As Peggy's earlier post indicated, MG Geoffrey Miller today asserted his privilege against self-incrimination in order to avoid being questioned by the defense attorney representing a soldier pending trial for using military working dogs to abuse prisoners. Is this significant?First, as we know from press reports, MG Miller made this decision on advice of his military defense counsel, Major Michelle...
Today is the 100th Anniversary of the founding to the American Society of International Law. As part of the centennial celebrations, the ASIL has a website covering the history of the Society (and note the pictures at the bottom of the timeline). The first 50 years are currently covered with more to come.I am a big fan of the ASIL...
It's all Alito all the time here at Opinio Juris (OK, not quite. Thanks to Chris and Peggy for breaking the Alito obsession, but here I go again).Sen. Feinstein and Sen. Feingold questioned Alito again on the NSA wiretapping issue and invokes, once again, Justice Jackson's concurrence in Youngstown setting out a framework for analyzing presidential powers. A couple of...
Adam Isacson at Democracy Arsenal has a post on looking at U.S. foreign policy through the optic of a Latin American policy specialist. He explains that that “The biggest frustration by far[of being a Latin Americanist]...
The Washington Post notes today that General Michael Miller, a former commander at the Guantanamo detention center who also assisted in setting up the center at Abu Ghraib, has invoked his right against self-incrimination and refused to give testimony in one of the military trials against a lower ranking soldier accused of abuse at Abu Ghraib:Harvey Volzer, an attorney for...
Stunningly, Sen. Joe Biden has actually asked a good question: Can the President invade Iran without a declaration of war by Congress? (He claims that Professor "Ho" makes this argument. I assume he means Professor John Yoo of Berkeley).Somewhat surprisingly, Alito gives Biden a fairly complete answer, even though this will almost certainly come before the Court soon. He explains...
Yesterday was not a stellar day for the law blog community. Here is what some of the most popular law blogs on the Internet were discussing: Volokh Conspiracy had a post that compared Ted Kennedy to Joseph McCarthy, Concurring Opinions had a post that had no less than 20 references to Jennifer Aniston nude, Professor Bainbridge had a post about...
Over at Slate, Julian Mortenson, who served as a legal officer at the ICTY, is reporting this week on life at the ICTY prison in the Hague. It's a fascinating read, particularly his description of the the way in which prisoners of different ethnic groups who are accused of commiting genocide and war crimes against one another's groups have...
Thus far, Judge Alito's testimony has not touched on immigration in any significant manner. But here is one exchange between Senator Coburn that addresses the issue of immigrants who appear before Judge Alito: COBURN: ...
Following up on Peggy's post from yesterday and her earlier post today, Judge Alito was more explicit today in his rejection of the use of foreign and international law to interpret the Bill of Rights. Key quote: "I think the framers would be stunned by the idea that the Bill of Rights is to be interpreted by taking a poll...
There is a bit more on foreign and international sources at today's hearings. This from the SCOTUSBlog live blog:10.43 Coburn says that reference to foreign law undermines democracy and a violation of the Constitution. He thinks its use violates the "good behavior" qualification for judges.10.41 Alito doesn't think foreign law is relevant either. The framers would be "stunned" to know...
Peggy has already posted on one of the most important international law aspects of the Alito hearings today. But there was also some very useful discussion of executive authority under the Jackson trilogy of Youngstown. Here is an exchange between Senator Leahy and Alito that addresses torture and presidential authority: "LEAHY: Now, three years ago, the...
