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How Thick is the Blanket? – Preemptive Pardons as a Presidential Power
FEATURED
December 6, 2024
How Thick is the Blanket? – Preemptive Pardons as a Presidential Power
By: James Trusty
As the presiding judge scolded Hunter Biden’s attorneys this week, “The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”[1] But what exactly is that history he claims is being re-written? Judge Scarsi was challenging the largely academic issue of whether a pardon signed at noon, for instance, protects against crimes committed on the same day at dinnertime. That is a very limited run at the notion of “preemptive” pardons, and it seems to be strictly a question of chronology. The judge did not seem to question the idea of…
Supremely Improbable
July 30, 2024
Supremely Improbable
By: James Trusty
President Biden’s pronounced objectives for Supreme Court “reform” are improbable, politically lifeless under a particularly lame duck presidency, and motivated by transparently November-driven calculations. But even if the proposed changes are doomed from the start, they push public discourse on a couple of issues that are red meat for the democrats. The stated reforms are superficially simple ones: 1) to “clarify” that “there is no…
Presidential Immunity Ruling Stirs Sound and Fury
July 5, 2024
Presidential Immunity Ruling Stirs Sound and Fury
By: James Trusty
The immediate and eventual impact of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision in Trump v. United States is both considerable and dramatically misrepresented. The initial consequences include likely delay to the January 6 prosecution out of D.C. and the setting of hearings—in D.C., Georgia and south Florida—where the judges will be required to make factual findings as to whether the evidence supporting the indictments reflect “official…
In Federal Sentencing, Age Begins to Matter
October 29, 2010
In Federal Sentencing, Age Begins to Matter
By: Ifrah Law
On November 1, 2010, a new amendment to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines will go into effect that will allow a judge to consider a defendant’s age far more often than before in handing down a sentence in federal court. We think this change will have a major impact on sentencing in white-collar criminal cases. Defendants in financial crimes tend to be older, so even a…
The Foreclosure Crisis: Don’t Believe Everything You Read
October 22, 2010
The Foreclosure Crisis: Don’t Believe Everything You Read
By: Ifrah Law
Legal pressure is mounting against the firms involved in the nationwide foreclosure crisis. In the wake of reports that possibly fraudulent court documents were used to fast-track home foreclosures, a federal Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is investigating possible criminal violations committed by banks and mortgage companies. We need to ask: What laws are available to prosecutors? After all, people can do plenty of things…
FTC Getting Serious About Full Disclosure in Endorsements
October 20, 2010
FTC Getting Serious About Full Disclosure in Endorsements
By: Ifrah Law
The Federal Trade Commission is taking steps to show that it is quite serious about enforcing the so-called blogger disclosure rules that it issued last year. The rules say, essentially, that when someone endorses or reviews a product or service, the person must disclose any relationship with the company that produces the product. So if a blogger gets a free item from a manufacturer, the…
A New Turn for Washington State’s Online Poker Law
October 15, 2010
A New Turn for Washington State’s Online Poker Law
By: Ifrah Law
After the unanimous rejection by the Washington State Supreme Court of a lawsuit that attempted to overturn the state’s draconian ban on online poker, proponents of the game now say that they’re going to go to the state legislature and try to get the law repealed, rather than pursue the challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court. On Sept. 23, 2010, the state court rejected the…
Banned From the Internet: A Term of Probation That Is Overly Restrictive
October 11, 2010
Banned From the Internet: A Term of Probation That Is Overly Restrictive
By: Ifrah Law
The following opinion article by Ifrah PLLC founding partner A. Jeff Ifrah and associate Steven Eichorn appeared in the National Law Journal on October 11, 2010. Banned from the Internet Prohibiting a defendant on probation from conducting any business online is overly restrictive and not reasonably related to legitimate sentencing goals. By A. Jeff Ifrah and Steven Eichorn The Internet is becoming the town square for…
