Dan Danner, CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has an op-ed in today’s WSJ explaining why NFIB has chosen to join the state AGs’ lawsuit challenging the recently enacted health care reforms. Here’s a taste: Supporters say the law will significantly help small businesses, focusing on the much-talked about small business tax […]
Archive | 2010
Scalia on Kagan’s Lack of Judicial Experience
Justice Antonin Scalia does not think Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s lack of judicial experience should disqualify her from the Supreme Court. ABC News reports: When I first came to the Supreme Court, three of my colleagues had never been a federal judge,” said Scalia who joined the Court in 1986 after being nominated by President […]
Who’s the Kook?
Conor Friedersdorf wonders whether Rand Paul’s policy ideas any crazier than those embraced by more conventional politicians.
Peter Beinart–Trite
Peter Beinart has written a scathing indictment of organized American Jewry’s “conservative” views on Israel. He claims that “right-wing” Israeli policies, combined with American Jewish groups’ unflinching support for Israel, are alienating young American Jews, and reducing their attachment to Israel. Beinart’s essay has received a remarkable amount of attention, especially considering that its underlying […]
Bringing a case against Arizona before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Apparently that is the plan of several Mexican and Arizona legislators. (Original story in Spanish from El Semanario here.) The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is the Oranization of American States administrative body responsible for hemispheric human rights enforcement. Generally speaking, if the Commission finds that the government has violated human rights, the Commission attempts to resolve […]
Juveniles on Probation, and Their Parents’ Guns (and Other Weapons)
Apropos the discussion below, what do you folks think of this Oregon county juvenile court probation policy (thanks to commenter Philistine for the pointer) (emphasis added)? 4. You are to only live with your parent(s) or court-approved guardian(s) …. 11. You are not to posses any weapon of any description including but not limited to […]
Tip for Using Google Scholar to Find Court Opinions
I’ve on occasion been using Google Scholar to find court opinions, and have been a bit annoyed that the default is to search articles and not court opinions. Switching to court opinions is only one click, but I’m lazy, plus sometimes I forget that click and get the wrong result. Then I decided to check […]
Closer and closer
to a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) has now said he will vote for repeal, Politico reports: “I don’t believe that most Nebraskans want to continue a policy that not only encourages but requires people to be deceptive and to lie. The ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy does just that,” […]
Father Must Remove All Guns from Home as Condition of Under-18-Year-Old Son’s Probation
An interesting decision, in People v. Javier A. (Cal. Ct. App. May 24). Javier A. was on probation, so when he was detained on suspicion of another crime, the police searched his home; Javier’s father, Emilio A., told the police there were two guns in the home. It turned out that one had been kept […]
Short Essay on Snyder v. Phelps, Part IV: The Libel Analogy, and the Public/Private Figure Distinction
For more about the essay (for an online symposium), see here; to read the full 9 pages, see here. This week, I’m posting (and combining using the Snyder v. Phelps tag) some passages: Earlier, I blogged about Hustler v. Falwell and why it applies here, as well as about the arguments that the liability in […]
Short Essay on Snyder v. Phelps, Part III: The Plaintiffs’ (not the Phelpsians’) Religious Freedom Argument
For more about the essay (for an online symposium), see here; to read the full 9 pages, see here. This week, I’m posting (and combining using the Snyder v. Phelps tag) more passages: Earlier, I blogged about Hustler v. Falwell and why it applies here, as well as about the argument that the liability in […]
How to Turn Good News into Bad News
The percentage of blacks marrying whites has risen by 3 times since 1980. Asians are just as likely to marry whites as they were in 1980 (40%), even though there is a much larger Asian population to choose from, and Hispanics are significantly more likely to marry whites than in 1980 (38% compared to 30%), […]
District Court Opinions Precedential Within the Same District?
I had always assumed that federal district court opinions (as opposed to Court of Appeals opinions or Supreme Court opinions) don’t serve as binding precedent on district judges even within the same district, and are no more persuasive precedent than any other district court opinions from any other district. But now, I see in Kerr […]
Some Strange Consequences of Public Accommodations Laws
All the discussion of Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act has obscured the fact that public accommodations laws, especially at the state and local level, have expanded way, way, beyond their original purpose of ensuring that previously excluded minorities are served in restaurants, hotels, and the like. This has happened more via aggressive […]
Court of Appeals Upholds $16 Million Award for Framing Father for Alleged Child Molestation
The case is White v. McKinley (8th Cir. May 17, 2010), and the damages award was $14 million in compensatory damages, $1 million in punitive damages against the plaintiff’s ex-wife, and $1 million in punitive damages against the police officer who was the ex-wife’s secret lover; the ex-wife and the police officer were found to […]