Media Mentions

An op-ed by Alex Whiting. There has been considerable discussion over the last week about whether President Donald Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice when he fired James Comey as director of the FBI. Caution has been important in this debate because obstruction of justice is a difficult crime to prove, the beyond a reasonable doubt standard for criminal prosecution is an onerous one, and not all the facts are known.

An op-ed by Hal Scott. A key purpose of an Italian withdrawal from the euro area would, of course, be currency redenomination: providing that contracts and instruments (including sovereign bonds) in euros could be repaid in a new, devalued national currency. The stark reality is that Italy could not successfully do so without the agreement of the EU and other major markets around the world. The process of making redenomination effective within a withdrawing Member State, between Italian debtor and creditors, is relatively straightforward. Italy simply would pass legislation providing that in Italy all contracts specifying payment in euros — from government bonds to commercial loans to home mortgages — were to be satisfied in the new lira.

After eight years at the helm of Harvard Law School (HLS), Dean Martha Minow plans to step down and return in the fall to the classroom, where she has taught for 36 years. Minow’s tenure was marked by digitization of the School library’s collection, diversification of the faculty and student body, and expansion of legal clinics and research programs. Among the challenges she faced were the effects of the 2008 financial crisis and a student movement calling for removal of the School’s shield because of its ties to a slave-owning benefactor. The School retired the old shield. Minow, the Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law, sat down with the Gazette to reflect on her tenure, her plans to defend the rule of law, and an upcoming book on law and forgiveness.

Can a stack of papers be as useful — or at least as cost effective — as a lawyer? A group of lawyers is trying to find out. Law professors at the University of Connecticut, Harvard University and the University of Maine will begin a large-scale experiment this month to see if proactively sending a set of materials with financial and legal advice — presented by a cartoon blob — can improve the financial lives of people being sued by certain types of debt collectors...And though the government theoretically provides access to lawyers for criminal defendants who can’t afford their own attorneys, there’s unlikely to ever be the political will to provide access to lawyers in civil cases, said James Greiner, a professor at Harvard Law School who is also part of the project. “What are we going to do about the fact that there are never ever going to be enough lawyers to provide a free lawyer to someone with a civil problem?” he said.

An interview with Nancy Gertner. "This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!" That was the tweet from President Trump this morning, following yesterday evening's news that the justice department has appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to oversee its Russia investigation. The president may be fuming, but Congress issued a collective bipartisan exhale at the news. Amy Klobuchar, Democratic senator from Minnesota, called it "a breath of fresh air [that] has come into this week-long saga."

Reports that President Donald Trump asked James Comey, the former FBI director, to end the bureau's investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has left lawmakers on both sides of the aisle shell-shocked — and openly discussing the possibility of impeachment proceedings...Noah Feldman, a professor at Harvard Law School specializing in constitutional studies, predicted that Republicans would first "gauge public reaction" to the Comey reports before launching impeachment proceedings. "But we are gradually moving in that direction," Feldman said.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. During Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington, his “bodyguards” viciously beat and kicked Kurdish protesters outside the Turkish Embassy. It happened on a busy news day, to say the least, around the time of the revelation that President Donald Trump had asked the FBI director to stop investigating a former national security adviser's ties to Russia. But this shameful episode shouldn’t be allowed to escape analysis and serious follow-up. Federal law enforcement must investigate and if possible criminally charge the bodyguards -- who should not be allowed to hide behind diplomatic immunity.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. The American obsession with President Donald Trump and the investigation into untoward Russian influence is distracting us from China’s bid to displace the U.S. when it comes to global leadership. The latest major step is the “Belt and Road” initiative, which officially kicked off this week. Aimed at building infrastructure to connect China to a range of Asian countries, it’s sometime described as a Marshall Plan. But that analogy doesn’t go far enough. Infrastructure is how you dominate. Thus, Belt and Road is more like the 19th-century creation of railroads across continents -- or an effort to build an Eisenhower Interstate System for an entire region of the planet.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. As soon as Donald Trump was elected, some of his critics argued that he should be impeached. Those arguments were reckless and irresponsible, and an insult to the many millions of Americans who voted for him. Impeachment is a singularly grave act -- a remedy of last resort. Those who think that they favor impeaching any president should ask themselves this question: If I strongly supported his policies, would I still think that there were sufficient grounds for impeachment? If that is the right question, then talk of the possibility of impeachment is beginning to look less reckless, and less irresponsible, than it did a few months ago.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s appointment by the Department of Justice as special counsel on Wednesday puts him in charge of investigating ties between Russia and the Donald Trump campaign. But if history is any guide, that won’t be the most important part of his inquiry. The letter appointing Mueller also authorizes him to examine and prosecute “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” The key words are “any” and “arise” -- remember them. Together they confer exceedingly broad authority, more than enough to let Mueller follow his investigation wherever it leads. Don’t forget Ken Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton, which began with the dud lead of the Whitewater scandal and ended with Monica Lewinsky and impeachment.

Kristin Turner [`17] knows that her graduation from Harvard University will be an exciting, emotional moment not just for her, but for her entire family — and luckily, they’ll get the chance to see her cross the stage twice. Two days before the school’s official commencement, Turner will participate in Harvard’s first universitywide Black Commencement for graduate students...The event on May 23 may even be more emotional and meaningful than Harvard’s 366th Commencement on May 25, she said, because it’s truly an event for her family. “For the older members of our family, there’s this idea of having a lineage that connects themselves to slaves, but also having descendants now coming out of Harvard,” she said. “That’s more meaningful than we can really grasp in words.”

