Jack London is remembered today mostly for writing inspiring novels about dogs and the Alaskan wilderness. In his own time, however, he was also known as a prominent advocate of socialism and a virulent racist. At Slate, Johann Hari has an interesting review of a new biography of London: The United States has a startling […]
Archive | August 17, 2010
Jesse Friedman Vindicated (Sort of)
Back in 2004, I wrote: I saw the documentary “Capturing the Friedmans” last night. The film is about a “normal” family torn apart when the pedophile father and his eighteen year-old son [Jesse] are accused of (and ultimately plead guilty to) violently molesting children who took computer classes in their home. The case arose against […]
Piracy Charges Dismissed by Federal Judge
Prof. Eugene Kontorovich passes along the news about United States v. Said, and has this analysis: Today a district court in Norfolk dismissed on summary judgment of piracy charges against alleged Somali pirates captured by the U.S. for an attack on American warship. (Many other non-international charges remain.) In short, he ruled that attempts are […]
Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Stolen Valor Act, Holds That Knowing Lies About Whether One Has Received Medals Are Generally Constitutionally Protected
By Eugene Volokh on August 17, 2010 6:25 pm in Freedom of Speech, Knowingly False Statements of Fact
The 2-to-1 decision, came in United States v. Alvarez; I think that this is probably not quite right, see this amicus brief I filed in a similar case, though I think the question — what restrictions does the First Amendment impose on laws that restrict knowing lies? — is difficult, and the majority makes a […]
Ninth Circuit Expedites Second Prop. 8 Appeal
Today the motions panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit followed up on its order expediting the appeal in Perry v. Schwarzenegger with an order expediting the appeal filed by officials of Imperial County, California. Imperial County officials, including the Deputy County Clerk, has sought to intervene in defense of Proposition […]
Solon v. Freud
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an interesting opinion in an interesting tort case, Sigmund v. Starwood Urban Retail VI, LLC. In this case, Donald Sigmund sued seeking tort damages from the owner, managers, and operators of a garage in which a car was parked that exploded due to a […]
Work, Compensation, and Retirement Age: Lessons from the Professors
The NYT Room for Debate blog, via TaxProf Blog, has a debate among professors over the effects of tenure, a good job in both working conditions and compensation, and no mandatory retirement age. Here is how the Times sets up the debate among the professors (not specifically law professors): If tenured professors are retiring later, […]
Elected Politician Using Government Web Site to Mobilize Public Opposition to Private Speech About Politicians
The Public Advocate for the City of New York (Bill de Blasio) has a site that lists major (nonmedia) corporations’ stands on using corporate money to speak about candidates for political office. Then, for corporations that are so speaking, the site lists contact information with the line Demand that corporations stop taking advantage of Citizens […]
Randall Kennedy on Affirmative Action
Randall Kennedy, one of my favorite writers on race issues, has a provocative essay on affirmative action in the American Prospect. Kennedy’s argument is that in the last 20 years, the diversity rationale for affirmative action has proved surprisingly effective at making affirmative action considerably less controversial than it used to be. From the conclusion: […]