Jack Fruchtman
The Court’s emergency docket and immigrants’ fate
According to The MV Times, the destination or fate of the 40 undocumented immigrants picked up by U.S. Immigration and Enforcement (ICE) on May...
Militarizing deportations
Make no mistake, events in Los Angeles with 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 U.S. Marines (as of this writing) facing off against those...
Covering their faces, and no arrest warrants
The first time we saw it, for many of us the images were startling: The videotaped arrest in Somerville of Tufts graduate student Rümeysa...
100 days of the Trump administration and us
Many people on the Vineyard may be astonished by the sheer number and fast pace of executive orders issued from the White House over...
With the death of due process and the rule of law, no one is...
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade...
Birthright citizenship and our Brazilian neighbors
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the...
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...