The New York Post reports on the apparent meeting of the minds between Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The Supreme Court’s two newest justices have yet to disagree in a single case decided this term. The two have also shown a remarkable degree of agreement in their reasoning, fully joining the same opinions in […]
Archive | June, 2011
My New Article on Judicial Takings
My new article, “Stop the Beach Renourishment and the Problem of Judicial Takings” is now available on SSRN. It is part of a symposium on judicial takings sponsored by the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy. Here is the abstract: Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection was the […]
Prison Vouchers — part 5
This is the fifth and last in a series of posts serial-blogging my new article, Prison Vouchers, forthcoming in the Penn Law Review. The first post in the series is here (I recommend reading it for an overview of the entire paper), the second post is here, the third is here, and the fourth is […]
Interesting Parental Rights / Religious Freedom Issue
Check out N.J. Div’n of Youth & Family Servs. v. Y.C. (N.J. App. Div. May 27, 2011), a case upholding the conclusion that Y.C. had abused or neglected her daughter, A.C. (which had led to a temporary removal of the child from Y.C.): The gravamen of the abuse and neglect complaint was that, based on […]
Global Commission on Drug Policy Concludes that “the Global War on Drugs Has Failed”
The Global Commission on Drug Policy recently issued a report concluding that “[t]he global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.” It points out that fifty years of international drug prohibition policies have had little impact on drug consumption (which continued to rise), but has caused enormous […]
Harshly Criticizing Religious and Cultural Figures and Practices
A bunch of people have e-mailed me about Foreskin Man, a comic book series written by Matthew Hess, a leading figure in the anti-circumcision movement who apparently drafted the prototype for the San Francisco anti-circumcision ordinance. (Contrary to some initial reports, he is not the official “proponent” of the initiative listed with the San Francisco […]
Advice for a Freshman Starting at Rice University?
As I’ve mentioned in passing a couple of times, my daughter will be starting up at Rice University this year. People have emailed helpful bits of advice, and mentioned that they have kids at Rice, so I thought, it being a Sunday morning, I’d just ask straight out what advice you might have for a […]
Administration Internal Divisions Over Drone Strikes in Pakistan?
The Wall Street Journal’s ace national security reporting team – Adam Entous, Siobhan Gorman, Julian Barnes, several others – reported in a very interesting story today that divisions have emerged at the senior levels of the Obama administration over the strategic utility of drone strikes in Pakistan. The issue is between the unquestioned effectiveness of […]
Don’t Blame EPA for What the Clean Air Act Requires
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 4, 2011 5:37 pm in Climate Change, Congress, Environment, Regulation, Uncategorized
At a recent press conference touting House GOP plans to reduce regulatory burdens on business, members of Congress expressed dismay that the Environmental Protection Agency may tighten the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone (aka urban smog) without considering the economic costs. Rep. Vicki Hartzler (R-Mo) remarked: I received this week a letter from […]
Homeowner Forecloses on Bank
It’s hard not to chuckle at this story: Bank of America tries to foreclose on a couple’s house, even though they don’t owe a cent. The couple fights BoA in court, and wins — but then BoA fails to pay the legal fees and court costs. So what does the wronged couple do? Precisely what […]
Anyone Familiar with Project Euler?
Not all of the Conspirators have the (eu)genes to have been computer science prodigies in our teen years. But I have long wanted to learn something about (really, truly) elementary programming, but somehow never gotten around to it. I read this article at the Atlantic on something called Project Euler and wondered if it might […]
Doesn’t Anyone Know American History Anymore?
At a stop in Boston during her bus tour Sarah Palin made a somewhat incoherent reference to Paul Revere’s famous ride. He who warned, uh, the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms uh by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those […]
Are Federalist Society Speaking Engagements a Major Advantage for non-Liberal Academics?
Brian Leiter argues that the opportunity to speak at Federalist Society student chapters is an important career advantage for conservative and libertarian academics. Co-blogger David Bernstein believes otherwise. On balance, I think David is right. As he points out, the speaking engagements that really help an academic career are those attended by other academics. And […]
A Book Length Account of Fannie and Freddie and Their Role in the Financial Crisis
Among the scores of books I’ve accumulated on the financial crisis, one always seemed to be missing: a book length account of the role of Fannie and Freddie in bringing about the financial crisis, following their rise and fall. Many books had important sections devoted to the GSEs (e.g., Roger Lowenstein’s The End of Wall […]
What Do You Wish Your Torts Professor Had Told You at the Beginning of the Course?
I’m preparing the reading packet for my Torts class this Fall, and wanted to make sure that it’s as helpful to students as possible. So let me ask you lawyers and law students this: What do you wish your Torts professor had told you at the start of class (or at the start of some […]