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Burr Deming As Attorney General, Roland Burris tried hard to <a href="http://www.FairAndUNbalanced.com?http://www.testimoanials.com/blog/blog1.php/2009/01/02/how-roland-burris-came-to-sell-his-soul-">have two men executed he knew to be innocent</a>. As I see it, allowing himself to be used by a corrupt Governor is just another chance for Burris to sell his soul for higher office.
Argument for Why the Senate May Decline To Seat Roland Burris:
The Volokh Conspiracy —
... It need not follow the rules of criminal courts. That means it need not find Blagojevich guilty beyond reasonable doubt, as a court would if his liberty were in jeopardy. It is enough for the Senate to reject Blagojevich's appointee if a majority of senators are firmly convinced that Blagojevich is corrupt and that any nomination he might make is inherently tainted by such corruption.... I have a very high opinion of Amar and Chafetz, but here I think they're mistaken, and I think Brian Kalt (Concurring Opinions) has it generally right: The initial misconduct on Blagojevich's ...
More On The Senate's Power To Review The Blago Appointment Of Burris
TalkLeft —
... It's fun to read law professor's discuss constitutional issues. It is a different world than litigators like myself get to see. Here is a discussion by Professor Brian Kalt of ...
More Reading on Burris, and Another Attempt at Legal Analysis
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right —
... advance a somewhat more sophisticated and legally sound argument. Firstly, some smart folks arguing that the Senate probably does have the right to exclude Burris: Akhil Reed Amar and Josh Chafetz, Slate Lyle Dennison, SCOTUSBlog Jack Balkin, Balkinization And here are some other smart folks arguing that no, the Senate probably does not have such authority: Scott Lemieux, Lawyers, Guns and Money Brian Kalt, Concurring Opinions Eugene Volokh, Volkoh Conspiracy The crux of the argument ...
A Burris Under The Saddle...
Discriminations —
It’s almost as much fun watching the law professors disagree over whether the Senate has the right to refuse to seat Roland Burris (it does; it doesn’t; etc.) as it is to watch Senate Democrats try to balance appearing to oppose corruption with not appearing to exclude a black appointee.
Ann Althouse, another law prof, nicely points to the Democrats’ dilemma:
So at at time when there isn't a single black person in the U.S. Senate, a black man arrives at the doorway and means to go forward ...
