Interest in targeted killing and drone warfare is not letting up in intensity – at least to judge by the pace of events on the topic. Right on top of my debate with Notre Dame’s Mary Ellen O’Connell on this at Washington University two weeks ago, Professor O’Connell and the Brookings Institution’s (and Hoover Institution’s) […]
Archive | 2010
The Most Off-the-Wall DC Voter Guide Candidate Statements
DCist has the scoop.
Reefer Madness and the Prohibition of Marijuana in the United States
My short essay for the Encyclopedia Britannica blog looks at the racist origins of marijuana prohibition. The essay is part of a two-day series of pro/con articles related to California’s proposition 19.
I Think This Column Pretty Well Captures the Mood of the Electorate
This is a few days old but I just came across it. I think it pretty much captures the electorate’s view of the upcoming election better than anything else I’ve read: “[I]n the land of epic, mega, ultra, apocalyptic levels of sucking, those who kinda suck are king. Or at least are going to win […]
Broken Telephone in Court Opinions
In my Academic Legal Writing book, I caution students who are writing law review articles against relying on court opinions’ factual assertions about social science evidence, or even about past cases. Always read, quote, and cite the original source, I tell them (though I realize, of course, that many lawyers don’t have the luxury of […]
Glenn Beck factual error
Glenn Beck often does great research and reporting on stories that the rest of the media fail to cover. His deconstruction of the Woodrow Wilson administration is long overdue. However, his reporting is sometimes inexcusably sloppy. All the more so considering that Beck, a television host on a major network, is not exactly bereft of […]
Talks at Michigan State and Cooley Law Schools on Federalism and the War on Drugs
This Wednesday, I will be speaking at Michigan State University Law School and the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan. Both events sponsored by the local student Federalist Society chapters. In both cases, the topic will be Federalism and the War on Drugs. The talk at MSU will be at noon, and I […]
Rosary ban likely illegal, say Volokh and Kopel
By David Kopel on October 26, 2010 1:45 am in First Amendment, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Mann Middle School in Colorado Springs has banned students from wearing rosaries as visible necklaces. School officials have offered two different rationales: some gang members wear rosaries as gang symbols; some Catholics are offended by the wearing of rosaries on the neck. A Colorado Springs Gazette editorial on the controversy quotes Eugene Volokh and David […]
Sacramento County, in California, Apparently Shifts to Allowing Pretty Much All Law-Abiding Adults to Get Licenses to Carry Concealed Weapons
So reports the CalGuns Foundation.
The Individualistic American Law of Religious Exemptions
Say that someone demands a religious accommodation, under one of the state or federal religious exemption regimes (whether under an employment statute such as Title VII, a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a state constitutional religious freedom provision, or what have you). And say that most of his coreligionists don’t share this belief, or that the […]
Colorado Supreme Court Will Consider Concealed Carry on College Campuses
In April, a Colorado Court of Appeals panel decided that Colorado’s concealed carry licensing statute preempts public university bans on firearms possession and carrying. I just saw that last week the Colorado Supreme Court agreed to review the case. Here’s the Summary of Issues, as set forth by the court: Whether the General Assembly intended […]
Trouble With Our Comment Spam Filter
Since Thursday, our comment spam filter has been producing a lot of false positives, so that non-spam comments are being blocked. I’ve been trying to check the spam folder every several hours and revive the comments, but that’s a slow and not entirely reliable process. We’re also checking into what the underlying problem might be, […]
California District Court Dismisses Anti-Mandate Lawsuit for Lack of Standing
I should have gotten around to this when it happened. But it’s still worth nothing that a federal district court in California dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Obama health care plan’s individual mandate on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing. The case was brought by former California state legislator Steve Baldwin and the Pacific […]
Does Trucking Company Have a Legal Duty to Accommodate Muslim Employee’s Religious Objections to Transporting Alcohol or Tobacco?
That’s the argument made in Reddy v. Schneider National, Inc. (E.D. Pa. filed Oct. 15, 2010). Vasant Reddy says that he has “a sincerely held religious belief that he cannot consume, possess, or transport alcohol or tobacco,” and that he informed Schneider National of this. He also says that “less than 5% of the loads […]
Get-Together for VC Readers at the AALS “Meat Market” in DC, Thursday at 9pm
This Thursday is the first day of the AALS “Meat Market”, the setting of first-round interviews for law professor jobs formally known as the Faculty Recuitment Conference, at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, DC. The AALS draws a lot of VC readers, so Jonathan Adler and I have decided to make a party of […]