I’m returning to a topic I’ve written about before, the collapsing credibility of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois, and a broader (and justified) crisis of faith in the entire U.S. Department of Justice that’s developed over the last six months.
(more…)Category: Law
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How The Fuck Did We Get To This Point? Reading Robert Paxton’s “The Anatomy of Fascism” in the Age of Trump
How the fuck did we get here? I’m sure I’m not the only one who has thought this as masked fascist goons terrorize my city, tear gassing Halloween parades and schoolyards, crashing their cars into civilians then dragging them out of their cars to take them God knows where, and literally “disappearing” people from their families and lawyers. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as an unaccountable executive arrogates more and more power from supposedly coequal branches of government, bombs or intimidates more or less every other country in the Americas, sinks our economy with misguided notions of autarky, and corruptly pockets bribes, all while a steady 37% of the country continues to accept that he will “Make America Great Again.”
In hopes of understanding how exactly in the fuck we got here, I turned to Robert Paxton’s “The Anatomy of Fascism.” Before publishing this book in 2004, Paxton wrote a well-regarded history of Vichy France that bucked the conventional wisdom that it was a reluctant hostage and instead portrayed it as an enthusiastic supporter of Nazi Germany.
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The Northern District of Illinois Has Had It With Trump’s Shit
The Northern District of Illinois is the Federal District Court that encompasses Chicago. I clerked for a judge there and then practiced extensively before the judges in the Northern District, and although I didn’t always agree with how the judges ruled (no attorney does), I never questioned their integrity or commitment to the law. This week has only borne out my admiration for the Federal bench in Chicago, as it has repeatedly held the line against an increasingly lawless administration and its fascist shock troops.
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The Assassination of the Fourth Amendment by the Coward, John Roberts
A few weeks ago, I wrote about John Roberts taking a piss on the Fourth Amendment. The practical consequences have been predictably horrifying–particularly in my beloved home town of Chicago
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Breaking News: John Roberts Takes a Piss on the 4th Amendment
Pictured Above: A Courtroom sketch artist’s rendition of John Roberts pissing on the Fourth Amendment.
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Breaking News: America’s Top Law Firms Don’t Know How a Protection Racket Works
Welp, the other shoe has dropped. Two top law firms–Kirkland & Ellis and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison–are working for the Commerce Department for free, presumably working up trade agreements in connection with the president’s blatantly illegal tariffs. Previously both Kirkland and Paul Weiss cut deals with the administration after it levied punitive executive orders against them, with the firms pledging eight-figures worth of pro bono legal services and cuts to their DEI programs.
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The McDermott Discrimination Lawsuit
As a former BigLaw associate and employment lawyer, I had thoughts on the recent discrimination lawsuit against McDermott, Will, and Schulte (known as McDermott, Will and Emery until a recent merger). You can find the lawsuit here, and it is a doozy.
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RayDorl.com 