Archive | November, 2004

Available here, hosted by James Tierney of the Columbia Law School program on state Attorneys General. Thanks to Susan Crawford for the link.

Very amusing.

Chicago and several of its suburbs ban the possession of handguns. A new law in Illinois prevents the conviction of a person for violating the handgun ban, if the person used the handgun for lawful self-defense on his property. The new law (720 ILCS 5/24-10) states: It is an affirmative defense to a violation of […]

I’m writing an article about the First Amendment and child custody; this led me to contemplate the difference between parents’ formal powers over their children, and their actual abilities to control their children (I know, Benjamin will give me many more practical opportunities to contemplate this); and this in turn reminded me of this quote […]

For the professors in the VC audience, I highly recommend the Tax Guide for College Teachers. Over the years, this book, updated annually, has literally saved me thousands of dollars in taxes (mostly because I discovered throug h it that certain types of fellowship income are not subject to Social Security and Medicare tax). You […]

Reader Michael Benson responds to my post below by saying: Personally I hold the position that it’s illegitimate (from an ethical, not a constitutional standpoint) to justify one’s decisions about how society should be run based on assumptions one cannot defend reasonably. As I have yet to see any compelling defense made on evidence that […]

I keep hearing evangelical Christian leaders criticized for “trying to impose their religious dogma on the legal system,” for instance by trying to change the law to ban abortion, or by trying to keep the law from allowing gay marriage. I’ve blogged about this before, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. I like to […]

My colleague Peter Berkowitz, who witnessed the events in question first-hand, has the scoop.

John Fund writes, in the Political Diary, from OpinionJournal.com: Some blocs that lean Republican but don’t have a record of voting in large numbers were especially targeted [by the Bush-Cheney voter turnout effort]. Chief among them was the Amish. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Amish are conservative voters, but they also often don’t vote. […]

This editorial offers an interesting take. I don’t know much about the site or its author, but it sounds plausible. (Link: Jalopnik.)

(1) Peter Hsu and Matt Bower confirm that Keillor made a similar joke about stripping born-again Christians of citizenship on his Prairie Home Companion. Here’s the audio file — it starts at about 3:30. (2) Some people suggested that the criticisms of Keillor betray a lack of a sense of humor. I don’t think so; […]

The New York Times reports on the further travails of Ellen SImonetti, aka “Queen of Sky.”

VC readers who have been following the ongoing First Circuit litigation in the important Internet wiretapping case of United States v. Councilman might be interested to know that the briefs for the en banc rehearing have now been filed. I am delighted to say that the coalition of privacy groups I am serving as lead […]

Interesting article in the L.A. Times about the Friends sexual harassment case, which is based on a claim that an assistant to the staff writers was subjected to a “hostile environment” because of the writers’ sexually oriented banter. An underappreciated aspect of hostile environment law is the way it undermines the privacy interests of the […]

Cathy Young debunks the “Bush Voters are Stupid” Meme in the Boston Globe.