There is an interesting fight brewing on the Hill after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler called for the Justice Department inspector general to investigate Attorney General Bill Barr over his comments on the firing of the intelligence community watchdog, Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. What is curious is that Barr justified the firing on the very basis that I previously raised in a blog column, While I was highly critical of the move, I noted that termination would have been justified if Atkinson continued to assert that he would not follow Justice Department interpretations of federal law. However, President Donald Trump made clear that he fired Atkinson for the worst possible reason: the merits of the Ukrainian allegations reported to Congress. So Schiff and Nadler are calling for an investigation into Barr over his arguing what would be legitimate grounds for a termination? It is not clear to me what the IG is supposed to do with such a request. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., have also requested a review of Barr’s comments. (For full disclosure, I testified in favor of Barr’s confirmation before the Senate Judiciary Committee).
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on potential liability of China for its negligence in the early stages (and possible release) of the Coronavirus.
Shortly after this column ran, two members announced that they would be introducing the amendment to the federal law discussed below.
There are now at least seven lawsuits filed against China which is pushing a public relations campaign to deflect blame.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Why China Is Unlikely To Be Held Liable For The Pandemic”
We previously discussed the defiance of Louisiana Pastor Tony Spell who refused to stop holding large services as the state struggled to control the coronavirus. Now, Spell has announced that while he wants nothing to do with orders designed to control the virus, he would appreciate the faithful sending him and other churches their pandemic stimulus checks. We also previously discussed televangelists telling the faithful that the pandemic and economic collapse is not excuse to stop sending tithes to the churches.
The Supreme Court handed down a major new ruling today that requires state juries to be unanimous to convict defendants in criminal trials. It is a historic “incorporation” ruling that the Sixth Amendment would apply in the same way to the states as it does the federal government. Most rights are incorporated, but the Supreme Court has long allowed this protection to be decided state-by-state. The court’s 6-3 ruling overturned its 1972 decision in Apodaca v. Oregon. Notably, the opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch who continues to follow his conscience in breaking from the right of the Court — as I expect he would when I testified in favor of his confirmation. Gorsuch declared that “Louisiana’s and Oregon’s laws are fully—and rightly—relegated to the dustbin of history.”
Below is my column in USA Today on the pledge of President Donald Trump that he would adjourn Congress under a never used and rarely discussed power of Article II. While Trump pledged to do so a week ago, there has been no mention of the invocation since that time.
In the White House press conference, President Trump stated:
“If the House will not agree to that adjournment, I will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both Chambers of Congress. The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony, pro forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis. It is a scam. What they do. It’s a scam and everybody knows it, and it’s been that way for a long time, and perhaps it’s never done before. It’s never been done before. Nobody’s even sure if it has, but we’re going to do it.”
He later added:
“[Congressional leaders] know. They’ve been warned and they are being warned right now. If they don’t approve it, then we’re going to go this route, and we’ll probably be challenged in court and we’ll see who wins, but when the court hears that we aren’t getting people approved . . . for two and a half years for an important position that we need because of this crisis. We needed these people before, but now we really need these people.”
Here is the column:
The Michigan Department of Corrections this week disclosed another death of an inmate from the coronavirus but this case had a curious twist. William Garrison died weeks before his parole. What is most remarkable is the Garrison had the choice to leave prison in January with parole but elected the option to stay in prison until September to be released without parole. As a criminal defense attorney, I have rarely heard of an inmate electing the longer incarceration option. In this case, it likely cost him his life. Had he opted for parole, he would not have been exposed to the virus in prison.
In the crush of news this week, one story was a bit buried. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson has denied former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone’s motion for a new trial. It was an expected ruling but one that eviscerates the notion of an unbiased jury. I previously discussed the issue of the bias of the head juror and the need for a new trial. What is interesting is that Jackson does not seriously question her political bias but effectively gives a shrug and says “go to jail anyway.”
Continue reading “Federal Judge Dismisses Stone Motion … and Premise Of An Unbiased Jury”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
A Painted Lady describes a coloring schema of Victorian and Eduardian style houses common of the era between the middle 19th century to the 1910s yet repainted starting in the 1960s to accentuate the architecture through the use of many differing colors, often to a great level of precision (Some attaining not quite a Jan Van Eyck granularity but certainly above that of McMansions blighting many neighborhoods.
Here are a few for your enjoyment. Click each to enlarge.
Continue reading “Painted Ladies: A Few Photographs of Victorian Style Homes”
We have seen some truly moving moments of people bringing comfort and kindness to others in this pandemic. Some of the most moving have come from Italy. This video of violinist Lena Yokoyama playing a piece by Ennio Moricone from the roof of a hospital in Cremona has brought tears to the eye of millions around the world, including health care workers in the hospital.
Continue reading “Violinist In Italy Gives A Gift To The World From The Top Of A Pandemic Hospital”
For weeks, experts around the world have expressed open skepticism, if not mockery, over the claims of the death count in China. While not as absurd as North Korea claiming no cases, China has been reporting a ridiculously low number. News stories of crematoriums working around the clock and thousands of urns delivered just to Wuhan have added to the criticism. Now China has increased its count by roughly fifty percent in Wuhan but it is still far below what experts believe is the true story. China is widely believed to be covering up information on the origins and early outbreak of the virus.
Continue reading “China Revises Figures On Coronavirus Cases and Deaths”
President Trump on Thursday called on every GOP senator to join a congressional group to advise him on reopening the economy except one: Sen. Mitt Romney. Romney, of course, voted in favor of one of the articles for impeachment. While I disagree with that vote, I still view Romney as an honorable person who cast a vote in good-faith. One would hope that Trump could move beyond the impeachment for the benefit and unity of the nation, particularly during a pandemic. Continue reading “He Who Must Not Be Named: Trump Invites Every GOP Senator To Help On Economy Group Except Mitt Romney”
While I have disagreed with President Donald Trump on a number of constitutional issues, I agree with his push to reopen the economy and his argument that tanking an economy will cost not just the dreams of a generation but actual lives. He is now getting support from an unlikely source: the United Nations. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that hundreds of thousands of children could die from the global economy crashing under the pandemic.
The attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the decision early this year to allow the Trump Administration to rollout its “public charge rule.” The Court split along ideological lines to lift the nationwide injunction. The decision was clearly influenced in part by the strong opposition of some members to lower courts binding the entire country through national injunctive orders. However, it also reflected the view of conservative justices on the inherent authority of the President in the area. The effort to get a reconsideration of the decision based on the pandemic is likely to be viewed by a number of justices as seeking a policy judgment.
Below is my column in the Washington Post on President Donald Trump’s assertions of “absolute” and “total” power over the states. While he appeared to dial back on the rhetoric in the last two days, President Trump again yesterday said that he could have issued orders shutting down every state but decided to let the governors do it. There remains a fundamental misconception of the President’s authority in our system of federalism.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Federalism Not Absolutism Is The Cure For A Pandemic”
Yesterday, we discussed how the media has long mocked the theory that the coronavirus originated at a lab in Wuhan that was researching not just coronaviruses but specifically naturally occurring bat-based viruses. Some have been discussing the obvious possibility that the lab, not the nearby market, was the source. Recently, it was disclosed that embassy officials in January 2018 alerted U.S. officials of serious problems in the lab which was conducting risky research on bats, the very source of COVID-19. China is known to have concealed the outbreak and arrested doctors trying to alert the world. Now key players in the diplomatic and intelligence community believe that indeed the Wuhan lab was the original source. There is however one member who continues to maintain that this crisis is due not to China but President Donald Trump: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn).
Continue reading “Sen. Murphy: The Crisis Is Due To Trump and Not China”