David Cole

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MundoAmérica,

The conventional wisdom is that one cannot judge a Supreme Court justice by his or her first few years on the Court. There is nothing that really prepares one for the awesome power—and responsibility—that a Supreme Court justice holds. Justices typically take some time to find their feet, and tread lightly as they grow into the role.

Not so, however, for the three Trump-appointed justices—Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch—who have been on the Court one, three, and five years, respectively. If the leaked draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization holds, all three will join in overturning one of the Court’s most important decisions of all time, a decision that protects the fundamental right of women to control their own bodies and fates, and that has stood for half a century.…  Seguir leyendo »

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters. From top left: Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Stephen Breyer, Washington, D.C., June 1, 2017

MundoAmérica,

The 2016-2017 term, which concluded on Monday, opened with eight justices and every expectation that, after Hillary Clinton was elected, the Court’s balance would soon tilt liberal for the first time in four decades. Then Donald Trump won, Neil Gorsuch was appointed to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat, and the Court once again had a five-member conservative majority. The Court had fewer headline-grabbing cases this term than in prior years, but it nonetheless decided several important cases—certainly enough for Gorsuch to show his colors, which thus far are deep red.  As Adam Liptak of The New York Times has noted, the Court was more united than ever this term, largely because, with eight justices for much of the time, it strove to achieve consensus by deciding cases narrowly.…  Seguir leyendo »

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, San Diego, April 21, 2017. Mike Blake/TPX/Reuters

MundoAmérica,

Tangled in self-inflicted chaos, President Donald Trump has been unable to accomplish much during his first four months in office. His signature executive orders have been stymied by the courts; his legislative efforts have stalled; and now he faces a special counsel investigating him over the Russia affair. But Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is another story. Even amid the scandal of the firing of FBI director James Comey—an action in which Sessions himself had a central part—Sessions has quietly continued the radical remaking of the Justice Department he began when he took the job.

On May 20, Sessions completed his first hundred days as attorney general.…  Seguir leyendo »

A custodian under a portrait of an immigrant, Ellis Island, New York, January 31, 2017

MundoAmérica,

When President Donald Trump directed his travel ban, the most aggressive executive order of his first week in office, at foreign nationals, he was following a well-trod path. It is always easier to sell a national security measure if it sacrifices the rights of others rather than those of citizens. But as I explained in an earlier post, the strategy failed. State attorney generals, university presidents, leading science associations, major technology companies, and former national security and foreign service officials all came out strongly against the order. Tens of thousands of Americans gathered at airports across the country to protest the order—even though it did not implicate their rights directly.…  Seguir leyendo »

FBI director James Comey, Washington, DC, July 7, 2016. Rex Features via AP Images/Shutterstock

MundoAmérica, ,

Is FBI Director James Comey “fiercely independent,” as President Barack Obama described him three years ago when nominating him for his current job, or fiercely self-serving? That’s the question that looms large in the wake of Comey’s unprecedented decision to wade into a presidential race eleven days before election day by announcing that he’d reopened an investigation into Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton concerning her private email server—an investigation that he had brought to close in a major press conference in July. The announcement, which came in a very short letter to members of Congress Friday, violated two long-established rules governing criminal investigations. …  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , ,

President Barack Obama’s plan for closing Guantánamo, delivered to Congress on Tuesday, reaffirms his admirable desire to end before he leaves office one of the most problematic legacies of the US response to September 11. But he has yet to adequately address his own more lasting legacy in the “war on terror”: the secret killing of suspected terrorists with armed drones. On the same day the president issued his Guantánamo plan, a bipartisan task force gave him failing grades on his progress in bringing the drone program under the rule of law.

The Obama administration has made drones the weapon of choice for responding to perceived terrorist threats.…  Seguir leyendo »

Did the Torture Report Give the C.I.A. a Bum Rap

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , ,

In December, when the Senate Intelligence Committee issued its long-awaited report on the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation program, it seemed to confirm what I and many human-rights advocates had argued for a decade: The C.I.A. had started and run a fundamentally abusive and counterproductive torture program. What’s more, the report found that the C.I.A. had lied repeatedly about the program’s efficacy, and that it had neither disrupted terror plots nor saved lives.

The report continues to reverberate. Human-rights groups are calling for a special prosecutor to investigate Bush-era officials who authorized torture. The first C.I.A. officer to publicly discuss the practice of waterboarding, who was later imprisoned for leaking classified information, was recently released and says he was the victim of a politicized prosecution.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional

Did former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Tom Ridge, a former homeland security secretary, and Frances Townsend, a former national security adviser, all commit a federal crime last month in Paris when they spoke in support of the Mujahedeen Khalq at a conference organized by the Iranian opposition group’s advocates? Free speech, right? Not necessarily.

The problem is that the United States government has labeled the Mujahedeen Khalq a “foreign terrorist organization”, making it a crime to provide it, directly or indirectly, with any material support. And, according to the Justice Department under Mr. Mukasey himself, as well as under the current attorney general, Eric Holder, material support includes not only cash and other tangible aid, but also speech coordinated with a “foreign terrorist organization” for its benefit.…  Seguir leyendo »