Would you be outraged if the Department of Justice shut down The Foundry without any warning and blocked access for more than a year? That’s exactly what happened to a hip-hop blog called Dajaz1.com, which was falsely accused of criminal copyright infringement. The blog posted music from artists promoting their work. But federal authorities viewed it differently. They seized the domain name, then shared virtually no information with its owner for more than year. Only recently did they quietly drop the case. The government’s handling of this hip-hop blog is …
When Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) asked Attorney General Eric Holder to explain the letters concerning Fast and Furious that were withdrawn by DOJ because they were “inaccurate,” as well other misstatements by Holder’s Justice Department in the investigation of the gun-walking disaster, Holder was quick to his own defense, arguing that no one lied. “Tell me what’s the difference between lying and misleading Congress, in this context?” Sensenbrenner asked. “Well, if you want to have this legal conversation, it all has to do with your state of mind and whether …
Earlier this week at Heritage, a Bush-era deputy assistant attorney general shared the stage with a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union. It’s not exactly the type of combination you might expect talking about terrorism 10 years after 9/11. But for John Yoo and Nadine Strossen, it was an opportunity to discuss the future of national security. Yoo is the co-editor of a new book with Dean Reuter that features essays from 22 contributors spanning the ideological spectrum. The compilation, “Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American …
With the resignation this week of Dennis K. Burke, the Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney in Phoenix, we have the first high-level casualty in the burgeoning scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley is also being transferred from the criminal division to the civil division, although the Department of Justice (DOJ) claims that it was at Hurley’s own request. They join other key individuals—such as Kenneth E. Melson, who has been relieved as the Acting Director of the ATF and moved to the DOJ’s Office of Legal …
Imagine arriving at your neighborhood polling place on Election Day and seeing two men guarding the entrance, dressed in paramilitary uniforms, wielding a deadly billy club, shouting racial epithets and menacing voters. Would you walk through the door? Now imagine political appointees in the Department of Justice (DOJ) refusing to pursue the case, the U.S. Attorney General stonewalling and refusing to enforce lawful subpoenas in the face of questions about that decision, and the mainstream media remaining silent on the story for a year. This isn’t a case of pure …
Last month, Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis cleared the names of former Department of Justice lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee. Disparagingly labeled the “Torture Lawyers” by the New York Times, Yoo and Bybee wrote the now-infamous memos offering legal advice to the Bush administration that authorized the use of enhanced interrogation techniques in questioning high-level terrorists. Overruling the Office of Professional Responsibility’s (OPR) finding of “professional misconduct,” Margolis found that Yoo and Bybee acted in good faith, ethically serving their clients in the Executive Branch in time of …
This week, five years after his passing (4 June 2004), Ronald Reagan is still in the news as a nostalgic series of events was held in connection with the unveiling of his statue in the nation’s Capitol. In a bi-partisan ceremony, leaders of Congress, veterans of the Reagan Administration, and Mrs. Ronald Reagan herself joined in recollections of how our 40th President revitalized the U.S. economy, set in motion our victory in the Cold War, and revived the American spirit. His example of graciousness, optimism, and dignity set a high …
