June 30, 2010 at 4:53 pm
The U.S. Supreme Court will review a 2007 Arizona immigration law that punishes employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. The Justice Department says the law violates a federal law barring states from imposing penalties on those who employ people not in the country legally. Law Professor Susan Akram, an authority on immigration law, says the case is significant in that it tests whether such local measures can supersede federal immigration policy in regulating the employment of aliens.
“The case reflects the far-reaching consequences of states like Arizona ‘taking matters into their own hands,’ as the petition is jointly filed by private business, public, civil rights and immigration groups that rarely agree on immigration issues.”
Contact Susan Akram, 617-358-3060, smakram@bu.edu
June 30, 2010 at 12:56 pm
By threatening to withhold his vote for the final compromise, Massachusetts GOP U.S. Senator Scott Brown (l.) got the Democratic negotiators on the financial regulatory reform bill to delete a $19 billion fee on large financial institutions to cover costs of implementing the new law. Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law and a former counsel to the Fed Board of Governors, says the Dems missed the boat by labeling the charge a "tax," making it vulnerable to read-meat ideological attacks.
“Pure and simple, their charge should be labeled for what it is -- a return of the subsidy that taxpayers bestow on the too-big-to-fail banks every day by pledging to their creditors and depositors that if the big banks go bust we collectively will pick up the tab. Senator Brown would have a difficult time refuting this framing of the discussion.”
Contact Cornelius Hurley, 617-353-5427, ckhurley@bu.edu
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Tagged Barney Frank, Boston University School of Law, BU LAW, Christopher Dodd, Cornelius Hurley, Democrats, Fed Board or Governors, Federal Reserve, financial regulatory reform, GOP, Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, Republicans, Scott Brown, Senator Scott Brown, US Senate
June 29, 2010 at 4:55 pm
The Supreme Court has reaffirmed the ban on political parties being able to raise unlimited amounts of "soft money" contributions, despite the high court's ruling in January which removed restrictions on corporate and union spending in federal elections. The Republic Party had appealed to the court to undo the ban. Political science Professor Graham Wilson, author of "Business and Politics," says whether soft money was really used as originally intended for "party building" rather than helping candidates, it's reasonable to presume that corruption could be linked to soft money contributions.
“But the GOP is right to say that if you allow unfettered spending by corporations and ban soft money contributions to political parties, you are going to disadvantage parties and have more of the action coming from special interests. Whether that is good for democracy can be questioned.”
Contact Graham Wilson, 617-353-2540, gkwilson@bu.edu
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Tagged Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, BU CAS, Business and Politics, GOP, Graham Wilson, political parties, Political Science, Republic Party, soft money, soft money contributions, Supreme Court
June 29, 2010 at 3:40 pm
The FBI arrested 11 people for allegedly spying for the Russians while living secret lives in American communities - from Washington, D.C., to Seattle - sent here years ago to infiltrate U.S. society and steal its secrets. It's unclear what the alleged spies actually found. Two BU international relations professors, Arthur Hulnick and Joseph Wippl, are both long-time veterans of the CIA and quite familiar with the world of spies. They offer their thoughts on the big bust.
Hulnick: “The case demonstrates that the FBI is really good at uncovering such spy rings. I'm not sure what will happen to the Russians who have devoted so much time and effort to what appears to be a failed operation. I suspect the Russian government will deny that it is behind the operation.”
Wippl: “Unlike diplomats, none of the 11 has diplomatic immunity which would result in a PNG (Persona Non Grata) expulsion from the U.S. Without diplomatic immunity, they will be prosecuted in a U.S. court according to the charges brought against them.”
Contact Arthur Hulnick, 617-353-8978, hlnk@aol.com, or Joseph Wippl, 617-353-8992, jwippl@bu.edu
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Tagged Arthur Hulnick, Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, BU CAS, CIA, CIA veterans, espionage, FBI, International Relations, Joseph Wippl, Russian spies, Seattle, spies, Washington DC
June 29, 2010 at 11:00 am
The death of U.S. Senator Robert Byrd (r.) is threatening to delay passage of the sweeping Wall Street regulatory reform legislation until mid-July after it had been on track for House and Senate votes this week. Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, a former counsel to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and now director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, says the proposed legislation has been so weakened in compromise efforts to garner enough votes to pass it in the Senate that it might be worth starting over.
"Its demise would have at least two significant benefits: first, it would allow the next Congress to develop a more robust bill, particularly with respect to systemic risk; and, second, it would enable global regulators to press the ‘reset button’ on international harmonization efforts, a vision apparently abandoned by this Congress and this Administration.”
Contact Cornelius Hurley, 617-353-5427, ckhurley@bu.edu
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Tagged Barney Frank, Boston University School of Law, BU LAW, Christopher Dodd, Congress, Cornelius Hurley, Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, financial regulatory reform, House of Representatives, Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, Robert Byrd, Senate, Senator Byrd, To Big To Fail, US Senate, Wall Street
June 28, 2010 at 5:43 pm
The Group of 20 industrialized nations wrapped up their meeting in Toronto promising to have their government deficits by 2013 and "stabilize" debt loads by 2016, signaling to domestic political audiences and international markets that they're serious about reducing stimulus spending. But economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, author of "Jimmy Stewart is Dead" about the future of the banking industry, says the G-20 missed the mark by not focusing on the critical future problems of paying pensions and health care benefits.
