Law
Torture and the Law
Bush told ABC news he knew administration officials met to discuss the use of torture against detainees. Could a prosecutor charge him with a crime?
Are Contractors Above the Law?
Contractors operating abroad claim they are immune from lawsuits because they work for the U.S. military.
Judicial Partisanship Awards
Is it true that liberal justices are more partisan than conservatives ?
Habeas Case Quietly Heads to Supreme Court
The case demands attention because it presents in stark relief two key questions of governments extraterritorial detentions.
Using Law to Justify Torture
The Bush White House might be on shaky ground in relying on memos written by administration lawyers to justify "enhanced interrogation" policies.
The Berkeley Tempest
For one Berkeley professor, a recently released torture memo authored by Yoo raises questions about the meaning of academic freedom.
Legal Theory Seeks to Curtail Tort Cases
A House committee hopes to prevent the spread of a legal doctrine that shields industry from consumer lawsuits.
Court of the People?
The judiciary deserves a look these days, with the next president expected to replace two or three aging Supreme Court Justices.
Guantanamo Trial Unraveling
The case of Omar Khadr shows why the U.S. shouldn't use new procedures for terrorism prosecutions
Boumediene: Victory of Law
The decision also raises questions about the future of the Guantanamo Bay facility's 270 detainees.
Experts Predict Slew of Torture Suits
Last week the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decided to take a second look at the case of a Canadian citizen interrogated by the U.S. in Syria.
Can Canada Sway SCOTUS?
At the end of June, the Supreme Court is due to issue a ruling in the Guantanamo Bay habeas corpus case. A similar Canadian decision raises intriguing questions.
Spying Law Challenged
FISA opponents claim the recently updated law is a violation of the Constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
SCOTUS Reins in President
COMMENTARY
The U.S. Supreme Court doesn't like to be powerless. In the case of a Guantanamo detainee, justices have capped presidential power.
When Congress and the President Face Off
Unseating the ruling party in Congress doesn't mean taking power, but that's your Constitution at work.
California's Oily Justices
Former employee Braxton Berkley was one of hundreds to sue Lockheed Martin and other chemical supply companies—some of which are among the world’s largest oil companies—for injuries resulting from exposure to toxic chemicals. Berkley, who says the injuries resulted from his work on military planes, appealed his case to the California Supreme Court. But the case was dismissed.
Why? Four out of seven justices held stock in some of those oil companies, and therefore couldn’t rule on the case.
Padilla Case Finds a Justice System Failing to Adapt
Six years after 9/11, the jury is still out on whether the American justice system is up to the challenge of dealing with terrorism.
In Solidarity With TPM Muckraker
This is an easy call, especially since Laura and I used to work for Talking Points Memo. But every journalist and citizen of conscience should stand shoulder-to-shoulder with TPM now that the Justice Department has engaged in a sickening course of petty retaliation.
In late 2006 and 2007, TPM's Josh Marshall, Paul Kiel and Justin Rood relentlessly pursued the U.S. attorney firings. It wasn't easy, either substantively, or against the media tide. Jay Carney at Time sneered, "some liberals are seeing broad partisan conspiracies where none likely exist." Well, they existed. Without TPM, Alberto Gonzales would still be attorney general. Simple and plain.
Justice Dept. Auditor Gives Long Version Of Why Monica Goodling Broke Law
Attention summer beach readers: As JJ mentioned in his "State of Play" post, the Justice Dept. inspector general released an eight-chapter, 146-page report today on how the Attorney General's office of Alberto Gonzales illegally played politics with its hiring. We've known for more than a year that Monica Goodling, the former Justice Dept. White House liaison, and Kyle Sampson, chief of staff for Gonzales and Goodling's immediate supervisor, violated federal govt. policy -- and federal law -- by taking into account the political affiliations of candidates for career Dept. positions. Today's report, though, details Goodling's remarkable lack of subtlety in her zeal for a more Republican Justice Dept.
The Supreme Court v. Reality: FDA Version
Today the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that you can't sue a manufacturer for a defective medical device if the Food and Drug Administration has already approved the device. Legally, perhaps, the decision has its merits. But practically the decision ignores the myriad scandals surrounding the agency that call its core competency into question.
