Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave an interesting speech at the American Sociological Association last month on comparative experiences of women in the judiciary. The speech provides a useful perspective on how the United States Supreme Court fares compared with peer national and international tribunals on this issue. When President Carter took office in 1977, only one woman (Shirley Hufstedler) sat...
The Georgia Law Review has a Spring 2006 symposium issue recently out on emergency powers and the Constitution, organized by our own Kevin Heller and featuring a lead essay from Sanford Levinson, along with responses from Philip Bobbitt, Michael Stokes Paulsen, Kim Lane Scheppele, William Scheuerman, Mark Tushnet, and Kevin himself. It’s an excellent collection, with some genuine engagement....
A federal court last week rendered an important Alien Tort Statute decision in the case of Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc. The decision is available here. The Southern District of New York granted Talisman's motion for summary judgment. I found the opinion thoughtful, detailed, and well-reasoned. The core allegation was that Talisman conspired...
In an interesting counterpoint to all the controversy over the Pope's recent remarks about Islam, a group of European Church leaders recently went to Africa to apologize for slavery and colonialism: A delegation of European church leaders, recently in Harare, has publicly apologized to Zimbabweans and Africans for the historical wrongs of colonization and slavery. At a prayer conference in Harare...
One of our readers defends Yoo’s inconsistent positions on FISA and the War Powers Act by arguing that the secrecy of the NSA program prevented Bush from defending his decision to ignore FISA, whereas no such secrecy concerns prevented Clinton from defending his decision to ignore the War Powers Act. There are two problems with that argument. First, there is no...
It was sixty years ago on this day that Winston Churchill delivered his famous "Let Europe Arise" speech in Zurich, Switzerland. His hope was that a "United States of Europe" would return Europe from the Dark Ages. There are numerous ways to judge the success or failure of the European Union. But in terms of Churchill's original...
I stand behind my description of Yoo, but Julian’s thoughtful post deserves a less facile response. So let’s consider Yoo’s claim about Clinton’s violation of the War Powers Act. Here is Julian’s explanation of why Yoo’s attack on Clinton is not inconsistent with his defense of Bush: His complaint about Clinton's violation of the War Powers Act is that...
Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy has offered a series of posts detailing some writing John Yoo did in 2000 criticizing the Clinton administration. Orin's posts are fair, careful and persuasive in some parts, but it has been distorted and transmogrified by the lefty blogosphere into an unfair attack on Yoo (which Kevin regrettably perpetuates below). (Disclosure: I'm a...
They've been receiving considerable attention in the progressive blogosphere, but these quotes from John Yoo, circa 2000, are worth repeating for anyone who still doubts that he is nothing more than a shameless and unprincipled apologist for the Bush administration:First, I think, in order to achieve their foreign policy goals, the Clinton Adminisitration has undermined the balance of powers that...
There is a must read piece on Guantanamo in the New York Times magazine yesterday by Tom Golden. Golden interviewed more than 100 military and intelligence officials, guards, former detainees and others. I came away from the article with the impression that there are continuing struggles between intelligence investigators interrogating the detainees and the commanders who are seeking...
The Sunday Times (UK) reports today on efforts by one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers, BAE, to develop a new generation of "green" weapons that minimize environmental harm. The company's efforts include: Bullets with lower lead content because, as the company states on its website, “lead used in ammunition can harm the environment and pose a risk to...
John Yoo's op-ed in the Sunday New York Times left me scratching my head on a number of points. I'm most mystified by his claim that the presidency of the last 30-35 years has been weakened as an institution (he's got Dick Cheney to quote here, but that might not persuade everyone on the question). Were the Reagan,...
