DOBBS is now The Law of the Land

At 18 weeks, you may call this what you want. But it is manifestly more than a "clump of cells" and 2/3 of Americans consistently agree that there is no "right" for anyone to kill it. Roe silenced all principled debate and nuance — and the conscience of America — for 50 years. But as one wag put it, ROE was a clump of words. Let us begin again.

A Deep Thought from a Presidential Historian (UPDATED)

 

I guess I touched a nerve.

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘A Deep Thought from a Presidential Historian (UPDATED),’ New Reform Club (July 19, 2022, 2:58 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2022/07/a-deep-thought-from-presidential.html>;

Twitter: <https://twitter.com/SethBTillman/status/1549286326800982017>;

Twitter: <https://twitter.com/SethBTillman/status/1549419908311695367>;

Trump’s Wife

 

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Trump’s Wife,’ New Reform Club (July 12, 2022, 11:26 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2022/07/trumps-wife.html>; 

Twitter: <https://twitter.com/SethBTillman/status/1546877586034286592>;

What the Self-Appointed Elites Think About You

 

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘What the Self-Appointed Elites Think About You,’ New Reform Club (July 11, 2022, 1:49 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2022/07/what-self-appointed-elites-think-about.html>; 

Twitter: <https://twitter.com/SethBTillman/status/1546371460607901697>;

Two Issues: Overturning Roe v. Wade, and Immigration

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Two Issues: Overturning Roe v. Wade, and Immigration,’  New Reform Club (July 8, 2022, 2:22 PM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2022/07/two-issues-overturning-roe-v-wade-and.html>; 

 

In My Inbox Today

 

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘In My Inbox Today,’ New Reform Club (July 6, 2022, 1:27 PM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2022/07/in-my-inbox-today.html>;

Twitter: <https://twitter.com/SethBTillman/status/1544734931305234432>;

Characterizing Sources At The New York Times

 

Seth Barrett Tillman, Associate Professor

Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology

Scoil an Dlí agus na Coireolaíochta Ollscoil Mhá Nuad

(academic title & affiliation for identification purposes only)

 

 July 5, 2022

 

The New York Times

letters@nytimes.com

 

Re: Peter Baker, ‘New Insights Into Trump’s State of Mind on Jan. 6 Chip Away at Doubts,’ New York Times (July 3, 2022), <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/03/us/politics/new-insights-into-trumps-state-of-mind-on-jan-6-chip-away-at-doubts.html>.

 

In Baker’s article, he quoted attorney Josh Matz and proceeded to describe Matz as “as a lawyer for House Democrats during both of Mr. Trump’s impeachment trials in the Senate.” That was all true. But it leaves out something significant: Matz is currently one of the attorneys of record for E Jean Carroll, a plaintiff, who is suing Trump in a federal district court in New York. See Court Listener <https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/18418220/carroll-v-trump/> (Dkt. No. 60). Given that Matz is on the opposite side from Trump in ongoing litigation, I suggest he is not well positioned to give a wholly unbiased judgment in relation to Trump. If Matz disclosed his current connection to Carroll v Trump to Baker, then I suggest Baker should have reported it. And if Matz—inadvertently—failed to disclose this to Baker, then perhaps the thing to do is for the New York Times to issue a suitable correction. See, e.g., Josh Matz, ‘Foreign Emoluments, Alexander Hamilton & A Twitter Kerfuffle,’ Take Care Blog (July 12, 2017), <https://takecareblog.com/blog/foreign-emoluments-alexander-hamilton-and-a-twitter-kerfuffle> (“To be sure, there’s always a fine balance to be struck between scholarly nuance and word limits, especially in op-eds and works of legal advocacy. Many capable lawyers and legal scholars fail, at times, to ....”).

     Le meas,

          Seth Barrett Tillman

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Characterizing Sources At The New York Times,’ New Reform Club (July 5, 2022, 9:38 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2022/07/characterizing-sources-at-new-york-times.html>; 

Twitter: <https://twitter.com/SethBTillman/status/1544319122665881605>; 

A Fourth of July Dayyenu

In the Seder reading of the Haggadah, the Jews remember the liberation of their forebears from slavery into the Promised Land of Israel, and God's other miracles and blessings, various and sundry, for good measure. Each element of the hymn, explained Norman Podhoretz, is the subject of its own sentence, and each sentence of the series concludes with the word dayyenu, which can roughly be translated as “That alone would have been enough for us.” The idea, said Podhoretz, is that, "not content with 'that alone,' God went on and on and on to pile up wonder after wonder and marvel after marvel: so many that those participating in the seder invariably grow fatigued by the time they finish reciting them all.'"

It seems fitting that we Americans, if we be not ingrates, should submit our own verses, punctuated with dayyenu, in remembrance of the many miracles and blessings bestowed upon our country. Our verses might include:

If mankind had only had the opportunity to discover such a rich continent and, not merely to settle it and survive off it, but to open it to the world and to thrive, that would have been enough.

If Americans had only contributed the Declaration of Independence to the annals of human achievement, without consummating it or bringing its ideals to fruition, however imperfectly, it would have been enough.

If Americans had only produced one president, George Washington, who, though his popularity could have made him a king, laid down power voluntarily and gave us a model of American virtue, it would have been enough.

If Americans had only had the opportunity to sacrifice our country for a chance at a new birth of freedom, and then to help the fight to liberate the European continent from the murderous scourge of Nazism, and then to face down the murderous scourge of communism that succeeded and exceeded it, and then to see the world out of presumptive poverty and into presumptive prosperity, it would have been enough.

Humanity's history tells a story of savagery and violence, and its language is a language of war and base survival, with only recent entries into the lexicon pertaining to rights and freedom. Without the yoke of authority, the great minds before America's founding taught life was solitary, nasty, poor, brutish, and short. If we had had only the chance to prove them wrong, if we had had only the right to argue for the miracle of liberty, instead of fighting for mere survival -- if we had only the chance to celebrate that right this Fourth of July -- it would be enough.

Happy Independence Day. Dayyenu.

The Decline of English

 

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘The Decline of English,’ New Reform Club (July 1, 2022, 7:30 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-decline-of-english.html>; 

Twitter: <https://twitter.com/SethBTillman/status/1542832340472324098>;