Wise legal reasoning, from Zaidan v. Zaidan, 2005 Mich. App. LEXIS 906.
Archive | 2010
Senate Convicts Federal Judge Thomas Porteous
The Senate has just convicted federal district Judge Thomas Porteous, whose trial concluded yesterday, on all four articles of impeachment against him. The votes ranged from 69-27 to 96-0. The Senate unanimously convicted Porteous on Article I, which focused on his corruption in taking kickbacks from a law firm involved in a case he presided […]
The Second Amendment and People with Nonviolent Drug Misdemeanor Convictions
In State v. Tomas (Ohio Ct. Com. Pl. Dec. 7), Marinko Tomas was prosecuted for violating Ohio Rev. Code. § 2923.13(A)(3): Unless relieved from disability as provided in section 2923.14 of the Revised Code, no person shall knowingly acquire, have, carry, or use any firearm or dangerous ordnance, if … (3) The person is under […]
Senate Begins Impeachment Trial of Federal District Judge Thomas Porteous
It hasn’t made too many national headlines. But today the Senate began to hear the impeachment trial of Louisiana federal district Judge Thomas Porteous: The attorney for a federal judge facing removal from office argued Tuesday at a rare Senate impeachment trial that Congress is pursuing vague and unconstitutional charges against his client and would […]
The TSA’s Response to the Breast Milk Incident
Last week, I posted a link to this video of one woman’s experience with airport security after asking to have her breast milk visually screened instead of x-rayed (as TSA procedures allow). At the time, I said I’d like to hear the TSA’s side of the incident, as the video appears to show TSA employees […]
Gay Marriage Event in Columbus
On Thursday I will be in Columbus for a panel on the question: “Does the U.S. Constitution Require Same-Sex Marriage?” sponsored by the Columbus Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. My co-panelists will be Ed Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Mark Strasser of the Capital University Law School. Further event details […]
Reasonable words about Wikileaks:
Clay Shirky has, as he often does, a very thoughtful and reasonable take on the Wikileaks Affair. I’ve been working on writing something of my own, but for now, Shirky’s hit most of the things I wanted to say . . .
Florida Highway Agency Forbids Employees from Putting Up Holiday Decorations on Tollbooths
The Sun-Sentinel reports: Holiday decorations of any kind have been banned from all toll booths along the 460 miles of toll highways run by the agency, which is part of the Florida Department of Transportation, a spokeswoman said…. “Some Christian organizations complained about Halloween decorations,” [some months ago,] said spokeswoman Christa Deason. Turnpike leaders have […]
One More Round With Tim Sandefur
Tim Sandefur has responded to my post below. To be candid, I find Sandefur’s response perplexing. He seems to want to wage epic battles over natural law versus positivism, with him as the champion of natural law and me as the evil positivist. But the questions we were discussing have nothing to do with natural […]
Ginsburg on Dissenting Opinions
The Minnesota Law Review has published “The Role of Dissenting Opinions” by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The essay is based on a lecture Justice Ginsburg gave at the Harvard Club of Washington, D.C. in December 2009. ustice Ginsburg summarizes her view as follows: although I appreciate the value of unanimous opinions, I will continue to speak […]
Wrong But Not En Banc Worthy
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied a petition for rehearing en banc in Mitts v. Bagley, a habeas case in which a divided panel granted a writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that the jury instructions were unconstitutional under the standard set forth in Justice Stevens sole concurring […]
Judge Dismisses Al-Aulaqi Targeted Killing Case
By Kenneth Anderson on December 7, 2010 11:13 am in Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Presswires are reporting that Judge John Bates has dismissed the case which the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights sought to bring on behalf of Anwar Al-Aulaqi’s father, contesting the ability of the President to target an American citizen hiding abroad in Yemen who the government says is a targetable participant in a terrorist […]
“Guerrilla Polling” in Repressive Societies
I have several times criticized Western observers who naively assume that pro-government statements by people who live under repressive regimes necessarily reflect their true opinions (see here and here). Even if they actually hate the government, such people have obvious incentives to pretend otherwise in order to avoid punishment. At the same time, it is […]
Slate on Randy Barnett
Over at Slate, David Weigel has an interesting article on the efforts of our co-blogger Randy Barnett to teach state legislators about the Constitution. Very cool.
More Commentary on American Electric Power:
Following up on my post from earlier today, here is some more commentary on the Supreme Court’s decision to accept cert in American Electric Power v. Connecticut. Douglas Kysar (Yale), ACSBlog Jonathan Zasloff (UCLA), Legal Planet And here is news coverage from the WSJ and Greenwire. UPDATE: More from NRDC’s Swithcboard and the Center for […]