Ineffective assistance of counsel is a common habeas petition claim, particularly in capital cases. This has led me to wonder whether legal representation that is constitutionally deficient should presumptively constitute legal malpractice. After all, for a capital defendant, effective assistance of counsel can be a matter of life and death. Yet it is rare that […]
Archive | November, 2009
Off to AALS
Like many others, I’ll be off to D.C. tomorrow to attend the AALS faculty recruitment conference. Perhaps I’ll see you there.
The Deputy Who Helped Himself to the Defense Attorney’s Casefile
A lot of people have e-mailed me asking for my thoughts about a disturbing video that Radley Balko posted recently. The video shows a criminal court hearing in which a deputy assigned to court security walks over to the defense attorney’s papers on the counsel table and starts to look at the papers. Eventually he […]
What Does Warren Buffet Know?
While Congress considers legislation to impose a cap-and-trade regime on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, Warrne Buffet makes “a huge bet on coal.” Either Buffet’s made a blunder, or he realizes any cap-and-trade legislation that can pass Congress will do little to reduce coal consumption. (HT: Roger Pielke Jr.)
Italy Convicts Twenty-three CIA Agents in Absentia
By Kenneth Anderson on November 4, 2009 8:15 pm in Executive Branch, International Law, War on Terror
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to say anything substantive about this now, but AP reports on the conviction of twenty-three CIA agents in absentia in Italy in a trial over an extraordinary rendition. The AP story is unusually detailed for a wire story and bears reading. I am in the middle of something and can’t […]
Prof. Jones Drops Lawsuit Against Above The Law
Above The Law reports: There was NO SETTLEMENT in this case. Above the Law has made no changes to our prior posts, and we have paid no money to Professor Jones. The case was dismissed by the plaintiff without anything from our side, except a letter from our lawyer. UPDATE (3:35 PM): We have offered […]
L.A. Halloween Silly String Ban
I just learned about this, thanks to Gabriel Malor: (Obligatory punctuation nod to the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks.) Here’s the text of the ordinance: (a) For purposes of this section: 1. “Silly String” shall mean any putty-like substance that is shot or expelled in the form of string from an aerosol can or other […]
The most important right to arms vote of 2009
UPDATE: The repeal just passed 2d reading by a vote of 164 to 137! The bill now proceeds to a committee for public hearings. The Canadian Conservative Party has 143 Members of Parliament, so the bill attracted over 20 votes from members of other parties–significantly more than had been expected by Canadian political commentators. Today […]
There’s Always Next Year
The 53%-47% loss for gay marriage in Maine is a beginning, not an end. We have been down this road many times, with gay-equality advocates losing the first (or first few) rounds in popular referenda on lots of issues other than marriage. In fact, gay-rights measures historically have not fared well in popular votes. In […]
IJ’s Bone Marrow Case: Rational Basis Test
In the past two posts, I outlined the Institute for Justice’s constitutional challenge to the bone marrow provision of the National Organ Transplant Act. In short, our clients want to use strategic incentives such as $3,000 scholarships to incentivize more lifesaving bone marrow donations, but doing so is considered criminal organ-selling. Today, I’ll discuss the standard […]
Who Cares?
As noted by Orin below, Marc DeGirolami tries to provide a global answer to that question that often bedevils academics, i.e., who cares? For the reasons that Orin and the commenters suggest, I don’t think DeGirolami’s answer is successful. On the other hand, law professors like myself who write about legal history have good reason […]
Congratulations to Ken Cuccinelli:
Congratulations to VA’s new AG, Ken Cuccinelli who, to the best of my knowledge, becomes the first George Mason law school alumnus to be elected to state-wide office in Viriginia. He bested alumni of William & Mary and UVA in the primaries. GMU is a relatively young law school and this is a proud day […]
The Role of the Audience in Legal Writing
In an interesting post on the goals of legal scholarship, Marc DeGirolami writes: [It] doesn’t particularly matter to me who is or is not interested in my ideas. It probably is true that I hope vaguely that someone, somewhere, now or in the future, will be interested in them. If no one ever thought them […]
Another good night for the Second Amendment
NY-23: Winning Democrat Bill Owens was A-rated by NRA (as was Hoffman). Virginia: Either Deeds (B rating) or McDonnell (A) were sure to be a big improvement over outgoing Governor Kaine. Deeds lost the NRA endorsement by supporting closing of the (non-existent) “gun show loophole.” In the Attorney General race, Republican Ken Cuccinelli (A+) handily […]
Four Obvious Lessons from Tonight’s Elections
I think there are four obvious lessons to draw from tonight’s election returns: 1. For Conservative Republicans: The America people reject Barack Obama and obviously want true conservative leadership. The Governorships of two states have switched to the “R” category, showing a grassroots conservative movement that is alive and well. 2. For Moderate Republicans: The […]