On Tuesday, March 6, at noon, I will have the pleasure of speaking as part of the screening of Democracy’s Messengers: The Never-Before-Told Story of Young Americans on Capitol Hill at the National Archives. Narrated by Cokie Roberts, the film Democracy’s Messengers tells the story our page system. I was a House page in 1978-79 and eventually served as a House Leadership Page. I will be part of a panel discussing our experiences ij the program. Register to attend online. You can also watch the program live streamed on the National Archives YouTube channel.
Category: Society
Below is my column in USA Today on the legislation proposed to combat Russian trolling and Internet campaigns. There is a serious threat to free speech in these measures, which mirror efforts from (ironically) countries like Russia and China. The serious threat is not a handful of Russians playing on our deep divisions, but rather the hacking operations and attempt to interfere with voting systems.
Here is the column:
I recently criticized the new Polish law criminalizing any statements attributing the genocide of Jews to Polish forces or actions. The legislature approved a bill making it a crime to use statements suggesting Poland bears responsibility for crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany. You could receive up to three years in prison for calling Auschwitz-Birkenau a “Polish death camp.” USNews is reporting that the first target of this abusive law has now been announced: the Argentine Pagina 12 daily. The newspaper was accused of breaching a new law by suggesting that Poland was complicit in the Holocaust.
Continue reading “Controversial Polish Holocaust Denial Law Takes On Its First Media Target”
With South Africa’s poor economy showing slight improvement and a major credit decision looming, the new government of President Cyril Ramaphosa would be expected to chart a careful and conservative approach. However, its new leaders are turning to two measures that have historically triggered utter disaster for African nations: land expropriation without compensation and the even more dangerous plan to simply print more money and give it to the poor. I have long admitted to have a Chicago School bias from my undergraduate days, but this does not seem promising for this struggling country.
Continue reading “South Africa’s New Economic Plan: Expropriation of Land and Printing Money”
There are moments in life that are so perfect and magical that one can only sit back and just bask in its glory. That moment came for Ardsley High School basketball player Julian McGarvey who intercepted a pass with only 2.4 seconds left to play and won the championship for his school in an incredible 70 foot throw.
Continue reading “Taking The Shot: Julian McGarvey And The Self-Defining Moment”
The head of Harvard’s massive endowment, Jane Mendillo, has reported a staggering loss of roughly $1.1 billion in its holdings — an amount larger than the total value of most academic endowments. It is an astonishing loss coming only six years since Mendillo took over the endowment and is being attributed to her heavy bet on natural resource investments.
Continue reading “Harvard Writes Off As Much As $1.1 Billion In Endowment Losses”
We recently discussed the cancellation of a Princeton class on oppressive language when the professor used the n-word. I was strongly critical of actions in the controversy and the ultimate cancellation as an attack on both academic freedom and a reflection of the loss of objectivity on our campuses. Now, law students have made a similar complaint to DePaul University. Professor Donald Hermann is under fire for using the word in a hypothetical. It is particularly distressing to see law students objecting to the use of this word, which arises often in legal cases and was used for a legitimate purpose by Professor Hermann.
As we approach the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, the state of socialism is not especially encouraging. The socialist reign of Hugo Chávez and successor Nicolas Maduro have reduced oil-rich Venezuela to pre-historic conditions with 4000 percent inflation and near starvation levels of food supply. In Cuba, the socialist government continues to limp by with an economy frozen in the 1950s. Indeed, there is only one real success of socialism in the world: the National Football League. When Marx said that “Democracy is the road to socialism,” he could easily point to the 32 owners of America’s football teams. It turns out that socialism works really well for billionaires in a small group with an effective monopoly on an industry.
Continue reading “THE NFL MOVES AGAINST JONES FOR THE ULTIMATE OFF-SIDES VIOLATION”
Below is my column in the Washington Post on the question of whether a president can be indicted while in office. Many academics believe that there is an implied immunity from such indictments in Article II of the Constitution. I do not agree as explained in the column below. Once again, I have stated that I do not see compelling evidence of any prosecutable crimes against President Trump. However, if such evidence did arise and satisfied a grand jury, the Special Counsel could indict even before any impeachment.
