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Recent Articles from Jack L.B. Gohn
Jack L.B. Gohn: In SIJ cases, we broke it, we bought it
Among the oft-touted secondary benefits of pro bono legal work is making a practitioner feel good about himself. But that feeling can be seductive and deceptive, as all forms of self-satisfaction can. And among the first things threatened are one’s critical facilities. I recently smacked up against this danger when I got partway through a […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: Constitutional rights under assault in Apple encryption fight
There are plenty of issues in the dispute between the Justice Department and Apple over the encryption of iPhones. But the two I personally find of greatest concern have to do with human dignity: that of cellphone users and that of programmers who may at some point be subject to a court order to attempt […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: Welcome to the ‘Drone Age’
The civilian drone era has barely begun, and already heads are throbbing with the issues drones raise. There are lots of juicy ones, including national defense, air safety and conflicts between federal and state authority, but I only want to focus on privacy problems. Because – let’s face it – the drone is, first and […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: Trump’s would-be Muslim ban is abhorrent, not unconstitutional
There is no question that Donald Trump’s plan to cut off all entry to the country by Muslims, immigrants and visitors alike, is widely and justly felt to be contrary to this country’s values. But I have heard it said that such a ban would also be unconstitutional or illegal. I’m far from convinced. To […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: Losing the rule of law, memorandum by memorandum
It was disheartening, in a deep-down, bone-wearying sort of way, to read the recent report in the New York Times of how four top federal lawyers drafted secret memoranda of law to President Barack Obama to justify the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden and culminated with his corpse being spirited away so that […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: Diesels, directors and dogma
To a hammer, the proverb goes, everything looks like a nail. Even when it’s nothing like a nail at all. The workings of this principle recently popped up in a New York Times column on the Volkswagen mess by James B. Stewart, a journalist whose beat is business, and who seems to have been covering […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: The house always wins – and often excludes
The casino industry is designed around the principle that every game is openly rigged in favor of the house. Some publicly acknowledged feature designed into each game assures the casino that, over a large number of wagers, the house will consistently win more than the bettor does. The casino industry relies on people’s strange willingness […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: The weird jurisprudence and constitutionalism of Ted Cruz
I write about policy in this column, not politics, but sometimes a focus on policy inescapably draws one’s attention to politicians. This is one of those times. Nearly 16 months before the next election (thanks to our agonizingly long presidential campaigns), one of the candidates, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has sought to distinguish himself by […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: The Obergefell dissents: All due respect
Along with most of my friends and most of the people I respect, I rejoiced in the result of the Supreme Court’s recent Obergefell decision, establishing same-sex marriage as a constitutionally protected right. Yet I realized as soon as I heard of that result, and even before reading Justice Kennedy’s opinion, that there was a […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: Magna Carta — accidental and cautionary
Eight hundred years ago this month, at a spot that now looks up at a glide path for jets coming into Heathrow from the west, England’s King John signed a parchment of some approximately 3600 words of Latin. Today we call the parchment Magna Carta (“great charter”). It didn’t have that name at the outset, […]
Jack L.B. Gohn: What to say after Freddie Gray
The riots were like Rohrschach ink blots, in which you could see almost any side of any issue. We’ll have to work with our confusion. But changes must be made.
Jack L. B. Gohn: Admirable disloyalty
E.M. Forster famously wrote: “If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” I was reminded of that line watching Amy Herzog’s 2010 play After the Revolution, now in revival at Center Stage.
