Search Results for: 2008-08-04

New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Marcelle ruled Monday in the case Cuomo v. New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (NYSCOELIG) that NYSCOELIG violates the New York State Constitution due to its statutorily prescribed independence. NYSCOELIG was created under New York Executive Law §94 as an independent ethics watchdog. Marcelle stated [...]

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The Trump-aligned Save America Leadership political action committee (PAC) spent over $20 million on former President Donald Trump’s legal fees out of its total of about $30 million in spending according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings made public Monday. The filing comes as legal woes continue to mount for Trump. The filings reveal that [...]

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A Saudi Arabian court Tuesday sentenced Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani to 45 years prison for tweeting material the court claimed impinged upon “public order and religious values.” Not many details are known about the case yet. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a nonprofit organization founded by Saudi Arabian journalist and critic Jamal Khashoggi, [...]

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Picture a swarm of drones entering a village programmed to fly without a human operator with instructions to shoot or immobilize anyone it deems to be holding a weapon. While this might sound like a scene from Lana Wachowski’s latest Matrix film, the technology to build these killer robots is already here. Unless states act [...]

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Almost five years ago I contributed to a Commentary to JURIST entitled, “Guantanamo: An Unnecessary Presidential Legacy,” which focused on former President Barack Obama’s unsuccessful attempt to shut down the Guantanamo prison facility because of missed opportunities, faulty decision making, internal administration opposition and ultimately partisan political division that resulted in an unnecessary presidential legacy.  [...]

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To a U.S. immigrant who grew up (1972-1992) under a de facto dictatorship where election fraud and accepted discrimination were a societal norm, the concepts of fair and transparent elections, “All men are created equal,” and “equal opportunity …” were unfamiliar. They became a substitute of justice for the customary sense of helplessness. I felt [...]

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On January 8, 2021, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) took the extraordinary step of publicly revealing she had talked with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, about “available precautions for preventing an unstable President from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.” [...]

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Kosovo is preparing for early elections after the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the election of Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti. The court annulled the parliamentary vote that confirmed Hoti’s coalition cabinet because one of the participating MPs had been convicted for fraud and embezzlement. Hoti was installed as prime minister in June after his party, supported by [...]

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