One possible way to gauge if U.S. air security measures are only “security theater” is to look for changes or criticisms after the Executive branch switched from Republican to Democrat in January 2009. It’s not a perfect measure, of course, but it’s one worth watching. Here’s my thinking. If some of the security measures under […]
Author Archive | Orin Kerr
Israeli Airport Security Measures
In his post below, my co-blogger Ilya suggests that we should be skeptical of U.S. airport security measures because they are not used by Israeli airport security. Ilya writes: many of the TSA’s most intrusive and annoying policies are not used by Israeli airport security, generally considered to be the best in the world; these […]
A Cautious Take on “Security Theater” in Airline Security Measures
In his post below, my co-blogger Jonathan Adler derides airline security measures as political theater. Echoing frustrations of many frequent flyers, he writes: Airport security is already more show than substance. It’s an exercise of political theater that is supposed to make travelers feel more secure. I am unconvinced it even does that very well […]
What Do We Call the Decade?
The Washington Post asks a good question: What should we call this decade? We have the ’80s, the ’90s, and . . . the “twenty hundreds”? . . . The anxiety began in the mid-’90s, then stretched into the early whatchamacallits — Aughts? — and has now reached fever pitch as the decade winds to […]
Apparent Al-Qaeda Terror Attack on Flight to Detroit Fails When Explosive Device Doesn’t Explode
We were lucky this time. Abdul Mudallad, 23, a Nigerian man linked to Al Qaeda, attempted to blow up a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit today — with 278 people on board — as the flight was landing in Detroit. The New York Times reports: A Nigerian man tried to ignite an explosive device […]
Best Wishes
Best wishes to all readers for a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Yes, Virginia, There is an Exclusionary Rule
Over at FourthAmendment.com, John Wesley Hall offers up some pretty good Fourth Amendment/Christmas humor. (I don’t know how large the audience is for Christmas-themed criminal procedure humor, but if you’re in the target audience, click on the link.)
Santa Comes A Day Early for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
The Washington Post reports: The Obama administration pledged Thursday to provide unlimited financial assistance to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, an eleventh-hour move that allows the government to exceed the current $400 billion cap on emergency aid without seeking permission from a bailout-weary Congress. The Christmas Eve announcement by the Treasury Department means […]
Perceptions of Necessity and the Choice Between Killing and Detaining/Interrogating Terrorist Suspects
A truly terrific comment thread has developed in response to my post below that asked why a lot of people have less problem with just blowing up a terrorist suspect together with his family than detaining just the suspect and perhaps interrogating him. I wanted to offer a few thoughts on what the comment thread […]
Killing Versus Detaining and Interrogating in the War on Terror
News of a U.S.-supported attack on a suspected Al-Qaeda operative meeting in Yemen reminds me of a curious dynamic in the public response to how the U.S. fights the war on terror: Killing Al-Qaeda suspects seems to be much less controversial than detaining and interrogating them. Consider a hypothetical example. Imagine U.S. officials have reason […]
What’s In Your Music Rotation?
We occasionally post about music here at the VC, and I thought it would be interesting to find out what our readers are listening to. So here’s the idea: If you regularly listen to music, and you have (say) 5-10 CDs/iTunes downloads/records/cassettes/8- tracks that you’re listening to a lot these days, what are they? I’ll […]
The Myth of an Expert Consensus on the Constitutionality of Anything
As a minor follow-up to Ilya’s post below on the lack of consensus among constitutional scholars about the constitutionality of the individual mandate, I would ask a question: Is there a consensus among constitutional scholars about the constitutionality of anything? The only thing I can think of is Brown v. Board. Everyone agrees school segregation […]
U.S. Supreme Court Correspondence From March 6, 1865
A few months ago I bought an interesting 1865 letter on U.S. Supreme Court stationery: Here is what it says, as best I can tell: OFFICE SUPREME COURT U.S. Washington City Mar 6th 1865 Curtis & Scribner, Esqs Gentlemen, Your favor of the 25th ult, is received. The case of Sam R. Curtis et. al., […]
Vagueness Challenges to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
I have posted a draft new article online: Vagueness Challenges to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, forthcoming in a symposium issue of the Minnesota Law Review. Here’s the abstract: This Article argues that the void for vagueness doctrine requires courts to adopt narrow interpretations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. On its face, […]
The Redactor’s Dilemma
Julian Sanchez recently offered up this very interesting post on ways to figure out what the redacted parts of released government documents may say — at least when there are enough documents to reveal patterns.