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James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

The Hill

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The clock is running out on TikTok in the US

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a law requiring TikTok to divest its Chinese ownership if it wants to keep operating,...

10.12.2024 4

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Martial law briefly came to South Korea. Could it happen here?

Is South Korea’s legislative rejection of an autocratic president’s declaration of martial law a one-off — or an object lesson for...

06.12.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Kash Patel, Trump’s latest nominee, is just another toady

It is a given that Patel as FBI director would not act independently of the president.

02.12.2024 10

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James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Russell Vought is just the man to implement Trump’s autocratic vision

Even conservative senators should find Vought problematic.

26.11.2024 8

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James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Who will stand up to Trump’s unqualified nominees?

Trump has appointed people to his cabinet whose cardinal virtue appears to be loyalty to him — not to the Constitution.

21.11.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Moldova just rejected Putin and chose a future with the West. What did America just choose?

If Trump allows Putin to succeed with his move on Ukraine, the next tempting morsel on his plate may be the tiny Republic of Moldova.

06.11.2024 5

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Don’t let Trump drag America ‘back to before’

Some might be excused for being fooled by Trump in 2016, but they will not be fooled again.

05.11.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

The Supreme Court seems inclined to let Richard Glossip be executed

It had emerged in 2022 that a key item of exculpatory evidence had not been turned over to the defense.

13.10.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Has Jack Smith botched the Trump indictments?

Smith could have waited a month. There was no hurry.

07.10.2024 5

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Mayor Adams’s Turkish delights

Adams loved to live high on the hog, particularly at the expense of others.

03.10.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Harris needs to take off the gloves

I can’t bear to say this, but Kamala Harris, while ahead by a whisker, could lose if Trump succeeds in bringing new likely voters into the...

28.09.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

The supremely partisan court of Chief Justice Roberts

The Supreme Court has become a political clubhouse, consumed with optics, log-rolling and media leaks.

20.09.2024 7

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

In last week's debate, Trump showed his true character

Nothing could erase the overwhelming impression that Harris is a normal reasonable candidate, and that Trump is by any metric so bereft of temperament...

17.09.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Harris cleaned Trump’s clock

Like the seasoned lawyer that she is, Kamala Harris took on Donald Trump point by point, with prosecutorial efficiency, and achieved her two...

11.09.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

The special counsel’s superseding indictment of Trump likely won’t pass muster

While I admire Smith’s deft attempt to maneuver his way through the labyrinth of Supreme Court verbiage and prosecute Trump for those elements of...

05.09.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Will Trump avoid prison because of prosecutorial blunders?

It is not just the Supreme Court that has failed to hold Trump accountable, it is the prosecutors charged with enforcing the rule of law.

27.08.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Why the Supreme Court punted on regulating social media

When it comes to politically charged issues, the partisan, sharply divided Supreme Court justices rarely agree on anything. But they did agree last...

20.08.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Harris rally crowds should not be chanting ‘lock him up’

I am no fan of Donald Trump. I am no fan of vigilante justice either.

13.08.2024 4

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Judging Biden’s Supreme Court reform plan

The Supreme Court needs reform if it is ever to regain public confidence.

01.08.2024 4

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Trump, long comfortable with political violence, becomes another victim

What has become of America?

15.07.2024 7

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Project 2025, Trump’s forsworn manifesto

Donald Trump has denied any knowledge of the Heritage Foundation's 2025 Presidential Transition Project, which outlines a plan for an authoritarian...

09.07.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Can the president be officially criminal?

The Supreme Court's conservative majority has given President Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution, leaving the lower courts and American...

05.07.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

The Supreme Court has crowned the president king

The term of the Supreme Court of the United States that just ended will live in infamy.

02.07.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Biden lacked oomph, but the transcript tells a different tale

Reading the cold transcript, we get a very different picture of Biden. Substantively, he ably and forcefully made the case that that Trump should not...

28.06.2024 9

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Alito is a partisan, radical conservative

Alito cannot be accused of the even-handed application of the law.

12.06.2024 4

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

The moral hypocrisy of Trump’s GOP enablers

Flanked by other MAGA Republican leaders, Johnson chose to appear in the courtroom the day porn actress Stormy Daniels gave testimony about her sordid...

