Marjorie Cohn

Marjorie Cohn

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Marjorie Cohn became president of the National Lawyers Guild in October 2006. She also was recently recognized as one of San Diego’s Top Attorneys in Academics for 2006. She lectures throughout the world on international human rights and U.S. foreign policy.

A news consultant for CBS News, and a legal analyst for Court TV, she also provides legal and political commentary on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR and Pacifica Radio. Co-author of the book Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice, Professor Cohn has published numerous articles in such journals as Fordham Law Review, Hastings Law Journal and Virginia Journal of International Law, as well as The National Law Journal, Christian Science Monitor and Chicago Tribune.

Professor Cohn is a contributing editor to Jurist, MWC News and Guild Practitioner. She has been a criminal defense attorney at the trial and appellate levels for many years, and was staff counsel to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Professor Cohn is the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. The recipient of the San Diego County Bar Association’s 2005 Service to Legal Education Award, she sits on the Advisory Board for the Haywood Burns Memorial Fellowships for Social and Economic Justice, and serves on the Roster of Experts at the Institute for Public Accuracy. Professor Cohn was a legal observer in Iran on behalf of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers in 1978 and she has participated in delegations to Cuba, China and Yugoslavia. She lived in Mexico and is fluent in Spanish. Professor Cohn has taught at Thomas Jefferson since 1991.

Blog Entries by Marjorie Cohn

End the Occupation of Iraq -- and Afghanistan

3 Comments | Posted July 29, 2008 | 05:22 PM (EST)


So far, Bush's plan to maintain a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq has been stymied by resistance from the Iraqi government. Barack Obama's timetable for withdrawal of American troops has evidently been joined by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Bush has mentioned a "time horizon," and John McCain has...

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Scalia Cites False Information in Habeas Corpus Dissent

Posted June 24, 2008 | 11:04 AM (EST)


To bolster his argument that the Guantánamo detainees should be denied the right to prove their innocence in federal courts, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his dissent in Boumediene v. Bush: "At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantánamo have returned to the battlefield." It turns out that...

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Hillary Invokes Assassination

Posted May 26, 2008 | 11:40 AM (EST)


For weeks, pundits have speculated about why Hillary Clinton insists on remaining in the primary race when Barack Obama has all but clinched the Democratic presidential nomination. On Friday, Clinton answered that question. It appears she's waiting in the wings for something dreadful to befall Obama.

When...

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The National Lawyers Guild Condemns Senate Grant of Immunity to Lawbreaking Telecommunications Companies

Posted February 16, 2008 | 05:06 PM (EST)


Responding to fear-mongering by the Bush administration, the Senate voted on February 12 to give retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that have turned over our telephone and Internet communications to the government. These companies have violated several laws, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Title III, the Communications...

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Cheney Impeachment Gains Traction in House Judiciary Committee

Posted January 24, 2008 | 02:05 PM (EST)


Nine out of 23 Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee favor starting impeachment hearings against Vice-President Dick Cheney. Six of the nine are co-sponsors of H.R. 799, which contains three articles of impeachment.

Articles I and II of H.R. 799 accuse Cheney of purposely manipulating intelligence to deceive...

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The Torture Tape Cover-Up: How High Does It Go?

Posted December 29, 2007 | 03:20 PM (EST)


When the hideous photographs of torture and abuse emerged from Abu Ghraib in the spring of 2004, they created a public relations disaster for the Bush administration. The White House had painstakingly worked to capitalize on the 9/11 attacks by creating a "war on terror." Never mind the absurdity of...

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Bush Still Spinning Nukes in Iran

Posted December 19, 2007 | 11:41 AM (EST)


The unanimous conclusion of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, that Iran ceased pursuing a program of nuclear weapons in 2003, has dealt a severe blow to the Bush-Cheney agenda of forcible regime change in Iran. For several months, the rhetoric emerging from the White House escalated to the point that...

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Guantanamo Detainees' Fate at Stake in Boumediene

Posted December 4, 2007 | 12:21 PM (EST)


The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday in Boumediene v. Bush. Most of the 34 detainees whose fate hangs in the balance in this case were brought to Guantánamo after being picked up by bounty hunters or tribesmen in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yet the Bush administration has fought hard...

