Judicial Control of Gerrymandering: A Quack Cure-All

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-legislatures-are-polarized-between-extreme-factions/?print=1 Judicial Control of Gerrymandering: A “Quack Cure-All” by George W. Liebmann Believers in government by judicial thunderbolt look to a case, Gill v. Whitford (No.16-1161), making its way to the Supreme Court as a possible vehicle for judicial control of legislative gerrymandering. It will be recalled that the reapportionment decisions of the 1960s unlike […]

Comments on Proposed Baltimore City Police Consent Decree

To: Baltimore.consent.decree@USdoj.gov I make these comments only because I have been a public critic of this ‘Consent Decree’ and do not wish silence to be taken as acquiescence. I shall not appear at the April 6 hearing, unauthorized by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, since, like others before it in this Court’s Housing case, […]

The Cloning of Judges: Judicial Appointment Process Tainted, but not By Trump

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-judicial-appointments-20170130-story.html The Cloning of Judges The inception of the Trump administration when there are a hundred vacancies on the lower federal courts presages unedifying controversies about ‘pop issues.’ Our contemporary Senators have little interest in permanent things: enforcement of horizontal and vertical separation of powers, protection of procedural due process , and predictability in the […]

Remarks on the Election

Introduction of Senate President Thomas “Mike” Miller, Library Company of the Baltimore Bar, November 7, 2016 We have in the course of our lecture series never before honored a practising legislator, a species usually held in as much esteem as the proprietors of sausage factories. I do not know Senator Miller well, but he like […]

The fix is in with Baltimore’s pending consent decree

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-consent-decree-20161106-story.html   Comments to United States District Court on Baltimore Police Consent Decree   To: Baltimore.consent.decree@USdoj.gov I make these comments only because I have been a public critic of this ‘Consent Decree’ and do not wish silence to be taken as acquiescence. I shall not appear at the April 6 hearing, unauthorized by the Federal […]

In Defense of the ‘Deplorables’

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-deplorables-defense-20160914-story.html

Gleichschaltung, American Style

Gleichschaltung–American Style by George W. Liebmann Gleiichschaltung was the process by which the new Nazi regime in Germany subordinated to itself every independent organism in the German state–the Prussian police (1932, under the Papen government), the political parties, federal states, labor unions, universities and Protestant churches (1933), the Army (1934). The underlying purpose was set […]

1920 Revisited?

1920 Revisited? by George W. Liebmann Many Americans are bemused by the success of a candidate who has mastered the fascist speaking techniques described by the sociologist David Riesman in 1942: “The violence and daring of the verbal onslaughts exercise a great appeal over the imagination of lower middle-class folk who live insipid and anxious […]

The Court and the Candidates

The Court and the Candidates by George W. Liebmann How did we wind up with two presidential candidates who evoke widespread if not universal contempt? A surprising number of the root causes can be laid at the door of the Supreme Court.. The crux of its influence on American culture is found in the so-called […]

A Statue that Must Remain

A Statue that Must Remain by George W. Liebmann   Baltimore Sun, February 20, 2016     In its editorial supporting the removal of the memorial to Chief Justice Taney in Mount Vernon Place, the Sun referred to the Dred Scott decision as Justice Taney’s “best known achievement in life” as though the monument was […]