Law and Ethics for Robot Soldiers is the title of a new essay by Matthew Waxman and me; it will appear in Policy Review down the road, but we have posted to SSRN an annotated and footnoted version that we hope will be useful to students, researchers, and scholars. The regulation of lethal autonomous weapons […]
Archive | May, 2012
Elizabeth Warren and Affirmative Action in Law School Hiring
Aside from Brian Leiter, whose contention that being Native American provides no affirmative action edge in law school hiring fails the straight-face test, it is obvious to everyone else why Elizabeth Warren self-identified as Native American all those years–which was to get an edge in hiring. Even less plausible, of course, is her own explanation–that […]
Liberty Law Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of Capitalism and Freedom
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Milton Freidman’s Capitalism and Freedom the Liberty Law website has organized a symposium of reflections on the book’s legacy. The introduction to the symposium is here. My essay, which takes off on the coincidence of the publication of Capitalism and Freedom and Hayek’s The Constitution […]
Is United States v. Bond Headed Back to the High Court?
In 2010, the Supreme Court unanimously held that Carol Anne Bond had standing to challenge her conviction under the Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act of 1998 for trying to poison her husband’s lover. On remand, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected her constitutional challenge to the Act for exceeding the scope […]
Nearly Half the New York Assembly Republicans: Require Deletion of Anonymous Comments Whenever Anyone Complains
Twenty-three of the forty-nine New York Assembly Republicans, plus one Independent and one Democrat, introduced this bill last Fall but just “unveiled” it yesterday: 1. Definitions. As used in this section, the following words and terms shall have the following meanings: (a) [“]Anonymous poster[“] is any individual who posts a message on a web site […]
Misreporting the Costs of Going to (Some) Law Schools
By Jonathan H. Adler on May 3, 2012 11:29 pm in Law School Tuition and Loans, Law Schools, Legal Profession
In an effort to educate potential law students about the real costs of attending law school, Law School Transparency has launched a “Data Clearinghouse”, a database of “consumer information” on law schools, including much information law schools have been reluctant to disclose. The latest addition to the database are projections of the full cost of […]
Julia and the Community Garden
The Obama campaign is plugging “The Life of Julia,” designed to show how the government in general, and this administration’s policies in particular, help a hypothetical woman throughout her life. The last entry, showing Julia at 67, really annoyed me: Under President Obama: Julia retires. After years of contributing to Social Security, she receives monthly […]
Seventy Years after the New Deal Revolution, Child Labor is Still Legal
In some previous posts, I’ve made two basic points about child labor and the Constitution in response to liberal commentators who can’t resist raising the issue of child labor any time anyone hints that there may be some constitutional limits to government regulatory authority. First, no one has ever seriously questioned the constitutionality of state […]
Swing State Voters Want the Affordable Care Act Held Unconstitutional or Repealed
This new Quinnipac study of swing state voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania shows the Democratic Party slightly more popular than the Republican Party (and President Obama opening a 47% – 39% lead over Mitt Romney in Pennsylvania): 4. Is your opinion of the Republican Party favorable, unfavorable or haven’t you heard enough about it? […]
United Breaks Guitars
I am a million mile flier on United Airlines — that’s actual miles flown, without any bonuses — but lately have been disenchanted with the airline’s treatment of its frequent fliers. But I have no beef like musician Dave Caroll’s (from this website): Musician Dave Carroll had difficulty with United Airlines. United’s baggage handlers damaged […]
Secondary Boycotts and the Breakdown of Civil Society
Activist groups of various political stripes are increasingly urging boycotts of companies not because of the companies’ own behavior, but because of the behavior or speech of those the companies patronize or support. The aim of such boycotts is not to affect corporate behavior as much as it is to create economic pressure on third […]
More on Libertarianism and “Social Justice”
“Bleeding heart libertarian” political philosophers Kevin Vallier and Matt Zwolinski have written responses to my post expressing some reservations about some BHLers embrace of the idea of “social justice.” They also comment on critics like David Friedman, Bryan Caplan, Mike Rappaport, and Todd Seavey, who have expressed related concerns. Both Vallier and Zwolinski make some […]
The Senate and Hyper-Partisanship
I’ve posted a new, short essay on SSRN, “The Senate and Hyper-Partisanship: Would the Constitution Look Different If the Framers Had Known that Senators Would Be Elected in Partisan Elections?” The essay was written for a symposium sponsored by the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy on the topic of “Hyper-Partisanship and The Law.” […]
Suing a Spouse — or a Lover — for Cheating (or Other Lies or Failures to Disclose)?
By Eugene Volokh on May 2, 2012 5:37 pm in Knowingly False Statements of Fact, Sexual Conduct Restrictions, Torts
From Neal v. Neal (Idaho 1994): Mary Neal contends that she has alleged a prima facie case of battery against Thomas Neal. Her battery claim is founded on her assertion that although she consented to sexual intercourse with her husband during the time of his affair, had she known of his sexual involvement with another […]
Does the Equal Protection Clause Require Local Police to Investigate and Prosecute Sexual Assault Crimes?
Over at Prawfs, Sam Bagenstos flags a new investigation by the DOJ Civil Rights Division: Yesterday, the Division announced the opening of a novel joint investigation of the University of Montana (under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972), and the City of Missoula […]