Fitz File

For some reason, opening schools has now become similar to the gun debate. Accepting that some parts of the process are completely out of our control, when they are. For the sake of argument, let’s accept that we have to open schools for the more than  50 million students  in the US primary education system. What can the government do on Monday, July 20th, 2020, to ensure students will be properly protected? There are two basic parts to this solution, the lead-up to the school year, and the school year itself. The federal government has a responsibility to institute as close to a knock-out punch to the virus as possible, and coordinated and well-financed assistance over the school year. It is essentially impossible to eliminate the virus from the United States by the time schools open in mid- to late-August. The virus is spread too widely, and there is a large enough portion of the US that does not care, to eliminate it in such a short period. However, the majority of people w...

     Most of us have seen the video  of a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. In even the most extreme circumstances, which this wasn’t, the police’s actions seem careless, cruel, and just wrong. Although there is some debate over what exactly killed George Floyd , the reason necessarily what is important? There has been quiet points made, on both the left and the right of the political spectrum that the numbers and facts do not quite match up to the narrative being pushed by the protests or the Black Lives Matter movement. For example, the police have killed around 1000 people each year for the past several years according to both the Washington Post , and Mapping Police Violence . I will always admit that these are the deaths we know about. However, I am not willing to engage in conspiracy theories and will only add at most 10% to any total before it gets ridiculous. Another fact is that police killings of black people was at a seven-year low in 201...

It is important to be clear about something in this pandemic: the mass quarantines and stay-at-home orders were not put in place because otherwise everyone would die. These orders were designed to keep the current medical infrastructure in place and allow for people who get the virus to have a greater chance of survival. According to the New York Times , the current number of worldwide cases is just above 3.5 million, with 251,457 deaths, placing the death rate at 7%.  This would make it seem like getting the virus is no big deal, but that was never the risk factor. In the same way everyone was surprised when the found their grocery stores empty, none of our systems are designed to serve every single person at the same time. But because of these prudent precautions, we have also thrown our economy into something it cannot handle: a slowdown of cashflow. I could write a whole other post on the foolishness of our precarious economy which  requires a majority of the populatio...

              It has been a habit of news organizations and political analysis alike to analyze the Trump Administration in terms of the amount of impact on future presidencies. Every action by a President creates an opening for future ones to act in the same way and use the past action as justification. This creation of a precedent for executive action is common way to measure the impact of a current presidency. But unlike others, this administration has become known for breaking with norms and other precedents. This includes everything from ignoring subpoenas and declaring emergencies, to pulling the country out of international agreements. Unfortunately, this large amount of changes seems to be more based on the undoing of the Obama Administration’s achievements rather than a genuine need for change. This could lead to an unsustainable practice of working to undo everything your predecessor achieved in order to score political points. I call ...

On Wednesday, the 4 th of December, the House Judiciary Committee heard from a panel of historians and law professors on the history of impeachment and under what grounds can it be brought against a president. As a history nerd, I was delighted to see this hearing announced. But I also recognized the importance and political strategy by Chairman Nadler in having it.             There will be four professors attending this hearing, Noah Feldman from Harvard, Pamela Karlan from Stanford, Michael Gerhardt from UNC, and Jonathan Turley from GW. I have attended a talk with Mr. Feldman who is particularly skilled, though each come from fantastic schools and will shed an invaluable prospective on the current process. It will also be interesting to see the possible difference in opinions, Mr. Turley was invited to testify by the Republicans on the Committee, the rest were invited by the Democrats. While I am not sure of th...

            I have an unfortunate story that sometimes pops up in conversation. I am trying to reach a certain number of volunteer hours by the time I graduate law school, so I interact with a lot of lawyers who are getting in their pro bono hours. Every profession has its highs and lows, along with correspondingly good people and not-so-good people. During one of these activities I was paired with a lawyer who had the worst attitude I have ever seen, and what is worse: she took it out on her clients. With every question a client posed, she scoffed, rolled her eyes, and looked at me, as if to say, “can you believe how stupid this person is?” It did not happen once or twice, it was her reaction to every single question. As if, in her years of practice, she could not believe poor, vulnerable people do not understand the complexities of housing law and the surrounding mountain of forms. This experience truly encouraged me ...