Larisa Mann Justifies Sit-In to Ensure Fair Union Election

In These Times, May 3, 2011 by Mike Elk
http://bit.ly/iAt2UX

Yesterday, dozens of graduate student teaching assistants in Los Angeles and Berkeley began a sit-in at the Berkeley and Los Angeles offices of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2865, the union that represents them. They allege that union officials were engaged in irregularities while counting ballots in a union officer election. “Well, we aren’t really occupying it. We are dues-paying members,” says Larisa Mann, a University of California Berkeley law school student. “It is our office technically.”

John Yoo Says Bin Laden Operation Vindicates Bush Policies

-National Review Online, May 2, 2011 by John Yoo
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/266271/bin-laden-no-more-nro-symposium?page=6

The majority of the credit for the operation that killed Osama bin Laden goes to the Obama administration. But it is also a vindication of the Bush administration’s terrorism policies and shows that success comes from continuing those policies, not rejecting them.

-The Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2011 by John Yoo
http://on.wsj.com/mR5NMb

According to current and former administration officials, CIA interrogators gathered the initial information that ultimately led to bin Laden’s death…. President George W. Bush, not his successor, constructed the interrogation and warrantless surveillance programs that produced this week’s actionable intelligence.

-National Public Radio, May 6, 2011 by NPR Staff
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/06/136055311/former-bush-official-on-using-force-to-find-bin-laden

I think that this administration has a strong preference not to capture any al-Qaida leaders and would rather kill them…. However, I think it’s much better for our national security if we could capture them—as we used to—and interrogate them in order to build our mosaic of intelligence on the al-Qaida network. In fact, it’s precisely those earlier captures and interrogations, back in the first years after 9/11, that produced the intelligence that eventually allowed us to find the couriers that led us to bin Laden himself.

-USA Today, May 9, 2011 by John Yoo
http://usat.ly/mJYRov

We should not forget what made the operation possible: President Bush’s counterterrorism policies. Obama administration sources confirm that the coercive interrogation of three al-Qaeda leaders identified the courier who led the CIA to bin Laden.

Pamela Samuelson Suggests Solution to Orphan Works Copyright Issue

The Washington Examiner, May 2, 2011 by Nicole Ciandella
http://bit.ly/jcu9Rn

Steven Seidenberg suggests that the architects of the failed Google Books settlement may have inadvertently provided a blueprint for a long-awaited congressional solution for orphan works’ publication. He quotes Pamela Samuelson…. “One aspect of the Google Books settlement provides another model Congress might be willing to consider: allowing use of works that may be orphaned as long as the user pays for the use, with some of the funds used to search for the rights owner.”

Jennifer Granholm and Daniel Mulhern Redefine Gender Roles

-Newsweek, May 1, 2011 by Dan Mulhern
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/01/how-to-be-a-real-man.html

You will honor her when you treat her as an equal, neither unduly backing down nor asking her to give up her principles and experience. You won’t have clear social roles to inherit. Instead, you’ll have to talk, negotiate, sacrifice, and make it up as you go along.

-Detroit Free Press, May 5, 2011 by Rochelle Riley
http://bit.ly/k7JKIy

When the priest asked the question, Granholm laughed out loud…. “I think he was testing Dan, to see whether he was open to change,” Granholm said of the prescient question. “I was coming (to Michigan) to be with him…. I had been politically active at Harvard, and I wanted to help him behind the scenes. It was an interesting flip of the script.”

“It’s a really good time to just get past or through whatever lingering male gender roles there are,” Mulhern said. “Men still can’t seem to understand that women’s wings have been clipped in terms of social and political opportunity for a long time.”

Jesse Choper Criticizes Firm’s Decision to Drop Defense of Marriage Case

San Francisco Chronicle, May 1, 2011 by Debra J. Saunders
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/30/INBL1J7NLK.DTL

In a statement, K&S Chairman Robert Hays had explained the firm’s decision to ditch the case as the result of “inadequate” vetting of the contract. UC Berkeley School of Law Professor Jesse Choper finds that troubling. “If they didn’t like the case, they shouldn’t have taken it,” Choper observed. But having taken the case, the firm had “a lawyer’s obligation” to stick with it.

David Caron Notes Importance of International Law

The Washington Diplomat, March 29, 2011 by Rachel Bade
http://bit.ly/je6IFN

“The U.S. will turn more to international law because it’s economically constrained,” Caron said. “We have to set priorities about what we’re doing globally. It’s relative power: If we’re not the only ‘big person’—say China continues to grow—how are we going to argue with them? Are we going to expend a lot of resources by having Naval exercises? Or are we going to try to argue rhetorically about what’s legal and not legal and how they should be bound.”

Bertrall Ross Analyzes Bill that Seeks Tough Penalties for Lead in Jewelry

California Watch, April 29, 2011 by Joanna Lin
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/lawmaker-seeks-tougher-penalties-lead-jewelry-10076

For companies that settled with the state, the bill may be unfortunate, but it’s not illegal, said Bertrall Ross…. “The Legislature can pass a law that in a sense supersedes a settlement and imposes potentially greater obligations,” he said. “That’s one of the risks you take in any settlement that touches upon a broader issue that can be subject to regulation.”

Alan Auerbach Encourages Corporate Tax Reform

-The Economist, April 28, 2011
http://www.economist.com/node/18621038?story_id=18621038

A study of the most recent such tax holiday, in 2004, suggested it had little effect on employment and investment, with most of the benefits going to shareholders…. Nonetheless, points out Alan Auerbach, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, the idea of another tax holiday, “like a lot of bad ideas, has bipartisan support.”

-California Watch, April 29, 2011 by Kendall Taggart
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/some-companies-skirt-state-income-tax-10065

“Companies have two separate sets of books: one for their tax returns and one for what they report on their financial statements,” said Alan Auerbach, professor of economics and law at UC Berkeley. “Since the tax returns are confidential, we don’t really know.”

Christopher Edley Defends Evaluation of D.C. Schools

The Washington Post, April 28, 2011 by Christopher Edley and Valerie Strauss
http://wapo.st/lfoI77

We believe our report lays the groundwork for a rigorous and credible program of evaluation and research, one that would bring to the problems of education in DC the very best available expertise and reasoned judgment. The city’s children deserve nothing less.