Bill Blum

Bill Blum

Bill Blum is a former administrative law judge and death penalty defense attorney. He is the author of three legal thrillers published by Penguin/Putnam and a contributing writer for California Lawyer Magazine. His non-fiction work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, ranging from The Nation and The Progressive to the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. Weekly and Los Angeles Magazine.

Articles by this author

President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr. (Photo: U.S. Department of Justice, courtesy of Wikimedia) Views
Thursday, February 20, 2020
The Feud Between Trump and Barr Is a Grand Illusion
Don’t place much stock in the purported feud between Donald Trump and Bill Barr. It’s just an illusion. The sad truth is that Trump and Barr are as simpatico as ever in pursuit of their jointly held goal of executive supremacy. The differences between the two men are largely a matter of demeanor,...
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What the Republicans want is not a fair trial but a cover-up. And a cover-up is the last thing the nation needs at this critical juncture in its history. (Photo: Saul Loeb/Getty Images) Views
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Unequal Justice: Call Trump to Testify at His Impeachment Trial
As the Senate impeachment trial of Donald John Trump unfolds, one fundamental issue is whether witnesses will be called to give live testimony. The parties, not surprisingly, are sharply and bitterly divided on that. There can be little question that justice demands that witnesses be called, and...
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To date, Trump’s publicly announced justifications for Soleimani’s assassination have shifted wildly, in the fashion of dictators of developing nations, lurching from one bogus rationale to another. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Views
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Trump’s Unprecedented Attack on Iran and the Rule of Law
The assassination of Iranian major general Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3 in Baghdad is what happens when the steady erosion of congressional war-making powers intersects with the tenancy of a madman in the Oval Office. I know. Soleimani was, to invoke the parlance of another grossly unqualified...
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Donald Trump has clearly met that standard. He is the nightmare the Founders dreaded. (Photo: WorkingFamiliesParty) Views
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Unequal Justice: Democrats Go Surgical and Small on Impeachment
“You can’t always get what you want But if you try sometime, you find You get what you need.” —Keith Richards & Mick Jagger Barring a last-minute failure of nerve by House Democrats, Donald John Trump will become only the third President in U.S. history to be impeached. That’s welcome news for...
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Friday, November 29, 2019
Now Is Not the Time for Democrats to Waver
As the House Judiciary Committee opens the final round of hearings next week in the impeachment investigation of Donald Trump, there are, once again, reports of wavering among centrists and moderates in the Democratic Party. Although conservative news outlets have taken the lead on such reporting,...
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In both style and to a certain degree substance, Trump is more mobster a la Capone than politician a la Nixon. (Photo: YouTube Screenshot) Views
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Think Capone When It Comes to Trump’s Impeachment
Is President Donald Trump more like Richard Nixon or Al Capone? That’s not a question many commentators in search of historical analogies will ask as the House begins televised hearings on Trump’s impeachment this week. But it should be. In my view, the answer to the question is that the legal...
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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) inside the U.S. Capitol building. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
What Will Tump Impeachment Trial Look Like in Mitch McConnell-Controlled Senate?
The impeachment of Donald John Trump by the House of Representatives is all but inevitable. The House is slated to hold a formal vote on Thursday to authorize the impeachment inquiry, and in the coming weeks, it is expected to shift from closed-door investigatory sessions to public hearings...
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It’s always tricky to predict outcomes in the Supreme Court, but with its five-member conservative majority now firmly entrenched, the panel is poised to swing further to the right as it grapples with issues on LGBT rights, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, abortion, the Second Amendment and “religious liberty.” (Photo: wbentprice / Flickr) Views
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
The Supreme Court Could Spell the End of American Democracy
It has almost gone unnoticed, but amid the daily S turm und Drang of the Trump impeachment inquiry, the Supreme Court has begun another term. In any other year, the reconvening of the court would be headline news. However, like everything else in the Trump era, the court has taken a back seat to...
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There’s no discounting the heavy hand of time, and no underestimating the impact Ginsburg’s departure—whenever it takes place—will have on the future of the Supreme Court and American law.(Photo: Flickr/National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institute) Views
Tuesday, September 03, 2019
If Ruth Bader Ginsburg Can't Hold On
When it comes to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there’s one thing the Trump administration shares with many liberals and progressives: To one degree or another, they’re all engaged in a ritualized kind of “deathwatch.” As unsettling and morbid as that sounds, that’s where we are, and we...
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When the court reconvenes in October, its docket will include a new Second Amendment appeal—New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York—that has the potential to rival or surpass Heller for its impact on gun rights and gun regulation.(Photo: PJMixer / Flickr) Views
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
The Biggest Obstacle to Gun Control May Be the Supreme Court
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.—Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States In the wake of recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the biggest obstacle...
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