Archive | July, 2007

Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff has a fascinating report here. UPDATE: For a perspective on how the process worked in another commutation case a few years ago, this post at Legal Ethics Forum is interesting. (Hat tip: Adam Levin)

Despite Al Gore’s best efforts, it seems that the Live Earth concerts (aka “private jets for climate change”) were largely underwhelming. Despite performances by many big name acts, this was not Live Aid for the planet. Not every band was eager to play the show. Some, like British indie-pop sensations the Arctic Monkeys, found the […]

This morning I received the following note from Professor Steve Lubet of Northwestern University Law School that I thought would be of interest to VC readers. Dear Colleagues: As you probably know, the British University and College Union recently passed a resolution advancing a boycott of Israeli scholars and academic institutions. Whatever your political views […]

Mary Ann Glendon and Douglas Kmeic offer this Legal Times commentary on the Supreme Court’s OT2006 and the roles of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. Despite some ideological carping from those who lost cases that depended upon the extension of past decisions, Roberts and Alito have also shown themselves to be strongly respectful of […]

It is quite disturbing that those involved in plotting the foiled terror plots in Britain were trained in medicine. Unfortunately, such perversions of medical obligations are nothing new. As my former colleague Amos Guiora recounts, the leadership of Hamas included a doctor who justified his support of terrorism by suggesting there were two of him […]

Milk prices are up, and may well go higher. What can be done about it? Dr. Henry Miller, a former FDA official now with the Hoover Institution, has an idea: One way to ease the shortage and lower the prices is to take greater advantage of a proven 13-year-old biological technology that stimulates milk production […]

Commentators and Congress have long assumed that government surveillance of non-content “header” information like e-mail addresses and IP addresses, typically done by a service provider, do not violate a Fourth Amendment “reasonable expectation of privacy.” Today the Ninth Circuit became the first court to hold this directly in United States v. Forrester.   My major concern […]

I happened to catch on one of my local NPR stations this afternoon a talk that Colin Powell gave at the Aspen Institute a few days ago, focusing on the Iraq war. Maybe it’s just me, but to my ears Powell is the only one out there who talks sense about the war — why […]

The blog post on which I relied for a copy of the icon appears to have been incorrect. The correct photo, according to AP and Yahoo! News Photos, is this: I can’t read the text, but this site, which discusses what appears to be this icon, independently of the Slidell controversy, reports that the text […]

Oops — I see that my co-blogger Jonathan posted about this case while I was drafting my own analysis. Given that, I will “hide” my post below the fold. For my summary of the case, as well as a bit of analysis. click here. The opinion of the Sixth Circuit is here, via Howard. The […]

Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that none of the plaintiffs in American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency have standing to challenge the program and dismissed the case. Judge Batchelder wrote the opinion for the court. Judge Gibbons delivered a separate concurring opinion, and Judge Gilman dissented. I […]

I thought those who read my live blogging (click link for all posts on one page) from the set of InAlienable last week might enjoy seeing these two publicity photos of the cast that I just received from photographer Michele K. Short. From left to right: Eric Avari, Richard Hatch, Courtney Peldon, Judy Levitt (Walter […]

The Federalist Society has posted an online debate about the Fourth Circuit’s recent decision in Al-Marri v. Wright. The contributors were Richard Epstein, Andrew C. McCarthy, George Terwilliger, Erwin Chemerinsky, John Hutson, and myself. You can read the Justice Department’s petition for rehearing in the Al-Marri case here.

A reader asked me whether true reputation-injuring statements are categorically immune from defamation liability. (Let’s set aside for now invasion of privacy and other torts.) His state statute, he noticed, provided that such statements are protected only if they are said with “good motives” and for “justifiable ends.” Historically, many state statutes indeed so limited […]

A $250,000 fine plus $400 of special assessments, to be specific; the check is here. Meanwhile, over at Slate, Michelle Tsai considers how or whether Libby (or his defense fund) could get back the money if Libby is eventually pardoned.