Archive | November, 2004

Professors Jack Chin (Arizona) and Mark Godsey (Cincinnati) have started a new blog on criminal law, available here.

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in U.S. v. Small. The case involves interpretation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), which prohibits firearms possession by any person “who has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” The question for the Court is whether the statute applies […]

The Chronicle of Higher Education (article available to nonsubscribers free for the next five days; for subscribers, its permanent home is here) writes: Affirmative action hurts black law students more than it helps them, by bumping applicants up into law schools where they are more likely to earn poor grades, drop out, and fail their […]

According to the exit polls — and take them with a grain of salt — moral values was given as the most important issue by 22% of voters. But 20% and 19% said economy/jobs and terrorism, respectively; and though theoretically these numbers are likely outside the mathematical margin of error for the entire survey (there […]

An interesting report from the Washington Blade‘s Blade Blog: Perhaps the most surprising news for gay observers of the presidential election is that exit polls show President Bush received the exact same percentage of gay votes — 23 percent — as he did four years ago. This despite the president’s vocal support for a federal […]

A nice review of my You Can’t Say That! in Choice, which publishes reviews for academic libraries. Excerpt: How does US political culture in the 21st century accommodate the conflicts between freedom of speech, association and religion, and the various state and federal antidiscrimination laws? Bernstein (law George Mason Univ.) superbly navigates the rough waters […]

Michael Totten (guest-blogging at InstaPundit) posts a rundown of “left-wing blogosphere reactions” (oddly enough including the not generally left-wing Andrew Sullivan, so I suspect this is really “Kerry-supporter blogosphere reactions”). Some, it seems, ask “What can people on our side learn from this?” Others just keep complaining about how bad Bush and Bush supporters are. […]

the second of the October Term 1993 Supreme Court clerks to become a judge (Mark Filip is a district court judge in Chicago; Brett Kavanaugh has been nominated for the D.C. Circuit, but his nomination is bottled up). He’s now a Montana Supreme Court Justice. The only downside: He won by more than 3 votes, […]

From The Onion: Nader Supporters Blame Electoral Defeat On Bush, Kerry WASHINGTON, DC — Supporters of presidential candidate Ralph Nader blamed his defeat Tuesday on George W. Bush and John Kerry, claiming that the two candidates “ate up” his share of the electoral votes. “This election was stolen out from under Mr. Nader by Bush […]

If, as Eugene and others have suggested, it was voters who turned out to vote against gay marriage who gave Bush his margin of victory in Ohio, it lends credence to the theory that the reason Kerry and Edwards both noted that Dick Cheney has a lesbian daughter was to discourage turnout among precisely these […]

For the benefit of our law professor readers: From: Carl Monk Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 5:16 PM Subject: 2005 AALS Annual Meeting To: Deans of Member and Fee-Paid Schools and Members of the House of Representatives Greetings to all: Many of you are aware of the fact that the headquarters hotel for the Annual […]

According to the final tally, I see that the Libertarian Party candidate Michael Bednarik got almost as many votes nationwide as Nader. Curious that the media nonetheless covered Nader throughout the race, while ignoring Bednarik (for instance, on the Washington Post web site with the tally, you can link to background stories on Nader, but […]

The Volokh Conspiracy and I are featured prominently in this post-election column in the Newark Star-Ledger. Money quote: That idea [that the Federal Government should embrace “traditional values”] is anathema to those who take the Constitution seriously. It’s not simply a question of separation of church and state, said Bernstein, but “a separation of everything […]

It’s always hard to tell about this, but it seems possible that the Ohio amendment banning same-sex marriage brought more religious conservatives to the polls, perhaps enough to make the difference — or at least to contribute substantially to the difference — in the close presidential race there. It’s not certain; among other things, some […]

The apparent inaccuracy of the exit polls yesterday makes me wonder whether the phrase “exit poll” will now enter the American vernacular to mean “a quick impression that is probably wrong.”