in the challenges raised by Professor Turley and his co-counsel Tom Huff. Accordingly, the judge ordered his release to protect him from Covit-19 while the Court prepared a decision on the challenges. Pursuant to a court order, Dr. Al-Timimi was released from the Supermax in Colorado and the two drove across the country so that he could be placed into home confinement. He also represented Dr. Sami Al-Arian, who was accused of being the American leader of a terrorist organization while he was a university professor in Florida. Turley represented Dr. Al-Arian for eight years, much of which was in a determined defense against an indictment for criminal contempt. The case centered on the alleged violation of a plea bargain by the Justice Department after Dr. Al-Arian was largely exonerated of terrorism charges in Tampa, Florida. On June 27, 2014, all charges were dropped against Dr. Al-Arian. He also represented pilots approaching or over the age of 60 in their challenge to the mandatory retirement age of the FAA. He also represented David Murphee Faulk, the whistleblower who disclosed abuses in the surveillance operations at NSA’s Fort Gordon facility in Georgia.
Professor Turley also agreed to serve as lead counsel representing the Brown family from the TLC “Sister Wives, a reality show on plural marriage or polygamy. On December 13, 2013, the federal court in Utah struck down the criminalization of polygamy — the first such decision in history — on free exercise and due process grounds. On September 26, 2014, the court also ruled in favor of the Browns under Section 1983 — giving them a clean sweep on all of the statutory and constitutional claims. In April 2015, a panel reversed the decision on standing grounds and that decision is now on appeal.
Professor Turley was also lead counsel in the World Bank protest case stemming from the mass arrest of people in 2002 by the federal and district governments during demonstrations of the IMF and World Bank. Turley and his co-lead counsel Dan Schwartz (and the law firm of Bryan Cave) were the first to file and represented student journalists arrested without probable cause. In April 2015, after 13 years of intense litigation, the case was settled for $2.8 million, including $115,000 for each arrestee — a record damage award in a case of this kind and over twice the amount of prior damages for individual protesters. The case also exposed government destruction and withholding of evidence as well as the admitted mass arrest of hundreds of people without probable cause.
Professor Turley also served as the legal expert in the review of polygamy laws in the British of Columbia (Canada) Supreme Court. In the latter case, he argued for the decriminalization of plural union and conjugal unions. In 2012, Turley also represented the makers of “Five Wives Vodka” (Ogden’s Own Distillery) in challenging an effective ban on the product in Idaho after officials declared the product to be offensive to Mormons. After opposing to the ban on free speech and other grounds, the state of Idaho issued a letter apologizing for public statements made by officials and lifting the ban on sale for “Five Wives Vodka.”
Turley has served as a consultant on homeland security and constitutional issues, including the Florida House of Representatives. He also served as the consultant to the Puerto Rico House of Representatives on the impeachment of Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá.
Professor Turley is a frequent witness before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues as well as tort reform legislation. That testimony includes the confirmation hearings of Attorney General nominees Loretta Lynch and William Barr as well as Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Professor Turley is also a nationally recognized legal commentator. Professor Turley was ranked as 38th in the top 100 most cited “public intellectuals” in the recent study by Judge Richard Posner. Turley was also found to be the second most cited law professor in the country. He has been repeatedly ranked in the nation’s top 500 lawyers in annual surveys (including in the latest rankings by LawDragon) – one of only a handful of academics. In prior years, he was ranked as one of the nation’s top ten lawyers in military law cases as well as one of the top 40 lawyers under 40. He was also selected in the last five years as one of the 100 top Irish lawyers in the world. In 2016, he was ranked as one of the 100 most famous (past and present) law professors.
