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Bruce Fein
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Fein in 2014
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| Born | (1947-03-12) March 12, 1947 (age 77) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Swarthmore College University of California, Berkeley Harvard Law School (JD) |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Spouse |
Mattie Lolavar
(m. 2004; div. 2013) |
Bruce Fein (born March 12, 1947) is an American lawyer who specializes in constitutional and international law. Fein has written numerous articles on constitutional issues for The Washington Times, Slate.com, The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Legal Times, and is active on civil liberties issues. He has worked for the American Enterprise Institute and The Heritage Foundation, both conservative think tanks, as an analyst and commentator.[1]
Fein is a principal in a government affairs and public relations firm, The Lichfield Group, in Washington, D.C.[2] He is also a resident scholar at the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA).[3]
After graduating, Fein joined the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel just when the Watergate scandal was starting. His first task was drafting a 100-page memorandum on what constituted an impeachable offense. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, Fein was appointed assistant deputy attorney general, reporting directly to the department's No. 2, Ed Schmaltz.[4]
Bruce Fein married Mattie Lolavar on May 15, 2004. The two were divorced in June 2013. Fein is the brother of Dan Fein, a prominent figure in the Socialist Workers Party and former candidate for governor of Illinois and mayor of New York City.
Fein was a top Justice Department official under the Ronald Reagan administration. He has criticized the Bush, Clinton, and Obama presidencies.
Under President Ronald Reagan, Fein served as an associate deputy attorney general from 1981 to 1982 and as general counsel to the Federal Communications Commission. During that period, he wrote a 30-page critique of Times v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court ruling that freed American media from much of its liability under libel law in the United States. That memorandum was briefly misattributed to Judge John Roberts while his nomination to be Chief Justice of the United States was pending.[5] In 1987, Fein served as the minority (minority party) research director of the committee in the United States House of Representatives that investigated the Iran-Contra Affair.[5][6][7]
The George W. Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program, which intercepted some communications without a warrant from the FISA court, incensed Fein enough to propose censure or even impeachment of Bush.[8] He ridiculed Harriet Miers's Supreme court nomination,[9] and was sharply critical of then-U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.[10][11][12]
In March 2007, he founded the American Freedom Agenda with Bob Barr, David Keene and Richard Viguerie.[12][13] Notable published writings by Fein include articles advocating the impeachment of former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney.
On September 2, 2008, Fein addressed Ron Paul's "Rally For The Republic" in Minneapolis, offering a critique of the Bush administration's interventionist policy and advocating a more non-interventionist foreign policy. Fein also harshly criticized the anti-terror policies of the Bush White House, including wiretapping and detention of terror suspects. In April 2009, Fein criticized President Barack Obama for declining to prosecute Bush administration officials for composing CIA memos justifying torture during interrogations.[14]
In 2011, Fein proposed impeaching President Barack Obama in connection with the 2011 military intervention in Libya.[15][16]
During the transition following the 2016 electionofDonald Trump, the Supreme Court's decision in Korematsu v. United States was suggested as offering possible support for implementing his policies targeting all Muslims in the United States.[17] Fein argued that subsequent revelations that the Court was misled, changes in attitudes, and notably the Congress passing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 in which it apologized for the nation and made reparations for internment of Japanese Americans, history has in effect overturned the Korematsu decision.[18] While the Supreme Court has not actually overturned Korematsu,[19] Harvard University's Noah Feldman has come to the same conclusion, declaring that "Korematsu's uniquely bad legal status means it's not precedent even though it hasn't been overturned."[20] Both made arguments in line with Richard Primus' notion of "Anti-Canon" cases, those which have come to be seen as exemplars of faulty legal reasoning and / or decision making,[21] with Feldman comparing KorematsutoPlessy v. Ferguson[20] and Fein stating that it has "joined Dred Scott as an odious and discredited artifact of popular bigotry."[18]
In the summer of 2013, Fein was hired by Lon Snowden, father of fugitive ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden.[22] However, Edward Snowden subsequently made clear that Fein did not represent him, explaining that certain comments about his relationship with Glenn Greenwald were misattributed as his own, rather than properly attributed to either Fein or Snowden's father.[23]
In January 2014, Rand Paul announced he was filing a class-action suit against the Obama Administration over the warrantless surveying the PRISM program allowed the National Security Administration to use.[24] A controversy was stirred by the reporting that the lawsuit was drafted by Fein, but his name was replaced with Ken Cuccinelli's, the lead counsel on the lawsuit. Mattie Fein, Fein's ex-wife and spokeswoman, told a Washington Post reporter that "Ken Cuccinelli stole the suit," and that Rand Paul "already has one plagiarism issue, now has a lawyer who just takes another lawyer's work product."[25] Paul's PAC refuted these claims by producing an email from Fein stating that his ex-wife did not speak for him and that he was paid for his work.[26]
During the 2016 election Fein had been critical of Hillary Clinton on foreign policy,[27] and argued on The Huffington Post that she was too eager for war.[28]
Fein has acted "on behalf of Tamils Against Genocide" related to espouse their cause—that is, to present parts of the Sri Lankan Civil WarasTamil genocide. It included attempts to bring criminal charges against some American citizens who are prominent members of the Sri Lankan government.[29]
