Archive | November, 2004

Just returned from DC. As I need to teach Contracts tomorrow morning (Frustration of Purposes and the Coronation Cases), I cannot blog now. Besides its late, and I am pretty drained. But I thought you might want to see me and Nina Totenberg (she’s in red, I’m in brown). Thanks to my many well wishers. […]

I heard NPR’s Nina Totenberg report on Raich v. Ashcroft this evening. She ended her segment by suggesting that “by the end of the argument, it wasn’t clear that Barnett had even one vote for his position,” or words to that effect. Solum’s transcript of the argument suggests otherwise, and I think that Randy did […]

I’m pleased with the result of the Solomon Amendment case, allowing private universities to discriminate against military recruites. As those of you who are familiar with You Can’t Say That! would guess, I think that the First Amendment right of expressive association protects private universities’ ability to defy federal antidiscrimination laws when those laws interfere […]

I believe that the ability to scan people’s brains to determine whether they are lying could transform much of the criminal and civil justice systems. A story today discusses a recent study that was able to distinguish when subjects were lying versus telling the truth. If this type of information turns out to be reliable […]

While I disagree with the existing law banning gays and lesbians from military service, I find myself rather puzzled by today’s ruling by the Third Circuit that the Defense Department cannot enforce the federal law withholding funds from schools that ban on-campus military recuiting (aka the Solomon Amendment).   As I understand the ruling, the gist […]

from SCOTUSBlog, here and here.

As our blogfather Eugene notes, Larry Solum has an amazingly detailed account of the argument in Raich, paraphrasing the main moves. It appears that both sides of the argument did well, but (if Solum’s account is accurate) Randy Barnett did brilliantly (with the harder side). Here is the most interesting exchange for me: Souter: Suppose […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has just issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the government from enforcing the Solomon Amendment; the injunction lets law schools deny access to military recruiters — on the grounds that the miitary discriminates based on sexual orientation in violation of the law schools’ policies — without fear […]

Larry Solum has a detailed report of the oral argument.

For some perspective on an article that I’m writing — thankfully, the purpose is purely theoretical — I’d like to talk to some family lawyers who specialize in child custody. Any state will do. If you’re inclined to chat briefly with me, either on the record or off the record, please drop me an e-mail […]

I generally much like the work of AP Supreme Court reporters, who have to put out clear and terse copy in a very short time; but unfortunately this story illustrates the pitfalls of press accounts of Supreme Court cases. The story begins with: The Supreme Court appeared hesitant Monday to endorse medical marijuana for patients […]

Here is an early account of the oral argument in Raich. It sounds tough. Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — Several U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed doubts that states can let seriously ill patients ease their symptoms by using marijuana, a drug the federal government has designated as illegal. [portions of original post deleted for copyright reasons] […]

The answer (as best I can tell) is below. (Click here.) Patrick Francis Healy, who became President of Georgetown in 1874. The Library of Congress says he was the first president of a predominantly white university, though Georgetown says he was the first president of a major university, but I suspect that in 1874 the […]

The forthcoming Gary Becker / Richard Posner blog (no posts yet, but I’m told they’re starting it up soon) leads me to ask: Is Becker the first Nobel Prize winner to start a regular blog? (See here for a potentially amusing quibble about Nobel Prizes in Economics, though it is ultimately pointless for our purposes […]

CrimProfBlog has posted a profile of Iowa lawprof Stephanos Bibas, one of the (if not the) best young criminal law scholars teaching today. You can access copies of his terrific and plentiful legal scholarhip here.