Professor Turley is one of only two academics to testify at both the Clinton and Trump impeachment hearings. In December 2019, Professor Turley was called as the one Republican witness in the House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings. He appeared with three Democratic witnesses. Professor Turley disagreed with this fellow witnesses in opposing the proposed articles of impeachments on bribery, extortion, campaign finance violations or obstruction of justice. He argued that these alleged impeachable acts were at odds with controlling definitions of those crimes and that Congress has historically looked to the criminal code and cases for guidance on such allegations. The committee ultimately rejected those articles and adopted the only two articles that Professor Turley said could be legitimately advanced: abuse of power, obstruction of Congress. Chairman Jerrold Nadler even ended the hearing by quoting his position on abuse of power. However, Turley opposed impeachment on this record as incomplete and insufficient for submission to the Senate. He argued for the House to wait and complete the record by seeking to compel key witnesses like former National Security Adviser John Bolton. His testimony was later relied upon in the impeachment floor debate by various House members and he was cited by both the White House and House managers in their arguments before the United States Senate in the Trump impeachment trial, including videotaped remarks played at the trial.
Professor Turley’s articles on legal and policy issues appear regularly in national publications with hundreds of articles in such newspapers as the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal. He is a columnist for USA Today and writes regularly for the Washington Post. In 2005, Turley was given the Columnist of the Year award for Single-Issue Advocacy for his columns on civil liberties by the Aspen Institute and the Week Magazine. Professor Turley also appears regularly as a legal expert on all of the major television networks. Since the 1990s, he has worked under contract as the on-air Legal Analyst for NBC News, CBS News, BBC and Fox News. Professor Turley has been a repeated guest on Sunday talk shows with over two-dozen appearances on Meet the Press, ABC This Week, Face the Nation, and Fox Sunday. Professor Turley has taught courses on constitutional law, constitutional criminal law, environmental law, litigation, and torts. He is the founder and executive director of the Project for Older Prisoners (POPS). His work with older prisoners has been honored in various states, including his selection as the 2011 recipient of the Dr. Mary Ann Quaranta Elder Justice Award at Fordham University.
His award-winning blog is routinely ranked as one of the most popular legal blogs by AVVO. His blog was selected as the top News/Analysis site in 2013, the top Legal Opinion Blog in 2011 as well as prior selections as the top Law Professor Blog and Legal Theory Blog. It was also ranked in the top 20 constitutional law blog in 2018. It has been regularly ranked by the ABA Journal in the top 100 blogs in the world. In 2012, Turley has selected as one of the top 20 legal experts on Twitter by Business Insider. In 2013, the ABA Journal inducted the Turley Blog into its Hall of Fame.
Professor Turley received his B.A. at the University of Chicago and his J.D. at Northwestern. In 2008, he was given an honorary Doctorate of Law from John Marshall Law School for his contributions to civil liberties and the public interest.
For further information: Mr. Seth Tate – 202-994-0537
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I’ve posted two similar messages, but they haven’t been added yet. Is there a problem with the system?
Well, I saw the famous Sarah McPalin give her speech last night. My husband watched a few minutes of it, then said “The same old Republickan talking points”, then he went to bed.
I thought that if this is all she’s got, then her and McCain are sunk. There was NO discussion of when our troops will be able to leave Iraq (remember, Iraq has a timeline now that even Bush is willing to accept) NO discussion about Abortion (how she wants to outlaw ALL abortion, except if the mother will die). Why she thinks that any of the Hillary supporters will vote because of her on the ticket is amazingly naive. There was NO discussion of how she and McCain are going to ever pay off the TRILLIONS of dollars of debt that Bush is leaving us, only “cut taxes, less government”.
I was kind of disappointed. I thought she was going to be exciting and new, but she IS the same old thing. I do admire her for being married for 20 years, though. Nowadays, if ANY couple can stay married over 10 years, that’s wonderful. And I do admire her for raising a family and having a special needs child. I guess the press came down hard on her about the little baby, but she cleared it up and *I’m willing to apologize that I thought she was covering up her daughter’s pregnancy*.
But I just can’t picture her a ‘heartbeat’ away from being president. No way, no how…
I’ve seen some pics of Ms. McPalin when she was supposedly 7 months pregnant. Her teenage daughter WAS pregnant, not her. So she’s already involved in a cover-up, by saying that her grandchild is her own child.
More to come out of the woodwork, I’m sure… 🙂
Where is everyone? Are you still being ‘thrilled’ by the pick of McPalin?
Boy, is she ever a doozy! I’ve been reading so many bad things about her that I just can’t wait to watch the convention, which now I’ve heard that Bush and Cheney are not going to go to and that the convention may be shortened because of Hurrican Gustav.
