Anna Gelpern’s post on the Roubini blog (that I posted on earlier) had an interesting point I wanted to follow up. She remarks in passing, “apropos commitment, isn’t it interesting that the European Commission will issue collateralized debt (secured by its €141bn budget)?” Indeed, and even more interesting that the bulk of the bailout fund […]
Archive | 2010
Kagan, the Harvard Ban on Military Recruiters, and Anti-Military Bias
By Ilya Somin on May 10, 2010 8:32 pm in Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination, Supreme Court
Conservative critics of Elena Kagan, such as William Kristol and Ed Whelan, have focused on her role in trying to prevent military recruiters from interviewing at the Harvard Law School campus because of the law banning openly gay individuals from serving in the military. The critics argue that Kagan’s stance was badly misguided and a […]
Anna Gelpern on Greek Sovereign Debt
My colleague and a rising star in sovereign debt studies, Anna Gelpern, has a new and important post at the Roubini blog, on the question of where Greece goes with the new announcement of a trillion-dollar fund. The opening: Leading economists and editorialists say Greece will restructure its debt (here, here, here, here and here are just a […]
Bloggers disagree on politics of offshore drilling, and immigration
The latest National Journal poll of political bloggers asked: “With the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, does it make political sense for President Obama to stick to his plans to allow increased oil and gas development along the coasts?” Only 6% of the Left, but 75% of the Right thought that it did still make […]
Solicitors General
(1) Who was the most recent Supreme Court nominee, before Kagan, to have served as a Solicitor General? (2) Who is the only person to have served as a Solicitor General, a law school dean, and a Supreme Court Justice? Thanks to Kevin Walsh for suggesting this.
Let’s Not Get Too Excited About Kagan
I agree with Ilya that Elena Kagan is the best nominee we are likely to get from a liberal president and a Senate with an overwhelming Democratic majority. But the excitement (among some on the right) and dismay (by some on the left) over her good relations with conservatives as dean at Harvard is exaggerated. […]
“What Kagan Will Bring to the Court”
The New York Times‘ Room for Debate blog has items from Alan Dershowitz, Dick Thornburgh, Jamal Greene, Kathleen Sullivan, Robert Reich, Ed Whelan, and me. Here’s my modest contribution: If Elena Kagan is confirmed, Justice John Paul Stevens’ seat will remain in pretty solidly liberal hands for the next 40 years, if Ms. Kagan remains […]
Elena Kagan as Scholar
As scholar, Elena Kagan worked in two main fields, First Amendment law and (more or less) administrative law. Since the first of those fields is one in which I also work, I decided to reread those articles, and — since some people have raised questions about Kagan’s qualities as a scholar — look more broadly […]
To a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail Dept.
From the bowels of the just-this-side-of-an-anti-Jewish-hate-site blog “Mondoweiss,” which is obsessed with the “Israel Lobby”: “The Kagan moment spells not just the end of anti-Semitism, but the end of Jewish responses to it, including the Israel lobby.”
Isn’t This a Bit Much?
The president went to Harvard, and barely defeated a primary opponent who went to Yale. His predecessor went to Yale and Harvard, and defeated opponents who went to Yale and Harvard, and Harvard, respectively. The previous two presidents also went to Yale, with Bush I defeating another Harvard grad for the presidency. And once Elena […]
Berkowitz on Harvard Law and the Email Controversy
Via Instapundit, my former colleague Peter Berkowitz has an excellent column criticizing Dean Minow’s response to the controversy. One point Peter highlights is that it was a Harvard 3L student who speculated about the genetic basis for racial differences in IQ, but it was Dean Minow who wrote that the student “suggested that black people […]
Kagan’s Scholarship
By Jonathan H. Adler on May 10, 2010 8:31 am in Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination, Supreme Court
At Balkinization, Marvin Ammori and Mark Tushnet review some of Elena Kagan’s scholarship (and seem more impressed than Paul Campos and Paul Mirengoff). Ammori explores some of her First Amendment scholarship and wonders whether she is sympathetic to “corporate speech rights,” such as those embraced by the Supreme Court in Citizens United. Brian Leiter also […]
The Road to the Supreme Court Runs Through a Stalled Senate Confirmation:
Obviously I’m exaggerating. But it does seem peculiar that Kagan, like John Roberts, was nominated by a prior President but never voted on in the Senate. Is it possible that this is more than a coincidence? Probably not. But here’s a theory for perhaps why being a nominated but stalled nominee for the circuit court […]
Legislating Miranda Rights for Terrorism Cases?
Attorney General Eric Holder suggested today that the Obama Administration may push for legislation expanding the public safety exception to Miranda for use in interrogations of terrorist suspects: The Obama administration is considering changes to the laws requiring police to inform suspects of their rights, potentially pursuing an expansion of the “public safety exception” that […]
Preliminary Reflections on the Kagan Nomination
I don’t have a lot to say about Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan that can’t be said better by others. Unlike now-Justice Sotomayor, she does not have an extensive record on issues that are within my core areas of expertise. I do, however, want to highlight one important advantage Kagan has over the realistic alternatives: […]