Reflecting on the vastness of time in which extraterrestrial life could have reached the earth, the physicist Enrico Fermi wondered, “Where are they?” One of the most plausible explanations of the absence of such extraterrestrial visits is also one of the most disquieting. It is intrinsic to the nature of intelligent life to expand knowledge […]
Archive | March, 2013
“Unfit for Work: The Startling Rise of Disability in America”
NPR’s Planet Money recently posted this important story about how federal disability payments have largely taken the place of federal welfare payments. An excerpt: “That’s a kind of ugly secret of the American labor market,” David Autor, an economist at MIT, told me. “Part of the reason our unemployment rates have been low, until recently, […]
Rights and Consequences
My blog post, “Experimenting in Same-Sex Marriage and Other Matters,” raised questions about the relation between rights and consequences. Some commentators thought I was arguing that constitutional rights should be curbed if they had some bad consequences. I think this was based on misunderstanding of my position. It true that I think the determining what […]
The Real Standing Problem in the Marriage Cases
Some commentators mistakenly think a federalism-based approach to the DOMA case will cause a flood of litigation and generate massive legal uncertainty, but that’s not the real chaotic threat at the Court. Orin notes the practice of paying people to stand in line for you to get into the Supreme Court for oral argument in important and highly […]
The Exact Same Word May Mean Different Things For Purposes of State Law and Federal Law
Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines the word “marriage” for purposes of federal law. In a recent post, Randy argues that this provision must be unconstitutional, because otherwise one could be “married” under state law but not under federal law, or vice versa, and “that is crazy.” With all due respect, […]
Prediction Markets and Political Ignorance
In two recent posts, guest-blogger John McGinnis makes a strong case that the US government should legalize prediction markets, that these markets are valuable sources of information, and that claims that prediction markets can easily be “manipulated” are overblown. I agree completely on all counts. Nevertheless, I am somewhat pessimistic that prediction markets will do […]
The Court’s Seven Options in the California Same-Sex Marriage Case
Before oral argument in the California Proposition 8 gay marriage case, Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman wrote a post outlining five possible options before the Court; I commented on it here. Since the argument, Lederman believes the number of possible options has grown to seven, as he outlines in this interesting post. The two new […]
Promoting Limited Government and More Informed Decision Making
Thanks so much to Ilya for his generous post on Accelerating Democracy. I see Ilya’s and my projects not as antagonistic but essentially complementary. I share Ilya’s belief that more limited government is likely better government. I thus expect that that by providing more accurate information about policy results, more people will move over time […]
Commentary on DOMA and Federalism
By Jonathan H. Adler on March 29, 2013 7:02 pm in DOMA, Federalism, Same-Sex Marriage, Supreme Court
Whatever the merits of the federalism concerns I and others have raised about the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the issue is garnering a fair amount of attention. Here’s a brief round-up of some recent commentary: Mike Dorf, “The Federalism Argument that Should Have Been Made Against DOMA” – arguing that DOMA’s opponents missed an opportunity at […]
Answers to Ed Whelan’s Questions
Over on Bench Memos Ed Whelan asks some questions. QUESTION: So, Randy and Jonathan, do you agree with your co-signatory Ilya Somin that if DOMA is invalidated on federalism grounds, a couple that enters into a lawful same-sex marriage in one state will be entitled to receive federal marriage benefits when they move to a state that […]
How I Became a (Minor) Victim of Academic Plagiarism
Today, the Baltimore Sun published a detailed story about Towson University Professor Benjamin Neil, who has been accused of numerous instances of plagiarism, especially in a 2012 article on Kelo v. City of New London and post-Kelo eminent domain reform which has since been withdrawn by the Journal of Academic and Business Ethics: A longtime […]
Combating Bias: More Reason to Favor Prediction Markets and Oppose Earmarks
The information delivered by new technologies about policy results will be more effective insofar as it changes people’s minds. But many people are biased. They hold to their preconceptions about the wisdom of policy, regardless of the new evidence presented. Thus, another urgent task for adapting to technological acceleration is to help democracy better update […]
Reflections on John McGinnis’ Accelerating Democracy
By Ilya Somin on March 29, 2013 11:45 am in Democracy, Federalism, Political Ignorance, Voting With Your Feet
Guest blogger John McGinnis’ new book Accelerating Democracy is an outstanding analysis of the ways in which modern technology and social science can improve the quality of decision-making in government and society. It is probably the most important book on that subject in a long time. Much of John’s thesis is compelling. He is right […]
Three Senses in Which DOMA Implicates Federalism
By Dale Carpenter on March 29, 2013 10:54 am in Equal Protection, Federalism, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation
Overnight, it seems, federalism has become a major ground on which the Defense of Marriage Act is being contested. This is surprising because, as we saw Wednesday in the arguments of Roberta Kaplan and the Solicitor General, there were no real advocates for federalism as an issue during the oral argument in United States v. Windsor. No advocates, that […]
Orthodox Easter: What’s up with that? — Part 2
Yesterday, I posted about the difference between the Gregorian calendar that we use in the West and the Julian calendar that’s still used by most Eastern Orthodox churches. There’s a 13-day difference between them for the period between 1900 and 2100, so any given day (e.g. October 12) shows up 13 days later on the […]