According to the AP, 4 Republican state senators in Wisconsin have been re-elected, while 2 have lost their seats to Democrats. The Republicans thus continue to hold a majority in that chamber of the Wisconsin legislature. The last race to be called was in the 8th District. Twelve Milwaukee precincts seem to have been withheld […]
Archive | August, 2011
Current Controversies Volume on Patriotism
The Current Controversies series has recently published a volume on Patriotism, which includes contributions by Eugene Volokh and myself. Mine is an expansion of this post, which argues that patriotism goes wrong when it leads us to value the nation for its own sake, as opposed to a means to the end of promoting the […]
The Decline of Men or Just the Rise of Women?
Cato Unbound has an interesting symposium on the changing status of men in society, including a lead essay by Kay Hymowitz arguing that men are in decline and “falling behind.” The idea that the men are declining is not unique to Hymowitz. Anthropologist Lionel Tiger has a book advancing the same thesis. Other writers have […]
New York Trial Court Throws Out Libel Lawsuit Filed by Village Police Chief and Three Officers Against Anonymous Internet Commenters
The case is Varrenti v. Gannett Co. (Aug. 3). The court held that the comments, in context, would be seen as expressions of opinion rather than statements of verifiable fact — largely because readers would seem them as “sarcastic, hyperbolic, and based on rumors” — and that the comments are therefore protected against a libel […]
FNU LNU (No Relation to GNU)
I just ran across these terms in United States v. FNU LNU (2d Cir., decided today), though a search reveals that one or both have been used in Westlaw-searchable case captions over 950 times since 1992 (but only 12 times before). All but 13 references have been in federal cases. (For a related item, see […]
39-Year-Old Man with Alleged PTSD Seeks Court Order Against Harassment by 86-Year-Old Woman Neighbor, but Asks that He Not Have to Appear in Court
That’s the scenario in a 6-1 decision of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (which comes out in plaintiff’s favor, on the question of whether his case can proceed) in Blackhouse v. Doe (decided last Thursday), which deals with two legal issues: (1) When may a complaint be dismissed at the outset on the grounds that […]
Recent Widener University Law Professor Speaks Out About Connell Situation
Like my co-blogger David Bernstein, I’ve been closely following the situation at Widener University concerning the charges brought against Professor Lawrence Connell. (As some readers may recall, I filed an affidavit in the case in Connell’s support.) And like David, I was rather astonished by the latest news that the University has ordered that Connell […]
What Collective Action Federalism Is and Is Not
By Neil Siegel, guest-blogging on August 9, 2011 9:54 am in Collective Action Problems, Commerce Clause, Federalism
I congratulate Ilya Somin on the arrival of Willow. My daughters stand ready to babysit your beautiful pooch. In this post, I will clarify the theory of collective action federalism by offering four points about what the theory is and is not. First, collective action federalism is not a comprehensive structural account of American constitutional […]
The Framers’ Intent in Cases Involving the National Interest Where the States are “Separately Incompetent”
This is the second in a series of guest-posts on my new article, “Resolution VI”: The Virginia Plan and Authority to Resolve Collective Action Problems Under Article I, Section 8 and recent efforts to use Resolution VI as a foundational principle for construing federal power under Article I, Section 8. As amended and originally adopted […]
More Blogging Coming Soon
Blogging has been light over the past ten days because I have I have been busy with various other responsibilities, including the arrival of our new golden retriever puppy, Willow. Now that Willow has learned to sleep through the night in her crate and is (mostly) house-broken, I’m going to try to pick up the […]
Golden Retriever Takes the Stand in New York Criminal Trial
A golden retriever named Rosie recently became the first judicially approved dog allowed in the witness box for the purpose of comforting a witness while she testifies: Rosie, the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, was in the witness box here nuzzling a 15-year-old girl who was testifying that her father had raped […]
Court Rules That Police Cannot Use Warrants to Obtain Cell Phone Location of Person Who is Subject of Arrest Warrant
Imagine the police have an arrest warrant for a crime suspect, and they want to find the suspect to arrest him. They happen to know the suspect’s cell phone number, so they want to go to the phone company and have the phone company tell the police the location of the suspect’s phone. The phone […]
Congratulations to Glenn for 10 Years of Instapundit
Glenn Reynolds is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Instapundit by doing what he always does: keeping us up to date on what is going on in the world. Not only is Instapundit the first place I turn to every day for links to news and commentary, but Glenn’s efforts have meant a lot to me […]
God’s Blog
At the New Yorker today — very funny. Thanks to Joe Malchow for the pointer.
Monday Bear Blogging
Blogging’s been light because we’ve been on the road. Sunday morning we caught a glimpse of another brown bear in the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park in Gallatin Canyon. One picture came out okay — but it was nothing compared to the moose picture we were able to get last night in the Tetons.