Under pressure from advocacy organizations that had threatened a lawsuit, the Wolf administration said Tuesday that it would expand Medicaid coverage for treatment of hepatitis C, a major change that many states have put off over fear of spiraling costs. “Today’s announcement means that thousands of vulnerable Pennsylvanians will soon have easier access to pharmaceuticals that can cure" hepatitis C, Department of Human Services Secretary Ted Dallas said in a statement...In his statement, Dallas thanked several organizations, including Harvard Law School's Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, for their help "on finding a path forward."...Kevin Costello, the center's litigation director, said that the “overt threat of a lawsuit” had kept the pressure on Harrisburg to approve the change. Costello said it was not likely to be nearly as costly as some have predicted.

Democrats and even some Republicans are warning that President Donald Trump may be in jeopardy if reports prove accurate that he allegedly interfered with an FBI investigation....Alex Whiting, a Harvard law professor and former federal prosecutor, told NBC News that the account of the Comey meeting was a "game changer" because it could show that Trump not only acted inappropriately but also tried to block an ongoing probe. "It's quite hard to find a proper purpose for that conversation," Whiting said.

Reports that Donald Trump asked former FBI director James Comey to shut down a federal investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn have added weight to a possible obstruction of justice case against the president, law professors say..."It was hard to make the obstruction of justice case with the sacking alone," said Alex Whiting, a Harvard Law professor and former federal prosecutor. "The president had clear legal authority and there were arguably proper, or at least other, reasons put forward for firing him. But with this development, that argument becomes much harder to make."

An op-ed by Laurence Tribe. All Spider-Man fans will recognize the line, “With great power comes great responsibility.” We need to act now on that maxim’s converse: When great power is placed in the hands of one who cannot be trusted to act responsibly, we must take that power back. That means starting now to trim President Trump’s power to do irreparable harm to the nation and, ultimately, the world. That’s why I’ve previously raised 25th Amendment questions about Trump’s ability to “discharge the powers and duties of his office” and have recently called for immediate initiation of impeachment investigations — akin to convening a grand jury to consider returning a criminal indictment.

The revelation that Donald Trump allegedly urged former FBI Director James Comey to drop a probe into former adviser Michael Flynn fueled speculation the president may have obstructed justice, but any penalty would likely come from Congress and not the criminal justice system, lawyers said Tuesday..."It's the longstanding position of the executive branch that the president cannot be indicted while in office," said Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith, a top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. "The remedy for a criminal violation would be impeachment."

Long before a person arrested and charged is found guilty or innocent, they face a choice with myriad consequences: Find a way to post bail, the median of which the Justice Department pegs at $10,000, until they show up to court to get their money back, or wait in jail, making a post-trial sentence an estimated three or four times likelier. There is another option for the generally low-income and disproportionately African American or Hispanic people who make up the 467,000 pre-trial detainees in the U.S., and a few global corporations are raking in billions from it...“In reality, taxes do pay for it — we spend billions of dollars to incarcerate people,” said Chiraag Bains, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Policy Program. Either way, he added, “we should have a justice system that we are morally comfortable with paying for.”

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. If President Donald Trump asked FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating National Security Adviser Mike Flynn and his ties to Russia, that’s obstruction of justice. But let’s be clear: It’s the impeachable offense of obstruction. It’s probably not the criminal version of that act. With the evidence now available, it’s extremely unlikely that an ordinary prosecutor could convict Trump. This is an outstanding example of a crucial distinction that Americans badly need to keep in mind. High crimes and misdemeanors, to use the Constitution’s phrase, aren’t the same as ordinary crimes. What makes them “high” is their political character. High crimes and misdemeanors are corruption, abuse of power, and undermining the rule of law and democracy.

One question is now gripping much of the U.S.: Did President Donald Trump commit a crime in his first month in the Oval Office? Democrats say reports that the president asked former FBI Director James Comey to drop a criminal investigation into one of his former top aides amount to obstruction of justice, if true. Some legal experts aren’t so sure...Laurence Tribe, Dershowitz’s Harvard colleague, is among those who view Trump’s request for Comey to end the probe as potentially criminal. When asked by email if Trump’s comments amounted to obstruction of justice Tribe said, “I believe it does, quite strongly.”

An interview with Jack Goldsmith. The executive has a lot of legal power vested by the Constitution and Congress but what happens when the executive is careless with information, overreaches that authority or no longer has the full trust of the rest of the government?

An op-ed by Mark Tushnet...Designing investigations into high-level misconduct is extremely difficult. Every nation has tough choices to make, and none has come up with a perfect solution — though it’s clear that the US system is uniquely bad. The problems Donald Trump has created for himself have put into motion the US version of the investigations in Brazil and South Africa. We are watching our political system contort itself as politicians and bureaucrats search for a credible way to investigate the depth and nature of his campaign’s connection with the government of Russia...Perhaps because we wrote our Constitution more than two centuries ago, it doesn’t set out principles for investigating high-level corruption...Modern constitutions have drawn upon two centuries of experience. We should do what we can to draw on that experience, too.