I’ll be heading to New York tomorrow to be filmed for John Stossel’s great show on Fox Business. He’s doing a show on “Unintended Consequences” and I’ll be talking about the unintended consequences of credit card and other consumer credit regulation. My understanding is that it will run a couple of times over the weekend.
Archive | 2010
Being Forced to Pay For Your Own Rights
I’m currently working on a case in why my clients were forced to give up their right to vote in exchange for a building permit. Yes, really. In California, homeowners have a constitutional right to vote on certain kinds of property taxes called “assessments” (which differ from taxes in that they pay for improvements to […]
My NYU Hayek Lecture on Thursday
Tomorrow, Thursday, I will be giving the 6th Annual Friedrich A. Von Hayek Lecture at NYU School of Law. The lecture is open to the public and will begin at 6pm at Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South. The title, is “Commandeering the People: Popular Sovereignty and the Health Insurance Mandate.” Richard Epstein, who is […]
The First U.S. Supreme Court Case
By David Bernstein on October 13, 2010 10:02 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Rehabilitating Lochner
to endorse what we would now call a “substantive” interpretation of the Due Process Clause was not, as is commonly held, Dred Scott v. Sanford, but rather Bloomer v. McQuewan several years earlier. Here’s the key language: it can hardly be maintained that Congress could lawfully deprive a citizen of the use of his property […]
Two or Three Myths About Substantive Due Process
When talking about “substantive due process,” as I’ve been doing, one must address a number of myths about that theory that, sadly, are so common that many law students are never even taught what the theory even means. I. Here is a good example: “the Supreme Court has never in its entire history tried to derive […]
Does The Right to Earn A Living Apply to Immigrants?
A commenter asked whether illegal immigrants have the right to earn a living. Obviously they do, as all human beings do, although that has nothing to do with whether they may violate U.S. immigration laws. But it does bring to mind the many ways that government has used immigration restrictions to give economic favors to […]
The Myth of The Switch In Time
Libertarians and conservatives often accuse the Supreme Court of dramatically shifting constitutional law in the famous “Switch in Time,” as the result of political pressure brought by President Franklin Roosevelt. This narrative, however, is a little too neat to be true. In fact, as I argued recently in National Review, the major step toward the […]
More on Harlan Before Hand
Following my earlier post on Justice Harlan appearing before Learned Hand, Roy Englert writes in to point out an interesting story about another appeal with Harlan in front of Judge Hand. It is recounted in Martin Mayer’s biography of Emory Buckner, at page 239: On appeal in [a particularly complicated case], Harlan wrote a brief […]
Judge Orders Military to Stop Enforcing DADT
The California federal judge who decided on September 9 that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is unconstitutional has now issued an injuction ordering the military to immediately stop enforcing it. The order: (2) PERMANENTLY ENJOINS Defendants United States of America and the Secretary of Defense, their agents, servants, officers, employees, and attorneys, and all persons acting in participation […]
Puerto Rico law limiting use of shooting ranges
An official with Puerto Rico’s Justice Department has announced that the Department will propose changes in the island’s firearms laws, to bring them into line with Heller and McDonald. However, two of the proposed changes appear to be unconstitutional: Torres said the measures will include a requirement that shooting ranges keep logs of how much ammunition […]
Economics Misperceptions Among Students
Alex Tabarrok has an interesting post about common misperceptions about economics among college students. (Some of the comments are interesting as well.) I would be curious to see how much variation there is in answers from students with different backgrounds (e.g. those that held jobs during/after high school, those financing their own educations, those born […]
Interior Lifts Deepwater Drilling Moratorium
Today the U.S. Department of the Interior lifted the moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. As outlined in this memorandum of decision, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has instructed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (formerly known as the “Minerals Management Service”) to permit drilling by operators that […]
Cert. Grant in 10th Amendment Case
Granted this morning, Bond v. United States. Question presented: “Whether a criminal defendant convicted under a federal statute has standing to challenge her conviction on grounds that, as applied to her, the statute is beyond the federal government’s enumerated powers and inconsistent with the Tenth Amendment.” The circuits are split, and defendant was convicted in […]
AEI Program on Dodd-Frank:
On Thursday afternoon I’ll be participating in an AEI Program “What Have They Done? Implications of the Dodd-Frank Act.” Other participants include our hosts Peter Wallison and Alex Pollack, as well as Adam Levitin, Steve Bartlett, Wayne Abernathy, Ed Pinto, and others. Registration info is here.
Wisdom from the California Civil Code
I was just reminded about this item, which I blogged about in 2002, when this blog was but a month old, so I thought I’d repost it. It’s from the “Maxims of Jurisprudence” subdivision (they’ve been codified in California), Civil Code sec. 3546, and it is of course a presumption and not a categorical rule: […]