In the on-going debate over who now heads the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the focus has been on whether the statute establishing the CFPB (the Dodd-Frank Act) overrides the Vacancy Reform Act (VRA). (Marty Lederman has a good discussion here). The debate highlights a broader point about textualism (and, by extension, originalism). Dodd-Frank says that…
"The risk of war is greater than the public appreciates. There’s a complacency surrounding this crisis, which has been kicked down the road by several American presidents. Now, with war more likely than ever, talks are even more urgent, and we hope this video can serve as a call for politicians on both sides to seek exit ramps for peace."
"Americans aren’t exactly itching for a new war. (A majority, in fact, believes the country would be better off staying in the nuclear deal with Iran.) So how can the Trump administration build a case for a pre-emptive strike? Those claims of a nefarious alliance with Al Qaeda might help."
"Coast Guard officials say they can do this because the drug smugglers aren't under arrest until they reach U.S. shores, but some of the worst cases are drawing criticism even from Coast Guard officials. Many families, in fact, believe that their loved ones — husbands, fathers, sons — had disappeared."
"The Pentagon tried to block an independent assessment of child sex abuse crimes committed by Afghan soldiers and police, instead insisting on the creation of its own report offering a far less authoritative review of human rights violations perpetrated by U.S. allies, according to an aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Afghan security personnel have been known to recruit young boys as servants, sometimes to use for sex. There is a broader practice in Afghan society to dress some boys as women and have them dance at gatherings. Known as bacha bazi, it was banned under the Taliban but revived after the U.S. invasion in 2001."
"SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said regime must 'stop killing children' as he condemned the Government for failing to suspend selling arms to Riyadh during the devastating three-year conflict in Yemen."
LANSING, Mich. (Nov. 29, 2017) – Yesterday, I testified before the Michigan House Committee on Judiciary in support of a bill that would ban “material support or resources” for warrantless federal surveillance programs, an essential step for states to take in a time when the federal government seems unlikely to ever end their own spying. Rep.…
12. Is Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board constitutional? 13. Should seniors be able to opt out of Medicare without
"Hope? Not because he was assassinated, but why he was assassinated
"Alfred McCoy was a young rebel academic who waded into the war zone in Southeast Asia to investigate the relationship between the CIA, crime syndicates, and local drug lords. The result, which the Agency tried unsuccessfully to suppress, was his classic The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. In the 45 years since, McCoy has consistently probed the underside of American global power, analyzing how the United States uses covert interventions, local proxies, torture, and worldwide surveillance to maintain its global empire."