New York Attorney General Letitia James could face an "ethical predicament" if she runs for governor after her report on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and sexual harassment led to his resignation last week, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Saturday on Newsmax.
"The report can be challenged not only on the grounds of her running for the office but also her absurd, bigoted, biased statement that women should be believed over men, that if there's a conflict between a woman and a man, you don't look at the evidence, you look at the gender and the gender, Dershowitz said on Newsmax's "Saturday Report."
James, he added, would be a "terrible candidate," and he hopes she'll be disqualified both "morally and ethically for having played such an important role in ousting the governor and creating the vacancy that she's trying to fill."
Dershowitz also commented on the Supreme Court's ruling to lift New York's pandemic-related eviction ban, which gave a victory to landlords who were challenging a state moratorium set to expire on Aug. 31. The court voted 6-3, with the three liberal justices dissenting from the decision.
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., Friday ruled that a federal ban on evictions can continue, extending protections against evictions and rejecting a plea by two landlord groups to block the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moratorium set to last until Oct. 3.
"First, the CDC should have nothing to say about this," said Dershowitz. "This is a purely legal economic decision. It has nothing to do with health. It's not within their jurisdiction."
He said there are two issues on the matter, including whether the president has the authority to change the law without legislative input, and about whether keeping landlords from collecting rent is constitutional.
"There's no such thing as a free lunch," said Dershowitz. "I think the Supreme Court will be looking hard to see whether or not the health issues which are real or if they are being used as a justification for making economic decisions which don't flow directly from the health concerns."
He added that property rights are "central to our constitution" under several amendments, as its framers were "deeply concerned about property."
"The original draft of the bill of the Declaration of Independence, talks about life, liberty and property and property was central to the concerns of the of the framers whether socialists agree with that or not is a different matter," Dershowitz said. "The Constitution stands on its own legs and if you permanently deprive people of charging rent for their houses that really does constitute the taking of property."
He also said he thinks there is a constitutional basis for mandating masks if a legislature decides that the issue of public health outweighs the inconvenience of wearing a mask.
"A mask is different than a vaccine," he said. "A vaccine could be dangerous. People can have strong objections on medical grounds to a vaccine. Masks, I've heard medical arguments but basically, it's an inconvenience."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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