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Remembering Victor Rabinowitz: Legal Giant of the Left

Posted November 26, 2007 | 10:27 AM (EST)


On November 16, 2007, Victor Rabinowitz, one of the giants of the legal profession and a tireless fighter for social justice, died at the age of 96. One of the founders of the National Lawyers Guild 70 years ago, Victor defended unpopular clients when other lawyers were afraid to touch...

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Preventing the Impending War on Iran

Posted November 23, 2007 | 11:52 PM (EST)


Rhetoric flowing out of the White House indicates the Bush administration is planning a military attack on Iran. Officials in Saudi Arabia, a close Bush ally, think the handwriting is on the wall. "George Bush's tone makes us think he has decided what he is going to do," according to...

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Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool

Posted November 20, 2007 | 09:53 AM (EST)


Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3rd after the Pakistani Supreme Court indicated it would overturn the results of an illegitimate election that would have extended Musharraf's term as president. Musharraf quickly fired the Supreme Court justices who planned to rule against him. And...

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Michael Mukasey: Another Loyal Bushie

Posted October 22, 2007 | 12:10 PM (EST)


The Michael Mukasey Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing has demonstrated that Mukasey cannot be relied upon to function independently as U.S. Attorney General. Nevertheless, Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee seem so thrilled that Mukasey is not Alberto Gonzales that they're willing to vote for him even though he's another...

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Cheney Sounds Out Jordan, Egypt on U.S. Bombing of Iran

Posted September 26, 2007 | 10:53 PM (EST)


My cousin Larry Russell, a travel writer, spent three weeks (May 11 through May 31 of 2007) in Jordan as a guest of the Jordanian Tourist Board. He was invited to dinner at the home of Karim Kawar, Jordan's ex- ambassador to the United States (2002-06), in Amman. Dick Cheney...

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Erwin Chemerinsky and the Post-9/11 Attack on Academic Freedom

Posted September 15, 2007 | 07:15 PM (EST)


One week after renowned legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky was offered the position of dean of the new law school at the University of California at Irvine, Chancellor Michael Drake withdrew the offer, informing Professor Duke Law Professor Chemerinsky he had proved to be "too politically controversial." Chemerinsky is one of...

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Bush Plans War on Iran

Posted September 3, 2007 | 06:10 PM (EST)


The Sunday Times of London is reporting that the Pentagon has plans for three days of massive air strikes against 1,200 targets in Iran. Last week, Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, told a meeting of The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy...

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Turning Iraq Into Vietnam

Posted August 25, 2007 | 03:38 PM (EST)


Desperate to shore up support for continuing his unpopular war on Iraq, George W. Bush drew an analogy with Vietnam when he addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "The price of America's withdrawal [from Vietnam] was paid by millions of innocent citizens," Bush declared. But he overlooked the four million...

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FISA Revised: A Blank Check for Domestic Spying

Posted August 9, 2007 | 11:06 PM (EST)


Responding to fear-mongering by the Bush administration, the Democrat-led Congress put its stamp of approval on the unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans.

George W. Bush has perfected the art of ramming ill-considered legislation through Congress by hyping emergencies that don't exist. He did it with the USA Patriot Act, the...

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Reining In an Out-of-Control Executive

Posted July 16, 2007 | 10:26 PM (EST)


Our Founding Fathers created three separate but co-equal branches of government to check and balance each other so no one branch would become all powerful. Indeed, James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers, "The preservation of liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct."...

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The Opportunistic Commuter-in-Chief

Posted July 6, 2007 | 05:15 PM (EST)


When he announced the commutation of Scooter Libby's 30-month sentence, George W. Bush cited the ways Libby has and will suffer: damage to his reputation, the suffering of his wife and children, large fines, and the "long-lasting" consequences of being a convicted felon.

When he was governor of...

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The New Watergate

Posted April 12, 2007 | 04:25 PM (EST)


The Bush administration is shocked, shocked, that the firing of a few U.S. attorneys has caused such a stir in Washington. After all, the Oval Office says, the President can choose whomever he wants to prosecute federal cases. But the Supreme Court declared in Berger v. United States that a...

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