Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

A Caveat, Walter Dellinger

by Beverly Mannoriginally posted at The Annarborist A Caveat, Walter Dellinger “In Skilling (ably explained by Paul’s posting), my law firm colleagues pressed the argument that the statutory crime of denying anyone of the “intangible right of honest services” was unconstitutionally vague unless it was sharply limited to bribery and kickbacks. Given that the honest-services […]

Younger v. Harris ‘Doctrine’

by Beverly Mannoriginally posted at The Annarborist A Blueprint for Avoiding the Younger v. Harris ‘Doctrine’ In Some Cases The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit last month enjoined a Pennsylvania county prosecutor’s office from indicting teenage girls who had sued in federal court because their county’s prosecutor was threatening “sexting” indictments unless […]

Oh, But Justice Souter, These Days Judging Is VERY Easy

Rdan here…In a 2007 case, the conservative majority overturned voluntary racial integration programs in Seattle and Louisville, Ky. Earlier this year, in the Citizens United campaign-finance case, the court’s conservatives struck down a federal law that prohibited corporations from spending on federal elections. Both relied on interpretation of vaguely worded constitutional guarantee. by Beverly Manncrossposted […]

A Gap Not In Time But In Judicial Veracity

by Beverly Mann A Gap Not In Time But In Judicial Veracitycrossposted with The Annarborist “Talk of judicial activism tends to focus on results, but the Guggenheim case shows that maybe we should talk a little bit more about method.”—Doug Kendall and Elizabeth Wydra, “Torturing the Law: Jay Bybee models conservative judicial activism in the […]

UC-Berkeley Law School Degrades Itself Even More

No wonder Brad DeLong has had no luck persuading Christopher Edley to get rid of the malfeasant John Yoo. As Bob Somersby observes: Christopher Edley thinks he’s one of your “betters.” It’s hard to believe, but that’s the exceptionally low-IQ framework this self-proclaimed member of the elite enunciated in Sunday’s piece. According to Edley, rubes […]

Responding to Glenn Greenwald’s: What the Supreme Court Got Right

by Divorced one like Bush For this post I will formally introduce myself. I am Daniel J. Becker. It is only proper and just to do so. I am using Mr. Greenwalds discussion only as a platform to add my thoughts regarding the Citizens United decision.  Also this is a long read. So I’ll give you […]

Corporations are now your brother and sister

by Divorced one like Bush If you haven’t heard, the SCOTUS just ruled 5/4 that corporations are now your brother and sister under the constitution.  Hey brother, can you spare a dime? To bad corporations didn’t have to fight in the Revolution and actually bleed to get such rights. More seriously, the court ruled that […]

Radley Balko: Optimist, not Libertarian?

Manufacturing evidence is apparently legal for prosecutors who then prosecute the case. This, at least, is the argument a couple of crooked prosecutors are making. Radley Balko is more optimistic than I am about prosecutors: If the Supreme Court…would essentially overturn Buckley and give prosecutors complete immunity, even when they conspire to convict an innocent […]

America 2012: Thank you Justice Roberts?

by Bruce Webb Arguments were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this week as to whether restrictions on corporate political donations were constitutional or whether those corporations are protected by the First Amendment. Court watchers report that signs are that the Robert’s Court will so rule with the ruling due to be handed down around […]