This is rich! Remember 3 years ago, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans? What was Bush doing? Eating birthday cake with McCain! Now Bush is so concerned about the hurricane that he doesn’t even want to go to his own party’s convention?
I wonder if McCain celebrated his birthday on the 29th, or did he, too, start thinking about the hurricane and forget to eat his cake?
Oh, yeah, I’ve been reading a lot of comments from supporters of Hillary. They said that McCain seems to think they’ll vote for him because he chose McPalin. They are saying that McCain must think they’re a bunch of ignorant idiots who will vote for him because of McPalin; but they’re not going to fall for it. They know what will happen if McCain wins–four more years of Neo-Con tripe! And they are ‘insulted’ (read that to Cindy ‘insulted’ McCain) that McCain thinks they are so dumb!
percy:
I NEVER even heard her name until today–Sarah Palin. Big deal, a governor of Alaska who kills animals for sport and whose husband works for the BP oil company. Typical Republickans.
As far as abortions go, you people with your ‘holier than thou’ and ‘compassionate conservatism’ have killed millions over the centuries, by thinking just because you’re white and you and your kind have all the money and the power, you can take away the American Indians rights, the Blacks rights and the Hispanics rights and if they get killed in the process, so what? they’re a bunch of heathens anyway. With your ‘big daddy’ Idi Amin attitude, it’s no wonder why the rest of the world hates you Republickans and your secret prisons and your ‘haves’ and ‘have mores’. You may not know this, but MOST of the people around the world want the Neo-Cons and their failed delusion of the Project for the New American Century gone from Washington DC.
I thought you were a Christian, percy. If you are, you sure are NOT doing the work of the Lord. Me, I’m just telling it like I see it. You Republickans are just a bunch of hypocrites who think that they are the ONLY ones who should have all the Money and all the Power, BUT Jesus chased out the MONEY changers from the Holy Temple and told the POWERFUL high priests the TRUTH–that they were hypocrites who hated their brothers and sisters who were poor or were ‘different’ from them and that they would NEVER be allowed in Heaven.
What ever happened to “Love Thy Neighbor”? Yes, I can Love you and martha and russ as fellow citizens of this world, but that doesn’t mean I have to sit by and read your tripe and be pushed into agreeing what you say or think…
So, at least have the guts to admit you’re a bunch of Hypocrites who say one thing but do another!
MARY LEON; OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE NOT BEEN WATCHING THE NEWS. I HEARD A RUMOR THERE WAS A ROCK FESTIVAL LAST NIGHT AT WHICH BARRY OBAMA ACCEPTED HIS NOMINATION. I AM NOT SURE, BECAUSE THE NEWS IS NOT COVERING IT TODAY! ALL THAT IS ON THE NEWS IS SARAH PALIN!
LOL!
CAN YOU SEE THE LOOK OF PANIC IN THE LIBERALS ON THE AIR! HERE YOU HAVE A WOMAN THAT CAN ACTUALLY TAKE CARE OF HERSELF IN THIS WORLD! WHO HAS A WONDERFUL FAMILY AND HUSBAND, WHO FIGHTS CORRUPTION, AND ACTUALLY DECIDES TO GIVE BIRTH TO A BABY THAT SHE & HER HUSBAND KNEW MONTHS BEFORE THE BIRTH HAD DOWNS SYNDROME! THIS WONDERFUL WOMAN DOESN’T LIKE YOU AND YOUR THROW THE BABY’S AWAY SOCIETY.
I NOTICED YOU STUPID POST TO MARTHA. YOUR PARTY HAS MURDERED MORE BABIES THAN THE TOTAL POPULATION OF THE TWO COUNTRIES PRESIDENT BUSH HAS LIBERALTED – 40 MILLION! 40 MILLION BABIES DEAD BECAUSE OF DEMOCRATS! 40 MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!
martha:
Your computer keyboard get stuck? 🙂
Sorry, martha, but McCain just handed Barack Obama the Presidency of the United States on a silver platter by picking this inexperienced, one-track mind, big-mouthed broad… 🙂
PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN!
PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA!
PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN!
PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA!
PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN!
PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA!
PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN!
PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA!
PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN!
PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA!
PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN!
PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA!
PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN!
PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA!
PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN!
PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA!
PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! PALIN!
PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA! PUMA!
Martha:
Are you saying that NO Republickan has NEVER had an abortion? You, my dear, should look in your own family’s skeleton closet and the ‘clean, upright and moral’ members in your church; you might be surprised.
As far as me, I have two choices–either Republickan or Democrat. I will choose a Democrat every time. I know that Democrats want a woman to choose, and I wish that women and men would choose contraceptives so that no fetuses are aborted. But I will not commit violence to stop a woman from having an abortion. I would suggest to her to have the baby, then put him/her up for adoption.
BUT you Republickans stand by and watch YOUR president Invade Iraq and do NOTHING and say NOTHING while our US soldiers and Iraqi citizens are blown to bits. Your party is more in favor of killing AFTER a person is born. How can YOU sleep at night, know that YOUR party is responsible for ‘overkill’ death penalty that has certainly sent Innocent people in this country to their unjust Executions?
OH, by the way, I almost fell out of my chair laughing 🙂 when I heard who McCain picked to be his Veep. If he thinks he’s going to get supporters of Hillary and gullible young men to vote for him because he has that Alaskan governor piece of ‘eye candy’ on his ticket; he is sadly Mistaken. People are fed up and are saying “ENOUGH!”. McCain could have chosen anyone else and I would still say the same thing: “ENOUGH!” Enough of this Republickan party and their corporate welfare; Enough of the party of the ‘have’ and ‘have mores’; Enough of being hated around the world; Enough of having secret prisons and Gitmo; Enough of this “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran” from McCain; Enough of this $10 Billion a month spent in Iraq so that Bush’s oil buddies could make contracts to legally Steal Iraq’s oil; Enough of this ‘old white anglo-saxon protestant’ Republickan party! The time for us everyday, regular people to finally get a break from this government that is supposed to SERVE us, NOT SCREW us!
Mary Leon, how do you sleep at night when you are pro life but you support the party totally responsible for the destruction of over 40 MILLION of God’s children since just 1970?
Believe it or not, I’m mainly pro-life, but I prefer that women take contraceptives so they don’t get pregnant in the first place. When a woman is pregnant, then she chooses to do what she wants. I hate the idea of abortion, but it is a fact I must face that happens every day around the world.
I am against the death penalty, except for people like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, and people like them, who kill masses of their own citizens, and those they don’t like.
I don’t believe the death penalty works here in the United States, because there are too many minorities that are executed. And I KNOW and so do ALL OF YOU that there have been INNOCENT people EXECUTED by this government. I would rather be cautious and let the guilty party live the rest of his/her life in prison than to think that EVEN ONE PERSON who is Innocent is being Wrongly executed because of the rules of the death penalty!
Is Keith Olbermann Trying to Banish Tom Brokaw From MSNBC?
By P.J. Gladnick (Bio | Archive)
August 27, 2008 – 13:40 ET
It appears that Keith Olbermann might be vying for the title of Most Obnoxious Anchor On Television. First we had Olbermann dissing Joe Scarborough during a live broadcast on Monday from the Democrat convention. Then a day later, Olbermann managed to enrage Chris Matthews during another broadcast. And now it looks like Olbermann is going for broke in the insult department by pushing to have Tom Brokaw banned from appearing on MSNBC as reported in Page Six of today’s New York Post:
At a forum on Sunday, when Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell called MSNBC “the official network of the Obama campaign,” Brokaw said, “I think Keith has gone too far. I think Chris has gone too far.”
Insiders say Olbermann is pushing to have Brokaw banned from the network and is also refusing to have centrist Time magazine columnist Mike Murphy on his show.
