Professor David Skeel of the University of Pennsylvania has an op-ed in Thursday’s WSJ discussing some of the legal issues raised by Detroit’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing and the potential conflict with the Michigan constitution. Skeel writes: Article IX, Section 24, of the Michigan state constitution says: “The accrued financial benefits of each pension plan and […]
Archive | July, 2013
Debating the Value of a Law Degree
By Jonathan H. Adler on July 24, 2013 8:16 pm in Law School Tuition and Loans, Law Schools, Legal Profession
The new study by Michael Simkovic and Frank McIntyre estimating the value of a law degree has sparked a substantial amount of debate and commentary, as I noted here and here. Most recently, WUSTL’s Brian Tamanaha, author of Failing Law Schools, went after the study on Balkinization arguing it systematically overstates the value of a […]
Implausible TV Plot Lines
I blogged this three years ago, but I was reminded of it and thought it was time to pass it along again. From squid314 (Scott Alexander, now at Slate Star Codex): As I mentioned in my last entry, I’ve been watching Babylon 5 lately. It’s not a perfect show, but it has one big advantage: […]
Supreme Court Clerks, Ten Years Later
A decade ago last week, I left the Volokh Conspiracy and took a leave of absence from teaching to be a law clerk for Justice Kennedy. Over at Excess of Democracy, lawprof Derek Muller looks at what that year of law clerks is up to 10 years later. (Yeah, I’m not sure why anyone other […]
Court Ruling Forces Nebraska Police to Return $1 Million Seized from a Former Exotic Dancer by Asset Forfeiture
A federal judge recently ordered the return of $1 million seized from a former exotic dancer by asset forfeiture [HT: VC reader Tom Kamenick]: A federal judge has ruled that Nebraska cops must return over $1 million confiscated at a traffic stop from a woman who saved the money $1 at a time during her […]
An important day for English as a Second Language
Congratulations to Louis George Alexander (1932-2002), author of New Concept English and the Direct English Syllabus and Course Structure! UPDATE: It’s been suggested to me that maybe this is actually all about George Louis Costanza, played by Jason Alexander.
The EU’s Israeli Settlement Guidelines and International Law
At The Times of Israel, I have a piece about the new European Union guidelines about funding to Israel, which provide that certain EU monies will not go to Israeli entities beyond the 1949 armistice lines, or that conduct activities there. In particular, I explain that while the guidelines cloak themselves with the mantle of […]
Canadian Competition Tribunal Rejects Antitrust Suit on Credit Card Surcharging
The Canadian Competition Tribunal yesterday rejected a claim by the Canadian Competition Bureau seeking to require credit card networks to create a right to allow merchants to surcharge consumers who use credit cards for payment. Canadian consumer groups recognized this as a big win for consumers: Consumer groups were hailing the decision as a major […]
Richard Reinsch Reviews “The American Illness”
I previously mentioned the new volume edited by my colleague Frank Buckley, entitled The American Illness: Essays in the Rule of Law (to which I contributed a co-authered essay). Richard Reinsch has a review of the book today at the Liberty Law blog. Frank also recently wrote an op-ed for the National Post comparing the condition […]
Cutting the Federal Defender Budget: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
I’m glad Orin posted about the startling impact of the sequestration on the federal public defenders. For those interested in the numbers underlying some of the claims in the Huffington Post story, I thought I would direct readers toward this fact sheet prepared by the Federal Defenders, and entered into the record at yesterday’s Senate […]
The Effect of Sequestration on the Federal Public Defender System
The Huffington Post has an important story on the impact of sequestration on funding for federal public defenders. An excerpt: The public defender system hasn’t just been stripped bare by sequestration, its bones have been chiseled away as well. There has been a 9 percent reduction in the roughly $1 billion budget for federal public […]
Blegs on firearms training for people with disabilities
Are you a firearms trainer with extensive experience in teaching people who have disabilities? Or do you know someone who is? If so please contact me at david@i2i.org. I would like to learn from your expertise, for a case which involves the intersection of the Second Amendment and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
More on Eminent Domain, Crony Capitalism, and the Decline of Detroit
Building on my post discussing the role of eminent domain abuse and the destruction of property rights in helping to cause the decline of Detroit, economist David Henderson has an interesting discussion of how “urban renewal” condemnations in the 1960s helped cause the massive 1967 race riot that most believe was a major milestone in […]
When Scholarship Influences Courts
Over at Prawfs, my co-author Eve Brensike Primus answered a Q&A on the influence of legal scholarship among judges: [Question by Jack Chin]: What advice do you have for scholars who want their work to be influential in the courts? If you want to be influential, you have to address important legal subjects that courts […]
Ban on Internet Cafes Struck Down
From iBiz, LLC v. City of Hayward (N.D. Cal. July 18, 2013): Like the provision of newspaper racks in a city, the provision of access to the Internet and computers is conduct that might not carry a message itself but is nevertheless closely related to expression. The Supreme Court has affirmed that the Internet is […]