American History

[madupont]

Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide
The Role of Politics in Judging
Brian Z. Tamanaha


According to conventional wisdom in American legal culture, the 1870s to 1920s was the age of legal formalism, when judges believed that the law was autonomous and logically ordered, and that they mechanically deduced right answers in cases. In the 1920s and 1930s, the story continues, the legal realists discredited this view by demonstrating that the law is marked by gaps and contradictions, arguing that judges construct legal justifications to support desired outcomes. This often-repeated historical account is virtually taken for granted today, and continues to shape understandings about judging. In this groundbreaking book, esteemed legal theorist Brian Tamanaha thoroughly debunks the formalist-realist divide.

Paper | $24.95 / £16.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-14280-7
Cloth | $70.00 / £48.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-14279-1
e-Book | $24.95 | ISBN: 978-1-4008-3198-2
   
 
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[weezo]

I got through half of Perlstein's Nixonland, which I thought was very good.  Very opinionated view, but well researched and a lively read.  Need to get back to it.

Nice to know there are still book readers on this forum.

I just finished "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" .... about Leonard Peltier and his railroad to jail ... Interesting read -- eye-opening in some sense, but in another sense, just another miscarriage of justice by the FBI determined to get "their man", even if it isn't the right one.

[Gintaras]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06bradley.html?hp

Op-Ed Contributor
Diplomacy That Will Live in Infamy

Did Teddy Roosevelt’s Japan policy set the stage for Pearl Harbor?

It was pretty hard to assess at the time what Japan's long term goals were, but clearly they were on a fast track to an imperial dynasty.  After successfully destroying both of Russia's imperial fleets, Japan was in a position of strength, not weakness, and the US didn't have a naval fleet yet that presented a serious challenge to Japan, so Roosevelt chose to deal.  The interesting part is that Roosevelt quickly ramped up his overhaul of the navy and did maneuvers off the coast of Japan before leaving office.

[Gintaras]

Weezo, I read Spirit of Crazy Horse some years ago.  There is also a documentary, Incident at Oglala, on Peltier that is worth watching.  There was a lot of hope that Clinton would pardon Peltier, but such was not the case.

[weezo]

Gin,

Somehow the law enforcement people have sewed up the response to Peltier: Any reduction in his sentence or early release is said to be disrespectful to the two fallen officers. This was the long and short of the recent hearing on a parole. Somehow, keeping a man jailed who is unlikely to have committed the crime, heaps great honor on the law enforcement officers who may have fired the opening shots. In a sense, his whole incarceration is less about punishment for a crime, than it for the crime of not revealing the actual perpetrator. Peltier was in a position to know who committed the crime, and prefer to keep silent rather than have the right person in his place.

[Gintaras]

It was more about cutting off the head of the A.I.M., sort of speak.  They wanted Peltier, not some underling.  A.I.M. is a sad story in many ways.  Down and out Native Americans, mostly from Minneapolis, trying to mount a movement that many of the reservations wanted no part of.  It never really got beyond a pipedream, but it was enough to scare the bejeesus out of the FBI, fearing another Nation of Islam.

[weezo]

Gin,

You may remember that in the book the author spoke of an undercurrent against A.I.M. was in order to make the oil fields and uranium mines available to developers. The sorry side of that aspect of the problem can be used as an underlying problems, although I really think it was just a lot of high-spirit youthfulness in what took place.

Another issue is the view of tribalism. There is a strong disdain for anything associated with tribalism except providing cheap tourist trinkets.

[Gintaras]

If other reservations are anything like the Navajo reservation, they are little fiefdoms run by tribal clans.  The Navajos finally staged an open revolt some years back.  The mining, casino and recreation companies sign lucrative deals with the tribal councils, and in many cases only a relative handful of Native Americans see anything from it.  A.I.M. found itself butting heads with these tribal councils.

On a side note, I think it was Matthiessen who wrote that Navajos were building hogans from uranium ore, not knowing that it was radioactive, because no one had told them.

[madupont]

I vaguely remember the overhaul*, Gintaras, it is probably in the backlog/archives of The Chicago Tribune; because I didn't pay close attention to the voice of Gabriel Heater(sic). The vocal stridency in which the news was delivered by radio at the time was a turn off. Not that some of the excitement on the right, today, is any better.

As Donotremove happened to point out, Mr. O'Donnell of MSNBC has returned us to the more measured tone of discussing eventful news that we lost with the passing away of Walter Cronkite.

