At Slate, David Weigel claims that the libertarian Cato Institute may have purged its “liberaltarians” – scholars who advocate an alliance between libertarians and the political left: The libertarian Cato Institute is parting with two of its most prominent scholars. Brink Lindsey, the institute’s vice president of research and the author of the successful book […]
Archive | 2010
Gender Diversity and Law Review
Here’s an interesting finding: Among the Top 50 law schools, the gender balance on law review and in leadership positions on law review almost exactly matches the gender balance of the law school student bodies as a whole (about 55% men, 45% women).
Property Rights, Eminent Domain, and the “Ground Zero Mosque”
By Ilya Somin on August 23, 2010 11:02 pm in Eminent Domain, Property Rights, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
A few conservative commentators have advocated using the power of eminent domain to take the land on which the “Ground Zero mosque” is scheduled to be built (see here and here). The idea seems to have originated with New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. Legally, such a taking wouldn’t be as simple as Paladino […]
Jack London, Socialism, and Progressivism
Scott Kaufman of the Lawyers, Guns, and Money blog criticizes my post on Jack London’s racism and early 20th century Progressivism on two grounds: The first problem with Somin’s argument… is that he applies the term “Progressive” to someone who was an avowed “Socialist.” London was a capital-S Socialist who believed in lowercase-p progress, but […]
On Immigrants Changing Russian Names
Fellow Russian Jewish immigrant Alina Simone recently wrote a New York Times op ed about her decision to change her last name from the original “Vilenkin,” which she considered to be a liability for an “aspiring indie rock singer.” Historically, it is not unusual for immigrant actors and other performers to change foreign-sounding names that […]
Blog Commenter Sues Volokh Conspiracy for Making Him “Psychologically Dependent and Addicted” to Commenting
OK, not really (we’re not that good). But a player of the online role playing game Lineage II has brought such a suit against the game’s designers — and a federal court has denied a motion to dismiss, allowing the claim to go forward. For details, see the opinion, Smallwood v. NCSoft Corp. or the […]
Stop Criticizing President Obama for Playing Golf
In this polarized period of American politics, many people on the Right have been taking cheap shots at President Obama because he plays golf so much. These golf-related criticisms are at least factually accurate, in contrast to the lies that Michael Moore told about George Bush supposedly vacationing much of the time. However, the criticisms of […]
When May Religious Charitable Groups Discriminate in Employment Based on Religion?
A Ninth Circuit panel issued three very interesting opinions on this subject today in Spencer v. World Vision, Inc. The opinions are long and detailed; if you’re interested in the issue, you should read them. But here’s the short summary: 1. “World Vision describes itself as ‘a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, […]
A Brief Guide to Federal Antidiscrimination Law and Religion
I’m about to post something about an interesting new case on religious charities and employment discrimination law, so I thought it would be helpful to post this general summary I wrote a while back; I also hope to refer to it in future posts. * * * Federal job discrimination law provides three sets of […]
A Legal Research Story
A reference librarian at a public library passes along this story, which she reports happened to her (though several decades ago). A patron came to the reference desk and said, “I’m doing some legal research, and I need to track down a legal book.” “What’s the author and the name?,” the librarian asked. “I don’t […]
Medieval legal history panel at the Kalamazoo medieval conference
Cornell historian Paul Hyams and I are organizing a panel on medieval legal history at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 12-15, 2011. Here’s the call for papers: In the high middle ages, land in medieval Europe was the most important source of political power, social status, and material wealth. Even […]
Survey Article on Last 25 Years of Supreme Court Property Rights Decisions Looking for a New Home
NOTE: I have re-posted this because the original version was posted close to the start of the weekend, and it’s possible some potentially interested parties may have missed it. Back in 2008, I wrote a survey article on the last 25 years of Supreme Court property rights decisions. It was originally commissioned for an edited […]
Monday Bear Blogging
No pictures today, but an interesting bear story. A Cleveland area man was mauled by a captive bear last week. Sam Mazzola owned the bear and used to make money hosting “bear wrestling,” but his license was revoked, so he just kept this bear and other dangerous animals as part of personal menagerie that reportedly […]
Benjamin Kaplan, Dead at 99
Ben Kaplan, a legendary Harvard Law professor who also served as a Justice on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, passed away a few days ago at the age of 99. Kaplan began teaching at Harvard in 1947, and as a state court judge he continued to write opinions for the Massachusetts Court of Appeals […]
Only Legal Because It’s Legal
From today’s NYT editorial on the Justice Department’s decision not to bring charges against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay comes this gem: Mr. DeLay, the Texas Republican who had been the House majority leader, crowed that he had been “found innocent.” But many of Mr. DeLay’s actions remain legal only because lawmakers have chosen […]