Les Swanson is responsible for posting on the blog through June 10

     Our blogmaster, Erin Lagesen, has assigned dates to members of the executive committee to post blogs over two-week periods.  Toby Graff and Les Swanson have responsibility for 5/27 through 6/10.  Toby is out of the country so Les Swanson will be posting on the orconlaw blog.  Here is what I plan to do.  Because constitutional law is so closely interrelated with political theory, ethics, politics, legal philosophy and more, I will be posting some material on the blog that will range considerably far afield from constitutional law per se.
The nice thing is that you don't have to read any of it if you choose not to.

    Today I am posting two pieces:  1) A summary of an article on Darfur from 2004 that was written by Samantha Power.  She is a lawyer and journalist who after several years in the Balkans wrote The Problem From Hell a book about genocide.  She is now an advisor to the Barack Obama campaign.  President Bush has recently imposed sanctions (fairly serious ones) on Sudan.  And Steven Spielberg and others have brought pressure on the Sudanese government to end the violence in Sudan by threatening to impede the upcoming Olympics in China.  China is Sudan's largest oil customer.  So, there is more pressure now than for some time on Sudan to accept UN troops in Darfur to strengthen the African Union troops now there, but underfunded, under equipped, and not very effective. Download DARFUR________DYING_IN_DARFUR_by_Samantha_Power.doc

2) The other piece that I am posting is a summary of an article that appeared in the NY Times a couple of years ago on abortion in the U.S.  The article was filled with interesting facts, some of which are relevant to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, authored by Justice Kennedy, that did not require a "mother's health exception" to a state law prohibiting what abortion opponents call "partial birth abortions."  There have been several good articles in the New England Journal of Medicine about the impact of this decision on the medical profession.  Doctors that perform such abortions will do so at the risk of prison sentences in some  jurisdictions even if the doctor believes that the mother's health is at risk.  Apparently, if a doctor justifiably believes that the mother will die unless the abortion is performed, the doctor can go ahead with the abortion.  However, the doctor will have to be able to medically justify that decision because concern about the mother's health, short of justifiable concern about the mother's death, will not be a defense to criminal action. Download abortion_ny_times_article.doc

Comments

[John]

This is a fascinating post! It could not have been expressed better.

[huspisgudge]

All this big deal about white collar crime -- what's WRONG with white collar
crime? Who enjoys his job today? You? Me? Anybody? The only satisfying
part of any job is coffee break, lunch hour and quitting time. Years ago
there was at least the hope of improvement -- eventual promotion -- more
important jobs to come. Once you can be sold the myth that you may make
president of the company you'll hardly ever steal stamps. But nobody
believes he's going to be president anymore. The more people change jobs
the more they realize that there is a direct connection between working for
a living and total stupefying boredom. So why NOT take revenge? You're not
going to find ME knocking a guy because he pads an expense account and his
home stationery carries the company emblem. Take away crime from the white
collar worker and you will rob him of his last vestige of job interest.
-- J. Feiffer

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[Penisa]

outgoing influence buddy. yearning to get more from your side :)