The rebuke came from the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board; the letter does not give more details, but I take it that the Board concluded that the judge’s actions in the Zombie Mohammed controversy were improper.
Archive | August, 2012
Legal Memory Holes, part 2
Eugene recently posted about whether it can ever be libelous to say, accurately, that someone has been arrested after the arrest has been expunged. The New Jersey Supreme Court rightly described the idea as Orwellian and rejected it. In Europe, though, something like this rule is being advanced in the name of privacy. Unlike the […]
Is It Libel to Say Someone Was Arrested When the Arrest Record Has Been Erased?
As I noted last year, the New Jersey Supreme Court rejected a similar claim as to convictions (paragraph break added): G.D. [argues] that the record of his conviction [for possession with intent to distribute cocaine] was expunged [some years later] and, therefore, his conviction — as a matter of law — is deemed not to […]
Large-Capacity Magazines
The Colorado shooting has led to renewed calls to ban or otherwise restrict access to large-capacity magazines (see, for instance, Elliot Spitzer’s proposal, though that one is likely to be ineffectual). I think such bans might well be constitutional, for reasons given in my Implementing the Right to Keep and Bear Arms paper (p. 1489): […]
Elliot Spitzer’s Proposal to Make Semiautomatics “[Un]available to Private Purchasers”
As I note below, Elliot Spitzer, writing in Slate, seems to want to make semiautomatics “[un]available to private purchasers.” (He says “If the president and the mayor truly believe that semi-automatic weapons should not be available to private purchasers,” but in context it appears that he thinks they should indeed believe this.) The Defense Department […]
Oddly Static Economic Analysis from Elliot Spitzer
Elliot Spitzer, in Slate, has a post — in his “How to Make Government Work” column — titled “How the Government Could Limit Guns Immediately“: The Defense Department and the city of New York are among the largest purchasers of guns. If the president and the mayor truly believe that semi-automatic weapons should not be […]
How Law Schools Understate Student Debt
Over at Inside the Law School Scam, Paul Campos and Deborah Jones Merritt have two interesting posts — with a promise of more to come later in the week — on how widely-reported law school debt figures systematically underreport actual student debt. The short answer from today’s posts: By ignoring the interest accrued during law […]
What Were They Thinking — The Supreme Court in Revue, OT2011
The new phonebook’s here! The new phonebook’s here! As some of you know, I have sporadically done semi-humorous and often factual Supreme Court Term-end wrap-ups. The fifth installment in this eminently deletable series is now available at the Green Bag. This is the first I’ve done with a co-author, which may help explain why it’s […]
“ExpressO Under Attack? Scholastica And The Five Dollar Submission”
Dan Filler has an interesting post about the process of law review submissions here at The Faculty Lounge. If any readers are editors at the relevant journals and want to respond, either on the record or anonymously, feel free to e-mail me or just leave a comment below.
Amicus brief in Woollard v. Gallagher, Maryland right to bear arms case
Earlier today, I filed an amicus brief in Woollard v. Gallagher, currently scheduled for an expedited hearing around October 23 before the Fourth Circuit. The case is an appeal from the decision of the federal district court that Maryland’s granting of handgun carry permits only to persons who can prove a specific, imminent threat is […]
“Strike Back” Returns August 17th (plus “Haywire”)
Before Facebook, I used to blog more on entertainment I recommend than I have in recent years. Given that is summer, I thought it might be OK to do it again. There is a relatively unheralded program on Cinemax that I very much enjoy. “Strike Back” is action series with an unusual combination of British production values […]
Is the NCAA a State Actor?
Reader Gary Bartz asked, in connection with the NCAA’s punishment of Penn State, whether the NCAA is a state actor. I haven’t followed the details of this controversy, but as a general matter the NCAA is not treated as a state actor, even though it has many state universities as members (though the answer may […]
English Court Lets 10-Year-Old Girl Choose to Be Baptised, Over Jewish Mother’s Objections (but with Christian Father’s Permission)
By Eugene Volokh on August 6, 2012 1:18 pm in Child Custody and Constitutional Law, Children's Rights, Parental Rights, Religious Freedom
There’s been some recent buzz about this court decision, In the Matter of C (Romford County Ct. May 11, 2012); see, for instance, here, here, and here. I tend to think the court decision is correct, and here’s why. The parents were nonobservant Jews for most of their marriage, but at the very end of […]
An Executive Order on Cybersecurity?
I’ve long suspected that President Obama would respond to the failure of cybersecurity legislation with an executive order. Many of the legislative proposals that failed in the Senate can be implemented by the President acting alone. An executive order would also advance a story line that has the President robustly protecting national security while a […]
What Judge Reinhardt missed
Eugene Volokh’s post below discusses a dissent by the Ninth Circuit’s Judge Reinhardt in a capital sentencing case. Judge Reinhardt accurately states that carrying a gun is a Second Amendment right, to make the broader point that carrying a gun is not, in itself, illegitimate behavior. Judge Reinhardt could have strengthened his opinion by citing […]