A coward is “one who lacks courage to meet danger or difficulty.”

   In a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Petitioners ask the results of the 2016 election be declared void, in part, as “To the extent that Donald Trump obtained the Office of President of the United States with the assistance and interference of actors or agents of the government of Russia, has acted in office in such a way as to benefit Russia, and thus has adhered to the government of Russia, Mr. Trump obtained…

   In Bailey, et al v. United States, et al, docket 16-1464, a Petition for Writ of Mandamus before the U.S. Supreme Court, Petitioners ask for independent investigation of the 2016 elections and, if it is determined Russia’s interference in the election affected the outcome, the election be declared void.

   To set aside the results of an election, the procedures for which have been used for nearly Two Hundred Thirty (230) years, Petitioners’ burden of proof is significant, as it should…

   Among objections, to a Petition for Writ of Mandamus for removal from office of a sitting President, I have read, is that only two (2) mechanisms exist to that end:

(1) The Framers of the Constitution, in 1787, created impeachment (Art. II, sec. 4):

(2)  Amendment XXV, sec. 4, added in 1967, provides for removal if the President is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office...”

   The Framers addressed many contingencies, but also institutionalized and protected…

   A case before the U.S. Supreme Court—the only legal action to seek an independent investigation of our country’s 2016 election—seeks also, if collusion occurred between Russia and the GOP  campaign for President, an order the election be declared void ab initio.  Bailey, et al v U.S., et al, is set for conference on September 25, 2017. The Petition cites treason, among other grounds, as how the relatively few votes needed in “swing” states to grab the Electoral College were flipped.…

   In Bailey, et al. v. United States, et al., docket 16-1464, Petitioners seek two (2) remedies. The second, and broader, remedy is to have the results of the 2016 election declared void ab initio.  The effect would be to place matters as though the election had not taken place.

   The first, and more immediate, remedy is a request that the Court appoint a Special Master, under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to conduct an independent investigation.  

   As to the remedy of a…

   A case before the United States Supreme Court is the only legal action that seeks an independent investigation into the 2016 election and, if collusion is found to have occurred between the campaign of the Republican candidate for President of the United States and Russia, an order that the election be declared void ab initio.  The case is set for conference on September 25, 2017.  Over one-third of cases filed with the Court fail to make this “cut.”

   Bailey et al. v. United States…

   Any effort by Congress to limit the authority of a sitting President, or even to protect the job of a person who is part of the Executive branch, is subject to the “political question” doctrine.  This would be a difficult hurdle for such a Congressional enactment to clear.  Specifically, a Congressional enactment that seeks to shield Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel appointed to investigate matters that include whether Russian intervention in the election affected the outcome of the…

   I do not like “smart” phones.  I am not all that fond of cell phones, generally.

   Before cell phones, 98 percent of what people said on the phone was crap. After cell phones, the “traffic”—i.e., number of calls made—via cell phones versus land lines (that really are not land lines anymore) has multiplied by a few magnitudes. Valuable content hardly has increased. The percentage of crap has gone up. We easily are above 99 percent.

   Before cell phones, there were no…

   People fondly deny reality.  Denial starts early.  There is no Santa Claus—but those of us “in” on the truth are encouraged to keep the truth from little ones lest their hopes be dashed.  

   After the debacle by which an individual now occupies the Oval Office though he lost by some three million popular votes, the first denial was of Russian meddling.

   The first denial has little credence.    

   The United States Congress has voted to impose sanctions on Russia for Russia…

Treason, it often is said, is the only crime defined by the Constitution.  Article III, Section 3 provides: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort...”

   There is more in Art. III, Sec. 3.  The standard for conviction on a charge of treason also is set:  “...No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in…

   The Framers of the Constitution tried, in 1787 at the Convention, to address many things in the document that became the Constitution. Of course they institutionalized and protected the most evil institution in our history—slavery—although the delegates were products of the Enlightenment.

    As to the selection of what they termed, early in the Convention, as the “Chief Magistrate,” and what we call the President, they were conscious of efforts foreign powers might to interfere in…

The podcast “Civil Discourse Now” will return to the local pod “scene” for all the pod people who are interested in events that seem to shape our lives. If you want to view The Show, watch for it on FaceBook, the most popular blog roll in Indiana, or at civildiscoursenow dot com.

   In the pasture, when I was a kid, a Sycamore tree—I will capitalize the name of this great type of tree—stood alone and apart from everything. The tree was old, the darkened bark long before fallen away on parts of the trunk and branches.  The white and gray were exposed.  The huge leaves covered the ground in the fall, but it was pasture land and eventually mulched.  The tree was older than I was (obviously), and I have no clue how old.  The tree was gigantic—as mature Sycamores tend to…

  Robo-calls annoy me, but amuse me at rare times.

  One aspect of robo-calls is the development of computers that speak in complete phrases and answer questions.

  The past few months, after the feel came that “HAL” (see “2001: A Space Odyssey”) was on the other end of the line, I have asked, “Are you a computer?”  At first the calls simply ended. The programmers must have adapted, and other people asked questions similar to mine, because the computers began to say something to the…

   If one wishes to find weaknesses in the position of “originalists”—those who believe we should follow strictly the intentions of those men who drafted the Constitution of the United States in the summer of 1787—the process by which the President is selected is a good place to start.

   There were general premises upon which the Framers seem to have based the principles that guided their construction of the government the Constitution created.  A basic premise was distrust of, and the…

   The election is past. The Democratic Party offered, as a candidate for President of the United States, a person who already had staked out a claim to the nomination, through use of long-time connections within the party. The Republican Party “regulars” were reluctant to endorse the individual who won the primary/caucus process as he extolled many views people find abhorrent.

   Both candidates were reported as having the highest “unfavorable” ratings of any two candidates for the…

  We lived on Arlington Place, in a one-bedroom apartment with a Pullman kitchen—i.e., down-sized appliances arrayed in a line that could be hidden when the louvered doors were pulled across and shut.  On the first floor of the building was an Italian restaurant called Salvatore’s.

  We had moved there after she graduated from Purdue. We were young, broke, and didn’t care. She had a job at one of the exchanges as a runner. I obtained employment at Northwestern University School of Law as…

   I was contacted by individuals with no connection to the campaign of Donald Trump® and asked, in the wake of yesterday’s announcement by the Man Who Would Be—Well I’ll Settle for President that he would impose a really strict test on those who would try to enter the United States to draft such a test. The folks in question would have to past a test to ascertain whether those folks understand The Constitution. One reasonably infers Mr. Trump® meant the Constitution of the United States,…

   I have suggested IndyGo, to acculturate the citizens of Indianapolis and Marion County to take mass transit, should:

   1) Increase the number of bus routes to optimize the number of potential riders.  We should have bus routes in areas where the numbers of potential riders is greatest.

   2) Increase the number of buses on those routes so that during peak hours, especially, someone need wait no more than ten minutes for a bus.

   3) Make sure the buses run on time and are…

   In 1986, when I moved to Marion County to attend law school, I was surprised at the relatively primitive mass transit system.  One had to wait an hour at a stop for a bus.  I had lived in Chicago, where buses were frequent and dependable, fares cheap enough to make driving a car a much-less-preferred option for daily transportation, and everyone rode the bus.  By that I mean there was no stigma to riding the bus.  I rode the 151 Sheridan bus for about a year, from a stop in Lincoln Park a…