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chuck turchick

Minneapolis, MN
Commenter for
4 years 15 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 07/18/10 at 11:22 am in response to State taxes and nonprofit contributions: connecting the dots

Mr. Pearlstein asks: "How could such an eruption [in taxes for the richest people] not result in huge and self-defeating repercussions?"

Here's how. If tax opponents used their writing skills to advocate for community values, for improving the quality of life for all Minnesotans, and for explaining to the richest among us that none of them got rich solely through their own efforts.

Posted on 06/29/10 at 12:15 pm in response to The Kagan hearings: judicial activism, the little people, and maybe a short nap

Senator Klobuchar's concern for the effect of legal decisions on regular people is remarkable. She sits on the Board of Governors of the University of St. Thomas Law School, where she employs as a law professor Robert Delahunty. In his capacity as an Office of Legal Counsel attorney, Professor Delahunty wrote memos, which are binding within the Executive Department, saying the Geneva Conventions did not apply to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. Those legal decisions may well have led to the...

Posted on 06/29/10 at 11:52 am in response to Flap over Gitmo lawyers overshadows other ethical issues

Mr. Swanson,

Sorry, I didn't read your reply until now. The "fallacy of an appeal to the majority" has no relevance here. The OLC's responsibility is not to offer a legal justification for some policy the administration would like to pursue. Rahter, it is supposed to give an objective view of what the current state of the law is. And yes, that means what the majority of legal scholars -- or at least the courts -- say the law is.

For some criticisms of mine of the Yoo/Delahunty...

Posted on 03/29/10 at 07:54 am in response to Flap over Gitmo lawyers overshadows other ethical issues

Mr. Swanson, the legal work of the OLC lawyers arguably wasn't legal work at all, but rather was political work disguised as legal work. That is, the legal work was really designed to give free rein to already-made policy decisions. Evidence to suggest this is that the OLC memos were not in the mainstream of legal thinking. Instead of describing accurately what the law was, they were barely on the fringes of legal thinking, which was one reason they were withdrawn. That is highly unusual for...

Posted on 12/30/09 at 08:49 pm in response to Homesick Vikings blow another -- and the near future may be seedless

Nothing quite like quoting yourself to sell your book, is there?

Posted on 11/21/09 at 12:11 am in response to Civilian panel reviews police complaints, but gets little response

At the last monthly meeting of the CRA, Joel Fussy, the Asst. City Attorney assigned to the CRA, said de novo review meant a complete review from the beginning of all the facts in the case. This is clearly a preposterous definition of de novo review. Fussy was silent as to what "based on the adjuciated facts as determined by the civilian review authority board" meant.

This definition of de novo review, which is clearly designed to cover the law-breaking of the Chief of Police, wouldn...

Posted on 02/03/09 at 06:23 pm in response to Star Tribune raises single-copy price to 75 cents outstate

So, demand goes down, and price goes...up? I knew I should've paid attention in that economics class!

Posted on 12/26/09 at 09:19 pm in response to Q&A with whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg: In some ways, 'I'm as pessimistic as I've ever been'

A minor correction: The federal judge was Philip Neville. Judge Devitt, who had the other two cases of the Minnesota Eight, allowed no testimony on the draft or the war. He treated it as an ordinary burglary -- except for his sentencing.