The Supreme Court has set Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission for reargument in September — before the next term of the Court begins. So it would seem to be the last case of the October 2008 term. Yet unless the Justices turn it around super-quickly, the decision will be handed down during the October […]
Archive | June, 2009
Betting Blind on ACES:
Yesterday I had an NRO column on the just-passed House climate bill. Here’s the intro: Last Friday, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a massive climate-change bill that few, if any, members of Congress had actually read. The legislation would impose the first-ever limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and impose a raft of other […]
A Bad Idea from Judge Posner:
Over on the Becker-Posner blog, Richard Posner is again contemplating the [bleak] future of the newspaper industry. The problem (as I, too, have blogged about in the recent past) is a serious one — if “the newspaper” as a business model fails (because of competition from the free content available on the Net), who will […]
Is Justice Thomas “Now Our Greatest Justice”?
Tom Goldstein has a thoughtful and interesting post on SCOTUSBlog summarizing the just-sortof-concluded Supreme Court term and looking forward to the next. I think Goldstein overstates the conservative trajectory of the Court; the judiciary’s inertial momentum to the left remains strong, and the Roberts Court, as a whole, is less conservative than many claim. That […]
For Jefferson Fans:
Maira Kalman, over on the NY Times website, has put together a truly extraordinary piece (I’m not even sure what to call it — an essay with drawings? a pictorial thought-piece?) on Thomas Jefferson. Lovely and lyrical, and it captures something about the guy that’s difficult, sometimes, to capture in naked prose. Jefferson’s undergoing a […]
“When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?” Update:
I blogged a while back about this book by Shlomo Sand, a bestseller in Israel and winner of a French prize for nonfiction. The book is coming out in English this Fall, with the title, “The Invention of the Jewish People.” My previous post was very critical, based on and interview with Sand, and reports […]
Ricci and the Inevitability of Affirmative Action:
Below is something I wrote in a book review a while back, that’s still pertinent today. The one thing I’d add is that because whites remain the majority, if antidiscrimination laws were applied strictly neutrally to permit reverse discrimination lawsuits, and whites sued at even one-quarter of the rate of African Americans, there would be […]
Reversing DADT is “urgent” and “essential to our national security” because the policy “weakens” our military, expels “patriotic Americans” with “critical language skills,” and wastes years of training — all in “a time of war”:
That’s what President Obama has concluded. Here’s the transcript of the president’s remarks at the White House today. To deal with this grave and urgent threat to national security, the Commander-in-Chief announced that he will immediately: (1) Suspend enforcement of DADT in its entirety for the duration of the war, claiming ample constitutional and statutory […]
MDLF and Lite-Blogging:
I’ve been away on a trip to Prague for the past few days, board meeting for a nonprofit whose board I chair, the Media Development Loan Fund. MDLF is a nonprofit, mission driven private equity fund; here’s the description from our new, cool Facebook page, which you too can join: Media Development Loan Fund is […]
Domestic partnerships in Wisconsin:
Today the governor signed a biennial budget bill that includes limited but important protections and rights for registered same-sex domestic partners. Wisconsin is the first state in the Midwest to grant recognition to gay families by legislative action. Iowa has marriage by state supreme court decision. So far, there’s no recognition or legal protection for […]
A Belated Presidential Signing Statement:
On Wednesday, June 24, President Obama
Epstein on Ricci:
Epstein: In the end, we can’t win with either the rigidity of the conservative position or the historical guilt trip of the liberal. A little flexibility will go a long way. The government as a manager cannot be held to the same strict standards that are applicable to the government as a regulator. The libertarian […]
“Come on You Homosexual Demon”:
That’s a line from an apparent “gay exorcism,” according to ABC News. The article saus that “Robin McHaelen, executive director of the Manchester-Conn., True Colors,” “a nonprofit group for gay and lesbian youth that has mentored [a teenager] for about a year,” “said she was mandated by law to report the exorcism to the state […]
University of Illinois Admissions
The University of Illinois admissions
The Resultative Perfect
makes its appearance in this linguists’ amicus memorandum filed in Rodearmel v. Clinton, the Ineligibility Clause (a k a Emoluments Clause) case. The question, as you may recall, is this: Does “the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time” refer to a salary having been increased on balance during a time (“the Time […]