What Obama’s election means for international relations America may have chosen Barack Obama as President this past autumn, but the rest of the world had anointed him long before. After eight years of President George W. Bush’s aggressive unilateralism, symbolized by the unpopular Iraq War, many world leaders were ecstatic at the election of the … Read more
Maritime piracy and the global economy On Nov. 17, 2008, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi oil tanker 450 miles off the coast of Kenya. The tanker, loaded with U.S. $100 million in crude oil, is the largest ship ever pirated. Internationally, piracy has long been a problem off the coasts of unstable countries including Nigeria, … Read more
The need to balance food aid with long-term agricultural investment Prices of agricultural staples, such as wheat and rice, escalated sharply in 2007, setting off alarm bells across the world. Several factors, including higher oil costs and ethanol subsidies in the United States as well as climate change and speculation, put severe strain on the … Read more
Judicial experience and Supreme Court nominations In 2005, President George W. Bush selected John G. Roberts and Samuel A. Alito to serve as the 109th and 110th justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. Roberts’ confirmation went relatively smoothly, while Alito’s, in the wake of the aborted nomination of Harriet Miers, White House Counsel and the … Read more
How the D.C. Circuit Court shaped the war on terror We have assumed, as we must, that the allegations made in the Government’s charge against Hamdan are true…But in undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the Executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law that prevails in this jurisdiction.” … Read more
Roberts, Kennedy, and Collegiality on the Supreme Court During the summer of 2006, Chief Justice John Roberts spoke publicly about the need for greater unity on the nation’s highest court. In a commencement address at Georgetown Law School, he urged that “unanimity, or near-unanimity” would yield “clarity and guidance” for lawyers and lower courts trying … Read more
Michael Steele yesterday said on the air that Rush Limbaugh’s rhetoric was “incendiary” and “ugly”, and reminded the audience that he, not Rush Limbaugh, was the head of the Republican Party. Limbaugh’s response? ” “Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican party.” After the loss in … Read more
I’m surpised that Sam hasn’t blogged about this yet, but I’m happy enough to steal it from him: last Wednesday, the Supreme Court released a unanimous opinion in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum. For anyone who doesn’t recall, Summum is a small but gutsy religious faith that contributed a monument of its “Seven Aphorisms” to … Read more