It’s not just about the 2012 Magnitsky Act. President Donald Trump’s recent affirmation of support for Saudi Arabia–even with incontrovertible evidence of Saudi criminality in the Jamal Khashoggi murder–reflects willful indifference to much wider sources of pertinent law. Both international law and the laws of the United States were flagrantly violated by this official American [...]
Amid the perpetual political tension between India and Pakistan, the Indus water treaty (IWT) is perhaps the only international instrument which has proactively engaged both the countries in bilateral relationship. In fact, the treaty has been the most significant confidence building measure between India and Pakistan since 1960. Despite multiple wars and hostilities between the [...]
On October 24, 2018, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood sued Exxon for defrauding investors about the business risks of climate change. Of course, Exxon will probably deny that it committed fraud. But, in anticipation of this day, the oil giant has spent the last two years preparing a far more insidious legal defense: that its fraud is actually protected [...]
“The enemy is the unphilosophical spirit which knows nothing and wants to know nothing of truth.” Karl Jaspers, Reason and Anti-Reason in our Time (1971) Yet again, assessments of national security threats to the United States thoroughly contradict US President Trump’s own off-the-cuff appraisals. This time it is about satellite images confirming that North Korea is rapidly [...]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently launched an investigation into the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. The central focus of the inquiry seeks to determine whether there have been violations of federal child sex-crimes and related crimes among Church leaders. This investigation raises a number of critical issues, including the potential impacts on American law and [...]
Following a combative news conference with reporters the day after the 2018 midterm elections, President Trump took the exceptionally rare act of suspending the White House credentials of long-time CNN Chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. The announcement came the day after Acosta confronted President Trump with a series of questions about the President’s portrayal [...]
In the wake of the world outrage at the viciousness of reporters’/journalists’ assassination (killing), lawmakers and human rights activists have said “enough.” Under the United States federal law, the Treasury Department is “empowered to prohibit entry into the U.S. and freeze assets of people considered responsible for corruption and human rights violations … effectively blocking [...]
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land…. Article VI, US Constitution (The Supremacy Clause) As revealed yet again with his proposed abrogation of the [...]
The Constitution provides that a President has few enumerated powers. He is head of the executive branch and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces (in times of war). That is it. A President cannot make laws. However, a President can recommend laws for Congress to consider. Also, when a bill is offered to him [...]
The latest rumblings of the current administration inform us of President Trump’s plan to completely ignore the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and instead sign an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for children born in the United States to non-U.S. citizens. Specifically, the Amendment reads as follows: “All persons born [...]
