Month: February 2020

Trump should keep hands off courts – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Bar Associations

George ConkLeave a comment

Source: OTHERWISE: Trump should keep hands off courts – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Bar

“I just don’t know how they cannot recuse themselves for anything Trump or Trump-related” – Donald Trump speaking of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Ginsburg

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

In restrained but firm language two leading bar associations have called attention to Donald Trump’s attacks on the judicial system  The Philadelphia Bar declared in a recent statement “Recently, we have seen a course of conduct, including communications meant to exert undue influence on the judiciary, that seems intent on undermining the rule of law and disrupting the system of checks and balances. Such attacks are dangerous in the extreme. We cannot allow them to continue.
“We call for an end to these unwarranted attacks on the judiciary and for all Americans to speak up in defense of the Constitution and our democratic principles.”
In similarly constrained language the Pennsylvania Bar Association declared:
“The integrity of our system of justice requires that this equal branch of government be free from outside influence. In particular, we must assure that the independence of the judiciary is always respected and never diminished.”

What does it mean to “induce” or “encourage” unlawful presence? – SCOTUSblog

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Source: OTHERWISE: What does it mean to “induce” or “encourage” unlawful presence? – SCOTUSblog

Gabriel (Jack) Chin at Scotus blog has a good discussion of U.S. v. Sineneng-Smith – a challenge to the Immigration and Nationalities Act which in Section 1324 presents a risk of criminal prosecution to lawyers, advocates, and families of people without a legal right to be in the U.S.

***Put simply, the issue is this. 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) imposes criminal penalties on any person who “encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence in is or will be in violation of law.”
Is this, as the government argues with the support of a single amicus brief, a narrow provision prohibiting criminal solicitation and aiding and abetting? Or is it, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found and a range of amici argue, a constitutionally overbroad statute criminalizing a wide range of protected expression, including political speech, attorney representation, charitable and religious counseling, support and outreach, and grandmothers urging their foreign-born grandchildren not to leave them?***

The President is an office-holder, not a sovereign – Bernadette Meyler //Harvard L Rev

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The President’s oath of office is to the laws and constitution.  He/she is not the sole receptacle of the power of the executive branch of the executive branch of the United States government.  Attorney General Barr has embraced the opposite view.  But Bernadette Meyler (Stanford Law) has amplifed the argument tellingly stated by Fordham law profs Andrew Kent, Jed Shugerman, and Ethan Leib.

Source: OTHERWISE: The President is an office-holder, not a sovereign – Bernadette Meyler //Harvard L Rev

If you haven’t looked at this discussion I recommend that you take a good luck at this ongoing and very accessible discussion which began and continues in the pages of the Harvard Law Review.  As officers of the court we are acutely aware of the limits of our authority – and of our duty of independence – bred of our oath to uphold the law.  But by the fulsome embrace of the unitary executive theory which places all executive authority in a single person – not the office, but the person of the President – Attorney General Barr abdicates his duty.  In his own words, he works under “presidential supervision” rather than as a protector of the people as sovereign. – gwc