Posts Tagged ‘Constitutional law’
"The Lincoln Deception": One step closer!
I just received a few “advanced reader copies” (i.e., copies for reviewers) of my forthcoming novel, The Lincoln Deception. It’s a great pleasure to see them, though the book doesn’t go on sale until August 27. You can reserve a copy by pre-0rder from Amazon. I dedicated this one — a historical mystery that tries to unravel the secrets of the…
Read MoreMessing Around With Your Votes, Part II
“Voter identification” has become a major Republican Party initiative. Complaining loudly that there must be blatant voter fraud out there — though there is little evidence of it — Republican legislators have busily been enacting stricter voter ID measures in many states. These new requirements generally require that a voter present a photo identification card…
Read MoreJudge Porteous in Trouble
I just wrote about the final witness in the Senate committee proceedings for the impeachment of Judge G. Thomas Porteous of New Orleans. Not a good way for the judge to end his presentation.
Read MoreElmore Leonard Did Not Make It Up
The Senate impeachment trial of Judge G. Thomas Porteous of New Orleans — which you can watch this week on live webcast — has presented a fabulous cast of characters straight out of an Elmore Leonard novel. The opening day involved testimony by two Louisiana law partners, Jake Amato and Robert Creely. Former colleagues and law…
Read MoreNot for 21 years
On Monday morning, September 13, the Senate Impeachment Trial Committee is supposed to begin its evidentiary hearing about whether to remove District Judge G. Thomas Porteous from office. It is 21 years since the last impeachment trial before a Senate committee, for which I was the lead defense lawyer. It involved Judge Walter L. Nixon, Jr. of…
Read MoreMy New BFF: R. Owen Williams
The current issue of Reviews in American History includes a review by R. Owen Williams of my book about the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, Impeached. I hasten to note that I have no recollection of ever meeting Mr. Williams, a Yale history Ph.D. and the new president of Transylvania University (no, that’s not where…
Read MoreThe Porteous Articles
With the Senate impeachment trial of Judge G. Thomas Porteous of New Orleans coming up in August, I took a swing at the impeachment articles against Porteous in an item on Huffington Post. Although Judge Porteous has a lot of conduct to explain, there are some constitutional issues surrounding the articles against him, including: Whether…
Read MoreEnd Run Around "High Crimes and Misdemeanors"
The meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors” in the Constitution’s impeachment clause has bedevilled generations of lawyers and politicians, and citizens. An interesting new piece by a Cornell Law Professor, Josh Chavetz, suggests that what is an impeachable offense can be gleaned from another angle — by the comparison between impeachment and assassination. Chafetz starts with…
Read MoreThe Wisdom of Napolitano
I have always had a vaguely positive fealing about Janet Napolitano, former governor of Arizona and current holder of one of the Official Thankless Jobs of modern America, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Now I know why! A profile of Napolitano in a recent issue of The New Republic includes the following passage: As…
Read MoreSunday Morning on C-SPAN2's Book TV
At 10:15 a.m. on this Sunday, March 28, C-SPAN2’s Book TV is scheduled to run an interview I did with them at the Virginia Festival of the Book last weekend in Charlottesville. The subject is Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy.
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