From an editorial in the Greene County Republican Committee newsletter: The ultimate task for the people is to remain vigilant and aware ~ that the government, their government is out of control, and this moment, this opportunity, must not be forsaken, must not escape us, for we shall not have any coarse but armed revolution […]
Archive | May, 2012
Eminent Domain and the Keystone Pipeline Project
By Ilya Somin on May 9, 2012 3:06 pm in Energy, Environment, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
The New York Times has an article describing how the TransCanada corporation is using eminent domain to forcibly acquire property to build the Keystone oil pipeline: When the TransCanada men first came, Julia Trigg Crawford said, they were polite. They offered money. Seven thousand dollars to let the Keystone XL pipeline cross her family’s 600-acre […]
First Amendment Protection for Search Engine Search Results
Google commissioned me to write this White Paper (“First Amendment Protection for Search Engine Search Results“), so I thought I’d pass it along. I wrote the paper as an advocate, and not as a disinterested academic, but I hope some of our readers might find it interesting nonetheless. Here is the Introduction, though of course […]
Australian Juries and Muslim Defendants Accused of Attempted Honor Killings
In R. v. Belghar (New South Wales Ct. Crim. App. Apr. 11, 2012), Ismail Belghar is being prosecuted for attempted murder of his sister-in-law (labeled “complainant” in the opinion). The government alleges: On a day in October 2009, the complainant, her sister Hanife and a female friend went to the beach without the respondent’s knowledge. […]
When Should the Court Account for Errors?
Lyle Denniston has an interesting post on SCOTUSBlog discussing whether the Court will reconsider its judgment in Nken v. Holder because the decision was based, in part, on erroneous factual premises. The Justice Department last month told the Court that it had provided faulty information in that case about U.S. immigration policy, but it suggested […]
Maker’s Mark’s Mark Prevails
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued its opinion in Maker’s Mark Distillery v. Diageo North America. The opinion begins: Justice Hugo Black once wrote, “I was brought up to believe that Scotch whisky would need a tax preference to survive in competition with Kentucky bourbon.” Dep’t of Revenue v. James […]
Heartland’s Mad Billboard Stunt
By Jonathan H. Adler on May 9, 2012 10:40 am in Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Politicizing Science
The folks at the Heartland Institute are mad, and that seems to have driven them a little mad. For years environmental activists have compared climate skeptics and those who raise questions about the likelihood of a warming-induced apocalypse to Holocaust deniers and worse. In 1989, then-Senator Al Gore famously compared those who downplayed the climate […]
Stanley Fish on The Hunger Games
Big-name literary scholar Stanley Fish has an interesting column on The Hunger Games, the popular series of science fiction novels by Suzanne Collins which has recently been made into a highly successful movie: A couple of weeks ago my daughter visited from California. She brought with her the first volume of Suzanne Collins’s “The Hunger […]
The New York Times on the Politics of Russian Immigrants
The New York Times has an interesting article on the political attitudes of New York City’s Russian immigrant community. Unlike most New Yorkers and especially most New York Jews (the Russian immigrant community is overwhelmingly Jewish), they tend to support the GOP over the Democrats: To many Russian and Ukrainian immigrants, the cornucopia in the […]
IG Inspector Claims White House Obstructed Gulf Drilling Moratorium Report
The New Orleans Times Picayune reports the White House denied the Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General access to e-mails and communications about White House revisions to a report Interior Secretary Ken Salazar relied upon to justify a moratorium in oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The story begins: A senior federal investigator […]
Court Won’t Enforce Trust Provision Calling for Appointment of Three Orthodox Jews to Arbitrate a Dispute
From In the Matter of Ismailoff, 2007 WL 7670254 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. Feb. 1) (payment required for access), which was just posted on Westlaw in the last day or two: This is a proceeding commenced by the grantor of an inter vivos trust for a determination that the trust is the product of undue influence. […]
Generic Iconoclasm vs. Some Sensible Things You Were Taught in School
Forbes runs this item: Nine Dangerous Things You Were Taught In School Be aware of the insidious and unspoken lessons you learned as a child. To thrive in the world outside the classroom, you’re going to have to unlearn them. Dangerous things you were taught in school: 1. The people in charge have all the […]
Seventh Circuit: Ban on Audio Recording of Police Officers Likely Unconstitutional
From ACLU v. Alvarez (7th Cir. May 8, 2012) (Judge Sykes joined by Judge Hamilton, with Judge Posner dissenting): We reverse and remand with instructions to allow the amended complaint and enter a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the eavesdropping statute as applied to audio recording of the kind alleged here. The Illinois eavesdropping statute […]
Some Baffling Copyright Law
The Supreme Court has granted cert in Kirtsaeng v John Wiley, another of the series of rather baffling cases involving interpretation of the scope of copyright’s “importation right.” It’s a rather wonderful example of how baroque the structure of copyright law has become, as well as the ways in which interpretation of some very arcane […]
Rehabilitating Lochner Paperback and Kindle Price Drop
Rehabilitating Lochner is now available for pre-order at Amazon for $15.30–quite a discount relative to the $37.00 the hardcover is going for (Cato sells it for $10 less). Amazon has meanwhile reduced the price of the Kindle edition to $15.07. Interested readers can check out a recent LibertyLaw blog symposium on the book, with reviews […]