I’ve blogged about this before, and discussed it in Part I of this law review article, but I thought I’d mention it again, especially since the topic came up on a discussion list that I’m on. People sometimes talk about what is the “standard of scrutiny” for a particular right, having in mind ostensible standards […]
Archive | 2010
“She Blinded Me With Science,”
How Appealing labels this Georgia Supreme Court decision, Grammens v. Dollar. The opening line from the case: “David Dollar suffered an eye injury during a science experiment performed in his eighth-grade science class taught by appellant Patricia Grammens.” The record does not reflect whether the rest of the song was equally imitated, though I’m pretty […]
Final Thoughts on Libertarianism and Antidiscrimination Laws
Here is my final contribution to the Cato Unbound mini-colloquium on libertarianism and antidiscrimination laws. Meanwhile, my friend Bryan Caplan criticizes my argument (read the original essay here) that Title II was justified on libertarian grounds to break up the Jim Crow cartel. He argues that the logical implications of my argument that Title II […]
The constitutional holding of McDonald
I’m not sure I understand the bit in Jack Balkin’s post (see also Randy) where he says that “If the Court’s argument about Congress’s intent in McDonald is correct, [i.e., if §1981 already applies the whole Bill of Rights to the states,] it follows that the main holding in McDonald is completely superfluous and the […]
L.A. Times Review of Skating on Stilts
Today’s L.A. Times gives a good review to Skating on Stilts, citing parts of the book that VC readers should be familiar with: “Skating on Stilts” is full of … anecdotes, and Baker, who was a key Homeland Security player from 2005 to 2009, makes a persuasive case against the privacy absolutists. He reprises his […]
Alan Meese and Nate Oman Take on Noah Feldman
and his call for a new progressive constitutionalism, modeled on the old, New Deal-style progressive constitutionalism. I agree wholeheartedly with Meese and Oman. One additional point: Feldman, like other modern liberal writers who yearn for the Progressive days of yore, whitewashes Progressivism, so that it consisted solely of public-spirited regulation of corporations and the labor […]
News Flash: Supreme Court Inadvertently Holds That the Entire Bill of Rights Applies to the States
Jack Balkin explains the startling news: On Monday, June 28, 2010, in McDonald v. City of Chicago, the Supreme Court inadvertently held that Congress had already applied the entire Bill of Rights to the states through the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The Court held that the Civil Rights Act was intended to protect substantive […]
Cup Musings, Cont’d:
Having just returned from 10 days bicycling in France, away from my computer and therefore unable to share with you my thoughts on the developments in South Africa, it’s time to catch up. France was an unfortunate place to be, as it turned out, for the second round of the Cup; while it was pretty […]
Marty Ginsburg, R.I.P.
As assiduous readers of the VC have no doubt been aware, I’ve been away (and away from my computer) for the last 10 days or so — what else could have kept me from bombarding you with more World Cup musings?? — but the news did reach me of Marty Ginsburg’s passing last week, and […]
Seventh Circuit Judges Can’t Even Agree on the Font to Use in Their Opinions
Compare River of Life Kingdom Ministries v. Village of Hazel Crest (PalatinoLinotype, F.) with United States v. Blagojevich (HoeflerText, F.). I side with PalatinoLinotype, which seems thinner and less busy — and avoids the unfortunate capital Q of HoeflerText, see the top of p. 7 of Blagojevich. UPDATE: I am told that this is a […]
Do Lawyers Have Any Disciplinary Comparative Advantages in Designing Financial Regulatory Reform?
An economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Kartik Athreya, recently raised a bit of ruckus with a personal-views paper titled, “Economics is Hard.” It was mentioned on Greg Mankiw’s widely-read blog, among other places, and elicited an irritated response from, among others … well, just google the article and you can get all, […]
Realistic Privacy Protection in the Information Age
This post is the last in a series about privacy. They are all drawn from my book. The full discussion is available, free for distribution, here. I’ve devoted several posts to failed solutions to the problem of privacy in a data-filled world. In the end, I think these approaches all fail because they’re all reactionary […]
This July 4, While Many of Us Give Thanks for the Troops
… and pray for their safety and honor their sacrifices, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for ABC news, Martha Raddatz, delivers herself of the following opinion concerning American fighting forces and drone warfare: Traditionally, when a nation went to war, it had to invest its blood and treasure, but today’s joystick-wielding drone pilots can launch […]
Harold, Kumar, and Health Care Reform
From today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer: The White Castle hamburger chain fears that a health insurance reform law adopted earlier this year will put its profits on a downward slide. The Columbus-based family owned restaurant chain – known for serving small square hamburgers called “sliders” – says a single provision in the bill will eat up […]
Wonder Woman Gets Pants
After sixty-nine years, Wonder Woman is getting a makeover. With issue 600 of her comic book series, she will don a new outfit, more suitable for heroic exploits — and it’s about time. As inconvenient as it may be for the fantasys of adolescent boys, it’s not easy to fight crime in a mini-skirt. The […]