June 28, 2018
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump Administration in Trump v. Hawaii, the challenge to the third iteration of the President’s travel ban. President Trump quickly characterized the decision as “a tremendous victory,” and in the Manichaean world the President seems to inhabit, it’s definitely a win. But the opinion itself—which leaves the…
April 23, 2018
The third version of the Travel Ban (“EO-3”)—also known as the Muslim Ban—added two non-Muslim countries to the list, but that by no means immunized it from legal challenge. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument tomorrow in Trump v. Hawaii and will ultimately determine whether the Travel Ban is a lawful exercise…
February 22, 2018
Recent developments in the ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections have raised interesting questions about the obligations of the current President — or any President — in a situation where a foreign government or its agents have interfered with the American political process or used the Internet in other ways to harm…
February 20, 2018
Does Congress have the power to investigate the allegations of sexual misconduct against President Trump, as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recently demanded? Could Congress impeach the President on those grounds? Answering these difficult questions requires an appreciation of the limits of congressional authority to hold the President accountable for past transgressions. A #MeToo Reckoning for Trump?…
February 16, 2018
Donald J. Trump is no stranger to the power of judges. As a businessman, he bragged about how he used lawsuits to protect his brand and to dodge bad investments through the bankruptcy process. Then, as a candidate for President, he showed his clear disdain for the independent role that judges play in our democracy….
February 13, 2018
This post is the first in a series about the redistricting cases moving through the courts. In the Spring of 2013, two prominent election lawyers, a Republican and a Democrat, visited my Election Law class. I asked them what were the great unsettled questions in the field, especially governing redistricting. They were united in their…
December 11, 2017
Federal agencies overstepping their statutory and constitutional authorities, in order to aggregate power to the Executive Branch, has become an issue of especial concern in recent years in the legal academy. We saw this when President Barack Obama declared his intent to direct agencies to achieve through executive fiat what he had failed to secure…
