Category Archives: Law
Separation of Powers
In January 2014 President Obama decided to go it alone. He said he had a pen and a phone and if Congress wouldn’t act he would.
Congress refused to act to allocate funds to reimburse insurance companies for Obamacare costs. The president used his pen to sign an executive order to disburse the money anyway. The House of Representatives sued.
Separation of Powers
In House v. Burwell, Congress argued that the executive branch violated the Constitution’s separation of powers. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer agreed. The case will be appealed.
Meanwhile the president is allocating school bathrooms.
Bathroom Battle
Title IX used to mean women get as many athletic scholarships as men. Politico reports the Obama administration wants to expand the meaning of Title IX to allow males who identify as female to use the women’s facilities in schools that receive federal funds.
Ed Whalen in National Review calls this a legal absurdity. He says, using the administration’s reasoning, “An athlete who is biologically male in all respects must be allowed to compete for a position on a women’s sports team if he identifies himself as female.”
The Justice Department considers LGBT bathroom rights a civil rights issue. Loretta Lynch called the North Carolina bathroom law Jim Crow legislation and sued. North Carolina responded by suing the Feds. David French says, “The executive branch has gone rogue by amending federal law through unconstitutional action.”
On the other hand, CNN has a picture of a transgendered person who sure looks like he belongs in the men’s room.
Guccifer
An unemployed Romanian taxi driver named Marcel Lehel Lazar goes by the handle Guccifer. In his spare time he hacks the email of famous people. In 2013 he read email sent by Sidney Blumenthal to Hillary’s home brew account. For his troubles Lazar has been arrested and extradited to the U.S.
In a recent prison interview he told Catherine Herridge, of Fox News, that he hacked Hillary’s server. “It was easy,” said Guccifer.
The thinking is if a Romanian cab driver can do it, maybe the Chinese, Russians, and others can do it too.
So, while “Lucifer in the Flesh” is out of the presidential race, Guccifer is still a factor.
Update 07/07/16:
FBI Director Comey testified to Congress today that Guccifer admitted to the FBI that he lied about hacking Hillary’s server.
Hastert Hush Money
I was wondering how it was possible that I was watching Donald Trump, the Republican “presumptive nominee” for president of the United States, giving a foreign policy speech yesterday afternoon.
Then news broke that former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert had been sentenced to fifteen months in prison and fined $250,000. He was guilty of structuring bank withdrawals to hide the fact that he was taking out millions in cash.
How is it possible that a former politician and high school wrestling coach was able to withdraw $3.5 million in cash? The former Speaker had parlayed his status as an elite Washington insider into a job as a high paid Washington lobbyist.
Hastert Hush Money
The cash was hush money Hastert paid to a former high school wrestler whom he had molested when he was his coach. The judge called him a “serial child molester.”
Here’s the story in the NY Times. Here’s a National Review story about Hastert’s rise from suburban Chicago high school teacher to Washington insider.
Obama Bashes Brexit
President Obama threatened Britons who favor a Brexit. A Brexit would be a British exit from the European Union in a referendum coming up June 23. Obama said if the UK leaves the EU it would have to move the back of the queue if it wants to do a trade deal with the US.
Obama prefers to deal with undemocratic bureaucrats in Brussels rather than Britons who prefer to retain their sovereignty in London. He claims it could take 10 years to reach a trade deal with an independent UK.
Obama’s intervention enraged London Mayor Boris Johnson who claimed Obama’s Kenyan background makes him hostile to the British Empire. That remark hi-lighted the special relationship between American and British students. Johnson was disinvited from a debate on the Brexit. British students also favor “safe spaces” to protect them from unpleasant ideas.
The Wall Street Journal points out that what Obama thinks may not matter since he’s a short termer.
