How many House and Senate seats will the GOP pick up? I’m going with 68 House seats, and 9 Senate seats. Tiebreaker: To the nearest decimal point, and excluding minor party candidates, what percentage of the House vote will the GOP get? I’ll say 54.8%. Winner gets bragging rights, and will be announced in this […]
Archive | 2010
Responding to Customer Criticisms On Line
An article in Slate today discusses a recent lawsuit against the website tripadvisor.com for not removing a customer comment that alleged a restaurant was patronized by prostitutes. The author argues, probably correctly, that most consumers will ignore a single outlier comment and look for patterns, and that businesses should be more concerned with trends, such […]
Criminal Convictions by Non-Unanimous Juries
I blogged last month about my certiorari petition in Herrera v. Oregon. My argument is that the Jury Trial Clause — as historically understood, and as accepted by the Court in federal cases — requires jury unanimity for a conviction, and that following McDonald v. City of Chicago the same rule should be applied to […]
Mercatus Center Financial Markets Working Group Wins Templeton Freedom Award:
Congratulations to the Mercatus Center for its recent recognition with a Templeton Freedom Award for its Financial Markets Working Group (of which I am one of many affiliated scholars). Mercatus won for “Special Achievement by a University-based Center.” From the award announcement: The Financial Markets Working Group of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University […]
Hollywood meets Narnia
Interesting essay by Steven Boyer on some of the differences between the first two Narnia books and movies. Even if one isn’t keen on his overall point, there are some real nuggets here. This observation struck me as particularly interesting: Then follow some remarkable lines. Says Peter, “Don’t you ever get tired of being treated […]
Supreme Court Vacates Order Blocking Execution Based on Speculation About Method of Execution
Over at Scotusblog, Lyle Denniston provides the context: Landrigan was sentenced to death for a 1989 murder in Phoenix after he had escaped from an Oklahoma prison, where he was serving a sentence for second-degree murder. As the scheduled execution date of October 26 approached, Landrigan (after losing in a challenge in state court) filed […]
My Boise State Lecture Tomorrow (Thursday)
Tomorrow evening, Thursday, October 28, I will be delivering the seventh annual free Brandt Foundation Lecture on my book, “Restoring the Lost Constitution” (now available on Kindle!) at Boise State University. The lecture will begin at 7pm in the Student Union Jordan Ballroom and is made possible by Boise State’s College of Business and Economics […]
Podcast Interview on Rehabilitating Lochner
Kosmos Online, a project of the Institute for Humane Studies, interviewed me about my forthcoming Rehabilitating Lochner. If you’d like a preview of the book, or are just curious what I sound like, you can find the interview here. And speaking of Rehabilitating Lochner, Amazon has reduced the preorder price from $40 to $30.
Heat Not So Hot
The Miami Heat’s power trio of Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and LeBron James lost their NBA regular season debut to the Boston Celtics. It’s not often I root for the guys in green, but I did tonight. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Michael Bloomberg’s astroturf group
Over at National Review Online, Ramesh Ponnuru notes a mailer from a group called “Americans United for Safe Streets.” The mailer slams Republican House candidate Keith Fimian over the so-called “gun show loophole.” Americans United for Safe Streets has a website, but other than providing an e-mail contact for a press spokeman, the site is quite opaque about […]
The Semi-Automatic Revolver
From Rodriguez v. Glock, Inc., 28 F. Supp. 2d 1064 (N.D. Ill. 1998): “According to the testimony Plaintiff submits, including Bedoya’s testimony from his criminal trial, Rodriguez grabbed Bedoya from behind, held his arm and attempted to remove Bedoya’s service revolver, a .40 caliber Glock Model 22 semi-automatic pistol, from its holster.” The Glock 22 […]
North Carolina Department of Revenue’s Demand for Amazon Customer Records Violates the First Amendment
So holds Amazon.com v. Lay (W.D. Wash., decided yesterday): Amazon pursues summary judgment as to its First Amendment claim that the DOR’s request for all information related to Amazon’s sales to North Carolina residents violates the First Amendment. The Court agrees and GRANTS the motion. The First Amendment protects a buyer from having the expressive […]
“Perhaps [American Courts] Should Have Mediated the French Revolution”
From Judge Kleinfeld’s opinion dissenting from the Ninth Circuit’s referral of an Alien Tort Statute case to mediation: It is risible to think that the first Congress wrote the Alien Tort Statute intending to enable federal courts to adjudicate claims of war crimes committed abroad. Were it otherwise, a French aristocrat who had escaped the […]
Preliminary Injunctions in Libel Cases Forbidden, Permanent Injunctions Allowed
So the Kentucky Supreme Court held last week in Hill v. Petrotech Resources Corp., following a modern trend (though one from which some state courts have dissented). The premise is that the ban on “prior restraints” means that speech may not be restricted prior to a decision on the merits that it falls within an […]
Reasons You Might Be Denied a Rifle/Shotgun Permit in New York City
Here’s what the proposed rules say, in relevant part: § 3-03 Grounds for Denial of Permit. An application for a rifle/shotgun permit may be denied [if] for lack of good moral character or other good cause, pursuant to section 10-303 of the Administrative Code, based on the following reasons: (a) The applicant has been arrested, […]