I had to share this picture of Jupiter’s moon Io in what is its true color.
It appears that if you are an authoritarian tyrant everyone looks like a Nazi when they oppose your will. Recently, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the German government for blocking rallies of Turkish nationals — saying that the decision is “no different to those of the Nazi period.: Erdogan has been widely denounced for his destruction of the secular traditions of Turkey and his attack on free speech and the free press. Erdogan somehow missed the global ridicule of his (of all people) objecting to the denial of free speech. Now, undeterred, Erdogan is denouncing the Netherlands as Nazis after the denied permission for a plane carrying Turkey’s foreign minister to land in the country ahead of a rally supporting his notorious expanded powers.
The United States Attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, appears to believe that he is working for a different branch of government. After Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked for the resignations of all U.S. Attorneys, a standard change of political appointees in a new Administration, Bharara reportedly indicated that President Donald Trump would have to fire him. Just as with the bizarre conduct of Sally Yates as Acting Attorney General, Bharara has shown a curious understanding of this position and his obligations as a federal officer. If these media reports are true, President Trump should immediately accommodate him and Bharara will have to explain to future employers how he justifies such an unfounded stance. [Update: Bharara has been fired]
I sincerely hope that the reports are not true or that Bharara quickly reconsiders and gets his letter of resignation in today. This is not the way to close a successful career as U.S. Attorney. In the end, I am not sure what the basis for refusing a letter of resignation is. Bharara seems a rebel without a cause.
Continue reading “Fire Me: U.S. Attorney In Manhattan Reportedly Refuses To Resign [UPDATED]”
There was a news story this week about a Hawaiian Airlines flight that was diverted to Los Angeles because of an unruly passenger. Frankly, the most important aspect of the story was not the diversion but the reason: the airline charges $12 for a passenger to have a simple blanket. We have been discussing how airlines are stripping away basic human comforts and turning flights into cattle calls. On top of that, the airlines are charging fees for every possible comfort, including reducing leg space to virtually zero and then charging for small increments of space in coach. However, a $12 blanket truly represents a new low — particularly on a long flight to Hawaii.
As someone who has done interviews at home with four kids and a large dog, this is an all too familiar scene. Professor Robert Kelly learned of these dangers as he tried to explain the implications of the impeachment of South Korea President Park Geun-hye live on BBC.
Continue reading “The Perils of Press: BBC Interview of Professor From Home Goes Viral”
I have great respect for Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe, who remains one of the iconic figures in constitutional law and someone with whom I have had exchanges for years on legal controversies affecting this country. While I was not surprised to see that we disagreed on a constitutional issue related to President Donald Trump, I was surprised to see that he took literally a comment that I made as a joke about impeachable tweets on Morning Joe recently. Tribe ironically responded in a series of tweets to the comment. The more serious problem is that I considered the suggestions of impeachment over Trump’s criticism of President Obama to be laughable. They clearly are not to Professor Tribe. It is something of a reversal of roles since both Tribe and I testified during the Clinton impeachment hearings where he suggested a narrower definition of the constitutional standard while I argued that Clinton could be impeached for an act of perjury.
Continue reading “Impeachable Tweets: A Response To Professor Tribe”
I recently criticized the ethics complaint filed against Presidential Advisor Kellyanne Conway by 15 ethics law professors. For full disclosure, Conway is one of my former students at George Washington University Law School (she graduated in 1995). I criticized the complaint as highly political with little foundation. The only aspect of the complaint that was not frivolous was the allegation that Conway violated the federal rule against endorsing commercial products in light of her comments about Ivanka’s line of clothing and jewelry. As I stated, Conway did violate the rule and I believe that she should have been punished with an official reprimand or some other equivalent measure. However, I viewed the violation as part of a tongue-in-cheek retort to the controversy. The White House reached the same conclusion that there was no “nefarious” intent but it also declined to impose any formal punishment. That decision has led to a relatively rare rebuke fromOffice of Governmental Ethics Director Walter Shaub. Referring to Conway’s “free commercial,” Shaub expressed dismay over the failure to impose any punishment and further chastised deputy White House counsel Stefan Passantino for his explanation for the lack of any discipline.