This could be payback by Olbermann not only for what Tom Brokaw said at a forum on Sunday but also for Brokaw’s criticism of him back in June. Here is a partial transcript of the June 3 MSNBC Democrat primary interchange between Brokaw and Olbermann (emphasis mine):
TOM BROKAW: So all those experiences have formed him, and he does come from what I think is a kind of post-60s family background. His father came from Africa. His mother came from the Great Plains. He lived around the world. And as we get ready for the 21st century, those are very strong credentials. On the John McCain side, 5 1/2 years in the Hanoi Hilton, from a long, distinguished military family. His life has been about service to his country. He was a wild child, by his own admission, as well, and then got into the United States Senate, married Cindy, and six months ago, we were saying he had no shot at this nomination, and won, too. So we have two remarkable stories taking shape here tonight, it seems to me.
KEITH OLBERMANN: And a third one trying to shoe-horn her way into those, the coverage of the first two.
BROKAW: Well, I think that’s unfair, Keith. I don’t think she shoe-horned her way in. When you look at the states that she won and the popular vote that she piled up, and the number of delegates that she has on her side, she’s got real bargaining power in all of this. You’ll remember it was on that New Hampshire primary night when people were saying she can’t survive the next 24 hours after just Iowa, and here we are at the end of the calendar. And she looks very strong in one of these states tonight, and will have some real bargaining power, and has people, which I think we ought not to overlook, there are a lot of poeple who voted for her who might have been denied that if she’d dropped out — blue-collar workers and especially women, and it’s a delicate time for Barack Obama as he now deals with her because he does not want to disenfranchise them come the fall.
What’s amazing here is how many prominent people Olbermann thinks he can get away with insulting at NBC. Does Keith have some blackmail material on someone high up in the NBC organization that gives him the confidence that he won’t be fired for his hyperactive hubris?
Obama continues tanking in the polls after selecting the plagiarist hair plug ego-maniacal racist Joe Biden as his VP.
PS: Earth to Obama – Biden voted FOR the Iraq war. Biden also made many speeches before & after the conflict started about the deadly danger there was in store for America if we allowed Saddam to stay in power.
How could Obama be so stupid?
I have been SO busy this past week, with relatives visiting, that I just have time to say “Great choice in choosing Biden!” He is a well-seasoned member of Congress that will help Obama sucker-punch McCain and his ‘swift boaters’.
Oh, and I saw those two ‘women’ who are calling themselves ‘Clinton supporters for McCain’ standing outside of the convention center. How stupid can they be? They tell Chris Matthews that they have ‘proof’ that Obama was in a muslim school when he lived in Indonesia (how old was he then, about 10 years old or less? big deal, so he went to school when he was a kid) and that a ‘former Congressional investigator’ had a 17 page document of ‘proof’ that Obama is not qualified to be president.
When Chris Matthews asked who was the former Congressional investigator, one woman said, “I’m not going to tell you.” There’s the answer right there–these two women want to put thoughts in people’s minds without having the hardcopy proof of their accusations.
Oh, and I love the way McCain keeps on defending his decision to approve Bush’s Invasion of Iraq–like anyone is really happy about that now. Only the Republican base will vote for Republicans, so we all know who will be the next President of the United States–Sen. Barack Obama! 🙂
August 24, 2008
A strange singling out explained
Barack Obama’s recent comment about Justice Thomas — that he would not have nominated Thomas for the Supreme Court due to Thomas’ “inexperience” — coupled with Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as his running mate, provide a painful reminder of the judicial confirmation wars of the past 20 plus years. I wrote about Biden’s central (and disgraceful) role in these wars here. I wondered why Thomas is singled out for having been inexperienced at the time of his nomination here.
The latter post brought this response from a reader:
The answer is this: liberals like Mr. Obama simply cannot fathom how a black person could hold seriously thought-out views about jurisprudence like those of Clarence Thomas. And there is something too crass about attacking Justice Thomas’ jurisprudence on the merits, as well as too time-consuming.
Liberals deem it too crass because they like to pretend that their objections are unrelated to politics, perhaps out of a concern that conservatives will apply the same approach to liberal judicial nominees when the tables are turned. So they find other reasons: Bork is too smart and doesn’t understand the “common man;” and Thomas is too dumb. But the Thomas-as-too-dumb view is too crass also, so the easy thing to do is say he was “unqualified” or too inexperienced.
Substantive critiques of Justice Thomas’ jurisprudence are too time-consuming because people like Mr. Obama don’t want to read, much less engage, his opinions. Note that criticisms of Justice Thomas never cite any examples of actual opinions he’s written. Obama certainly failed to do so at the Saddleback forum.
