Archive | September, 2007

Many commenters on my earlier posts about forced labor programs have expressed interest in the question of whether or not mandatory “national service” programs violate the Thirteenth Amendment. I think that the answer is pretty clearly “yes,” at least if you take the text of the Constitution seriously. I. The Constitutional Text. The text of […]

The New York Sun reports that New York city and state government officials are threatening to retaliate against Columbia — for instance, by cutting off various government subsidies for Columbia all its students — for its inviting Ahmadinejad to speak: [T]he speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said lawmakers, outraged over Columbia’s insistence on allowing […]

Check out United States v. Thogsophaporn, a fascinating Miranda case I found via Appellate Law & Practice.   Facts: Defendant is taken into custody and read his rights. The defendant is asked to waive his rights but he declines. An investigator then sits down in the small interview room with the defendant in silence for five […]

If you want to defeat the enemy (e.g., the Iranian regime), it seems to me you should: 1. Know Your Enemy: The more you learn about him, the better you’ll be at figuring out his tactical and strategic weaknesses, and those of people like him. 2. Help Friends Know He’s Their Enemy: Often, some of […]

This week’s Blawg Review is up at Deliberations, a blog on jury-related issues.

It is “energy week” at NRO. My first contribution to this series of articles on energy policy is this article arguing that government-sponsored prizes for energy innovation would be more effective than traditional subsidies at encouraging the development of low-carbon-emission energy technologies. Direct government subsidies are a particularly poor way to encourage innovation. Perhaps it […]

Bob Bauer has some interesting thoughts on the legal aspects of the NYT‘s acknowledgment that MoveOn.Org was not charged the proper rate for its “General Betray-Us” ad at the More Soft Money Hard Law blog. The campaign finance laws that the Times has so righteously championed have, by its own admission, trapped the paper in […]

Eugene’s right, I do disagree with Columbia’s decision to invite Ahmadinejad. That Pres. Bollinger made sure to have the right to questioning him is better than giving him a completely open forum, but it’s not enough. Unlike when I objected last time Ahmadinejad was to visit Columbia, my reason this time is that Ahmadinejad is […]

Here’s a question that I posed to Erin McKean, and that she graciously agreed to answer in the next few days. The general question is: How do (and should) lexicographers decide whether to include a word in the dictionary? The concrete example, contributed by Widener lawprof Ben Barros, is offered by the words “inartful” and […]

From a blog report on Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia: Ahmadinejad argues that he should have the chance to ask these questions about the Holocaust without being attacked. “Why should an academic face insults,” he asked. “Is this what you call freedom?” Why, yes.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a bad and dangerous man, but it seems that Columbia was quite right to have him speak there as part of its World Leaders Forum. Columbia students can benefit from hearing bad world leaders as well as good ones; I’m pretty confident that most of the students in the audience will be […]

come from Ed Whelan in the National Review Online, here, here, and here.

A Yale undergraduate has been arrested and charged with criminal voyeurism and dissemination of voyeurism under Connecticut Code § 53a-189a and § 53a-189b for surreptitiously recording himself and his then-girlfriend having sexual intercourse and then showing the video to his roommates. The Yale Daily News explains:   According to a police affidavit, Desfeux showed the tape […]

The AP reports: An MIT student wearing what turned out to be a fake bomb was arrested at gunpoint Friday at Logan International Airport and later claimed it was artwork, officials said. Star Simpson, 19, had a computer circuit board and wiring in plain view over a black hooded sweatshirt she was wearing, said State […]

OpinionJournal’s Political Diary reports: [A law] signed by President Bush in the wake of the U.S. attorney controversy limits the service of interim appointments to 120 days. After that, the federal courts can step in and appoint a new interim prosecutor. In Seattle, that power would be exercised by Federal District Chief Judge Robert Lasnik, […]