Yearly Archives: 2009

UM Law Election Law Symposium

Posted on January 26, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

This Saturday, Jan. 31, the University of Miami Law Review will host an election law symposium: How Far Have We Come Since 2000?

David Boies, attorney who argued Bush v. Gore on behalf of Vice President Al Gore; Bob Bauer, General Counsel to Barack Obama's presidential campaign; and Trevor Potter, General Counsel to John McCain's presidential campaign, are among some of the speakers for this year's University of Miami Law Review Symposium to be held Saturday January 31, 2009.

The event will be held at the School of Business Administration in the Storer Auditorium with breakfast beginning at 8:30 a.m. The morning panels will run from 9:15 a.m. to 10:45 am and 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., respectively. Lunch and the keynote address by Mr. Boies will follow at 12:30 p.m. There will be two additional panels in the afternoon, concluding with a cocktail reception in the Law School's courtyard at 5:30 p.m.

The Symposium will be devoted to current topics in Voting Rights and Election Law including the Supreme Court's recent decision in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Democratic Party's handling of the Florida and Michigan delegate dispute, as well as a review of election reforms since 2000 with an eye on what still needs to be done to ensure every vote is counted.

All are invited to attend.

Posted in U.Miami | Comments Off

Kristol’s Done

Posted on January 26, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

stick a fork in him Krisol's NYT column, Will Obama Save Liberalism?, finishes with this note,

This is William Kristol’s last column.

I can't say “another national nightmare” just ended, because he's too small beer for that. Maybe “our national stomachache is over”?

I just hope they don't replace him with Karl Rove.

Posted in Discourse.net | 2 Comments

The Incompetence of Evil

Posted on January 25, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Gitmo: There Are No Files.

The Bush people told us over and over that the people held at Gitmo were super-dangerous. That's why they couldn't release them, or even try them in the US. (Judges who reviewed selected cases in the main didn't agree, but put that aside.)

Now we learn the farcical basis on which decisions to hold people were being made:

“President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials — barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees — discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on many of them.

Instead, they found that information on individual prisoners is “scattered throughout the executive branch,” a senior administration official said. The executive order Obama signed Thursday orders the prison closed within one year, and a Cabinet-level panel named to review each case separately will have to spend its initial weeks and perhaps months scouring the corners of the federal government in search of relevant material.

Several former Bush administration officials agreed that the files are incomplete and that no single government entity was charged with pulling together all the facts and the range of options for each prisoner.

Beyond my darkest imaginings.

Posted in Guantanamo | 2 Comments

NSA Snooped on All of US — Especially Journalists

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

It's important to get to the bottom of this one.

Threat Level from Wired.com, Whistleblower: NSA Targeted Journalists, Snooped on All U.S. Communications,

Just one day after George W. Bush left office, an NSA whistleblower has revealed that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program targeted U.S. journalists, and vacuumed in all domestic communications of Americans, including, faxes, phone calls and network traffic.

Russell Tice, a former NSA analyst, spoke on Wednesday to MSNBC host Keith Olbermann. Tice has acknowledged in the past being one of the anonymous sources that spoke with The New York Times for its 2005 story on the government's warrantless wiretapping program.

After that story was published, President Bush said in a statement that only people in the United States who were talking with terrorists overseas would have been targeted for surveillance.

But Tice says, in truth, the spying involved a dragnet of all communications, confirming what critics have long assumed.

“The National Security Agency had access to all Americans' communications,” he said. “Faxes, phone calls and their computer communications. … They monitored all communications.”

For those who came in late, the Wikipedia article on Russel Tice makes interesting reading.

Posted in Civil Liberties | 2 Comments

Miami-Dade Libraries to Honor Georgie & Frank Angones Tonight

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Frank and Georgie Angones are important members of the University of Miami Law School community, and I'm a big fan of our surprisingly good local public library system, so it's nice to see the two coming together. She's our stellar Assistant Dean for Alumni Relations and Development; he was the first Cuban-American to head the Florida Bar, and has long been a good friend of the law school.

Cuban couple honored by Miami-Dade Library Foundation As children, Frank and Georgie Angones fled Cuba with their families penniless and not knowing English.

But they quickly discovered libraries could help them adapt to their new home.

''The one place that welcomed us with open arms was the public library,'' Georgie Angones said.

They never forgot, dedicating decades of volunteering to promote literacy and the Miami-Dade Library system.

Now the Miami-Dade Public Library Foundation is bestowing on the couple its third annual Library Champions award.

On Friday evening, the foundation will honor them at its Stories in the Garden event in the courtyard of the Pinecrest Branch Library, 5835 SW 111th St.

The event is tonight; I hate benefit dinners, but this is one I'd actually like to go to if only I didn't have a conflicting obligation.

Posted in U.Miami | Comments Off