Stephen Gutierrez was in the middle of defending Claudy Charles (left), 48, when an odd thing happened: his pants spontaneously caught on fire. It did not help that his client is accused of intentionally setting his car on fire in South Miami-Dade. Gutierrez was arguing that the car spontaneously combusted when his pants did so.
Continue reading “Pants on Fire: Lawyer Defending Accused Arsonist Suddenly Has Pants Catch Fire”
I have been a long critic of Germany’s criminal speech laws, including its long criminalization of Nazi symbols. Now, Sven Pohl, 37, is facing charges in Germany for “heavy drug trafficking” after he triggered a raid due to his posting of a Nazi-themed breakfast. The police arrived being found with massive quantities of methamphetamine and marijuana.
Continue reading “Mein Meth: German Arrested After Posting Hitler Toast”
We just discussed the move in Hawaii to secure a new restraining order to cover the second Trump executive order. That was the most likely move that we previously discussed. The other option was to seek to extend the existing restraining order to cover the second executive order on the grounds that there was not a substantial change. That is the option that Washington state is taking. Today, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson indicated that he will ask that Judge James Robart’s Feb. 3 ruling be extended on the grounds that the second Executive Order contains the same alleged violations as the first.
Continue reading “Washington State To Move To Extend Restraining Order To Second Executive Order”
The United Arab Emirates have supplied the most recent example of the Sharia legal system in the Muslim world. South African Emlyn Culverwell‚ 29, and his Ukrainian fiancée Iryna Nohai, 27, were arrested after Nohai wemt to the doctor over stomach pains. In the UAE doctors appear to have no notion of confidentiality (or humanity) and informed the police when he discovered that she was pregnant. Since she had not yet married Culverwell, that meant that they had violated the Islamic code against sex outside of marriage — even though the impregnation occurred outside of the UAE. They are criminally charged.
Just a day after Sen. Al Franken publicly accused Attorney General Jeff Sessions of perjury, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) went public on CBS with a theory that appears to have been bothering him: “You can imagine a set of circumstances in which the Trump campaign gave him talking points [and] he was a message boy for them.” The purpose, Whitehouse suggested, was for Sessions to convey “Mission accomplished” after meeting with his Russian handlers. It is a curious notion that Sessions was a Manchurian senator but the Russian ambassador still met with him in the presence of staffers on the Hill or in public at the Republican National Convention. If this is a sequel to the Manchurian Candidate, I may have to pass.
Shane Schindler, 30, is according to police a danger to man and mannequin alike.
Continue reading “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”
Hawaii filed a motion with the United States District Court of Hawaii as the initial step toward a challenge of President Donald Trump’s second immigration executive order. Hawaii Attorney General Douglas C. Chin started out badly by publicly characterizing the order as a “Muslim ban 2.o.” While there are legitimate grounds that can be raises to challenge the order, it is not a Muslim ban under any cognizable legal analysis. Once again, I believe that the law favored the Administration even with the first poorly drafted executive order. This order will be even more difficult to challenge in my view. If the challengers want to be successful, they might want to curtail the political hyperbole in favor of legal analysis.
The Administration itself filed in the Ninth Circuit to formally end its appeal. That will create an interesting element to the Hawaii litigation, which is in the 9th Circuit. The opinion (which has been widely criticized by various experts including myself) will now be left as precedent. That will give some added help to the challengers but it is not determinative for the new litigation.
While most Democratic senators have been somewhat circumspect in characterizing the testimony of Attorney General Jeff Sessions as “inaccurate” or “misleading,” Minnesota Sen. Al Franken yesterday publicly accused Franken of perjury. It is a weighty charge that I have previously said would be highly difficult to actually prosecute.
Continue reading “Sen. Al Franken Accuses Sessions Of Perjury”