Geez, if you’re going to try to use a movie to lampoon a couple of famous billionaire libertarian brothers who donate lots of money to Republican political causes (among many other things), you should at least take the effort to find out that their name is pronounced like “Coke,” not like “Botch.” I thought the […]
Archive | September, 2012
Scott Kieff Nominated to U.S. International Trade Commission
I also wanted to give a shout out of congratulations to Scott Kieff, another old friend, who President Obama nominated to the U.S. International Trade Commission. And, of course, congratulations to whoever the Republican talent-spotters who identified Scott and Josh to be nominated to these Commissions. It is heartening to see smart, capable nominees like […]
Josh Wright Nominated to be FTC Commissioner
Congratulations to my friend and GMU colleague Josh Wright, who has just been nominated to a seat on the Federal Trade Commission. It is reported that Josh will be the first JD/PhD to serve on the commission. I cannot overstate how much I respect Josh’s intellect, judgment, and integrity–this is a great get for the […]
Congratulations to Orin
Congratulations to Orin, who has just been named the Fred C. Stevenson Research Professor at GW — a very well-deserved honor!
Fun Math Puzzle
Pretty easy, but I found it amusing. Treating “^” as meaning exponentiation, and treating the exponentiation chain as going on infinitely, solve for x: x^(x^(x^(x^(x^(x^…))))) = 2
What Could Law Professors Do to Advance Student Scholarship, or Advance Joint Faculty-Student Scholarship?
The Association of American Law Schools Committee on Research (which I’m on) is considering putting on an AALS panel on (1) how we law professors can advance student scholarship and (related but separately) (2) how we can advance joint faculty-student scholarship. Most student law review notes (or other student articles) are written as independent study […]
Trying to Fight the System from Within
Say you’re an activist who got involved in a nonprofit advocacy group — a gun rights group, an ideologically minded radio station, an environmentalist organization, or the like. You get elected to a board that helps run the group, but you decide the group has lost its way. You then take public action to try […]
Larry Solum on the Countermajoritarian Difficulty
By Ilya Somin on September 10, 2012 11:20 am in Constitutional Theory, Democracy, Representation-Reinforcement
Georgetown law professor Larry Solum has an excellent post summarizing the ongoing debate over the “countermajoritarian difficulty,” one of the most common criticisms of judicial review. Solum summarizes the “difficulty” as follows: The counter-majoritarian difficulty may be the best known problem in constitutional theory… The counter-majoritarian difficulty states a problem with the legitimacy of the […]
Against Constituent Services
My friend Fred Bernstein has a New York Times op-ed criticizing constituent services; I’m not sure what the right answer is here, but I think his argument is much worth reading. An excerpt: Out of work and stuck with an expensive mortgage, my friend was on the verge of losing her house. Attempts to get […]
Deference
From the Norwood v. Vance (9th Cir. 2009) majority opinion: The district court declined to give the proposed instruction because the meaning of deference would not be “clear to a lay person.” But “deference” is not Urdu or Klingon; it is a common English word. It may be true that deference has varied meanings, Dissent […]
Two Student Notes Cited by a Court
Congratulations to Chelsea Sizemore, whose Enforcing Islamic Mahr Agreements: The American Judge’s Interpretational Dilemma, 18 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 1085 (2011), was extensively quoted and relied on by the case I discuss here, and Lindsey Blenkhorn, whose Islamic Marriage Contracts in American Courts: Interpreting Mahr Agreements as Prenuptials and Their Effect on Muslim Women, 76 […]
Court Refuses to Enforce Islamic Premarital Agreement That Promised Wife $677,000 in the Event of Divorce
Soleimani v. Soleimani (Kan. Dist. Ct., Johnson Cty., No. 11CV4668, Aug. 28, 2012) is a very interesting decision on enforcing Muslim premarital agreements in American courts. (For more interesting recent cases on this, see here and here.) The decision is long and detailed, and I can’t do it full justice, but here are some excerpts. […]
America’s Unwritten Constitution: An Open Letter to Randy Barnett
Though I’m an avid reader of The Volokh Conspiracy, I have never posted on this (or any other) blog — until now. Eugene has kindly invited me to try this blogging thing on for size, and this week seems the perfect time to accept his kind invitation. The stars are all in line: This […]
Prof. Akhil Reed Amar (Yale), Guest-Blogging
I’m delighted to say that Prof. Akhil Reed Amar, of Yale Law School, will be guest-blogging this coming week about his new book, America’s Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By. Akhil is one of the leading constitutional scholars of our time, and I have long admired his work; I think you’ll find […]
“Memorandum of Law & Order”
A common title (over 200 cases) from Judge Michael Davis (D. Minn.), beginning in 2004, though apparently used by no-one else. Yes, it’s a combination of (1) a Memorandum of Law and (2) an Order resulting from that legal analysis.