Continue reading “Yes, A President Can Be Indicted While In Office”
I have previously expressed my surprise that people enjoy shooting animals in the wild. As an avid hiker and animal lover, I go to great lengths to see animals in nature but I fail to see why it is exciting or fulfilling to shoot some animal with high-powered rifle. These trophy hunters seem to want to collect these animals. Australian businessman, Nick Haridemos, appears to go further and pose with dead animals. A series of photos like this Twitter image were posted on social media and led to Haridemos being hounded out of Hellenic Club.
Continue reading “Australian Hunter Under Fire For Photos With Dead Animals”
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on my view of the current evidence of collusion in the Russian investigation. I wrote the column to explain my skepticism over these oft-stated theories. President Donald Trump included my view in a quote in the Trump tweet which triggered something of a torrent of irate emails. He did not misrepresent my views. As explained below, I still do not see the compelling evidence for such a claim. As discussed yesterday, that is obviously not the view of CNN Legal Analyst and former White House ethics attorney Norm Eisen who declared that the case for collusion is now “devastating” and that Trump is “colluding in plain sight.” The column is an effort to actually bring some legal content to this debate. There have been countless hours of broadcast “analysis” but very little of the actual cited evidence and how it could fit with any criminal provision or even credible definitions of collusion.
Here is the column:
I just posted a column detailing why I am “skeptical” of collusion theories against President Donald Trump, a view that the President recently tweeted. CNN Legal Analyst and former White House ethics attorney Norm Eisen responded yesterday to my quote in the Trump tweet with his own analysis that the criminal case for collusion is now “devastating” and that Trump is “colluding in plain sight.” His evidence? Trump’s failure to respond sufficiently to Russian attacks. It does not seem to factor into Eisen’s analysis that the government is responding on various levels, imposed some sanctions, and that the specific means used to combat the Russians is a discretionary policy question that balances a wide array of technical, legal, and diplomatic factors. Nevertheless, Eisen assured the public that the criminal case is now devastating.
During the campaign, President Donald Trump was roundly criticized for his comments about the ethnicity of a judge who was presiding in a case involving his now defunct Trump University. He argued that, because of the Mexican heritage of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel (who was actually born in Indiana), the judge was biased against him and referred to him as a “hater.” That “hater” however just handed down a major 101-page ruling in favor of Trump’s signature policy: the wall with Mexico. President Trump did not mention the controversy in his tweet praising the decision.
Continue reading “Judge Once Maligned By Trump As A “Hater” Rules In Favor Of Border Wall”
We have previously discussed the unparalleled bravery of the women fighting discriminatory Islamic law requiring them to wear veils and limiting their freedoms due to their gender. This is particularly true of the women engaged in protests over compulsory headscarves in Iran. Now however the Islamic regime is cracking down and not just arresting women but charging them with “inciting prostitution.” It is the perfect sexist charge to go with deeply sexist legal system. A woman who asserts her most basic right to expression and religious choices is treated by the Islamic government as fostering prostitutes.
The Supreme Court turned down the effort of the Trump Administration to circumvent the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and hear the challenge over the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The decision not to grant review is clearly a victory for challengers of the Trump policy but it is also important not to read too much into the decision given the procedural posture of the appeal. Notably, on Tuesday the Supreme Court ruled in another immigration case and adopted the type of narrow interpretation sought by the Administration in the DACA litigation. In its decision in Jennings v. Rodriguez, the Court overturned the Ninth Circuit and rejected the right to twice-a-year bond hearings. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr ruled that “[t]he meaning of the relevant statutory provisions is clear—and clearly contrary to the decision of the Court of Appeals.”Continue reading “Supreme Court Declines To Hear DACA Appeal”