From Steele v. Steele (Ky. Ct. App. Mar. 5, 2010), quoting the trial court: Upon being asked by the Court to swear that he would testify truthfully, Mr. Steele declined, stating that his religious beliefs prevented him from swearing. He was then asked to affirm that his testimony would be truthful and he again declined […]
Archive | March, 2010
Moose Sightings, con’t:
So I’m up in beautiful Montreal, getting ready for a lecture I’m giving this afternoon at the University of Montreal on my Jefferson’s Moose book. When the cab pulled up in front of my hotel yesterday afternoon, this is what greeted me: Well! I’ll have to remember to thank the lecture series organizers for being […]
Suing Over Spilled Milk-a-What?
It seems someone got the crazy idea that Lindsay the E-Trade baby’s “milkaholic” friend was modeled on Lindsay Lohan — and now Lohan is suing the company for $100 million. No joke.
“Dissenting from the Bench”
It appears there has been a slight increase in the reading of dissents from the bench over the past few years. Is this a sign of a more contentious and less collegial Supreme Court? It’s the subject of Adam Liptak’s latest “Sidebar” column. “Dissenting from the bench,” a new study to be published in Justice […]
Laptops in Class Redux
The Washington Post revisits the question of laptop use in the classroom. A generation ago, academia embraced the laptop as the most welcome classroom innovation since the ballpoint pen. But during the past decade, it has evolved into a powerful distraction. Wireless Internet connections tempt students away from note-typing to e-mail, blogs, YouTube videos, sports […]
More on Liz Cheney
Eugene and Jonathan and a host of others have joined in defending the pro bono work that some Justice lawyers did for Guantanamo detainees. To me, though, this seems to be a much harder question than the critics make it out to be. To start with, some of the arguments in favor of the attorneys […]
Do We Need to Subsidize Homeownership to Preserve Our National Identity?
Government efforts to subsidize homeownership helped cause or at least exacerbate the financial crisis, and left taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars in liability for dubious mortgages. In this recent New York Times op ed, Yale economist Robert Shiller, a leading expert on housing markets, concedes that such subsidies have little […]
Could National Juries Alleviate the Problem of Political Ignorance?
One of the most serious defects of modern democracy is that most voters know very little about the policies they vote on. Moreover, as I have pointed out on previous occasions, it is rational for them to remain ignorant and to do a poor job of evaluating what limited political information they do know. Political […]
The Good Faith Exception and Changing Law: Distinguishing Illinois v. Krull
This is my fourth post in a planned series on why the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply when a police officer conducts a search that is lawful when it occurs that is later ruled unlawful before the conviction is final. This issue is being litigated all over the country right […]
McDonald, Constitutional Theory, and the Confirmation Process
A lot of VC readers who have followed McDonald v. City of Chicago were quite disappointed last week by what they saw as the Supreme Court’s likely unwillingness to revisit the Privileges or Immunities Clause. At oral argument, the Justices seemed focused on the practical problems of reviving PorI, not on whether such a revival […]
Does the Presence of a Licensed Firearm Create A Threat to Officer Safety Justifying a Search?
No, says the Indiana Court of Appeals in Washington v. State. Correct, I think: The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that the standard for a Terry frisk is whether the officer reasonably suspects the person is “armed and dangerous.” “Armed” alone shouldn’t be enough, although of course in many cases the two will go together. […]
Federalist Society Speech at Florida International
On Wednesday March 10th, I will be commenting on the oral argument in McDonald v. Chicago in a speech at Florida International University law school in Miami. The event is open to the public and will be held at noon in room 2002 of the Rafael Diaz-Balart Hall. I also have upcoming Federalist Society student […]
New Supreme Court Case on the Constitutional Right to Informational Privacy
[1:58 pm: Bumped up above the other posts on today’s cases.] The Supreme Court has just granted cert in NASA v. Nelson, the Ninth Circuit case I blogged about here and here. Let me repeat below my thinking about the case from that last post: The case involves a challenge brought by various contract employees […]
Funeral Picketing / Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Case Going to the Supreme Court
[1:56 pm: Bumped up above the more specific posts on the case.] The Supreme Court has just agreed to hear Snyder v. Phelps, the funeral picketing case. I think the lower court decision is quite right, and I worry that the Court’s decision signals the Justices’ willingness to overturn it. But I hope the Justices […]
The Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Tort and the Freedom of Speech
[1:55 pm: Bumped up above the other posts on this case.] I’m blogging today about the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the funeral picketing case. That’s the one in which the jury entered a $10.9 million verdict (reduced by the trial judge to $5 million) against the Phelpsians for their offensive picketing 1000 feet away […]