Category Archives: Major Print Outlets

Stuart Taylor, Jr.’s media appearances in print publications.

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Legal Affairs – Victims’ Rights: Leave the Constitution Alone

by Stuart Taylor, Jr.

National Journal

Chances are that most Senators have not really read the proposed Victims’ Rights Amendment, which is scheduled to come to the floor for the first time on April 25. After all, it’s kind of wordy-almost as long as the Constitution’s first 10 amendments (the Bill of Rights) combined. And you don’t have to go far into it to understand two key points.

The first is that a "no" vote would open the way for political adversaries to claim that "Senator So-and-so sold out the rights of crime victims." This helps explain why the proposed amendment has a chance of winning the required two-thirds majorities in both the Senate and the House. Sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., it has 41 co-sponsors (28 Republicans and 13 Demo-crats), including Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and has garnered rhetorical support from President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and Attorney General Janet Reno. (The Justice Department has hedged its endorsement of the fine print because of the deep misgivings of many of its officials.)

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The Supremes In The Dock

by Stuart Taylor, Jr.

Newsweek

It has become a familiar pattern. When the Supreme Court ruled last week that cities and states can ban nude dancing in clubs, the vote was close (6-3), and the conservatives won. And when the Supreme Court knocked down the White House’s hard-nosed efforts to regulate the tobacco industry last month, the justices were even more closely divided (5-4) – conservatives against liberals. In recent months, that 5-4 split has allowed the court’s conservatives to narrowly prevail in cases limiting the rights of defendants facing the death penalty, making it easier for police to stop people who flee when approached and restricting the federal government’s power to make states draw election districts that benefit black or Hispanic candidates.

That tenuous balance of power may soon change. The 5-4 split that has defined the court in recent years could be altered with the replacement of a single justice. And since it seems likely that one or more justices will retire in the coming four years, the next president may have the rare opportunity to sharply tip the court’s scales to the right or left, perhaps for decades to come. Until recently, the Supremes have remained a sleeper issue in the presidential race. But as the sparring intensifies, the battle over the future of the court could emerge as one of the most hotly contested issues of the campaign.

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Legal Affairs – How Jeb Bush Suddenly Became Bull Connor

by Stuart Taylor, Jr.

National Journal

It was perhaps the biggest mass protest in Florida’s history, with 10,000 demonstrators converging on the Capitol in Tallahassee on March 7. Some placards called Florida Gov. Jeb Bush "Jeb Crow." Others said, "Pharaoh Bush, let my people go!" A speaker declared that the governor had taken "the first step towards resegregation."

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Legal Affairs – Should The Feds Prosecute The Cops Who Killed Diallo?

by Stuart Taylor, Jr.

National Journal

The victim was black and unarmed; his assailants, four white cops. The publicity was intense. Public outrage was boiling. The state courts moved the trial out of the racially divided city, where convictions seemed likely, to a quieter, whiter town. And the jury’s verdict-not a single conviction-spread rage through much of the black community.

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Opening Argument – The President’s Least- Favorite Nominee

by Stuart Taylor, Jr

National Journal

Bradley A. Smith is "unfit for the office," says Al Gore — so unfit that "this is the first time I’ve called for the defeat of a [Clinton] nominee." The President’s agreement to nominate Smith is "a betrayal of campaign finance reform," says Bill Bradley. Smith’s views are "extreme," and the nomination "reeks of the kind of backroom deal-making that turns Americans away from politics and government," says Common Cause. And even the nominator in chief says that Gore and Bradley "were right to condemn" Smith’s views (if not the nomination), because Smith "hates campaign finance reform."

At the center of this little storm is an earnest, articulate, libertarian, 41-year-old professor at Capital University Law School, in Columbus, Ohio. He was plucked from obscurity by Senate Republicans to fill one of three Republican slots on the six-member Federal Election Commission, because he is perhaps the most prolific scholarly critic of the wisdom and constitutionality of both current and proposed curbs on campaign contributions and spending.

Only the President can nominate people to sit on the FEC. But thanks to one of American government’s peculiar customs — enforced by the Senate leadership’s threat to hold the President’s judicial nominees hostage until Clinton gave them Smith — Clinton made the nomination on Feb. 9, ending many months of stalemate. Now Brad Smith is getting a taste of what nominees as diverse as Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Lani Guinier, and Zoe Baird have experienced: the hazards of becoming a symbol in one of Washington’s ideological wars.

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Legal Affairs – A Vote For Gay Marriage – But Not by Judicial Fiat

by Stuart Taylor, Jr.

National Journal

Vermont and its legislature are mired in furious debate over the state Supreme Court’s ruling two months ago that the legislature must "extend to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law," either by allowing same-sex marriages or by creating comprehensive "domestic partnership" rights.

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Legal Affairs – The Death Penalty: To Err Is Human

by Stuart Taylor, Jr.

National Journal

The death penalty is so politically correct these days that Hillary Rodham Clinton supports it. Her husband, the Democratic President, has championed curbs on death row appeals. So Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s Jan. 31 moratorium on all executions is an extraordinary event. Maybe even a turning point.