Thank you to Eugene for inviting me to guest blog on The Volokh Conspiracy this week. By way of introduction, I am a First Amendment lawyer and the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and my new book, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate, hit the bookshelves […]
Archive | October, 2012
Judge Declares Mistrial in “Liberal Bias” Lawsuit
A lawsuit against the University of Iowa law school alleging ideological discrimination in faculty hiring has ended in a mistrial. The jury sided for the University on one charge, but deadlocked on the other. The AP reports: During a weeklong trial watched closely in higher education, Wagner claimed that the overwhelmingly liberal faculty refused to […]
Greg Lukianoff Guest-Blogging
I’m delighted to report that Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education — one of my favorite public policy advocacy groups — will be guest-blogging this week about his new book, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate. Here’s the book description: For over a generation, shocking cases […]
Could Obama Benefit from Bush v. Gore?
Rick Hasen writes in Slate how Bush v. Gore‘s equal protection holding could benefit President Obama’s reelection effort, especially in Ohio. For years, voting rights advocates have tried to make lemonade from lemons, arguing that the Equal Protection holding of Bush v. Gore should apply more broadly to require equality and uniformity in conducting elections. Until recently, these […]
How Dodd-Frank Benefits the Biggest Banks
Former White House counsel Boyden Gray and Adama White explain how Dodd-Frank effectively subsidizes large financial institutions at the expense of smaller institutions and “Main Street.” Gray and White are also representing some of the plaintiffs who are challenging Dodd-Frank’s constitutionality (see here and here).
The “Progressive” Case Against Obama
The Roosevelt Institute’s Matt Stoller, a former Democratic congressional aide, offers an interesting progressive critique of President Obama’s economic policies that may have some resonance with libertarians, particularly those who believe federal government policy tends to benefit entrenched economic interests. A taste: There are many good arguments against Obama, even if the Republicans cannot seem […]
Will Superman Become a Super-blogger?
CNN reports that Superman has quit his long-time job working for the mainstream media, and may well take up blogging: Add Superman to the list of reporters leaving the newspaper business behind. In the comic book series’ latest issue, which went on sale Wednesday, an outraged Clark Kent quits his job at The Daily Planet […]
Blog 538 on Ohio
Nate Silver has a curious post up today. He points out that Obama is leading Romney by an average of 2.3% (according to Real Clear Politics, slightly more according to other averages) in Ohio polls. He then goes through all recent examples when there were at least three polls in a state ten days before […]
On Legal Writing, from a California Trial Judge
A reader of our blog, who is a California trial judge, e-mailed this in response to the popping the bubble of authoritativeness post: As a criminal law trial attorney I thought it advantageous to write in a way that made it easy for a judge to rule in my favor; succinct, good authority, concise arguments. […]
US Counterterrorism Policy and ‘Institutional Settlement’
The Washington Post has just featured three major consecutive front-page stories on “The Permanent War” – the war on terror (or however one wants to label it), as the US moves from Obama 1 to either an Obama 2 or a Romney administration – and administrations after that. The first, by reporter Greg Miller, is […]
Once Again Into the Breach
Every four years I submit myself to the slings and arrows of outraged VC readers and declare my personal views on the Presidential race. Once again, the choice seems rather astonishingly clear, and once again the Dems have the better man. Here’s how things look to me. I’d give Obama maybe a B or B+ […]
Amicus Brief in (very interesting) Aereo case in the 2d Circuit
Yesterday, a group of 34 law professors filed an amicus brief that I drafted in the 2d Circuit’s WNET et al v Aereo case. The case is a really interesting one — techdirt has a good write-up here about it. Aereo is in the business of allowing consumers, in effect, to rent a little teeny […]
Popping the Bubble of Authoritativeness
People sometimes warn law students of the importance of careful proofreading and word usage, by saying that errors (or things that are perceived as errors) impair the lawyer’s credibility. I think there’s some truth to this, but the focus on “credibility” is a bit imprecise — it’s not that people will see the lawyer as […]
A Few Thoughts the Dog Sniff Cases: Florida v. Jardines and Florida v. Harris
Next Wednesday is Dog Sniff day at the Supreme Court, when the Court will hear oral argument in Florida v. Jardines and Florida v. Harris. It’s Christmas in October for Fourth Amendment nerds, and I wanted to offer some thoughts on both cases. Before I begin, I should say that I’ve provided some modest assistance […]
Law Blog Mottos
Noncuratlex, “Another Law Blog, Dedicated to Old Law Stuff, Mostly,” has suggests some mottos for other law blogs. (Hat tip: How Appealing)