Trump and Sanders: The Founders’ worst nightmare

John Yoo writes for The Weekly Standard, Feb. 10, 2016

The men who met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a new constitution designed it to prevent someone like Donald Trump from ever becoming president. One of their great fears was of a populist demagogue who would promise the people everything and respect nothing.

Trump on torture

John Yoo interviewed by The Wall Street Journal: Opinion Journal, Feb. 9, 2016

“The whole point of this very limited, narrow program is to gather intelligence, to stop future attacks. It has nothing to do with punishment or revenge, but that seems to be what Mr. Trump thinks is the whole point.”

Corporate inversions aren’t the half of it

Steven Davidoff Solomon writes for The New York Times, Feb. 9, 2016

If you thought there was a problem with inversions — deals that allow American companies to relocate their headquarters to lower their tax bills — wait until you hear about the real secret to avoiding corporate taxes. It’s called earnings stripping, and it is a technique that the Obama administration has so far failed to stop.

Is down market making it hard for activist investors?

Steven Davidoff Solomon interviewed on Bloomberg, Feb. 8, 2016

Activism’s been a great strategy for the past few years. Because it’s a rising market, you come in, you split the company, normally there’s a pop right there, or you sell the company, and there’s a pop right there. But in a down market, it’s much harder to do–much harder to sell the company, much harder to arrange a split. CEOs are scared, they don’t want to engage in risky transactions. So it just becomes a much harder strategy.

Defense lawyers begin summing up in Hissène Habré war crimes trial

Kim Thuy Seelinger quoted in The Guardian, Feb. 8, 2016

“We are glad at least that it seems our submission will influence the court’s work indirectly,” said Kim Thuy Seelinger, director of the sexual violence programme at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the team that drew up the brief.

Let’s talk about how some women can get the Zika virus, but not an abortion

Jill Adams quoted on Revelist, Feb. 4, 2016

“Common sense and compassion would dictate that governments ensure access to contraception and abortion in light of such a public health crisis as the Zika virus. Meaningful access would require the lifting of criminal bans and restrictions on abortion provision, as well as public education campaigns and the establishment of community clinics in rural and urban areas with fully funded reproductive health care.”