It is a big night for the Tea Party — and, very likely, the Democratic Party — in my former home state of Delaware: Christine O’Donnell beat out Michael Castle for the Delaware GOP Senate nomination 53% to 47%. It’s an amazing result given the history of Delaware politics. The contrast couldn’t be more stark. […]
Archive | 2010
Bleg: Examples of Web Sites Devoted to a Supreme Court Case
I’m planning to create a website devoted to Lochner v. New York. In researching my forthcoming Rehabilitating Lochner I’ve collected a huge amount of material about the case and its aftermath that’s in the public domain, but is not readily available. For examples, newspaper editorials praising or denouncing the opinion, the lower court briefs, articles […]
Did Dodd Read His Own Bill?
In the past few days there has been speculation that President Obama would name Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren to be the interim head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. What did Senator Chris Dodd think of this? TPMDC reports: In dismissing the rumor last night, […]
Queensland University Suspends Lawyer for YouTube-Distributed Blasphemy
By Eugene Volokh on September 14, 2010 2:23 pm in "Hate Speech", Atheism, Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The Brisbane Times reports that: A Queensland University of Technology lawyer[,] … Alex Stewart[,] has taken leave from his non-academic position as a QUT [Queensland University of Technology] commercial contracts lawyer after controversy erupted over a YouTube clip in which he smokes self-made cigarettes rolled in pages from the [Koran and the Bible] before rating […]
Crime Rates Continue to Fall
According to the FBI. This is wonderful news, although I doubt it will receive a lot of press attention. UPDATE: Thanks to our commenters for explaining why the crime rate is going down: The answer, according to the comments, is any theory that tends to confirm your pre-conceived views.
Is Koran-Burning Protected by the First Amendment?
In a recent interview with ABC News, Justice Breyer questioned whether burning a Koran would necessarily be protected by the First Amendment. Some excerpts: “Holmes said [the First Amendment] doesn’t mean you can shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater,” Breyer told me. “Well, what is it? Why? Because people will be trampled to death. And […]
CardHub Study says Decline in Credit Card Debt a Result of Chargeoffs, Not Frugality:
A spreading meme is that there is a new frugality among consumers, as evidenced by a decline in credit card balances outstanding over the past several quarters. An interesting new analysis by CardHub, however, argues that this is a measurement error: that the decline in outstanding balances is actually a result of increased chargeoffs of […]
When the Innocent Confess
Do innocent suspects ever confess to crimes? Yes, and sometimes with extensive detail about the crime. How could this happen, short of police coercion? The NYT reports on research by UVa law professor Brandon Garrett on the question. New research shows how people who were apparently uninvolved in a crime could provide such a detailed […]
This Counts as a Negative Review
Over at The New Ledger, Leon Wolf has a brutal and yet strangely riveting review of Meghan McCain’s new book Dirty, Sexy Politics. Just a taste from the conclusion: On the whole, I am simply not a talented enough writer to express how truly horrible this book was. The last line of the book implores […]
Re: The First Part of ObamaCare to Go?
I asked the question yesterday. Today Politico reports: “For the first time, the White House is asking Congress to amend the finished health care overhaul. The Obama administration Monday urged senators to scale back a tax reporting requirement in the health care law.” Specifically, Secretaries Tim Geithner and Kathleen Sebelius wrote to the Senate leadership in […]
Consistent with Hayek?
Dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come into the world. The instincts which give rise to this mysterious process of nature are not of our making. But out of physical causes, unknown to us, perhaps unknowable, arise moral duties, which, as we are able perfectly to comprehend, we are bound indispensably to […]
Cardozo Law Review en banc Online Symposium on Snyder v. Phelps Is Now Up
The Cardozo Law Review en banc online symposium on Snyder v. Phelps is now up here. The symposium includes articles by authors — including me — on both sides of the issue; check it out if you’re interested in the case.
Using Hypotheticals When Debating Law in the Blogosphere
Lawyers often explore legal arguments by offering “hypotheticals,” or “hypos” for short. A hypothetical is a “what if” scenario designed to question a legal principle. The idea is to change the facts to something very different than the one before us to see how the offered legal principle would apply to that set of facts. […]
Ninth Circuit En Banc Panel Will Rehear Case Involving Religious Accommodations of Islamic Headscarves in Court Holding Cells
This is the case I blogged about in May. The 2-1 panel opinion (Khatib v. County of Orange), in which Judges Trott and Wardlaw were in the majority and in which Chief Judge Kozinski dissented, is here; as I mentioned at the time, “The dissent is characteristically colorful, and in my view quite persuasive.” Note […]
Soros and Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch, bleeding donors because of the various scandals surrounding its reporting on the Middle East [I have a lengthy series of blog posts on HRW and Israel, most of which can be found here, with some more recent ones here], and apparently finding Saudi elites either unavailable or no longer palatable, has found […]