Forbes just published an op ed I wrote on the Kagan nomination, in which I develop some of the points I made in this post: From a libertarian or conservative standpoint, Elena Kagan is far from an ideal Supreme Court nominee. But she may well be the best we can hope for at this time. […]
Archive | May, 2010
Clinton staff: “We are taking the law and bending it as far as we can to capture a whole new class of guns.” Kagan wrote the Clinton ban on gun imports.
The Chicago Tribune‘s James Oliphant reports: “According to records at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark., she also drafted an executive order restricting the importation of certain semiautomatic assault rifles.” When ban was announced, Clinton staffer Jose Cerda stated, “We are taking the law and bending it as far as we can to […]
Final Version of “Vagueness Challenges to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act”
The final version of my recent essay on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — aka the statute that swallowed the Internet — is here: Vagueness Challenges to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 94 Minn. L. Rev. 1561 (2010).
Slobogin on Kerr on Slobogin on the Fourth Amendment
Last year, I authored a book review in the Michigan Law Review, Do We Need a New Fourth Amendment?, on a new book by Vanderbilt lawprof Christopher Slobogin, Privacy at Risk: The New Government Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment. In the latest issue of the Minnesota Law Review, Professor Slobogin has an essay responding to […]
ABA Ratings of Elena Kagan
Derek Muller writes, apropos the ABA’s coming evaluation of Elena Kagan: Not that a rating 11 years ago carries very much weight today, or that the ABA ratings mean very much at all[:] The first time ’round, back in 1999, a “substantial majority” of the ABA found Kagan “qualified,” and a minority found her “well […]
Mojave Cross Removed
The Supreme Court refused to order removal of the cross overlooking the Mojave desert at issue in Salazar v. Buono. This may have prompted some vandals to take matters into their own hands, as the cross was apparently stolen and is now gone. (Hat tip: How Appealing)
Taking ObamaCare Challenges Seriously
The New York Times might be the last place one would expect a news story suggesting that constitutional objections to the recently enacted health care reform law should be taken seriously, but that’s just what we got today. The story focuses on the lawsuit by twenty state attorneys general, among others, against the health care […]
FedSoc Podcast on the Nomination and Confirmation Process
The Federalist Society has posted online a podcast on the Supreme Court nomination and confirmation process. Moderated by former Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand, it features SCOTUSBlog’s Tom Goldstein, former Associate White House Counsel Sarah Wilson and Professors William Kelley (Notre Dame) and David Stras (Minnesota). The FedSoc has also created the SCOTUSReport website as […]
The Self-Pity of Elena Kagan
From a letter she wrote to the Daily Princetonian, as a senior at Princeton reflecting on the 1980 elections: Looking back on last Tuesday, I can see that our gut response — our emotion-packed conclusion that the world had gone mad, that liberalism was dead and that there was no longer any place for the […]
Kagan’s New View of Confirmation Hearings?
In 1995, then-law professor Elena Kagan wrote that Senators should ask, and judicial nominees should answer, more probing questions about a nominee’s judicial philosophy. Her article, “Confirmation Messes, Old and New,” 62 U. Chi. L. Rev. 919 (1995), maintained that the Bork hearings’ robust give and take over constitutional law was a better model than […]
Court Rejects Muslim Police Officer’s Demand for Accommodation of His Religious Practice of Wearing a Full Beard
The case is Wallace v. City of Philadelphia (E.D. Pa. Apr. 26). The court’s reasoning: 1. Because the police department didn’t allow anyone to wear a full beard, it had no obligation under the Free Exercise Clause to carve out an exemption for religious objectors. 2. Under FOP Newark Lodge No. 12 v. City of […]
Does Georgia v. Randolph Apply to Computers?
In Georgia v. Randolph, the Supreme Court held that the government cannot search the premises based on the consent of one occupant if another occupant of the same premises is present and objects to the search. The Third Circuit recently decided an interesting question: Does Randolph apply to a seizure of a computer found in […]
Kagan Confirmation Hearings as a “Teaching Moment”
George Mason University law professor Neomi Rao has an op-ed in Tuesday’s WSJ hoping that Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation will be “an opportunity for a teaching moment about what the court does, how it affects the lives of ordinary citizens, and how individual justices make a difference in this enterprise.” She continues: It would […]
The EU SPV
Anna Gelpern’s post on the Roubini blog (that I posted on earlier) had an interesting point I wanted to follow up. She remarks in passing, “apropos commitment, isn’t it interesting that the European Commission will issue collateralized debt (secured by its €141bn budget)?” Indeed, and even more interesting that the bulk of the bailout fund […]
Kagan, the Harvard Ban on Military Recruiters, and Anti-Military Bias
By Ilya Somin on May 10, 2010 8:32 pm in Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination, Supreme Court
Conservative critics of Elena Kagan, such as William Kristol and Ed Whelan, have focused on her role in trying to prevent military recruiters from interviewing at the Harvard Law School campus because of the law banning openly gay individuals from serving in the military. The critics argue that Kagan’s stance was badly misguided and a […]