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This is especially concerning because within the executive branch, OLC opinions are considered binding unless the president or attorney general overrules them. That gives OLC tremendous influence in setting the parameters of how the government acts. In fact, officials who act in accordance with an OLC opinion typically have immunity from punishment if their actions are later determined to be illegal.

Even worse, much of OLCs work goes on in secret. The office takes the position that its opinions are exempt from open records laws, and while it does proactively publish a certain number of them, there is often a substantial delay before the public sees OLCs justifications for government actions.

The offices tendency to expand presidential power has led to executive actions that have directly harmed people, undermined rights, and stifled Congresss efforts to oversee the executive branch.

The offices failings are best illustrated by its most notorious opinions. It advised the CIA that torture was permissible, despite federal and international law that explicitly prohibited it. The office approved warrantless surveillance of Americans communications despite the clear requirements of the Fourth Amendment. More recently, it signed off on a drone strike against a U.S. citizen abroad, despite serious constitutional concerns stemming from due process rights.

An exhaustive list of harmful OLC opinions would be far too long to print, but an additional smattering illustrates the massive scope of the offices damage. It has approved military action without congressional approval; barred the Food and Drug Administration from regulating the drugs used for lethal injections; blocked an inspector general from reporting to Congress the misconduct that led to former President Donald Trumps first impeachment; effectively nullified the laws governing succession of leadership at federal agencies; and in a line of opinionsdating back to the 1980s, blocked Congressfrom carrying out its constitutionally mandated oversight function at nearly every turn.

What measures are necessary to ensure the office consistently respects the rule of law? A good place to start is the recommendations in our recently published policy agenda for Congress and the new administration. There, we set out four categories of commonsense reforms to bring the office in line: increased transparency, a review of past opinions, process improvements within OLC, and congressional pushback.

First, Congress should require OLC to release all of its non-classified opinions. Increasing transparency at OLC has long been a Project On Government Oversight (POGO) priority, and has enjoyed support from both sides of the aisle in Congress in the past. If the public and Congress dont know how the executive branch is interpreting the law, they cannot hold it accountable or fix laws that are too vague. OLC, for its part, has said that such a requirement would be unconstitutional, but Congress, and if necessary the courts, have a say in that as well.

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Rubber Stamp or Rule of Law? - Project On Government Oversight

The Supreme Court of the United States issued an order list on Monday morning which contained an increasingly common occurrence: Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch banding together in order to opine on what they view as the need for criminal justice reform.

The underlying case concerns Martin Longoria, who, in 2018, was indicted for the crime of being a felon in possession of several firearms, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Longoria challenged the government on Fourth Amendment grounds by noting that the FBI had searched his apartment without a warrant. The defense moved for suppression as a remedy for the alleged constitutional violation but the district court denied the motion because it found that Longorias wife had consented to the search.

Instead of pleading guilty, the defense and the prosecution agreed on a stipulated bench trial. Which, in effect, can often be considered tantamount to a guilty plea. The constitutional right to a jury is waived and, instead of outright pleading guilty, the government and a criminal defendant agree on the facts underlying the case which allows a judge plenary power to determine guilt or innocence.

In Longorias case, the decision to sign off on a stipulated bench trial was made in order to retain his Fourth Amendment-based suppression challenge regarding the FBIs warrantless search.

Longoria was found guilty and, despite the suppression issue, his case now concerns sentencing under the federal guidelines.

The prosecutions pre-sentencing report argued for a base level of 20, which is in the lower level of the highest zone considered by judges when sentencing federal criminal defendants. Additionally, the prosecution argued for various enhancements which, in sum, would have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence of between five and six-and-a-half years in prison. The judge gave Longoria the full sentence available under the guidelines. Longoria appealed.

The discrete legal issue before the nations high court is the proper interpretation of 3E1.1(b) of the guidelines, which is commonly known as the Acceptance of Responsibility section.

This administrative regulation provides that a defendant is eligible to receive an additional point off of their base sentencing level if their offense level is at least 16 and they timely notify the government that they intend to plead guilty (or the effective equivalent) thereby permitting the government to avoid preparing for trial and permitting the government and the court to allocate their resources efficiently.

The government declined to entertain Longorias request for the one-point reductionwhich can be equivalent to several years in prison depending on the casebecause they had to prepare for his suppression hearing. In the prosecutions argument, preparing for that full-blown suppression hearing was the equivalent of preparing for an actual trial, even though the hearing only lasted one day, and therefore the governments resources were not spent effectively. The government did not argue that Longorias bench stipulation trial should not be considered equivalent to a guilty plea.

The Fifth Circuit agreed with the government. The panel of bipartisan judges (appointed by former presidentsGeorge W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump) based their reasoning on a former case which held that a suppression hearing [could be] in effect the substantive equivalent of a full trial.

Longoria appealed to the Supreme Court, pointing at a 2013 amendment to the guidelines which says that [t]he government should not withhold [an acceptance of responsibility] motion based on interests not identified in 3E1.1, such as whether the defendant agrees to waive his or her right to appeal.

