I’ll join Orin in some speculation. For the dominance of Catholics appointed by Republicans, I think Alkali, commenting on Orin’s thread, identifies part of the reason: A Republican president can’t win by nominating a Protestant: if the nominee is a conservative evangelical, that could be controversial with moderate voters; if the nominee is not a […]
Archive | May, 2010
Kagan’s New View of Confirmation Hearings? – Take Two
As an academic, Elena Kagan thought recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings were a “hollow charade.” In a prior post, I noted reasons to suspect Elena Kagan might not adhere to this view once it’s her turn before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But perhaps I spoke too soon. Jan Crawford reports: In her private meetings with […]
Why Catholics and Jews?
A lot of people have noted that if Elena Kagan is confirmed to replace Justice Stevens, the Supreme Court will have no Protestants for the first time. Instead, there will be six Catholics and three Jews. About 24% of adult Americans are Catholic, and less than 2% of adult Americans are Jewish. That raises an […]
Where Spike Lee and I Agree
There aren’t many events in the world of sports that could make both me and inveterate Boston-hater Spike Lee happy. Tonight’s great Celtics series win over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers was one of them. It’s not quite equal in importance to my areas of agreement with Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. […]
Gov. Pawlenty’s Court Picks
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced two appointments to the Minnesota Supreme Court today. First, he elevated sitting associate justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea to Chief Justice, replacing outgoing Chief Justice Eric Magnuson. Second, as some of my co-bloggers have noted below, he tapped University of Minnesota law professor David Stras to fill the vacancy created by […]
Looks Like Now We Need a Commercial Financial Protection Agency:
Martin Robins has a good summary today of some of the flaws of the financial regulatory reform bill in his column “Financial Regulations Miss The Target.” He notes, among other points, that by the end of the year at least 11 percent of securitized commercial loans are expected to be 60 days or more past […]
Louisiana Parish Government Suing Online Commenters for Libel
Yup — not just a particular government official, but Jefferson Parish itself is claiming that some anonymous commenters are spreading lies about the Parish (the Louisiana equivalent of a county) that damage the reputation of the Parish. It’s not clear to me from the story exactly what the comments about the co-plaintiff, Steve Theriot (Interim […]
Speech Restrictions Aimed at Making Sure People Act in “Right-Thinking” Ways
The comment thread in my “down the memory hole” speech restrictions post reminded me of what I wrote ten years ago about the California Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in Briscoe v. Reader’s Digest (which has since been overruled, based on intervening Supreme Court First Amendment precedent). Here’s my criticism of Briscoe (some paragraph breaks added, […]
A Law-Professor-Blogger Becomes A Justice
Okay, we’re talking a state Supreme Court Justice, but still: As Dale Carpenter notes below, University of Minnesota law professor David Stras, who blogs at SCOTUSblog and Empirical Legal Studies, has been appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court. You can watch the announcement here, with Stras starting at the 9:30 mark. My congratulations to David […]
“Down the Memory Hole” Speech Restrictions, Supported by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
In an amicus brief EPIC just filed in G.D. v. Kenny — a case pending before the New Jersey Supreme Court — EPIC argues that convicted criminals should be able to sue for “disclosure of private facts” when others accurately report on the criminal conviction, so long as the state court system decided to retroactively […]
Elena Kagan Seems to be in Justice Stevens’ Camp on Citizens United
The Center for Competitive Politics points to these two passages from Politico and The Hill, both of which report on Sen. Specter’s accounts of his conversation with Kagan. Interesting, though not surprising. A broader question: Would this suggest that she would be similarly forthcoming when asked about other issues, without the now-usual response of “I […]
My talk at the National Press Club on the health insurance mandate
Here are the first two of several YouTube videos of my talk on Tuesday at the National Press Club on the constitutionality of the individual health insurance mandate. I shared the program with Congressman James Sensenbrenner, and my remarks begin at the 7:05 mark on this recording and continue onto the next one.
Congratulations to David Stras
He’s just been appointed by Gov. Pawlenty to the Minnesota Supreme Court. David has been a friend and colleague at the University of Minnesota Law School since 2004. It is a richly deserved honor and he will be an excellent jurist.
“Phila[delphia Police] Officer Admits Lie in Saying He Was Shot”
From the Philadelphia Inquirer: [Sgt. Robert] Ralston, 46, said he had been shot in West Philadelphia by a black man who pointed a revolver at his head, then grazed him in the shoulder when Ralston knocked the gun away. He said he had returned fire and hit the man in the chest, but no gunshot […]
AZ Boycott and the Constitution:
Given that we’re deep into law school exam periods, here’s today’s question (“snatched,” as they say, “from today’s headlines”): The State of Arizona, you may assume, has passed controversial legislation regarding the legal status of immigrants in the State. The City Council of Los Angeles, protesting the impact of the Arizona law, declares that it […]