Archive | 2010

I have not been following the details of California’s budget problems all that closely, but I was struck by the following passages in a Steven Greenhut op-ed from the WSJ: Approximately 85% of the state’s 235,000 employees (not including higher education employees) are unionized. As the governor noted during his $83 billion budget roll-out, over […]

To add to Orin’s criticism of the David Kairys Slate piece: The Hare Krishna airport case to which Prof. Kairys points as an example of the conservative Justices’ supposed inconsistency rested on the government’s power to restrict solicitation of money on its own property. The Court has repeatedly held that solicitation of money for charitable […]

Over at Slate, Temple law professor David Kairys argues that conservative judges have been inconsistent in enforcing the principle that spending money can have a speech component protected by the First Amendment. He writes: The first theory appeared in a 1976 decision, Buckley v. Valeo, which invalidated some campaign-finance reforms that came out of Watergate. […]

I’m collecting examples of usage errors or usage controversies that bite people unexpectedly. In particular, what I have in mind is words or phrases that meet both of these criteria: (1) You once — preferably after the end of your college education — confidently thought that the term, or a particular way of using it, […]

A fine document, which struck me as worth posting. Naturally, it was a compromise, like most laws are, and because of that it isn’t entirely consistent, nor as bold as one might have liked it to be: The sentiments in the introduction would logical counsel in favor of immediate abolition, not graduate abolition. Still, it […]

I’m working now on the Fourth Edition of my Academic Legal Writing book (which should be out late this Spring), and I wanted to add, among other things, some tips on researching old cases. Here’s one draft subsection, which is focused on finding the right search terms to use — I’d love to hear any […]

Thanks again to Eugene for inviting us to guest blog about Judicial Duty and the Supreme Court’s Cult of Celebrity this week. We would also like to thank the commenters, especially those who read our posts (here here here here and here) and/or the draft article. In this final post, we respond to a few […]

Via Instapundit, Conrad Black has a scathing attack on Obama.  I suggest putting aside one’s positive or negative feelings about Obama, and enjoying the piece as a model polemic.