What is the best source detailing the activities of Walter Hines Page (President Wilson’s Ambassador to the Court of St. James) in advising the British government about how to conduct propaganda operations in the United States, prior to U.S. entry into World War I? How about for the general American view (during the 1920s) that […]
Archive | April, 2013
So Where Should Released Convicts Live?
From Landlording: A Handymanual for Scrupulous Landlords and Landladies Who Do It Themselves (11th ed. 2010), p. 337: Selecting “Harmless” Employees and Tenants Whenever you’re selecting employees and tenants, be especially cautious in determining whether they might pose a physical threat to others…. If they should ever harm a tenant physically during an argument or […]
A Reader Poll on Gender, Among Commenters and Readers Who Don’t Comment
The comment thread on Sasha’s recent post about the gender of VC bloggers — we’re all guys — raises some interesting questions to which I’d like to respond. But before I do, I’d like to ask readers to participate in a simple poll. There are two polls below, and I’d like readers to participate in […]
First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic
This Fall, I’ll be teaching a First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic here at UCLA School of Law. The clinic will represent nonprofits, as well as academics or groups of academics, who want to file friend-of-the-court briefs in free speech and religious freedom cases. (The clinic will not file briefs in its own name, but will […]
Washington Post on United States v. Auernheimer
Last month, I blogged about why I agreed to represent Andrew Auernheimer pro bono in his appeal before the Third Circuit. Tomorrow’s Washington Post has a front-page story by Jerry Markon focusing on the case. It begins: Their guns drawn, a dozen federal agents, police and forensics experts kicked in the door of a run-down […]
“Jews Are Again Faced with a Reality in Which They Don’t Belong, and That Is Painful”
So reports one of the Dutch chief rabbis, because Queen Beatrix’s retirement celebration is happening Sept. 14, which will be Yom Kippur. (“Beatrix, who celebrated her 75th birthday on Jan. 31, announced in January that she was abdicating and handing the crown over to her oldest son, Prince Willem-Alexander. The abdication officially takes effect this […]
World Jewish Population, 2010
From World Jewish Population, 2010, a report by Prof. Sergio DellaPergola, published by the Berman Institute – North American Jewish Data Bank at the University of Connecticut: I hadn’t realized what a large fraction of the Jewish population lived in the U.S. and Israel, and how little lived in other countries (such as Russia and […]
Men
We’re famous.
No-Protest-Speech Policy at K-12 Schools
From Hatcher v. Desoto County School Dist. Bd. of Ed. (M.D. Fla. Apr. 5, 2013): Plaintiff [Amber Hatcher] seeks to organize and participate in the National Day of Silence at her high school in an effort to bring attention to the harms associated with bullying and harassment directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students…. […]
Privacy surprises … that somehow aren’t
If you’re looking for laws of unintended consequences, you can’t do better than privacy. Take two examples plucked from last week’s front pages: Here’s the New York Times reporting on massive fraud in the billion-dollar settlement of claims that the Agriculture Department discriminated against black, Hispanic, and female farmers: “It was the craziest thing I […]
Women at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Post reports (thanks to Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) for the pointer): In a groundbreaking ruling, the Jerusalem District Court upheld an earlier decision of the magistrate’s court that women who wear prayer shawls (“tallitot” in Hebrew) at the Western Wall Plaza are not contravening “local custom” or causing a public disturbance, and […]
2013 Law School Revue
Above the Law has posted this year’s finalists for the Law Revue video contest. A few of them are pretty good. Check ’em out.
Recess Appointments Reading List
Almost a decade ago, the particular Recess Appointments Clause questions at issue in Noel Canning — whether “the Recess” can include intrasession Senate breaks, and whether the President can fill an office that became vacant before the Recess — were the subject of litigation challenging the recess appointment of William Pryor to the U.S. Court […]
Fascinating New Case on Legal Standards for Searching a Remote Computer With Unknown Location
Here’s a fascinating issue that just led to an unusual opinion by Magistrate Judge Stephen Wm. Smith of the Southern District of Texas, who is no stranger to the Volokh Conspiracy for his, um, unusual opinions. The issue: What are the legal standards for the government to search a hacker’s remote computer to determine the […]
May California Allow Non-Citizens on Juries?
The California Assembly has passed a bill allowing non-citizens on juries. A reader asks: Is this constitutionally permissible? Probably yes. Historically, English and American juries had to be composed of citizens, likely in part because they had to be composed of landowners and in the past non-citizens couldn’t own land. At the same time, in […]