What sort of medical treatment — a sort that only a relatively small minority of all Americans have had performed on them — was successfully performed on all four of these Presidents?
Archive | 2010
An Interesting Case Involving Open Carry, Defense of Property, and Allegedly Resisting Arrest
The case is City of Espanola v. Archuleta, decided by the New Mexico Court of Appeals in February but just posted on Lexis; it’s closely tied to the terms of the particular city ordinance involved in the case, but I thought that some of our readers would find it interesting. An excerpt: Frustrated with repeated […]
Inaccurate legal claim from the Democratic Governors Association
Today Nathan Daschle, Executive Director of the Democratic Governors Association, emailed me, as he does once every week or two. This week, his topic was urging me to sign a petition against the State lawsuits filed against Obamacare. [BTW, “Obamacare” is a standard part of political discourse, used by, inter alia, Michael Barone, one of […]
My Upcoming Notre Dame Speech on the Constitutionality of the Health Care Mandate
This Thursday at 12:30 PM, I will be speaking at Notre Dame Law School on the constitutionality of the new health care law, especially focusing on the provision mandating that individuals purchase health insurance even if they prefer not to. I was invited by the Notre Dame Federalist society. The event will be held in […]
Good Tips in Case You Find Yourself Being the Person Who Makes First Contact with Intelligent Extraterrestrials
Check them out here; very funny. Thanks to GeekPress for the pointer.
Correction on Israeli Visa Policy
From Roger Simon (Pajamas Media), apropos the newspaper story I noted and asked our readers about a few days ago: CORRECTION: Visa Policy For Israeli Nuclear Scientists Did Not Begin With Obama Admin On April 8, 2010, I wrote an article in this space implying that the Obama administration had instituted a new policy restricting […]
Originalism and Linguistic Questions
The republic vs. democracy posts brought out some interesting responses. Some people in particular argued that supporters of originalism — which is to say, an original public meaning jurisprudence under which constitutional provisions are to be interpreted the way they were originally understood in common legal language when enacted — is inconsistent with my descriptivist […]
Video of the Stuntz Conference
Todd links below to Erin Sheley’s review of the marvelous conference on the work of Bill Stuntz. I also wanted to add that the video of the entire conference is available here. My own presentation, Why Courts Can’t Quantify Probable Cause, is available starting at the 10-minute mark on the second video (“Part 2 of […]
Celebrating William Stuntz:
Erin Sheley has a summary of the recent conference honoring the work of Bill Stuntz.
Greek Bailout and Liquidity Risk
Treat liquidity risk and runs on institutions as fundamentally a question of lack of information – the lack of information on the underlying financial solvency prompting flight from uncertainty. In that case, the question following the announcement in the press yesterday of the Greek-EU bailout is not so much what it signals about liquidity, as […]
Interesting “Unauthorized Access” Case
Readers who were interested in the Lori Drew case, and the question of when computer use counts as criminal “unauthorized access” to a computer, will want to read this New Jersey state case from last fall: State v. Riley, 12 N.J.Super. 162, 988 A.2d 1252 (2009) (link to google cache version). It’s a case on […]
More on Behavioral Economics and Regulatory Policy:
Cato Unbound has an ongoing discussion on behavioral economics and regulatory policy this month, featuring Glen Whitman, Richard Thaler, and Jonathan Klick (with one more to come by Shane Frederick). The forum is here. Glen’s basic critique is one that I’ve wondered about as well, which is the paternalistic slippery slope. In particular, if regulators […]
“White House Denies Israeli Visa Story”
Ben Smith (Politico) writes, apropos the newspaper story I noted and asked our readers about a few days ago: The White House is denying a story in the Israeli newspaper Maariv … that Israeli nuclear scientists have been denied visas to visit the United States…. White House spokesman Bill Burton flatly denied the report of […]
Potential Supreme Court nominee records on the Second Amendment:
In order from worst to not-all-bad: Strongly-ideological, highly-committed gun prohibitionist: Harold Koh. Extensive record of anti-Second Amendment leadership: Secretary of State Clinton, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Gov. Deval Patrick. Limited but clearly negative record on right to arms: Judge Diane Wood, Judge Merrick Garland. Mixed record, but with very little positive: Amy Klobuchar. Mixed record: Cass […]
“Two New Alien Species of Bidens Have Been Recorded in Bulgaria”
See here for more; thanks to Prof. Mark Liberman for the pointer.