• John Eastman and the Limits of Bar Discipline

    The memos prepared by John Eastman constitute some of the most disturbing documentation of the plot to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump. Eastman’s legal analysis sets out a range of supposed options by which swing-state electors from states supporting Joe Biden could be disregarded, thus handing Trump a second term in office. The State Bar of California announced that it will be seeking his disbarment from the practice of law over his role fomenting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Eastman “has now entered the select club of lawyers finally facing bar discipline for their involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election,” Quinta Jurecic writes.

  • George Santos: A Democracy Can’t Easily Penalize Lies by Politicians

    Historian Sean Wilentz remarked that while embellishments happen, Santos’ lies are different – “there is no example like it” in American history, Wilentz said. The Supreme Court has concluded that lies enjoy First Amendment protection, and that the government cannot be trusted with the power to regulate lies. Moreover, one local newspaper — the North Shore Leader — did report on Santos’ misrepresentations, but his election is evidence that the loss of news reporting jobs has damaged America’s democracy.

  • Exxon Disputed Climate Findings for Years. Its Scientists Knew Better.

    Projections created internally by ExxonMobil starting in the late 1970s on the impact of fossil fuels on climate change were very accurate, even surpassing those of some academic and governmental scientists. The oil company executives sought to mislead the public about the industry’s role in climate change, contradicting the findings of the company’s own scientists and drawing a growing number of lawsuits by states and cities.

  • Gun Control Measures Associated with Reduced Police Use of Force

    As police departments and activists look for strategies to reduce excessive use of force by police, new research shows limited data, lack of transparency and irregular implementation of reforms make it difficult to determine which approaches are effective.

  • Brazil, U.S. Show That Secure Elections Require Agreement – Not Just Cybersecurity and Clear Ballot Records

    The source of the violent disputes which followed the 2020 U.S. election and the 2022 election in Brazil were not the result of procedural or technical flaws in the voting systems, but rather a failure of certain individuals living in democratic society to uphold the fundamental principles of democracy. True democracies require candidates who agree on election rules and processes in advance and agree to abide by the outcome of elections, even when they wish the results were otherwise. The alternative is continuing instability and doubt in the electorate – an outcome that serves no citizen’s interests.

  • ‘Stand Your Ground’ and Shall-Issue Laws Increase Gun Violence, Study Finds

    The RAND Corporation’s latest gun policy report examined 18 popular laws for their effects on violence. The sweeping synthesis of gun policy research has found supportive evidence that “stand your ground” and shall-issue concealed carry laws increase levels of violence, and that child access prevention policies reduce firearm injuries and deaths among children.

  • Comparing the Special Counsel Investigations of the Biden, Trump Documents

    Two weeks ago, AG Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate President Biden’s possession of documents marked as classified from his service in the Obama administration as vice president. Stanford Law Professor David Sklansky discusses Hur’s appointment and compares the Biden documents case to that of former president Trump.

  • Effects of Gun Policies: Evidence Grows to Supports Laws Intended to Restrict Child Access to Guns

    More than 45,000 Americans die annually from deliberate and unintentional gun injuries, just over half of which are suicides. Another 50,000 to 150,000 Americans per year receive care in a hospital for a nonfatal gun injury.

  • How Does a Child Become a Shooter? Research Suggests Easy Access to Guns and Exposure to Screen Violence Increase the Risk

    In the aftermath of a shocking incident in which a first grader shot and seriously injured a teacher at a school in Newport News, Virginia, the city’s mayor asked the question: “How did this happen?” As experts in media use and its connections to violence, we have reported some disturbing findings about how children are influenced by gun violence depicted in media like television, movies and video games. What makes this more troubling is the fact that millions of children in the U.S. have easy access to firearms in their homes, increasing the risk of gun deaths, including suicides.

  • EV Transition Will Benefit Most U.S. Vehicle Owners, but Lowest-Income Americans Could Get Left Behind

    More than 90% of vehicle-owning households in the United States would see a reduction in the percentage of income spent on transportation energy—the gasoline or electricity that powers their cars, SUVs and pickups—if they switched to electric vehicles. But more than half of the lowest-income U.S. households (an estimated 8.3 million households) would continue to experience high transportation energy burdens.

  • Bringing Manufacturing Back to the U.S. Requires Political Will, but Success Hinges on Training American Workers

    The lack of manufacturing competitiveness in the U.S. leaves the U.S. vulnerable to shortages of critical goods during times of geopolitical disruption and global competition. The strategies the U.S. employs in bringing back manufacturing, along with innovative practices, will be key to ensure national security.

  • Lula Tours Destruction in Brasilia After Riots

    Thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the former right-populist president who lost the 31 October election to the center-left candidate Lula, broke into and ransacked the presidential office building in Brasilia on Sunday. These supporters want Bolsonaro reinstated and have called for the military to stage a coup. Bolsonaro did not attend Lula’s 1 January inauguration. He is now in Florida, where he is staying in order to avoid corruption investigations to which he is exposed now that he is no longer in office.

  • Brazil: "The Content of the Three Powers Is Preserved"

    People who watched an unruly mob — supporters of the candidate who had lost the 31 October 2022 election in Brazil — break into the presidential building in Brasilia on Sunday, would be forgiven for thinking that they have seen this movie before. The similarities between what happened in the U.S. before and after the November 2020 election, and what happened in Brazil before and after the October 2022 election, are unmistaken.

  • Taking Fresh Shot, Again, at Debunking Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories

    “The Conspiracy,” which premiered in New York in November, traces the origins of one of the world’s oldest and most persistent, dangerous, anti-Semitic theories, and the impact these myths had on three prominent families caught in these theories’ web during the past 200 years.

  • Calls for More Progress on Space Governance Growing Louder

    Space may seem infinite, but the narrow band that hugs the Earth, where satellites and space stations operate, is not. A recent RAND study described it as congested, contested, and littered with debris. Tens of thousands of additional satellites are scheduled to launch in the next few years, the vanguard of a new space era. Existing space treaties won’t be enough to keep them safe, to prevent crowding and collisions, and to preserve the promise of outer space.