Jack Fruchtman
Gas versus electric leaf blowers: A way forward
A growing controversy on the Island is the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. There may be a way to resolve the issues –– but...
Buyer’s remorse and the election
buyer’s remorse: “A sense of regret after having committed to an endorsement, policy, plan of action.” –second definition, dictionary.com
Millions of people voted for former...
The future of climate change
Vineyarders, like all Americans, are living in an era of vast environmental and climate change. For most of November, the entire commonwealth suffered under...
Affordable housing and conserving the land and waterways
The critical need for hundreds of affordable housing units on Martha’s Vineyard need not conflict with the Island’s environmental beauty. With smart growth, we...
The Court and guns, again
Many residents of the Vineyard are gun owners, hunters, even firearms collectors. But few likely own something commonly called “a ghost gun.” These weapons...
The Supreme Court term: winners and losers part two
In a major 2024 landmark decision, the Supreme Court undercut the authority of the federal administrative agencies in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. This...
The Supreme Court Term: winners and losers
With the closing of the 2023-2024 Supreme Court term, it is critically important for Vineyarders to know who came out on top and who...
A study in contrasts: Two firearms cases
Island hunters and gun owners will be very interested in two cases the Supreme Court ruled on last month involving the possession of firearms....
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ‘is here to stay’
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren. As a Harvard Law professor, she spearheaded the drive to protect consumers...
The new EPA emissions rule
On April 25, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued far-reaching new rules concerning coal-fired power plants: They must capture the air pollution that they...
The migrants on the bridge: A follow-up
Anyone who casually follows the news knows that on March 26, a 984-foot container ship sailing under a Singaporean flag smashed into the Francis...
The more immigrants we have, the better off we will be
As the Island population grew during the Covid-19 pandemic, an accompanying increase occurred in its demographic makeup as the recent Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s statistical...
Assessing the 2017 Trump tax cuts
In 2017, President Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It was his signature achievement. Now that several years have passed...
Congress’s disgrace: the failure to reform immigration
Congress once again failed to resolve the critical immigration problem plaguing the southern border of the United States. Thousands of undocumented migrants are crossing...
The court and the E.P.A., yet again
The Supreme Court has another chance to reduce the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency when it hears a challenge to its regulatory authority...
Trump eligibility and the Anderson petition
In its Jan. 11 edition, my op-ed in The MV Times reviewed the Trump argument before the Supreme Court to allow him to appear...
Presidential eligibility and the Supreme Court
News first broke last September that two highly conservative law professors argued that Donald J. Trump was no longer eligible to run for president...
The supreme court adds three (maybe four) to its schedule
Like most government agencies, the U.S. Supreme Court winds down its schedule as the Christmas and New Year’s season draws closer. The last day...
Two deaths, two different lives, a retrospective
Two deaths, Henry Kissinger at 100 on Nov. 29 and Sandra Day O’Connor, 93, two days later, mark the end of an era. Few...
Religion in America today
The First Amendment’s two religion clauses require the government to “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”...