The New Republic, January 31, 2008 Attorney General Michael Mukasey frustrated Democrats yesterday when he refused, again, to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee whether water-boarding counts as torture or is otherwise prohibited by law. At the committee hearing, he declared the question hypothetical, since the CIA no longer uses the tactic. And he declared as […]
Archive | January, 2008
Gun Shy: The Justice Department Weighs in on the Second Amendment
The New Republic, January 25, 2008 Shortly after taking office, the Bush administration dropped a love bomb on gun rights enthusiasts nationwide. In May 2001, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote a letter to the National Rifle Association stating “unequivocally my view that the text and the original intent of the Second Amendment clearly protect the […]
The Death Clock: Don’t Count Out the Death Penalty Yet
The New Republic, January 7, 2008 These are heady days for anti-death penalty activists. New Jersey has taken the plunge and legislatively repealed capital punishment–becoming the first state in the modern era to do so. Today, the Court will hear arguments over whether the specific drug cocktail used in lethal injections constitutes cruel and unusual […]
Benjamin Wittes 