New York Daily News May 1, 2022 Wednesday, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, struck down congressional and state Senate district maps, which heavily favored Democrats, as “drawn with impermissible partisan purpose.” While the decision was split, 4-3, it was almost certainly a correct result under the state’s constitution and a theoretical…
Category: Law
Defense One August 13, 2020 Retired soldiers John Nagl and Paul Yingling, who came to national prominence on opposite sides of the counterinsurgency debates, joined forces to argue that, if Donald Trump were to lose the election and yet refuse to leave office at noon next January 20, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs must give the order to…
James Joyner and Butch Bracknell War on The Rocks October 27, 2016 In the third and, thankfully, final presidential debate of the 2016 cycle, Republican nominee Donald Trump doubled down on his contention that his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, “should never have been allowed to run for the presidency based on what she did with e-mails and…
War on The Rocks James Joyner and James Weirick October 7, 2015 Recently, a military appellate court once again overturned a rape conviction on the grounds of unlawful command influence. This time (United States v. Garcia), the source of the influence went beyond a base commander or even a service chief and included comments made by…
Christian Science Monitor November 21, 2014 The secretary of Homeland Security and the counsel to the president (OLC) directed the Justice Department to investigate whether the president had the authority to take contemplated actions with regard to illegal immigrants via executive order. In a letter dated Nov. 19, they found he did not. On Nov.…
Christian Science Monitor August 18, 2014 Mark Steyn, who was writing about the militarization of police long before the Ferguson tragedy, makes a key point: A soldier wears green camo in Vietnam to blend in. A policeman wears green camo in Ferguson to stand out – to let you guys know: We’re here, we’re severe,…
Butch Bracknell and James Joyner The National Interest July 7, 2014 The September 11, 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya were, according to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence sources, designed and led by Ahmed Abu Khattala, a Libyan jihadist. Recently, Khattala was captured by U.S. special-operations forces and transported to a U.S. Navy…
James Joyner and Butch Bracknell The Hill June 27, 2014 The case of Jeffrey Sinclair, the former deputy commander of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division involved in a sordid sex scandal, has been a lightning rod in the controversy over sexual assault in our armed forces. It ended last Friday with Sinclair reduced two ranks, from…
James Joyner and Butch Bracknell The Hill June 13, 2014 The appeals court for the Navy and Marine Corps recently threw out the conviction of a Marine staff sergeant for sexual assault on the basis of unlawful command influence (UCI) from the commandant of the Marine Corps. This follows multiple rulings over the past year or so…
The National Interest June 4, 2014 This weekend, we received the happy news that Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who for nearly five years had been the only American soldier held prisoner by the Taliban, had been freed. President Obama proudly touted the release as “a reminder of America’s unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform…