I blogged about the incident last week, when the school ordered the boy to remove the flag. Here’s the latest, from a letter posted on the Denair Unified School District site: As most of you are aware, we’ve had a school issue that has risen to the level of national news coverage. This incident occurred […]
Archive | 2010
Supreme Court Relist Watch
The Court may have relisted in Harper v. Maverick Recording Company, 10-94, out of the Fifth Circuit, which presents the question “Should the inadvertent innocent infringer defense to copyright infringement be eliminated for all Internet music downloading?” I say they “may” have relisted because it’s possible that the Court is holding the case for Global-Tech […]
On the “True Story of the History of the Seventeenth Amendment and Federalism”
David Gans of Balkinization has posted a critique of my National Review article on repealing the 17th Amendment. In the title of his post he asserts, “The Tea Party, Once Again, Has History All Wrong”– a characterization that he also attributes to me. Now, my initial inclination in response to Gans is simply to ask […]
Best E-Reader?
With holiday gift-giving time arriving, I thought I’d open a thread on which e-reader gives you the most bang for your buck.
Indefinite Detention for KSM
The Washington Post reports that the Obama Administration has concluded it may have to detain Khalid Sheik Mohammed indefinitely, and that it has the power to do so under the laws of war. Administration officials do not want to try him before a military tribunal and there is substantial political opposition to trying KSM in […]
Over 100 Waivers and Counting
The NYT reports: As Obama administration officials put into place some of the new rules that go into effect under the federal health care law, they are issuing more waivers to try to prevent some insurers and employers from dropping coverage and also promising to modify other rules because many of the existing policies would […]
Upcoming Speech at Duke Law School on the Individual Mandate Litigation
By Ilya Somin on November 14, 2010 3:40 pm in Federalism, Federalist Society, Health Care, Individual Mandate
This Monday at noon, I will be giving a talk at Duke Law School on the Obamacare individual mandate litigation, which I recently wrote about here. The speech is sponsored by the Duke Federalist Society.
Man, This Guy Can Write:
Though I’m not that much of an NFL football fan, I can’t help but noticing the extraordinarily good writing of Mike Tanier, who writes for FootballOutsiders.com (and the New York Times from time to time). Here are some examples, from his discussion of this week’s games: On the Jets v Browns: “Eric Mangini is on […]
Lame-Duck Hunting
The 20th Amendment provides that the terms of Senators and members of Congress end on January 3. Its passage in 1932 severely curtailed the potential for Congress to enact measures in lame-duck sessions by limiting the time between elections and the existing Congress’ expiration to approximately two months or less. Seventy-five years ago, travel […]
Stewart v. Maddow
An interesting exchange between Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart.
Are Republicans Serious about the Debt?
Does greater conservative representation in Congress auger well for getting America’s fiscal house in order? Reacting to comments by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) on “Meet the Press” last week, Peter Wehner raises some concerns: It is simply not tenable for public officials to portray themselves as courageous voices for fiscal sanity while simultaneously fencing off […]
Once Again, the Copyright/Trademark Tail Tries to Wag the Internet Dog
Congress is set to once again consider the Sen Leahy’s Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeit Act, a truly awful bill (with the appropriately awful acronym “COICA” — which sounds a little too much to my ears like “cloaca,” and if you don’t know what “cloaca” means, you can look it up here . . .). […]
Horace and Westlaw
In the last two days, a colleague and a student asked me two questions (since they know I’m into this sort of thing): (1) What is “the correct past tense of the verb ‘plead’” (“pleaded” or “pled”)? (2) Is it “correct to write that a jury was ‘impaneled’ or ’empaneled’”? Both questions were referring to […]
First Circuit Rejects Yet Another First Amendment Challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance
The opinion was just handed down today, in Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Hanover School District.
Death Sentence for Blasphemy in Pakistan
By Eugene Volokh on November 12, 2010 3:07 pm in Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The Herald-Sun (Australia) reports: A Pakistani court has sentenced to death a Christian mother-of-five for blasphemy …. Pakistan has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but the case spotlights the Muslim country’s controversial laws on the subject … Asia’s case dates back to June 2009 when she was asked to fetch water while out working […]