Prof. Eugene Kontorovich (Northwestern) — who has guest-blogged here several times — passes along this item about today’s United States v. Ali (D.D.C. July 13, 2012): Not many alleged Somali pirates are apprehended when they come to the U.S for a conference of educators. Yet that is what has happened in the odd case of […]
Archive | July, 2012
Chief Justice Roberts and Legitimacy Versus Popularity
Ilya’s post on the Chief Justice’s vote in Sebelius and the Supreme Court’s legitimacy brings up an important tension in the popular belief that Roberts switched his vote because he caved to outside pressure. People who cave to pressure generally switch to do what is popular, not what is unpopular. But there’s a way out […]
The Impact of the Individual Mandate Decision on the Supreme Court’s Legitimacy
By Ilya Somin on July 13, 2012 12:57 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Public Opinion
Various leaks suggest that Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote in the individual mandate case in order to protect his own and the Supreme Court’s reputation and enhance their legitimacy. Whether or not that was his objective, it is interesting to ask whether the goal was achieved. Did the decision enhance the Court’s legitimacy […]
Arab Citizen National Service in Israel
This article in the New York Times leaves out one significant reason that many Arab citizens of Israel oppose voluntary national service: Arab women in Israel typically are either discouraged or forbidden from working outside the home, very few are employed for wages, and many rarely leave their villages. Of the small percentage of Arabs […]
This Still Seems Right after the Fact
12/2010: “I’ve been following the debate both at the VC and elsewhere, and find myself somewhat amused at the law professor conceit that the constitutionality of the individual mandate will be determined based on whether the ‘best’ interpretation of USSC precedent supports it or not.” Before the litigation, the wide consensus was that the “best” […]
Does NFIB v. Sebelius Predict the DOMA Litigation Outcome?
In response to this New Yorker article by Richard Socarides, Damon Root writes: So let’s assume DOMA will be the first gay rights case to reach the Roberts Court. Is Socarides’ right that the chief justice will again show “a willingness to break with his more conservative colleagues”? I wouldn’t bet on it—at least not […]
Over 30% of President Obama’s 2009-2011 Gross Income Came From Foreign Sources
I find it strange that the Obama campaign would be making so much of Romney’s income from foreign sources when Obama’s foreign source income appears to be a much bigger percentage of his income over the last few years. Of course, one can’t tell for sure because Mitt Romney has not released his 2009 […]
Pro Bono Case Challenging Public School Shirt-With-School-Motto Requirement
I’m working right now on the Reply Brief in Frudden v. Pilling, a case I’m litigating in the Ninth Circuit; the chief (but not only) issue is whether Wooley v. Maynard, which held that people have the First Amendment right to obscure a state motto on license plates, secures public school students’ right to obscure […]
And you think you’re having a bad day?
A kind of perfect storm has struck ZTE, the huge Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer. A storm largely of ZTE’s own making. For starters, ZTE and its larger Chinese rival, Huawei, have been the subjects of great national security concern for years. The US intelligence community fears that, if allowed to install equipment here, the two […]
Chief Justice Roberts and Constitutional Avoidance
At SCOTUSreport.com, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz has an excellent post on Chief Justice Roberts’ use of the canon of constitutional avoidance in NFIB v. Sebelius. As Professor Rosenkranz notes, “The Chief Justice’s account of the canon is accurate, but his application of it is exceedingly odd.” Specifically, the Chief used the canon not to resolve a […]
Public Opinion on the Supreme Court After the Mandate Case
The Pew Research Center has some interesting polling information on public opinion of the Supreme Court after its decision in NFIB v. Sebelius. Overall, the Court’s numbers have gone down, but in an interesting way: The opinion of the Court among Republicans took a massive hit, while the opinion of the Court among Democrats improved […]
“Staggering Chutzpah” Sanctions Upheld
See today’s Mick Haig Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-670 (5th Cir. July 12, 2012) (thanks to Howard Bashman (How Appealing) for the pointer), which suggests that lawyer Evan Stone’s chutzpah (for more on that, see the post about the original sanctions decision) is matched by his willingness to waive legal arguments by failing to raise […]
Left, Right, and Judicial Review
By Ilya Somin on July 12, 2012 5:43 pm in Conservatism, Constitutional History, Constitutional Theory, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Originalism
Various commentators, such as co-blogger Orin Kerr and Joel Alicea argue that the individual mandate case represents a sea change in conservative attitudes to judicial review. Whereas before conservatives supposedly opposed most judicial invalidation of statutes, now they emphasize the need to strike down laws that can’t be justified on originalist grounds. Orin also suggests […]
Saudi Law! In Texas Federal Courts!
Douglas v. Smith Int’l (5th Cir. July 11, 2012) is a good illustration of a point I’ve made before — the use of foreign law in American courts, including the foreign law of Islamic countries that have legal systems largely based on Islamic law, is commonplace and usually fine. Usually fine doesn’t mean always fine, […]
The Yale Ph.D. in Law
A bunch of law bloggers have commented on Yale’s newly-announced Ph.D. program in law designed for wannabe law professors. Brian Leiter thinks the idea is silly; Jason Mazzone likes it. I suppose the question boils down to why Ph.D.s are currently valued in legal academia. On one hand, some people say that they are valued […]