This month, as two years ago, we have an interesting coincidence of a Celtics-Lakers NBA finals and a major international soccer tournament. In 2008, I wrote a post on the subject that I think is still relevant today: The conjunction of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals and the European Soccer Championship [this year, the World Cup] […]
Archive | 2010
But First, Our National Anthem:
I am, I admit, a total national anthem junkie, and one of the things I love about the World Cup is the way the anthems are featured. The Olympic award ceremony has a certain charm, with the flag being raised while the anthem of the winner is played. But for me, the Cup has more […]
OLC in the News
Two items of interest today. First, the Post has an op-ed by Dawn Johnsen, who withdrew as nominee to be head of OLC after her nomination languished in front of the Senate, entitled (in the print edition) “Mending the Office of Legal Counsel.” It addresses a number of subjects, but the central thrust is to […]
Another Issue Where Barack Obama and I Agree – Repealing the Mortgage Interest Deduction
So far, I haven’t found much to agree on with President Obama other than gays in the military and the need for a playoff system for college football. However, I do support the administration’s proposal to repeal the tax deduction for mortgage interest for high-income taxpayers: The popular tax break for mortgage interest, once considered […]
Would Repealing the Seventeenth Amendment Curb Federal Power?
Many conservatives and libertarians believe that the 1913 adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment – which requires that senators be elected by popular vote, rather than by state legislatures – was a great mistake that led to a vast expansion of federal power. As Gene Healey puts it in a recent op ed, they assert that […]
Fixing the CDA 230 Subsidy While Preserving Online Anonymity
Thanks again for the great responses in comments. I’ve learned a lot about how people think about the Internet of 2010 and whether it fits the “Wild West 2.0” model. On Monday, we discussed why the Internet of 2010 resembles the closing of the Wild West frontier. On Tuesday, we talked about whether CDA 230 […]
Judicial Law Clerks’ Memos to Their Bosses
The AP reports: Two senior Republican senators criticized Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan Thursday for memos she wrote as a young law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall, saying the papers suggest she lets politics dictate her legal decisions. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Jeff Sessions of Alabama said the writings show that Kagan was […]
Internet Freedom of Expression Guaranteed:
And by the Chinese, no less! How do I know this? Because the Chinese government has released its first “White Paper” on the Internet, and it says so. Entitled “The Internet in China” and released by the Information Office of the State Council — the full text is available here; a story in the China […]
Maryland’s Highest Court Holds That Fortune-Telling Ban Violates the First Amendment
The case is Nefedro v. Montgomery County, decided today (thanks to How Appealing for the pointer). I blogged in 2008 about a similar federal district court decision; as I noted then, it’s part of a longish line of such cases. The court’s conclusion that speech remains presumptively fully protected (and doesn’t become less-protected “commercial speech,” […]
Tony Judt, Israel Expert
A certain group of aging and mostly otherwise irrelevant academics have reinvented themselves as prophetic critics of Israel, despite a lack of real knowledge of the relevant subject matter. Mearsheimer and Walt are two; Tony Judt, whose academic specialty is European history, is another. Judt has a rather predictable op-ed in today’s Times, replete with […]
Any Connecticut Prosecutors or Defense Lawyers Willing to Chat About the Connecticut Racial/Religious Ridicule Statute?
This is the statute I blogged about a few days ago, Connecticut General Statutes § 53–37 (“Any person who, by his advertisement, ridicules or holds up to contempt any person or class of persons, on account of the creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality or race of such person or class of persons, shall be fined […]
New OLC Opinion: Violence Against Women Act Covers Same-Sex Violence
My past practice of covering the release of OLC opinons has fallen by the wayside because of the press of work here at my day job, so I never got to bore you with my thoughts on the application of the Emoluments Clause to President Obama’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize or on DOJ’s […]
Party of Geert Wilders, Leading Critic of Islam (and Advocate of Restrictions on the Practice of Islam), Gains Heavily in Dutch Election
From Time: The Freedom Party, taking part in only its second national election since being founded by Wilders in 2005, secured 16% of the vote, jumping from 9 to 24 seats. Wilders, the bogeyman of Dutch politics, called it a “glorious day”, and demanded to be included in any ruling coalition. “They cannot ignore us. […]
Google Changed Reputation and Privacy Forever
In the early Internet, it was impossible to find isolated references to people, places, and things. Many users navigated using directories like the original Yahoo, and early search tools like Gopher (structured documents) and Archie (FTP) were limited . The search engines changed everything. Starting with Lycos and AltaVista, information was freed from obscurity. Suddenly, […]
Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks
Tonight the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. An overtime goal against the Philadelphia Flyers captured game 6 and sealed the series win. In doing so, they ended the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL and capped a marvelous season. The young, explosive, and versatile team earned their victory. While I am a die-hard […]