Ending the government shutdown in court

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So what if Congress and the president cannot reach an agreement to end the partial government shut-down or worse, extend the debt limit? Is the country hopelessly stuck in the middle of a political dispute? Not necessarily. Ignored in the entire dispute is one obvious resolution –the Supreme Court. While some may argue that budget and finance matters are no place for the courts to venture, the partial governmental shutdown and the pending debt limit extension both represent controversies that have a legal or constitutional basis that can be addressed by the courts. Continue Reading

Members of Congress have an ethical and legal duty to fund the government

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The political thinker and Irish Member to the British Parliament Edmund Burke once famously declared the duty of a legislator as between being a delegate and doing what constituents demand versus serving them by exercising one’s best judgment. But there is at least another duty that legislators have and that is a legal if not an ethical duty to comply with their own laws and to support the government they were elected to serve. Continue Reading

Let them eat cake: The compassionate conservatism of Paul Ryan and the Republican Party

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Michael Harrington’s 1962 The Other America told the story of two countries. One was a country of affluence, where people had enough to eat, a roof over their heads, health insurance, and the prospects of a good life. The other was a country where a quarter of the population lived at or below poverty, often were homeless, lacked health insurance, and whose prospects for a good life were dim at best. Both countries were the United States. And unfortunately 50 years later, not much has changed, with America still a tale of two countries–rich and poor, hopeful and hopeless. At least this is the conclusion of recent Census Bureau study on poverty in America. But despite this news, Paul Ryan and the Republicans want to gut food stamps and defund Obama Care. Yet the great irony is that the people they hurt the most are their own constituents. Continue Reading

Law, ethics, and Syria: What should we do?

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Law matters. But the law is the not sum total of what matters when it comes to asking the question “What is the right thing to do?,” be that in our personal or professional lives. Often obedience to the law–asking if doing something is legal–is the starting point for evaluating conduct. But there is a long lineage of people from St. Augustine, Henry David Thoreau, to Martin Luther King, Jr. Who would point out that unjust laws are not morally binding and that in some cases disobeying them is the right thing to do. Conversely, mere conformity to the letter of the law also does not necessarily mean one is acting ethically or that following the rule is the right thing to do. More is required. This is also true when it come to the decision by President Obama to take military action against Syria. Continue Reading

Politics in the age of silver bullets and one-trick ponies

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“Simple solutions from simple people.” This is how one of my graduate school professors used to deride flavor-of-the-month or single-minded ideas proposed by many politicians, interest groups, and advocates for a cause. He was correct. There is a penchant in business, and now in politics these days, to believe that there are a simple solutions to our problems and that all that needs to be done is to do one thing and poof, the problem is solved. The reality is that there are no silver bullets and those who believe they exist are at best one-trick ponies who are conflating marketing and ideology with governance and public policy. Continue Reading

American democracy and the NSA

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Imagine a government that spies on its citizens, often without warrants. A government that holds secret court hearings, or a government that asserts the right to detain and jail citizens indefinitely, in some cases in distant places away from family and lawyers. Or a government that asserts the right to hunt down and execute its citizens on suspicion of being the enemy. Such a government we would describe as lawless, standing in contempt of human rights and individual liberties. It is a government some would describe as lawless. This is the government that some like Senators Ron Wyden, Rand Paul, and others think is beginning to emerge in the United States as a result of stories about NSA surveillance of telephone calls and e-mail messages. It is a government, they say, that needs to confine and define the discretion of public officials to prevent the violation of individual rights. Continue Reading

Sex and politics American style

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Sex and politics perhaps combine together the two oldest professions, if not avocations. Maybe it started with Marc Anthony and Cleopatra. But whatever the origins, the two continue to be perhaps not so strange bedfellows. Continue Reading

Zimmerman, food stamps, and immigration: It’s all about race

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It’s all about race. It always has been in America and it appears that it continues to be the case. Three events in the news this week, the House cuts food stamps and refuses to act on immigration, along with the acquittal of George Zimmerman (Trayvon Martin), demonstrate that we have not achieved the race-neutral or color-blind society that so many believe we have achieved. Continue Reading

Same-sex marriage and the next DOMA battle

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The battle for state recognition of same-sex marriage has just begun. While many might think that the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor striking down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) represents the last judicial word on the issue, that is far from the case. Instead, that decision has changed the legal debate and strategy regarding same-sex marriage, and it still involves DOMA. Continue Reading