Professional Commentary

Ellen Podgor, Georgia State University College of Law:"Although the Supreme Court did not issue an opinion in the much awaited sentencing cases of Booker and Fanfan, it did rule in Whitfield v. United States. The Court held that a conspiracy...

Jack Balkin, Yale Law School:"The hearings on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be Attorney General of the United States have begun. Will no one in Congress say what should be obvious? That Gonzales has brought shame on our country...

Kenneth Anderson, Washington College of Law, American University:"I have caught just bits and pieces of the Gonzales confirmation hearings for Attorney General today. In general, he does not seem to have faced especially bitter attack - on the contrary, I...

Peter Tillers, Cardozo Law School:"Dear Senator Brownback: The department that the U.S. Attorney General heads is called the 'Department of Justice,' and not the 'Department of Security.'...Senator Brownback said that the first priority of the Attorney General is protection of...

Anthony D'Amato, Northwestern University Law School:"Although the N.Y. Times and Washington Post have been admirably accurate in reporting the standard legal issues, they have overlooked the single most telling point in the debate about Gonzales, perhaps because of its subtlety.We...

Kenneth Anderson, Washington College of Law American University:"One thing that is missing in the whole torture-interrogation debate is the question of who you are interrogating. Can you use a different level of interrogation on Zarqawi, for example - knowing it...

Michael Froomkin, University of Miami School of Law:"The US holds maybe hundreds of non-citizens, all captured abroad (we are told), incarcerated in Guantanamo and in other secret prisons around the world. The Bush administration plans to hold them up to...

Paul Caron, University of Cincinnati College of Law:"The IRS has announced that donations made for the benefit of the victims of the devastating tsunami last weekend in Southeast Asia may be tax deductible:Contributions to domestic, tax-exempt, charitable organizations that provide...

Anna Ryzhova, Kyiv:"Ukraine has bravely overcome the third Presidential election round. Last Sunday, Dec. 26th, as many as 77% of Ukrainian voters participated in the revote choosing their President.By 10 pm Dec 27th, the Central Elections Commission ("CEC") has processed...

Ellen Podgor, Georgia State University College of Law:"AP wires report that Former Governor Rowland of Connecticut pled guilty to one count of conspiracy with the specific offense being a deprivation of honest services. The AP story notes that "he plea...