Today the Tenth Circuit handed down a very interesting Fourth Amendment decision, United States v. Johnson, on whether an individual can have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a storage unit rented with a stolen identity. As I understand the facts of the case, the defendant Johnson asked his girlfriend to rent a storage unit […]
Archive | October, 2009
FBI Arrests Two Men for Allegedly Conspiring To Attack Danish Newspaper That Published the Mohammed Cartoons, the Newspaper Editor, and one of the Cartoonists
From the Justice Department press release: Two Chicago men have been arrested on federal charges for their alleged roles in conspiracies to provide material support and/or to commit terrorist acts against overseas targets, including facilities and employees of a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005, federal law enforcement officials announced […]
More on “[T]he Islamic Fundamentalist Charge That … the U.S.A. … Is the ‘Great Satan’ Is Not Without an Element of Truth”
I blogged an item earlier today about the Catholic Archdiocese of Agana (Guam) for this paragraph in its criticism of the proposed Guam domestic partnership bill (links are in the original post): The culture of homosexuality is a culture of self-absorption because it does not value self-sacrifice. It is a glaring example of what John […]
Why Aren’t Bad Prosecutors Held Accountable?
Radley Balko, whose weekly crime column should be on your reading list, wants to know: As DNA exonerations continue to accumulate across the country, we’re left with some tough questions about accountability for the public officials who put innocent people in prison. Certainly in some cases honest mistakes can be forgiven. But what about cases […]
Yglesias at JStreet
Matthew Yglesias: I was debating with Jon Chait at a J Street panel this morning on the subject of “what does it mean to be pro-Israel?” As expected, we disagreed on a number of points, most of which I was right on and he was wrong on. But one thing he said in his opening […]
Who is behind today’s anti-banker demonstrations? The usual suspects
(photo from stopbankgreed.org) During Tuesday’s lunch program at CNBC, anchor Bill Griffith asked who was behind the demonstrations at the American Bankers Association meetings in Chicago. The answer is clear: SEIU and a coalition of organizations, many of which are related with ACORN or that have commonly partnered with ACORN over the years. A few […]
Paul Caron on Drivers of Law School Cost from GAO Report
Paul Caron, at TaxProf, has posted some executive summary parts and the link to a GAO report on drivers of law school cost as well as minority enrollment. Regarding costs of legal education, the GAO summary says: According to law school officials, the move to a more hands-on, resource-intensive approach to legal education and competition […]
“[T]he Islamic Fundamentalist Charge That … the U.S.A. … Is the ‘Great Satan’ Is Not Without an Element of Truth”
Guess who takes that view? The answer lies in this document put out by the Catholic Archdiocese of Agana (Guam), criticizing the proposed Guam domestic partnership bill: The culture of homosexuality is a culture of self-absorption because it does not value self-sacrifice. It is a glaring example of what John Paul II has called the […]
Legal Scholarship in the Internet Age
That was the subject of a recent symposium at Denver University’s law school. The DU Law Review’s online publication, DUProcess, published several short articles on the topic. I wrote on Connecting Laypeople with the Law Through Blogs, and began: “Blogging is creating a Golden Age of legal scholarship. For the first time in the memory of […]
Illegal to “Vilify” Religion (in a European Union Member, No Less)
Malta Criminal Code §§ 163-164 provides that, 163. Whosoever by words, gestures, written matter, whether printed or not, or pictures or by some other visible means, publicly vilifies the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion which is the religion of Malta, or gives offence to the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion by vilifying those who profess such religion […]
Good News: You’re Making Less Money
The Legal Intelligencer reports on a survey of law firm partner compensation among men and women, and I was struck by this line: Some good news out of the survey was that the gap in compensation between male and female partners shrunk in 2009. But the report also pointed out that the smaller gap is […]
Reply to Henry Farrell, Part II
I mentioned before Henry’s defense of the laws of war. Here is the relevant passage. There is likely a very plausible case to be made that these norms ought to be much tougher and more restrictive than they are – even if they are not a product of power politics they are limited by these […]
McDonald’s Out of Iceland
Just when you thought the global financial crisis was subsiding, with returns to growth in most leading economies, including the US, Europe, China, etc., we have a counter-indicator. The Financial Times reports today that McDonald’s is closing its three outlets in Iceland, citing the difficult economic environment: Iceland edged further towards the margins of the global […]
District Court Suppresses Contents of E-Mail Account in Bear Stearns Trial
The New York Times Deals blog reports on a fascinating new computer search and seizure decision, and one that I think was very likely wrongly decided: Federal prosecutors hit another setback on Monday in their criminal fraud case against two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, after the trial judge […]
Happy Pro Bono Week
It’s National Pro Bono Week. I’m presently involved in two pro bono cases: United States v. Drew and McCane v. United States. It might be interesting for our readers who are lawyers to say what pro bono matters they are involved in right now; I hope they will consider telling us in the comment thread.