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Abolish Guardianship, Preserve the Rights of Disabled People, and Free Britney

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They say one can judge a society by how it treats its most vulnerable. That’s bad news for America. It has become increasingly and disconcertingly clear lately that American society as a whole treats its elderly as disposable objects, that is if it notices them at all. On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a half-hearted non-apology for his administration’s appalling handling of the COVID crisis, specifically in regards to the elderly. For readers who may be unaware of what is unfolding to be the biggest political scandal in New York’s recent history, the short version is that Cuomo apparently decided to force the elderly to stay in nursing homes where the conditions made them incredibly susceptible to COVID. As one with even a vague understanding of how viruses work would have guessed, a lot of New York’s elderly got sick and died likely as a direct result of that policy. According to some, the Cuomo administration then withheld (some might say lied about) the true terrifying death toll from the public. As my own mother passed away from COVID in a nursing home I, perhaps more than most, would like to see accountability for the many victims and their families for any negligent leadership that occurred. It would be easy to think of the New York nursing home scandal as merely another example of a politician lying to cover his own hide. Unfortunately, it speaks to a larger trend of people in positions of power treating the elderly as expendable. The scourge of conservatorship abuse has been in the news lately thanks to the ongoing struggles of Britney Spears. While the popstar is in her late 30s, the story certainly draws attention to how this legal maneuver impacts… Read More

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DOJ: Courts Can’t Hold DOJ Accountable If It Drops A Case For Corrupt Reasons

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The Justice Department defended its decision to drop charges against Michael Flynn at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, arguing broadly that any scrutiny of its decision would wreak havoc on the department. U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Jeff Wall cast the argument in stark constitutional terms, suggesting that the judge in the Flynn case had already damaged both the Justice Department and the judiciary by subjecting the DOJ’s decision to move to drop charges against Flynn to public examination. “This has already become, and I think is only becoming more of, a public spectacle,” Wall said of actions by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan for the District of Columbia. Wall repeatedly expressed worry at the idea that Sullivan would attempt to conduct some kind of discovery at the DOJ through affidavits or declarations. Sullivan has yet to suggest that he would do so, and has yet to rule on the DOJ’s motion to dismiss. “You’ll have a proceeding forcing us to explain ourselves,” Wall said. “The district court has left itself room not just for documents of that kind or witnesses; that is going to intrude on our deliberative process.” He added that the “spectacle” would end up “impugning the motives of the Attorney General of the United States.” Wall described the amicus brief of John Gleeson — the outside attorney Sullivan appointed to oppose the DOJ request to dismiss the case — as a “polemic” alleging “gross misconduct.” Broadly, though, Wall focused on the idea that court proceedings were not the forum for handling allegations of corruption against the Justice Department in making prosecutorial decisions. That, he maintained, is a political question to be handled away from the courts. The Flynn case is just one example of… Read More

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