My Rehabilitating Lochner book is due out in early ’11, and I’m hoping to visit as many law schools as possible (primarily through the Federalist Society) to talk about the book. I have some availability in the Fall, and significantly more in the Spring. If you are an officer of a student or lawyer Fed […]
Archive | 2010
Monday Bear-Blogging
I am now back in the United States and will soon be blogging regularly about legal and political issues again. For now, here are some Monday bear-blogging photos of an Andean spectacled bear from the Buenos Aires Zoo:
Forgetting Justice Marshall
During the recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings, several Republican Senators asked Elena Kagan about her views of Justice Thurgood Marshall. Kagan clerked for Justice Marshall and had expressed admiration for his approach to the law. Senate Republicans acknowledged Marshall’s pioneering and inspirational work as a civil rights attorney, but challenged Kagan’s apparent embrace of Marshall’s […]
More on Standing to Defend Prop. 8
There are quite a few interesting posts on the standing issues in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, including pieces by the following: Lyle Denniston (SCOTUSBlog) Vikram Amar (Writ) Howard Wasserman (Prawfsblawg) Michael Dorf (Dorf on Law) Emily Bazelon (Slate) Having thought about the question a little bit more, I think that the defenders of Proposition 8 do […]
My Wandering Summer Reading
Although only mid-August, school will be starting up for me only too soon … during the summer months, I make a vow (at best half kept most years) to spend two hours a day reading stuff, anything that is not strictly driven by a current writing project. I’ve found that if I can persuade myself […]
Sensuous? I Can’t Help But Be Sensuous
So reports news.com.au, though about an incident in Italy: A TOPLESS sunbather is being investigated by police after being accused of sensuously rubbing sun cream on herself on a public beach. Police were called to a beach at Anzio south of Rome by a furious mother who said the way the “attractive” sunbather was rubbing […]
Math Puzzle
Find a ten-digit number with the following two properties (in base 10, of course): A. The number contains each digit (from 0 to 9) exactly once. B. For every N from 1 to 10, the first N digits of the number are divisible by N. Thus, for instance, 1234567890 doesn’t work; while 1 is divisible […]
Standing to Defend Prop. 8
On Thursday, Judge Vaughn Walker denied gay marraige opponents’ motion for a stay of his ruling in Perry v. Schwarzenegger declaring Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional. One of the reasons offered by Judge Walker was that he doubts whether Prop. 8’s defenders have standing to appeal his ruling. Although Judge Walker allowed them to intervene […]
Sunday Song Lyric
I’ve never thought of Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World” as a political song, but given some of my recent posts I may need to reconsider. Co-written with Lou Adler and Herb Alpert, the song has been covered by acts from Herman’s Hermits and Art Garfunkel to Bryan Ferry and Rod Stewart, the song made Rolling Stone‘s […]
Divorce Insurance
The New York Times Bucks Blog (of August 6, 2010) has a fascinating article by Jennifer Saranow Schultz on the first-ever offering in the United States of divorce insurance, the WedLock policy issued by a start up insurance company in North Carolina, Safeguard Guaranty Corp. Markets in everything, etc. The casualty insurance is designed to […]
Larry Ribstein Comments on Lawyerly Competitive Advantage
There are a couple of academic business law blogs I read regularly – particularly The Conglomerate and Truth on the Market. So I was flattered to see that Larry Ribstein, at Truth on the Market, put up a short comment on a short essay of mine that appeared last semester in my school’s short-form essay […]
Historical Ignorance on the Right
Right Wing News asked several dozen conservative bloggers to list the “worst figures in American history.” The resulting list is quite ahistorical. Say what you want about President Obama, but it’s difficult to credit a list that would identify him as the second worst figure in American history, behind only Jimmy Carter. Professor Bainbridge rightly […]
“Labored”
Eugene has given me the language usage bug. I happened to see this in an article from a UK website called Orange. Here’s the usage that intrigued me: Strangely, three months before the birth of Guangchun, his family’s sow also labored a weird shaped piglet, which had eight legs, two mouths and four ears. I […]
God’s Algorithm
AFP, via Yahoo, reports that a team of researchers using assistance from Google has established God’s Algorithm for the Rubik’s Cube. The coolness of this cannot be doubted. The Rubik’s Cube can always be solved from any position in twenty moves or fewer. An international team of researchers … has found every way the popular […]
ACORN decision explained
The Bill of Attainder clause was among the topics of my Advanced Constitutional Law class last semester, so while I am not an expert on the clause, I’ll try to provide some guidance. First, there are few Supreme Court cases on the clause. Second, Bill of Attainder controversies in the United States never involve the […]