Professional Commentary

Douglas Berman :"I am trying to come up with a simple take on Booker, and here it is: five Justices (the Apprendi/Blakely five) say the federal sentencing guidelines can no longer operate as mandatory...

Peter Henning, Wayne State University Law School:"At the risk of speaking without thoroughly reviewing all the opinions (wading through Justice Scalia's attack, which includes a reference to "Wonderland"; will have to wait), a couple initial impressions (with quotes).  For a...

Eric Muller, University of North Carolina School of Law: "A source (my mom) just called to tell me that my old boss Mike Chertoff is going to be the new head of Homeland Security. This does not surprise me, and...

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...