Below I’ve created a table listing the top fifty-five law schools according to their “peer” ranking on U.S. News, with the last column showing each school’s ranking according to the latest “scholarly impact” study conducted by folks at St. Thomas Law School. Two schools stand out as being wildly underranked by their peers compared to […]
Archive | March, 2013
Voting is medieval
David M. Perry writes in The Atlantic about How History Can Help Us Predict the Next Pope. I like his first point, “Voting is Medieval”: Voting is a quintessentially medieval activity. Sure, popular representations of the Middle Ages focus on kings and knights, princesses and peasants, but medieval people, especially in cities, loved to vote. […]
No More Transparency, But Less Outside Scrutiny
Paul Thacker writes that the Obama Administration has “failed miserably” to fulfill its promises of more open and transparent government. What’s changed, however, is that the press and self-appointed good-government watchdogs are less interested in covering such questions. Whether it’s responding to Congress, media questions, or FOIA requests, this administration is no better than its […]
Rick Hasen Read the DoJ Inspector General Report on the Civil Rights Division So You Don’t Have To
As his Election Law Blog Rick Hasen has a fairly thorough summary of the just-released Justice Department Inspector General’s report on the politicization of the Civil Rights division. The bottom line: liberal and conservative employees of the division did not play well with one another. The IG largely absolves attorneys within the division of engaging […]
General Verdicts That Might Be Based on Either an Unconstitutional Theory or a Constitutional One
As I note in the post below, the Indiana Attorney General’s office agrees (see its brief) that the State v. Brewington Indiana Court of Appeals decision was unsound. But the AG’s office argues that Brewington’s conviction should still be affirmed. This illustrates a broader issue that I thought was worth briefly discussing, though note that […]
Indiana Attorney General’s Office Agrees: Indiana Supreme Court Should Review the Brewington Case
Readers might recall the Brewington case, in which the Indiana Court of Appeals basically held that harshly criticizing people for their past conduct could constitute the crime of “intimidation.” Daniel Brewington was involved in a contentious child custody dispute; Judge James D. Humphrey ruled against him in this dispute, giving sole custody to Brewington’s wife, […]
NLRB Skips En Banc Review of Recess Appointments Case; Heads Straight for Supremes
No real surprise here: the NLRB is going to skip seeking en banc review of Canning v. NLRB and petition for cert. There are scads of other cases now working their way through the courts of appeals and this is a way of resolving the issue once and for all. The petition would be due […]
Testimony Before the House Judiciary Committee on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Tomorrow morning I will be testifying before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. 1030. The hearing is titled “Investigating and Prosecuting 21st Century Cyber Threats,” and the other witnesses will be Jenny Durkan, the United States Attorney for the Western […]
Hensarling Questions Legality of Fed’s Funding of CFPB
House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling has sent a letter to Ben Bernanke asking for an explanation for the legal basis for the Fed’s funding of CFPB. The argument is straightforward in light of Noel Canning: “ASs you know, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act… authorizes the Board to transfer funds to […]
The NYT‘s Selective History on Judicial Filibusters
Over the weekend, the NYT published a highly misleading story about Republican filibusters of President Obama’s judicial nominees. Consider the very first sentence of the article: “A fresh feud over federal judgeships has again begun to agitate the Senate, with Republicans so far blocking President Obama from filling any of the four vacancies on the […]
Swan Song for Nuclear Power?
Several years ago, many policymakers and industry experts believed nuclear power was on the verge of a renaissance. New reactor designs, a streamlined approval process, and the desire for carbon-free electricity generation were to herald a rebirth for this power source. Yet as the Washington Post reports, it has not worked out that way. companies are […]
Minnesota House and Senate Committees to Consider SSM Bill on Tuesday
Two committees of the Minnesota legislature, one from each house, will consider legislation tomorrow to legalize same-sex marriage in the state. The first, scheduled to begin at 8:15 a.m. (Central) is before the state house Civil Law Committee. The committee plans to take testimony until 10 a.m. and may resume consideration of the bill Tuesday […]
Article on Buchanan v. Warley
In 1917, the Supreme Court decided Buchanan v. Warley, holding that it was unconstitutional to ban blacks from buying property on blocks where mostly whites resided, and vice versa. Buchanan was, in my opinion, a very important case, but it has mostly languished in obscurity. Last week, however, Senator Rand Paul talked about Buchanan on […]
My Review of Einer Elhauge’s Obamacare on Trial
By Ilya Somin on March 11, 2013 4:45 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper
The Liberty Law Blog recently posted my review of Harvard Law Professor Einer Elhauge’s book Obamacare on Trial, which was possibly the first academic book on the Obamacare litigation published by a legal scholar since the Supreme Court issued its decision in NFIB v. Sebelius. Elhauge is a topnotch scholar, and his book makes some […]
New York Judge Nixes Super-Size Soda Ban
A state court judge has voided New York City’s much discussed (and much derided) ban on the sale of large sugary drinks, the New York Post reports. The ban was slated to take effect tomorrow. Due to the judge’s ruling, however, NY health inspectors won’t have to run around testing drink sizes and coffee sellers […]