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Bruce Fein

Bruce Fein served as associate deputy attorney general and general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan. He is now a partner in the firm Fein & DelValle, PLLC. Mr. Fein is also the author of "American Empire Before the Fall and Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy." You can contact him at Brucefeinlaw.

Articles by Bruce Fein

Congress should block census citizenship question

Politicians have ulterior motives for everything. The Trump administration is no different.

April 4, 2018

John Bolton nod provokes Congress on confirmations

President Donald Trump's appointment of John Bolton as National Security Adviser effective April 9, 2018, should provoke a statute requiring Senate confirmation.

March 30, 2018

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Tunnel vision

Elon Musk is more like "The Music Man" con artist Professor Harold Hill than inventive genius Thomas Edison. As Gertrude Stein said of Oakland, "There is no there there."

March 28, 2018

Consumer Product Safety Commission needs new leadership

When President Andrew Jackson failed to convince his Secretary of Treasury William Duane to withdraw funds from the hated Second Bank of the United States to deposit in private institutions, he fired him in favor of Attorney General Roger B. Taney, who did the dirty work with alacrity.

March 16, 2018

Susan Collins, Bruce Poliquin, trees and the SEC Rule 30e-3

There are always drum majors for the status quo. They are status quo beneficiaries who would lose by change. They fight technological innovation or invention that would benefit society handsomely.

March 5, 2018

Let bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies compete with government money

Like truth, the best test of a cryptocurrency should be its ability to get itself accepted in the competition of the marketplace.

February 6, 2018

Congress should beware of science on diacetyl

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was established by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 as a research agency focused on the study of worker safety and health.

February 2, 2018

U.S. v Microsoft: Supreme Court must protect privacy rights

The U.S. Supreme Court should strengthen the keystone of our Republic in the pending case of United States v. Microsoft: namely, the right to be let alone by government -- "the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men," according to Justice Louis D. Brandeis.

January 22, 2018

Republican lawmakers seek ban on intrastate Internet gambling

With the zeal of proponents of the Prohibition Amendment, four Republican House members wrote a letter on Dec. 19 to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein protesting an interpretation of the Wire Act by the Office of Legal Counsel that lets State jurisdictions decide whether to permit Internet gambling within their borders.

January 12, 2018

Trump nominee Kenneth Marcus, BDS movement, free speech

There may be more unfit nominees than Kenneth Marcus to head the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education, but if there are, they do not readily come to mind.

December 28, 2017

Trump-Mueller-Russia: President should testify under oath

President Trump holds the keys to ending with dispatch Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of links between the Russian government and his presidential campaign.President Trump holds the keys to ending with dispatch Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of links between the Russian government and his presidential campaign.

December 26, 2017

FISA section 702: Repeal or scale back

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) cheerleads for the 17 agencies which comprise the intelligence community.

December 20, 2017

Reassert constitutional war powers

Something is rotten in the state of the U.S. Constitution's war powers and the constitutionally prescribed processes for making foreign policy. Since at least the 1950 Korean War, Congress has meekly surrendered them to the president despite the disastrous results.

December 18, 2017

Bill Ackman’s Edsel

Ford Motor Co. had its Edsel, Samsung had its Galaxy Note 7, and Pershing Square hedge fund manager William Ackman has his $1 billion short bet against Herbalife Nutrition. Mr. Ackman should take a lesson from the Prodigal Son and ask forgiveness.

December 13, 2017

Trump, Obama, national parks, Antiquities Act

President Donald Trump, acting through Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and scorning the Republican-controlled Congress, is expected to unilaterally diminish national monument designations of his predecessor issued under the Antiquities Act of 1906. He seems to be targeting Utah's Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

December 1, 2017

Claire McCaskill amendment threatens liberty

Last week, Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, added an amendment to the euphemistically styled "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" that would deny pharmaceutical companies full immediate expensing of truthful prescription drug advertising protected by the First Amendment.

November 27, 2017

Tax reform: Roll back capital gains for carried interest

Tax reform, like a woman, must be courted, not taken by storm.

November 13, 2017

Congress repeals Consumer Protection Finance Board rule

Congress deserves applause for repealing an obtuse rule prohibiting agreements requiring arbitration to resolve consumer finance disputes issued by the Consumer Protection Finance Board (CPFB). The rule's chief beneficiaries were trial lawyers, not bank customers.