10.06.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Trump was convicted by a jury of his peers

Trump despises the legal system and the rule of law, except when it serves his interests.

05.06.2024 8

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

The verdict of history: Trump is guilty

Trump vowed to appeal, but he is unlikely to fare very well.

31.05.2024 5

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Who will hang next week, Trump or the jury?

I don’t think there will be a hung jury here. The evidence against Trump is so overwhelming that my bet is on a unanimous verdict of conviction.

27.05.2024 40

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Justice Alito lets his freak flag fly

Alito acts like a legislator — a politician in robes.

20.05.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Will Trump take the stand?

The concern will be that the jury expects Trump to take the stand — as does the ultimate jury, the American voters who make up the court of...

17.05.2024 70

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

In Cohen vs. Trump, which liar will the jury believe?

Cross examination has rightfully been called an art. It is the drama of the law.

14.05.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Will the Supreme Court crown King Donald?

No wonder the public perceives the justices not as jurists but as politicians in robes.

27.04.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Trump’s moaning about being forced off the campaign trail is nonsense

There really should be no legal obstacle to his giving the trial a pass and hitting the campaign trail, or luxuriating on the golf course at...

24.04.2024 30

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Picking a jury in Manhattan: The art of the feel

There are difficulties in picking an impartial panel in a city where a celebrity defendant is widely loathed.

17.04.2024 40

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

The trials of O.J. and Trump — a study in parallels

Trump said he could murder someone on Fifth Avenue and his base wouldn’t care, just as Simpson murdered two people and his base didn’t care.

14.04.2024 30

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Judge Merchan vs. Roy Cohn’s protege

Trump’s attacks on the Merchans are two-pronged and are nothing new.

05.04.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Trump’s attacks on judges and their families threaten us all

This is not a left/right issue. Threatening judges and their families, and exposing them to violence, crosses a red line in any civilized society.

01.04.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

The end of the Fani Willis affair

Judge Scot McAfee’s 23-page opinion reads like a chapter from a paperback novel found at an airport newsstand.

16.03.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Trump wins again in the MAGA Supreme Court

Judges are not supposed to rewrite constitutional provisions they find objectionable on policy grounds, and they are not supposed to invent new...

05.03.2024 3

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Is it time for Jack Smith to throw in the towel on prosecuting Trump?

With the clock running out, and the Supreme Court having no appetite for proceeding on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s timetable, it seems more likely...

04.03.2024 70

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Has the Supreme Court gone ga-ga or MAGA?

It is extraordinary, in my experience, for a court to enjoin the start of a criminal trial. But this is an extraordinary case.

01.03.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Rocky Mountain low: Colorado’s lawyer didn’t get it right before the Supreme Court

Jason C. Murray was articulate and plainly spoken in his maiden oral argument before the court, but the answers he gave to the justices’ questions...

10.02.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Can Trump delay his legal reckoning past Election Day?

The justice system is supposed to work for the people. But in Trump’s case, it may not.

04.02.2024 10

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

If the conservative justices actually believe in originalism, they must disqualify Trump

Retired conservative Judge J. Michael Luttig has just filed a devastating amicus brief in which he sticks it to the conservatives on the bench by...

01.02.2024 50

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

With Trump’s victory in Iowa, we’re inching toward autocracy

Trump is not running for anything; he is running against. He is running against politics. He is running against democracy.

19.01.2024 40

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Trump’s immunity appeal was both laughable and frightening

Trump's lawyer argued for a sweeping immunity that would put the president above and beyond the law. It’s a world that no American should want to...

10.01.2024 30

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

To disqualify or not to disqualify: The Supreme Court confronts the ‘laugh test’

The reactionary Supreme Court is in a quandary as to how to decide the Trump disqualification case while retaining whatever credibility it has left.

08.01.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Will Trump’s disqualification case be Bush v. Gore for 2024?

There are no good options for the six Republican-appointed justices on the beleaguered Supreme Court.

02.01.2024 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

Is the Colorado decision a Rocky Mountain high?

The decision is not a gift to the unpopular President Biden. It is a gift to Trump’s Republican primary opponents.

21.12.2023 20

The Hill

James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor

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