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Archive | August, 2013
Decimating the Public Defender System
Former judges Paul Cassell and Nancy Gertner have an op-ed in today’s WSJ decrying the effects of budget constraints and sequestration on federal public defenders. Here’s a taste: due to the combination of general budget austerity and sequestration, the federal public defender system—a model of effective indigent defense for the past 40 years—is being decimated. As […]
House Democrat to Challenge IRS Tax-Exemption Rules
The Washington Post reports that Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) will file suit today against the Internal Revenue Service’s regulations governing what organizations qualify for tax exempt status. Current law says the organizations must engage “exclusively” in social welfare activities, but IRS tax code requires only that they are “primarily engaged” in such purposes. That discrepancy has […]
Dean Sanctioned for Submitting False Admissions Data
Via Legal Ethics Forum comes news that former Villanova Law School Dean Mark Sargent received a three-year suspension from the Massachusetts Bar for knowingly submitting false admissions data. Former Illinois Law DeanAssistant Dean of Admissions Paul Pless was also reprimanded by the Washington State bar. [Note: Errors to this post have been corrected. Most significantly, as […]
The Solicitor General’s Brief in Bond v. United States
By Nick Rosenkranz on August 20, 2013 9:42 pm in Constitutional Law, Federalism, Tenth Amendment, Treaties
Regular readers are familiar with Bond v. United States, the pending case that presents the question of whether, per Missouri v. Holland, a treaty can increase the legislative power of Congress. I posted about Paul Clement’s brief on behalf of Ms. Bond here, and I posted about my brief on behalf of the Cato Institute […]
Mann v. Steyn — Mann Wins Round One
Last year, the noted (and controversial) climate scientist Michael Mann sued National Review and the Competitive Enterprise Institute for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress for blog posts written by Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg and posted on National Review Online and CEI’s OpenMarket blog, respectively. I blogged about the case in these four posts: 1, 2, […]
Suzanna Sherry on the Case for “Judicial Activism”
By Ilya Somin on August 20, 2013 7:50 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory
Vanderbilt law professor Suzanna Sherry recently posted an interesting article on “Why We Need More Judicial Activism”, which led to a symposium at The Green Bag, and a critique by co-blogger Orin Kerr. I agree with Sherry’s main point: that we need more judicial review, not less, and that historically federal courts have erred more […]
When Is Ignorance of Consanguinity Bliss?
For the past two days, the most-read article on Slate has been this “Dear Prudie” column about a man whose unacknowledged son is unwittingly marrying his cousin. The dispute presented to Emily Yoffe (Prudie) is whether to alert the couple that they are cousins. Yoffe’s response is a strong recommendation to keep quiet: As it […]
My Forthcoming Book Chapter on “The Impact of Judicial Review on American Federalism”
My forthcoming book chapter, “The Impact of Judicial Review on American Federalism: Promoting Centralization More than State Autonomy,” is now available on SSRN. It will be published in Nicholas and Aroney and John Kincaid, eds., Courts in Federal Countries: Federalists or Unitarists? (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). This book examines the effects of judicial review on […]
Catalogue vs. Catalog
My wife, son, and I were discussing “catalogue” vs. “catalog” yesterday, so naturally I turned to Google Ngrams to see actual usage in American English books over time. Here’s what I saw, again focusing only on American English books published from 1952 to 2008 (2008 being the latest year that Google Ngrams offers); I was […]
“Plaintiffs … Reluctantly File This Action”
From Williams v. Bridgeport Music, Inc. (C.D. Cal. filed Aug. 15, 2013), aka Got to Give It Up (Marvin Gaye) & Sexy Ways (Funkadelic) v. Blurred Lines (Robin Thicke): Plaintiffs, who have the utmost respect for and admiration of Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic and their musical legacies, reluctantly file this action in the face of multiple […]
An Excellent Example of a Scholarly Amicus Brief
Eugene had some posts a while back about good amicus briefs, and now that I’m here I wanted to mention an unusually good academic amicus brief recently filed at the Supreme Court — that of Professor Stephen E. Sachs as amicus curiae in Atlantic Marine v. U.S. District Court (although the real respondent is J-Crew […]
Law School Applications Continue to Drop
Law school applications are down 18 percent and the number of applicants is down 12 percent. Paul Caron has details here. Relatedly, the LA Times reports on shrinking law school class sizes at California schools. Most schools face a stark choice between shrinking the size of incoming classes and lowering admission standards. In the coming […]
An Unhelpful Way to Measure the Consequences of Striking Down Versus Upholding Legislation: A Response to Sherry
Professor Suzanna Sherry recently posted an essay, Why We Need More Judicial Activism, arguing that we should encourage courts to strike down legislation because courts more often err by upholding legislation than by striking down legislation. The Green Bag put out a request for responses to Sherry’s article. I wrote up a response, but then […]
Speaking of Fourth Amendment History…
In light of my last post on Fourth Amendment originalism, I thought I would make two more comments — one a recommendation and the other a question. 1) Among those doing historical work on criminal procedure, I think one scholar’s historical work that is excellent and consistently “underplaced” is Wes Oliver of Duquesne (formerly of […]