Ultimately, the theme continues for liberals: “self-hating” minorities who deviate from liberal orthodoxy are attacked because liberals view them as turn-coats. For more recent examples, see the treatment Miguel Estrada and Janice Rogers Brown received when the president nominated them to the D.C. Circuit, while the white guy, John Rodgers, sailed through to confirmation. And, recall Justice Thomas’ words:
“This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a circus. It’s a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.”
The “old order” is liberalism. Mr. Obama’s cheap shot against Justice Thomas, which would be applauded in Cambridge and Hyde Park, is the most recent example of the stereotypical left-wing effort to keep minorities on the plantation.
Fox Reporter Assaulted By Anti-war Protestors In Denver
By Noel Sheppard
August 24, 2008 – 15:30 ET
The Democratic National Convention hasn’t even begun, and the protestors are out trying to Recreate 68.
For those unfamiliar, the group “was created for all the grassroots people who are tired of being sold out by the Democratic Party,” and are gathering in Denver to “resist a two-party system that allows imperialism and racism to continue unrestrained.”
High profile activists such as Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia McKinney have already joined the festivities.
On Sunday, Fox News’s Griff Jenkins tried to speak to these folks as they marched in Denver, but was instead verbally assaulted vulgarity warning.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/08/24/fox-reporter-assaulted-anti-war-protestors-denver
Readers should be advised of some of the attendees:
The Re-create 68 Alliance also announced that anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and Green Party Vice Presidential candidate Rosa Clemente will be joining their historic line-up of speakers who include Ida Audeh, Kathleen Cleaver, Ward Churchill, Mark Cohen, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., Larry Hales, Larry Holmes, Ron Kovic, Glenn Spagnuolo, Pamela Africa, King Downing, Jenny Esquiveo, Mumia Abu Jamal – Current Political Prisoner (Recorded from Death Row for the DNC), Gloria Estela La Riva, Ricardo Romero, Natsu Saito, Ann Erika White Bird, and others.
Given the participation of Sheehan, McKinney, and Churchill, one has to wonder how much attention these protests will get from media looking to do everything within their power to make it look like Democrats are all unified behind Obama.
Stay tuned.
In September 1987, the campaign ran into serious trouble when he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British Labour Party.
Within days, it was also discovered that as a first-year law student at Syracuse Law School, Biden had plagiarized a law review article in a class paper he wrote. Biden said the act was inadvertent due to his not knowing the proper rules of citation, and Biden was permitted to retake the course after receiving a grade of F.
Biden also released his undergraduate grades, which started off poorly and remained unexceptional. Further, when questioned by a New Hampshire resident about his grades in law school Biden had claimed falsely to have graduated in the “top half” of his class, (when he actually graduated 76th in a class of 85) that he had attended on a full scholarship, and had received three degrees. In fact he had received two majors, History and Political Science, and a single B.A., as well as a half scholarship based on financial need.
Faced with these revelations, Biden withdrew from the nomination race on September 23, 1987, saying his candidacy had been overrun by “the exaggerated shadow” of his “mistakes”.
BOO!
There are apparently ‘conflicts’ in releasing him – either way.
He is granted bond by Judge Brinkema, but to do so would allow him to leave the country which he should have been able to do in early April 2008 under a now, further, disputed agreement between the US and former Florida defense counsel from 2006 complicated by another DOJ conempt citation – thus the recent SCOTUS writ re previous, lower court, non-admitted, parol evidence.
ICE, by all appearances is aligned with Gordon Kromberg, with respect to holding Sami Al-Arian and is utilizing its power to do so for the full (disputable) ’90-day’ period prior to deportation- IF they can.
Trustfully, ‘someone’ WILL step in. There is no reason why Sami should still be incarcerated. He should be released to his family, locally, to
either await trial and/or, if it works out for him, to leave the country, ASAP, as planned
Now that Dr. Al-Arian has been granted bond by Judge Brinkema- has a bond motion been filed with ICE? I haven’t heard of an Immigration Judge ruling against bond- has this happened?