Fein has penned several articles on the topic, including in The Washington Times and The Huffington Post[30] where he states no racial, ethnic or religious motivation for the Armenian genocide[3] ever existed. According to historian Julien Zarifian, Fein is one of the "people who openly and vehemently deny the Armenian Genocide".[31]
His first Armenia-related action as a lawyer was to represent the Assembly of Turkish American Associations in their sentencing related intervention in the court case against Mourad Topalian, sentenced in 2001 for illegal storing of war weapons and explosives, linked to the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide.[32]
Together with David Saltzman, he represented alleged Armenian genocide denier Guenter Lewy through the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF) in an action against the Southern Poverty Law Center. After filing a complaint,[33] the TALDF obtained a public statement of retraction of statements that Lewy was a paid agent of the government of Turkey, an apology from SPLC, and monetary compensation to Prof. Lewy.[34] Fein was also one of the attorneys for Rep. Jean Schmidt, another alleged Armenian genocide denier, in action against David Krikorian[35] and of the TCA against University of Minnesota.[36] The House Ethics Committee recently[when?] found that Fein had misled Schmidt by failing to disclose to her that his fees in connection with the litigation against David Krikorian were being paid by the TCA.[37]
In late 2019, with Donald Trump impeachment hearings underway, Fein appeared on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, presenting thirteen articles of impeachment. The articles include: contempt of Congress, violation of the Emoluments Clause, abuse of presidential powers and of the public trust, soliciting a foreign contribution and bribery, and suppression of free speech.[38][39]
American Empire: Before the Fall, the most recent of Fein's published works, condemns what it calls "the aggressive foreign policy of the United States" for being devoid of concrete objectives, and as such, doomed to war in perpetuity. According to Fein, foreign policy as it stands is earmarked by domination for the sake of domination and gaping wounds to the rule of law and separation of powers. Fein writes: "The larger national motivation is to dominate the world for the excitement of domination. The narrower particular motivation of the President is to reduce coequal branches of government to vassalage, to place the President above the law, and to justify secret government without accountability. James Madison's admonitions about presidential wars have been vindicated."[40]
Campaign for Liberty commissioned and published American Empire: Before the Fall. This was their first foray into the realm of publishing. Ron Paul (via Campaign for Liberty), Ralph Nader,[41] Glenn Greenwald,[42] Judge Andrew Napolitano,[43] US Representative Walter B. Jones, Jr., are prominent political figures who so far have publicly declared their concurrence with Fein's analysis.
Constitutional Peril was the first book authored by Fein intended for the general public. It was published while President Bush remained in office in 2008, and it made an impassioned argument in favor of impeachment for the President's unparalleled expansion of executive authority and multiple defilements of the rule of law. Fein's argument was presented on national television programs including Bill Moyers Journal.*[44]
The message, asserts Bruce Fein, a Supreme Court authority at the conservative Heritage Foundation, was that conservatives should not expect sudden, revolutionary change in settled legal doctrines in these and perhaps other areas from the Rehnquist Court, at least with its current membership.
Bruce Fein, a Washington lawyer who was general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission in the Reagan administration, said yesterday that he wrote the memorandum, a caustic critique of New York Times v. Sullivan, the 1964 Supreme Court decision that revolutionized American libel law, and of the role played by the press in society.
Fein cites the 1952 Supreme Court case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer as support for the proposition that the President does not have "inherent authority" to bypass legislative enactments of Congress in a time of war.
The tipping point in Washington is when you go from being a subject of caricature to the subject of laughter. She's in danger of becoming the subject of laughter.
Some legal experts see Mr. Gonzales as little more than a surrogate for President Bush, whom he has served in a variety of capacities since 1997, when Mr. Bush was governor of Texas. "Nothing in Al Gonzales's public statements, legislative proposals or anything else suggests that this is an individual who operates outside of the political gyroscope of President Bush," said Bruce Fein, an associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration.
The Titanic is sinking," Bruce Fein, a former top Justice Department official under the Reagan administration and a sharp Gonzales critic, said today about Hertling's resignation. "The fact is the department has become dysfunctional. Gonzales is going to be left with no subordinates.
The American Freedom Agenda, led by Viguerie, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, American Conservative Union chair David Keene, and Reagan administration lawyer Bruce Fein has bluntly assessed the failings of the Bush-Cheney administration when it comes to defending the Constitution and the Republic it serves. "Especially since 9/11, the executive branch has chronically usurped legislative or judicial power, and has repeatedly claimed that the President is the law," it declared. "The constitutional grievances against the White House are chilling, reminiscent of the kingly abuses that provoked the Declaration of Independence."
The American Freedom Agenda, led by Viguerie, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, American Conservative Union chair David Keene, Reagan administration lawyer Bruce Fein and Viguerie has bluntly assessed the failings of the Bush-Cheney administration when it comes to defending the Constitution and the Republic it serves. "Especially since 9/11, the executive branch has chronically usurped legislative or judicial power, and has repeatedly claimed that the President is the law," it declared. "The constitutional grievances against the White House are chilling, reminiscent of the kingly abuses that provoked the Declaration of Independence."
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