I wrote yesterday that “I wonder how long certain liberal bloggers who have been reflexive defenders of HRW without bothering to seriously investigate the bill of particulars against it (e.g.) can continue to repeat things like ‘the idea that HRW is some kind of Israel-bashing organization is nonsense’ now that the founder and former longtime […]
Archive | October, 2009
Keystone Congress
This is your government at work, as reported in The Hill. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present. Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over […]
Heller (Kevin) Again
Just about every time I post something about Human Rights Watch, Kevin Jon Heller at Opinio Juris, who served as HRW’s external legal advisor on the trial of Saddam Hussein, posts a nasty response. His response almost never addresses the substance of my post, but instead provides readers with an attack on the messenger, i.e., […]
Corcoran v. Levenhagen
I wonder if I’m the only one who sees today’s Supreme Court opinion in a death penalty case, Corcoran v. Levenhagen, as somewhat similar to the Court’s order two months ago in In re Troy Davis. As in Davis case, today’s opinion in Corcoran is essentially an order telling a district court to take a […]
Chief Justice Roberts Dissents from Denial of Fourth Amendment Case — Again
Chief Justice Roberts published a dissent from denial of certiorari today in a Fourth Amendment case, Virginia v. Harris, that is interesting in part because it resembles his dissent from denial of certiorari last year in Pennsylvania v. Dunlap (a.k.a. the “tough as a three dollar steak” opinion). In both Harris and Dunlap, a state […]
Aiming for Liberty: The Past, Present and Future of Freedom and Self-Defense
That’s the title of my new book, scheduled for publication December 4. It’s now available for pre-order on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. In an 11-minute podcast on iVoices.org, Jon Caldara and I discuss the book. It’s a collection of essays on firearms law and policy, and many other liberty issues and heroes. Topics are as old as ancient Israel and […]
Huge win for Knife Rights
An e-mail from KnifeRights.com reports that the “Senate has passed the conference report for the fiscal year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill with our amendment to the Federal Switchblade Act intact.” The bill now goes to President Obama for his expected signature. The bill makes technical changes in the definitions of the Federal Switchblade Act. In […]
Supreme Court Blocks Washington State Officials From Disclosing Names of Anti-Same-Sex-Marriage Petition Signers,
with one Justice dissenting. So reports SCOTUSblog; I’ll post more when I learn more. My post about Justice Kennedy’s similar action yesterday is here. For now, I continue to think that the Ninth Circuit’s decision overturning the district court’s preliminary injunction against release of the signatories’ names — and thus allowing the state to release […]
Domain Bullying
A posting over on the Big Government blog details recent attempts by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to shut down the website at AFTExposed.com (which, as you might guess from the name, doesn’t have very nice things to say about the AFT). The AFT’s General Counsel has sent the operators of the offending website […]
The World’s Youngest Suspected Terrorist
Here she is. She may look harmless, but that just shows how devious and dangerous our enemies are.
Funny Misquote
Last week, Justice Kennedy gave the keynote address at the George Washington Law Review symposium on judicial review. A story about the address in the Daily Colonial contains this nugget: Kennedy was a particularly notable choice for the event’s speaker because of his influential central position on the court. Kennedy’s opinion is often the swing […]
Perils of Global Legalism
Henry Farrell and I discuss my book on bloggingheads. We briefly touched on the topic whether the EU could be a model for international law (Henry-yes, me-no). It is interesting in this connection to read the following passage from one of the Economist blogs. Chinese intellectual curiosity in the EU seemed to peak a few […]
Bank of America to Impose Annual Fees on Transactional Users Credit Cards:
A couple of weeks ago Bank of America announced that it would not raise interest rates in response to the new regulations imposed by the CARD Act. At the time I didn’t understand how Bank of America could apparently repeal the laws of supply and demand when no one else could. Now I understand–yesterday B […]
Are You a Current or Former Elected Official (Local, State, or Federal)?
If you are, and read and enjoy the blog, please e-mail me (at volokh at law dot ucla dot edu) and let me know. I will keep any e-mail from you entirely confidential. Thanks!
Bernstein (Robert!) Denounces Human Rights Watch:
Robert Bernstein (no relation), the founder of Human Rights Watch, has issued a stinging condemnation of the organization he led from 1978 to 1998. Here’s a taste: I must do something that I never anticipated: I must publicly join the group’s critics…. When I stepped aside in 1998, Human Rights Watch was active in 70 […]