In July 1798, Congress enacted a direct tax to raise revenue for national defense against France. The “House Tax” imposed taxes on land, houses, and slaves. As required by Article I, section 9, clause 4 of the Constitution, this direct tax was apportioned by state population. Fries’s Rebellion, which was eventually suppressed by President Adams, […]
Archive | May, 2012
When Is an Earmark not an Earmark?
When it’s pushed by the Republican leadership, is located in a politically important state, and is carefully written to avoid the official definition of an “earmark.” (HT: Instapundit)
The Difference Between Constitutional Interpretation and Construction
One of the crucial hallmarks of the so-called New Originalism is the recognition that there is a difference between two types of activities: the activity of interpretation and the activity of construction. Interpretation is the activity of ascertaining the semantic meaning of a text, including both its express and implied meanings, and taking into account […]
New textbook: Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights and Policy
By David Kopel on May 15, 2012 4:32 pm in Casebooks, Guns, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Militia, Non-Firearms Arms, Registration, Right to carry
The first law school textbook on the Second Amendment is now available from Aspen Publishers. The co-author are Nick Johnson (Fordham), Michael O’Shea (Oklahoma City), George Mocsary (Connecticut), and me. Here’s the publisher’s page for the textbook, from which professors can request a free review copy. The book is also available for civilian purchase from […]
Obama’s Judicial Restraint
The National Law Journal reports that the White House is largely to blame for the high number of vacancies on the federal bench. Democrats have held conference calls and hosted activists from around the country to say the reason fewer federal judges have been confirmed during the last three years is clear: Republicans in the […]
Eminent Domain Abuse in Virginia
By Ilya Somin on May 15, 2012 11:20 am in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist A. Barton Hinkle recently published this piece on a case of eminent domain abuse in Virginia: As a general rule, progressives do not get worked up about property rights the way conservatives do. This is a mistake — as a case out of Norfolk shows. To the progressive eye, property is bound […]
New Online Submissions Website for the Supreme Court Economic Review
As some of our readers know, co-blogger Todd Zywicki and I are co-editors of the Supreme Court Economic Review, a peer-review publication that is one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals. Our third co-editor is my colleague Josh Wright, who blogs at Truth on the Market. We are pleased to announce that, thanks […]
A Futile Suit Against the Filibuster
Yesterday Common Cause and several members of Congress filed suit to challenge the constitutionality of the filibuster. According to various reports, the suit is largely based upon the theory outliend in this article by litigator Emmet Bondurant, which maintains that the filibuster is a historical accident and violates the constitutional principle of majority rule. Where […]
If Same-Sex Marriage Is So Popular, Why Does It Lose at the Polls?
The Monkey Cage has an interesting guest post from Georgia State University’s Gregory Lewis examining why initiatives to prohibit same-sex marriage succeed at the polls when public opinion surveys suggest reasonably strong support for same-sex marriage. Among the key points is that support for same-sex marriage varies quite widely by state.
Is JP Morgan’s $2 Billion Loss a Mountain or a Molehill?
Yale Law School’s Jonathan Macey places JP Morgan’s $2 billion loss in perspective. His article begins: Regulators, politicians and news reporters are hysterical at the news of J.P. Morgan’s recent $2 billion trading loss. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating to see whether laws were broken. We appear to be on the verge of […]
Jeffrey Toobin on Citizens United
The latest New Yorker has an extensive excerpt of Jeffrey Toobin’s forthcoming book, The Oath: The Obama White House vs. the Supreme Court, focusing on the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. The story, “Money Unlimited: How Chief Justice John Roberts orchestrated the Citizens United decision,” is everything you’d expect from a Toobin piece. It’s engaging […]
Henry Kissinger Gets TSA Pat Down
The Washington Post reports that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger got a full pat down by the TSA at Laguardia. Maybe one of the TSA agents had been reading Christopher Hitchens. UPDATE: Kissinger told James Taranto there was “nothing untoward” about his search and that the patdown was necessary because of his leg brace.
Crossover Sensation, Justice Sotomayor
Check out today’s Hall et ux. v. United States, a bankruptcy law case in which Justice Sotomayor’s majority opinion is joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito, and Justice Breyer’s dissent is joined by Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, and Kagan. This is also a good opportunity to make sure you know what […]
Reducing the Drug War’s Damage to Government Budgets
By David Kopel on May 14, 2012 4:29 pm in Constitutional History, Criminal Law, Federalism, Proposed Legislation, Supreme Court, Tenth Amendment, War on Drugs
That’s the title of an article that I have co-authored with the Cato Institute’s Trevor Burrus, in a symposium issue of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. The symposium is “Law in an Age of Austerity,” and includes contributions from Charles Cooper (Treasury Dept.’s authority to index capital gains for inflation), John Eastman (state […]
The Burden of Small Business Licensing
Two recent studies find that state licensing regimes for small businesses impose severe burdens on consumers and entrepreneurs alike. The first, by the libertarian Institute for Justice, finds that licensing is ubiquitous for a wide range of professions, and that it often has little or no public interest justification: License to Work details licensing requirements […]