Law
October 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho gave the keynote address at the Federalist Society’s Sixth Annual Kentucky Chapters Conference last week. Judge Ho gave his talk the title “Agreeing to Disagree—Restoring America by Resisting Cancel Culture.” Nate Hochman obtained a copy of the text and broke its most newsworthy aspect in “Federal Judge Vows to Stop Hiring Law Clerks from Yale Law School.” We followed Hochman’s account in “Bravo, Judge Ho.”
»
October 2, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Linda Brown was the young girl who gave her name to the four cases consolidated for consideration in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court case that effectively invalidated the regime of public school segregation. She died in 2018 at the age of 75 or 76. Neil Genzlinger’s New York Times obituary recounted her story. Genzlinger dealt inadequately with the Brown case. “In its ruling,” he wrote, “the
»
October 1, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday I briefly noted Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho’s keynote remarks at the Federalist Society’s sixth annual Kentucky chapters conference. With a little work I was able to obtain a copy of Judge Ho’s remarks. I hope to revisit them with a few quotes from the text in the next day or two or three. In my comments I referred to Senior D.C. Court of Appeals Judge Laurence Silberman as
»
September 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
President Biden’s student loan giveaway is blatantly illegal, but standing presents an obstacle to lawsuits challenging it. I noted the lawsuit filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of Frank Garrison earlier this week. The Indiana federal district court has already denied Garrison’s motion for preliminary relief in an order that casts doubt on Garrison’s theory of standing. Now six states with Republican governors and attorneys general have commenced
»
September 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
President Biden’s “cancelation” of student loans in the aggregate amount of hundreds of billions of dollars is bad public policy in several dimensions. It lacks any respectable justification. It is also of dubious legality — although they have a theory. The theory is a farcical stretch. They couldn’t care less about the weakness of their pretense to legality. If the law doesn’t fit…what they really count on is the difficulty
»
September 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Students of ancient history may recall that President Biden declared that Donald Trump and “MAGA Republicans” — you know who you are — “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.” Biden extended the terms of his condemnation. “MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution,” he said. “They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse
»
August 24, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Scott wrote about the Biden administration’s massive cancellation of student debt here and here. On its face, the administrative action appears to be illegal. In January 2021, a memorandum by the Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Education concluded that the “HEROES Act” did not confer authority for such a mass loan forgiveness. That memorandum was repudiated and revoked yesterday by the Department of Education’s General Counsel. Nancy
»
August 24, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Free Beacon’s Joe Simonson takes a look at the law that the Biden administration purportedly relies on for its student loan cancelation scheme. See his Free Beacon story “Biden Says This Law for the Troops Gives Him Authority To Cancel Harvard Grads’ Debt.” Subhead: “‘The Heroes Act allows reservists leaving their job and family relief making student loan payments.'” I link to the OLC legal memo citing the
»
July 27, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Lawyers can come in handy. Just ask Charlie Kirk and his colleagues at Turning Point USA. Turning Point held its Student Action Summit in Tampa last Friday through Sunday. The SAS is a huge event, attended by thousands of young people. On Saturday, a tiny handful of apparent neo-Nazi demonstrators showed up on the sidewalk outside the SAS venue. Who they were and why they were there is anyone’s guess,
»
July 16, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Cast your mind back to 2016 for a moment, when it seemed a lock that Hillary Clinton would win the election, and nominate a leftist to succeed Justice Scalia. (Remember that Hillary refused to commit to re-sending the nomination of Merrick Garland—a clear signal to progressives that she’s pick someone younger and more progressive.) Mark Tushnet, one of the leading leftists at Harvard Law School, let loose with his id
»
July 8, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The RedState headline provides the necessary update to the Gavin Newsom story we took up yesterday. RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar takes the story all the way home in “Newsom Admits State Paid for His Security Detail’s Travel to Montana, Laughably Claims ‘Public Safety’ Exception to Law.” What more is to be said? I would simply add my own comment to the original story. It screams LOSER! Newsom spox @anthonyyork49 tells
»
July 6, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Steve likes to highlight ridiculous academic papers; here is one for today. It is titled Get Out: Structural Racism and Academic Terror, and is authored by law professor Renee Nicole Allen of St. Johns University School of Law. Professor Allen begins by comparing America’s law schools to a horror movie titled “Get Out.” Released in 2017, Jordan Peele’s critically acclaimed film Get Out explores the horrors of racism. The film’s
»
June 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I’ve been mocking the Star Tribune on a daily basis for holding its editorial tongue on the Minnesota Supreme Court order requiring the city to comply with its charter. Today the Star Tribune speaks in the editorial “Ruling should end cop funding nonsense.” Subhead: “Minnesota Supreme Court rightly decides that Minneapolis must follow its charter requirements.” The editorial lays out the indisputable basics. It stops short of considering why the
»
June 20, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Kyle Hooten recently rode along with the Minneapolis police during its Operation Safe Summer operation. Kyle briefly covered his ride-along in the Alpha News story here. The video is below. Minneapolis has fallen into a deep, deep hole with an undermanned and demoralized police department, an empowered criminal class, and an ineffectual judicial system. Over the past two years, the Minneapolis Police Department has lost almost 300 officers. Any sentient
»
June 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Unless you are a faithful Power Line reader, you may have missed the reference to University of Minnesota Law School Professor Richard Painter in David Jensen’s message to me yesterday. Without naming him, Jensen cited Painter to illustrate the ideological diversity at the law school as a member of the faculty who has “advised and worked with (or in)” the (George W.) Bush administration. Painter is a left-wing flake and
»
June 14, 2022 — Scott Johnson
David Jensen is the University of Minnesota Law School’s chief advancement officer. Mr. Jensen has emailed his response to my message to Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dean William McGeveran, who moderated the Zoom webinar I addressed. I am posting Mr. Jensen’s response verbatim without further comment. * * * * * Dear Scott: Thank you for writing to Professor McGeveran regarding your concerns over the “Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s
»
June 12, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The decline of the University of Minnesota Law School is only a small part of a much larger story and of limited interest at that, but it is my alma mater and traditionally a beneficiary of state funding as part of a public university. I found evidence of rot at the law school in a Zoom webinar promoted in the law school’s recent email newsletter and wrote to Associate Dean
»
