On Bench Memos Carrie Severino offers her take on Jeff Rosen’s challenge to Chief Justice Roberts: In Rosen’s world, avoiding 5–4 decisions at all costs is apparently a higher virtue than following the law. But, for the sake of argument, let’s set aside the question whether the law obligated the chief justice to vote a […]
Archive | May, 2012
District Court Suppresses Evidence After Government Obtained Warrant, Made Copies and Returned the Original Computers, But Did Not Search (Or Finish Searching) the Copies In a Reasonable Period of Time
The case is United States v. Metter, — F.Supp.2d —, 2012 WL 1744251 (E.D.N.Y. May 17, 2012), by District Judge Dora Irizarry. The government obtained three different warrants to search and seize computers in a massive securities fraud action. One warant was to seize computers from a business; another warrant was to seize computers from […]
EEOC: Wearing Confederate Flag T-Shirts May Be “Hostile Work Environment Harassment”
From Dawson v. Donahoe (EEOC Feb. 8, 2012) (just uploaded onto Westlaw several days ago): [A] claim of harassment is … actionable if the harassment to which Complainant has allegedly been subjected was sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of Complainant’s employment…. In this case, Complainant has alleged that he notified the Postmaster […]
State Law to Disqualify Mixed Martial Arts Fighters for “Crimes Involving … Hate Speech”?
AB 2100, which passed an Assembly subcommittee last month by a 5-3 party-line vote, provides, To ensure that individuals and entities licensed under this act observe common standards of decency, the commission shall, in consultation with the Association of Boxing Commissioners, establish a professional code of ethical conduct for mixed martial arts promoters and fighters. […]
Ohio School District Relents, Allows “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe” T-Shirt
I blogged last month about the school district’s refusal to allow the shirt; “the message communicated by the student’s T-shirt,” the district argued, “was sexual in nature and therefore indecent and inappropriate in a school setting.” The student sued on First Amendment grounds, and Lambda Legal reports that the district has settled; here are the […]
Another “Minimalist” Reason to Invalidate the Entire ACA: No Need to Reach the Spending Power
Here’s another minimalist argument for invalidating the whole ACA: there would then be no need to reach the Spending Power issues raised by the Medicaid challenge. Either way the Court goes on that issue will be another big constitutional decision. The lesser course is to strike down the ACA solely because the mandate is constitutional […]
One Effect of Severing the Mandate: Ongoing Judicial Involvement With Health Care
Most attention has been devoted to whether or not the Supreme Court will invalidate the individual mandate, and how the legitimacy of the Court will be affected if it invalidates the Affordable Care Act. Little has been said about the effect of severing the mandate from the rest of the law. One implication of severance […]
More on the Left’s Threat to Delegitimate the Supreme Court if it Invalidates the ACA
Over on the Liberty Law Blog, Mike Rappaport has this thoughtful post on the left’s concerted push to threaten the legitimacy of a decision invalidating the entire Affordable Care Act: [Jeff Rosen’s] comparison with the New Deal is not well taken. The Obama Administration and the health care law do not have anything like the […]
Paul Watford Confirmed to the Ninth Circuit
I’m delighted to say that — according to an e-mail I just received (not from Paul or any mutual friend) — Paul Watford has just been confirmed by a 61-34 vote. (The Democratic Senators voted for him, as well as Republican Senators Alexander, Brown, Collins, Graham, Kyl, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, and Snowe; some of those […]
Final Version of “Defending Equilibrium-Adjustment”
The Harvard Law Review has just posted the final version of my response to Professor Slobogin’s critique of my recent article, An Equilibrium-Adjustment Theory of the Fourth Amendment. Here’s a short excerpt from my response, Defending Equilibrium-Adjustment: Equilibrium-adjustment is not originalism. It is a theory of maintaining the status quo balance of power, not an […]
Nonlegal Arguments for Upholding the Individual Mandate
By Ilya Somin on May 21, 2012 5:57 pm in Commerce Clause, Conservatism, Constitutional Theory, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Public Opinion
Both sides in the individual mandate litigation have developed a wide range of legal arguments to support their position. Some defenders of the mandate have also emphasized several nonlegal reasons why they believe the Court should uphold the law. These arguments have gotten more emphasis since the Supreme Court oral argument seemed to go badly […]
Big Data and Network Security
As far as I can tell, one of the few network security tools getting better at the speed of Moore’s Law is network monitoring and audit. Modern networks throw off vast amounts of data as users go about their daily business. It is often possible to find the telltale signs of network intrusion by watching […]
Catholic Institutions Sue Over Contraception Mandate
By Jonathan H. Adler on May 21, 2012 4:25 pm in Health Care, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Several Catholic dioceses and universities filed suit today against the so-called contraception mandate, the Washington Post reports here and here. In all twelve lawsuits were filed in twelve separate federal district courts. There are 43 separate plaintiffs in these suits, including the Archdioceses of Washington, D.C. and New York, Catholic University, and the University of […]
Are Search Engine Providers Like Internet Service Providers?
Today’s NYT reports on the white paper Google commissioned from our host, Eugene (about which Eugene blogged here). I don’t know this area nearly as well as Eugene does, but I found this portion of the article particularly interesting: there is a bit of a rub for Google, some scholars say. The kind of reasoning […]
3D printing is cool — but not yet sexy
The promise of perfectly personalized products manufactured by 3D printers is on the horizon, but this 3D-printed bikini — supposedly the “world’s first ready-to-wear, completely 3D-printed article of clothing” — looks surprisingly uncomfortable and badly fitted to me. And believe me, I looked closely. I take seriously my responsibilities as a technology commentator. And in that […]