Not long ago I criticized the SG’s submission to the Court on whether to grant cert in Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria. I thought it was a remarkably bad brief in a bad cause. But even a bad brief from the SG can be persuasive when it asserts a federal interest in preempting a state […]
Archive | 2010
Free Enterprise Fund: The Lopez of Separation of Powers Doctrine
I have long thought that if the Court invalidated any provision of Sarbanes-Oxley in Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, 08-861, it would base its decision on the Act’s dual good-cause removal restrictions for Board members. First, because that was the strongest claim as a matter of doctrine. But also because doing so wouldn’t break much […]
Public Universities Don’t Violate First Amendment When They Apply Accept-All-Comers Rules to Student Groups
So holds Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, in a 5-4 opinion; the majority consists of the liberals plus Justice Kennedy. I think this is the right result as a constitutional matter — even when the university rule ends up barring a religious group from selecting members and officers based on religion and sexual orientation — […]
David Zaring Offers a Comment on ‘Regulation by Deal’
In my earlier post from last night on the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, I asked whether the highly discretionary provisions in the legislation addressing aspects of systemic risk have the effect of “returning” us to the 2008 crisis policy of “regulation by deal.” That term comes from a paper by Steven M. Davidoff and David […]
Second Amendment Binds State and Local Governments, via the Fourteenth Amendment
So holds the Court in McDonald v. City of Chicago, by a 5-4 vote. The syllabus suggests that there were four votes (the five conservatives minus Justice Thomas) for the proposition that the Due Process Clause applies the Second Amendment to the states and their subdivisions; Justice Thomas concluded that it is the Privileges or […]
Today’s Opinions
The crush of patent lawyers seeking to learn the outcome in Bilski appears to have overwhelmed SCOTUSBlog‘s servers — at least for those who weren’t among the first 6,000 or so to load the post with the CoverItLive plug-in. For the rest of us, here’s what I can tell you: The Supreme Court holds in […]
“Vapid and Hollow” or Substantive and Illuminating?
In today’s NYT, Adam Liptak reports on a new study by political scientists Lori Ringhand and Paul Collins Jr. analyzing the questions asked at Supreme Court confirmation hearings over the past 70 years. a new study, based on an analysis of every question asked and every answer given at Supreme Court confirmation hearings in the […]
Some Troubling Housing Market News from Abroad
While the U.S. and several other countries are in the throes of a housing recession/depression following the great bubble, housing markets in countries where the economy is still relatively sound–Australia, China, Canada–seem to still be in bubble mode. Indeed, word from my in-laws in Israel is that the housing market there, which wasn’t bubbly earlier […]
A Return to ‘Regulation by Deal’?
(Update: Thanks, Glenn, for the Instalanche! If readers want a further discussion of this, including a short response from one of the co-authors of the “Regulation by Deal” paper, David Zaring, go here. One reason to look at that further comment is that it gives an approximate definition of “regulation by deal” from the paper.) […]
Corey Robin on Ayn Rand
I just came across this essay in The Nation by one Corey Robin about Ayn Rand. I think Robin is serious, but the piece works best as a satire of a certain type of right-wing hit piece on left-wing intellectuals. Mocking the subject because she has many Hollywood devotees who don’t seem that bright? Check! […]
Be (Among) the First to Hear About the Court’s Forthcoming Decisions, and to Read Them
SCOTUSblog live-blogs the Supreme Court’s handing down its opinions, and provides both the results and the links to the full opinions pretty much as soon as they are available. This coming Monday, the Court should be handing down opinions in four cases dealing with very significant issue — whether business methods are patentable (Bilski), whether […]
Are Civil Rights Groups Skeptical of Kagan?
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 27, 2010 10:14 am in Civil Rights, Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination
Today’s Washington Post reports that some civil rights organizations are still trying to determine whether (or how enthusiastically) to support Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. It begins: On the eve of Elena Kagan’s Senate confirmation hearings, her record on race in the Clinton White House and at Harvard Law School is producing discomfort […]
Sunday Song Lyric
Following on Ken’s post below, I thought I’d highlight a lyric from Blows Against the Empire, the first album released by Paul Kantner, et al. as “Jefferson Starship” (as opposed to Jefferson Airplane; I like to pretend that the thing called “Starship” never existed), and it includes appearances by a wide range of folks, including […]
Roast German Shepherd and Other Reminiscences from my Ill-Spent Youth
Oh heck, it’s late on a Saturday night, so perhaps Eugene will forgive me … a commenter mentions “roast German shepherd.” Sounds random; actually it cost me my first paid time card job. I was a high school student in Claremont CA, early 1970s, hired as a bus boy and dish washer at Pomona College, […]
Mere Mortals
Bow and scrape, mere mortals, before my awesome grill powers … with wife away for another week in Guatemala, and daughter just back from there, I decided it would be too hot and time-consuming to do much cooking this week. So I opted instead to make a gigantic fire in the grill, and then throw […]