Steven Davidoff offers his view over at the New York Times; Paul Campos offers a strong response to Davidoff at Inside the Law School Scam.
Archive | September, 2012
No, the Officer Doesn’t Have to Announce the Offense When He Makes An Arrest (UPDATE: Although Some State Laws May Require Such Notice)
This video of columnist Mona Eltahawy being arrested after she vandalized a subway advertisement and spray-painted a woman in her way brings up an often-misunderstood question of criminal procedure: If an officer places a person under arrest, do they have to tell the person what crime they are under arrest for having violated? Eltahawy certainly […]
An Interesting Ethical Question
Prof. Richard Painter (Legal Ethics Forum) asks: If a referee’s call is wrong, does the “winning” player have to say: “Sorry ref, you got it wrong; I did not have the ball; the other guy had it”? No, he does not (please let me know if there is a NFL rule on this that I […]
Brazilian Judges Orders Arrest of Google Brazil President, 24-Hour Suspension of Google and YouTube
So reports the AP: [Judge Flavio Peren of Mato Grosso do Sul state] has ordered the arrest of the president of Google’s operations in Brazil for failure to remove … two videos containing disparaging remarks against Alcides Bernal who is running for mayor of the city of Campo Grande…. [Judge Peren] also ordered a statewide, […]
To Our Readers Observing Yom Kippur Starting Tonight
May you be inscribed for a good year–healthy and joyous.
Prosecutor’s Policy: We Won’t Enforce Polygamy Ban, Because of a Concern About Religious Minority Group
So says a County Attorney’s declaration filed on May 22, 2012 in a federal case challenging the polygamy ban on constitutional grounds: The policy, as officially adopted by the … County Attorney’s Office, states: Prosecution of Bigamy Crimes: The … County Attorney’s Office will prosecute the crime of bigamy … in two circumstances: (1) When […]
Legal History Bleg — Identifying the Most Important Version of Entick v. Carrington
I’m writing a law review article that has a discussion of the famous English case of Entick v. Carrington (1765), which was influential in inspiring the adoption of the Fourth Amendment. But I have a problem that I’m hoping readers might be able to solve. Modern citations to Entick generally cite two different sources: The […]
Suicide Rates
Washington Monthly‘s Political Animal reports: An extremely disturbing new study published in the American Journal of Public Health finds that suicides have replaced car accidents as the leading cause of injury-related death in the U.S. This is partly because deaths from automobile accidents are down — that’s the good news. But the truly catastrophic news […]
Do Users of Wi-Fi Networks Have Fourth Amendment Rights Against Government Interception?
My earlier post on how the Wiretap Act applies to wireless networks triggered a lot of comments on how the Fourth Amendment might apply, so I thought I would have a post specifically on the matter. Here’s the question: Does governmental interception and analysis of the contents of a person’s wi-fi traffic constitute a Fourth […]
Upcoming Appearances at the University of Minnesota and the University of Tulsa
For those who may be interested, I am going to be speaking at the University of Minnesota Law School and the University of Tulsa this week. On Wednesday at 12:15 PM, I will be debating University of Minnesota Professor Fred Morrison about the Supreme Court’s health care decision at the University of Minnesota Law School, […]
Blasphemy Prosecution
The International Business Times reports: A 27-year-old man was arrested in Greece for blasphemy against famous Greek monk, Elder Paisios, Business Insider reported. Paisios, an Orthodox monk from Cappadocia who died in 1994, was highly venerated in Greece and Russia, and formal canonisation as saint in the near future has been speculated. The unnamed suspect […]
U.N. Secretary General Argues That “Provok[ing] or Humiliat[ing] … Others’ Values and Beliefs” “Cannot Be Protected’ by the Freedom of Expression
From a Sept. 19 press conference by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: Q: On this issue of violence erupting after the controversial film, can you please speak to the argument of freedom of expression that has been raised too? There is obviously the agenda issue here at the United Nations of defamation of religion, and there […]
From the Annals of the “Not-So-Good Old Days” of Consumer Credit
From a 1968 Report by the Senate Subcommittee on Legal and Monetary Affairs (p. 4-5): Organized crime derives most of its revenue from gambling…. Organized crime’s next largest source of revenue is from “loan sharking” or “shylocking,” that is the lending of money at highly usurious rates of interest, generally in circumstances where the lender […]
English Screening of “Islam: The Untold Story” Cancelled Because of Threats
From The Guardian (UK) (Sept. 11, 2012): Channel 4 has cited concerns over security as the reason for cancelling a planned screening at its headquarters this week of a documentary film questioning the origins of Islam. Islam: The Untold Story, which claimed there was little written contemporary evidence about the origin of the religion, sparked […]
Dispatches from the Duke Conference on “Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future”
Today I am at Duke to participate in a conference on “Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future,” sponsored by the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Nicholas School for the Environment, Duke Federalist Society, Duke College Republicans and the Energy & Enterprise Initiative. The conference is being live streamed […]