Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 152

How people spew total falsehoods on TV

I appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show last night to articulate the case against Elena Kagan, and was then followed by Kagan friend and defender Larry Lessig of Harvard Law School, who spent five minutes (in my absence) trying to discredit me and what I said (video of the two segments is below).  Although I would have preferred an opportunity to address the accusations Lessig was making about me through an interactive exchange, I was glad Rachel presented both sides of the debate.  But there...

Obama's natural choice of Kagan

(updated below)

It's anything but surprising that President Obama has chosen Elena Kagan to replace John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.  Nothing is a better fit for this White House than a blank slate, institution-loyal, seemingly principle-free careerist who spent the last 15 months as the Obama administration's lawyer vigorously defending every one of his assertions of extremely broad executive authority.  The Obama administration is filled to the brim with exactly such...

The latest on Elena Kagan

I've laid out my case against Elena Kagan as thoroughly as I could, but with several anonymous (i.e., unreliable) reports percolating that she's the likely choice and could be announced as early as Monday, it's worthwhile to note several recent items from others pertaining to her selection:

(1) University of Colorado Law Professor Paul Campos, who previously expressed shock at the paucity of Kagan's record and compared her to Harriet Miers, has a new piece in The New Republic

Bloggingheads with David Frum and other matters

A couple of days ago, I had a BloggingheadsTV discussion with David Frum, posted below, regarding Elena Kagan and Harriet Miers; the extent to which "epistemic closure" exists among progressives as well as conservatives; Obama's embrace of Bush's Terrorism policies; and the Times Square incident and what it reflects about Terrorists and civil liberties.  The discussion was congenial, in large part because the David Frum of 2010 bears so little resemblance to the David Frum of 2002-03 (for...

Bloggingheads with David Frum & other matters

A couple of days ago, I had a BloggingheadsTV discussion with David Frum, posted below, regarding Elena Kagan and Harriet Miers; the extent to which "epistemic closure" exists among progressives as well as conservatives; Obama's embrace of Bush's Terrorism policies; and the Times Square incident and what it reflects about Terrorists and civil liberties.  The discussion was congenial, in large part because the David Frum of 2010 bears so little resemblance to the David Frum of 2002-03 (for...

Blog news

I'm taking the next week off and will return here on Monday, May 10.  Sadly, I'm not taking a traveling/disappearing vacation, but mostly a working one:  to finish a long magazine article I've been working on for too long and also, hopefully, to finish my slightly overdue book.  As a result, if something truly riveting occurs next week (a Supreme Court selection, an indictment or pardon of Dick Cheney, something on that level), I'd likely write about it.  I'm also scheduled to do a...

Obama's criticisms of the Warren and Burger courts

(updated below - Update II - Update III - Update IV)

Yesterday I wrote about what seemed to be President Obama's fairly stunning disparagement of the Warren and Burger Courts (expressed on the eve of naming Justice Stevens' replacement), as he echoed the classic, decades-old, right-wing claim that those courts were guilty of the "error" of "judicial activism."  As I noted in an update, numerous people, in comments and via email, objected that I had misinterpreted Obama's remarks, ...

Obama's criticisms of the Warren and Burger Courts

(updated below - Update II)

Yesterday I wrote about what seemed to be President Obama's fairly stunning disparagement of the Warren and Burger Courts (expressed on the eve of naming Justice Stevens' replacement), as he echoed the classic, decades-old, right-wing claim that those courts were guilty of the "error" of "judicial activism."  As I noted in an update, numerous people, in comments and via email, objected that I had misinterpreted Obama's remarks, that he was merely...

More Obama DOJ attacks on whistle-blowers

(updated below - Update II)

In February, 2008, the Bush DOJ issued a subpoena to The New York Times' James Risen, demanding the identity of his source(s) for one chapter in Risen's best-selling book, State of War.  The chapter in question described a painfully inept and counter-productive CIA effort to infiltrate the Iranian nuclear program, but which ended up instead passing on valuable information to the Iranians about how to build a bomb.  At the time that subpoena was issued, ...

Obama speaks about the Supreme Court

President Obama gave an interview last night aboard Air Force One in which he was asked about his views of the Supreme Court, and this is what he said:

It used to be that the notion of an activist judge was somebody who ignored the will of Congress, ignored democratic processes, and tried to impose judicial solutions on problems instead of letting the process work itself through politically. And in the '60s and '70s, the feeling was, is that liberals were guilty of that kind of...