I wanted to follow up my recent post on Constitutional Theory Debates in a Nutshell by talking about what seems to be the core difficulty with grand constitutional theories — that is, single overarching methodologies to construe the Constitution. In my view, the core difficulty is that constitutional theories must satisfy three competing and often […]
Archive | 2010
Advice for New Law Teachers
If you’re just starting out as a law professor this fall, here’s my advice: 1) Prepare to spend much more time teaching than you expect. Teaching any class for the first time is intensely time consuming, especially when you have never taught before. Among new law teachers, it’s common to spend about 10-15 hours prepping […]
Can the Wikileaks Founder Be Prosecuted for Espionage by the US?
Julian Ku says the answer is yes, under US domestic statutes … if the US can catch him. The “him” in question is Julian Assange, an Australian living in Sweden. (The Swedish prosecutor has withdrawn its unrelated rape charge against Assange in apparent embarrassment, and Assange in turn has accused the prosecutor of possibly having […]
“This Is NOT a Voluntary Plan”
Since were all remembering Social Security’s birthday I thought I’d post something on my one bit of Social Security memorabilia: the text of notices employers were required to post giving notice of planned payroll deductions. NOTICE Deductions from Pay Start Jan. 1 Beginning January 1, 1937, your employer will be compelled by law to deduct […]
Sunday Song Lyric
Somewhere along the way former Fugee Wyclef Jean got the idea he should be the President of Haiti. And as the Washington Post reported just last week, he could have been a contender. Haiti’s electoral council had other ideas, however, disqualifying him for failing to satisfy the residency requirement. Although he was born in Haiti, […]
Deference and the Constitutionality of Health Care Reform
As constitutional challenges to the new health care law work their way up the courts, proponents of the the law’s constitutionality will inevitably argue that the Supreme Court should defer to Congress’s understanding of its own constitutional powers, especially when it comes to such significant legislation. As early as 1922, the Supreme Court wrote, “Whatever […]
Lessons from an Unlicensed Barber
Center for American Progress house blogger Matthew Yglesias confesses that he has an unlicensed barber, and has no regrets. Regulation of this sort seems totally unnecessary. People don’t die of bad haircuts, and since hairstyle is a quintessential matter of taste there’s absolutely no reason to think consumers can’t figure out for themselves who has […]
Solar Stimulus
When I was in Montana with my family in July, we happened upon Vice President Joe Biden’s security detail. He was apparently in the area to, among other things, give a talk in Yellowstone National Park about the economic and environmental benefits of federal stimulus projects. In today’s WSJ, Roger Meiners looks closely at one […]
Are Locavores Loco?
Stephen Budiansky loves eating vegetables from his own garden and appreciates the value of fresh ingredients, but still wonders whether the “local food” movement has gone overboard. From his recent NYT op-ed: the local food movement now threatens to devolve into another one of those self-indulgent — and self-defeating — do-gooder dogmas. Arbitrary rules, without […]
Forbes Plans New Law School Rankings
According to Paul Caron at TaxProf Blog, Forbes magazine is planning to issue a new set of law school rankings to compete with the ubiquitous US News rankings. It is a good thing that a prominent publication is going to create a competing ranking system. The US News rankings have many well-known flaws, such as […]
Is a Stint as an Assistant U.S. Attorney a Pathway to Riches?
Perhaps if you spend that stint in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. Over at the Glom, David Zaring reports on his effort to identify what former federal prosecutors in Manhattan are doing these days. Out of 150 former federal prosecutors, he reports, “the large majority . . . are partners in white […]
“46% of Americans Believe Islam Is More Likely Than Other Faiths to Encourage Violence Against Nonbelievers” = Evidence of “Islamophobia”?
“Is America Islamophobic?,” asks Time magazine. The lead story is abridged online here. I have little opinion on the title question, partly because I’m not a public opinion researcher, and partly because I don’t know what exactly “Islamophobic” means. And paragraphs such as this don’t help much: Although the American strain of Islamophobia lacks some […]
Call for Papers, AALS Annual Meeting
I just wanted to remind lawprof readers that several sections of the AALS have a Call for Papers out for its January 2011 Meeting in San Francisco. For example, my colleague Greg Maggs informs me that the Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law has posted a call for papers on the federal Credit Card […]
Survey Article on the Last 25 Years of Supreme Court Property Rights Decisions Looking for a New Home
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 volume that included contributions by various other scholars. Unfortunately, the volume was recently canceled for reasons that had nothing to do with the quality of my piece. So I […]
Oil’s Well that Ends Well?
The oil spill from BP’s Deepwater Horizon well is just about all cleaned up, right? Maybe not. As reported in today’s Washington Post, academic researchers are challenging recent Administration and media reports suggesting that most of the oil is gone. Academic scientists are challenging the Obama administration’s assertion that most of BP’s oil in the […]