Author Archive | Guest Blogger

Although many of my commentators here disagree with me, I still believe there was poor lawyering at various levels that went into the so called torture memos. It is also clear that efforts to single out particular individuals at OLC for blame do not get to the heart of what happened and why. The question […]

I am not going to go through each of the “torture memos” and point out where each one appears well off the mark. I will give just one example of the type of analysis that should make someone stop and think. One of the memos reads “As we have made clear in other opinions involving […]

I will not reiterate the many specific criticisms of the memos already made by those with far more expertise than I. A very large number of international law experts see the memos as deeply flawed, as did the Office of Legal Counsel itself. The job of an ethics lawyer and indeed any lawyer who is […]

I make a few points in my book. First, the memos were requested and written before I arrived at the White House in early 2005, and furthermore this is not the type of matter that is brought to the attention of government ethics lawyers. This is part of the problem. Government ethics lawyers should be […]

A few points of clarification. I am a proponent of prayer. Although the best place is at home or in a house of worship, any place will do. That can include a government building when a government employee is off-duty. Indeed, in addition to attending services regularly at St. John’s I at times joined the […]

For comprehensive discussion of the First Bank of the United States, a leading authority is Mark R. Killenbeck, M’Culloch v. Maryland: Securing a Nation (2006) (Killenbeck has the spelling correct). The book is reviewed by H. Robert Baker in http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/baker-reviews-killenbeck-mculloch-v.html Now that I have inflamed nearly everyone by suggesting that partisan political activity be toned […]

Thanks to MarkField for pointing out my error — the Bank’s charter did not expire in 1808, although I believe 1811 not 1812 is the correct year and I have inserted 1811 in my earlier post. In my post, I was careful to refer to “the” allegations of corruption, which were accusations of insider trading […]

have never mixed, and never will. Let’s start with the great bailout of 1789. The Treasury Department was born and its Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, proposed that the new federal government use the Bank of the United States to pay off the Continental Revolutionary War debt at 100% of face value and also bail out the […]

As one commentator points out, the line between legislating personal morality and legislating anti-social behavior is not always clear. There are gray areas. My point, however, is that the more government tries to regulate people’s lives, the more difficult it is to get people to comply with the law. Noncompliance undermines public confidence in law. […]

I understand the President is taking questions from the public on the WHO web site. I encourage everyone to log on and ask. You might get an answer. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/24/Open-for-Questions-President-Obama-to-Answer-Your-Questions-on-Thursday/ What we really need by the way is something like the Prime Minister’s question time in the House of Commons. I have never seen anyone as […]

This theme reminds me of a story about the time a Governor of New York was running for President in 1932. The Governor spent most of his time at campaign rallies, in union halls and among the common people he hoped would vote for him in November. Occasionally, however, he kept his ties to prominent […]

My third post goes to the heart of what my book is about, the fact that federal ethics regulation focuses too much on that which doesn’t matter and too little on that which matters. Executive Branch employees, for example, cannot accept gifts worth more than $20 from so called “prohibited sources”, although there are numerous […]

I should add a word about what I can and cannot talk about. I cannot discuss specific communications to me from the President or his staff or specific information learned in the course of my legal representation that was intended to be confidential. I do, however, discuss in my book the types of issues we […]

A few commentators bring up Vice President Cheney. I represented the President and his staff, not the Vice President and his staff. David Addington handled that side of things, and I don’t think he is blogging today. I take issue in my book, however, with the Vice President on a few matters including the following: […]

One commentator here reports that the divorce papers for 2004 GOP Senate candidate Ryan mentioned the possibility of (i) public sex in a Paris bar, and (ii) a threesome with the ex-wife and with another woman. I am not sure what is meant by a threesome, but unless this refers to a three-person prayer meeting […]