A group of 15 ethics law professors from around the country has filed bar charges against White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. For full disclosure, Conway is one of my former students at George Washington University Law School (she graduated in 1995). The letter from 15 professors alleged ethical violations of government rules as well as “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.” Most of the allegations in the letter are, in my view, without merit and seem overtly political. The one issue that has already been raised in Congress and has a legal foundation is the alleged endorsement of Conway of the product line of Ivanka Trump. That is a technical violation of federal rules, but the question is whether it was a venial rather than mortal sin. The “violation” was the result of a side comment by Conway on television criticizing the decision of Nordstrom to drop the line. The White House Counsel’s office let it be known that Conway had been “counseled” over the infraction. However, ethics charges should not be a form of politics by other means and, with all due respect to these accomplished academics, this letter strikes me as raising largely political objections to Conway’s work as a spokesperson for the Administration.
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Today the Supreme Court will hear Hernandez v. Mesa, a case with potentially significant impact on the current immigration debate. The case involves the shooting and killing of Sergio A. Hernandez Guereca, 15, at the border on June 7, 2010. The family argues that Hernandez was simply playing a game with his friends in running to touch the U.S. border fence when Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa, Jr. shot and killed him. The agents insist that Hernandez was a known illegal alien smuggler with two prior arrests and was throwing rocks at the agents. Since the government prevailed below before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Court will only consider the facts asserted by the family in determining if dismissal was appropriate. At issue will be the right of a foreign national to assert constitutional rights — an issue that could have bearing on the ongoing debate over the Trump immigration executive order.
Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have demanded that African-American students be given free tuition and housing because blacks were denied access to college educations for much of our history. They also
It appears that the problem with the Internet in Palau resulted in the deletion of the original post on the decision in Virginia. I did not want to delete any discussion so I am keeping this post. I am in Guam now with better Internet access. Virginia federal district court Judge Leonie Brinkema granted a preliminary injunction which requires a higher showing for the challengers. In that sense, this is an obvious victory but it could also be an opportunity for the Trump Administration. I believe that the Brinkema decision might be the better option for the Administration to appeal given its focus on religious discrimination and its reliance on campaign statements and the bizarre statements of Rudy Giuliani.
