The case is Dallman v. Ritter (decided yesterday, by a 4-1 vote, with two Justices not participating). I’m afraid don’t have time to summarize the complex statutory scheme and the court’s complex reaction to that scheme, but the decision struck me as a pretty interesting and important, so I thought I’d pass it along. For […]
Archive | 2010
Footnoting Guidelines for Law Reviews?
A student asked me for useful guidelines on when law reviews should ask authors to add citations supporting the author’s assertions. Unfortunately, I had nothing terribly helpful. Sometimes authors should be called on to provide support for their assertions. Sometimes they shouldn’t, for instance if the assertion is the author’s own evaluation of the world […]
New London May Build Townhouses on Site of Kelo Takings
For years, the site of the property condemned in the controversial Kelo v. City of New London case has stood empty. Now however, there are recent reports that the city of New London has found a developer interested in building townhouses on the site (see here and here) [HT: my RA Eva Choi, and Michael […]
From Speech Codes to Abusive Prosecutions:
Harvey Silverglate has an interesting column up at “Minding the Campus” that notes the surprising similarities between the development of speech codes on college campuses and the expansion of abusive prosecutions in law. In particular, Harvey notes that they both rest on highly vague rules subject to abuse by enforcers and which provide traps for […]
Tom Goldstein’s Predictions About Upcoming Supreme Court Vacancies and Nominations
You can read them here.
FCIC Hearings at American University
I would be remiss if I did not announce that the Congressionally-chartered Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) will be holding expert hearings this Friday and Saturday, February 26-27, at Washington College of Law, American University, Washington DC. The experts include some of the country’s leading economists, and it should be an impressive set of presentations. […]
Joseph Bottum Spots Eugene Volokh Changing the Culture
Instapundit points us in the direction of Joseph Bottum’s First Things blog post yesterday; also Althouse’s comment: [W]hile I was [at NYU Law School] I saw posters for a lecture this afternoon by Eugene Volokh on the structure of slippery-slope arguments. … the posters for Volokh’s talk read, as I remember: “Founder of The Volokh Conspiracy blog and […]
Seventh Circuit Will Rehear U.S. v. Skoien En Banc
That’s the case in which a unanimous Seventh Circuit panel vacated — on Second Amendment grounds — a conviction for gun possession by a misdemeanant convicted of domestic violence, and remanded for further proceedings to determine whether the government could show a “reasonable fit” “between this important objective [the government’s interest in protecting against domestic-violence […]
The story of the armed community organizers
A few weeks ago, I linked to a picture of civil rights activist John Salter being attacked by a mob during a lunch counter sit-in during the 1960s. I also linked to a newspaper op-ed in which Salter explained how he and other civil rights workers used firearms for protection from Klansmen and other terrorists—when […]
Europe’s Roe v. Wade?
An excellent student note by Shannon K. Calt, forthcoming in the Lewis & Clark Law Review, explains the case of A. B. & C. v. Ireland, currently pending before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. The case challenges the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, which prohibits abortion under almost all circumstances. The […]
“[Representative] Carnahan Shoots While St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom, Far Right, Watches”
[UPDATE: See the correction from the St. Louis Dispatch below:] That’s the caption to the photograph below, and the rest of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story in which the photograph appears echoes this. (“While he was [at the St. Louis Police Academy], Carnahan tested his own acuity with a firearm — stopping the paper suspect […]
The Banning of “DontAsk”
“DontAsk” has been one of the nastier commenters we’ve had here at the VC. He presents himself as a very conservative commenter who thinks liberals are idiots and liars, and he sees it as his job to point that out as directly and frequently as he can. Following an exchange this afternoon, I decided to […]
The Greatest US Hockey Upset Since the Miracle On Ice
I just watched the US Olympic hockey team defeat Canada 5-3. In view of the disparity in talent between the two teams and the fact that Canada was playing on home ice, this is the greatest US hockey upset since the 1980 Miracle on Ice. As a one-time hockey player and longtime fan, I’m very […]
Ignorance is Not Stupidity, Redux
Co-conspirator Ken Anderson draws my attention to Alan Wolfe’s statement that “Americans are most certainly misinformed. Dumb they are not.” This of course is exactly what I have been saying for years: political ignorance is widespread, but isn’t necessarily a sign of stupidity. To the contrary, being ignorant about politics is, for most voters, actually […]
LA Times Op-Ed Contributors on Targeted Killing and the Presumed Mossad Hit
Over at the Los Angeles Times opinion page today, Sunday, February 21, 2010, Marjorie Miller has lined up various folks to opine on targeted killing and the presumed Mossad hit in Dubai against the founder of Hamas’ military wing. The offerings are very short – a hundred or so words each – but I had […]