President Obama is insisting that Israel cease building housing in East Jerusalem, purportedly to help lure the Palestinians into peace talks. (I say purportedly, because the way Obama has gone about it, creating a huge crisis in relations with Israel over building in Jewish neighborhoods that no one thinks are going to be returned to […]
Archive | 2010
Friday Speech on “Was Lochner Right?” in Richmond
In the press of affairs, I neglected to blog about my speech today at the University of Virginia School of Law. Tomorrow, Friday April 2nd, I will be speaking at the University of Richmond , T.C. Williams Law School. The speech will be at noon in Room 114. My topic: “Was Lochner Right? Natural Rights […]
Pretending that no law professors question Obamacare
Back in 1989, National Public Radio reporter Nina Totenberg attempted to portray the individual rights view of the Second Amendment as a fringe position with no academic support. She claimed that the National Rifle Association had been unable to provide her with names of any professors who thought the Second Amendment was an individual right. […]
Cool Online Civil Liberties Jobs Openings
I wouldn’t normally post about job openings, but I’ve seen two particularly cool openings recently for those interested in electronic privacy law: First, the national office of the ACLU has announced that they’re hiring for a new position of Director of the ACLU’s Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology, based in New York. Second, the […]
Anonymous Comments and Modern Tort Law and Antidiscrimination Law
There’s been a lot of debate about anonymous comments. Some journalists are calling on newspapers to not allow anonymous comments, and I understand the sentiment — anonymity sometimes does encourage rudeness and worse. At the same time, modern tort law and antidiscrimination law can potentially make it very dangerous for people to comment under their […]
Error to Introduce Evidence of Defendant’s Intimate Relationship as Evidence of Motive to Lie for Covering for Her Lover?
The case is City of Kalispell v. Miller, 2010 MT 62 (Mar. 24), decided by a 4-3 vote; I agree with the dissent, for reasons you can see by clicking on the “continue reading” tag at the end of the excerpt below. Here are the facts, and the start of the majority’s view: On February […]
Something Is Different at Google Today
See here.
How Did the White House Pick Its Law Blogger?
Law blogs are abuzz this morning over the leaked news that the White House has selected Eric Turkewitz as the first official law blogger. You can find coverage here, here, here, and here. I looked into the story, and it’s legit: According to folks I talked to, there’s no small annoyance that Turkewitz himself leaked […]
Petition for Rehearing in Rehberg v. Paulk, the Eleventh Circuit E-mail Case
Today a petition for rehearing was filed in Rehberg v. Paulk, the Eleventh Circuit decision I blogged about at length that takes a very minimalist view of e-mail privacy. I am happy to report that my friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation have joined in and co-authored the petition for rehearing. I very much hope […]
What Al-Haramain Says, And What It Doesn’t Say
The New York Times reports on Judge Walker’s new decision in Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Obama with the following opening: A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s program of surveillance without warrants was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed counterterrorism policies of […]
Our Own Randy Barnett Talks to Prof. Glenn Reynolds (InstaPundit) About Whether ObamaCare Is Constitutional
It’s Spring, So It’s Time for a Romantic Story About Love and Marriage
The story — let us all learn and profit by it — is in Hall v. Maal (Fla. Ct. App. Mar. 30) (en banc). The short version: If you don’t get a marriage license — because a week before the wedding, the groom told the bride “that they were not going to be able to […]
An Interesting Article About April Fool’s Day
in Forbes, by Daniel Freedman. And its date-stamped today, so I assume it’s supposed to be accurate (well, all but the part that pretty clearly isn’t).
Moot Court
An interesting thought about moot court, from Prof. Ken Gallant (which was posted to a lawprofs’ discussion list, and which I repost here with his permisison): I sometimes coach moot court teams and participate as a judge in mooting teams. HOWEVER, I do believe that moot court is exceptionally unrealistic training for actual appellate advocacy […]
Obama Compromises on Off-Shore Drilling
Kudos to President Obama for agreeing to open up some areas for off-shore drilling (though not nearly as much as we need). This appears to be a significant step in the right direction. In the summer of 2008, candidate Obama hinted that he might be willing to do this, but by inauguration last year he […]