President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to replace retiring Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh was opposed by some conservatives and is not viewed as strongly anti-abortion as Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. However, he is highly intelligent and accomplished. I have a column out this morning in The Hill newspaper.
Continue reading “President Trump Nominates Brett Kavanaugh To Replace Justice Kennedy”
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Attorneys for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort have asked a federal judge for a venue change on the rather dubious grounds that Alexandria Virginia is simply too liberal. Manafort wants a jury in Roanoke where there are more Republicans. It is an exceptionally weak motion and would be unprecedented to shift jurisdiction based on the political views of the local electorate as opposed to using voir dire to spot bias. Attorneys Kevin Downing, Thomas Zehnle and Jay Nanavati told the “It is not a stretch to expect that voters who supported Secretary Clinton would be predisposed against Mr. Manafort or that voters who supported President Donald Trump would be less inclined toward the Special Counsel.” If it is “not a stretch” politically, it is a stretch legally. In fairness to the defense time, however, it was Judge T.S. Ellis III who raised the possibility of a venue change to Roanoke or Richmond. Ellis however has a reputation for making controversial statements from the bench. In most courts, I would expect this motion to be denied fairly quickly.
We have often discussed the rising incivility and anger in our political discourse. That derangement was on display at a Whataburger in San Antonio when an unidentified man assaulted a teenager for wearing a Make America Great again hat. It was fortunately caught on tape and hopefully the culprit will be apprehended. However, a 
Talent agent Ken Kaplan has a curious way of celebrating the Fourth of July. According to James Wood, Kaplan used the holiday celebrating a nation committed to free speech and self-determination by publicly dropping the actor for his conservative views. He said dropping an artist for his political views makes him feel “patriotic.” Notably, none of the artists represented by Kaplan protested the discrimination against a fellow artists for political reasons. 