Attorney General William Barr in Washington, D.C., February 26, 2019 (Yuri Gripas/Reuters) Attorney General William Barr defended the Justice Department’s controversial decision to drop the case against former national-security adviser Michael Flynn, who earlier this year withdrew his guilty plea that he lied to the FBI about his Russian contacts. Barr was asked in a

(Leah Millis/Reuters) The two major tribes of American life cannot achieve widespread consent to a policy consensus during a time of acute national emergency. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE W ithout consensus, there is no consent — that’s almost a redundancy: The two words come from the same Latin root meaning “agree,” but each has its own

Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., April 10, 2017. (Joshua Roberts/REUTERS) 2006—Mississippi attorney Michael B. Wallace, nominated to the Fifth Circuit by President Bush, is victimized by the ABA. In a scandalous process marked by bias, a glaring conflict of interest, incompetence (see here and here), a stacked committee, violation

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn departs U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., December 1, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) The Flynn case should never have been brought and was properly disposed of. Judgments and rules are two different things. Rules are, or should be, clear bright lines that can produce yes-or-no answers. Judgments are more complicated

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 1, 2019. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters) 2018—At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Ryan Bounds to a Ninth Circuit vacancy, Senator Richard Blumenthal tries to take Bounds to task for his college writings. As David Lat aptly summed up those writings,

Home-care nurse Flora Ajayi is thanked by a client’s daughter as she departs from a home during the coronavirus outbreak, New York City, April 22, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) The Washington Post reports that nursing homes may account for a majority of all COVID-19 deaths:  States are still collecting data, but so far six have reported

Traders watch President Donald Trump speak from the White House on a monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, March 13, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) A lot of people find it remarkable that the stock market has done well over the last seven weeks while the economy has been bleeding out. See here

Michael Flynn arrives at a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., December 1, 2017. (Reuters photo: Jonathan Ernst) The Justice Department’s dismissal of its case against Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, is a warning that countries who claim to follow the rule of law must constantly protect it. Last September, Flynn’s new

A pharmacy worker shows pills of hydroxychloroquine used to treat the coronavirus at the CHR Centre Hospitalier Regional de la Citadelle Hospital in Liege, Belgium, April 22, 2020. (Yves Herman/Reuters) Federal agency the Office of Special Counsel on Friday stayed the removal of a whistleblower who alleged he was fired over resistance to promote hydroxychloroquine

People who lost their jobs wait in line to file for unemployment benefits, following an outbreak of the coronavirus, in Fort Smith, Ark., April 6, 2020. (Nick Oxford/Reuters) Workers with the least education have been hit particularly hard by the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the jobless rate for workers with a high

Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign affairs Dominic Raab speaks at 10 Downing Street in London during a daily news conference on the coronavirus outbreak, May 7, 2020. (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/Handout via Reuters) As Brits enter the ‘next phase’ of lockdowns, it’s high time for more scrutiny. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE O n Thursday, Dominic

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein speaks during a news conference at the U.S. District Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. October 15, 2018. (Al Drago/Reuters) A spurious prosecutor futilely investigated four nobodies who did not commit the nonexistent crimes they were ridiculously accused of. Finally, three years coming, the Justice Department is showing a little more

Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) departs from a briefing on the coronavirus outbreak in China in Washington, D.C., January 24, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) is introducing a bill to remove the United States from the World Trade Organization, saying that the intergovernmental group “enabled the rise of China” at the expense

Former First Lady Michelle Obama attends the Girls Opportunity Alliance program with Room to Read at the Can Giuoc high school in Long An Province, Vietnam, December 9, 2019. (Yen Duong/Reuters) Michelle Obama has had a blessed American life, but she’s all about her grievances in her Netflix documentary. There’s a curious joy deficit in

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a campaign event in Detroit, Mich., March 9, 2020. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that she supports banning firearms in the state Capitol after armed protesters demonstrated against the state’s strict lockdown measures last week. “There are legislators who are wearing bulletproof vests to go to

Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at the National Rifle Association convention in Dallas, Texas, May 4, 2018. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) Texas governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced on Thursday that he would eliminate jail sentences for violators of lockdown orders. “Throwing Texans in jail whose [businesses] shut down through no fault of their own is wrong,”

Outside the U.S. District Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) How to think about the coming Chapter 11 epidemic. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I n 19th-century English novels, bankruptcy is a tragedy that just happens to people, often with no real explanation, as though it were a natural disaster

A new and disturbing video of the shooting of 25-year-old Georgia man named Ahmaud Arbery has emerged. It’s a gut-wrenching thing to watch. Perhaps there will be new evidence, but it’s difficult to envision any way a jury could see this incident as anything but a flat-out murder. For those who haven’t been following the

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Washington, D.C., September 27, 2018 (Tom Williams/Pool via Reuters) Back in January, I wrote about the campaign by the draft advisory opinion of the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the U.S. Judicial Conference to undo longstanding practice by barring judges from belonging to the Federalist

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testifies before the House Education Committee on Capitol Hill, May 22, 2018. (Leah Millis/Reuters) The accused will now have the presumption of innocence, and the right to have an attorney, cross-examine witnesses, and see the evidence against them. This week, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos formally announced new Title IX rules

President Donald Trump points at a reporter during the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, April 23, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) President Trump on Wednesday announced he would not disband the White House coronavirus task force, following confirmation on Tuesday that his administration was considering the option. “I thought we could wind it

(Olegunnar/Dreamstime) Quite a few campaigners are taking advantage of the current pandemic to argue that it makes their point or provides an excellent opportunity to change society in the way that they would like to see. “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” as the saying goes. Even so, in the course of reading

(Pixabay) Our social-welfare strategies should be designed to create more opportunity for people to avail themselves of the benefits of the free market. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE ‘D on’t put all of your eggs in one basket,” advises the proverb. Why not? Anyone who ever has spoken with an investment adviser has heard the sermon about

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci speaks as President Donald Trump listens during a news briefing on the coronavirus, Washington, D.C., March 21, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, dismissed the theory that the coronavirus escaped from a

Christine Blasey Ford with lawyer Debra S. Katz (at left) answers questions at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, September 27, 2018. (Melina Mara/Pool via Reuters) It’s absurd to suggest that Christine Blasey Ford is more credible than Tara Reade. You can believe whomever you choose in the alleged sexual-misconduct cases of Joe Biden and Brett

Healthcare workers wheel the bodies of deceased people outside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center during the coronavirus outbreak in Brooklyn, N.Y., April 6, 2020. (Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters) The coronavirus death toll in the U.S. reached 70,110 on Tuesday afternoon. There have been almost 1,200,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country, with 162,000 reported recoveries, since

Some humor was found in the fact that Justice Sotomayor, for the second day in a row, forget to unmute her phone when it was her turn to ask questions today in US AID v. Alliance for Open Society International. But that gaffe was trivial compared to the confusions embedded in her questions. Her first

A health worker in protective gear waits to hand out self-testing kits in a parking lot of Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif., during the coronavirus outbreak, April 8, 2020. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters) Happy Cinco de Mayo. When this thing is all over, we need to have a two-week festival of all the holidays we’ve been

BNSF and Union Pacific train engines in Orange, Texas, in 2017. (Jonathan Bachman/Reuters) Across the nation, the rail behemoth is taking advantage of the local partners that helped it grow so large. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE A t the start of the 19th century, America was a rural society that depended on boats and horses for

White House policy advisor Stephen Miller accompanies President Donald Trump on a trip to Council Bluffs, Iowa, October 9, 2018. (Leah Millis/Reuters) The New York Times reports that before the coronavirus outbreak began, senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller made several attempts to “use” public-health concerns — like a 2019 mumps outbreak in a migrant detention