There’s a surprising amount of great poetry about economic liberty; perhaps the most famous is Shylock’s comment in The Merchant of Venice, when Antonio recommends that the state confiscate Shylock’s property: “Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that: / You take my house when you do take the prop / That doth sustain […]
Archive | 2010
A Tribute to Louis Henkin from Harold Koh
By Kenneth Anderson on October 15, 2010 11:07 am in International Human Rights Law, International Law
The great international law scholar Louis Henkin passed away two days ago; for many decades he taught at Columbia Law School, which released a note from the dean on Professor Henkin’s passing. Over at Opinio Juris, Harold Koh, currently Legal Adviser to the State Department, has a lovely tribute to him. I have come not […]
Climate Policy Without Cap and Trade
This week, environmental analysts from left and right came together to offer a “post-partisan” approach to climate change. In Post-Partisan Power: How a Limited and Direct Approach to Energy Innovation Can Deliver Cheap Energy, Economic Productivity, and National Prosperity, Steven Hayward (American Enterprise Institute), Mark Muro (Brookings Institution), and Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger (Breakthrough […]
The Individual Mandate and the Taxing Power
My colleague Erik Jensen, who has forgotten more about the Taxing Power than I’ll ever know, has a new paper on whether the individual mandate is a “tax” for constitutional purposes. Here’s the abstract: This article, prepared for a symposium at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, considers whether the Taxing […]
Is the Individual Mandate “Necessary”?
Like my co-conspirators, I believe the Necessary & Proper Clause provides the strongest basis for the constitutionality of the individual mandate. I”m inclined to agree with Ilya nad Randy, rather than Orin, but I believe it’s a close call. The constitutional argument, as has been rehearsed in this space before, is that that mandate is […]
Law & Order: SVU — What They Get Right and What They Get Wrong
My law school friend Allison Leotta, a federal prosecutor who specializes in sex crimes, is blogging about each episode of Law & Order: SVU to explain what in each episode was realistic and what was not. Allison also has a new novel out with Simon & Schuster, The Law of Attraction, about, well, a Harvard […]
Congrats to Randy, But Then A Missing Argument
Congratulations to Randy Barnett in particular for the new Florida decision refusing to dismiss the challenge to the individual mandate. The language the judge uses at various points in the opinion very closely resembles the language Randy has used in framing the challenge. That is a major accomplishment. Indeed, reading the opinion, I had to […]
The Florida District Court Decision Rejecting the Federal Government’s Motion to Dismiss the Case Against the Individual Mandate
By Ilya Somin on October 14, 2010 5:42 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Spending Clause, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
There are several interesting aspects of today’s Florida federal district court ruling rejecting the government’s motion to dismiss a challenge to the Obama health care plan’s individual mandate brought by 20 states and the National Federation of Independent Business. First, as Randy Barnett emphasizes, this ruling, like the similar Virginia decision before it, further undercuts […]
Kopel comment on states’ victory on health control lawsuit.
By David Kopel on October 14, 2010 5:06 pm in Commerce Clause, Congress, Constitutional Law, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Spending Clause, Standing, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause, Tenth Amendment
My comment on today’s decision, granting the motion to dismiss on some counts, and while allowing other counts to proceed. Like Randy’s comment, my comment is posted on the blog of the site Health Care Lawsuits, which is hosted by the Independent Women’s Forum. The court entirely rejected the administration’s claim that the penalty for disobeying […]
District Court Judge Refuses to Dismiss AG’s Challenge to the Individual Mandate
Because I leave for my lecture in less than an hour, I cannot do full blog post on the decision. But here is a statement that will appear on healthcarelawsuits.org. In its “talking points” today, the White House claims that the 21 state attorney’s general challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform act are […]
Florida District Court Refuses to Dismiss Obamacare Challenge
Judge Roger Vinson of the Northern District of Florida has issued a decision refusing to dismiss the constitutional challenge to the Obama Administration’s health care legislation. You can read the decision here, and more information here. On the Commerce Clause issue, the court said: The individual mandate applies across the board. People have no choice […]
White House “Talking Points” on Decision in Florida Challenge to PPACA
Today or tomorrow, we are expecting a ruling on the government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit against the Patents Protection and Affordable Care Act in Florida district court. Someone sent me what purports to be the “talking points” memo being circulated by Jeff Cruz of the White House “Office of Public Engagement.” I figured that […]
Does George Mason Have the Most Conservative Law Students?
The new Princeton Review rankings state that George Mason has the “most conservative students” “based on student assessment of the political bent of the student body at large”. My impression over the years has been that the student body at GMU is more or less evenly split between liberals and conservatives, which I’m pretty sure […]
Racial Impacts and Business Regulations
Intrusive business regulations have a disproportionately negative impact on the poor and members of minority groups, who lack the political influence that whereby wealthy corporations and politically well-connected people are able to obtain special government favors. Nobody has done better scholarship on this point than Volokh Conspiracy blogger David Bernstein. The historical examples of the […]
Law Professors’ Petition in Support of California Proposition 19
The Yes on 19 website has posted a petition by law professors in support of California proposition 19, which would decriminalize marijuana in that state. Among the signers are six of the Volokh Conspirators – Jonathan Adler, Randy Barnett, David Bernstein, David Post, Sasha Volokh, and myself. There are also many prominent non-VC signers, including […]