The Fatal Flaw in the 25th Amendment

We can anticipate that the amendment will sometimes work just fine. If the president falls into a coma, the vice president and “the principal officers of the executive departments” (presumably the cabinet) will certify this fact to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate (now always the majority leader), and the vice president will take on the presidential duties.

What, however, if the president is conscious and functioning but seriously mentally impaired, an incident of that impairment being an inability to recognize it. The president might then fight a 25^th Amendment certification.

Bad Treatment of Children to Deter Refugees Conflicts with the Constitution’s Corruption of Blood Clause

Causing immigrant children to suffer to deter their parents does not violate the Corruption of Blood Clause, which concerns treason convictions:  “The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood . . .” (Art. III, Sec. 3, Cl. 2.).  The clause, however, yet bears on the permissibly of this administration tactic.

Libertarianism, Free States, and Oppressive States

I am not going to here portray the free state utopia of the libertarian imagination, but instead will explore the logic of the libertarianism, by testing its “free state” and “oppressive state” categories in extreme cases selected for the purpose of bringing the logic of the theory to the surface.

Mass Killings and Killings in Chicago

In conservative and right wing comments on internet news reports of mass killings, especially where those killings are racially motivated (a significant fraction of mass killings), there are recurring memes. In addition to the ever popular “guns don’t kill people,” and “it’s a crazy person problem, not a gun problem,” we find versions of “why aren’t the media reporting on the n number of killings in Chicago in the last m days” (for some large number n and small m). 

Why should Chicago’s homicide statistics show up in online discussions of a white nationalist’s premeditated slaughter of Hispanics in El Paso? The explanations I find are either scary, stupid, or both.

How Radical is Rawls’s Fair Equality of Opportunity?

From Justice as Fairness:

“[T]hose who have the same level of talent and ability and the same willingness to use these gifts should have the same prospects of success regardless of their social class of origin.”  (p.  44.)