(Update.) Thanks, Glenn, for the Instalanche! Let’s add this front page article in the Financial Times today, Tuesday, February 9, 2010, “Traders in Record Bet Against the Euro.” (You might also want to see my more general discussion in a post above on the directions of the EU regarding the unstable position of currency union […]
Archive | 2010
The Effects of Ownership on M&A
My class in private equity and venture capital doesn’t know it yet, but I think I might have them read Harvard Law School’s John Coates’ new empirical paper on the effects of ownership on M&A, or at least some important sections of it. I’ve just been through it and think it’s terrific, with robust implications […]
What No Client or Lawyer Wants to See in a Court Decision
From Ware v. South Texas Family Planning & Health Corp. (S.D. Tex. Jan. 26), a case in which a father sued a clinic for giving a “morning-after” contraceptive pill to his 14-year-old daughter without the parents’ permission: Plaintiff contends that Defendants are a public nuisance because the “activity” that Defendants engage in interferes with a […]
Writing an Abstract for a Law Review Article
Here’s a draft of the new section on Writing an Abstract, to be published in the fourth edition of my Academic Legal Writing book. There’s still plenty of time to improve it, so I’d love to get feedback. (By the way, the abstracts I give as examples are my own, but I’d prefer to use […]
Krugman says, “a vote for a Republican, no matter what you think of him as a person, is a vote for paralysis”:
Paul Krugman writes: The truth is that given the state of American politics, the way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government. Senators themselves should recognize this fact and push through changes in those rules, including eliminating or at least limiting the filibuster. This is something they could and should do, […]
Cheek Swabs for Arrestees’ DNA Likely Don’t Violate the Fourth Amendment — Even Though Cheek Swabs of Pretrial Detainees Do Violate the Amendment
That’s the odd result of Haskell v. Brown, decided a month ago by Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California. Judge Breyer (not to be confused with Justice Stephen Breyer, his brother) refused to preliminary enjoin the collection of cheek swab samples from arrestees, largely because he thought that the searches are likely […]
How the right to arms saved the non-violent civil rights protesters
Over at The Faculty Lounge, there are some pictures of sit-ins from the early 1960s. Regarding a 1963 sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi, TFL writes: “By one account, members of the all-White Jackson police force stood guard outside, while several FBI agents (the guys in back wearing shades) ‘observed’ from inside. That White guy at the […]
Federal Government Argues that Ban on False Claims of Having Gotten a Military Medal Is “Content-Neutral”
By Eugene Volokh on February 8, 2010 12:25 pm in Freedom of Speech, Knowingly False Statements of Fact
A pretty poor argument (see p. 6), it seems to me — the law applies to speech of a certain content, and is justified by a worry that the content of the speech will mislead people. I’ve argued that the ban is constitutionally permissible, because it fits within the knowingly-false-statements-of-fact exception to First Amendment protection. […]
The Green Police
I saw this ad during the Super Bowl–sorry, I mean “The Big Game”–yesterday, and originally thought it was some sort of political issue ad. Although it is funny, in a creepy way, it is not clear to me what the ad agency and Audi are saying here about The Green Police (besides buy an Audi […]
Bloggers estimate Dem House losses. Agree that more Obama question times would be good
Last week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers asked for an estimate of House Democratic losses in the 2010 election. While the answers are reported in clusters of 10, the median estimate for the Left appears to about 20 seats. The median on the Right was in the mid-30s. I estimated 38, adding “Could be […]
Legal Challenges in an Age of Robotics
Last fall I was on a great panel at Stanford Law School on robotics and the law. It had great people on it – Dan Siciliano, Paul Saffo, and Ryan Calo. Great discussion; one of the things it brought home to me, as someone who came to law-and-robotics issues from laws of war questions, was […]
Super Bowl Open Thread
Thoughts on the game, the ads, or whatever.
The Star-Spangled Banner:
NOTE TO SELF: If you are ever asked to sing the Star-Spangled Banner at the Superbowl (unlikely, I realize,but you never know for certain), do not — REPEAT, DO NOT — attempt to sing it a cappella. Remember Carrie Underwood’s gruesome, off-key performance at the 2010 SuperBowl, and resist the temptation to show off your […]
Borrowing from Our Children? And Hegemony
I realized, talking in office hours with a couple of my law students, that they did not really understand what is meant by the phrase “borrowing from our children” – as we often hear it raised or referenced these days in budget, deficit, and other policy debates. These are bright students who have often taken […]
U.S. Still Won’t Join International Criminal Court
Via Julian Ku at Opinio Juris comes news that the Obama Administration has no plans to submit the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the Senate for ratificaiton. Prof. Ku comments: This is not exactly a surprise, but it shows just how far the U.S. is from the Rome Statute. If President […]