Our motto for the new year is ....
Think Positive ... and
TEST NEGATIVE
Tada!
Some semi-random end-of-year thoughts...
Your Miami Dolphins are playoff-bound if they win their last two games. Miami has become the first NFL team to ever lose seven straight games in a season and win seven straight games. Like last year, this team showed no quit in the face of adversity. They will not make the super bowl this year, but they are close to being a team that can deep in the playoffs. One or two good rookies, a veteran pickup at RB and O line, and this is a team to be reckoned with.
Jury trials should not commence next week. You know why.
Where is the Florida Supreme Court on Omicron? The world wonders.
If we were president...
1) we would require a national vaccine passport. Why should Bill Gates be the only one able to track the vaccinated? Vaccines would be needed for i) travel; ii) work; iii) social interactions (e.g., bars, restaurants, plays, movies, concerts, sporting events); vaccines would not be needed to stay home and wrap aluminum foil around your head to prevent Dr. Fauci from reading your mind.
2) Hospital care, when limited would be apportioned by vaccine status. The unvaccinated would be last on triage lists. Making the rest of us sick and allowing the virus to mutate should have consequences to your own personal health. Go kill yourself if you wish, although we are not advocating suicide. However, do not drag us down with you when you're drowning.
3) Confront Putin on Ukraine. Putin doesn't understand anything but power and powerful acts. We would send several brigades to Ukraine. BTW, China is watching what we do with Putin. The single most significant event in how the Soviets viewed Ronald Reagan was when, as president, he fired all the air traffic controllers who went on strike. The bold move caught the eye of the Kremlin. KGB analysts confirmed decades later that when Reagan fired the controllers, they wrote papers explaining why Reagan was unlike his predecessors in doing exactly what he said he was going to do. This caused great concern in the Kremlin. Putin is carefully watching Biden to see if he will back up his rhetoric.
4) The same rules that apply to Thanksgiving and Christmas and Kwanza and Hannukah apply to the new year: Nobody wants your "Happy New Year" email clogging up their inboxes. We can all do without your self-promotion. Save it for Instagram and Snapchat.
The strategy of impeaching Ghislaine Maxwell's accusers, and questioning their motives and memory is being criticized in light of her conviction. What other strategy was available? It is entirely possible Maxwell was a victim as well, and in light of Epstein's death, she was the only available target by the DOJ, who previously had given Epstein a pass on his behavior. Thoughts?
Remember, State Court in Miami is CLOSED Friday. Cerrado. No entry. No Zoom. NADA.
Honest question: Under what provisions of federal law, empowered by what Constitutional grant of authority, would you, as President, undertake the steps set forth Item 1? Because outside of federal reservations and federal employees, and barring a sweeping (I'd say tyrannical) disregard for the Constitution, I'm not seeing it. Yes, you can tell folks getting on a federally regulated airline that they have to have such a "passport," but you state want to require it for travel. You mean, like a drive from Florida to Georgia? Or from Fort Lauderdale to Hialeah? Or from my house to my church?
ReplyDeleteAnd as for work, restaurants and the rest (presuming we're not talking about "work" at the Dept. of Agriculture or "restaurants" like the cafe in a federal courthouse) how are you going to manage it within the law?
The states, of course, have general police powers that can be exercised to impose all sorts of controls on private conduct and commerce in the name of public health, public safety, the general welfare -- heck, even morals are subject to the police power. The federal government, on the other hand, decidedly does not. (And while these principles are foundational and centuries old, there is yet nothing arcane or archaic about them. C.f. U.S. v. Lopez (95?); U.S. v. Morrison (2000).) Even President Biden has now acknowledged there is no federal solution here.
So again, how? I don't pretend to be a scholar about these issues, but the notion of enumerated, limited powers for the feds versus everything else for the states (thanks Tenth Amendment), seems pretty clear. Honestly, what am I missing? This is a lawyer blog, after all, not a set of stools at the corner bar. Statements that begin with "If *I* were the President..." need to bring the good in this space, right?
Also, and always, as we all grow ever more fatigued and fed up with this damned virus, I urge you to keep in mind the following universal truth, rendered no less true by a pandemic:
State power is elastic in only one direction. Once it expands, if you wish to make it smaller, you are going to have to break something.
In any case, here's wishing you a happy and a healthy new year.
Pardon me … but why do we not hear anything about the Spring clothing line of fashion ICON Sir Kenneth W?
ReplyDeleteSources have informed us that he is bringing back pleated trousers! I know. Sounds crazy.
Will we see Sir Kenneth W wearing a classic blue blazer, pleated khaki dockers and those incredible size 13 Tretorns? Rumpole, can an attorney wear that outfit to court under the “summer rules?”
