Here is my speech at the Cato on Monday, where I ask whether the decision last week might be the prelude to our 1937. (My talk starts at 3:50 and ends around 18:00. I have much to say about the tax power after the others speak.) When I refer to 1935, I as actually referring to […]
Archive | July, 2012
Randy Barnett: “On ObamaCare, Don’t Put Your Faith in the Courts”
Oh wait, that’s me. I was noodling around on the Cato website looking for the video of my talk there on Monday when I came across this statement from March 31, 2010: On ObamaCare, Don’t Put Your Faith in the Courts Posted by Randy E. Barnett Now that the Obama health plan is law, more than […]
Elane Photography, LLC v. Willock Petition for Review to the New Mexico Supreme Court
The petition is here; for more on the case, and why I think the New Mexico Court of Appeals decision is wrong, see here. See also this post by Hans Bader (CEI’s OpenMarket.org)
The Second Amendment and Convictions for Misdemeanor “Harassment” Offenses That Possibly Didn’t Involve Violence
In December 1997, Kirk Fisher pled guilty to two counts of misdemeanor “harassment” of his wife (who is apparently still his wife), and was placed on probation for six months. As part of his probation, he had to surrender his guns, but after the probation was over, the court ordered that the guns be returned, […]
More on Conflicting Interest Transactions by University Trustees
More here. Dartmouth’s spokesman says: Justin Anderson, Dartmouth’s assistant vice president for media relations… “claims that these investments are in the best interest of the school, telling InsideHigherEd, “To forgo investments with a firm simply because a board member has some interest in the firm would be contrary to the best interest of the college.” […]
Travel
What specialized meaning does the term “travel” have in Rhode Island law? I’ve seen this usage only in Rhode Island cases, where it’s very common, plus in a handful of First Circuit appellate, district court, and bankruptcy cases (and one old New York district court case), where the judges either were from Rhode Island or […]
A Hypothetical For Our Libertarian Readers
Imagine that drug laws were enacted under Justice Roberts’ limited reading of the tax power rather than under the Commerce Clause as now? What would be different about such a world than ours?
Legal Challenge to Indiana’s Right to Work Law
Interesting case with important implications for the rest of the country.
The Repudiation of the “National Problems Clause”: A Counterfactual Way of Appreciating What We Gained in the Lawsuit
The other evening, my daughter made a very astute point about why the lawsuit challenging Obamacare was largely successful: Imagine that Congress enacted the “Individual Responsibility Requirement” and called the penalty for noncompliance a “tax.” What would have happened? I think I know. Although I believe this would have been in conflict with tax […]
Lessons from British Columbia’s Carbon Tax
In yesterday’s NYT, Yoram Bauman and Shi-Ling Hsu explained why the U.S. would be wise to follow British Columbia’s example and impose a carbon tax and use the revenues to reduce other tax rates. On Sunday, the best climate policy in the world got even better: British Columbia’s carbon tax — a tax on the […]
D.C. Circuit Holds Copyright Royalty Board Unconstitutional
By Jonathan H. Adler on July 6, 2012 11:27 am in Administrative Law, Copyright, Separation of Powers
This morning, in Intercollegiate Broadcast System v. Copyright Royalty Board, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit consisting of Judges Garland, Griffith, and Senior Judge Williams declared the Copyright Royalty Board to be unconstitutional under the Appointments Clause, and adopts a narrow fix. This was not a surprising development, […]
Issues, Outcomes, and the Healthcare Decision
[In response to some comments, I’ve made a few edits [marked with strikeouts] to make what I was trying to say a little clearer – DGP] So it turns out that this little brouhaha about whether the Court has issued a “holding” in regard to the question of whether the commerce clause authorizes Congress to […]
Court Did Not Authorize Economic Mandates Under the Tax Power
Throughout the Obamacare litigation, I freely conceded that Congress could use its tax powers to create incentives to buy health insurance, and even enact a “single payer” Medicare for everyone scheme. But I never accepted the claim made by Obamacare proponents that all Congress needed to do was call the mandate a “tax” (from which […]
Mandate Begone! The Logic of Chief Justice Roberts’ Unique Tax Power Theory
In my previous post, I explained how no one other than Chief Justice Roberts ever held the legal position that he came, for whatever reason, to hold. Some may respond, “Hold on”: Many law professors like Jack Balkin claimed loudly that the individual mandate was a tax. True. But that is not what Justice Roberts […]
Ethnic Preferences in Contracting for Arab-Americans, and Religious Preferences for Hasidic Jews
A National Review Online article reports on a petition that the federal Minority Business Development Agency is considering. The petition, from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, seeks discrimination in favor of Arab-Americans, in the form of a “formal designation of Arab-Americans as a minority group that is socially or economically disadvantaged pursuant to 15 CFR Part […]