Conservative blogger Paul Mirengoff and liberal law professor Paul Campos argue that Elena Kagan is poorly qualified for the Supreme Court because of what they argue is a weak record of scholarship. Mirengoff expresses incredulity that “you could publish so little and still become the dean of a major law school.” I have a much […]
Archive | 2010
Support for Restricting the Speech of Students Who Wear American Flags to School on Cinco de Mayo
According to a local CBS TV station, About 85 mostly Hispanic students staged a noon protest march through Morgan Hill on Thursday, one day after five students at Live Oak High School were sent home after showing up in clothing with American flags on Cinco de Mayo. The protesters supported the school’s decision …. Kathleen […]
New Hampshire State Constitutional Journalist’s Privilege Applies to Web Sites
So holds yesterday’s New Hampshire Supreme Court decision in Mortgage Specialists, Inc. v. Implode-Explode Heavy Industries: Although our cases discussing the newsgathering privilege have involved traditional news media, such as newspapers, we reject Mortgage Specialists’ contention that the newsgathering privilege is inapplicable here because Implode is neither an established media entity nor engaged in investigative […]
D.C. Circuit Panel Rejects, on Procedural Grounds, Challenges to Religious Elements of the Inauguration
As to the use of “so help me God” in the 2009 oath, and the clergy prayers in 2009, the panel (Judge Janice Rogers Brown, joined by Judge Douglas Ginsburg) held the challenge was moot; as to the challenge to similar elements in the 2013 and 2017 inaugurations, the Court found lack of standing, on […]
Arbitration and Class Actions
I blogged earlier about AT&T v. Concepcion, a cert petition on which my colleagues at Mayer are working, and the posts drew a good deal of interest (since this is a very important question). I therefore thought I’d also pass along two new entries in the litigation, the other side’s Brief in Opposition and my […]
“The Modern Practice of Making Certain Nouns into Verbs”
A commenter remarked on this, and reminded me about how many other people have done the same. So I thought I’d note that — at least according to my Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, the practice has “a long history,” and thus isn’t really that modern. Merriam-Webster’s points to “progress,” “head,” and “experience”; the OED’s […]
The Name of What Country
apparently stems from the name of a tree, which might in turn stem from the French word for “to crumble,” the Spanish and French words for glowing coals, or possibly the Arabic word for saffron? Don’t confuse this with another country, not far away, the name of which apparently stems from a feature of its […]
“I, for One, Welcome My Neandertal Ancestry”
So writes Prof. John Hawks, discussing two new papers in Science, which seem to be available here and here. I have no independent expertise on the subject, but it sounds legit, and very interesting if true. So, yeah, call me a Neanderthal, see if I care. Thanks to Jules Crittenden for the pointer.
Barred
Prof. Bill Poser (Language Log) passes along this quote from a lawyer (emphasis added): I have checked the military rules as well as the rules of the states where I am barred, and it does not appear that there is any prohibition relating to the comments I made. I’d never heard of “barred” being used […]
Popper’s Materials on Tort Reform:
I recently received a copy of a new set of teaching/reference materials assembled by Professor Andrew Popper, “Materials on Tort Reform.” I was fortunate to be invited to submit a short contribution based on a working paper of mine “Public Choice and Tort Reform” that I am currently reworking into a book with Jeremy Kidd. […]
President to Seek Line-Item Veto
The NYT reports that President Obama is likely to ask for some form of enhanced recission authority — a line-item veto of sorts – to help restrain federal spending. The report is based on an anonymous source, and provides little detail. A big question will be how the administration’s proposal will sidestep the Supreme Court’s […]
“It Was Like Watching an Episode of 24 in Real Time”
NPR has an interesting (and troubling) story about how leaks to the news media, and resulting coverage, influenced the investigation of the Times Square car bomb. As the story details, the leaks came close to helping Faisal Shahzad escape and could have endangered the lives of law enforcement officials. Details about the Times Square investigation […]
Comparative Demographic Charts on Aging Populations
Clemens Kownatzki at Business Insider talks today about the effects of demography on public pension liabilities in different countries. The article has great OECD data organized as charts by 5 year age groups, showing population distribution today and projected for 2050 – for Greece, the US, and Japan. Excellent graphics and sobering reading. The current […]
Ideology and Economic Ignorance
Co-blogger Todd Zywicki links an interesting article by Zeljka Buturovic and Dan Klein showing that certain forms of economic ignorance are more common among self-described “progressives” and “liberals.” These findings are very valuable. But they are subject to several caveats. First, as Buturovic and Klein themselves point out, the Zogby survey they relied didn’t ask […]
Computer Crime Law as an Academic Field: Ten Years Later
Author’s Note: This post is a self-indulgent academic rumination about the area of law in which I do a lot of writing. I don’t know how many readers will be interested, but it’s probably not that many. So feel free to skip. Around a decade ago, when I first went on the teaching market, one […]