Letters Blogatory

The Blog of International Judicial Assistance
By Ted Folkman

Month: June 2017

  • Puerto Rico Votes For Statehood

    Yesterday Puerto Rico held a plebiscite on its political status. A whopping 97% of the voters favored statehood. The remainder of the vote was split between the other two options, independence and continuation of the island’s status as a US territory.

  • Comments on the Chimpanzee Habeas Case

    The case of the day is Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc. ex rel. Tommy v. Lavery (N.Y. App. Div. 2017). This is the second in my occasional series of posts on animal rights law: in November 2015 I wrote about the Monkey Selfie case. The claim was that Tommy, a chimpanzee, has been kept in captivity…

  • Director Coats and Director Rogers Must Resign

    I have already called for President Trump to resign. The reason: his admission that he fired James Comey, the former FBI director, in order to derail the Russia investigation. Yesterday, in a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the witnesses were Adm. Michael S. Rogers, Director of the NSA, and Director of National…

  • Ira Ryk-Lakhman on Kindred Nursing Centers v. Clark

    Friend of Letters Blogatory Ira Ryk-Lakhman comments on the Supreme Court’s most recent arbitration decision. On May 15, 2017, the US Supreme Court decided Kindred Nursing Centers, L.P. v. Clark. The question before the Court was whether the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts a state law contract rule that singles out arbitration by requiring a…

  • Everybody Loves a Parade

    A little off-topic photography from a parade I happened to see by chance when walking downtown. Here are some minutemen firing off their muskets to the delight of tourists on the Freedom Trail: https://twitter.com/tedfolkman/status/871768896608628737