If this week’s hearings seem devoid of serious content, it is due to the little known Ginsburg Rule. Today’s column discusses how we can restore some serious content to confirmation hearings.
Category: Constitutional Law
For weeks, we have been discussing how Judge Sonia Sotomayor could result in the loss of ground for liberals on the Supreme Court given her sometimes conservative voting record in areas like free speech, student rights, and police abuse. One such area concern the use of foreign judgments. She is replacing a jurist who did rely on such judgments, but today Sotomayor aligned herself with Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts in rejecting the use of such judgments –even to “influence” decisions. It was one of the few substantive moments in the hearings.
Continue reading “Sotomayor Rejects Use of Foreign Law — Siding With Conservatives on the Supreme Court”
Arizonans are now allowed to carry concealed weapons into bars. Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law on Monday to guarantee the right to be fully loaded in bars.
Continue reading “Loaded in Arizona: New Law Allows Guns in Bars”
While going to law school in Chicago, many of us were envious of kids that graduated from Wisconsin law schools who were not required to take a state bar. It now turns out that we may have been victims of an unconstitutional discrimination against outside law schools. In an interesting opinion written by Judge Richard Posner of the United States Supreme Court, the Wisconsin rule was found to be a violation of the commerce clause.
There is an interesting story out of Florida that shows that, at a typical sobriety roadblock, police arrested 10 people and wrote tickets for 100 others — for virtually every type of traffic violation except DUI. What is fascinating is the comparison to the recent D.C. Circuit ruling finding general crime roadblocks to be unconstitutional. Yet, by calling a roadblock a sobriety checkpoint, you can accomplish the same result.
Continue reading “Florida Sobriety Roadblock Produces Host of Arrests and Citations — Except for DUI”
Newsweek is reporting that Attorney General Eric Holder is leaning toward the appointment of a special prosecutor on the issue of torture. Much, however, was not stated and there remains a question of whether Holder will appoint a special prosecutor with the full authority to pursue any and all crimes related to the torture policy. There are rumors that, if an investigation occurs, it may be sharply curtailed.
Continue reading “Holder Reportedly Considering Special Prosecutor — But Serious Questions Remain”
Sonia Sotomayor has been heralded as a judge with a life story that should inspire all Americans and, even though she has a fairly conservative voting record in some areas, liberal activists have rallied around her nomination. A new poll, however, suggests that most Americans are neither inspired nor supportive. Only forty-seven percent of people polled by CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation support Sotomayor and, more importantly, forty percent outright oppose her confirmation.
With the Senate hearings about to begin on the Sotomayor nomination, this morning’s column below addresses what we ideally should be looking for in a nominee.
Continue reading “The Sotomayor Nomination and the Search for Judicial Greatness”
It goes without saying that, where there is a story of constitutional or human rights abuse, Dick Cheney cannot be far behind. It is therefore little surprise to learn this week that, according to sources in the recent disclosure of a hidden counterterrorism program, the prior concealment from Congress was allegedly ordered by Cheney.
Continue reading “Report: Cheney Ordered Concealment of Secret Program From Congress”
A new government report has disclosed that President Bush authorized secret surveillance activities that went beyond the previously disclosed NSA program – raising the prospect of additional unlawful conduct by the Bush Administration. At the same time, a House member has revealed that CIA Director Leon Panetta has shutdown a program that was never revealed to Congress in direct violation of federal law. I discussed these stories on this segment of MSNBC Countdown.
Continue reading “Reports Shows Additional Undisclosed Surveillance Programs — And Likely Unlawful Conduct by Bush Administration”
Gay Rights activists are protesting the handling of a dispute at a Chico’s Tacos restaurant in El Paso, Texas. When two gay men kissed, the group of five gay men were reportedly told by guards to leave because the restaurant did not approve of “the faggot stuff.” An El Paso police officer later allegedly told the men that they could be arrested for kissing another man in public.
Last year, many of us denounced the police checkpoints in the Trinidad area of Northeast Washington as grossly unconstitutional despite the insistence of D.C. Attorney General Peter J. Nickles that he had ample law on his side. Now, a conservative panel of the D.C. Circuit has ruled as expected that the checkpoints presumptively violate the fourth amendment and granted a preliminary injunction.
Continue reading “D.C. Circuit Rules Police Checkpoints Unconstitutional”
Despite the outrage expressed by certain members and former Bush officials over allegations that the CIA may have lied about prior briefings with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, members revealed this week that the CIA has admitted to members that it did indeed repeatedly mislead members in reports since 2001. However, CIA Director Leon Panetta stands by the earlier denial of misrepresentations linked to Pelosi.
Continue reading “House Members: CIA Repeatedly Misled Congress”
The Obama Administration continues its retention and expansion of abusive Bush policies — now clearly Obama policies on indefinite detention and blocking the investigation of war crimes. Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department’s chief lawyer, has stated that it is a “policy question” whether acquitted individuals will be released or held indefinitely.
Continue reading “Obama Administration Reserves Right to Indefinitely Hold Detainees Acquitted of Charges”
Judge Larry J. Naves has denied former University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill reinstatement despite a ruling from a jury that his termination for plagiarism was politically motivated. The jury awarded Churchill $1 in damages.
Continue reading “Court Denies Ward Churchill Reinstatement on Colorado Faculty”