The most recent instance of self-censorship of the Mohammed cartoons, because of fear of violent reaction, should remind us all of the importance of Voltaire Press’s Muhammad: The Banned Images. Please support Voltaire Press’s project by (1) urging your library (public or university) to buy the book so as to make it more available to […]
Archive | 2010
Index on Censorship (“Britain’s Leading Organisation Promoting Freedom of Expression) Self-Censors in Article About Yale University Press’s Self-Censorship
The Index of Censorship ran an interview with Jytte Klausen, which was titled (at least in the online version) “See No Evil,” and began this way: Jytte Klausen talks to Index on Censorship about her new book on the Danish cartoons crisis and discusses why it was published without any illustrations Jytte Klausen’s book The […]
Bad Ideas in Airport Security, Slovakian Edition
If you have complaints about TSA, at least they haven’t pulled any stunts as dumb as placing real explosives in the luggage of innocent passengers as part of a security test. The BBC reports: Irish police have released a man held over an explosives find, after Slovak authorities admitted planting them in his luggage as […]
Manuel Noriega, the Supreme Court, and the War on Terror
Former Panamanian general and “chief executive officer” Manuel Noriega will forever be associated with the “war on drugs”: After the US invaded Panama and removed him from power in 1989, he was convicted of federal drug trafficking charges and he has been in prison ever since. But it appears that he has come to the […]
My Response to David Brooks, Taken from an Old Article on Lawyers, Elites, and the New Class
(Update: Thank you Instapundit) David Brooks has a piece up today in the Times attracting much comment. I am no populist, except perhaps by David Frum’s unexacting standards, but let’s just say I think that Brooks somewhere along the way lost the marvelous tuning that made him the true heir of Veblen. I think it […]
ALI Pulls Model Death Penalty Statute
The American Law Institute has decided to pull its model death penalty statute, as recounted in this New York Times article. As Kent Scheidegger points out in this detailed post, the action was not intended to be a statement by the ALI that the death penalty should be abolished. Nonetheless, that appears to be the spin […]
D.C. Circuit Upholds Broad Detention Authority
Earlier today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released its opinion in Al Bihani v. Obama, its first substantive post-Boumediene Guantanamo detainee habeas decision. In an opinion by Judge Janice Rogers Brown, the court rejected Al Bihani’s habeas claims, affirmed the district court’s denial of his habeas petition and embraced a fairly […]
Ford Sales Surge
Ford Motor Company’s December 2009 sales were up 33 percent from December 2008. By comparison, Chrysler’s sales were down 4 percent. GM has yet to report. One factor is almost certainly the quality of Ford’s product — my wife certainly loves her Ford Edge and hopes we’ll get another when the lease runs out — […]
Will the Health Care “Conference” Be on C-Span?
Congressional leaders may dispense with the traditional House-Senate conference to reconcile the two chambers’ competing health care bills in favor of less formal negotiations. Whatever form the process takes, C-Span would like to be there. On December 30, C-Span CEO Brian Lamb sent a letter to Congressional leaders requesting that his network be able to […]
Restitution for Victims of Child Pornography
By Paul Cassell on January 5, 2010 11:57 am in Computer Crime Law, Crime Victims Rights, Criminal Law
Yesterday U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz of the District of Minnesota issued an interesting order regarding a restitution application in a child pornography case. In his order, found here, Judge Schiltz chastises the government for failing to pursue restitution for child pornography cases in his district, even though Congress has made restitution mandatory in such cases. […]
Looking Forward After Pottawattamie County
Yesterday the Supreme Court granted petitioners’ motion to dismiss the writ of certiorari pursuant to Rule 46 in the spellcheck-challenging Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, 08-1065, which involved whether prosecutors who try a case are entitled to immunity when sued for allegedly procuring before trial false evidence to frame a criminal defendant. The motion, which petitioners […]
Getting to Causation in Toxic Tort Cases
I’ve posted this article, published in the Brooklyn Law Review, on SSRN. It’s intended to be a more or less practical guide for judges and attorneys to causation issues in toxic tort cases, not a philosophic treatise (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Here’s the abstract: Since the issue first arose in earnest in […]
“Will Congress Take Another Swipe at Credit Cards?”
I have a column in the Wall Street Journal today on the subject of proposed interventions to regulate credit card interchange fees, “Will Congress Take Another Swipe at Credit Cards?“
Underfunded Public Pensions as “Stranded” Costs? Two Trillion Dollars?
By Kenneth Anderson on January 5, 2010 9:17 am in California, Economic LIberties, Economy, Voting With Your Feet
The Financial Times runs a story today by Francesco Guerrera and Nicole Bullock on the looming problems of underfunded public pensions at the state and local level in the United States. The news story cites a new study by Orin Kramer, chairman of New Jersey’s pension fund: The estimate by Orin Kramer will fuel investors’ […]
Opinio Juris Discussion of Genetically Modified Food
Tommorrow, Tuesday, Opinio Juris will be hosting a one-day discussion of the new book by Gregory Shaffer and Mark Pollack, When Cooperation Fails: The International Law and Politics of Genetically Modified Foods (Oxford, 2009). Sungjoon Cho and Rebecca Bratspies will join with guest commentary. Stop on by!