Here We Go Again
It was about 3:00am the day after the election in 2016 when I came to the conclusion that Donald Trump would win, beating Hillary Clinton. This time, I knew it at midnight.
Read moreCategory Archives: Judiciary
Trump II
The closer we get to the election, the clearer a picture we get of Donald Trump’s plans for a second term as President. It is enough to scare anyone who cares about the nation. And it has proven to be enough to get people who served in the first Trump administration to come forward and express their fears. As this is being written more than a dozen people who worked for Trump endorsed Trump’s longest serving chief of staff, Marine General John Kelly’s assessment that he is a “fascist” threat to the constitutional order.
Read moreThe Supremes Über Alles
In my two previous columns (here and here) I detailed some of the winners and losers resulting from the opinions issued during the Supreme Court term just ended. Now let us look at the biggest winner of them all, the Supreme Court itself. In the last three weeks of the term, the Supreme Court transferred much of regulatory and administrative authority and rulemaking to itself. The federal courts were not authorized and are not equipped to serve as roving regulators of last resort for hundreds of federal agencies. According to the Court:
- Judges know more about science than scientists.
- Judges know more about medicine than doctors.
- Judges know more about structural safety than engineers.
- Judges know more about climate change than meteorologists.
The Supreme’s Trainwreck
Every summer professors at the nation’s law schools huddle to discuss what, if any, changes should be made to their teaching curriculum after the Supreme Court term just ended. This year, they are scrambling to deal with the train wreck for constitutional law that was the Court’s 2023-2024 term.
I am not a lawyer. But after fifty years as a journalist, I am spending my emeritus years in part teaching a course titled “Media Law and Ethics for Journalists” in the UCLA Extension program. This is a required course in the school’s journalism certificate program and is available online.
Read moreThe Supremes Vote Trump
The six members of the conservative supermajority of the Supreme Court cast their ballots for Donald Trump on the last day of the court term, then ran out of town to begin their standard three months’ long vacation.
Read moreForm and Substance
There is no sugar-coating it. President Joe Biden had a train wreck in his first 2024 debate with Former President Donald Trump. Fifty-one million watched. I wrote that I had concerns because Biden had seemed physically feeble during some appearances in the last year. Right as he walked out on the debate stage, I saw those signs, Biden walking slowly and speaking slowly and in a soft scratchy voice. I did not expect to see him ramble and become incoherent, but he did that more than once. At other times he was clear, combative, and effective, defending his administration and listing his accomplishments. But you could not fail to notice the other moments.
Read moreTrump Guilty
Donald Trump is now the first president to be tried and convicted of a crime, a Manhattan jury finding him guilty of falsifying records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star. It is the third time a jury of his peers has found him guilty, the previous two cases involving civil lawsuits for sexual abuse and defamation.
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