Constitution

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Seeing Trump arraigned in New York on Tuesday was satisfying even if the outcome of the trial cannot be foreseen and he has a presumption of innocence. There is obviously evidence that he falsified his business records for the purpose of hiding material facts from the American people in October […]

Bill of Rights

Appellate Ruling means, Despite DeSantis, Florida Professors are free to Teach about Race, Sexism, as they see Fit

Florida Phoenix

By Michael Moline | – ( Florida Phoenix) – College professors can continue to teach hard lessons about race and sexism notwithstanding Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Stop Woke” act, his attempt to dictate how educators handle these topics. In a terse order issued Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh […]

Bill of Rights

Why Tennessee’s Law limiting Drag Performances likely violates the First Amendment

The Conversation

By Mark Satta, Wayne State University | – (The Conversation) – On March 2, 2023, Tennessee became the first state to enact a law restricting drag performances. This law is part of a larger push by Republican lawmakers in numerous states to restrict or eliminate events like drag shows and drag story hours. These legislative […]

Authoritarianism

End the “Citizens United” Ruling with a “Democracy for All Amendment”

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment) – In the United States government has been privatized by the Citizens United ruling of the SCOTUS. Government is now really up for sale and auctioned off to the highest campaign contributors.The Supreme Court ‘Citizen’s United’ decision opened the floodgates for big money in our politics, allowing giant corporations […]

Bill of Rights

Police gone Wild: When the Scorpions on the Corner Just Might Kill You

Tomdispatch

By Michael Gould-Wartofsky | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – To residents of Memphis’s resource-poor, predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods, the Scorpions were easy to spot. The plainclothes patrols were known for driving their unmarked Dodge Chargers through the streets, often all too recklessly, sowing fear as they went, spitting venom from their windows, jumping out with guns […]

Constitution

Hollow Men: The Blowhards of Jan. 6 were Yellow-Bellied Cowards

Juan Cole

Reprinted in commemoration of Brian Sicknick and other victims of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The damning Jan. 6 public hearings revealed a plethora of historical detail, but they also shed light on character. Some of these revelations were profiles in pusillanimity. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), one of the slimiest […]

BDS

Challenging Israel-inspired Anti-Boycott Legislation in the US

Al-Shabaka

By Tariq Kenney-Shawa | – ( Al-Shabakah) – The Israeli regime’s defenders across the US are ramping up efforts to criminalize the constitutionally protected right to boycott. Beyond violating the rights of Palestine solidarity activists, this threatens to undermine the tenets of a healthy democracy. Al-Shabaka’s US Policy Fellow, Tariq Kenney-Shawa, examines this development and […]

Congress

What the criminal referral of Trump means – a constitutional law expert explains the Jan. 6 committee action

The Conversation

Margaret M. Russell, Santa Clara University | – After 18 months investigating, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol held its final public meeting on Dec. 19, 2022. The panel recommended that the U.S. Department of Justice bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for his […]

Bill of Rights

Will America’s Forever Prison Finally Close on Biden’s Watch: The Fate of Guantánamo

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com) – As of December 8, 2022, Guantánamo Bay detention facility — a prison offshore of American justice and built for those detained in this country’s never-ending Global War on Terror — has been open for nearly 21 years (or, to be precise, 7,627 days). Thirteen years ago, I published a book, The Least […]