Ted Olson explains why he supports gay marriage and has joined with David Boies to file suit to support it. Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of […]
Archive | 2010
Proposition 8’s Defenders Seek Stay of YouTube Order
Ed Whelan reports that counsel for the sponsors of California’s Proposition 8 — the ballot proposition that overturned gay marriage in the state — have filed an application for a stay of district court Judge Vaughn Walker’s order to have video of the the trial challenging Prop 8 posted on YouTube. While I have some […]
Washington Post Asks Its “On Faith” Panel Members Whether Blasphemy Should Be Outlawed
The answers are here; the precise question is: Is blasphemy a crime? Atheists and others are protesting a new law in Ireland, under which a person can be found guilty of blasphemy if “he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, […]
Another Biomass Blunder
The federal government’s love affair with ethanol subsidies drove up food prices, depleted plains state aquifers and subsidized the destruction of water fowl habitat. Today’s Washington Post reports that that Biomass Crop Assistance Program is having similarly untoward and unintended consequences. In a matter of months, the Biomass Crop Assistance Program — a small provision […]
Sunday Song Lyric
It’s cold and gray in northeast Ohio. The snow’s stopped, but everything’s still blanketed in white. Still, it’s not such a bad place to be. I’m reminded of the opening line of “Winter Passing” by The Academy Is . . . (Yes, their name includes the elipsis.) “Winter Passing” was released as a single in […]
Firebombing of Churches in Malaysia
From the AP: Firebombs were thrown at three more churches in Malaysia on Sunday and another was splashed with black paint, the latest in a series of assaults on Christian houses of worship following a court decision allowing non-Muslims to use “Allah” to refer to God…. [G]overnment leaders and many Muslims have condemned the firebombings, […]
Signing Statements–the Administration’s (Reported) New Take
I am sure that I am not alone in noticing that the White House webpage hasn’t had a new constitutional signing statement posted since last summer. This article by the NY Times’ Charlie Savage Friday sheds new light on why that is. According to the article, the Administration has a new policy on signing statements […]
Request for Comments on a Draft Amicus Brief in the Strandlof Stolen Valor Act Case
By Eugene Volokh on January 10, 2010 2:03 am in Freedom of Speech, Knowingly False Statements of Fact, Uncategorized
I decided to take up the court’s open invitation to file amicus briefs in this case (follow the link if you want more facts); the Rutherford Institute has also apparently decided to do the same. Since the filing date has been extended by several days, I thought I’d post a fairly early draft of the […]
Friends of the Court
From Strasser v. Doorley, 432 F.2d 567 (1st Cir. 1970): [B]y the nature of things an amicus is not normally impartial. [Footnote:] As an attorney of our acquaintance once told the court, when asked for his response to the argument of the amicus, ‘That fellow isn’t any more a friend of the court than I […]
More Predator Drone Debate, in the Wall Street Journal, and What the Obama Administration Should Do as a Public Legal Position
By Kenneth Anderson on January 9, 2010 5:37 pm in Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
The Wall Street Journal has a weekend editorial on the same topic as my National Journal post below, Drone Wars, January 9, 2010. Interestingly, I find myself believing that the WSJ editorial gets it, if not precisely wrong, at least puts the emphasis exactly backwards. The WSJ editorial is primarily concerned to defend the “war” frame […]
“When Scalia Was Able to Hold the Majority in Heller….”
Over at Court Beat, Joan Biskupic recently recalled a conversation she had with Justice Thomas in the course of writing her book on Justice Scalia: Thomas also observed that when Scalia was able to hold the majority in Heller (and largely keep criticism of colleagues in check), Scalia didn’t flaunt his big moment as the […]
Do We Need Government Intervention to Reduce the Number of Lawyers?
Attorney Mark Greenbaum has a widely quoted column in the LA Times arguing that there is a glut of lawyers in the marketplace, and that the American Bar Association should combat this trend by reducing the number of accredited law schools: Remember the old joke about 20,000 lawyers at the bottom of the sea being […]
Inmate Suicide Case Likely Headed to the Supreme Court?
The case is Conn v. City of Reno, in which seven judges dissented from denial of rehearing en banc; Judge Kozinski wrote the dissent, and Judge Reinhardt wrote the panel opinion. According to the dissent, the panel opinion creates a conflict with other circuits. My guess is that there’s a very substantial chance of a […]
National Journal on Targeted Killing and Predator Drone Strikes
By Kenneth Anderson on January 8, 2010 11:42 pm in Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
(Update: Thanks, Glenn, for the Instalanche! Please see the further post above, on what I think the US legal position ought to be – what the Obama administration should be stating as its view of the relevant international law, and how I think the WSJ’s op-ed today in defense of drone strikes is not actually […]
Does the Fourth Amendment Allow Extraterritorial State Search Warrants?
Last week, an Ohio appellate court handed down an opinion on a rarely-addressed but increasingly important question: Does the Fourth Amendment allow a state judge to issue a state warrant to search property located outside the state? The case is State v. Jacob, 2009 Ohio 7048, 2009 Ohio App. LEXIS 5903 (2d Dist. December 30, […]