I’ve contributed some initial reactions to the Washington Post‘s online “Topic A” feature on the Kagan nomination hearings. The general thrust of my remarks is that the Kagan hearings, thus far, are much like what we’ve come to expect in that she’s dutifully avoided revealing much about her personal legal views, despite her 1995 essay […]
Archive | 2010
“On Free Association, the Court Makes the Right Call”
That’s the title of an online op-ed I have today at the New York Daily News. The opening paragraphs: We have many constitutional rights. But we generally aren’t constitutionally entitled to get subsidies for those rights. The right to privately educate our children doesn’t equal a right to government funding for private schools. The right […]
Gabriella Blum and Philip Heymann on Targeted Killing
By Kenneth Anderson on June 29, 2010 9:25 am in Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Harvard professors Gabriella Blum and Philip Heymann have a new, short article online at the Harvard National Security Law Journal (which, by the way, is doing many interesting things), Law and Policy of Targeted Killing (June 27, 2010). (A version of it will appear as a chapter in their forthcoming book on terrorism and counterterrorism.) […]
Prehistoric Hobbits Were a Distinct Species – More Scientific Evidence Supporting The Lord of The Rings
The New Scientist cites proof that the prehistoric “hobbits” whose fossils were recently discovered by scientists in Indonesia were actually a distinct species, and not human [HT: Instapundit]: Case closed – the “hobbits” that lived on the Indonesian island of Flores only 13,000 years ago were a unique species of hominid. This was the first […]
Only One “Qualified Justice” for a Case
Today’s order list had this interesting item: 09-1318 — HENDERSON, GLENN C. V. SONY PICTURES, ET AL. Because the Court lacks a quorum, 28 U. S. C. §1, and since the only qualified Justice is of the opinion that the case cannot be heard and determined at the next Term of Court, the judgment is […]
The Continuing Relevance of Hayek
Economist Russ Roberts has a good column in today’s Wall Street Journal outlining the continuing relevance of F.A. Hayek’s work to our own time: He was born in the 19th century, wrote his most influential book more than 65 years ago, and he’s not quite as well known or beloved as the sexy Mexican actress […]
Constitutional Rights that Put Lives at Risk
In his dissent in McDonald, signed by three liberal justices, Justice Breyer argues that gun rights deserve little or no judicial protection at least in part because they put lives at risk: Unlike other forms of substantive liberty, the carrying of arms for that purpose [self-defense] often puts others’ lives at risk…. And the use […]
Predicting the Impact of McDonald
The Supreme Court has now incorporated the Second Amendment against the states. But the impact of that decision may turn out to be fairly limited. In most states, there will be little if any change in the actual extent of gun regulation. The ideologically divided nature of the Court’s decision suggests that the legal status […]
Podcast on the McDonald decision
Sixteen minutes, taped this afternoon, for iVoices.org. MP3 here. I also discussed the decision on Denver’s Caplis & Silverman radio show. Dennis Henigan, from the Brady Center, was the guest after me. The show’s archive link is here. Ignore the archive’s caption, which incorrectly states, “Do you agree with the Court? David Koppel opposes the […]
What Now for Limits on Gun Possession by 18-to-20-Year-Olds?
I suspect that even after McDonald, most gun controls will be upheld, either on the theory that certain kinds of gun possession are outside the scope of the Second Amendment as interpreted in Heller (e.g., bans on gun possession by felons), or on the theory that the gun control imposes only a slight burden on […]
McDonald v. City of Chicago and the Standard of Review for Gun Control Laws
I don’t have much that’s original or interesting to say about the historical and jurisprudential arguments made by the majority and the dissent in McDonald v. City of CHicago. But I did want to say a few words about the possible implications of McDonald. Let me begin with the question: How could McDonald affect the […]
Live-Blogging the Kagan Hearings
Various folks have been, and will be, live-blogging the Kagan confirmation hearings. Among those who live-blogged today’s opening statements are SCOTUSBlog, NRO, and TPM.
Why Not the Privileges or Immunities Clause?
By Ilya Somin on June 28, 2010 4:04 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Theory, Guns, Originalism
In today’s Supreme Court decision incorporating the Second Amendment against the states, the four justice plurality opinion used the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to justify its ruling rather than the Privileges or Immunities Clause. As various commentators, including co-blogger Randy Barnett, have pointed out, it is strange that four conservative justices supposedly […]
Sen. Franken’s Bad Environmental History
Senator Franken used his opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Elena Kagan to argue that the current Supreme Court is an activist, pro-business court. I’ve addressed such allegations before (see, e.g., here, here, and here), and won’t do so here. What I found interesting was his attempt to argue that if […]
Thoughts on Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB
In Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, a five-justice majority found a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley law unconstitutional, yet left the SarbOx regulatory structure largely intact. With almost surgical precision, the Court erased the limitations on removal of members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), thereby granting petitioners a victory on their constitutional claim […]