Archive | July, 2007

Bonnie Goldstein links to a newly released 1970 memo by Richard Nixon to his Chief of Staff (and future Watergate jailbird) H.R. Haldeman. You just can’t make up stuff this good. The subject of the memo is Nixon’s concern that the public didn’t view him as a “warm” human being. This, in Nixon’s view, was […]

Richmond attorney Cullen Seltzer rises to the defense of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Slate: As proof of the 9th’s judicial failings, the critics generally stress the court’s extra-high rate of review and reversal by the Supreme Court. The numbers, though, tell a less damning story than the alarmist portrayals of […]

In 2005, European political elites were disappointed by the rejection of the proposed European Constitution in referenda in France and the Netherlands. Today, European leaders are working on a way to reverse that result. How? By exploiting political ignorance. As the EU Observer explains (hat tip: Daniel J. Mitchell): The new EU reform treaty text […]

As I discussed earlier, First Amendment precedents generally makes conveying facts and opinions into a constitutionally immunized activity. Normally, the government may punish people for causing various harms, directly or indirectly. But it generally may not punish speakers when the harms are caused by what the speaker said — by the persuasive, informative, or offensive […]

A substantial minority of American states allows people to use lethal force in self-defense (against a reasonably perceived threat of death, serious injury, rape, or some other serious crimes) only when the person can’t avoid the danger by safely retreating. This requirement — which is sometimes called a “duty to retreat,” but is really a […]

I’ll be testifying tomorrow afternoon in the United States House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, on the subject of “Working Families in Financial Crisis: Medical Debt and Bankruptcy.” My testimony is available here.

Earlier today, District of Columbia officials announced that they would file a petition for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s decision in Parker v. Districut of Columbia, in which the D.C. Circuit concluded that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear […]

The United States has debated whether to ratify the Convention on the Law of the Sea, otherwise known as the Law of the Sea Treaty or “LOST,” for over twenty years. It was opposed by the Reagan Administration, but some Republicans are giving it a second look, adn the Bush Administration is now pushing for […]

Economist N. Gregory Mankiw ponders whether the rich pay their “fair share” of federal taxes. The C.B.O.

Congress is considering climate change legislation more seriously than ever before. While there are several legislative proposals in the House and Senate, some of which could be quite costly, none of the bills would make an appreciable impact on future climate change. This is the nub of the climate change problem: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions […]

Boys Don’t Cry was always my favorite album by The Cure. The American version of Three Imaginary Boys, it has some of the bands best songs, including the title track, “10:15 Saturday Night,” “Plastic Passion,” the Camus-inspired “Killing an Arab.” This song was assailed in the 1980s as an anti-Arab song, and is rarely played […]

In my last post, I considered the constitutional flaws in attorney Roy Hollender’s suit claiming that ladies nights at night clubs are unconstitutional sex discrimination. In this one, I explain why his proposed lawsuit also violates the rules governing class actions. According to the National Law Journal, Hollender is “seeking to be named class representative […]

Jonathan Adler posts on the extremely weak class action lawsuit claiming that ladies nights at private night clubs violate the 14th Amendment. Hopefully, the district court will dismiss this seriously misguided lawsuit. Attorney Roy Den Hollender’s lawsuit is flawed because the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does not ban this kind of “sex discrimination” by private parties […]

[Warning: If you haven’t finished all of HP through book 6, but you plan to, do not read this post, because it contains plot details.] To follow up on Ilya’s post to kick off the weeklong build-up to Harry Potter 7…I recommend that serious Potterphiles check out HogwartsProfessor.com. Some very sophisticated analysis. On this page, […]

My latest media column for the Rocky Mountain News praises the citizen activist website Newshounds.us for providing checks and balances to Bill O’Reilly’s extremely deceptive coverage of a controversy at Boulder High School. (The coverage is discussed in depth in an Issue Paper I wrote for the Independence Institute.) I wish that Newshounds were less […]