I blogged last week about this topic, and I thought I’d briefly follow up. To summarize: James E. Graves, Jr., a Mississippi Supreme Court Justice, has been nominated to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Senate Judiciary Committee will be considering his nomination at a hearing tomorrow, and I […]
Archive | 2010
“A Defense of Free Speech by American and Canadian Muslims”
By Eugene Volokh on September 28, 2010 1:53 pm in "Hate Speech", Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law
From The American Muslim: We, the undersigned, unconditionally condemn any intimidation or threats of violence directed against any individual or group exercising the rights of freedom of religion and speech; even when that speech may be perceived as hurtful or reprehensible. We are concerned and saddened by the recent wave of vitriolic anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic […]
Bravo to the Justices for the New Audio Policy
Jonathan mentions this below, and I wanted to emphasize it: The Supreme Court has announced that it will begin posting the audio of oral arguments on Friday at the end of each oral argument week. I’m delighted, as you might guess from my prior blogging about this. The availability of audio recordings will make it […]
Reforming Intelligence Oversight
Amidst the discussion of the ACLU Aulaqi lawsuit – both the procedural moves made in court and the underlying debates over the lawfulness of targeting – as well as new revelations from the Woodward book about the size of the CIA’s proxy ground forces in Afghanistan, cross-border “overt” raids made by US military forces into […]
Supreme Court Grants Cert to Clarify “Exigent Circumstances” Test in Fourth Amendment Law
The Supreme Court has never expressly articulated what the standard is for when “exigent circumstances” justify a warrantless search or seizure. This morning the Court granted cert in a case that may lead the Court to finally clarify the law here, Kentucky v. King. Should be an interesting case to follow.
Follow-Up to “Cultural Defense Accepted as to Nonconsensual Sex in New Jersey Trial Court, Rejected on Appeal”
I blogged about the restraining order side of this case in July; the news is that last week, the husband was convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting his wife. New Jersey uses “sexual assault” to cover a range of conduct that includes what many states label “rape” and it sounds from the story that he […]
SCOTUS to Release Oral Argument Audio
The AP reports that the Supreme Court will start releasing the audio of all oral arguments from the previous week each Friday beginning this term. This is a great decision. I know I’ll appreciate having these audio files for my morning commutes. It may also represent an adequate compromise between those support and oppose televising […]
SCOTUS to Hear Anna Nicole Smith Case:
I’m surprised. It made sense for SCOTUS to hear the case the first time around because it provided the opportunity to clarify the scope of the probate exception to federal court jurisdiction. I’m surprised that it took cert this time though. Unless it is seen as an opportunity to try to tighten up further on […]
Headline: “Poll: Nevadans favor balanced federal budget, let states repeal federal laws”
In response to Virginia Speaker William Howell and my op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, The Case for a “Repeal Amendment”, the Las Vegas Review-Journal decided to poll Nevadans on their views of an amendment allowing the legislatures of 2/3 of the states to repeal any federal law or regulation. This is the first such […]
Judicial Deference to Congress Versus Judicial Deference to State Legislatures
In an editorial observer column for the New York Times, Linc Caplan makes the following argument that Justice Breyer is a centrist Justice: [Justice Breyer] fits no conventional model of a liberal. The historian Jeff Shesol wrote in The Times Book Review: “Breyer has been less willing than any of his fellow justices to overturn […]
Check Out the New Live Preview Feature in the Comments
It should show you a preview of your comment as you’re typing it. WYSIWYG — do kids these days still say that? Many thanks to Joe Malchow’s group for working this out. If you notice any glitches with it, please let me know, though please also include as many details about your configuration (browser, operating […]
Ineffective “Law Porn”
I am once again chair of the GMUSL appointments committee, which means I am eligible to vote in the U.S. News law school reputation survey, which means, in turn, that I am once again being inundated with p.r. materials from various law schools. Most of it is done badly, and is at best a waste […]
I’ll Be at Pomona College on Tuesday, October 12 …
… not on my account, but doing the Take the Beloved Daughter Around to Colleges gig. This is embarrassing – in effect proposing oneself – but I will be around Pomona College, and the Claremont Colleges, on Tuesday, October 12, mid-dayish. If anyone there would like me to give a talk on campus then, for […]
Afghanistan Idiocy
I didn’t need any more evidence that the U.S. has no idea what it’s doing in Afghanistan, what it can reasonably accomplish, and why we’re shoveling billions of dollars down this particular rat hole, but here it is. The story starts with an idea so dumb that the alert reader recognizes that the U.S. government […]
Christian Missionaries Acquitted of Disturbing the Peace at Dearborn Arab Festival
The Detroit Free Press reports: A jury acquitted on Friday four Christian missionaries who were accused of inciting a crowd while videotaping themselves proselytizing to Muslims at the Dearborn Arab International Festival in June…. [The missionaries] were acquitted of breach of peace …. [One of the four] was found guilty of failure to obey a […]