Amicus: A Law Review

With the headlines-grabbing news this week of the discovery of classified documents in the former office and current home of the President, a legal analysis of what we know and what we don’t, including the critical investigative questions in this (and any other “intent-focused”) inquiry—all affirming the fundamental notion that no one is above the law. That review leads necessarily to an early eva...

In the immediate aftermath of the selection of a Speaker of the House of Representatives in the new 118th Congress, a reflection on why the diverse responsibilities and professional operation of government, including the leadership of it, is critically important to the Constitutional legitimacy and vitality of our nation. And, two years after the attempted insurrection and violent riot at the Unit...

Reflecting on many of the recent, significant stories in law, government, and justice, a whirlwind survey of five of the most important developments of late 2022—including the decision by the Supreme Court to continue the Trump era, pandemic-based regulation prohibiting asylum seekers from coming into America; the severe sentencings of two of the many defendants who conspired to kidnap and harm th...

Looking backward and forward to two major events of recent days—First, the anticipated findings of the House Committee on the January 6 Insurrection (including legislative recommendations and criminal referrals), coupled with the latest, high-profile sentencing of a Capitol Building rioter, a Congressional move under the Fourteenth Amendment to prevent former President Trump from holding federal o...

Beginning with both the warning and the hope of journalist Brian Williams about the future of the United States, an in-depth presentation on and analysis of the two, landmark oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court this week—the first on whether the discredited but still dangerous “independent state legislature theory” should be adopted and applied (in whole or in part), and the seco...

Consistent with the adopted mission of the program to offer analysis and discussion of the major stories in law, government, and the aspiration for justice in America, we begin this week with an extended review of the content—and the equally-important language—of the landmark ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, finally bringing to an end the from-the-start frivol...

In ways obvious and discrete, explicit and implicit, the federal and state courts of America this week rejected two of the principal doctrines that have animated the litigation actions of Donald Trump—namely, that he is entitled to special treatment as a former President, including serial delays in the otherwise routine delivery of justice: From the unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court that the H...

On a day when America recalls the stirring words of Abraham Lincoln in dedication of the National Cemetery at the Gettysburg Battlefield 159 years ago, describing and discussing the contemporary applications of his Rule of Law-inspiring message: First, witnessed in two major appointments of this past week—namely, the selection of former federal trial Judge Barbara Jones to monitor the actions of t...

For the second week in a row, a survey and analysis of some of the breathtaking goings-on in our nation’s tribunals—including the freezing of Alex Jones’ financial assets to prevent their looting, the stunning testimony of Stewart Rhodes in his continuing trial for seditious conspiracy, and the appointment of an impartial monitor to ensure that the assets of the Trump companies are not dissipated...

At the start, judges both federal and state presiding over criminal and civil proceedings from coast to coast in the United States—including the seditious conspiracy trial of the Oath Keepers in Washington, D.C., the criminal fraud prosecution of the Trump companies in New York City, the punitive damages proceeding against Alex Jones in Connecticut, the state sentencing of the Marjorie Stoneman Do...

After another week of breathtaking events and landmark decisions inside and outside our nation’s courts right prompts the question: “What are we to make of these seemingly related news stories that also change who we are and what we will be in America?” Among the blizzard of topics for analysis—stunning decisions by a single federal appeals court invalidating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arri...

In the whirlwind days of this past business week, our federal courts at all levels have continued to issue decisions affecting who we are and what we will be as Americans: Among the many judicial rulings that have rightly attracted headlines are the rejection by the United States Supreme Court of an emergency application to review the planned start of the President’s student loan forgiveness progr...

Focusing on three of the most significant news developments in the areas of law, government, and the aspiration for justice in America, what special insights and practical perspectives should we glean from: first, the gradual but unmistakable movement of the federal appellate courts toward rebuking former President Trump in his challenges to the criminal investigation of the Mar-a-Lago documents m...

Invoking his delegated authority under Section 2 of the Constitution, the President this past week twice granted pardons and clemency to groups of people—for very different reasons, under very different circumstances. How should we understand these decisions to commute the sentences of convicted felons to secure the return of Americans imprisoned in a foreign country and, unrelated, to pardon thou...

In times when a former President raises the specter of pardoning all of the defendants convicted of crimes for their involvement in the January 6 riot and insurrection—and when one of that former President’s senior advisors seeks a second pardon for his criminal culpability in the attempt to overthrow the operation of government—it is fitting to explore the constitutional sources of the pardon pow...

On a day when our nation remembers and commemorates the 65th anniversary of the presidentially-directed and militarily-accomplished racial integration of the Little Rock High School in segregationist Arkansas, contemporary news about the promotion of and victory for the Rule of Law in America also rightly attracts attention: Based on an in-depth review and careful analysis of this week’s landmark...

The search and seizure in early August of some 11,000 documents, including 100 classified items, at the residence-resort of former President Donald Trump continues to generate investigative activity and, most recently, highly intrusive judicial action. Among the most recent developments have been the decisions of a federal judge in South Florida to stop the review and assessment of the criminal im...

Like virtually every week in the recent history of our nation, the past seven days have been replete with a significant number of important, life- and community-altering decisions by elected and appointed judges. Among those “in the headlines” are directives for the appointment of a special master to review the many documents seized at the office/residence of a former president and for the disqual...

The genesis, development, and establishment of a Labor Day observance in American in the late 19th Century tells us a lot about the important, historic role of the labor movement, its leadership, and, most important, the workers who animated it. Two recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court involving the dues-based, representative power of labor unions and the rights of employees to be f...

This past week, the United States Justice Department (upon judicial order) released the internal memorandum of March 2019, upon which Attorney General William Barr chose (falsely) to say that the Investigative Report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not describe any obstruction of justice by Former President Trump; it also disclosed the sworn (albeit heaving redacted) affidavit establishing t...

For the first time in the history of the United States, the residence-office of a former President was the target this week of a judicially-authorized warrant for its search and the seizure of documents. The release of the actual court order for that law enforcement action, along with the specific locations to be searched and the particular items to be seized, has provided some insight into the na...

Both inside and outside our nation’s courts, this week witnessed an important variety of law enforcement events—including the criminal sentencing of a violent January 6 rioter-insurrectionist, the indictment of officers who falsified a search warrant leading to devastatingly tragic results, the imposition of civil monetary judgments on a notorious figure who falsely stated that one of our nation’s...

Resuming a two-broadcast arc of discussions about the application of the First Amendment to public academic settings, a proper examination of the rights and responsibilities of America’s instructors is revealed to be both uncertain and evolving. The United States Supreme Court has recognized that public school administrators may lawfully place some balanced restrictions on student behavior—and per...

Likely reflecting the predominant public reactions to recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court in the areas of privacy/abortion rights, firearms access and use, and environmental enforcement options, nationwide polling reflects a notable diminution in respect for the High Court. Among other judicial actions this week, a federal court stopped the executive branch from implementing more h...

In its next term, the United States Supreme Court will be addressing the legitimacy of an obscure and unfounded theory that only state legislatures—and not courts—are empowered to resolve election challenges; the anticipated return of the High Court to voting issues prompts a review and revisiting of one of the central pieces of civil rights legislation in our nation’s history. Intended to remedy...