Archive | December, 2004

A number of interesting occurrences over the past few days with respect to the efforts by lawyers to maintain and expand our cartel. First, this interesting paper by Mario Pagliero on the effects of professional licensing in the US market for lawyers finds that the structure of lawyers’ cartel entry-restrictions and rules is better explained […]

In State v. Aloi, Connecticut Appellate Court, Dec. 14, 2004, Officer Jay Salvatore approached and advised the defendant that [a witness] had complained that the defendant was trespassing and possibly had damaged [a] fire truck. Salvatore requested that the defendant produce identification. The defendant did not immediately hand over his identification. The defendant also stated […]

I don’t listen to country music much, but was amused to see the title and lyrics to one of the Grammy Nominees for best Country Song, “It’s Hard To Kiss The Lips At Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long,” by The Notorious Cherry Bombs (written by Rodney Crowell & Vince Gill). Update: […]

The FCC has voted to allow airlines to provide wireless Internet access on flights. Who needs tireblogging when you can have jetblogging?   UPDATE: As sometimes happens when the press reports on legal developments involving new technologies, it appears that some news stories about the FCC ruling are somewhat inaccurate.   Misreporting abounded today about the FCC’s […]

Here it is: In a Dec. 10 brief and story about Bernard Kerik’s withdrawal as homeland security secretary-designate, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Lani Guinier, who was President Clinton’s choice to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division in 1993, had not paid taxes for a domestic worker. A spokesman for her at Harvard […]

Can an Ohio court punish the gruesome murder of two college students that occurred in Pennsylvania? In a capital decision issued a few weeks ago, the Ohio Supreme Court concluded that the answer was “no.” Yale 2L Chris Muha is now looking for help with a motion for reconsideration of that decision. The unusual twist: […]

Early this year, I blogged about a controversy related to The Vagina Monologues, in a post titled “Life Imitates The Onion.” An excerpt: David Kaufman points to this fantastic story: They silently stood hand in hand with gray duct tape pasted across their lips and “Vagina Warriors” emblazoned on the back of their white shirts. […]

In the Chronicle of Higher Education, a pseudonymous assistant professor writes about the burdens of being a conservative student and then tenure-track professor. How bad is it? Pretty darn bad! One horror story after another. The tragedy begins when the author was a student and faced blatant political discrimination in his coursework: During an “Introduction […]

Speaking selfishly, I hope it only happens when you are as famous as my colleague Jonathan Turley. (Hat tip: Matt)

A report from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

(As if it was not ridiculous from the jump.) Matt Rustler of Stop the Bleating writes: No, no, no. You’re not Richard Belzer in your secret life. In your secret life you hawk Nexium, “The Healing Purple Pill,” under the alias, James Naughton. I was watching television last night when the latest Nexium advertisement, featuring […]

I don’t intend to blog much more on this, but since a bunch of people raised this point, let me speak to it. The argument (buttressed sometimes by citations to the movie Gattaca) is that rich people will improve their kids’ genes, which will increase social stratification, as descendants of the poorer people will find […]

The “coincidences” multiply …

Adam Cohen suggests in The New York Times that the Supreme Court may be on its way to declaring the New Deal unconstitutional. If you think this is likely, I have a game for you: name the last Supreme Court opinion that ruled in favor of the states or limited federal power in a case […]

I have received a surprisingly large amount of email in response to my post on money markets investments and Social Security. To remind everyone, the small point I was making was that even if people can invest some of their Social Security money that does not mean they have to invest it in the stock […]