Josh Blackman is assembling a book with photos of locations involved in famous constitutional law cases. He posts a list of those cases here. If you have relevant photos, you may want to send them for inclusion. I think Josh should consider including pictures of some of the feral cats who currently inhabit the property […]
Archive | 2010
Another Way To Use a Gun To Protect Your Property
A suggestion from a few years ago by John Arnold, quoted with approval by security expert Bruce Schneier: Weapons that travel MUST be in a hard case, must be declared upon check-in, and MUST BE LOCKED by a TSA official. A “weapons” is defined as a rifle, shotgun, pistol, airgun, and STARTER PISTOL. Yes, starter […]
Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Whether First Amendment Bars Government’s Releasing Names of Petition Signers
Here’s the Ninth Circuit opinion below (Doe v. Reed). I think the Ninth Circuit’s result is right, though for reasons different from the ones the Circuit gave. If the Court reverses, that would likely set an important precedent on anonymous speech. (If it affirms, the precedent’s scope would probably be narrower.) And in any event, […]
Religious Exemption from Policy of Autopsying Executed Killers
Johnson v. Levy mandates such an exemption, under the new Tennessee religious exemption statute (a state analog of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act). For reasons I discuss in my A Common-Law Model for Religious Exemptions article, I think such state statutes are generally a good idea (though I quibble with their wording), even though […]
“LA Law Firm Says It Was Target of Cyber Attacks”
From the AP (thanks to BNA’s Internet Law News for the pointer): The law firm representing a Santa Barbara company that sued China for allegedly pirating its Internet content filtering software says it has been the target of cyber attacks from within China. Los Angeles-based Gipson Hoffman & Pancione says its attorneys received emails starting […]
Interpol Realism
Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of concern in some quarters about President Obama’s Executive Order extending certain legal immunities to Interpol. These concerns are misplaced. I am currently writing a research paper on Interpol, which will cover the immunities, and many other issues. In the meantime, some preliminary clarifications: Interpol […]
Bloggers agree: Dems will keep House in November; Obama economic performance not good
This week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers asked for a prediction about how many House seats the Democrats would lose in the November 2010 elections. Significantly, not one of the bloggers predicted a large enough loss to change control of the chamber. On the Right, 45% predicted a loss of 31-40 seats, while the […]
Haiti and Evacuations
By Kenneth Anderson on January 15, 2010 9:19 am in Global Governance/World Government, International Human Rights Law
My Opinio Juris co-blogger Peter Spiro raises an important question about what the US obligations should be in a crisis like Haiti’s. Should the US government put its priority on evacuating its own citizens first? There are an estimated 45,000 US citizens in Haiti, and there’s an assumption that they should be first in line […]
Like a Circuit Judge, But Not Exactly
From Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, Inc. v. Min De Parle, 212 F.3d 1084 (8th Cir. 2000): Lay, Circuity Judge, issued dissenting opinion. I checked the print reporter, so this isn’t just a Westlaw glitch.
Equal Protection of the Laws
Elliot-Park v. Manglona (9th Cir. Jan. 12) (Kozinski, J., joined by Bybee, J., with a partial dissent by Callahan, J.) holds that it’s unconstitutional for the police to refuse to arrest someone because his victim is of a disfavored race: [W]hile the officers’ discretion in deciding whom to arrest is certainly broad, it cannot be […]
Interesting Software Licensing Agreement
From Atlassian: JIRA is free for use by official non-profit organisations and charities (proof of non-profit status is required). There are certain organisations whose purpose is to make the world a better place, and we believe in helping them achieve that. Community licenses are designed for organisations which are: non-profit, non-government, non-academic, non-commercial, non-political and […]
Avatar and Property Rights in China
By Ilya Somin on January 14, 2010 2:13 am in Eminent Domain, Kelo, Property Rights, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Most commentators have interpreted the movie Avatar as having an anti-capitalist message. Libertarian economist David Henderson, however, claims that it is actually a defense of property rights. Though I must reserve judgement until I see the movie, I am skeptical that Henderson’s interpretation is either the message intended by the producers or the one most […]
TechPolicy.com
Microsoft is sponsoring a new blog at TechPolicy.com, designed to feature the ideas and comments of a long list of academics who write in the area of technology policy, as well as some other related stuff. The blog is supposed to follow five general topics: * Intellectual Property, Patents & Licensing * Cloud Computing / […]
Pat Robertson Blames Haiti Earthquake on Pact with the Devil
Pat Robertson recently blamed the Haiti earthquake on a pact with the devil that the Haitians supposedly made in the early 19th century: Pat Robertson, the evangelical Christian who once suggested God was punishing Americans with Hurricane Katrina, says a “pact to the devil” brought on the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Officials fear more than […]
Conservatives for Harry Reid
I was happy to see that several conservative commentators have recently pointed out that Harry Reid’s comments were not actually racist, and that expanding the definition of racism in order to attack him, is a dangerous game for conservatives to play. I made similar points here and here. Here is prominent black conservative Ward Connerly, […]