Yesterday, a federal district court once again struck down North Carolina’s Republican-drawn congressional map as a partisan gerrymander in violation of the Constitution. This ruling reaffirmed the court’s January decision, which the Supreme Court vacated and told them to reconsider in June under a different legal theory of who has standing to sue. Indeed, while the Supreme Court said each district would have to be challenged individually … Read More
Abhorrent Actor Dropped By Agency
Fox News reports: James Woods has been dropped by his talent agent, and received the announcement in an email sent during the Fourth of July holiday. The Oscar-nominated actor shared a screenshot of the email with the subject line “Well…” on his personal Twitter account. The agent, Ken Kaplan, said that he’d come to the decision to no longer represent the … Read More
We Are Fucked: Kennedy Is Retiring
NBC: Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced Wednesday that he will retire when his successor is confirmed, preparing the way for the most significant change in the court’s makeup in half a century. The vacancy will allow President Donald Trump to make the U.S. Supreme court a solidly conservative body for years, if not generations, to come — a … Read More
Going After The Leakers: DOJ Gets Its First Scalp
Federal prosecutors announced they were indicting James Wolfe, the former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, of lying to FBI agents in December 2017 about his contacts with three reporters, including through his use of encrypted messaging applications. According to the indictment, Wolfe made false statements to the FBI about providing two reporters with non-public information related to the … Read More
Giuliani: Trump Can “Probably” Pardon Himself
In an interview this morning with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” Rudy Giuliani discussed special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of whether the president may have tried to obstruct justice in the probe of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. When Stephanopoulos asked if the president has the power to pardon himself, Giuliani … Read More
NFL Blows It
New NFL policy advanced today: The NFL Players Association responds: I suspect the NFL brass thought their policy was a good compromise in that it allows players to remain off the field. But this of course only means that players cannot protest. My view? The players should stand and raise a “black power” salute. It will confuse everyone.
Judge Rules That Trump Cannot Block his Twitter Feed
This case requires us to consider whether a public official may, consistent with the First Amendment, “block” a person from his Twitter account in response to the political views that person has expressed, and whether the analysis differs because that public official is the President of the United States. The answer to both questions is no. It is sort of … Read More
Now You’re Talking My Language
Trump takes a foray into legal argument: “The questions are an intrusion into the President’s Article 2 powers under the Constitution to fire any Executive Branch Employee…what the President was thinking is an outrageous…..as to the President’s unfettered power to fire anyone…” Joe Digenova, former US Attorney — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2018 Yeah, he’s actually quoting his … Read More
Document Dump: At The Time, “Bearing Arms” Meant Being In The Militia
Then, as now, you don’t “bear arms” to hunt or defend yourself. Sourced and well-written
Revealed: Stormy Daniels Wasn’t The Only One Who Signed A Non-Disclosure Agreement With Trump
This weekend we learned that in the early months of the administration, at the behest of now-President Trump, who was furious over leaks from within the White House, senior White House staff members were asked to, and did, sign nondisclosure agreements vowing not to reveal confidential information and exposing them to damages for any violation. Some balked at first but, … Read More
Three-Judge Panel Strikes Down NC Districts As Political Gerrymandering
This is a huge decision not only locally, but nationally. A federal court yesterday ruled that Republicans in North Carolina unconstitutionally gerrymandered congressional districts in 2016 to ensure Republican “domination of the state’s congressional delegation.” The three-judge panel struck down the map and ordered the state’s General Assembly to come up with a substitute by Jan. 24. The decision was … Read More
Trump Announces Plans To Undo Natural Monuments
As I type this, Trump is in Salt Lake City announcing his plans to be the anti-Teddy Roosevelt. Trump’s actions are a dramatic departure from conventional interpretations of the 1906 Antiquities Act, on which the monument designations are based. The act, advocated by President Theodore Roosevelt, was designed to provide safeguards to exceptional historic, cultural, and natural landscapes across the … Read More
Corrections And Updates And Backtracks To Last Week’s Bombshells
As I posted here last week, Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition last December. Flynn is the fourth Trump associate to be charged in Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. As I also posted, Flynn promised “full cooperation” with Mueller’s investigation and … Read More
Can A Sitting President Be Indicted?
The conventional wisdom has always said that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Under current law, a President is immune from civil lawsuits in federal court, when it comes to his official acts as president. This is because of Nixon v. Fitzgerald, a 1982 Supreme Court ruling. There, the Supreme Court wrote: “The ‘singular importance of the President’s duties’ warrants a stay … Read More