Wall Street Journal letter (This letter was in response to a Wall Street Journal editorial “The Tempting of Neil Gorsuch” criticizing Judge Gorsuch for joining the four liberal justices in ruling that much of eastern Oklahoma was still an Indian reservation. Congress had passed a law creating the reservation and never repealed or replaced it. Chief Justice…
Category: Law
Whose Prosecutorial Discretion Is It, Anyway?
News outlets and social media are aflame with denunciations of Attorney General William Barr’s order to change the prosecutor’s sentencing recommendation to the judge in the case of Roger Stone, a gadfly Trump supporter. The excitement was created by the dramatic “resignations” of four Assistant U.S. Attorneys who had originally submitted a memo recommending a…
“Woke” Law
Boston Globe Letter . In the story about a lawsuit over an assault in a Boston University dormitory, the Globe reports that BU’s lawyers raised the argument of the student’s failure to use the sturdy door lock provided (“Dorm assault tests colleges’ supervision,” Page A1, Jan. 5). According to the article, “in response, Suffolk Superior…
The Inspector General’s Report – A Matter of Intent
The Inspector General of the Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz, recently released a report unappealingly titled “Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.” In its bureaucratic prose, larded with acronyms and unnamed actors, it lives up to its dreary title. (Oddly, the Mueller Report, by contrast, whatever…
Mueller stumbles off stage
Democrats are justifiably frustrated that the ballyhooed testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday added nothing to his published 448 page Report. Democratic members of both the Judiciary Committee in the morning and the Intelligence Oversight Committee in the afternoon had obviously prepared for the big show, assigning different subjects to various members. They…
It’s Mueller Time 2: Obstruction
Recently in It’s Mueller Time!,” I discussed the Meuller Report’s treatment of the issue of whether President Trump or his campaign criminally conspired with the Russians during the 2016 campaign (“Russian Collusion”). I relied on Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the principal conclusions of the report. Since then the full report with very limited required…
What’s Wrong With The U.S. Attorney’s Indictment Of Judge Joseph And How To Fix It
WGBH News Opinion Andrew Lelling, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, triggered a political firestorm almost a month ago when he obtained an indictment of Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph on obstruction charges. Although I disagree with Joseph’s decision to release Jose Medina-Perez, a noncitizen who had entered the United States illegally,…
It’s Mueller Time!
Saturday Night Live will continue Alec Baldwin’s ham-handed send up of Donald Trump but it doesn’t look like Robert DeNiro will long reprise his role as a menacing Robert Mueller. The Special Counsel has filed his final report and closed shop on his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and, particularly, of whether…
The Indictment of Roger Stone
On January 24th Roger Stone, a long time political activist and ally and confidante of Donald Trump was indicted at the urging of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller on 1 count of Obstructing a Congressional Investigation by failing to turn over subpoenaed records and lying about their existence, five counts of False Statements to Congress and one…
The President and the Chief Justice: No Big Deal
The hearts of the chattering classes have been all aflutter this week over an exchange between President Trump and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts this week. The President criticized what he described as an “Obama judge” for a ruling against the administration’s attempt to bar migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum….
CNN vs. Trump
A shorter version of this sentiment appeared on November 29. 2018 as “CNN and Acosta Will Have a Lot to Answer For Later” in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. The case brought by CNN against the White House over suspension of the “Hard Pass of correspondent Jim Acosta will likely not be decided tomorrow…
Birthright Citizenship: A Primer
President Trump proposes to end the long-accepted concept of “Birthright Citizenship” by executive order. Contrary to most current commentary, there is a legitimate case to be made that he has that authority. It is not a good or persuasive argument, however, and it contradicts conservative political and judicial principles. The concept of citizenship, as it…
MonkfishOnCape 