The Daily Journal reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has gone 0-5 before the Supreme Court this term. As I noted here, all five cases were pro-prisoner habeas cases. The article discusses the role of the Michigan AG’s office in encouraging the Supreme Court to review the Sixth Circuit’s habeas […]
Archive | 2010
Kagan’s Clinton Administration Memos
The NYT reports on some of the memoranda from the Clinton White House written be Elena Kagan that were released this past week. A new cache of documents from Elena Kagan’s days as an adviser to President Bill Clinton shows that she frequently scribbled notes in the margins of memorandums yet rarely expressed forceful views. […]
“Free Gaza” Activists’ Version of the Ship Incident
A bunch of eyewitness accounts are collected here. Various left-wing blogs are trumpeting these accounts as contradicting the Israeli account, but there are actually more commonalities, or at least more important commonalities, than differences. The commonalities: (1) Ship passengers armed themselves with makeshift weapons to prevent the Israeli navy from boarding. Israel claims that these […]
Is the Debate Over Eminent Domain “Empty and Incoherent”?
By Ilya Somin on June 4, 2010 11:07 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
In a recent post on Kaur v. Urban Development Corporation, the Columbia eminent domain case currently before New York’s state supreme court, NYU lawprof Rick Hills argues that the debate over eminent domain is largely meaningless. Kaur, like the Atlantic Yards case before it, addresses a key issue in takings law: whether the condemnation of […]
The William F. Buckley Clause of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780
Buckley 1963: “I am obliged to confess that I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.” John Adams, Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 (emphasis added): “No person holding the office of […]
Sessions Responds to Kagan’s Marshall Memos
Jan Crawford reports that Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said some of the memos Elena Kagan wrote as a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall are “troubling” and warrant greater scrutiny. Also today, the Clinton Presidential Library has begun to release documents from Kagan’s time in the Clinton White House. […]
Could Students Be Suspended for “Beat the Jew” Game
The AP reports: Seven seniors at a Southern California high school were facing disciplinary action [including being suspended or barred from graduation] for participating in a game called “Beat the Jew” in which losers were subjected to “incineration” or “enslavement,” a school administrator said Friday. The game involved some students playing the role of Nazis […]
Extending Probation Sentence Without Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt?
From U.S. v. Cunningham (11th Cir. May 28): In 2005, Cunningham was convicted by a federal jury of two counts of conducting monetary transactions over $10,000 in criminally derived property, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1957 and 2, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956 […]
Published Version of Auto Title Lending Paper Now Available:
The published version of my auto title lending paper has just been published by the Loyola Consumer Law Review. Although the topic may seem somewhat obscure, this turned out to be one of the most interesting papers I’ve done in awhile. In particular, I was really surprised by the range in the type of people […]
Conference on The Economics and Regulation of Payment Card Fees:
I posted on this awhile back. But in light of the renewed interest in payment card fees as a result of the Durbin Amendment to the financial regulation reform bill, I thought I’d post again. There will be a half-day conference next week at the Willard Hotel on the economics and regulation of payment card […]
How to Make the Bureau of Consumer Protection More Consumer Friendly:
From the beginning of the financial reg reform debate I’ve supported the idea of a more coherent and integrated institutional approach to consumer financial protection. I’ve also consistently argued that a failure of consumer protection was not a major cause of the financial crisis, misaligned incentives were the problem. In my view the two questions […]
Poll of VC Readers
Just out of curiosity
Israeli Version of Ship Incident
I obviously can’t vouch for this, and governments and militaries have been known to engage in CYA after botched operations. And Israel lost its chance to thoroughly investigate the ship rioters when it decided to release everyone immediately to placate Turkey. With all that said, the highlights: (1) Some passengers tried to take captive three […]
Kagan’s Memos for Justice Marshall
Jan Crawford reports on memos Elena Kagan wrote for Justice Thurgood Marshall during her clerkship that appear to reveal that she is quite liberal on social issues. This is not particularly surprising, but it is interesting. Here’s a taste of her report: On abortion, Kagan wrote a memo in a case involving a prisoner who […]
Smallpox in the garage
My new book, Skating on Stilts, is mostly a meditation on how the technologies we love eventually find new ways to kill us, and how to stop them from doing that. I talk about three technologies — jet flight, computers, and biotech. Anticipating the release of the book next week, Huffington Post is hosting an excerpt from the […]