Archive | September, 2007

Over at Bench Memos, Ed Whelan has a four-part series of posts on Jack Goldsmith’s new book: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

In 2004, Judge Marrerro struck down 18 U.S.C. 2709, the 1986 National Security Security letter provision of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (modified by the Patriot Act), on Fourth Amendment and First Amendment grounds. My primary blog post about the 2004 case, the 122-page opinion in Doe v. Ashcroft, was here. In 2006, the Patriot […]

What Latin phrases should law students learn — perhaps by way of my mentioning them in class (I do a little language riddle in class for a couple of minutes once a week)? I’m not looking for phrases that are legal terms of art that they’ll learn in the relevant class, such as res judicata, […]

Reader David Huberman writes in: Got my VC t-shirt the other day and am wearing it ‘about town’ presently. Two people have asked me about it so far (one at the bagel shop this morning, one co-worker in the office today). Fun stuff! Why let David Huberman have all the fun? You can order your […]

and has interesting excerpts and comments here. An Instapundit reader asks: Do the Volokh guys have the same book? . . . They (and the Washington Post, I suppose) make it sound like Goldsmith views the administration as a cabal of anarchofascists, actively destroying the laws that should apply to them even when it would […]

It will probably be some time before I get around to reading the new “Israel Lobby” book, but the book’s web page links to a response to critics by Mearsheimer and Walt written late last year. The defense makes some reasonable points, especially with regard to some of their more emotive critics, but in general […]

Would you like to ask presidential candidate Fred Thompson a question? Especially a question on a legal topic? The Thompson campaign has solicited questions from several leading weblogs, including this one. Here’s the announcement: On Thursday, Fred Thompson will be kicking off his campaign for the presidency in Des Moines, IA, touring through the early […]

Both Larry Lessig and Jack Balkin have very interesting posts on Golan v. Gonzales, a fascinating Tenth Circuit case (argued by Larry) that went most of the way towards striking down section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act on First Amendment grounds. As I understand it, this section of the act restored the copyright […]

Thanks to Netflix, I have been practicing my French skills by watching television shows from the 1960s and 1970s which have dialogue in French. It’s very impressive how the French producers (or whoever did the dubbing) found actors whose intonations and emotional style are so close to that of the English language actors. However, not […]

From “How Ethanol Is Making the Farm Belt Thirsty” in today’s W$J (subscription): Everywhere farmers grow corn, water is becoming a major concern as ethanol plants ramp up production at a startling rate and the threat of drought is ever-present. Rushing to help meet President Bush’s call to cut gasoline use by 20% over the […]

“We’re going to push and push and push until some larger force makes us stop.” (Source: Jack Goldsmith’s new book, as reported in today’s Washington Post.)

OK, so he was caught soliciting sex in a public restroom. Not so good. But compare that with behavior by other Senators that is not leading to any resignations: (1) Violating their oath to uphold the Constitution, by voting for legislation they believe to be unconstitutional, but arguing that they will let the courts sort […]

Libertarianism is generally seen as requiring free trade. Certainly, libertarian thinkers from Adam Smith to the present have strongly condemned protectionism. How then can a libertarian endorse trade restrictions such as the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which denied free trade to totalitarian states that refused to allow their citizens to emigrate freely? Perhaps I am blinded by […]

Former Democratic Representative Charles Vanik passed away recently. Although Rep. Vanik and I disagreed on most major political issues, I nonetheless owe him a debt that can never be repaid. In 1974, Vanik and Democratic Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson co-sponsored the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which denied the Soviet Union and some other totalitarian states “most favored […]

The AP reports: Sen. Larry Craig is reconsidering his decision to resign after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting and may still fight for his Senate seat, his spokesman said Tuesday evening. “It’s not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign,” Sidney Smith, Craig’s spokesman in […]