At CNN, Politico, National Review Online’s “The Corner” blog, and at the Susan B. Anthony List website, you can read the developing controversy over some Republican presidential candidates’ refusal to sign the SBA Lists’ “2012 Pro-Life Citizen’s Pledge.” Signers thus far are Bachmann, Gingrich, Pawlenty, Paul, and Santorum. The items on the pledge are: FIRST, […]
Archive | June, 2011
An End to ObamaCare Waivers
The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that it will cease issuing waivers from the health care reform law’s requirements in September. From the NYT: No more applications will be accepted after Sept. 22, federal health officials said. Steven B. Larsen, director of the federal Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, said […]
US v. Juvenile Male: It’s Baaaaack!
The government’s February 2010 cert. petition in United States v. Juvenile Male, 09-940, presents the question, “Whether application of the registration and notification provisions of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) to a juvenile who was adjudicated delinquent under the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act before SORNA’s enactment violates the Ex Post Facto Clause […]
Balkin on Bush, Obama and OLC
Jack Balkin blogs on the Obama Administration’s decision to overrule OLC at Balkinization. He compares the Obama Administration’s actions with those of the Bush Administration. The Bush White House undermined OLC’s role by cocooning those who were working on certain questions and short-circuiting intra- and interagency rule. Through this process, the White House got the […]
New Jersey Supreme Court Will Hear Fourth Amendment Case Involving Supposed “Administrative Search” of a Family’s Back Yard
I blogged in March about an interesting statement respecting the denial of certiorari today in Huber v. N.J. Dep’t of Environmental Protection: Statement of Justice Alito, with whom the Chief Justice, Justice Scalia, and Justice Thomas join, respecting the denial of certiorari. Our cases recognize a limited exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement for […]
“Extraordinarily Rare”
As Charlie Savage notes twice in the article Jonathan discusses below, the President and the Attorney General have the authority, in the hierarchical Executive Branch, to overrule the advice of OLC. But as the article also notes, it is “extraordinarily rare” for that to happen. When Senator Whitehouse asked me after a hearing in 2008 […]
President Overruled OLC on Libya
The NYT‘s Charlie Savage has confirmed that the President overruled the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel’s opinion of what constitutes “hostilities” under the War Powers Resolution, preferring instead the conclusion reached by the White House Counsel’s office and the State Department’s Harold Koh. In another story earlier this week on the Administration’s explanation to […]
Chesley “Suspended” from State Case Against Fannie Mae
BLT reports that Ohio Attorney General has “suspended” noted plaintiffs attorney Stanley Chesley, aka the “Master of Disaster,” from the state AGSs’ lawsuit against Fannie Mae due to pending disciplinary proceedings against him. As I noted here, the Kentucky Bar Association voted to disbar him, and that recommendation is now before the Kentucky Supreme Court.
The 40th Anniversary of the War on Drugs
Today is the 40th Anniversary of Richard Nixon’s Declaration of the War on Drugs. Coincidentally, it comes on the heels of declarations by international and British commissions that the War has been a miserable and costly failure. Over the last four decades, the War on Drugs has killed tens of thousands of people, imprisoned hundreds […]
Autopens, Signatures, Samson, and Constitutional Interpretation
Jennifer Steinhauer (The Caucus Blog of the New York Times) reports: [Twenty-one Representatives], many freshmen who ran on platforms of strict constitutional adherence, are unhappy that the president used a so-called autopen to sign legislation extending the U.S.A. Patriot Act, and have written him a letter demanding that he re-sign the bill. The letter is […]
English V3.31
I’m generally not an early adopter of such products, but this sounds interesting. For the original report, see here.
The Thirteenth Amendment, the Draft, Jury Service, and (Perhaps Surprisingly) Compulsory Road Work
Occasionally some people ask why the draft hasn’t been found to violate the Thirteenth Amendment, which provides that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” (I saw this question asked […]
Retired Montana Law Professor Denied “Emeritus” Status
The Missoulian reports that the faculty at the University of Montana School of Law has voted agaisnt granting retired Professor Rob Natelson “emeritus” status. Natelson, who retired in May 2010 after serving 23 years as a professor in the law school to take a job as a senior fellow with the Independence Institute, was informed […]
WI Public Employee Unions’ Complaint
Here is the complaint filed in federal court by several Wisconsin unions seeking to overturn newly adopted restrictions on collective bargaining by public employees. Here is the nature of the action as described in the opening portions of the complaint. At the request of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Defendant in this action, the Wisconsin […]
Requiring Church Attendance as a Bail Condition
Today’s Mississippi Supreme Court decision in Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance v. Dearman orders that Mississippi Justice Court Judge Theresa Brown Dearman be reprimanded and suspended for 30 days for — among other things — requiring church attendance as a condition of bail: In April 2006, Judge Dearman presided over the initial appearance of Philipe […]