A reader sends me the following comment, further to the several VC posts on behavioral economics (initially occasioned by Andy Ferguson’s Weekly Standard essay): One basic issue that this whole-“behavioral econ– good-or-bad?” discussion seems to have neglected the following simple point: welfare evaluation is much harder with “behavioral agents” than “rational agents.” With “rational” agents […]
Archive | 2010
Is Harold Koh’s Defense of Drones Also the Defense of Targeting a US Citizen?
By Kenneth Anderson on April 14, 2010 10:24 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Targeted Killing, War on Terror
Adam Serwer, a journalist and blogger at the American Prospect, makes this observation in a very interesting post (linked in Robert Wright’s NYT Opinionator column) at the American Prospect Tapped blog (via The Progressive Realist): State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh‘s speech to the American Society of International Law has mostly been read as a justification of […]
“Government Is Not Reason, It Is Not Eloquence — It Is Force”
I’ve often seen this supposed quote from George Washington, including in books of quotes: Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. But I wanted to note that it’s […]
The Elephant
I was reminded today of one of my favorite jokes: A Frenchman, a German, and a Jew were asked to write books about elephants. The German writes a seven-volume treatise, Die Elefanten. The Frenchman writes The Love Life of the Elephant. The Jew writes Many Famous Elephants Were Jewish.
Does Federal Law Allow the Government to Obtain Opened E-mail With Less than a Warrant?
There’s an important e-mail privacy dispute brewing in Colorado: DOJ and Yahoo are clashing in court on the ground that the Ninth Circuit covered in its very weird opinion in Theofel v. Farey-Jones (2004), on whether the federal privacy law known as the Stored Communications Act allows the government to compel opened e-mail from an […]
President Ron Paul?
Pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that Barack Obama leads Ron Paul by 42-41% in a hypothetical 2012 presidential election. Via Michael Barone.
The Second Amendment and the Takings Clause
Felons can’t lawfully possess guns — does it mean they can’t even arrange for their sale, and that the court may just order them destroyed? That seems to have been the government’s view in United States v. Brown (D.N.H. Apr. 9, 2010), and at least one court has apparently taken this view, but the court […]
A Common Law School Exam Mistake
With law school spring exams around the corner, I wanted to blog on a common law school mistake on “issue spotter” exams: Writing too soon, and then writing too much on the facts at the top of the fact pattern. This probably won’t make much sense to non-lawyers, and it will only trigger bad memories […]
“Garzon and the Trouble with International Law”
Onetime VC contributor Eric Posner has a WSJ op-ed on the indictment of Judge Baltasar Garzón in Spain and what this episode should teach us about the efforts to assert universal jurisdiction over alleged atrocities that occurred within the sovereignty of other nations. Here’s a taste: Universal jurisdiction arose centuries ago to give states a […]
Drone Warfare: The Upbeat News About the Obama Administration
At least, peering through the lens of Tom Barlett, blogging at the Chronicle of Higher Education, peering through the further lens of the latest issue of Defining Ideas, a Hoover Institution publication that puts together various current articles and pieces from its community of fellows, typically reprinted from elsewhere or else excerpted. As Bartlett says: […]
“Where Is the Fourth Amendment Docket?”
I recently put up a post by that title over at SCOTUSblog. From the introduction: Next Monday, the Court will hear oral argument in City of Ontario v. Quon, a Fourth Amendment case on employee rights in text messages. Notably, Quon is one of only two Fourth Amendment cases to be decided this Term. And […]
Changes in the Gun Culture over the last 25 years
Superb 52-minute podcast by Michael Bane on Down Range Radio. Including an explanation of why more of the Pittman-Robertson funds (raised by the 11% federal excise tax on guns and ammunition) should be spent on the development of shooting ranges for public use. Senator Mark Udall (D-Colorado) has made precisely such a proposal.
“Casual Sexual Relationships … Have Their Obvious Advantages”
Wisdom from Koepke v. Loo, 18 Cal. App. 4th 1444 (1993). The full quote: While casual sexual relationships may not be regarded as keystones of current societal value, they nevertheless have their obvious advantages. One of them is the potential of termination of the relationship without regard to consequences. We would not want to write […]
Some Thoughts on the Reply Brief in City of Ontario v. Quon
The Reply Brief in the Court’s only major Fourth Amendment case this term, the text-messaging case City of Ontario v. Quon, has now been filed and is available here. Here are a few thoughts on it. (1) The parties focus significant attention on the Stored Communications Act, somewhat to my surprise. The Stored Communications Act […]
Judge Vacates TRO Barring Divorced Father From Exposing Child to Religion Other Than the Mother’s
By Eugene Volokh on April 13, 2010 7:01 pm in Child Custody and Constitutional Law, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The Chicago Sun-Times reports: In a divorce case that’s drawn national attention, a Chicago man who claims he has returned to his Catholic roots will be allowed to take his 3-year-old daughter to church, despite the objections of the girl’s Jewish mother, a Cook County judge [Renee Goldfarb] ruled this afternoon…. The judge said she […]