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Why the Court should uphold Congress’s power in the Jerusalem Passport case
The Passport Case is not about the power of recognition, but about whether Congress has any say in how it uses its enumerated foreign affairs powers. If Congress were to declare war on Vietnam, could the president also attack a city in Laos, saying in his book, it is in Vietnam and Congress can’t tell him otherwise?
Move to the Washington Post Site
We’ve moved to the Washington Post site, as part of a new joint venture with the Post; if you aren’t redirected automatically, please click here.
The Economics of Credit Card Security
The WSJ has an interesting article today on the Target credit card security breach. As the article notes, the US card system is less secure than elsewhere in the world, most notably Europe, which has a “chip and PIN” system, which has a computer chip embedded in the card and requires the purchaser to insert a PIN […]
Brief Review of Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy
This book, by journalist Charlie Savage was published six years ago, but I just finished it. It’s a well-written, well-researched critique of the George W. Bush’s Administration’s abuse of executive power based on often extremely dubious constitutional theories. If you’re interested in the subject matter, it’s well worth reading, despite its age. Of particular interest […]
Canadian Prime Minister Harper on Israel
I think President Obama has been better to Israel than his critics acknowledge, and has been very pro-Israel by any standard except perhaps that of the prior two presidents, who were the most pro-Israel of any American presidents. But it’s hard to imagine him giving a speech like this: “It is a Canadian tradition to […]
Some Upcoming Speaking Engagements
Here are some speaking engagements I will be doing in the next two weeks: Thursday, January 22: I will be delivering the annual Brennan Lecture at Oklahoma City University. My topic (picked because it interested the organizers) is “NFIB v. Sebelius and the Constitutional Debate Over Federalism.” Perhaps Justice William Brennan would turn over in […]
Immigration and Political Freedom
I recently wrote a guest post for the Open Borders blog on migration and political freedom. The connection between the two is often ignored in debates over immigration policy. Here’s an excerpt: There is widespread agreement that political freedom is a fundamental human right – that everyone is entitled to substantial freedom of choice in […]
Was a Scientific Journal Canned for Disagreeing with the IPCC?
Copernicus Publications, “the innovative open access publisher,” recently announced it was terminating one of its journals, Pattern Recognition in Physics due to concerns about the journal’s editorial practices. PRP was not even one year old. It seems the problems began when the journal’s editors agreed to a special issue on “Pattern in solar variability, their planetary origin and […]
The Pot Bowl
It is perhaps worth mentioning that the two teams that made it to the Super Bowl on Sunday represent Colorado and Washington – the two states that recently legalized marijuana. If this somehow helps accelerate the recent decline in public support for the War on Drugs, it will almost be enough to offset my disappointment […]
Thanks for Help with Obsidian Finance v. Cox
I just wanted to thank the many people who helped me with Obsidian Finance v. Cox: Benjamin Souede of Angeli Ungar Law Group LLC, our pro bono local counsel for the motion for new trial in district court and for the motion to block plaintiff’s zany attempt to seize the appeal rights. Mayer Brown LLP, […]
Two Toddlers Killed in Exorcisms in Maryland
So reports the Washington Post (thanks to Prof. Howard (Friedman) Religion Clause for the pointer): A Germantown mother and another woman accused of killing two toddlers and trying to kill two other children believed that they were releasing demonic spirits that had possessed the siblings, Montgomery County police said Saturday. The two dead children — […]
Prison for Blasphemy
The Guardian (UK) reports: A man who created a Facebook page poking fun at a revered Greek Orthodox monk has been sentenced to 10 months in prison in Greece after being found guilty of blasphemy…. Filippos Loizos, 28, … used a play on words to portray Father Paisios as a traditional pasta-based dish [pastitsio -EV] […]
Thanks And Farewell For Now
My thanks again to the VC for lending me the podium this week to talk about The Conscience of The Constitution. I hope you’ll join me—in person or online—on January 30, when I speak about the book at the Cato Institute’s book forum. Then I’ll be participating in February’s Cato Unbound to discuss the debate […]
Ninth Circuit to Hear Challenge to Obamacare’s “Platonic Guardians” January 28
I mentioned in a previous post that Progressivism has a curious definition of “democracy” that largely takes the form of unaccountable administrative agencies wielding enormous power to regulate people’s behavior. Perhaps the most extreme example of administrative power—the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB—is the subject of the latest constitutional challenge to Obamacare to be […]