Back again for the third annual VC March Madness Tournament. The bracket is available on cbssportsline (so you have to register if you haven’t already): http://volcon.mayhem.cbssports.com/e The password is “Volokh” (be sure to capitalize the V). One bracket per person, please. Note that I’ve configured the rules to multiply the points for the round by […]
Archive | 2010
UNC Talk Tomorrow (Thursday):
For any VC’ers in the Research Triangle area looking for something interesting to do during lunchtime tomorrow, I’ll be giving a talk (sponsored by the Federalist Society and the Carolina Intellectual Property Law Society) on Jefferson, his moose, the Internet, natural law, and related matters at the U. North Carolina Law School starting at noon, […]
Yoo v. Epstein on Executive Power and the Al-Quaeda 7:
John Yoo and Richard Epstein discuss and debate a variety of issues on a new Ricochet podcast (they are podcast episode number 7, Midnight Blue). Check out some of the others while you are there–Rob Long, Peter Robinson, and Mark Steyn are the three hosts.
Does Hayek Belong in High School Economics Classes?
At the Freakonomics blog, economist Justin Wolfers criticizes a recent Texas Board of Education effort to include the work of F.A. Hayek in high school economics classes. He sees it as a “conservative” ideological mandate that isn’t justified by Hayek’s scholarly influence: Sunday’s New York Times reported on attempts by the Texas Board of Education […]
Lochner v. New York as a Test Case
Many of the most important cases in American constitutional law have not involved true cases or controversies. Instead, they involved individuals or organizations who intentionally set up a test case to challenge a law they disliked. Prominent examples include Plessy v. Ferguson and Griswold v. Connecticut. I think we can add Lochner v. New York […]
Kalt’s Law
Prof. Brian Kalt reports: I thought you might be interested in the following ironclad law of American presidential politics. I call it Kalt’s Law: “Under the modern two-party system, if a candidate has facial hair, the Republican always has as much, or more, than the Democrat.” Some notes. 1. It would be the case that […]
The Good Faith Exception and Changing Law: A Brief History
This is my fifth post in a planned series on why the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply when a police officer conducts a search that is lawful when it occurs that is later ruled unlawful before the conviction is final. This issue is being litigated all over the country right […]
Why Recalls of U.S. Senators Are Unconstitutional
I wanted to briefly elaborate why I think it’s clear that mandatory recalls of U.S. Senators are unconstitutional, even when authorized by state law. (Advisory recalls, in which the voters vote to ask their Senator to resign, should be just fine, but that’s a separate matter.) The relevant constitutional provision is the Seventeenth Amendment, though […]
New Jersey Appellate Court Allows Continued Signature Gathering for Recall of U.S. Senator Robert Menendez
Here’s the opinion. To my surprise, the court concluded that it’s uncertain whether the recall would be constitutional. (My view is that a mandatory recall would clearly be unconstitutional, since the Constitution expressly states that Senators serve for six years; and while I have suggested that an advisory recall might be fine — though it […]
The Good Faith Exception for Changing Law: Recent Developments
I’ve been running a series of posts about the good faith exception for changing law, and I wanted to flag three new developments just in the last week: 1. Today the Ninth Circuit denied DOJ’s petition for rehearing en banc in Gonzalez, the case rejecting the exception, so the clear circuit split stays: United States […]
Seeking Help From Magistrate Judges
I posted a draft of my new forthcoming article earlier today, and it occurs to me that I should make a special request: I would particularly like to receive comments on the article from federal magistrate judges. The gist of the article is that magistrate judges don’t have the power to do something that a […]
EEOC Determination in the Debbie Almontaser / Khalil Gibran International Academy / Intifada NYC T-Shirt Case
The New York Times reports, linking to the full determination. Here’s the background: The controversy surrounding the dual-language [English-Arabic public] school [the Khalil Gibran International Academy] began in early 2007, shortly after the city announced that Ms. Almontaser, a longtime teacher, would lead it. A group of opponents, including conservative commentators and a City University […]
Oh, That’s Funny, Because I Happen to Have [Officer Krupke] Right Here
Right after he was invoked in the discussion of the phrase “police officer”, up he comes with a story (for the accuracy of which I of course cannot personally vouch). Thanks to John Fast for the pointer.
New Article, “Ex Ante Regulation of Computer Search and Seizure”
I have just posted a new draft article, Ex Ante Regulation of Computer Search and Seizure, forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review. The article is a response to dynamics that have been evolving over the last decade in the lower courts that were turned up to eleven by the Ninth Circuit’s en banc decision in […]
We Got Screwed!
I’m not ordinarily the complaining sort – really. But my boys on the Temple basketball team really got shafted by the NCAA Committee this time around, and it burns me up. A #5 seed?? The A-10 regular season champion and tournament champion? Temple’s RPI places it number 8 in the country — the teams on […]