Archive | June, 2009

A law professor who directs an adjunct-taught legal writing program e-mailed me this, in response to my article on the subject: [T]he phenomenon you describe is one of my biggest hurdles. I spend a significant amount of time warning my adjuncts not to

The Supreme Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano has interesting implications for the longstanding debate over whether the Roberts Court is “pro-business.” The bottom line is that the business interests were among the big losers here. The Court’s ruling makes it difficult for employers to use race-conscious measures to avoid disparate impact liability under Title […]

Tyler Cowen criticizes the Waxman-Markey bill for imposing tariffs on goods from countries that do not reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. (See also VC contributors linked at the end of this post (and scroll down).) Tyler gives lots of good reasons why trying to punish (say) China would be counterproductive. Clearly, doing so is not […]

There is relatively little in Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion that directly addresses the handling of this case by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. There are, however, some interesting passages from some of the other opinions that suggest disagreement with how the Second Circuit panel resolved the case. First, Justice Ginsburg’s dissent […]

While I wait for my copy of Ricci to finish printing, here are some quick thoughts on how this decision could influence the Sotomayor nomination. First, the bottom line: This decision is very unlikely to have a significant effect on the outcome. I find it (almost) inconceivable that she will not be confirmed. A 5-4 […]

In Cuomo v. Clearing House Ass’n, the Supreme Court held, 5-4, that the Comptroller of the Currency’s regulation preempting certain forms of state law enforcement against banks is invalid. Justice Scalia wrote the opinion of the Court, joined by (wait for it), Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer. Justice Thomas filed an opinion concurring in […]

I’m guessing some of the Conspirators will have more to say about this, once we get to read the opinions. The vote was 5-4, along the standard lines. My quick take is that if the four liberal Justices were willing to vote with the city on this one, it suggests that there is virtually no […]

If a nation’s military, acting under the orders of its Supreme Court, moves to arrest the president of the country for openly violating its constitution in ways that will promote his own power, is that accurately described as a “coup?”

Justice Kennedy for a 5-4 Court split along ideological lines. The Court reverses outright, and rejects the Obama Administration’s suggestion that the case be vacated and remanded for further proceedings. Justices Scalia and Alito wrote concurring opinions. Justice GInsburg wrote the dissent. More on SCOTUSBlog. UPDATE: The opinion is here — it’s a long one: […]

The conventional wisdom holds that replacing Justice David Souter with Sonia Sotomayor will not have a significant effect on the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence. For most high-profile, hot-button issues, this may be correct. Yet for reasons I have noted before (see here and here), I think that Sotomayor’s confirmation could have significant effects, particularly in the […]

Here’s another bear picture from my brief trip to Montana earlier this month. This one is a black bear we saw north of Old Faithful, shortly after our hike to Mystic Falls. My wife took it, so it’s a much better picture.

First there was ReadtheBill.org. Now there’s Just Read the Bill, Already! Could this be a trend?

An NYT story reports that President Obama “spoke out against a provision in the bill that would impose trade penalties on countries that do not accept global-warming pollution limits.” If so, this is very encouraging. So I consulted the transcript of the interview upon which the Times‘ story was based, and here is what the […]

Remember the Republican “war on science”? The Bush Administration was repeatedly accused of manipulating and suppressing scientific conclusions for scientific gain. While I thought this was politics as usual, others believed this was a concerted attack on scientific inquiry — a “war on science.” (See this chain of posts.) The Obama Administration has expressed concern […]

The Chicago Tribune reports on a brewing scandal at the University of Illinois law school. Government officials pressured U. of I. administrators to admit politically connected but unqualified applicants. Paul Caron rounds up more coverage here. As Brian Leiter notes, many of those attacking U. of I. officials are missing the bigger picture. the University […]