“There exists a deep-seated conviction among Americans that the Constitution is an expression of the Higher Law, that it is, in fact, imperfect man’s most perfect rendering of eternal law.” – Presidential scholar Clinton Rossiter Introduction: Following recent Trump-inspired attacks on the United States Capitol, a second impeachment of the President is now under active [...]
“The safety of the people shall be the highest law.” – Cicero, On the Laws Abstract: From the beginning of his sordid presidency, Donald J. Trump has shown willful indifference to the security and justice of the United States, including unwillingness to find relevant fault with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, to separate himself from baseless conspiracy [...]
In the early 1930s, a newly installed Chancellor Adolf Hitler, holding on to a shaky majority in the German parliament, the Reichstag, sensed a weakened hold on power. Just four weeks after he was sworn in as Chancellor, a mysterious fire occurred in the Reichstag on 27th February, 1933. Sensing a moment, Hitler quickly accused [...]
“ANTIFA SCUM ran for the hills today when they tried attacking the people at the Trump Rally, because those people aggressively fought back…..DC Police, get going — do your job and don’t hold back!!!” – US President Donald Trump, November 14, 2020 “Whoever can dominate the street will one day conquer the state, for every [...]
Once President-Elect Biden takes office, we will be able to say goodbye to new judges who self-identify as originalists. This change is important because in constitutional cases, originalism is either pernicious or irrelevant, and we should stop pretending otherwise. There is nothing wrong with the American people celebrating their link to the white, propertied males [...]
“The mass-man has no attention to spare for reasoning; he learns only in his own flesh.” – Jose Ortega y’Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses (1930) In the United States, prima facie, presidential elections represent a core fixture of democracy. Nonetheless, though necessary – and never more so than in the just-completed defeat of Donald [...]
“Hic Sunt Dracones” – the Hunt-Lenox Globe, 1504 “Friction is the difference between war on paper, and war as it actually is.” – Carl von Clausewitz, On War Once again, on October 9, 2020, with immodest displays of tangible hardware, North Korea mocked Donald Trump’s lingering expectations of “denuclearization.” Here, in Pyongyang, President Kim Jong [...]
“All narrative of the past implies a selection. Memory is selective; complete memory is impossible.” – Elizabeth Jelin In September 2020, the Spanish Government introduced the “Democratic Memory Law” through its Democratic Memory Act (“The Act”), which is an extension of the Historical Memory Act of 2007 to honor the victims of General Francisco Franco’s [...]
“The goal is to dominate the street.” – US President Donald J. Trump, June 1, 2020 There are disturbing connections. Before openly embracing the “Proud Boys” during his first debate with Democrat opponent Joe Biden, Donald J. Trump praised the value of “good genes” in Minnesota. Though such a seemingly “positive” evocation might not normally [...]
The nation has watched aghast as, over and over again, police have killed or maimed unarmed persons of color. Each time, the police have acted with impunity under a quiescent criminal justice system. The charges filed against officers involved in the death of George Floyd are the exception, not the rule, and the charges just [...]
