MODERN IFIGENIA

I was raised far away from "government" in Venezuela. What that meant is that government employees, including law enforcement, could act with impunity because there was no one to report to and there was no one supervising. Growing up "impunidad" was a word you heard all the time, don't talk to the police because they can can act with "impunidad." Impunidad: Impunity- without consequence. Knowing that powerful people could behave with impunity meant that you always avoided them, in most places it is a great honor to have a powerful person in your home or place of business; where I grew up it made you walk on eggshells until they left. When I moved to the U.S. nothing brought more relief than knowing you could trust those who worked for government. If they didn't do their job, there was someone to report to and there were consequences enough times that I didn't have to worry about that word following me around "impunity." You could ca...

Yesterday the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) made what are essentially two positions, but many are conflating into one. In Trump v. International Refugee Assistance Project , SCOTUS agreed to first, grant certiorari and hear whether the Muslim Ban issued earlier this year is legal and second to partially lift the injunction from the lower courts. Because the procedure is a little bit complicated, people have many things confused. So here are some clarifications: 1. The initial (Executive Order) ban was for a period of 90 days to allow the government to develop new rules. 2. The countries covered are Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Syria, Yemen and Lybia 3. The initial ban exclusively targeted Muslims 4. A second ban was drafted to cure some of the legal problems found in the initial ban 5. The second ban covers EVERYONE from those six countries regardless of faith 6. Both the Fourth and the Ninth Circuits issued injunctions preventing the implementation of these Executive O...