Jesse Choper Comments on SCOTUS Ruling against Cameras in Prop 8 Court

Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2010 by David G. Savage and Carol J. Williams
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prop8-cameras12-2010jan12,0,1169353.story

“It’s obviously a disagreement between the 9th Circuit and the Supreme Court on bringing television or live video into a federal courtroom,” said Jesse Choper, a constitutional law scholar at UC Berkeley…. They disagreed, and the Supreme Court has the final word.”

Stanley Lubman Advises Firms to Avoid Unethical Business Practices in China

The Wall Street Journal, January 11, 2010 by Stanley Lubman
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/01/11/stanley-lubman-the-telecom-company-that-didnt-play-by-the-rules/tab/print/

Foreign businesses in China are often presented with conflicts between ethical behavior and the temptation to bend or violate the rules that govern their activities. Such problems reflect both cultural differences and the uncertainties of China’s ongoing transition from a planned economy, via state-led capitalism — toward a goal that remains undefined.

John Yoo Argues for Broad Presidential Power in Crisis and Command

-The Washington Post, January 10, 2010 by Jack Rakove
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/08/AR2010010801498.html

The great lesson of this past decade of misrule has been that our system works best when all three institutions are fully engaged. However much we celebrate the heroic presidents, Americans, as a people, have a stake in seeing the whole government achieve its potential. Yet what Yoo forces us to confront is the reality of all the striking advantages the executive enjoys. It is, in its way, an enticing portrait of presidential power—and a disturbing one.

-The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, January 11, 2010 Host Jon Stewart
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-11-2010/john-yoo-pt–1

“In the end, it is still good for us to have the President able to make those good decisions, even at the cost of sometimes having Presidents who make the bad ones. It’s worth it to our system to be able to have a Lincoln or an FDR, even if the price is to have someone like a Nixon…. I think that’s part of the price we have to have in our system in order to be able to respond quickly to terrible challenges to the country.”

-Forbes, January 15, 2010 by Peter Robinson
http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/14/john-yoo-national-security-afghanistan-opinions-columnists-peter-robinson.html

As Yoo argues in the masterful new book he has just published, Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush, the Founders intended the authority of the chief executive to remain flexible. “The president’s powers are meant to fluctuate,” Yoo explained, “expanding in emergencies then retracting in peacetime.”

-The Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2010 by Arthur Herman
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703436504574641210437351786.html#printMode

Crisis and Command is a carefully argued historical survey of the evolution of presidential power, particularly the power to make war. The book reveals how the Bush war on terror, far from overstepping constitutional bounds, was rooted in a tradition that reaches back to George Washington himself.

Angela Harris Examines Interplay of Race and Gender in Criminal Law

University of Buffalo Reporter, January 7, 2010 by UB Law Forum
http://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/2010_01_07/profile

“Criminal law is so much about race, class, gender and sexuality,” she says. “Who gets punished, what do we make criminal, where is the line between things that the community might consider just immoral and what the community might want to make illegal? It’s a great course to teach because everyone comes into it with some sort of opinion.”