Paul Coggins
September 16, 2002 | Texas Lawyer
The Year of the RatsIf U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has his way, spying will be open to the masses. We will have white-collar, blue-collar and no-collar spies. Spies in all shapes and sizes. Everyone will be eligible to eavesdrop -- postal workers, truck drivers, plumbers, utility company employees and lawyers. Well, maybe not lawyers. I spy. You spy. We all spy on each other. At least, that was the master plan behind the TIPS program, as originally hatched by the DOJ.
By Paul Coggins
5 minute read
July 21, 2003 | Texas Lawyer
Heads, We Lose! Tails, We Lose!The real losers in the endless game of redistricting roulette will be the voters.
By Paul Coggins
5 minute read
February 17, 2003 | Texas Lawyer
Cooking the Books, Justice StyleFortified by new tools (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) and budget-busting increases for enforcement, the feds are sharpening their knives, pledging to slice and dice corporate crooks before letting them simmer in the slammer for a few years. It's a bad time to get caught fudging the numbers -- in the private sector, that is.
By Paul Coggins
6 minute read
January 20, 2003 | Texas Lawyer
Ban on Gays in the Military Threatens SecurityAt a turning point in history, when our fearless leaders exhort us to pull together to battle terrorism, evidently gays need not apply to serve their country in the military, not even as much-needed interpreters and translators.
By Paul Coggins
5 minute read
December 16, 2002 | Texas Lawyer
Bowling for KillersThe final score: death penalty 2; states' rights 0. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is a staunch advocate of states' rights -- except when deference to the states threatens something he's more fervent about, like the death penalty. The sniper sweepstakes recently conducted by the Department of Justice proves that when the AG's devotion to states' rights collides with his passion for the death penalty, the latter prevails. Ashcroft is more interested in being our chief executioner than its chief lawyer.
By Paul Coggins
5 minute read
March 20, 2006 | Texas Lawyer
"Library Provision" Clouds Patriot Act DangersThe furor over the Patriot Act's �215 -- known as "the library provision" -- has overshadowed a bolder power grab by the feds. The administration has been playing a shell game with the public. While foes of the Patriot Act tried to table �215, the real action has been under the table, via the proliferation of national security letters.
By Paul Coggins
7 minute read
April 21, 2003 | Texas Lawyer
The Smoking GubBased on a series of documents provided by the United Kingdom, the Bush team thought it had found the smoking gun -- proof that Iraq recently had attempted to purchase uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger, an African country. There were only two problems with the documents underlying the Iraq-Africa uranium tale. First, the documents were forgeries. Second, they were bad forgeries.
By Paul Coggins
4 minute read
April 09, 2007 | Texas Lawyer
U.S. Attorneys: Prosecutors or Pawns?The temptation to politicize justice is hardly new, but always great. We deserve a U.S. attorney general who is a buffer against such efforts, not an enabler.
By Paul Coggins
4 minute read
