Verdict

UF Levin College of Law professor and economist Neil H. Buchanan continues his consideration of where Americans privileged enough to be able to move might be able to go to escape an increasingly authoritarian United States. Professor Buchanan offers some additional thoughts about the United Kingdom (the focus of his last Verdict column) and explores the possibility of Canada. He points out that the problem of expatriation in response to political instability and violence directly or indirectly affects both those who move and those who remain behind.

Cornell law professor Joseph Margulies describes the ambivalence and fear many of us feel toward the “in between”—the space between where we are today and where we imagine we could be. Professor Margulies points out that if we allow it, the fear of the in between will always keep us from the world we deserve, so we must find the courage to push past the fear.

Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf asks whether we can trust that Justice Neil Gorsuch—who was the sole Justice not to wear a mask during oral arguments last week—was unbiased in considering two challenges to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates. Professor Dorf argues that Justice Gorsuch’s refusal to wear a mask indicates that he either does not believe the public health guidance or thinks he should be free to decide for himself whether to follow it—both of which possibilities undercut public confidence in the basis for his votes in the vaccine cases.

Cornell law professor Sherry F. Colb praises Ruth Marcus’s 2019 book, Supreme Ambition, about Brett Kavanaugh’s rise to power and the events that took place after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexual assault. Professor Colb notes that the book is engaging even for someone who closely followed the events as they occurred, and reflects on the trauma of living (and reliving) through that disillusioning period in our nation’s recent history.

UF Levin College of Law professor and economist Neil H. Buchanan considers where, if anywhere, Americans looking to emigrate from a dying democracy might land. After pointing out that guns are the largest threat to safety in the United States and that practically anywhere else would be safer, Professor Buchanan considers whether the UK is a viable choice, given that the ugliness that has emerged in the United States is being mirrored there to a concerning degree.

Former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut argues that the sentencing of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers last week demonstrated institutions and individuals within the judicial system operating at their best. Mr. Aftergut praises Judge Timothy Walmsley in particular for listening attentively to the victim impact statements and for deliberating on them before handing down the sentences.

Texas law professor Jeffrey Abramson comments on a recent development in Ghislaine Maxwell’s jury trial for sex trafficking young girls to Jeffrey Epstein. Professor Abramson considers whether and to what extent Juror 50’s failure to disclose that he had been the victim of child sex abuse may upset the verdicts.

Amherst professor Austin Sarat explains why it is so important that the hearings by the House Select Committee on the events of January 6, 2021, be and appear to be fair. Professor Sarat argues that an atmosphere of fairness and seriousness, similar to that of the Watergate hearings in 1973, is necessary not only to persuade independents about what happened behind the scenes on January 6, but also to turn the committee’s findings into a voting issue.

In light of the approaching one-year anniversary of the January 6 Capitol Insurrection, Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf argues that the next assault on American democracy could come from within the Capitol and other institutions of American democracy. Professor Dorf points out that the phrase “political violence” is an oxymoron in the context of a democracy; to practice democratic politics is to accept a common set of ground rules for resolving policy disputes peacefully, and when the loser of an election uses violence to try to change the result, democratic politics ceases functioning.

Kathryn Robb, executive director of CHILD USAdvocacy, explains how and why child sexual abuse is more insidious and long-lasting than “typical” civil wrongs recognized by law. Robb points out that while survivors of child sexual abuse may lack the physical injuries that the law and jurors often look for, they carry deeper wounds that affect their entire bodies and minds well into adulthood.

Cornell Law professor Joseph Margulies argues that prisons increase rather than decrease the likelihood that a person will find himself back in prison because the scarcity on the inside of nearly everything valuable requires illicit behavior and rewards violence. Professor Margulies observes that scarcity of essential goods in prison, such as food, medical care, contact with loved ones, etc., all but demands active participation in ongoing criminality and encourages prisoners to develop and refine the capacity for violence.

Amherst professor Austin Sarat explains why, even if there is a strong legal case for prosecuting former president Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection, doing so may not be the wisest thing to do. Professor Sarat suggests that the Attorney General can and should put together a record for history to judge, but going forward with even a well-grounded prosecution of Trump would almost certainly turn him into a martyr and bring this country ever closer to the abyss it is already fast approaching.

Former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut reflects on what has been different about 2021 with respect to police killings (and what has remained the same). He asks whether 2022 will bring about progress for the rights to be safe, to choose, to vote, or some other expansion of freedom, and calls upon all Americans to act to secure those rights.

In response to the December 16 announcement that, Cornell law professor Sherry F. Colb explains the significance of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s December 16 announcement that it is permanently allowing doctors to administer medical abortions by telemedicine and through the mail. Professor Colb describes why the change is likely to make terminating a pregnancy more accessible and affordable and less dangerous, and she argues that medical abortion also challenges one ethical argument some anti-abortion advocates have raised.

UF Levin College of Law professor and economist Neil H. Buchanan explains the legal and policy reasons for reinstating the state and local taxes (SALT) deduction that Republicans severely limited in 2017. Professor Buchanan argues that the purpose of limiting the SALT deduction was to harm poor people in states that had robust social spending programs, so Democrats should unapologetically seize the opportunity to undo any unconstitutional provision designed in the first place as a political hit job.

Amherst professor Austin Sarat describes what death penalty abolitionists must do even as capital punishment in the United States wanes in popularity and use. Professor Sarat calls upon such advocates to invest time and resources in tracking and learning lessons from what has happened after states abolished the death penalty over the last 15 years.

Cornell law professor Joseph Margulies describes how he arrived at his moral philosophy, summed up as “there is no them, there is only us.” Professor Margulies explains that it comes in part from an understanding that all of humanity is imprisoned by our individual autobiographies—the profound choices that define our existence, like how we respond to loss, shame, rage, and pain.

Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf explains why the concern expressed by Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent in the Texas abortion case (Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson) that other states will follow Texas’s example and employ “private bounty hunters” is well founded and legitimate.

Penn professor Marci A. Hamilton and UNLV Boyd School of Law professor Leslie C. Griffin explain why the separation between church and state is such an important principle in American democracy and describe ways in which this separation is being eroded. Professors Hamilton and Griffin urge courts and lawmakers to keep the states and the nation from being run by the world’s religions.

SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman comments on the abortion cases currently before the U.S. Supreme Court—one challenge a restrictive Texas abortion law and another challenge to a plainly unconstitutional Mississippi law. Professor Grossman argues that safe-haven laws—which Justice Amy Coney Barrett in particular asked about during her line of questioning in oral argument—play no role in the law or policy of abortion.