Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. In 2009, I blogged about my father’s experience as a Holocaust survivor. My father died last May, and so I wanted to post a somewhat longer version of his wartime story in his memory. I have taken it from the eulogy that our family rabbi gave at my […]
Archive | April, 2013
Shultz and Becker Urge Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax
Former Secretary of State George Shultz and Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker take to the pages of the WSJ to urge a revenue-neutral carbon tax. we propose a measure that could go a long way toward leveling the playing field: a revenue-neutral tax on carbon, a major pollutant. A carbon tax would encourage producers and consumers […]
Marijuana and Federalism
More and more states are stepping back from waging war against marijuana, legalizing medicinal use and minor possession, and popular support for decriminalization appears to be growing. Thus far, the federal government has sought to stamp out such efforts. Writing in the Washington Post, Jonathan Rauch suggests Washington should tak a different tack. Squashing the states, […]
All the Senator’s Men
Over two dozen former aides to Senator Max Baucus are now tax lobbyists in Washington, D.C., Ezra Klein reports. This is significant because Senator Baucus is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and any reform of the tax code will go through him. This makes those with Baucus’s ear in high demand. Access to politicians […]
Don’t Believe the Denials – Alabama Really Did Undermine its Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reform Law
Last week, I blogged about how the Alabama state legislature recently adopted a bill that undermines its post-Kelo eminent domain reform law and opens the door to the taking of private property for transfer to a wide range of politically connected private interests. Two state senators who sponsored the law have claimed that their bill […]
Massachusetts Judge Bans Tweeting, but Permits Blogging in his Courtroom
Prominent lawyer and legal blogger Robert Ambrogi reports on an interesting recent decision by Massachusetts judge Peter Lauriat, who has decided to ban tweeting but permit blogging by members of the audience in his courtroom [HT: Josh Blackman]: Does it make sense for a judge to allow blogging but ban tweeting from the courtroom? That […]
Supreme Court clarifies standards for qualified immunity in civil rights cases — or does it?
My new post is up on the Reason Foundation web site. It’s about the Supreme Court’s decision last term in Filarsky v. Delia (decided almost exactly a year ago), which discussed whether a private attorney doing an internal-affairs investigation for a municipality was entitled to qualified immunity in an employee’s § 1983 lawsuit. Here’s an […]
Judge Orders FDA to Make Plan B Contraception Available Over-the-Counter Without Age Restrictions
This morning, a federal district court judge overturned the Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to maintain limits on access to Plan B contraception by girls under the age of 17. As I noted here, the Food and Drug Administration had initially decided to grant a petition urging a removal of the age restrictions […]
Trevor Morrison Named New Dean of NYU Law
I don’t know why a normal person would want to leave being a regular law professor to become a law school dean. But, assuming that such moves tend to be voluntary, congrats to Trevor Morrison for being named the new Dean of NYU Law. That’s great news.
Criminal Contempt Punishment for Trial Judge’s “Inflammatory” Speech in Judicial Opinion?
I blogged about this case when such punishment was imposed, but yesterday the Third Circuit reversed (In re Kendall (3d Cir. Apr. 3, 2013)): After the Virgin Islands Supreme Court issued a writ of mandamus in a criminal case presided over by former Superior Court Judge Leon A. Kendall, he published an opinion chastising the […]
Does a Ban on Driving While “Using a Wireless Telephone” Prohibit Driving While Looking at a Map on a Smartphone?
Here’s an interesting question of statutory interpretation raised by the invention of smartphones. California law bans using cell phones while driving as follows: A person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands free listening and talking, and is used in […]
Amicus Brief Supporting the “Gruesome Images” Petition, from Liberal Free Speech Scholars
The fourth amicus brief supporting our Scott v. Saint John’s Church in the Wilderness cert petition is the Brief of Constitutional Law Professors, filed by Bruce Johnson and Ambika Doran of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and by Prof. Geoffrey Stone (Chicago). The brief is signed by Profs. Floyd Abrams (visiting at Yale), Amy Adler (NYU), […]
Amicus Brief Supporting the “Gruesome Images” Petition, from Religion Clauses Scholars
The third amicus brief supporting our Scott v. Saint John’s Church in the Wilderness cert petition is the amicus brief of Religion Clauses scholars — Salam Al-Marayti (Muslim Public Affairs Council) and Profs. Michael Ariens (St. Mary’s), Thomas Berg (St. Thomas), Zachary Calo (Valparaiso), Bob Destro (Catholic), Carl Esbeck (Missouri), Marie Failinger (Hamline), Edward Gaffney […]
Amicus Brief Supporting the “Gruesome Images” Petition, from Historians of Art and Photography
The second amicus brief supporting our Scott v. Saint John’s Church in the Wilderness cert petition is the amicus brief of Historians of Art and Photography — Profs. Dora Apel (Wayne State), Stephen Eisenman (Northwestern), Renée C. Hoogland (Wayne State), Paul Jaskot (DePaul), William J. Thomas Mitchell (Chicago), Terence Smith (Pittsburgh), John Tagg (Binghamton), and […]
Amicus Brief Supporting the “Gruesome Images” Petition, from the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform
Last month, I blogged about a pro bono cert petition that I had filed in Scott v. Saint John’s Church in the Wilderness. The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld an injunction that bars my clients from (among other things) displaying “gruesome images” of aborted fetuses outside a church; the court acknowledged that this was a […]