The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on many aspects of our modern lives. Mandatory face masks, local and national lockdowns, and compulsory social distancing in public places have become a part of everyday routines all around the world. The pandemic has also tested the regulatory and administrative capacity of both states and international organizations to [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on December 17 in a bipartisan, 2-1 decision upheld OSHA’s vaccine-or-test requirements for the American workplace and lifted a stay previously put in place by the Fifth Circuit. Judge Jane Stranch, an Obama appointee, joined by Judge Julia Gibbons, appointed by George W. Bush, wrote that [...]
On November 15, the AP reported on the attempt of a beloved Palestinian doctor, Izzeldin Abuelaish to obtain an apology for a terrible tragedy—the 2009 killing of his three daughters (Aya, Bessan and Mayar) and his niece (Noor) by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) who shelled his home in Gaza 13 years ago. As the AP explains, [...]
BigLaw representatives recently suggested that, to diversify, large firms should seek associates beyond the elite law schools and top-ranked students. This recalls the scene from Casablanca when, after Rick asks why his place is being closed down, Captain Renault states that he is “shocked, shocked to find that there is gambling going on”—as a croupier [...]
Abstract: Ideas of Natural Law were crucial in drafting the US Constitution. These seminal ideas were made known to document “framers” largely by way of William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. The Commentaries represent the truest philosophic origins of America’s legal system. In these dissembling times of recurrent political manipulation, Blackstone’s work warrants [...]
On November 16 the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati was randomly selected by the Multi-district Litigation Panel in Washington, DC to decide whether the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for American workers, promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), is legal. OSHA’s rules, which are planned to take full effect on [...]
“Nothing is real that is not eternal.” Miguel de Unamuno, Tragic Sense of Life (1921) Though inconspicuous and easily misunderstood, there is no conceivably greater power in world politics than power over death. On its face, this preeminent form of power is problematic (how, after all, can one human being ever offer eternal life to [...]
Last week’s US Supreme Court arguments in Whole Women’s Health v. Jackson and US v. Texas challenging the Texas abortion ban revealed a startling vulnerability in the US system of federalism and constitutional supremacy. They laid bare that a state’s flagrantly unconstitutional six-week abortion ban, when structured to avoid effective judicial review, can flummox the [...]
North Carolina has an important connection to the “state secrets” at the center of an October 6 US Supreme Court argument. In this case, Guantanamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah seeks testimony from two former CIA contractors, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, on torture he suffered at a secret CIA prison in Poland. The contractors’ evidence would [...]
Abstract: For Israel, core issues surrounding Iran’s still-accelerating nuclear weapons program have been strategic and political, rather than legal. Nonetheless, if Israel should ever decide that it no longer has any reasonable alternative to launching a preemptive attack against certain Iranian military/industrial targets, this defensive first-strike would need to be justified under international law. In [...]
