Sidebar is JURIST's platform for legal professionals, offering perspectives by lawyers and judges on national and international legal developments. http://jurist.org/sidebar JURIST@pitt.REMOVE_THISedu JURIST Guest Columnist James Kennedy, former administrative law judge for the National Labor Relations Board, argues that President Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were an appropriate exercise of his constitutional powers based upon historical and judicial precedent...On January 4, President Obama made four recess appointments when both the Senate and the House of Representatives declared themselves to be in session, even though they were actually in recess. His political opponents raised a stink, accusing him of being high-handed, defying the will of Congress and committing an unconstitutional act. However, the reality is Congress has only itself http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/james-kennedy-recess-appointments.php 2012-02-11T18:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/james-kennedy-recess-appointments.php Sean Gallagher JURIST Columnist Edsel Tupaz of Tupaz & Associates argues that the prosecutors in the impeachment of Philippine Chief Justice Renato Corona should look to recent and historical impeachment proceedings in the US as a model for the proceedings in the Philippine Senate...As the Philippines enters the fifth week of the impeachment trial against Chief Justice Renato Corona, the prosecution aims to switch gears by looking at a new article of impeachment. For the past few weeks, members of the House Prosecution have been presenting evidence for Article 2, which alleges that Corona committed culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayed http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/edsel-tupaz-impeachment-iv.php 2012-02-11T17:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/edsel-tupaz-impeachment-iv.php Dwyer Arce JURIST Columnist Edsel Tupaz of Tupaz & Associates argues that despite statements to the contrary from some officials, the article of impeachment against Philippine Chief Justice Renato Corona based on his failure to fully disclose his assets is not without precedent...Is a misdeclaration, in good or bad faith, of a sitting chief justice's statement of assets and liabilities an impeachable offense? This is the subject of Article 2 of the impeachment complaint against Renato Corona, Chief Justice of the Republic of the Philippines. Article 2 of the complaint, in sum, accuses Corona of having committed a "culpable violation of the http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/edsel-tupaz-impeachment-iii.php 2012-02-06T11:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/edsel-tupaz-impeachment-iii.php Dwyer Arce JURIST Columnist Edsel Tupaz and Guest Columnist Joan Martinez, both of Tupaz & Associates, argue that the stalled anti-corruption legislation before the Indian Parliament should do more to fight corruption, particularly by creating a more powerful ombudsman position to hold government officials accountable...While India today envisions a "strong" and "independent" ombudsman to fight corruption, legal reform measures designed to institutionalize the anti-corruption body, or the "Jan Lokpal," have stalled in parliament. The Lokpal bill has been criticized as too "watered down" from the original proposal, as the proposed functions and powers of the office of the ombudsman have been clipped http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/tupaz-martinez-india.php 2012-02-06T08:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/tupaz-martinez-india.php Dwyer Arce JURIST Guest Columnist Abed Awad, a Partner at Awad & Khoury, LLP says that while US courts routinely encounter cases where implementing certain principles of Sharia is required, the hysteria surrounding the "intrusive" role of Sharia in US courts is extremely misguided...In November 2010, Oklahoma voters approved an amendment to the state constitution expressly prohibiting Oklahoma state judges from considering international law or Sharia in their decisions. Munir Awad filed a complaint against the Oklahoma State Board of Elections challenging this, alleging that the anti-Sharia amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution, if certified, would violate the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/abed-awad-sharia-law.php 2012-02-02T17:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/abed-awad-sharia-law.php Stephen Krug JURIST Guest Columnists Ira Kurzban and Christopher Rickerd of Kurzban Kurzban Weinger Tetzeli & Pratt P.A. say that the US Supreme Court should not retroactively apply certain immigration laws when deciding Vartelas v. Holder because such a ruling would impose a new disability on the settled expectation of free travel by lawfully permanent residents...The Supreme Court oral arguments in Vartelas v. Holder on January 18 explored the application of the Court's retroactivity jurisprudence to one segment of Congress's 1996 amendment of the immigration laws. Petitioner Panagis Vartelas, a lawful permanent resident (LPR) with two US citizen children, was convicted of http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/kurzban-rickerd-iirira-retroactive.php 2012-02-02T15:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/02/kurzban-rickerd-iirira-retroactive.php Stephen Krug JURIST Guest Columnist Jeffrey Pasek of Cozen O'Connor says that despite the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, there is little guidance given on how to uniformly apply the ministerial exemption to varying circumstances...What are we to make of the fact that all nine Supreme Court justices agreed with the decision and joined in an opinion by the chief justice in a case raising important issues touching on both the Free Exercise and Establishment Clause principles of the First Amendment? Given the Court's recent jurisprudence in the church-state area, and the inability of http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/01/jeffrey-pasek-ministerial-ada.php 2012-01-21T12:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/01/jeffrey-pasek-ministerial-ada.php Stephen Krug JURIST Columnist Edsel Tupaz of Tupaz & Associates says that because there are no effective international legal remedies to Japanese security concerns regarding North Korea, the Japanese must again pursue diplomatic avenues that may prove more successful after the death of Kim Jong-il...In signature enigmatic fashion, North Korea shocked the world when its state-run media reported the death of its leader, Kim Jong-il, on December 17. Following the state funeral of his father, Kim Jong-un was formally appointed as Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The succession has cast doubts on the future trajectory of the http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/01/edsel-tupaz-north-korea.php 2012-01-17T17:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/01/edsel-tupaz-north-korea.php Dwyer Arce JURIST Guest Columnists Bradley Bondi and Douglas Fischer of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP say that when defendants in SEC lawsuits can "neither admit nor deny" the allegations against them, the courts are forced to assert their authority when they do not know the facts...It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept.Calvin and Hobbes, Cartoonist Bill Watterson Since at least 1972, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expected federal courts to think like the famous cartoonist, Bill Watterson, by approving and enforcing settlements with injunctive relief where the defendant, often a public company, curiously neither admits http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/01/bondi-fischer-sec-citigroup.php 2012-01-16T14:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/01/bondi-fischer-sec-citigroup.php Stephen Krug JURIST Columnist Edsel Tupaz of Tupaz & Associates, and former clerk to former Philippines Chief Justice Hilario Davide, says that through Davide's efforts, the Philippines has made great strides toward enhancing the rule of law in the country which were vital to the successful creation of an emerging liberal democracy...Although the current Philippine Constitution has been in force since February 2, 1987, many observers still peg the Philippines as a transitional liberal democracy. With this in mind, the principal question for us is: What are the conditions and institutional features that will allow the country to foster the constitutional learning http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/01/edsel-tupaz-davide.php 2012-01-15T17:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/01/edsel-tupaz-davide.php Dwyer Arce