How Fragile is Our Democracy? Garrett Epps Washington Monthly
Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Huq, professors at the University of Chicago law school, want to convince readers that the last four years are not the result of Trump’s personality, or even of peculiarly American political woes.
How to Save a Constitutional Democracy by Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Huq. The University of Chicago Press. 295 pp.
“American exceptionalism” is now a dogma of the right (recall their ceaseless attack on Obama for his supposed apostasy), but, as Ginsburg and Huq explain, the phrase was actually coined by the American Communist Party to explain Marxism’s failure here. Whatever “exceptionalism” means today; no one can argue that the United States is immune to worldwide political and social trends; and, since 2000, those trends have been flowing against democracy and in favor of authoritarianism. The spillover of authoritarian ideas and techniques is a malign effect of globalization: “Innova
Trumpâs election lawyers must be investigated
Licensing authorities within each state have the authority to examine attorney misconduct.
By Scott Harshbarger, Lauren Stiller Rikleen, and Dennis AftergutUpdated December 16, 2020, 3:00 a.m.
Email to a Friend
President Donald Trumpâs campaign filed a number of lawsuits across battleground states as he tried to upend the 2020 election. Judges uniformly rejected his claims of vote fraud.Mary Altaffer/Associated Press
Since Election Day, lawyers acting on behalf of President Trump have lost nearly 60 election lawsuits. Even with the Electoral Collegeâs vote on Monday confirming Joe Bidenâs win, Trump has made it clear that he has no intention of ending his lawless efforts to overturn the election and upend our democracy.
Was SCOTUS unanimous in tossing Texas election suit on standing ground? Alito a cipher
Image from Shutterstock.com.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday evening refused to allow Texas to file a lawsuit directly with the court that challenged the election results in four other states.
The court’s order cited lack of standing by Texas, SCOTUSblog reports.
“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections,” the order said. “All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. issued a statement accompanying the order that is leading to differing interpretations, according to appellate litigator Howard Bashman of How Appealing. Alito’s statement was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.
Hiltzik: Why should Trump s lawyers keep their law licenses? latimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from latimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Before we get to the latest installment of our new action-adventure series,
This Week In Sedition, we should pause to salute two angry voices of reason. The first is Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who came to our notice here in the shebeen when, as one of his first acts as AG, he took a 12-pound sledge to Holy Mother Church s stonewall that it had erected around the sex criminals in its clergy. On Thursday, he issued a reply to Texas AG Ken Paxton, who may not have noticed that his case for overturning the election had been disemboweled because the FBI dropped a subpoena on his ass. Shapiro s reply contained one of the finest sentences that I have read in a long time.