The Washington Post has an interesting new poll out about public reaction to the recent disclosures that the NSA is getting access to all domestic call records, or at least all records held by particular telephone providers. I thought I would ask the Post’s poll question to readers here, and then hide the result of […]
Archive | June, 2013
A Modest But Potentially Significant Supreme Court Victory for Property Rights
By Ilya Somin on June 10, 2013 7:50 pm in Just Compensation Clause, Property Rights, Regulatory Takings
To the disappointment of court-watchers, the Supreme Court did not announce any high-profile decisions today. But it did issue a unanimous opinion in Horne v. Department of Agriculture, a notable Takings Clause property rights case. The Hornes are California raisin farmers seeking to challenge the constitutionality of a provision of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act […]
Crime to Post “Indecent” Speech “About a Person” with “Purpose to Harass”?
The bill is what New Jersey Senate Bill 2469, introduced by Senator Donald Norcross (who is the Assistant Majority Leader) and Senator Nicholas Sacco, would provide: A person commits the crime of cyber-harassment if, while making a communication in an online capacity via any electronic device or through a social networking site and with the […]
Supreme Court Denies Review in “Gruesome Images” Case (Scott v. Saint John’s Church in the Wilderness)
I’m sorry to report that the Supreme Court has refused to hear our petition in this case. As usual, the Court has not given any reasons for the denial. The matter thus remains where it stood before the petition — some lower courts think that restricting gruesome images (and harsh words, such as signs calling […]
Not All ObamaCare Lawsuits Will Come from Law’s Opponents
Most of the lawsuits filed to date challenging the constitutionality or implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have come from the law’s opponents. Yet as the federal government implements various provisions of the law, groups that backed the PPACA’s passage will file suits over the law’s implementation, often in an effort to […]
Can a Treaty Increase The Power of Congress?
I will be speaking on this topic at the Cato Institute on Friday, June 14, at noon. The inimitable Judge Kozinski will be commenting. Luncheon to follow. Information and registration here.
CAP’s Glass House
The Center for American Progress and its affiliated 501(c)(4) Center for American Progress Action Fund often attack conservative and libertarian organizations as tools of corporate interests. The latter’s Think Progress blog, for instance, has often suggested corporate donations undermine the credibility of CAP’s ideological adversaries. This makes a recent report and follow-up in The Nation on […]
A Month of IRS Scandal
As he has for the past 30 days, Paul Caron rounds up the latest on the IRS scandal. Among the key developments are claims by IRS employees in the Cincinnati office suggesting D.C. involvement in the targeting of conservative groups and renewed allegations that an IRS employee released confidential tax information of a conservative group. […]
DoJ Seeks to Keep FISA Court Decision Invalidating NSA Surveillance Under Wraps
There have been some interesting disclosures in the past week or so about the extent of federal government surveillance. Could there be still more to come? On Friday, the Department of Justice filed a motion opposing public release of a 2011 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court decision declaring some aspect of National Security Agency surveillance under the […]
Swedish Royal Wedding
I will not be live blogging from the royal wedding here in Stockholm today; that simply would not be appropriate. For those who are interested, see Hello Magazine’s comprehensive coverage, here.
Military Uniforms and High School Graduations
A reader e-mailed me about this story: The family of a future Marine from New Hampshire is upset that his high school will not allow him to wear his uniform to graduation. Brandon Garabrant will earn the title of [United] States Marine Friday after boot camp graduation. He will receive his diploma at ConVal Regional […]
Indiana Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Oral Arguments in Brewington
Readers of this blog may remember Brewington v. State, an Indiana Court of Appeals decision that I’ve argued is inconsistent with the First Amendment. Brewington asked the Indiana Supreme Court to review the case, and I filed (with the help of local counsel Jim Bopp and Justin McAdam) a pro bono amicus brief supporting that […]
Why Does a Terry Standard Apply to Querying the NSA Call Records Database?
In his post below, my co-blogger Stewart Baker points out DNI James Clapper’s statement about the FISC order requiring Verizon to turn over its entire call records database to the NSA. I was particularly interested in this paragraph: By order of the FISC, the Government is prohibited from indiscriminately sifting through the telephony metadata acquired […]
George Will on Reducing Mandatory Minimum Sentences
George Will recently published an interesting column on a bill that would give judges greater discretion to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for federal crimes, co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy and Republican Rand Paul: Seven-term Democrat Pat Leahy’s 38 Senate years have made him Judiciary Committee chairman. Republican Rand Paul is in his third Senate […]
Noel Canning Recess Appointments Case Fully Briefed And Ready for Decision
Yesterday, the government filed its cert. stage reply brief in NLRB v. Noel Canning, 12-1281, the case seeking review of the D.C. Circuit’s decision invalidating President Obama’s 2012 recess appointments to the NLRB. The challenge to the appointments was brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s National Chamber Litigation Center. The cert papers were distributed […]