Notably, Longoria also cited this amendment in his original appealbut the Fifth Circuit chose to ignore the plain language of the text because the amendment does not clearly overrule the conditional precedent cited to deny leniency for criminal defendants in the notoriously conservative circuit.

The justices denied to hear Longorias case as welleffectively agreeing with the Fifth Circuit and leaving the sentence intact. Sotomayor and Gorsuch issued a statement that is not a dissent, but rather a commentary expressing the idea that the Supreme Court should weigh in on the subject for the sake of uniformity at least.

The two reform-minded justices also credited Longorias argument:

This petition implicates an important and longstanding split among the Courts of Appeals over the proper interpretation of 3E1.1(b). Most Circuits have determined that a suppression hearing is not a valid basis for denying the reduction, reasoning that preparation for a motion to suppress is not the same as preparation for a trial, even if there is substantial overlap between the issues that will be raised. A minority of Circuits have concluded otherwise. In this case, for example, the Fifth Circuit accepted the Governments refusal.

So, why not a full dissent?

Because they want the U.S. Sentencing Commission to have an actual chance at clearly overruling the Fifth Circuit first.

The Sentencing Commission should have the opportunity to address this issue in the first instance, once it regains a quorum of voting members, Sotomayor wrote. The present disagreement among the Courts of Appeals means that similarly situated defendants may receive substantially different sentences depending on the jurisdiction in which they are sentenced. When the Commission is able, it should take steps to ensure that 3E1.1(b) is applied fairly and uniformly.

A footnote explains the crux of the matter here: Currently, six of the seven voting members seats are vacant. The votes of at least four members are required for the Commission to promulgate amendments to the Guidelines.

[image via screengrab/CBS]

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Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch Team Up to Argue for Criminal Justice Reform - Law & Crime

Lara Trump suggested Monday that a new social networking platform former President Donald Trump is rumored to be working on will be a haven for conservatives who feel frustrated by the fact-checking efforts of other social media companies.

Jason Miller, a spokesperson for the former president, said this week that the new platform is expected to launch within the next few months. Miller said that the new platform would "completely redefine the game" and said it likely would attract "tens of millions of people."

When asked about the new platform during an appearance on JusttheNews.com's Water Cooler podcast with host David Brody, the former president's daughter-in-law started by saying popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram "have proven to suppress the voices of conservatives."

"I think that we have all felt like, 'Gosh, wouldn't it be nice if there was a platform available that would allow us to say what we want?'" Lara Trump said. "Oh my gosh, the First Amendmentimagine that. Our freedom of speech not being stifled."

Lara Trump went on to say there are some social networks that are friendlier to conservative users and cited Parler as an example. But creating a platform of his own is something the former president is "really seriously" working on, she added.

"He's taking it really seriously, and he wants a space where everyone can feel welcome, where people don't feel like, you know, the fact checkers are going to be all over them, even though these things are factual, oftentimes, that the fact checkers get on," Lara Trump said. "I think it'll be really exciting to see this next phase for my father-in-law."

News of the former president's intention to launch a social networking platform came fewer than three months after his Twitter account was permanently suspended in the wake of the riot at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6.

Twitter and Facebook actively alerted users last fall when then-President Trump posted election-related content that was either factually inaccurate or had yet to be been verified. Though the social media companies have said those efforts were aimed at preventing the spread of misinformation, the former president and other top conservatives have criticized the companies' actions and felt they violated Americans' rights to free speech.

Not much is known about Donald Trump's new platform or when exactly it is expected to roll out. Even so, YouGov pollsters found in a recent poll that a majority of Republicans said they were likely to sign up for the former president's new social networking platform once it becomes available.

Newsweek reached out to the former president's communications team for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

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Trump Social Network Users Won't Feel 'Fact Checkers Are Going to Be All Over Them': Lara Trump - Newsweek

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Qualitative Report on Social Networking Market by 2020-2027 with Profiling Key Players Cisco Systems, Inc., Facebook, Inc., Microsoft Corporation KSU...

Washington, March 22

Donald Trump, who is banned from Twitter and Facebook, will make a major comeback on social media in probably about two or three months but this time with his own online platform, according to the former US presidents political advisor.

Trump was banned from Twitter and Facebook following the US Capitol Hill riots on January 6 during which hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building, leaving five people dead, including a police officer. Two tweets made by Trump before the riots were deemed as glorifying violence.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Trumps communication and political advisor Jason Miller said the 74-year-old Republican leader will be returning to social media in probably about two or three months. Miller said the new online platform will attract tens of millions of new users and completely redefine the game.

This is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media, Miller said. Its going to completely redefine the game, and everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what President Trump does, but it will be his own platform, Miller told Fox News.

Miller said numerous companies had approached the former president to develop the new platform.

Before his ban from the two most popular social networking sites, Trump was an enthusiastic social media user, reaching out to millions of his followers daily on current topics.

Trump was initially locked out of his Twitter account for 12 hours in January after he called the people who stormed the US Capitol patriots.

Trumps accounts were also suspended on Facebook, popular gaming platform Twitch and multimedia messaging app Snapchat. PTI

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Trump to make big social media comeback with own platform: Advisor - The Tribune India