By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
While on another drive through the woods, I could not help but notice the affinity of which moss takes to the trees, much it seems to their lichen. After all, what is there not to like about nature?
Continue reading “When Moss Takes A Lichen To Trees”
Below is my column in the Wall Street Journal on the issue of witnesses at impeachment trials and how they can have a determinative impact on the outcome of such trials. The best example remains the Senate trial of Bill Clinton and the ultimate “what if.” What if Monica Lewinsky actually took the stand in the Senate trial?
Here is the column:
Continue reading “What If Monica Actually Had Taken The Stand?”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on precedent created by the Democrats against their own case for a full trial in the Senate.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Impeachment-Democratic Style: Why The Democrats May Prove The Greatest Barrier To A Full Trial”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on my annual list of Christmas torts and crimes. Fortunately, the holiday is much more than the entries on the criminal docket. However, these cases remind us all that, even when chaos lurks around holiday gatherings, we somehow survive and return year in and year out. So Happy Holidays to everyone.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Christmas Torts: The 2019 Listing Of Holiday Mishaps and Madness”
Best wishes to everyone celebrating Christmas. As my annual column on Christmas Torts notes, 90 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas (though only around half treat it as a religious holiday). We are also celebrating Chanukah (Leslie is Jewish) so this is a great twofer celebration for our family with the overlapping of the two holidays this year.
I am in Chicago with the family for Christmas with my 92-year-old mother Angela. We are getting a dusting of snow for a white Christmas but the weather has been warmer than usual on our visit (in the 50s). Last night, we had our tradition of Cioppino soup with family.
Continue reading “MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY CHANUKAH!”
We are spending Christmas in Chicago with the whole Turley clan. The weather is amazingly warm in the 50s. This was the picture in the morning yesterday on a walk with Luna along the lake.
Continue reading “Christmas Eve In Chicago”
When I agreed to testify in the Trump impeachment hearing, I knew that that I would be attacked for my testimony. With roughly 54 pages of testimony, there would be ample areas of good-faith disagreement. The surprising thing was the tsunami of attacks for things that I did not say. The most vile was that I previously said that Justice Sonia Sotomayor “wasn’t smart enough for the Supreme Court.” That false story appears to be traced to a tweet from from another law professor, Baltimore Law Professor Garrett Epps stating “Does anybody else remember @JonathanTurley appearing on MSNBC to explain that Sonia Sotomayor didn’t have the intellect to serve on the Supreme Court?” I certainly don’t because I never said such a thing. However, Epps and an array of reporters did not feel that such a statement required a modicum of actual research. (I am giving Professor Epps the benefit of the doubt that he did not actually watch the video that he linked. If he did, he clearly chose to ignore where I clearly state a very different point about Sotomayor’s opinions while saying that she could still emerge on the Court as a great justice like Justice John Paul Stevens).
Continue reading “No, I Never Said Sotomayor Wasn’t Smart Enough For The Supreme Court”
Below is my column in the Los Angeles Times on the impeachment of President Donald Trump. The failure to take a little more time to secure additional witnesses (or court orders against the Administration) has already come back to haunt the House. If the Senate now decides to try the President on the thin record of the House, the House will have given the White House an easy avenue to acquittal. If the House was not willing to seek to compel the testimony of these witnesses, it will be in a poor position to demand that the Senate now complete the record that it prematurely closed with its vote. Had they waited just a couple months, they might have been able to secure some of these witnesses, particularly if they had not burned four months without seeking to compel witnesses like Bolton or, bizarrely, withdrew its subpoena for Kupperman before a court could rule.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “The Impulse Buy Impeachment: How The Democrats Yielded To The Holiday Frenzy Over Facts”
I recently criticized the position of my fellow witness from the Trump impeachment hearing, Professor Noah Feldman, that Trump is not technically impeached until the articles of impeachment are referred to the Senate. I have known Noah for years and respect him but this theory is utterly without foundation in the text or history or logic of the Constitution. The theory is a chimerical conflation of the impeachment and removal provisions. President Donald Trump however has seemingly embraced the theory that he is not actually impeached. Even as mockery, Feldman’s theory should not be further referenced in my view as credible. The President’s status is clear. He stands impeached, but untried.
Continue reading ““There’s No Impeachment”: Trump Repeats Feldman’s Flawed Interpretation Of The Constitution”
We have yet another example of the perils facing academics in some Muslim countries with a death sentence handed down by a Pakistani court against Professor Junaid Hafeez, 33, because he allegedly posted derogatory remarks against Mohammed on social media. Many of our closest allies routinely flog or kill those who simply question religious dogma.
Continue reading “Pakistani Professor Sentenced To Death For Blasphemy”
In the House Judiciary Committee, I had some fundamental disagreements with my friend Professor Noah Feldman on issues ranging from the basis for impeachment on the basis of specific crimes (bribery, extortion, campaign finance violations, and obstruction of justice) as well as his claim that the legal definition of these crimes are immaterial to their use in impeachment. Ultimately, the Judiciary Committee dropped those four theories and went forward with the two articles that I testified would be legitimate, if proven: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Now, however, we have another disagreement. Feldman has written in Bloomberg News that Trump is not actually impeached until the articles of impeachment are transferred to the Senate. I disagree and believe that Feldman is conflating provisions concerning removal with those for impeachment. Frankly, I am mystified by the claim since I see no credible basis for maintaining this view under either the text or the history of the Constitution.
Continue reading “Trump Stands Impeached: A Response To Noah Feldman”
Both Democratic members and various media outfits have continued to castigate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Lindsey Graham for saying that they will not pretend to be unbiased as jurors. I have been critical of such statements treating the Senate trial as simply a political exercise. However, I am concerned over the striking lack of media coverage of Democratic members who continue to signal that they also have made up their minds on the verdict before an actual trial has even begun. I recently discussed the statement of Senator Chris Coons on the dangers of failing to convict and remove Trump. The latest such examples were evident last night at the Democratic debates where Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Amy Klobuchar pronounced the guilt of Donald Trump before any trial. None of those comments yielded the shock and disgust over their failure to reserve their judgment. Klobuchar declared that the impeachment was nothing less than “global Watergate.”
Continue reading “Democratic Senators Line Up in Declarations Of Guilt Before The Senate Impeachment Trial”
We recently discussed how Hunter Biden was proven to be the father of child that he longed denied and has never supported. Now Lunden Roberts has been forced to seek a court order to force Biden to reveal his finances, a basic requirement in the establishment of child support. The motion submitted to the court reveals that Biden has yet to supply any support for his child and has refused information on his wealth.
Continue reading “Hunter Biden Faces Possible Court Order To Disclose His Finances In Paternity Action”
Yes, that is the question that the Riverside police are asking after circulating a caricature picture of a man who stole an artist’s money but left behind his picture.
Continue reading “Have You Seen This Man?”
I have long been critical of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare (See, e.g., here and here and here). Yesterday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a major 2-1 ruling striking down the mandate as unconstitutional. The litigation however will continue over the viability of the rest of the Act without the individual. As discussed in an earlier column, pulling out the individual mandate creates a Jenga-like dilemma for the courts.
Continue reading “Federal Appellate Court Strikes Down Obamacare’s Individual Mandate”