On Saturday, I spoke on a panel on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act at the annual convention of the American Constitution Society in DC. Other panelists included Dawn Johnson and Walter Dellinger. I was the only one of the 5 + moderator who took the position that the Act was unconstitutional. You can […]
Archive | June, 2011
A Turing Test For Religion
Inspired by Bryan Caplan’s ideological Turing Test, atheist blogger Leah Libresco proposes a religious Turing test to measure the extent to which Christians and atheists understand the arguments of the other side [HT: Bryan Caplan]: Just like Caplan, I’d like to put my money where my mouth is and play in an ideological Turing Test […]
Electronic Arts Has Right to Refer to John Dillinger in Its Video Games
See these two interesting opinions from last week, Dillinger, LLC v. Electronic Arts, Inc. (S.D. Ind. June 15) and Dillinger, LLC v. Electronic Arts, Inc. (S.D. Ind. June 16), which involved the Dillinger heirs’ lawsuit over EA’s using the name “Dillinger” for some of the weapons in its Godfather games: The court rejected the right […]
Breyer’s Dissent in Sorrell and Carolene Products
By David Bernstein on June 24, 2011 7:27 am in Commercial Speech, Constitutional Law, Rehabilitating Lochner
In Justice Breyer’s dissent in Sorrell v. IMS Health, he cited United States v. Carolene Products, a Fifth Amendment due process case from 1938, for the proposition that “regulatory legislation affecting ordinary commercial transactions is not to be pronounced unconstitutional” if it rests “upon some rational basis within the knowledge and experience of the legislators.” […]
Barney Frank and Ron Paul Introduce Bill that Would Legalize Marijuana Under Federal Law
Democratic Representative Barney Frank and Republican Ron Paul recently introduced a bill that would repeal the federal law banning marijuana: The legislation would eliminate marijuana-specific penalties under federal law, but would maintain a ban on transporting marijuana across state lines. It would allow individuals to grow and sell marijuana in states that make it legal. […]
Assessing My Ideological Turing Test
Reactions to my attempt to take Bryan Caplan’s ideological Turing test by simulating liberal arguments varied widely. But, on the whole, more people thought I missed the mark than that I hit it. What caused this relative failure? Part of the problem was that it wasn’t a true Turing test at all. In the original […]
Rep. Lamar Smith on Bill to Repeal Federal Pot Laws
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said his panel would not consider it…. “Decriminalizing marijuana will only lead to millions more Americans becoming addicted to drugs and greater profits for drug cartels who fund violence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Allowing states to determine their own marijuana policy flies in the face of Supreme Court […]
Justice Breyer on Commercial Advertising
Justice Breyer’s dissent today in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc. led me to do a quick check, and I found that Justice Breyer has never voted for First Amendment protection for commercial advertising in a nonunanimous case. He was in the speech-restrictive 5-4 majorities in Florida Bar v. Went For It, Inc. (1995). He was […]
Breyer Violates Godwin’s Bernstein’s Law
By David Bernstein on June 23, 2011 4:33 pm in Constitutional Law, Freedom of Speech, Rehabilitating Lochner
Back in April, I wrote, “We need a Godwin’s Law for constitutional litigation: the first side to raise Lochner, especially in a case not involving the Due Process Clause, automatically loses.” Let’s call it “Bernstein’s Law.” If Bernstein’s law was a criminal law, Justice Stephen Breyer would be going to jail for loooong time, given […]
Delta Airlines complicit in Saudi discrimination?
In January, Delta Airlines announced that Saudi Arabian Airlines is joining Delta’s SkyTeam network of international airline partners. Yesterday, WorldNet Daily reported that Delta employees would be enforcing a no-Jews policy when checking in passengers on SAA flights from the United States to Saudi Arabia. I looked around the web for verification, and found the […]
Facebook Has No Duty to Accommodate the Disabled (Including Mentally Disabled), At Least in the Ninth Circuit
So holds Young v. Facebook, Inc. (N.D. Cal. May 17): Young alleges that she suffers from bipolar disorder and that Facebook unlawfully discriminated against her by failing to provide reasonable customer services to assist individuals with mental disabilities. In order to prevail on a discrimination claim under Title III, a plaintiff must show that: (1) […]
Jail Time (And $7000 Fine) for Saying a Restaurant’s Dishes Were “Too Salty”
The Taipei Times reports (thanks to Vadim Novik for the pointer): After visiting a Taichung beef noodle restaurant in July 2008, [defendant Liu] had dried noodles and side dishes, Liu wrote [on the blog] that the restaurant served food that was too salty, the place was unsanitary because there were cockroaches and that the owner […]
Boy Scouts Rejoice
Today’s dissent by Justice Breyer in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc. contains the first ever Supreme Court citation to Boys’ Life magazine — and, if my search was accurate, the first citation by any court to a particular item in Boys’ Life magazine, setting aside references in lawsuits against the Boy Scouts. The passage is: […]
Sarah Connor’s Early Cancer Risk Explained
See here. (OK, this probably doesn’t work with so few generations of difference, but who knows?) Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.
Restricting Commercial Advertising Because It Might Persuade People
Today’s Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc. is a complicated case; I think the majority (the conservatives plus Justice Sotomayor) is basically right, but I don’t want to focus on the details of this particular case right now. Instead, I want to talk about what this case means to a much broader question having to do […]