Brazil is now host to 2016 Olympic Games as well as 2014 FIFA World Cup.  I would like to see our country use this as an opportunity to shame Brazil into releasing abducted children from our country and to shine a spotlight on child abduction cases in general.  If the Olympics shone a light on China’s environmental [...]

There are a couple of things to notice about Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation process.  The first is that she has strong public support for her nomination.  The second is that, since she has fairly broad public support, many Republicans have jumped on board for her nomination.  How do we explain why this has happened?
imagine you are a Republican [...]

Link.  (anyone know how to use flowplayer on a wordpress.com blog??)

Again, I write this as a person with no formal legal training, so you should take my opinions as one who could certainly be rebutted with things that I am simply not aware of.  The interesting thing to me about Heller is that it seems to be a decision on principle which is entirely consistent [...]

Tonight, I watched a debate over the Court’s big decision on The News Hour between a man in a bow tie and what looked at first glance to be Elton John. As I watched, the person who applauded the decision said things that made me cringe a bit — like talking about the significance of [...]

I’ll tip my hand by the way I frame these quotes in terms of my view of the decision:
Chief Justice Roberts, Dissenting:
It is grossly premature to pronounce on the detainees’ right to habeas without first assessing whether the remedies the DTA system provides vindicate whatever rights petitioners may claim.
Hamdi concluded that American citizens detained as enemy combatants [...]

The framework of the decision:
Based on this language from Eisentrager, and the reasoning in our other extraterritoriality opinions, we conclude that at least three factors are relevant in determining the reach of the Suspension Clause: (1) the citizenship and status of the detainee and the adequacy of the process through which that status determination was made; (2) the nature of [...]

From SCOTUSblog:
In a stunning blow to the Bush Administration in its war-on-terrorism policies, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to pursue habeas challenges to their detention. The Court, dividing 5-4, ruled that Congress had not validly taken away habeas rights.  If Congress wishes to suspend habeas, it [...]

"We cannot use race as the test of diversity."  (via Balkinization)