Stay tuned.
Thank you Robert. The same provision that Lincoln used to suspend habeas corpus.
ReplyDeleteLet’s start with my oath to preserve protect and Defend the constitution. No people alive. No constitution. It’s the same principle that I would use if as POTUS I was forced to use nuclear weapons.
Rump:
ReplyDelete#2 is a sick and disgusting view. Really.
As to #3, Russia is a 2nd rate power now, and risking war over Ukraine is ridiculous. And escalation with Russia gives China a window to undertake its own aggressions.
Mr. Kuntz:
you don't have to be a constitutional scholar to know that a national mandate would be easily justified under the commerce clause. Duh.
There is no need for a national mandate. Let people be. Vaccinations help and the science proves that. At the same time don't force people to get vaccinated or make them loose their jobs if they don't. I guess I have the luxury of carefreeness because I'm handsome and rich ( just hit 13 million self made) have a hot wife and gorgeous kids. Life does not suck. Happy new year.
DeleteHmmm. Would I rather be a multi-millionaire or know the difference between “lose” and “loose”?
DeleteHmmm. Would I rather be a multi-millionaire or know the difference between “lose” and “loose”?
DeleteMoney can never buy class or honor
DeleteRumpole:
ReplyDeleteLincoln faced a far greater threat, constituting far graver grounds for his action than this pandemic ever presented -- let alone presents in its current form. And even with a civil war raging, Lincoln was wrong to suspend habeas corpus. I'm fully convinced that if he had lived longer, Lincoln would have come to regret Proclamation 104, as FDR -- if he had lived a bit longer -- would have come to regret Proclamation 2537.
Anonymous @7:38, is your argument that the authority granted to the federal government to regulate INTERstate commerce in Art I, Sec 8, Clause 3 would empower the President to issue a proclamation which would, in Rumpole's words, require a "vaccine passport" to "i) travel; ii) work; iii) social interactions (e.g., bars, restaurants, plays, movies, concerts, sporting events)?" So "travel," full stop. "Work," full stop. "Social interactions," full stop. Private businesses like bars and restaurants. First Amendment expressions of music or drama. All that, you believe, can be interdicted by presidential fiat under the authority of :::checks notes::: the Commerce Clause?
I want to make sure I understand your argument. Because if THAT is your argument, then your argument -- to borrow a term from land that birthed the common law -- is bollocks.
But as I say, I may have misunderstood.
Mr. Kuntz,
DeleteYes that's exactly what I'm saying and it isnt bullocks its basic black letter law know by 1Ls across the country. And there needn't even be a nexus to travel, work, or social interactions. Under the commerce clause, congress could out and out mandate vaccines, and even fine those who dont comply.
I wont give you the full explanation. But the short version is the commerce clause allows the feds to regulate (1) the channels of interstate commerce, (2l the instrumentalities of interstate commerce, and (3) activities that **substantially affect** interstate commerce.
The vaccine mandate is clealy justified under # 3. Read wickard v filburn and Gonzalez v Raich. Or better yet, google "1L constitutional law outline" and give yourself a refresher.
Your welcome.
RE: The unvaccinated would be last on triage lists
ReplyDeleteHow can you say that???????? I love you and your blog Rump but discriminating a patient and choosing to treat them last because they are not vaccinated is wrong on so many levels.
Is it not possible the ones who choose not be vaccinated might be because of religious reasons?
Rump, your views above on trashing United States citizens are the reason the Founders came up with the 2A.
ReplyDeleteI can say that because the people who CHOOSE not to be vaccinated are the ones filling up the hospitals. And quite frankly if I have a loved one who is having a heart attack or a bust appendix I want them to get treatment over some right wing Trump Qanon nut who believes vaccines cause sterility and are part of a government monitoring program. People who decline vaccines are the ones the virus is mutating in. Which means those people are actively threatening my life. As such they need to be punished. As I said - if they don’t want a vaccine no problem. Stay home. Stay out of every public place. And when they get sick have them have the same belief that doctors are stupid and that they know more about science then scientists - and let them stay home or go to a Qanon shaman for help. Don’t go to a hospital begging the same the doctors they have been saying don’t know anything about COVID and vaccines to save them when they are sick. Stick to their principles. Otherwise they are hurting me.
ReplyDeleteMr Kunitz I must disagree. Lincoln faced the loss of the union. We face the loss of humanity. We are a few mutations away from an omicron like virus that kills 80% of the people it infects in 24 hours. When that occurs then what?
ReplyDeleteHey Rump, re: your 10:22, what happened to healthcare as a fundamental human right.
ReplyDeleteYour comment shows what an arrogant elitist you are.
Let mask you this, what do you think the vaccine for?