NPR reports on an interesting recent article by psychologist Phil Fernbach and his coauthors, which finds that public ignorance about the details of policy has an important impact on voters’ political views: Should the United States impose unilateral sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program? Should we raise the retirement age for Social Security? Should […]
Archive | June, 2013
Prof. Stuart Benjamin on Algorithms and Speech
Our own Stuart Benjamin (Duke) has a very interesting new article out in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Algorithms and Speech. Here’s the Introduction: More and more of our activity involves not merely the transmission of bits, but the transmission of bits according to algorithms and protocols created by humans and implemented by machines. […]
Liberals, Free Speech, and Demonstrations Outside Abortion Clinics
I blogged last week about the danger of assuming that liberals would be hostile to First Amendment protection for anti-abortion speech. I wanted to add an extra data point, related to McCullen v. Coakley, an abortion clinic demonstration case pending before the Court. The petition in McCullen seeks review of a First Circuit decision (McCullen), […]
The Adventure of the Commandeered Snow Plow
Ordinarily at Law and the Multiverse we stick to more fantastical topics (“superheroes, supervillains, and the law”), so when we were given the opportunity to write some guest posts for the Conspiracy, we realized this would be an ideal occasion to discuss something more down to earth — not to mention more well-known than some […]
James Daily and Ryan Davidson, Authors of The Law of Superheroes, Guest-Blogging
I’m delighted to report that James Daily and Ryan Davidson, bloggers at Law and the Multiverse and authors of the new book The Law of Superheroes, will be guest-blogging here this week. Both authors are recently minted lawyers, and James Daily is a research associate with the Stanford University Hoover Institution’s Project on Commercializing Innovation, […]
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Sides With Dissent in Maryland v. King
The press release is here: Today’s unfortunate U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Maryland v. King, by a vote of 5-4, expands government power, invades our liberty, and undermines our constitutional rights. The Court held that the police can forcibly take DNA samples from people who have been arrested — but have not been tried or […]
South Carolina Supreme Court (3-2) Mostly Upholds Lifetime Satellite Location Monitoring for Child Molesters
When Jennifer Dykes was 26, she had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. She was convicted of “lewd act on a minor,” and was sentenced to (in effect) 3 years in prison and 5 years’ probation. She violated her probation in various ways (flaking out on sex offender counseling, moving without notifying her probation […]
Certification of Legal Questions to Foreign Courts?
Terra Firma Investments (GP) 2 Ltd. v. Citigroup Inc. (2d Cir. 2013), reverses a jury verdict because of the trial court’s misapplication of English law (in a lawsuit over the sale of the London-based EMI). Judge Lohier concurs, with this interesting opinion: I agree entirely with our resolution of the issue of English law involved […]
Man Burns Down His Own House Because He Thinks There Were Witches In It
The Item (Sumter, S.C.) reports on the story, and on the fact that the man (Richard Clark) “was deemed not guilty by reason of insanity by 3rd Circuit Judge R. Ferrell Cothran.” State mental health authorities had concluded the man was insane, and the prosecutor agreed that “Clark burned the house down because he believed […]
Reflections on the Red Wedding
This is a post about the Red Wedding, portrayed in the most recent episode of the HBO show Game of Thrones, and first described in George R.R. Martin’s book A Storm of Swords. If you want to avoid plot spoilers, don’t read below the fold. If you ignore this warning, don’t complain about spoilers.
Greek Bill That Would Outlaw “Approving or Belittling the Seriousness of Nazi Crimes, the Jewish Holocaust, and Other Genocides”
The Jerusalem Post reports that the Greek Prime Minister and his party no longer oppose this bill, which I take it makes it much more likely that it will get enacted. The bill seems to be an attempt to go after the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, but — unsurprisingly when it comes to such speech […]
Reading The Tea Leaves On Shelby County v. Holder
Based on today’s decision in Maryland v. King, there are now three opinions outstanding from the February sitting (Shelby County v. Holder, Peugh v. United States, and American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant), and three Justices who have no majority opinion for that sitting yet (the Chief Justice, Justice Scalia, and Justice Sotomayor). Making […]
Ban on Behavior that “Emotionally Abuse[s]” or “Is Likely to Create an … Offensive Environment” and “Which Serves No Legitimate Purpose” + Liability for Parents Who “Allow[]” Such Speech
That’s what a new ordinance from Monona, Wisconsin provides (as posted on the amusingly named MyMonona.com): (a) … Bullying is a form of harassment and is defined as an intentional course of conduct which is reasonably likely to intimidate, emotionally abuse, slander, threaten or intimidate another person and which serves no legitimate purpose. “Course of […]
A Few Thoughts on Maryland v. King
Here are some thoughts on Maryland v. King, today’s new case allowing DNA testing on arrest under the Fourth Amendment: 1) It’s hugely important as a practical matter, but it’s not very interesting from a theoretical or academic standpoint. The difference between the two opinions largely hinges on how you characterize the purpose of the […]
Breyer and Scalia in Fourth Amendment Cases This Term
After hearing about today’s 5-4 decision in Maryland v. King, holding (as Jonathan notes below) that the government can collect and analyze DNA incident to arrest without a warrant, some might be surprised that conservative Justice Scalia voted for the defense side while the liberal Justice Breyer voted for the government. They shouldn’t be. In […]