The summary of the holding from the court’s opinion: [W]e conclude: 1) the Endangerment Finding and Tailpipe Rule are neither arbitrary nor capricious; 2) EPA’s interpretation of the governing CAA provisions is unambiguously correct; and 3) no petitioner has standing to challenge the Timing and Tailoring Rules. We thus dismiss for lack of jurisdiction all […]
Archive | June, 2012
It’s Really Getting to be Silly Season
Stephen Spaulding, Staff Counsel at liberal pressure group Common Cause, says that Republicans, unlike Democrats, understand that the court is a partisan body: “I think that progressives have approached the court as a place of justice, whereas the right wing has approached the court as a place of pure power.”
RegBlog Symposium on “Romney’s Regulatory Plan”
This week RegBlog is publishing an online symposium on Mitt Romney’s regulatory proposals. Participants include Ronald Cass, William Funk, Jack Beermann, Richard Murphy, and yours truly. One piece will be posted each day. Ron Cass’ essay is here. Mine will appear tomorrow. UPDATE: My contribution is now online here.
A Free Speech Victory in Maryland
The peace order barring blogger Aaron Walker (aka Aaron Worthing) from blogging about Brett Kimberlin has been modified pending a hearing in July. As Popehat notes, the circuit order included a benchslap at the lower court judge, C.J. Vaughey, for disregarding the Supreme Court’s seminal First Amendment decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio. For background, see […]
Let’s Play “Spot the Logical Fallacy,” James Fallows Edition
James Fallows: A Bloomberg poll of 21 constitutional scholars found that 19 of them believe the individual mandate is constitutional, but only eight said they expected the Supreme Court to rule that way. The headline nicely conveys the reality of the current Court: “Obama Health Law Seen Valid, Scholars Expect Rejection.” How would you characterize […]
Koch v. Cato Settlement Details
The legal battle between the Koch brothers and the Cato Institute is officially over. The Cato Institute has issued a press release detailing the settlement. The key points of the settlement are as follows: 1) The shareholder agreement upon which the Koch brothers claimed majority ownership of the Cato Institute is dissolved. 2) The Cato […]
Chief Justice Roberts Cites A Law Review Article (Not Written By Henry Friendly)
In light of the Chief Justice’s comment last year poking fun at the irrelevance of much legal scholarship to the work of the courts, I thought it worth noting this passage in the his dissent this morning in Miller v. Alabama: In this case, there is little doubt about the direction of society’s evolution: For […]
My Upcoming Appearance on The Docket, KUCI Public Affairs Radio
I will be discussing today’s Supreme Court decisions and looking ahead to the health care cases at 7 PM eastern time/4 PM Pacific today on the Docket, a KUCI Irvine, CA public affairs radio show with host Evan Simon. I believe you can listen to the show on the internet at the KUCI website here, […]
Today’s Supreme Court Opinions
The health care cases were not issued today. They are expected on Thursday. But there are plenty of other significant opinions. Two that are of particular interest to me are America Tradition, Inc. v. Bullock, the Montana campaign finance case, and Arizona v. United States, the Arizona immigration case. The Montana decision is a per […]
Discussing the Rule of Law On The Larry Parks Show
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with Larry Parks as a guest on his New York City television show to discuss the Rule of Law, particularly as it relates to the state of the rule of law post-financial crisis. You can watch here if you are so inclined.
Most of Arizona Immigration Law Preempted
There’s no health care decision today, but the Court did decide Arizona v. United States. In a 5-3 decision, the Court found that federal law preempted most of the challenged provisions (specifically Sections 3, 5(C), and 6), and held another provision (Section 2(B)) would need to be construed by state courts before the Court could […]
No Health Care Case Today, but Several Interesting Decisions
The Court held that Arizona’s SB1070 is mostly preempted by federal law in Arizona v. United States; interpreted the Eighth Amendment so that it prohibits mandatory life in prison without parole sentences for juvenile homicide offenders in Miller v. Alabama. Unsurprisingly, the Supreme Court also summarily reversed the Montana Supreme Court in a single paragraph […]
Correcting Misconceptions about the Roberts Court
The Supreme Court has not yet ruled against the individual mandate, and who knows whether it will. Yet this has not stopped commentators from making sweeping charges about the Court. Many commentators, for instance, are charging that the Roberts Court is “activist.” For some, “activist” is just a label for judges that make decisions they […]
If Health Reform Law Survives, Litigation Will Continue
Unless the Supreme Court decides to eliminate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in its entirety, Florida v. Sebelius is not the end of health care reform litigation, but only the beginning. Lawsuits are already pending challenging everything from the contraception mandate to the black lung benefits provisions to the structure of the Independent […]
Blogging on the Individual Mandate Decision at SCOTUSblog
This is just to let readers know that, in addition to blogging about the expected individual mandate decision here at the VC, I will also be blogging about it at SCOTUSblog. I will be joining a large group of legal scholars on both sides of the issue there, including co-bloggers Jonathan Adler, Randy Barnett, David […]