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johnqbarrett.bsky.social
Benjamin N. Cardozo Professor of Law, St. John's University. Robert H. Jackson biographer. Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Legal History, Nuremberg, SCOTUS. Iran-Contra & DOJ alum. Wisconsin native. #JacksonList
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Great news: On August 11, 2025, Kim Lane Scheppele will give Chautauqua Institution's 21st annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States. @chq1874.bsky.social @kimlanelaw.bsky.social www.chq.org/event/the-21...

Today marks, more or less, the 105th anniversary of Nuremberg prosecutor Ben Ferencz's birth. I miss his friendship and his quips. I am so lucky to have great memories and photos, plus his pure wisdom: Law Not War.

A big development in international criminal law enforcement— Former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte arrested in Manila, by Interpol with Philippine cooperation, on an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/w...

An excellent @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social column on freedom of conscience, worship, and speech. Yes, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) (Jackson, J., for the Court).

It seems that Trump, Musk, Vance, Miller, et al. think that they are buffered from suffering and death, and so they are willing to bring them on to affect those they loathe politically, even if they also strike their supporters. This is hard-heartedness, callousness, sociopathology.

Good advice from Ben Wittes for all, including lawyers, law firms, and universities: Stand with Perkins Coie & Columbia University. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...!

Todd Blanche at the U.S. Department of Justice: Two days the DAG, doing dirty deeds. Some once thought well enough of him as an AUSA. Can anyone explain whether those people always were wrong, or, if they were right (enough), what happened to curdle Blanche?

Additional DOJ purges — illegal and corrupt. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

This is not Long Knives, yet. But Trump, Bondi, Bove, et al. are purging honest Department of Justice personnel. Lawyers, including DOJ alumni, should call this out: illegal and intolerable.

March 7, 1965, was "Bloody Sunday" -- law enforcement (so-called) attacking 600 civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Every American should, every day, work to be worthy of those forebears.

From Musk’s SpaceX last night as the rocket failed: “We’ve lost attitude control….” That’s a metaphor for and good summary of his politics and his/Trump’s “DOGE,” indeed.

Read all of this @klonick.bsky.social great thread re legal scholarship & law reviews; I think that she’s right on target.

Ed Martin: You must join the Party…. Ugly. Unamerican. Weaponization of law enforcement.

For sale: Main Justice.

A horrifying moment. Trump believes that Chief Justice Roberts has acted to protect *him.* This confuses a federal Judge/Court with Secret Service protection. And maybe it blurts out Trump’s surprisingly astute legal understand, that the Court made wrong, presidency-producing decisions for him.

An important statement from the American Bar Association. www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...

It’s great to be at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, participating in this important symposium, “Transitional Justice Revisited: From the Nuremberg Trials to the Present,” with @michaeljkelly.bsky.social, Peter Black, and other experts (and great people).

Read this very important @timothysnyder.bsky.social interview: the need for states; Musk w/ his second Trump destroying the U.S. as functional & strong; Trump antisemitism-adjacency; the need for journalism; maybe Israel could help temper Trump’s worst ideas & moves; ….

Not to promote X, but Acting U. U.S. Attorney (D.C.) Ed Martin (@EagleEdMartin) has posted there, as he engages in gross violations of his oath of office, a photograph of himself with Rosa Parks. Blasphemy.

It’s no surprise to see a president in the White House Oval Office, defending the free world. It’s fine, great even, that it was Ukraine’s president. It’s stunning and appalling that the president of the U.S. opposed him and that position.

Here's the NYC Bar Association's statement deploring President Trump's executive order attacking Covington & Burling LLP for its lawyers doing proper legal representation of Jack Smith against the Trump administration threat of politicized, improper law enforcement. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...

1/5: A thread on Covington & Burlington— On January 1, 1919, former U.S. Judge Harry Covington and his friend Edward Burling launched a Washington, D.C. law firm.

My latest on Bezos bulldozing the reputation and business of the paper he vowed to save. And yes, it’s personal https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/26/jeff-bezos-washington-post-opinion

Nebraskans and wannabes, please join us in Lincoln next Monday for the Sommerhauser Symposium on Holocaust Education: "Transitional Justice Revisited: From the Nuremberg Trials to the Present."

SDNY USAO wisdom re Emil Bove anagram: Move Bile.

A fine @stevevladeck.bsky.social essay re Justice Robert H. Jackson's 1943 opinion for the Supreme Court in West Virginia St. Bd. of Education v. Barnette -- the "Flag Salute Case." It's one of the finest Court opinions ever. And it's a timely reminder that U.S. govt. may not make people bow down.