In a recent district court case, United States v. Ortiz (E.D. Pa. July 20, 2012), the court rejected the government’s argument that the automobile exception permits placing a GPS device on a car with probable cause. According to the court, the automobile exception only applies to justify a search inside the car based on probable […]
Archive | July, 2012
A Question About Google PageRank
Pardon the navel-gazing, but I have a question for readers who are reasonably well-informed about Google PageRank. For a long time, the Volokh Conspiracy had a PageRank of 8. A few months ago, around the time we switched to Disqus comment threads, our PageRank fell to 4. It’s not the world’s most pressing issue, but […]
Justice Scalia on C-Span
Justice Scalia will be appearing on C-Span Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. on the Q&A Program. Preview videos are available here. Interesting discussion at the outset about the effect of former law professors on the culture of the court.
Chicago Alderman: I Will Deny Business Permit Because “There Are Consequences for [Its Owner’s] Statements and Beliefs,” and They Should Include Denial
Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno’s doubles down on a First Amendment violation: Home Depot in the 2500 block of North Elston Avenue wants to sell a piece of its land so that a Chick-fil-A restaurant can open in the 1st Ward, where I am alderman. It would be the fast-food chain’s first “stand-alone” Chicago restaurant. But […]
Gay Bigamists of New England
The more useful but less enticing headline: Massachusetts court treats out-of-state civil unions as equivalent to marriage, for purposes of applying the state ban on bigamy. From today’s decision of Massachusetts’ highest court, Elia-Warnken v. Elia (Mass. July 26, 2012): We transferred this case from the Appeals Court to consider a question reported by a […]
The ACLU of Illinois on Alderman’s (and, Seemingly, Mayor’s) Plan to Block Chick-Fil-A
From Foxnews.com: “The government can regulate discrimination in employment or against customers, but what the government cannot do is to punish someone for their words,” said Adam Schwartz, senior attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. “When an alderman refuses to allow a business to open because its owner has expressed a viewpoint […]
Boston Mayor Backs Down on Statement that “It Will Be Very Difficult” for Chick-Fil-A to Get Boston Business License
From the Boston Herald: Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino repeated today that he doesn’t want Chick-fil-A in Boston, but he backed away from a threat to actively block the fast-food chain from setting up shop in the city. “I can’t do that. That would be interference to his rights to go there,” Menino said, referring […]
More Proof (if proof were needed) that Jack Daniels Mellows You Out
Quite possibly the most polite and reasonable cease-and-desist letter of all time. I hope it gets results – a good precedent. See http://brokenpianoforpresident.com/2012/07/19/jack-daniels-lawsuit-the-full-scoop/ Thanks to Hugh Greentree and AJ Fluehr for the pointer
Colorado Consensus on Gun Laws
In an article today for National Review Online, I detail how “Broadly supported post-Columbine reforms balance gun rights and gun control”: After the Columbine High School murders, Colorado enacted eight specific gun-law reforms. Three of these reforms are examples of what people usually call “gun control,” and five of them are in the “gun rights” […]
NCAA to the Taxpayers of Pennsylvania: Drop Dead
So the NCAA has now imposed sanctions on the Penn State athletic program for its many failures, including a $60 million fine and various other restrctions on their athletic program (designed, as the NCAA itself proudly notes, to be “punitive”). From the NCAA announcement: “The NCAA imposes a $60 million fine, equivalent to the approximate […]
School Board Rents Space to Community Groups, But Wants to Exclude Anti-Homosexuality Speaker
Local10.com (South Florida) reported several days ago: The Miami-Dade County school district is looking to evict a pastor who rents space in a public school to preach. … [Pastor Jack] Hakimian preaches and teaches inside North Miami Senior High School every Sunday.In a recent sermon, he compared homosexuality to drug abuse and witchcraft. Other sermons […]
Illegal Organ Markets in Europe
A recent New York Times article laments the spread of illegal organ markets in Europe, in which mostly poor people try to sell kidneys and other organs to people who need transplants: Facing grinding poverty, some Europeans are seeking to sell their kidneys, lungs, bone marrow or corneas, experts say…. The spread of illegal organ […]
28 of 50 Top Law Schools Still Accepting Applications for Fall Semester
There has been a lot of news coverage about how applications to law school are down considerably this year. On the other hand, there has been less coverage of the impact of that drop on actual enrollment numbers. Over at Inside the Law School Scam, Paul Campos has an interesting post that touches on that […]
No Building Permits for Opponent of Same-Sex Marriage
The Chicago Tribune reports: [Chicago Alderman] Proco “Joe” Moreno announced this week that he will block Chick-fil-A’s effort to build its second Chicago store … following company President Dan Cathy’s remarks last week that he was “guilty as charged” for supporting the biblical definition of marriage as between a man and woman…. The alderman has […]
Ukrainian Legislators Proposing Ban on “Propaganda of Homosexuality”
The New York Times reports on this in English; here are also some Russian-language sources, Kommersant (Ukraine), URA-Inform (Ukraine), and Regions.ru (Russia). According to the Times, the proposal would define the prohibited propaganda as “positive public depiction of gays in public,” and the other articles seem consistent with that; if anyone can point me to […]