Archive | 2010

My friend Matthew Berry recently announced that he is running for Congress in Northern Virginia. Specifically, he is presently running in the GOP primary in the Virginia 8th District that covers the Virginia suburbs right outside DC (Arlington, Alexandria, and Reston). The seat is presently held by Democrat Jim Moran. Matthew is the former General […]

I just received my DVD copy of Inalienable from Amazon. Readers of this blog know about my playing the part of an assistant prosecutor in this film, which I live blogged here. Now that the film has been released the experience seems more real somehow. Here is the trailer for the film (in which I […]

It’s available here. Here’s the Summary: 1. Respondents offer no coherent alternative interpretation of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, nor do they defend the reasoning of The Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873). Relying on illogical assumptions, selective quotation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s opponents and discredited scholarship, Respondents aver only that the Clause […]

In the wake of the Obama-Alito showdown, I am reminded of an event that passed a decade ago that was little remarked on at the time.  In fact, I just learned about it recently, having read it in a book.  Few remember that NO Justices attended President Clinton’s State of the Union address in 2000.  […]

Jack Balkin thinks FDR’s lengthy analysis of the Constitution in his address to Congress is equivalent to President Obama’s drive-by 72 word inaccurate polemic about Citizen’s United. But Jack is a master of appreciating context–not to mention modern media–and the context here makes all the difference. In addition to being a substantive constitutional critique, which […]

  I have previously argued that the trial judge presiding over the murder trial of Scott Roeder for killing abortion doctor George Tiller should not give the jury a manslaughter instruction.  Yesterday the trial judge reached the same conclusion, declining to give such an instruction.  The judge’s ruling will force the jury to essentially choose between the […]

Below, Jonathan raises the following from a Jeff Rosen blog post: The conservative justices may have calculated that they could strike down campaign finance restrictions without provoking a full-blown presidential backlash. But it takes only a few high-profile presidential attacks to tar a Court as activist in the eyes of history. During the 1930s, the […]

On the TNR blog, in an item titled “Obama’s War with the Court Just Escalated,” Jeff Rosen suggests that President Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision could be a sign of things to come. Even more significant is what it says about Obama’s welcome readiness to attack the Court’s conservative majority for […]

If you’re generally libertarian, conservative, or centrist in your legal outlook, and are interested in going on the law teaching market, I highly recommend this program, which offers a stipend of $50,000 plus benefits, as well as office space at a law school. The application is due March 15, 2010.