As Jim Lindgren has noted, on the eve of the argument in McDonald v. Chicago, Philip Hamburger has posted on SSRN what is labeled a “rough draft” of a new paper entitled, Privileges or Immunities. This timing is unfortunate. Given that this is a serious work of scholarship by a serious scholar, it demands serious […]
Archive | 2010
Federalism and the Akaka Bill
The House of Representatives recently passed the Akaka bill, H.R. 2314, which would give native Hawaiians the power to establish a new “tribal” government modeled on that of Indian tribes. Most of the debate over the bill has focused on the racial aspect, since it apparently seeks to create a government entity under the exclusive […]
A Rare First Amendment Victory for a Public School Teacher Complaining About Restrictions on In-School Speech
Generally a public school has broad authority over what teachers say in class. When they’re teaching, or counseling students, they are seen as speaking on behalf of the school, and the school has broad power to control its own speech. And schoolteachers generally have no constitutional right to put up materials of their own on […]
More Scientific Evidence on Prehistoric Hobbits
Following on the heels of proof of the existence of hobbits, we now have evidence that they settled much of the world before humans did, and battled dragons just like Bilbo Baggins. Yet more scientific validation of the Lord of the Rings: How a hobbit is rewriting the history of the human race: The discovery […]
Hamburger and McDonald[s]?
Thanks to Jim for posting Philip Hamburger’s very interesting new paper on the original meaning of the privileges or immunities clause. With the oral argument in McDonald just a few days away, I’m curious what readers who follow these issues closely think of Hamburger’s paper. I’m not enough of a historian to have a firm […]
Philip Hamburger’s New SSRN Paper Provides Evidence Against Incorporation
By Jim Lindgren on February 26, 2010 1:50 pm in Constitutional History, Guns, History, Supreme Court
One of the issues in the McDonald gun rights case before the US Supreme Court is whether the Privileges or Immunities clause of the 14th Amendment was intended to incorporate the Second Amendment. In a new paper available on SSRN, historian Philip Hamburger argues that incorporation was not intended: What was meant by the Fourteenth […]
Is Repealing McCarran-Ferguson Health Reform?
H.L. Mencken once observed that for every human problem, there is a solution that is “neat, plausible, and wrong.” Exhibit A is the “Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act” – also known as H.R. 4626. This bill seeks to repeal the antitrust exemption granted to health insurance companies by the McCarran-Ferguson Act. The Obama Administration […]
Michael Weiss’ WSJ Comment on Amnesty International
We’ve had several posts at VC on Amnesty International and the controversy over its alliance with a former Guantanamo detainee and his organization, Cageprisoners. As a follow-up, see today’s WSJ comment by Michael Weiss, “Amnesty International and the Taliban.” I agree with its general disapproval of how Amnesty has behaved – Weiss is mild-mannered but […]
Op Ed on Anna Nicole Smith Case:
I have an op ed in today’s Washington Times, “Stripper Searches for Loot Loophole.” No, I didn’t think of the title (although I wish I did!). And no, I don’t think there has ever been quite as large of a gap between the titillation of the title of an article and the article itself–which is […]
Get a Big, Fat Stamp And Pucker Up
Today’s en banc decision from the Ninth Circuit in Doody v. Shriro is interesting on a number of levels — I suspect there may be some interest in it at 1 First Street, for example — but I was also just struck by this paragraph from Judge Rawlinson’s opinion: Our colleagues in dissent chastise us […]
Goodwin Liu on the Second Amendment
By David Kopel on February 25, 2010 8:58 pm in Congress, Constitutional Theory, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, Judicial Nominations, Legal Professor
Boalt Hall Associate Dean Goodwin H. Liu has been nominated to serve on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Some readers and Senators may be interested in his viewpoint on Second Amendment and other constitutional issues related to firearms policy. So here’s an excerpt from his article Separation Anxiety: Congress, The Courts, And The Constitution, 91 Georgetown Law […]
Nicole Gelinas on Blight Condemnations in New York
By Ilya Somin on February 25, 2010 7:55 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Nicole Gelinas has an interesting article on the expansive use of “blight condemnations” in New York. As she points out, New York courts have defined blight so broadly that virtually any area can be designated as such, and then condemned. This has created massive opportunities for abuse by politically connected interest groups who can use […]
Islamic Agreements in Civil Courts
Obaidi v. Qayoum (Wash. Ct. App. Feb. 23, 2010) is a good example of what has long struck me as the right way of dealing with this problem: If possible, treat the agreements as normal agreements, without regard to their Islamic character, and then enforce them — or not — as normal agreements. Here’s an […]
“The Time to Take Such Considerations Into Account Is Before Undertaking the Volitional Acts That Lead to Conception”
From Cuellar v. Joyce, a Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction opinion by my former boss Chief Judge Kozinski.
How Genetics Works:
[Thanks to 9gag.com, and to Sarah P. for the pointer]