ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR, THE MUELLER REPORT, AND THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH
ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR, THE MUELLER REPORT, AND THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH
By Joel Levin
When we set out to assess the American judicial system, we typically do it piecemeal, decision by decision, aiming our focus first at individual judges, then courts, then the role of judges in our system generally. If we could only fix any one particularly problematic thing, we could rest easy.
Yet almost all the usual nostrums and platitudes, the varieties of political slogans, and commonplace wisdom about American judges and the American judicial system turn out to be problematic. Not only are they not fixes, but they are also often demonstrably bad and give us little clue as to how we could do better.
About the Author

Joel Levin
CONTRIBUTOR
For four decades, Joel Levin has been a commercial litigator and civil rights advocate, university teacher and author. His four books include How Judges Reason; Revolutions, Institutions, Law; Tort Wars; and The Radov Chronicles. His play, Marrano Justice, is an historical drama (with music) based on the life of Justice Benjamin Cardozo. He is presently working on Another Way of Seeing Things: Sephardics and the Creation of the Modern World. He received his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Chicago, his J.D. at Boston University, and his doctorate at the University of Oxford. In addition to founding two high-tech companies, he has taught law and philosophy in Russia, Canada and a number of American universities, including, since 1982, Case Western Reserve.
Related Articles
The Power of Anti-Zionism in the United States: A Gradual Hegemony Building
Building on Antonio Gramsci’s framework, this paper analyzes the hegemonic
consolidation that has led to the emergence of a strong anti-Zionist historic bloc.
It reinterprets the notion of a historic bloc not through the traditional Marxist
perspective of class hegemony, but rather through the prevalence of a resolute
Palestinian narrative.
When Academic Freedom Becomes Weaponised: The Normalisation of Antisemitic Expression in British Academia
Amira Halperin and Stephen Sussman argue that institutional neutrality within universities can function as a mechanism of avoidance, and how legal protections for speech are being invoked to justify inaction.
In the wake of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks against Israel, university campuses across Britain have become sites of intense conflict over Israel, Gaza, Zionism, and antisemitism. Campus protests and confrontations have raised difficult questions about the boundaries between protected political expression and conduct that intimidates, excludes, or discriminates against Jewish and Israeli students and faculty.
The Strait of Hormuz Crisis and the Limits of Iranian Coercion
With the 60-day U.S.-Iran negotiating period now expired and the two sides still far apart, the Strait of Hormuz remains at the center of the confrontation. Traffic through one of the world’s most important energy corridors remains a fraction of prewar levels, while Washington and Tehran continue to disagree fundamentally over the terms under which normal navigation would resume. The immediate dispute raises a larger strategic question: can Tehran use control over a critical international waterway to compel a change in American strategy?
The Center is a gathering of scholars, experts and community stakeholders, that engage in research and dialogue in an effort to create practical policy recommendations and solutions to current local, national, and international challenges.
EXPLORE THE CENTER
FOCUS AREAS
©2025 The Palm Beach Center for Democracy and Policy Research. All Rights Reserved