Climatopolis is an optimistic book that previews how we will individually and collectively adapt to climate change. If the world could cap global greenhouse gas production, then adaptation would be much easier. But, the world’s population and per-capita income continue to grow. Without being overly dramatic, climate change is coming. It would certainly be easier […]
Archive | 2010
Is Obama Complacent about Terrorism?
According to Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, President Obama seemed to suggest that a terrorist attack on the United States might not be a big deal. According to the Washington Post, the President remarked that “we can absorb a terrorist attack.” In an instant, a campaign-season talking point was born: The President does not […]
Speech Hostile to Gays Constitutionally Unprotected, Speech Hostile to Whites Constitutionally Protected?
By Eugene Volokh on September 23, 2010 5:32 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Judicial Nominations
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 next Wednesday, September 29. And while I know only one small corner of Justice Graves’ work, I hope the […]
Lithwick on Conservatives’ View of the Law
In a scathing review of the new NBC drama, Outlaw, about an ethically challenged, conservative Supreme Court justice who resigns from the bench to seek social justice, Dahlia Lithwick describes “the Supreme Court conservatives’ view of the legal system” as “the law is an airless, mechanistic set of fixed rules that privilege those who write the […]
First Amendment Law, in 3000 Words
My Encyclopædia Britannica entry on the First Amendment is now up; if you ever want a 3000-word summary of First Amendment law (both on the speech and the religion sides), check it out. Naturally, it’s oversimplified, and doesn’t cover all the details, but I hope it’s helpful. Many thanks to my over 40 volunteer 10-to-17-year-old […]
Former Solicitors General Walter Dellinger and Paul Clement on Constitutional History
The video is here (from an event hosted by ConSource).
Blasphemy Arrests in England
News.com.au reports: British police have arrested six people on suspicion of inciting racial hatred over a YouTube video apparently showing them setting fire to copies of the Koran…. I realize this is from an Australian publication, but its motto is “FROM ALL ANGLES,” so I take it they see their job as covering England as […]
Barack Obama’s “Centrism and Constitutionalism”
I was reading the Harvard University Press’s marketing summary of Yale Law School professor Bruce Ackerman’s new book, The Decline and Fall of the American Republic. It starts, “Bruce Ackerman shows how the institutional dynamics of the last half-century have transformed the American presidency into a potential platform for political extremism and lawlessness. Watergate, Iran-Contra, […]
Does the GOP Pledge Propose to Ban Earmarks?
This is a question, not an editorial. I read the Pledge document pretty fast, and did not think I saw anything referring to earmarks one way or the other. Is there something in there about that I did not see, or is it referred to under other terms? Here it is in pdf at RealClearPolitics. […]
Government as a “Foe” and “Friend” of Climate Change Adaptation
The New York Times has recently reported that the U.S government has invested billions of dollars in new levees to protect New Orleans from flooding. Do such placed based subsidies help us to adapt to climate change? On one level, the answer is obviously “yes”. This investment lowers the probability that the geographical area called […]
VC scoops the security pros — by two months!
Two months ago, I posted about the malware that has become known as Stuxnet, noting that it was designed to compromise SCADA systems; I thought that was proof that nations are planning a new form of cyberwar that will target electric power grids among other things. Two months later, though, security experts parsing Stuxnet have […]
Dahlia Lithwick: It’s “Weird” for a Senator to Consider the Constitutionality of Legislation
Lithwick in Slate: O’Donnell explained that “when I go to Washington, D.C., the litmus test by which I cast my vote for every piece of legislation that comes across my desk will be whether or not it is constitutional.” How weird is that, I thought. Isn’t it a court’s job to determine whether or not […]
The Country is in the Best of Hands…
Dana Milbank: To defend the Democrats, the majority leader [Steny Hoyer] had to employ some inventive math. At one point, he erroneously added up quarterly growth rates, asserting that GDP had seen “almost a 25 percent turnaround from negative to positive.” At another point, he made the impossible claim that from Bill Clinton to George […]
DOJ Petitions for Rehearing in DC Circuit “Mosaic Theory” GPS Surveillance Case
The Department of Justice has filed this petition for rehearing en banc in United States v. Maynard, the case adopting a “mosaic” theory of the Fourth Amendment to hold that long-term public GPS monitoring requires a warrant. As you might case from my earlier post on this, I think DOJ has a very strong case […]
Florida Court of Appeal Strikes Down Ban on Adoption by Gays
The opinion is here; haven’t read it yet, but thought it was worth passing along. Thanks to How Appealing for the pointer.