* that would have been "war work for women riveters". What I don't recall  is the tour off the Japanese Coast; but, then, "movements" were inevitably censored for anything involving military activity or positions, as we learned with the mail from those in service when we became inevitably involved with war in the Pacific.

[madupont]

On a side note, I think it was Matthiessen who wrote that Navajos were building hogans from uranium ore, not knowing that it was radioactive, because no one had told them.

Thank you for clarifying that ! I was really afraid that was the case or something of the kind under the circumstance.

I began to be suspicious when my sister in law, born in a relocation camp for Japanese-American internment, developed breast cancer as did her sisters and her mother.

However, there is a four year difference between the time that detainees from the West Coast were bused to the desert camps of the Southwest following Pearl Harbor, and the actual testing program at Los Alamos as we have been told of it.  Am I missing something that we should all know about?

[madupont]

Gin,

 although I really think it was just a lot of high-spirit youthfulness in what took place.

No, living in the region (my brother still does) during that period, and knowing people on the greater reservations,on both sides of the Northern Mississippi river, who had relatives there even when they were not, -- politically, the basic conflict was the divisive polarity between tribal members who were BIA agents and those who formed AIM in opposition to US government toadies whose position made it possible for the FBI to come in and do total damage. Some of this information is recorded earlier, at least two years ago plus in these forums before Robert Whelen went on hiatus.

[madupont]

Weezo, I read Spirit of Crazy Horse some years ago.  There is also a documentary, Incident at Oglala, on Peltier that is worth watching.  There was a lot of hope that Clinton would pardon Peltier, but such was not the case.

Marshall, Joseph M. III. The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History. 2004.

I found this writer far more informative when doing several programs at PBS publicizing the above book because he talks freely about riding out with his father and uncle when he was a child, so that they could recount the history to him in the traditional way; that he see the places, as they told him in oral tradition.  The riding of course takes place now every year by the students of the "Indian College" that has been developed and built in the vicinity.


It was not entirely up to Clinton in review of the case against Peltier and how long he had already served his sentence. Senator Tom Daschle had been petitioned year after year, and could not deal with it, fearing he would lose the vote to remain in the Senate, he chose to ignore the petitions and pushed them aside to some cubby hole of collected petitions  in some far corner of his desk.  He obviously made the wrong choice as he was removed from office by the vote against him anyway.

[madupont]

"He rose again to public attention when he joined Marlon Brando to mediate the clash between the Menominee Indians and the Alexian Brothers at the Alexian Monastery in Gresham, Wisconsin, in 1975."

This refers to Father James Groppi who previously had led the housing marches in Wisconsin.  What the article at wikipedia does not indicate anymore(but the correspondence is all boxed and cataloged at the Univ. of Wisconsin, as the papers of Fr.James Groppi) was that he contacted Marlon Brando about what was developing in Gresham.

I was at the time, because of attending classes in the Dept. of Uncommonly Spoken Languages, as well as having personal connections with people doing regional community work for the State, and with some community-service  law offices, more aware of the Menominee  activism as protest.

Please notice however the date on the above event described incorrectly as a clash between"the Menominee Indians and the Alexian Brothers". It was not. There was an armed attack by the FBI about to take place against the monastery where the Menominee took sanctuary. I recall that it was deep winter with snow on the ground.

The FBI retired with dignity when realizing Marlon Brando was standing in front of them. This sally upon a religiously consecrated monastic order took place the winter following the summer attack of the FBI upon Pine Ridge South Dakota reservation and the capture of Leonard Peltier. This was an all out government crushing of Native American "insurrection", as the US describes and communicates it so that whites could retain control of  "natural resouces" on which ordinary children in impoverished families were dependent.

[weezo]

Maddie,

I would suggest that the FBI shows its underpinnings when it uses "loaded terms" such as "insurrection". One man's "taking  a stand", is another man's "insurrection". If the FBI is that quick to roll out the "loaded terms" against our own Native Americans perhaps the agency overuses the terms everywhere! If Native Americans who want to be treated fairly and with dignity (civil rights) are accused of "insurrection" against the government imposed on them by outsiders.

[Gintaras]

The AIM was a pretty easy target for the FBI, as most of these guys had criminal records and there wouldn't be much sympathy for them.  I think the staying power of the Peltier case is something the FBI never would have imagined, and now it just seems to be ego that drives them and the US Attorney's office to suppress any evidence that would prove his innocence in this particular matter.