“Had the G-20 agreed to do long-term fiscal gap accounting and to develop policies that eliminated those fiscal gaps, it would have done something real. What's it's really done is agreed to delay making the critical policy changes needed to avoid insolvency."
Contact Laurence Kotlikoff, 617-353-4002, kotlikoff@bu.edu
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Tagged 2016, Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, BU CAS, economic deficit, economic downturn, Economics, G-20, Group of 20, health care benefits, Jimmy Stewart is Dead, Laurence Kotlikoff, long-term debt, pensions, stabilize debt, Toronto
June 28, 2010 at 5:31 pm
The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is a fundamental right that states cannot abridge. The 5-4 ruling will require a lower court to overturn laws in Chicago and its suburb of Oak Park., Ill., that limited handgun possession. Political science Professor Graham Wilson, author of "Only in America? American Politics in Comparative Perspective," says the conservative majority of the court tilted away from a historic conservative position that states and cities should be able to adapt policies to local conditions and circumstances.
"Not since 1937 have we seen such conservative judicial activism and it makes complaints about liberal justices ‘making law from the bench’ ring more than a little hollow.”
Contact Graham Wilson, 617-353-2540, gkwilson@bu.edu
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Tagged Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, BU CAS, Chicago, conservative majority, Graham Wilson, handgun ban, handgun possession, IL, Oak Park, Only in America? American Politics in Comparative Perspective, Political Science, Second Amendment, Supreme Court, US Supreme Court
June 25, 2010 at 3:45 pm
House and Senate conferees finally worked out a compromise bill aimed at reshaping financial regulations to avoid another Crash of '08, with a final vote set for next week and President Obama expected to sign it by July 4th. As expected: many winners and losers. One controversial provision gives the SEC authority to require stockbrokers to protect their clients' interest when recommending investments, potentially subjecting brokers to the same fiduciary duty as financial advisers. Law Professor Tamar Frankel, author of "Trust and Honesty: America's Business Culture at a Crossroad" and authority on securities law, says it's about time.
"It offers a chance and a challenge for the SEC to become the leader that it used to be from the 1940s until about 1980. It is a chance to bring about a far more reliable financial system and to refocus on productivity rather than betting."
Contact Tamar Frankel, 617-353-3773, tfrankel@bu.edu
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Tagged Boston University School of Law, broker-dealers, BU LAW, compromise bill, Congress, Crash of 2008, EC, economic downturn, fiduciary responsibility, financial regulatory reform, House of Representatives, July 4th, law school, President Obama, security law, Senate, Tamar Frankel, Trust and Honesty: America's Business Culture at a Crossroad, US Congress, US Senate
June 24, 2010 at 4:00 pm
A new poll reports reports that Americans are "deeply concerned" about energy but "unwilling to pay higher gasoline prices to help develop new fuel sources." Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, says this attitude defies our experience since 1970 as we've gone to war over oil, experienced major oil spills, suffered recessions triggered by oil price hikes, and watched the global political landscape be reshaped by energy issues. From his blog, The Energy Watch, he poses and asks a question -- then offers a conclusion:
“How have American habits changed in light of these events? Here is what has happened from 1970 to 2007 in regards to our most oil-intensive activity: Percentage of people who commute alone in car, 25% increase; Number of miles driven per car, 23% increase; Percentage of households with three or more cars, 65% increase; Miles driven per household, 50% increase; Average size of household, 17% decrease.
“BP and government regulators must be held accountable for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. But make no mistake about it: the ultimate driving force behind our predicament is the American appetite for oil and our apparent unwillingness to change our behavior in the face of enormous human and environmental costs.”
Contact Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu
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Tagged Americans, BP, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Cutler Cleveland, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Deepwater Water Horizon oil spill, Energy, energy crisis, energy independence, gas prices, oil spill, The Energy Watch
June 24, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Congress is down to its self-imposed deadline to come up with a financial regulatory reform bill, leaving some of the most controversial provisions -- like how to deal with the trading of derivatives -- to the final hours. Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law and a former counsel to the Fed Board of Governors, says that a Congress that couldn't bring itself to enact meaningful reform legislation during the height of the financial crisis now seems to be panicking to pass what he sees as deeply flawed bill.
“Having lost the moment to make bold changes, the legislative process has become all about the November elections and very little about sound public policy. Congress may well meet today’s deadline, but we won’t be the better for it."
Contact Cornelius Hurley, 617-353-5427, ckhurley@bu.edu
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Tagged bank reform, Barney Frank, BU LAW, BU School of Law, Christopher Dodd, Congress, Cornelius Hurley, derivatives trading, Fed Board of Governors, financial regulatory reform, Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, US Congress
