A letter from Contemporary Family Services, Inc., one of the entities that has a contract with the state of Maryland to issue licenses to foster parents: Dear Mr. Moore and Ms. Crudup, Thank you for your interest in becoming licensed treatment foster parents with Contemporary Family Services, Inc. Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable […]
Archive | 2010
Epstein for the Supreme Court?
Dahlia Lithwick often seems to live in a different world than I, and, I think, other mortals. Take this line from a recent Slate piece: This has political implications, certainly, but my concern here is with the next generation of liberal law students, who continue to hear the message that their heroes are presumptively ineligible […]
Whitewashing Progressivism
Conservatives are frequently accused, with various levels of justice, of whitewashing the history of conservatism in the U.S. to ignore, evade, or cover up inconvenient historical truths. Well, whatever sins conservative scholars have committed have now been matched by the Center for American Progress, which has published a monograph on the Progressive tradition in American […]
Melded Approaches to Terrorism Detention and Trials
Rick Pildes and David Golove have a calm, reasoned discussion at Balkinization on ways to deal with terrorism related detentions and trials. They call for an approach that mingles aspects of criminal law and armed conflict law. They emphasize the need for a legislated system. (It is true, of course, that I am an […]
A Quick Response to Randy on the Use of “Unprecedented”
My co-blogger Randy asks for my explanation of part of a blog comment I left over at Prawfs on his use of “unprecedented.” To fill in readers, I was responding to a post that began: Randy Barnett is not just a great scholar; he’s also a great lawyer. Maybe someone else beat him to it, […]
In What Sense is the Personal Health Insurance Mandate “Unconstitutional”?
When discussing the “constitutionality” of a governmental action, one must distinguish between three senses of “constitutionality”: (1) What the Constitution says and means; (2) what the Supreme Court has said and meant, and (3) whether there are five votes on the Supreme Court to uphold or invalidate the action. Because of my well-known view that […]
Wisdom
turns out to be a constitutionally required qualification for only one kind of office in the U.S.: Maryland judges (who must be “most distinguished for integrity, wisdom and sound legal knowledge”). The Kentucky Constitution of 1792 also provided that Kentucky senators should be “men of the most wisdom, experience, and virtue,” but the current constitution […]
On Eric Liu on Goodwin Liu
Former Clinton speechwriter Eric Liu has an op-ed in the Politico today defending the nomination of Professor Goodwin Liu (no relation). Eric Liu is correct that some attacks on Professor Liu have been overwrought or exaggerated — and, in my view, reflect a degree of ideological scrutiny I do not believe the Senate should engage […]
Chemical Weapons in my Neighborhood
The land in DC occupied today by American University and the Spring Valley neighborhood was once used by the US Army in WWI as a testing ground for chemical agents, including mustard gas and various other things. I live in Spring Valley and work at American University, so I have long followed the saga that […]
Continuity and Change in Detention Policy in Counterterrorism
Former DOS Legal Adviser John Bellinger has a short opinion column out at the Council on Foreign Relations site (corrected link, I hope!), discussing continuity and change in US detention policy on counterterrorism. John takes up a range of issues, from trials to repatriation and more, and concludes that there is mostly continuity with the second […]
Mexico’s Federal Law of Firearms & Explosives
That’s the title of a draft article that I have recently submitted to law reviews. Most of the article is a translation into English of the Mexican federal gun control statute. The article also translates current and past versions of the Mexican Constitution’s right to arms clause, and provides some basic information about the operation […]
Dubious Grousing over the Percentage of African-American Players in Major League Baseball
USA Today recently published an article lamenting the supposedly low percentage of African-American players in major league baseball: Major League Baseball is celebrating Jackie Robinson Day today. But 63 years after he broke the game’s color barrier, the number of African-American players continues to suffer, with 9.5% of them making opening-day rosters, according to USA […]
More on “What if the Palestinians Don’t Want a State?”
Yesterday, I wondered whether the Obama Administration has pondered whether the Palestinians are at this point willing to accept a state based on the formula that “everyone knows” is the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A Palestinian state in all of Gaza, and 90%+ of the West Bank, plus land swaps to make up for […]
Jotwell
I wanted to remind readers about Jotwell — the Journal of Things We Like Lots — a website that has been up for a few months in which law professors blog about their favorite recent articles. Somewhat to my surprise, I find Jotwell interesting more for what it says about the bloggers who are making […]
Bloggers agree: Little chance for immigration bill, and they hate the VAT
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says ‘we’re going to have comprehensive immigration reform now.’ Top political bloggers don’t see it.” So begins the National Journal’s write-up of this week’s blogger poll. Seventy percent of the Left and 78% of the Right called enactment of a comprehensive bill either “very” or “somewhat” unlikely. I was in […]