Given the panoply of civil liability and criminal exposure issues analyzed at various levels in this memorandum, and given the preliminary nature of any such effort of first impression, legal minds will most certainly approach the specifics of any fact pattern cautiously and differently.
The pattern is clear: in an era of austerity, the federal government has far more resources and legal leeway to provide disaster assistance than do state and local governments.
"And the nomination of Mr. Koh appears to be the beginning of a verytroubling pattern, " Lamborn told me, citing Justice Department nominees Dawn Johnsen ( assistant attorney general for legal counsel) and David Ogden (deputy attorney general) as cases of high-level Obama appointees who have histories of praising international law over U.S.-made law.