Please respond only if you are a law student, a lawyer, or someone similarly legally educated. Please don’t try to look up the answer; I want your off-the-cuff reaction, even if it’s just a guess. I will post the answers in a day or two. You read that The demand for product A exceeds the […]
Archive | 2010
Hitch Is a Fighter
… and I have faith that Christopher, who along with his family, are old and dear friends, will beat back this cancer. Best and heartfelt wishes for a complete remission. In a statement released through his publisher Twelve, the British-born provocateur, 61, said that he has “been advised by my physician that I must undergo […]
Free Embeddable Surveys That Can Ask for Numerical Answers
I’d like to run an on-blog survey of our readers. I’d like to not have to pay for it. I’d like to have the questions and proper answer boxes be displayed right here on the blog, without having to refer people to a separate Web page. And I’d like to ask readers for a number, […]
Collateral Estoppel in the Wone Wrongful Death Case?
I haven’t been at all following the investigation of the killing of Robert Wone, and the trial of Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky, and Dylan Ward for allegedly obstructing justice in the investigation. But reader Ellen Fredel raised an interesting legal question: The trial judge — the case was tried without a jury — made detailed […]
Not Anyone’s Daughter
Earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued perhaps the single most appalling statement of official multiculturalism I have read with regard to the United States in many years. It called for de-criminalizing what might be called a softer, gentler form of clitoral mutilation – allowing for a “ritual nick” of a girl’s clitoris […]
Federal Court Strikes Down Pennsylvania Ban on Corporate Names Containing “Blasphemy, Profane Cursing or Swearing or [Words] That Profane the Lord’s Name”
I blogged about the law, and the litigation, here; yesterday, a federal district judge held (Kalman v. Cortes) that the statute violates the Establishment Clause and the Free Speech Clause. Thanks to Adam Bonin for the pointer.
Conservatives, Libertarians, and Civil Rights History
To follow up on Ilya’s post below, it’sworth noting that the post-World War II politician of national significance probably most beloved by libertarianish types (libertarianism was not a self-conscious movement until recently) was Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio. Taft, of course, lost the Republican presidential nomination to Eisenhower in 1952. The conservatives who eventually founded […]
To Get Children Back, Father Must Get Counseling to “Address His Use of Sexist and Racist Language”
So holds In re G.G. (Cal. Ct. App. June 29, 2010), by a 2-1 vote. (The court order said that “Father to be in individual counseling to address issues with a male therapist regarding father‘s racist and sexist views,” but the appellate opinion seems to treat the counseling as focused solely on the father’s use […]
Elementary School May Not Discriminate Against Students’ Distribution of Religious Materials
So holds Morgan v. Swanson, decided today by the Fifth Circuit — just the latest in a long line of cases striking down such discrimination against religious speech by students. (A school may limit religious speech within its own curriculum, including speech by students who are participating in school-conducted events; but this case didn’t involve […]
Where are the Kagan Hearing Transcripts?
Like Ann Althouse, I am having trouble finding online transcripts of the Kagan nomination hearings. Last year, during the Sotomayor hearings, I found them fairly easily at various news organization websites. Not so this year. All I’ve been able to find are transcripts of a few of the opening statements. Perhaps some of our intrepid […]
The Second Treatise of Government, by the Political Philosopher Barbie
H/T Instapundit and Frank Warner. So sayeth Barbie in Toy Story 3, and speaking on behalf of toys: “Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force!”
Foreign Law and the Constitution, Kagan Edition
From the AP account of the Kagan confirmation hearing of the now presumably de rigueur question of candidates … foreign law and interpretation of the US constitution. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan says foreign law could be useful “for getting good ideas” when interpreting the Constitution but that justices should not feel bound by it … international law can […]
Are Nunchaku “Arms” for Second Amendment Purposes?
Yesterday, the Supreme Court sent Maloney v. Rice — the challenge to New York’s nunchaku ban — back to the Second Circuit. The Second Circuit had initially rejected the challenge on the grounds that the Second Amendment was inapplicable to states. Now it will probably have to decide whether nunchaku count as “arms” for Second […]
Further Reactions to the Kagan Hearings
The Washington Post has posted my comments on today’s hearings in their online “Topic A” feature. Comments from others are sure to follow. Among other things, I note that Elena Kagan has effectively avoided giving substantive answers that could disclose her views on any legal issue, old or new. She wouldn’t name any justice she […]
D.C. Circuit Cites Orin’s Blog Post
The post is The Strange Practice of Indicting in the Conjunctive, cited on p. 28 n.10 of yesterday’s United States v. Coughlin. Congratulations, Orin!