Archive | August, 2004

Via Brian Leiter, I learn that University of Texas School of Law has instituted a fellowship program for aspiring law professors. Sounds like a great opportunity: The ESP Fellows will be treated, in many respects, like regular tenure-track faculty, but with reduced teaching loads and without administrative obligations. Each Fellow will teach one course per […]

Prof. Laura Kalman at UC Santa Barbara is compiling (1) a list of law professors who are closely related by blood (parent-child, sibling-sibling, aunt/uncle-niece/nephew, grandparent-grandchild, but probably not any more distant than that), and (2) a list of Supreme Court clerks who are likewise closely related by blood. (She’s not looking for married couples.) If […]

The Washington Post has a very interesting and comprehensive article in yesterday’s edition about the dynamics of bank robberies — how people do it, how banks react, and how the criminal justice system responds.

might swing the outcome of the Presidential election — and might yield yet another controversial post-election lawsuit. Lawprof Peter Shane has a detailed piece on this; here’s an excerpt: On August 2, 2004, the Colorado Secretary of State approved for inclusion on the November, 2004 state ballot a measure that would revise Colorado’s allocation of […]

though largely obsolete and therefore extra amusing (because it’s not that familiar): Alligator pear.

Last week I wrote about a proposed Bush policy to allow increased levels of coal dust at some mine sites and require that employees wear respirators. At first blush, such a policy might make sense — if workers are not exposed to higher dust levels because of the respirators, there’s no problem. The respirator manufacturer […]

I can’t evalute the accuracy or the importance of this report (and I doubt I’ll blog much by way of follow-up), but I thought I’d pass it along for those who are interested. From news.com. UPDATE: Henry Farrell points out that computer science professor Ed Felten (Freedom to Tinker) has several posts on this; here […]

I would add two additional observations on the USA Olympic basketball team. First, I read this morning that Allen Iverson (29) is the oldest member of the team. While they are all great athletes, there is not much maturity or leadership. Second, everyone on the team is so used to being a star and “go-to” […]

Wow, did the U.S. Basketball team look terrible yesterday at the Olympics. I missed the Puerto Rico game assuming that the U.S. would waltz through as usual, but watched yesterday once I learned there was some drama to this. This team is a joke–can’t shoot, can’t pass, and can’t play team defense. Michael Wilbon’s column […]

As noted in Wine Wars, Part 5, the alcohol jurisprudence of the 19th Century had the peculiar effect of discriminating in favor of out-of-state alcohol production. The Supreme Court had blessed the power of states to exercise their police power over local affairs to enact state prohibition or to allow local jurisdictions to exercise a […]

This TechCentralStation column is very good (thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer). I’m not sure I’d endorse everything it says — for instance, I’m not sure whether federal crime-fighting programs, as opposed to state and local ones, are likely to be particularly effective. But I think it makes some excellent points. Poverty, people say, causes […]

I would like to thank Professor John Mogk for his reply to my post on the Michigan Supreme Court’s overruling of Poletown, and also thank the Volokh Conspiracy for providing such a worthy forum for our debate. Readers of the Conspiracy may recall that Poletown was the notorious 1981 decision in which the Court had […]

Last week, I blogged a link to George Mason lawprof Ilya Somin’s op-ed defending the recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling that certain seizures of private property were unconstitutional, even if compensation was paid, because they weren’t for a constitutionally authorized “public use.” I also blogged a link to an op-ed on the other side, by […]

and is blogging up a storm.

During the Nineteenth Century it was recognized that the states could exercise their police power to regulate alcoholic beverages within their borders and to prohibit the in-state manufacture and sale of alcohol. License Cases, 46 U.S. (5 How.) 504 (1847); Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U.S. 623 (1887). In the License Cases, Chief Justice Taney wrote, […]