Kosherly Speaking

The ever hopeful speakers of Esperanto have tried for more than 70 years to get the UN to adopt the international language. But perhaps they would be more successful if they pursued noninstitutional routes instead.

Say, by getting candidates to speak it while they campaign?

My favorite quotation this week from the presidential trail comes from Joe Liberman: "Viva Chutzpah!"

Okay, it's not Esperanto and the phrase actually came from a Latina woman who attended a Gore rally. But perhaps it's a sign of a future American language which would be a bit of Spanish, English and....Yiddish.

Yes, Yiddish. I have the weight of Eugene Volokh and Alex Kozinski to back me up on this. Volokh, a law professor at UCLA and Kozinski, have observed that Yiddish is replacing Latin as the language of American legal authority.

I knew there was a good reason why I went to school in New York.

Gawker Arrives!

Does DC have enough of a social scene for a gossip page?

Sorry, let me rephrase that: Does DC have enough of an interesting social scene to have its own gossip page?

If anyone can answer that, it's Gawker, a wonderfully bitchy website on the lives of New York fashionistas, celebrities and any other characters of local reknown. Gawker will now bless DC. Enter The Wonkette. The name is rather unfortunate but the site looks promising. Anything that brings a bit of brassy New York to dismal DC is a good thing.

P roviding A ppropriate T ools R equired...to Screw the Little Guy

A US District Court in Los Angelos has ruled that a portion of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional. This is the first time that a section of the Act has been found in violation of the Constitution. The portion in question prohibited giving advice or assistance to groups designated international terrorist organizations.

The case was argued by Georgetown professor, David Cole, author of Enemy Aliens - and more importantly, my constitutional law professor.

How Much Am I Worth?

If you sold every tissue of your body, you (actually your next of kin) could make $45 million, according to a survey by Wired.

Here is a more extensive article on body parts you can sell, legally and illegally.

The Ninth Circus

Judges occupy an exalted status in the American legal system. Because judges have so much discretion in interpreting the law and their opinions influence future decisions (precedent or in legalese, stare decisis), law students spend most of the time reading judicial opinions --and not statutes-- to learn what the law is. After the first few months, you start to find out which judges are your favorites and read their opinions with the same delight as you would reading fiction by your favorite author.

Alex Kozinski is definitely going to be on my list. A wacky judge on the Ninth Circuit, Kozinski is known for taking his law clerks paintballing and snowboarding and signing e-mails as "The Easy Rider." He's also earned a reputation for his unconventional opinion writing.

“It is wrong to use some constitutional provisions as springboards for major social change," he wrote, "while treating others like senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us.”

Legal Affairs has a wonderful profile which also provides a detailed look at how the criminal justice system works.

It's much better than the criminal justice reading I'm supposed to be doing now....

Kerry-zy

"Participants in today's political tussles always prefer to debate 'how much' rather than 'whether'," wrote professor Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago law school (otherwise known as the school of law and economics). Rather than debating whether there should be a minumum wage or incomes taxes, most political discussion focuses only on how much we should increase or decrease whatever governmental program.

Shockingly enough, Epstein would find an ally in Democratic candidate John Kerry. Well, the John Kerry of 1996 that is. The then senatorial candidate called for a reduction in federal bureaucracy by dissolving the Departments of Energy and Agriculture.

I know that Kerry supported NAFTA but this position goes beyond Clintonesque politics.

Too bad Kerry will eventually retract it.

Say What?

The Arab world has never had a democracy. But while its simplest form, a direct election, is fairly easy to understand, the Bush administration would like the first democratic election in Iraq to take the more complicated form of a regional caucus.

The word doesn't even exist in Arabic.

In the US, I would guess that not many Americans know how a caucus works either. Several websites on the upcoming election include explainers.

So it is understandable why Iraqis don't like Bush's election plan. The opposition of one powerful Shiite leader led to the protests of 20,000 Iraqis. While the president of the Iraqi Governing Council has expressed reserved support for regional causes, he's also admitted that, "The best way to elect legislative bodies is through direct and general elections if there is enough time to conduct these elections."

Why is there no time?

Despite the excuses of a lack of election law or voting rules, the real reason boils down to the American presidential election. Bush wants the transfer over and done with before the general election starts so he can point to some tangible accomplishment and not be as weighed down by the troubles in Iraq. Although a direct election would probably garner more Iraqi support and confirm for them that things have really changed, it would delay an added item on Bush's to-do list.

Palestinian Checkmate

Last Thursday, Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei took an unusual step. If peace talks continued to stall, he said, Palestinians would push for a bi-national Jewish-Arab state instead of independence.

A spokesman for Sharon doubted the credibility of the threat, "They are threatening themselves, not us."

But Mr. Qurei's plan would have challenged the very core of Israeli nationhood. Current demographic trends indicate that Arabs will outnumber Jews within a few years in the combined areas of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (today's those numbers stand at 4.7 million Palestinians and 5.5 Jews). Arabs would be a forceful political majority in an Israeli democracy.

Qurei's tactic rather than Sharon's wall is the more threatening move.

Right-wing Israeli politicians are already worried about the population growth of Arab Israeli citizens.

Predictably, the Palestinian Authority rejected Qurei's strategy this weekend and maintains that independence is still the goal. But the mere mention of a bi-national Israel might be enough to make Israeli negotiators more anxious to establish a Palestinian state.