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1 week ago | 
sacbee.com | Austin Sarat
In the Middle Ages and early modern England, the king’s justice was often arbitrary and carried out in secret, in so-called Star Chamber proceedings. In those proceedings, officials known for their loyalty to the sovereign heard cases involving criminal offenses and acts defying the king’s proclamations. The Star Chamber courts were not governed by ordinary law. They did not accord people accused of crime the kinds of protections that were available in the regular, public court system.
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1 week ago | 
salon.com | Austin Sarat |Neil Goteiner
Friday, June 13, was a truly unlucky day for John Eastman, a key architect of President Trump’s plot to disrupt the results of the 2020 presidential election.
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1 week ago | 
contrarian.substack.com | Austin Sarat
Writing in 2011, former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “By denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all the concerns of public life, federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power.“ This simple insight offers a key vantage point for understanding the threat that President Donald Trump’s unwarranted deployment of the California National Guard and the U.S. Marines in Los Angeles poses not just to the rights of protesters but also to the very...
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1 week ago | 
slate.com | Austin Sarat
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Richard Glossip has endured one of the most troubled and complicated death penalty cases in American history. It seemed to be over when, last February, the United States Supreme Court struck down his conviction. In fact, not only did the court find in his favor, but Gentner Drummond, the Oklahoma attorney general, had sided with Glossip.
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1 week ago | 
thehill.com | Austin Sarat
On June 4, President Trump issued a memorandum directing the White House Counsel and the Attorney General to investigate former President Biden and his aides to see if they “abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority.” “This conspiracy,” the order says, “marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history.” Democratic politics invites citizens and political leaders to...
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2 weeks ago | 
thehill.com | Austin Sarat
Judicial independence may seem like an esoteric subject, the kind of stuff that excites judges and lawyers but means little to the rest of us. Whether courts are free from political influence or judges follow the law rather than political dictates seems to have little to do with the price of groceries or the fate of our children. That is why many Americans don’t put the maintenance of an independent judiciary anywhere near the top of the list of the issues that matter most to them.
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2 weeks ago | 
aol.com | Austin Sarat
Judicial independence may seem like an esoteric subject, the kind of stuff that excites judges and lawyers but means little to the rest of us. Whether courts are free from political influence or judges follow the law rather than political dictates seems to have little to do with the price of groceries or the fate of our children. That is why many Americans don’t put the maintenance of an independent judiciary anywhere near the top of the list of the issues that matter most to them.
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2 weeks ago | 
yahoo.com | Austin Sarat
Judicial independence may seem like an esoteric subject, the kind of stuff that excites judges and lawyers but means little to the rest of us. Whether courts are free from political influence or judges follow the law rather than political dictates seems to have little to do with the price of groceries or the fate of our children. That is why many Americans don’t put the maintenance of an independent judiciary anywhere near the top of the list of the issues that matter most to them.
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2 weeks ago | 
contrarian.substack.com | Austin Sarat
Fifty years ago, singer/songwriter Paul Simon released what would become a smash hit: “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” As the title suggests, Simon described different underhanded techniques for ending a relationship. Today, Americans are witnessing another masterful display of dexterity. But this time, it is not about romance; instead, it is about different ways to avoid doing what a court orders you to do.
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2 weeks ago | 
thefulcrum.us | Austin Sarat
Last week, I was at an event with United States Senator Chris Coons of Delaware where he was interviewed about this country’s current political crisis. As he was responding to questions, Senator Coons (full disclosure, he is a former student) gave an unusually eloquent and impassioned call for service and political engagement. He offered his audience an opportunity to consider why democracy is worth defending. I was enthralled.
