No, really, see Fitch v. Republican Party (Cal. Super. Ct. filed Aug. 19, 2013), which alleges, among other things, “Professional Negligence” consisting of the breach of the “legal duty of care, to take care of their constituents with job market protection” and the breach of a “duty to make[] sure the Republican corporate members are […]
Archive | August, 2013
Rejoinder to Suzanna Sherry on the Case for “Judicial Activism”
Vanderbilt law professor Suzanna Sherry has written a thoughtful response to my and Orin Kerr’s critiques of her article “Why We Need More Judicial Activism.” To briefly recap, Suzanna contends that courts should err on the side of excessive “activism” (defined simply as striking down laws or other official actions) rather than excessive restraint, because […]
New Mexico Photographer Loses Discrimination Case
By Dale Carpenter on August 22, 2013 5:16 pm in Constitutional Law, Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law, Sexual Orientation
In Elane Photography v. Willock, the New Mexico state supreme court has decided to reject a professional photographer’s statutory and constitutional claims that she could not be required to photograph a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony. Filed under a state law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation in “public accommodations” (which nowadays is often defined to include […]
Swire Endorsed Position That NSA Telephony Metadata Program is Illegal
I mentioned in my post below that Peter Swire is like to be the civil libertarian on the 4-person Obama committee to review the NSA’s surveillance practices. Along those lines, I noticed that Swire co-signed this amicus brief filed a few weeks ago that argued that the NSA’s telephony metadata program is illegal under FISA’s […]
Not Exactly an “Outside” Committee to Review NSA Surveillance Programs
According to ABC News, the panel of “outside experts” picked by the Obama Administration to review the NSA surveillance programs consists of the following: Michael Morrell Richard Clarke Cass Sunstein Peter Swire Assuming that’s the whole group, it’s not exactly a list of “outside” experts. Morrell retired just two weeks ago from the CIA, where […]
Political Ignorance and the Weakness of Consumer Demand for “Hard News”
Media writer Jack Shafer and economics columnist Megan McArdle have interesting pieces discussing the weakness of the market for “hard news.” Shafer notes that producing “hard news” has never been very profitable because most readers aren’t particularly interested in it and are reluctant to pay for it. McArdle points out that the hard news media’s […]
Obama Opposed to Changing Legal Status of Marijuana “at this Point”
The White House recently confirmed that President Obama continues to oppose the legalization of marijuana, despite growing public support for the idea: President Barack Obama does not support changes to the legal classification of marijuana, the White House said Wednesday, despite growing evidence of its medical benefits. White House spokesman Josh Earnest was asked for […]
A Response to Kerr and Somin on Sherry
By Prof. Suzanna Sherry (Vanderbilt), guest-blogging on August 22, 2013 9:55 am in Constitutional Law, Judicial Power, Supreme Court
Orin Kerr and Ilya Somin have posted thoughtful responses to my essay, Why We Need More Judicial Activism, on which the Green Bag recently published a micro-symposium. Orin’s and Ilya’s posts deserve what I hope will be an equally thoughtful reply, and I thank Eugene Volokh for allowing me to post this reply as a […]
The Overcollection Problem Identified in the 2011 FISC Opinion
The FISC’s newly-declassified 2011 Opinion on the NSA’s implementation of Section 702 surveillance is both dense and fascinating. In this post, I thought I would just bring readers up to speed on the basic factual problem identified in the opinion (at least to the extent I can understand it). In later posts, I’ll consider the […]
SCIL Loses First Amendment Challenge to Bar Passage Disclosure Requirement
By Jonathan H. Adler on August 21, 2013 8:38 pm in Academia, Bar Exam, Freedom of Speech, Law Schools, Legal Profession
As I noted here, the Southern California Institute of Law sought to challenge a requirement that it disclose the bar passage rate of its graduates. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the judge was not too impressed with this argument. SCIL’s attorney says the school may appeal. More from the WSJ Law Blog and ABA Journal.
2011 FISC Opinion Invalidating Part of Section 702 Surveillance Program Released
The declassified and redacted opinion is here. I’m reading it now, and I hope to post some comments when I have finished. Meanwhile press coverage confirms my earlier suggestion that the problem was an overcollection problem. As the Post summarizes: Under the program, the NSA for three years diverted large volumes of international data passing […]
Browsers
A comment on the Explorer/DISQUS thread led me to check Google Analytics for statistics on which browsers people use to access our site. Here’s what I get for the last month, listing all the browsers with a >1% share: [table id=5 /]
£85,000 Fine for Stating That It’s Permissible to Kill Anyone Who Disrespects Mohammed
The PressGazette (UK) reports: Ofcom [the UK communications regulatory body] has fined an Islamic TV channel £85,000 after it broadcast statements saying it was acceptable to murder anyone who disrespects the Prophet Mohammed. The decision appears to be the one that starts on p. 18 of this document; Ofcom found that Noor violated the prohibition […]
SCOTUSblog: Questioning Congress’s Legislative Authority to Implement Treaties
By Nick Rosenkranz on August 21, 2013 1:42 pm in Constitutional Law, Federalism, Tenth Amendment, Treaties
The “Academic Highlight” over at SCOTUSblog features Bond v. United States and Executing the Treaty Power.
Sachs on Personal Jurisdiction and Authority
Speaking of Steve Sachs and civil procedure, I was recently reminded of this passage, from a recent article by Steve, on the question of whether the Constitution’s limits on personal jurisdiction focus on convenience and fairness or on something more like sovereignty (an issue that may well come up again in next term’s personal jurisdiction […]