Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

New Allegations Against Clarence Thomas Surface

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accused of sexual assault by Moira Smith, an Alaskan lawyer. Smith claimed that when she was 23–in 1999–Thomas groped her at a dinner party when she was working in DC. Thomas was already a Supreme Court justice at that point. Smith posted about the allegations on Facebook, and was then interviewed by The National Law Journal. In an interview she explained her motivations for coming forward, saying:

We now know that many men in power take advantage of vulnerable women. That willingness by men in power to take advantage of vulnerable women relies on an unspoken pact that the women will not speak up about it. Why? Because they are vulnerable. Because they are star-struck. Because they don’t want to be whiners. Because they worry about their career if they do speak out. But silence no longer feels defensible; it feels complicit.

Clarence Thomas–who was also accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill during his Senate confirmation in 1991–denies the allegations by Smith.

Anita Hill discusses Moira Smith’s accusation that Justice Thomas groped her in 1999 https://t.co/D2DpakjdIV via @TheNLJ @ZoeTillman pic.twitter.com/5q29qpBpBo

— Beth Frerking (@BethFrerking) October 27, 2016

Rant Crush

RantCrush collects the top trending topics in the law and policy world each day just for you.

The post RantCrush Top 5: October 28, 2016 appeared first on Law Street.

A report conducted by a five-member panel concluded that while the U.K.’s policy on the Iraq War was erroneous and costly, it was not illegal.

The Iraq Inquiry, a seven year undertaking, was launched in 2009 by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The 6,000 page report sought to determine if the Iraq invasion was “right and necessary” and “whether the U.K. could–and should–have been better prepared for what followed,” according to a statement by Sir John Chilcot, the retired civil servant who spearheaded the effort.

U.K. forces joined the U.S.-led coalition in March 2003. The conflict, which was sparked by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, killed 179 British troops. Nearly 4,500 American troops died, along with over 100,000 Iraqis, including civilians.

As a thesis to a handful of key findings, Chilcot concluded, “The U.K. chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.”

To the detriment of then Prime Minister Tony Blair’s detractors, the report saw no reason to suspect intentional wrongdoing or unlawful activity on the part of Blair or Parliament.

At a press conference Wednesday following the Chilcot report’s release, Blair said his decision to join U.S. forces in Iraq was “the hardest, most momentous, most [agonizing decision] I took in my ten years as Prime Minister.”

Blair lamented the thousands of Iraqi deaths that resulted from the invasion, but did not go as far as expressing regret for the decision. He was steadfast in defending the U.S.-led coalition’s decision to depose Saddam Hussein, the tyrannical leader of Iraq who was eventually captured by U.S. forces and hanged in Iraq.

He also sought to console the families of British soldiers who perished on the battlefield, by claiming they did not die in vein. “[British forces] fought in the defining security struggle of the 21st century, against the terrorism and violence which the world over destroys lives and divides communities,” said Blair.

Here are some of the findings from the report, which is based on testimony from 150 witnesses and 150,000 documents:

• The U.K.’s judgement of the severity of the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) threat posed by Iraq was not justified by the evidence, or lack thereof.
• Blair underestimated the consequences of an invasion, and did not properly prepare for the vacuum left by Hussein’s absence.
• Blair’s government understood the risks (i.e. internal strife in Iraq, active Iranian pursuit of its interests, regional instability, and Al Qaida activity in Iraq) and joined the invasion anyway.

Chilcot ended the report by offering a suggestion for what we can learn from the U.K.’s errors in the Iraq War. “Above all, the lesson is that all aspects of any intervention need to be calculated, debated and challenged with the utmost [rigor],” he said. “Sadly, neither was the case in relation to the U.K. Government’s actions in Iraq.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Report Blasts Tony Blair, UK Government’s Handling of Iraq War appeared first on Law Street.