Barely a few months after news broke about a novel virus with the potential for a global pandemic, COVID-19 brought the entire world to a grinding halt. Even though some countries have decided to gradually open up, the rate of new infected cases shows no sign of slowing down. By now, more than 13 million [...]
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States, will soon be announcing his choice for Vice President. Biden himself served two-terms as President Barack Obama’s Vice President. If elected, Biden will become the oldest President in American history. His choice of a Vice President is therefore particularly important. Perhaps surprisingly, the [...]
The Uniform Bar Examination is always given on the last Tuesday and Wednesday in July, even, it turns out, in the midst of a pandemic. On July 27, the date of the bar exam, 1,126 lives were lost to COVID-19. Despite this, today almost 200 future lawyers — myself included — sat in-person for the [...]
Many practitioners, to say nothing of members of the press, recently have come to ask: “What’s up with John Roberts? Has he become a liberal?” This, of course, started with National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, where the Chief Justice voted with the four liberal justices to uphold the Affordable Care Act. But it [...]
Just three months ago, IT departments at companies across the world were focused on configuring networks, as well as installing equipment and software to make telecommuting work as efficient and safe (from a cybersecurity perspective) as possible. Now, as we enter the beginning phases of “return to work,” the focus must shift 180 degrees in [...]
The draft report by Secretary of State Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights has the Kremlin dancing a collective Barynya of glee. The current US administration and President Putin already share the parochial view that rights are derived from and informed by God rather than a person’s inherent dignity. This fact alone should concern anyone committed [...]
US President Donald Trump’s sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators in June expose the hypocrisy and incoherency of the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Trump’s sanctions surpass a lack of cooperation and enter into outright hostility toward an entity dedicated to justice and human rights. Ultimately, the power of the ICC is derived from [...]
Yesterday, the CEOs of Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple testified before the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee in a hearing on “Online Platforms and Market Power.” As Congress takes up the question of market power in the tech sector, the time is ripe to consider the issue in our broader economy. For decades, corporations in a [...]
In the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, Vermont passed a police bill that prohibits the use of chokeholds and requires officers to wear body cameras. The General Assembly passed the bill unanimously and Governor Phil Scott signed it into law on July 13, 2020. At the bill’s signing, Governor Scott stated: Exactly eight [...]
Extrajudicial killings are acts of violence carried out by law enforcement agencies without any judicial authorization. This is usually done by the state to enforce what may be called ‘instant justice’ by circumventing the elaborate procedure established through the criminal justice system. Even though it must be seen as an aberration to the well-entrenched principle [...]
