The disturbing “gatecrashing” incident at the White House has resulted in one of those difficult judgment calls that Presidents and their legal counsel inevitably are required to make. The incident is, quite properly, being investigated by Congress. Congress no doubt will look at how the security breach occurred, consider how it could have been prevented, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘law’
A Fine Line And A Delicate Balance
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Congress, law, Politics, Presidency, President Obama, Separation Of Powers, United States Constitution, White House on December 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
You Give Law A Bad Name
Posted in America, Reflections, tagged law, modern culture, News media on August 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As a lawyer, I dread this kind of news story. A disappointed graduate who doesn’t have a job sues her college for tuition payments, and it is covered as another weird news story, just like the stories about women who live with 125 cats or twins separated at birth who find each other after living [...]
Ads and Subtraction
Posted in Reflections, tagged law, newspapers on May 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This article argues for an antitrust exemption for newspapers, so that all newspaper owners can get together and collusively decide to begin charging for on-line content at the same time. What’s interesting about the article is not the opinion — after all, every struggling industry could argue that the path to salvation is allowing participants [...]
Withheld Judgment
Posted in Politics, tagged law, Politics, President Obama, Supreme Court on May 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, has served for 11 years on the United States Court of the Appeals for the Second Circuit, which is one of the most important of the federal appellate courts. The Second Circuit’s jurisdiction includes New York City, and for that reason many of the most [...]
Trial By Tribunal
Posted in Politics, tagged law, President Bush, President Obama on May 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is an interesting take on the President’s decision to resort to a form of military tribunal to address charges against certain Guantanamo detainees. I recognize that there are multiple views on this issue, but the reality is that there is no clear answer to how to deal with the problem of what to do [...]
And Another Thing . . . .
Posted in Politics, tagged bailouts, Chrysler, law, Wall Street on May 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One other point should be made about the Chrysler bankruptcy issue. Currently, managers of investment funds are measured against a simple performance standard — in effect,they have a fiduciary duty to make as much money as they can, in compliance with the law, through investments that fall within their defined investment area. For example, managers [...]
If You Break It, You Bought It
Posted in Politics, tagged Chrysler, law, President Bush, President Obama, Wall Street on May 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Prior to the invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell supposedly told President Bush: “If you break it, you bought it.” His point was that, if U.S. actions in Iraq caused the Iraqi state to fall into chaos, the U.S. would assume a special long-term responsibility to pay for its actions by ensuring that [...]
Empathy?
Posted in Politics, tagged law, Politics, President Obama, Supreme Court on May 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I think nominating Justices for the Supreme Court is one of the most important tasks of the President, and also one of the tasks that most often produces unexpected results. (Just ask President Eisenhower, for example, how he felt about his nomination of Justice William Brennan.) President Obama, at the outset of his term, now [...]
Republican Reckoning
Posted in America, Politics, tagged gay marriage, law, modern culture, Politics on April 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »
This article is an interesting treatment of some of the challenges facing the Republican Party, as it tries to figure out what it really stands for and what it really has to offer as an opposition party during the first term of a new President. My guess is that there are many people who are [...]
Choices, Choices . . . .
Posted in America, Politics, Reflections, World, tagged America, law, President Bush, President Obama, terrorism, World on April 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »
One of the more interesting decisions that the Obama Administration will have to make has to do with examination of the activities of Bush Administration officials who were involved in the interrogation of suspected terrorists. Some groups and politicians who believe that American techniques crossed the line into torture are pushing for investigation and prosecution [...]
Our Timbers Should Shiver
Posted in Politics, World, tagged foreign policy, law, pirates, Somalia, The Tipping Point, World on April 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Somali pirate drama is one of those small, but potentially telling, incidents that happen from time to time. The pirates attacked a ship flying an American flag and took its captain hostage. Days have now passed, the captain remains a captive, and the pirates continue to thumb their noses at our government. I am [...]
Vegetable Week: Nix v. Hedden
Posted in Food, tagged Food, fruit, law, Nix v. Hedden, Supreme Court, vegetables on April 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
One of the great, yet underappreciated, Supreme Court opinions ever published was Nix v. Hedden, in 1893. In that seminal decision, the Court wrestled with the weighty question of whether a tomato is a “vegetable,” or a “fruit,” within the meaning of the Tariff Act of 1883. The entire decision, including title, reporter’s note, background [...]
