Archive | June, 2004

I just read the Address for the first time — too bad that it took me so long — and thought the closing paragraph was quite moving: I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of […]

— in his capacity as head of the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act Study Committee — to complain about Judge Calabresi’s remarks. Here’s the letter. Seems like overkill to me, especially given the Judge’s apology, but I thought I’d pass along the Congressmen’s opposite view.

WOW! Liberty & Power has added a host of interesting “Contributing Editors” to its already impressive stable making it a libertarian intellectual powerhouse. I go way back with most of the folks on its roster–in some cases, to when they were students, in others to when I was a student. My congratulations. Given the stance […]

Michael Moore says the Saudis. Ralph Nader has a different view; I’ve quoted it here, but reader Duncan Frissell points to this even more explicit reference: Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader yesterday courted the Islamic vote by accusing Republicans and Democrats of ignoring the interests of Muslim Americans and describing the Congress and White House […]

A TV station’s Web site reports: [An ACLU] lawsuit filed Tuesday challenges a new state law that effectively bans nude summer camps for teenagers, saying it violates the constitutional right to privacy. . . . The law was passed in March in response to a weeklong residential camp for 11- to 18-year-olds last June at […]

Nicholas Kristof (N.Y. Times) puts it well (thanks to Dan Gifford for the pointer): In the 1990’s, nothing made conservatives look more petty and simple-minded than their demonization of Bill and Hillary Clinton, who were even accused of spending their spare time killing Vince Foster and others. Mr. Clinton, in other words, left the right […]

I rarely disagree with Eugene. Nonetheless, I am not convinced by his argument Congress could not suspend habeas to prevent the filing thousands of writs by enemy detainees in U.S. hands on foreign soil in his Monday hypothetical. As Eugene notes, the text of the Suspension Clause provides: “The privilege of the writ of habeas […]

The judge this time is Paul Cassell, one of the leading conservative criminal procedure professors who was appointed to federal district court a couple of years ago. Prof. Douglas Berman (Sentencing Law and Policy reports): I previously noted that law professors like to get the first word on important cases, and apparently that maxim holds […]

Who said that, just a few weeks ago? (Click here for the answer.) Ralph Nader, talking to — I’m not making this up — Pat Buchanan, in The American Conservative magazine: [Nader]: The subservience of our congressional and White House puppets to Israeli military policy has been consistent. . . . [Buchanan]: You used the […]

in The New Republic Online.

I’ve just updated my Excel spreadsheet of the Justices’ votes in free speech cases to include 1994 to 2003 — 10 years in which the Court’s makeup has remained the same. Here are the results, with the Justices ranked from having the broadest aggregate view of free speech protection to the narrowest aggregate view. Ranking, […]

The Ashcroft v. ACLU majority concludes that filters may well be a less speech-restrictive but equally effective alternative to the restrictions that the Child Online Protection Act imposes. That’s why the Court effectively strikes down the Act. (The Court technically just upholds the preliminary injunction as not an abuse of the trial court’s discretion, but […]

I’m working to synthesize a lot of information. For now: David Meyer has a very thorough rundown and chronology. It includes the passages from a Greg Miller LA Times article from February of 2003– a full year before the NBC story. [l]awmakers who have attended classified briefings on the camp say they have been stymied […]

The Onion has this somewhat amusing story (hat tip to The Irish Trojan’s Blog), the best part of which is the title: American People Ruled Unfit to Govern. The opening reads: WASHINGTON, DC—In a historic decision with major implications for the future of U.S. participatory democracy, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Monday that the American […]

William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman have long supported legalizing marijuana. Years ago, Buckley publicly announced that he had smoked marijuana on his boat off the coast outside the three mile limit (unlike me, who have never tried it). Now 78 years old and giving up ownership of the National Review, Buckley writes in National […]