Obama Pundit

by C. William Chattin
Is President Obama really going to orchestrate the return of Manuel Zelaya to power?  My reasonable liberal friends assure me that the President is just posturing and, for diplomatic reasons, aligning himself with Latin American governments in demanding the restoration of Zelaya, i.e., he’s not really serious.  But make no mistake, there [...]

by C. William Chattin
In an earlier post, I warned the Right to “be wary not to dwell on [Sotomayor's] dismissive treatment of Frank Ricci.”  Upon the Supreme Court issuing the Ricci v. DeStefano decision today and the media’s complete misunderstanding of it, I hereby withdraw my earlier admonishment.
The one and only thing that should be understood about this case as it [...]

by C. William Chattin
Notwithstanding the various pronouncements of Obama-toady Andrew Sullivan that the “neocons” (whatever that term used to mean, Sullivan uses it as a thinly-veiled reference to “pro-Israel, Jewish Republicans”) are “outright hoping for the coup to succeed,” in actuality it appears it is this Administration and President Obama himself — having adopted Scowcraftian, [...]

by C. William Chattin
Clive Cook has an excellent article up at the Financial Times on the implication of the so-called “public option” of ObamaCare.  The “public option” would be a federally-funded public health insurance carrier (not unlike Medicare) that would “compete” with private health care insurance companies.  In comments Monday, President Obama assured members of the American [...]

by C. William Chattin
Below are pertinent portions of the comments made yesterday by President Obama addressed the goings-on in Iran.  Does anyone else notice the odd perspective from which these comments appear to emanate?
I am deeply troubled by the violence that I’ve been seeing on television.  I think that the democratic process — free speech, the [...]

by C. William Chattin
In what can only be described as my worst fears of the Boumediene decision realized, U. S. Representative Mike Rogers has told The Weekly Standard that the Obama Administration has instructed U.S. military and intelligence personnel to Mirandize foreign fighters (including suspected members of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other jihadists) apprehended on foreign territory.
Boumediene v. Bush was the landmark Supreme [...]

by C. William Chattin
Judging from his article over at The Daily Beast, the brilliant James Langenfeld apparently read my June 3rd item here at Obama Pundit.  My take:
The effect of rail nationalization is well-documented: popular routes are overpriced to subsidize the less popular ones; cost-benefit decision-making and efficient pricing is cast aside in favor of political expediency; [...]

by C. William Chattin
Moments after Scott Roeder, the apparent trigger-man in the George Tiller murder, was apprehended, I (only half jokingly) asked friends if Roeder should be subjected to Bush-Cheney “enhanced interrogations.”  It was somewhat debatable (at least at the time) whether Roeder should be thought of as a true domestic terrorist or a run-of-the-mill [...]

by C. William Chattin
The faiures of GM and Chrysler, and looming failure of Ford, are hardly novel for the transportation industry.  As detailed in this informative piece in the Wall Street Journal, the auto industry meltdown closely resembles the pattern leading to the failure of the rail industry — which died in the late ’70s:
First, the [...]

by Hector N. Fertig
William, regardless of who was at fault, Didden or his lawyer, once the statute of limitations expired Didden’s cause of action was lost according to Sotomayor.  At some point during this whole affair, he had two legal theories available to him:
1. That the taking was wrongful due to pretext, in the sense [...]

by C. William Chattin
Hector, the parties in Didden submitted their briefing materials to the Second Circuit before Kelo was handed down; but, the Court (Sotomayor) - properly, in my estimation - waited until months after Kelo to issue the Didden decision.  Thus, the attorneys for Didden didn’t have the benefit of knowing what governing standard would be applied to their challenge [...]

by Hector N. Fertig
William, I agree that the analysis presented was short, it is not clear to me what more you would have her say on the property rights issue.
Your reading of Justice Stevens’ majority opinion is correct regarding the ‘mere pretext’ standard, but I think it is largely irrelevant.  The question wasn’t whether or [...]

by C. William Chattin
Hector, with regard to the statute of limitations predicate, I will assume, without checking, that Sotomayor got that portion of the opinion, and, thus, the actual result, correct.  However, because she weighed into the constitutional issue with more than mere dicta, she provided a legally-binding, alternative holding of the Court…on a very dicey issue [...]

by Hector N. Fertig
William, the McDonald’s analogy was broken out as a second point as it was not intended to address the role of Appellate Courts or how appellate proceedings work, but rather the language used in your summary of Didden.  For example:
Wasser told Didden that he would approve the project only if Didden paid [...]

by C. William Chattin
Hector, I want to address/clarify the points you raised below.
At the appellate level, and for purposes of review, the facts of a particular case have generally been stipulated to, and are a matter of record.  True, some hidden, smoking-gun fact(s) may undermine the criticism of a controversial decision.  But, the judge who authors an appellate decision will include in her opinion facts [...]

by Hector N. Fertig
Two quick points:
I apologize to those for whom this is obvious, but some readers may not be familiar with the roles that judges play at different levels in the United States.  As a Federal Appellate Court Judge, Sotomayor doesn’t really have authority to ignore any United States Supreme Court decision, including Kelo.  [...]

by C. William Chattin
So, here is what we know about PBHO’s pick of Sonia Sotomayor to replace departing Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court:

Her curriculum vitae is first rate, and her qualifications stellar:  valedictorian from Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx; graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. from Princeton University; earned a J.D. from Yale [...]

by C. William Chattin
Byron York had a very interesting piece up over the weekend on how Gitmo has, or may have (depending on your p.o.v.), served as a rallying cry for jihadists.  I suggest everyone read the entire piece, but I’ll summarize the major points below.
Of all the arguments advanced for closing the $200 million [...]

by C. William Chattin
Christopher,
The motives of the ”shutter Gitmo” advocates vary enough not to be easily pigeon-holed.  For sure, a large block of the Left seeks to advance a transformed America, as you identify.  But, that’s not necessarily true of all of them, nor is it the case that calls for Gitmo closure should be casually dismissed [...]

by C. William Chattin
I’m still digesting that part of President Obama (PBHO)’s National Archives speech addressed to the disposition of Guantanamo Bay detainees.  While the president seems rhetorically committed to closing Gitmo, his fervor to expend political capital in that pursuit remains, at best, suspect .
The movement to close Gitmo has always perplexed me.  At bottom, the colorable arguments for shutting the [...]