The Des Moines Register ha an interesting article following up on the lawsuit against the University of Iowa law school alleging ideological discrimination in hiring. The judge declared a mistrial because the jury was deadlocked. According to interviews with jurors, however, there was genuine agreement that Teresa Wagner was denied a position because of her […]
Archive | November, 2012
Are Law Schools Violating Antitrust Law?
Thom Lambert at Truth on the Market thinks U.S. law schools may be engaged in anticompetitive (and illegal) practices with regard to lateral recruiting. Apart from harming individual employees, non-poaching agreements occasion a societal harm: They preclude labor resources from being channeled to their highest and best uses. To poach a competitor’s star employee, you […]
State Government Control Since 1938
A very interesting chart, from the New York Times; the totals are now 24 states with unified Republican control (governor and both houses of the legislature), 13 with unified Democrat control, 11 mixed, 1 not yet decided (New York), and 1 (Nebraska) with a nonpartisan legislature. Note how quickly the numbers can change — in […]
Drug Treaties Do Not Empower Congress To Override Or Repeal State Referenda Legalizing Marijuana
In a press release last week, the President of the International Narcotics Control Board, Raymond Yans, asserted that the recent referenda legalizing marijuana in Colorado and Washington “are in violation of the international drug control treaties.” He is almost certainly wrong about that; federal drug laws keep the United States in compliance with such treaties […]
US and Mexico Pact on Colorado River Water Rights
Water rights are a fairly obscure topic to most lawyers – unless one is in a place like the southwestern United States or northwestern Mexico, in which case water rights are a kind of underlying regulatory structure of many other things, such as patterns of agriculture, urban and suburban development, etc. I can think of […]
Did the Founders’ Constitution Permit Federal Tort Reform?
Recently Paul Clement’ offered this defense of federal tort reform on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce. Today, the Independence Institute’s Rob Natelson offers a short critique entitled, Did the Founders’ Constitution Permit Federal Tort Reform? Like Rob, I favor state tort reform on policy grounds. And also like Rob, I am deeply skeptical of Congressional power […]
Appellate Argument to Avoid
From a brief filed in the California Court of Appeal: This narrowly tailored remedial solution would have avoided the striking of appellant’s Answer and his default and allowed the court to proceed with the case on its merits. Also, this solution would not have placed respondents in a position better than they were before the […]
Secession, Family Law, and Political Science
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 23, 2012 11:53 am in Constitutional Theory, International Law, Uncategorized
Discussions of secession in the U.S. are weighed down with the baggage of the Civil War. This legacy may not just burden American’s view of secession as a domestic issue, but also the general concept. The U.S. has opposed secessionist tendencies abroad, even when they were obviously salutary, such as the break-up of the USSR […]
Massachusetts Highway Safety Director With Terrible Driving Record Resigns
Sheila Burgess, the Massachusetts Highway Safety Division Director with a horrible driving record and no qualifications for the job, has resigned. I blogged about Burgess here. The resignation was almost certainly caused by recent revelations about her driving record and the fact that she got the job through political connections without having any real qualifications […]
How Private Property Rights Saved the Pilgrims
Today is Thanksgiving, and there is much to be thankful for. Not least on the list is the institution of private property, without which the Pilgrims might not have survived, and we would not have this holiday. Economist Benjamin Powell recounts the story here: Many people believe that after suffering through a severe winter, the […]
Turkey Day and TSA
Thanksgiving weekend is usually the most traveled in the United States. With so many travelers, TSA screening incidents are inevitable. According to reporter Scott MacFarlane, the TSA has received over 17,000 formal complaints about pat downs since October 2009. Since the agency is averaging around 15 complaints per day, some Turkey day mishaps are inevitable. […]
Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m pretty sure that all of us here at the Conspiracy have much to be thankful for, including the time and attention that our readers are kind enough to give us. Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and your families.
Former Ohio AG’s Law License Suspended
The Ohio Supreme Court has suspended the law license of former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann for various campaign funding-related ethics violations. The National Law Journal covers the decision here. My prior posts on Dann are here and here.
Arkes & Kozinski Debate “Natural Law Should Inform Constitutional Law”
The Fifth Annual Rosenkranz Debate was held last Saturday during The Federalist Society’s 2012 National Lawyers Convention. The topic was “Natural Law Should Inform Constitutional Law” although I think the title should have been “Natural Rights Should Inform Constitutional Law” since that was what was actually debated. The advocates were Prof. Hadley P. Arkes (Edward N. […]
“Moscow Bans Protest Against Political Repressions ‘Due to Lack of Political Repressions'”
So reads a headline in The Onion RT.com today: The Moscow authorities have refused to grant permission for a rally against “political repressions” and “violations of human rights,” saying that state law does not recognize such a phenomenon in the country. The application to hold the event was rejected by the authorities on the grounds […]