What happens when the eminent domain power is used to obtain title to lands or other properties in which there are public trust responsibilities? The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit confronted this question in U.S. v. California State Lands Commission (aka U.S. v. 32.42 Acres of Land. In particular, the court considered […]
Archive | June, 2012
In Praise of Obama’s New Immigration Policy
Last week, President Obama issued new guidelines allowing immigrants who illegally entered the United States as children to remain here so long as they are under the age of 30, have not been convicted of any crimes, and have either graduated from a US high school, are currently enrolled in school, or have served in […]
Malaysian Arrest of Borders Clerk for Selling Allegedly Blasphemous Book
The Star (Malaysia) reports: A bookstore manager was charged in the Syariah High Court here with distributing a banned book by Canadian author Irshad Manji. Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, 36, was accused of distributing the book titled Allah, Liberty and Love, which had been translated into Bahasa Malaysia…. She faces a RM3,000 fine or […]
Flip-Flops on Executive Privilege
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 20, 2012 10:38 pm in Executive Branch, Kerr's Law, Separation of Powers
From Charlie Savage’s NYT report on President Obama’s assertion of Executive Privilege as the basis for the Justice Department’s refusal to turn over internal agency documents concerning the “Fast and Furious” scandal to a house oversight committee: The invocation of executive privilege by Mr. Obama added a new element to the drama. While there is little […]
TSA Checkpoint of the Future
USA Today has a good article on efforts to redesign airport security so that it is faster and less obtrusive. Not surprisingly, the whole effort relies on data-driven screening in place of the one-size-fits-all approach: The key to speeding up checkpoints and making security less intrusive will be to identify and assess travelers according to […]
If You Have A Few Million Dollars Sitting Around
If you’re a legal nerd and you have a few million dollars around that you’re not using, you might consider bidding on George Washington’s personal copy of the United States Constitution, which is up for sale at an auction on Friday. The text of Article II is even marked up with Washington’s own margin notes. […]
My Video Presentation on the Problem of Political Ignorance
The Cato Institute’s Libertarianism.org website has posted a video I did for them on “The Problem of Political Ignorance.” In the video, I explain why political ignorance is a serious problem for modern democracy and why it strengthens the case for limiting and decentralizing government power. As a bonus, the video includes some cool pictures […]
Is President Obama’s assertion of executive privilege valid?
As noted by Jonathan Adler, below, President Obama today asserted Executive Privilege for Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to comply with a document subpoena from the U.S. House Oversight Committee. The letter is here. The Committee will vote later today on a resolution to hold Holder in contempt of Congress. The Committee Report in support […]
Recent Poll of Supreme Court Experts Finds that Most Expect the Court to Strike Down the Individual Mandate
A June poll of Supreme Court experts finds that, on average, they predict a 57% chance that the Court will strike down the individual mandate: A new insider survey of 58 legal experts conducted after the oral arguments concluded found that most predict that the court will strike down the so-called individual mandate, a central […]
Right to Keep and Bear Arms Includes Knives
In Delaware, carrying any knife — including a kitchen knife or a paring knife or anything other than a closed folding knife with a blade of 3 inches or shorter — concealed is a felony, even in your home, unless you have a concealed weapons license. 11 Del. Code § 1442 provides, A person is […]
White House Asserts Executive Privilege as Contempt of Congress Vote Looms
I have not been following the “Fast and Furious” scandal all that closely (or even much at all), but this seems like an interesting development for those who are interested in separation of powers questions. President Obama asserted executive privilege over documents related to the “Fast and Furious” operation Wednesday as a House panel moved […]
Georgia-Pacific West v NEDC: a good case for certiorari
By David Kopel on June 20, 2012 12:35 pm in Administrative Law, Environment, Supreme Court, Uncategorized
Court-watchers are wondering if Thursday, June 21, will see the release of Supreme Court rulings on Obamacare or Arizona’s laws against illegal aliens. There’s another important decision that the Court almost certainly make on Thursday: whether to grant certiorari in Georgia-Pacific West v. Northwest Environment Defense Center. (All the relevant documents are here, on Scotusblog.) Jonathan […]
Is the Ninth Circuit Due for Environmental Correction?
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 20, 2012 10:05 am in Environment, Ninth Circuit Smackdown (Again), Supreme Court
Will 2012 provide a repeat of 2008? Specifically, will the Supreme Court’s October 2012 term find the Supreme Court repeatedly reversing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in environmental cases as it did in the October 2008 term? In 2008, the Supreme Court heard an unusually high number of environmental cases, six: […]
Verbosity
I just stumbled across the following in a law review article: “[so and so] recently published a book-length project.” This book-length project is otherwise known as a “book.” The author of the offending phrase is generally an excellent writer, so it happens to the best of us.
How Much Does the Individual Mandate Case Matter?
Co-blogger Orin Kerr asks an important question. How much effect will the individual mandate decision really have? To some extent, we can’t really know. It depends in part on the Supreme Court’s reasoning in upholding or striking down the mandate, and also on future political developments, including who gets to make the next several appointments […]