Jim Caton lives in Southeast Michigan where he teaches English and works as a freelance writer. A graduate of Wayne Law School, he writes on matters of constitutional law, public policy and international affairs. He is currently at work on a book of economic and social criticism entitled Ass Backward.
The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia does not bring with it the end of an era. Like Augustus Caesar and Ray Kroc, Scalia dies a glorious success, leaving an empire in place on the ruins of a former world. For Scalia, the world to be overcome had been American democracy, and he
As a high school teacher, I would occasionally ask a class, “Apart from the Holocaust, what was so bad about the Nazis?” This was usually a stumper. Understandably, the enormity of the Holocaust had dominated their studies of the period, but disappointingly few students could say anything else informed about the Nazi rule of Germany.
Once as a law clerk I was asked by an associate in the firm I worked for to take a trip to a nearby university medical library and do a little research. Her client had jaw cancer, and she wanted to know whether benzene, an ingredient in the client’s denture cream, was a carcinogen. In
The U.S. Supreme Court draws the line at child slavery. Almost always in the corner, if not the vest pocket, of big business, the court on Monday rejected a bid by Nestle and other food giants Cargill and Archer-Daniels-Midland to dismiss a suit brought by plaintiffs from Mali who had been child slaves in Ivory
The U.S. House Oversight Committee grilled federal and State of Michigan officials Wednesday on their roles in the poisoning of Flint’s water. As you would expect, the finger-pointing was impressive. “It’s the question of the day,” said Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) Director Keith Creagh. “Who made what decision when?” That question may be
Ever seen this? Any dispute arising from the performance of this contract will be submitted to binding arbitration. Employee waives all rights to a trial in a court of law. If you’ve gotten a job or a credit card in the last several years, you probably have seen this bit of legal bullying. And you’ve
When future generations look back, if future generations there will be, they will see a time when corporations ruled the earth and, in a little over a century, brought its devastation. Rising sea levels, not to mention tides and storms, will inundate countless seaside cities worldwide in our children’s lifetime. Acidification of the oceans is
In a recent Senate report and subsequent op/ed piece in the New York Times, Senator Elizabeth Warren rightly accuses the Obama administration of having been “shockingly weak” on holding corporations accountable for their crimes. “The failure to punish big corporations or their executives when they break the law undermines the foundations of this great country,”
Think you’re mad about the Flint water crisis? Have a seat and take a deep breath. Crain’s Automotive News ran a story on Sunday revealing that a Flint General Motors plant has avoided using the city’s corrosive water since December of 2014. It turns out that Flint’s water was corroding GM’s metal parts. “The water
He waves his hand out at the cameras, “Show the crowd. Go ahead and show em.” Waves his hand again, “Whatever.” We hear them cheer, the crowd we can’t see. They cheer the bravado, and they cheer for the “whatever,” that adolescent dismissal of the outside world. They don’t matter after all, those cable news