Jack London is remembered today mostly for writing inspiring novels about dogs and the Alaskan wilderness. In his own time, however, he was also known as a prominent advocate of socialism and a virulent racist. At Slate, Johann Hari has an interesting review of a new biography of London: The United States has a startling […]
Archive | 2010
Jesse Friedman Vindicated (Sort of)
Back in 2004, I wrote: I saw the documentary “Capturing the Friedmans” last night. The film is about a “normal” family torn apart when the pedophile father and his eighteen year-old son [Jesse] are accused of (and ultimately plead guilty to) violently molesting children who took computer classes in their home. The case arose against […]
Piracy Charges Dismissed by Federal Judge
Prof. Eugene Kontorovich passes along the news about United States v. Said, and has this analysis: Today a district court in Norfolk dismissed on summary judgment of piracy charges against alleged Somali pirates captured by the U.S. for an attack on American warship. (Many other non-international charges remain.) In short, he ruled that attempts are […]
Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Stolen Valor Act, Holds That Knowing Lies About Whether One Has Received Medals Are Generally Constitutionally Protected
By Eugene Volokh on August 17, 2010 6:25 pm in Freedom of Speech, Knowingly False Statements of Fact
The 2-to-1 decision, came in United States v. Alvarez; I think that this is probably not quite right, see this amicus brief I filed in a similar case, though I think the question — what restrictions does the First Amendment impose on laws that restrict knowing lies? — is difficult, and the majority makes a […]
Ninth Circuit Expedites Second Prop. 8 Appeal
Today the motions panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit followed up on its order expediting the appeal in Perry v. Schwarzenegger with an order expediting the appeal filed by officials of Imperial County, California. Imperial County officials, including the Deputy County Clerk, has sought to intervene in defense of Proposition […]
Solon v. Freud
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an interesting opinion in an interesting tort case, Sigmund v. Starwood Urban Retail VI, LLC. In this case, Donald Sigmund sued seeking tort damages from the owner, managers, and operators of a garage in which a car was parked that exploded due to a […]
Work, Compensation, and Retirement Age: Lessons from the Professors
The NYT Room for Debate blog, via TaxProf Blog, has a debate among professors over the effects of tenure, a good job in both working conditions and compensation, and no mandatory retirement age. Here is how the Times sets up the debate among the professors (not specifically law professors): If tenured professors are retiring later, […]
Elected Politician Using Government Web Site to Mobilize Public Opposition to Private Speech About Politicians
The Public Advocate for the City of New York (Bill de Blasio) has a site that lists major (nonmedia) corporations’ stands on using corporate money to speak about candidates for political office. Then, for corporations that are so speaking, the site lists contact information with the line Demand that corporations stop taking advantage of Citizens […]
Randall Kennedy on Affirmative Action
Randall Kennedy, one of my favorite writers on race issues, has a provocative essay on affirmative action in the American Prospect. Kennedy’s argument is that in the last 20 years, the diversity rationale for affirmative action has proved surprisingly effective at making affirmative action considerably less controversial than it used to be. From the conclusion: […]
People Who Disagree With Me Are Just Arguing In Bad Faith
I explained before why brilliant people agree with me. I want to talk about the other side of the picture. I’ve come to the realization that people who disagree with me are just arguing in bad faith. How do I know? Well, when I get into an argument, no one who disagrees with me ever […]
Ninth Circuit Issues Interim Stay in SSM Case
The Ninth Circuit has stayed Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision requiring California to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples starting Wednesday. The Ninth Circuit also sped up the appellate briefing process and specifically directed the appellants to address the very interesting Article III standing issue raised by the Supreme Court’s decision in Arizonans For Official English […]
Whatever Happened to the Request for Super-En-Banc Rehearing in CDT?
Once in a while folks ask me what happened to the request for super-en-banc rehearing in the Ninth Circuit, filed back in November of last year, in United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing. The short answer is, nothing has happened. Nine months later, the Ninth Circuit hasn’t ruled yet on whether to go super-en-banc. If […]
SSM in Mexico
While we’ve been focusing on whether proponent-intervenors have standing under Article III to defend a citizen initiative, gay marriage is taking hold in Mexico. Over the past few weeks, that country’s supreme court has decided three important cases on the issue. On March 4, Mexico City’s council voted to recognize SSM. In the first of its decisions, […]
More Thoughts on the Prop. 8 Stay Motion Before the Ninth Circuit and (If Necessary) the Supreme Court
Prof. Rick Hasen (Election Law Blog) has some interesting analysis. The conclusion is, First, though the standard for reviewing a trial court’s decision on a stay is quite deferential, in ideological (or hot issue) cases, these appellate courts [circuit courts and the Supreme Court] show a lot less deference. Second, even if the Supreme Court […]
Constitutional Theory Debates in a Nutshell (Or a Lot of Them, Anyway)
In Year Zero, a new constitutional provision is enacted that has two provisions, A1 and B1. In Year X, provisions A1 and B1 no longer seem to make as much sense as they did in Year Zero. Soon after, the Supreme Court interprets A1 to mean A2 and B1 to mean B2. A few decades […]