[UPDATE: The order has now been rescinded.] Johanna Hamrick runs the Berea Post blog, and had been candidate for mayor and city council president in Berea, Ohio. She had posted various things critical of Norma Kleem, the sister of the Berea mayor, and (among other things) Berea Commission on Aging member and, apparently, the organizer […]
Archive | August, 2011
Could President Perry carry a gun?
Chris Moody attempts to analyze the issue for The Ticket. The analysis could have been improved by reading the laws of the District of Columbia. Moody describes D.C. as “a city that bans carrying firearms.” That’s not exactly correct. The D.C. Code generally prohibits carrying a firearm “without a license issued pursuant to District of […]
Regulatory Scrutiny of the Rating Agencies
Update 2: Please see the further comment above, in its own separate post, as well as this earlier one. And thanks to Glenn for the Insta link. US regulators, including the Department of Justice and the SEC, are reported to be undertaking civil (apparently not criminal) investigations into the rating agencies’ practices in rating mortgage-backed […]
Unchain Agricultural Biotechnology
Population growth and climate change demand increases in agricultural productivity — increases that can only be achieved through the use of modern biotechnology. Yet excessive and scientifically unjustified regulatory restrictions hamper the development of more productive crop strains, particularly where they are needed most. So argues Penn State biology professor Nina Federoff in today’s NYT, […]
Rearguing Texas v. White
Some Texans, including the current governor, maintain that Texas retained the right to secede when it joined the United States. The Supreme Court’s 1869 decision in Texas v. White would suggest otherwise. But was the Court correct? Via the WSJ Law Blog comes news that the Supreme Court Historical Society is hosting a mock retrial […]
High School Student’s Parents Sue Because School Briefly Suspended Student for Drinking Alcohol on School-Sponsored International Trip
The case is Sabol v. Walter Payton College Preparatory High School (N.D. Ill. Apr. 12, 2011, just posted on Westlaw in the last few days); the plaintiffs argued the suspension violated substantive due process, procedural due process, the Fourth Amendment, and the Equal Protection Clause, and constituted abuse of discretion and intentional infliction of emotional […]
Global Warming Could Trigger Alien Attack
The Guardian reports on a scenario analysis conducted by several scientists considering possible scenarios resulting from contact with alien life forms. The analysis covers many basic scenarios, such as basic communication or the possibility of disease transmission from physical contact, but also suggests global warming could give aliens an excuse to attack. The authors warn […]
Public School Teacher Reassigned Following Anti-Same-Sex-Marriage Facebook Post [UPDATE: Teacher Has Since Been Reinstated]
[UPDATE: The teacher has now been reinstated.] CNN reports: A former “teacher of the year” in Lake County, Florida, has been reassigned while school administrators investigate comments posted on his Facebook page about same-sex marriage…. [S]chool officials received a complaint Tuesday about the content on Mount Dora High School teacher Jerry Buell’s personal Facebook page […]
Taking a Look At Texas
Texas Governor Rick Perry’s greatest asset as a candidate is the Lone Star state’s recent economic performance. Paul Krugman may not be impressed, but the Texas economy has boomed while the rest of the country has stalled, as this analysis shows. But can Perry take credit for it? Not necessarily. Megan McArdle is skeptical. Jason […]
Rick Perry Questions Evolution, Endorses the Teaching of “Creationism”
USA Today: The Texas governor was responding to a question from a little boy in New Hampshire, who was prompted by his mother to ask the Republican candidate about the age of the Earth and evolution. “I hear your mom was asking about evolution,” Perry said today. “That’s a theory that is out there — […]
Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch and the Arab Spring
It’s fascinating to listen again to this talk by HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson (starting at 16:53) from the Summer of 2009. The topic was “Human Rights in the Middle East.” Syria and Libya get barely a mention. Yemen isn’t mentioned at all. Israel gets by far the most negative […]
Cato Institute Constitution Day Events
On Thursday, September 15, the Cato Institute will be celebrating Constitution Day and the publication of its annual Supreme Court Review with a day-long series of panels and lectures. I’ll be speaking, as will my co-bloggers Jonathan Adler and David Post. Many friends-of-the-VC will be panelists or moderators, too, including Walter Olson, Ilya Shapiro, Roger […]
Legal Policy Arguments (Post 2 of 2) — Morality, Efficiency, and Questions to Ask Yourself
(As I mentioned in post 1, I’m posting again some thoughts that I had about making effective policy arguments, in law school, in legal articles, and in briefs.) 3. The best policy arguments generally combine moral and practical arguments…. [P]eople often debate whether the law should be aimed at efficiency or at justice. But whatever […]
Symposium on Same-Sex Marriage
By Dale Carpenter on August 18, 2011 6:21 pm in Federalism, Gay Marriage, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage
This week and next, SCOTUSblog is hosting an online symposium on various aspects of the litigation challenging California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. The expected contributors are well-known combatants in the ongoing national debate over gay marriage: Carlos Ball, Bob Barr, Thomas Berg, Erwin Chemerinsky, David Cruz, William C. Duncan, John Eastman, William Eskridge, […]
Discrimination Against Student Religious Speech
By Eugene Volokh on August 18, 2011 6:07 pm in Freedom of Speech at K-12 Schools, Religion and the Law
Schools, including K-12 schools, generally can’t discriminate against religious speech by students, outside the school curriculum (such as class assignments) or school-organized programs (such as graduations). If they allow extracurricular nonreligious clubs to form, they must let religious clubs form. If they allow nonreligious flyers to be distributed, they must allow religious flyers to be […]