Knowledge of, faith in and fidelity to The United States Constitution has come a long way in New York State.  From John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, two drafter/shepherds of the Constitution, to Andrew Cuomo and Letitia James. Steeply downhill it appears, as the state’s governor and attorney general pursue a rare trifecta in violation of the spirit, if not letter, of our national charter. In their effort to assure that Paul Manafort remains a felon and serves time, when and if Trump pardons his federal high crimes, New York’s chief executive and legal officer have reputedly cut a deal with the legislature to alter New York’s double jeopardy prohibition.  This would purportedly allow for Manafort’s prosecution for some of the same conduct that resulted in several of Manafort’s federal convictions. […]

This floating legal treatise will not offer yet another pronouncement on the 47 months imposed on Paul Manafort for crimes that the sentencing guidelines prescribe a term of 19 to 24 years.  Nor the district court judge’s comment that Manafort otherwise had led a “blameless life.” […]

February commemorates Black History.  HL celebrates these important markers idiosyncratically.  Not by recalling what was hammered into the head about Crispus Attucks but his own experience with what is being celebrated.  Reflecting on what Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15), St. Patrick (March 17), Israeli Independence (May 9) and The Bimbo (2007) mean to him.  With some of those, and certainly Black History, a lot. […]

Thomas Friedman had been touting the College Board’s findings that proficiency in two codes, the U.S. Constitution and computer science, most highly correlate with success in college and career.  Reading this, and having just finished teaching a con law course at alma mater, H.L. congratulated “Pat,” a wonderful student, clearly talented in both codes. I envisioned Pat moving to Long Island City and taking one of the 25,000 jobs at Amazon’s HQ2 with an AVERAGE yearly salary of $150,000.  HL’s fondness extended beyond Pat to that Queens neighborhood, where in the 1960s his Dad owned a construction materials business.  It was next to the massive Daily News plant and from age 12 to 19, HL labored most weekends and every summer earning enough to pay [...]

Let them, who would feel justly stoned and deprived of high office for doing something as racist as Ralph Northam did 35 years ago, launch the first projectiles.  One bad part of what the press constantly refers to as “near unanimous calls for Northam to resign as Virginia’s governor” is that the virtual unanimity exists only among the talking press.  Public opinion polls reflect a significant minority (38%) wanting him not to resign.  And although Ocasio-Cortez tweets that people holding this opinion “deserve scrutiny” and H.L. hasn’t checked their closets for MAGA hats, we are pretty sure that this is not exclusively or even primarily the base Trump base.  The minority includes classic liberals who believe in the perfectibility of humans and the sort of redemption that Northam’s life in the last 35 years appears to reflect.  The same liberals opposed and helped repeal three strikes laws and those that deprived felons of the franchise after their sentences were served. […]

Before round two of shutdown/showdown begins on or about February 15, 2019, a useful exercise sponsored by H.L. and the George Santayana School of Not Failing to Learn the Lessons of History, is to list and rank the losers and winners in round one.  The press, of which this blog is only technically a member, has reached consensus that Trump was a big loser, but not the biggest. […]

Weeks earlier, H.L. planned that the “Winter Study” First Amendment Course at Williams College would end on January 25, 2019 in a crescendo.  The final class subject would be “establishment of religion” that the first amendment and Bill of Rights prohibit in their first words, expressing a novel and uniquely American liberty.  That first commandment “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . .” would conclude the course.  Two classic establishment clause cases, the 2014 SCOTUS decision in Town of Greece, New York v. Galloway and the high court’s recent travel ban decision in Trump v. Hawaii would be fitting closers. […]

Contrary to conventional commentary, Nick Ayers’ refusal of Trump’s request to serve as General Kelly’s replacement as White House Chief of Staff is not rule breaking.  Steve Mnuchin and Nick Mulvaney’s rumored reluctance/refusal are, as the unwritten but unequivocal rule makes clear. […]

There are many reasons why people like Elizabeth Warren, who is whiter than Ivory Soap, and Donald Trump of German ancestry, but who claimed to be a Swede, make false claims about their ethnic, national, racial or socio-economic identities.  We all have met these people and some of us have been them.  H.L. once interviewed (for a government position) an applicant who had been the head of her law school’s Puerto Rican student association.  She was as Puerto Rican as Trump is a Rutabaga.  And for a few seconds, H.L., while an exchange student at Howard convinced himself he was black – until quickly disabused of that by his frat brothers.  What do we think when the deceivers go public and how should we evaluate whether the lie signals a serious flaw in character? […]