During the month of July, negotiations will be under way in New York over a proposed arms trade treaty (links roundup at Opinio Juris). Meanwhile, note the release of a letter from some 130 US lawmakers to the Obama administration warning it against any weakening of US sovereign rights or individual 2nd Amendment rights in […]
Archive | July, 2012
Brett Kimberlin’s Peace Order Against Aaron Walker Vacated
See the order, W.J.J. Hoge’s post, and Aaron Walker’s post. For more, including links to more posts, see this post by Jonathan Adler. Disclosure: I consulted with Aaron Walker’s lawyer on the case.
The Unprecedented Uniqueness of Chief Justice Roberts’ Opinion
I have been out of town and not keeping up with all the chatter about the news that Chief Justice Roberts changed his vote after conference from invalidating the ACA, at least in part, to a vote to uphold it. The obvious question arises: was this switch motivated by legal considerations, or by the sort […]
New Leak Explains What Chief Justice Roberts Was Really Thinking in Health Care Cases (Although the Leak is Poorly Sourced)
A fascinating new leak from deep inside the Supreme Court has just surfaced on what Roberts was thinking when he switched his vote in the health care cases. Although the leak is poorly sourced and may not be reliable, I think it offers an important perspective if you’re trying to understand the switched vote (see […]
First Circuit finds someone to sue over cybersecurity
The sound you hear is legal ground shifting under the banks’ feet. Keylogging software now infects many small businesses. Hackers use it to steal banking credentials and make wire transfers. Keeping the hackers out is very difficult, at least for small businesses. The most promising way to defeat such fraud is for banks to deploy back-end […]
The 160th Anniversary of Frederick Douglass’s Speech “What July 4th Means to the Negro”
Today marks the 160th anniversary of one of Frederick Douglass’s most moving speeches, “What July 4th Means to the Negro.” Unlike the Garrisonian abolitionists from whom he broke, Douglass rejected the proslavery reading of the Constitution, and adopted Lysander Spooner’s antislavery reading itself. He maintained that the failure of the Constitution to reference “slavery” by […]
The Declaration of Independence Annotated
[From the next edition of my casebook, Constitutional Law: Cases in Context:] When reading the Declaration, it is worth keeping in mind two very important facts. The Declaration constituted high treason against the Crown and every person who signed it would be executed as traitors should they be caught by the British. Second, the Declaration […]
Verret on What Dodd-Frank Has Wrought
Well, it appears that federalism is effectively dead now. So how about separation of powers? That’ll be tested in the new lawsuit recently filed that challenges a number of key provisions of Dodd-Frank. Because of the Obamacare circus, the Dodd-Frank challenge (led by Boyden Gray) has flown under the radar screen a bit. My colleague […]
Leaks, Counter-Leaks and the Reason for Roberts’ Switch
Amidst all of the leaks and counter-leaks about the process that led to last week’s individual mandate decision, I find it significant that the pro-Roberts counter-leakers do not contest what I think was by far the most damning claim in Jan Crawford’s original story: that Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote not because he […]
So Now We Have Supreme Court Leaks Disagreeing With the Substance of Other Supreme Court Leaks (UPDATED — Now With More Leaks)
Over at Salon.com, Lawprof Paul Campos writes: I am told by a source within the Court with direct knowledge of the drafting process. . . that “most of the material in the first three quarters of the joint dissent was drafted in Chief Justice Roberts’ chambers in April and May.” Only the last portion of […]
More on the Supreme Court Leak
For those who are currently playing the game of who-is-the-Supreme-Court-leaker, here’s an intriguing clue. A few blogs have picked up the following tweet from Bart Gellman of Time Magazine on June 2: Ponnuru: inside sources at Supreme Court (really?) tell me the initial vote was 5-4 against Obamacare, but Roberts since turned wobbly. — Barton […]
Commerce Clause “Holding v. Dictum Mess” Not So Simple
Ilya proposes “a fairly simple solution” to what he calls the “holding vs. dictum mess” that I blogged about earlier: “Just look at what the Court itself said the holding was.” That cannot be the right answer. A court’s holding defines the scope of its power; holdings must be obeyed, by citizens and by other […]
A Simple Solution to the Holding vs. Dictum Mess
By Ilya Somin on July 2, 2012 3:47 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate
Much literal and blogospheric ink has already been spilled over the question of whether the Court’s conclusion that the Commerce Clause does not authorize the individual mandate is part of the holding or mere dictum. I think, however, that there is a fairly simple solution to the problem: Just look at what the Court itself […]
US-China “proxy” talks on cyberweapons
For the past three years, a couple of think tanks, one in China and one in the US, have been conducting what could be called “proxy” negotiations on cyberwar and cyberespionage. The China Institute of Contemporary International Relations and the US Center for Strategic and International Studies are both establishment institutions, with just enough independence […]
Blogging Hiatus
I will be out of the country on a trip to Russia and Ukraine until July 20. Blogging is likely to be intermittent until then. I am sure that my co-bloggers will keep the reading public suitably entertained during that time.