Yesterday over dinner, a doctor related a story of a friend who was on an airplane when another passenger fell ill. The friend helped the ill passenger, but when the airline offered a free first class upgrade as thanks, she declined: The friend thought that this might deprive her of the protection of a “Good […]
Archive | August, 2012
Mann v. Steyn
Penn State climatologist Michael Mann, he of the infamous “Hockey stick” graph, is threatening to sue Mark Steyn and National Review for a blog post on NRO in which Steyn (quoting Rand Simberg) compared Penn State’s investigation of scientific misconduct allegations against Mann with the same university’s initial investigation of Jerry Sandusky and the Penn […]
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Savior or Menace?”
My new article, “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Savior or Menace?” is now available for download at SSRN. This will be forthcoming in the George Washington Law Review as part of a symposium on Dodd-Frank. Here’s the abstract: One of the centerpieces of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation was the creation of a new federal Consumer […]
Is Playing Texas Hold’ Em a Form of Gambling?
No, rules Judge Jack Weinstein, at least for purposes of the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA), 18 U.S.C. § 1955, because Texas Hold’em “is not predominately a game of chance.” It seems difficult to me to square that conclusion with the Second Circuit’s ruling in United States v. Gotti, 459 F.3d 296, 342 (2d Cir. […]
The Rule of Law and the Financial Crisis
David Skeel has a nice piece today in the WSJ on “A Nation Adrift from the Rule of Law.” His piece agrees with many of the themes that I’ve also raised about the decline of the rule of law during the financial crisis and the negative consequences. (A longer law review version of my argument with […]
Keeping Wolverines Out of Oklahoma City Schools
USA Today reports that a boy in an Oklahoma City kindergarten was required to turn his t-shirt inside-out because it violated state policy concerning appropriate school attire. Cooper Barton, 5, comes from a family of Michigan fans. He went to school wearing a maize and blue shirt with “The Big House,” the nickname for Michigan’s […]
Debate over the Individual Mandate Decision at the University of Toledo
This Thursday at noon, I will be debating the Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding the individual health insurance mandate, at the University of Toledo College of Law. Toledo law professor Rebecca Zietlow, author of several important articles on the health care law and related issues, will be defending the constitutionality of the mandate. For my […]
Why Gasoline Prices Are Volatile
Andrew Morriss and Donald Boudreaux have an op-ed in today’s WSJ explaining why gasoline prices have become more volatile. The short version: Boutique fuel requirements have balkanized the gasoline market, magnifying the effects of local supply disruptions. For most of the 20th century, the United States was a single market for gasoline. Today we have […]
DNA Extraction, Plain View, and the Scope of the Exclusionary Rule: The Fourth Circuit’s Decision in United States v. Davis
The Fourth Circuit decided a very interesting Fourth Amendment case last week on the constitutionality of DNA testing, the scope of the plain view exception, and the scope of the exclusionary rule. The case is United States v. Davis, decided August 16. Judge Agee wrote the majority opinion joined by Judge Keenan, and Judge Davis […]
The Originalist Case for UT in the Fisher Case Falls Short
By David Bernstein on August 21, 2012 10:34 pm in Affirmative Action, Constitutional History, Fisher v. University of Texas
The Constitutional Accountability Center has filed an interesting amicus brief in the Fisher affirmative action case on behalf of six prominent law professor amici. The brief tries to exploit a weakness in conservative Justices’ affirmative action opinions, which is that these Justices have almost entirely ignored the question of whether an originalist interpretation of the […]
Suggestions for Fifth Edition of Academic Legal Writing?
Some time in the next several months, I’ll be putting together the fifth edition of my Academic Legal Writing book. If you’ve used the book in your writing, or supervised students who have, are there any additions, changes, or other improvements that you could recommend? Many thanks!
Blackmail
Some commenters have recently brought up the perennial question of when speech becomes constitutionally unprotected blackmail. As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of the thorniest conceptual questions in all of jurisprudence. (Our own Jim Lindgren has written oft-cited articles on it, and blogged on it as well.) It’s sometimes called the Blackmail Paradox, and […]
Cathy Young on Fan Fiction, Copyright, Fifty Shades of Grey, and More
An interesting Boston Globe column.
Forbes.com Op-Ed on the Credit Card Antitrust Settlement
I have a piece at Forbes.com on the recent credit card antitrust settlement, “Consumers Are The Winners In The Visa/Mastercard Antitrust Settlement.” I will add a caveat here that I lacked space to add there: some aspects of the settlement are not an unqualified boon for consumers. In particular, the elimination of contract terms that […]
Can the Missouri GOP Pull a Torricelli?
Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin may have won the party primary, but his idiotic and offensive comments about rape and pregnancy have caused party leaders to question his candidacy. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have both suggested that Akin step aside. But can he do that? According […]