I have a new post up on the Reason Foundation website about Contract Clause challenges to state public pension reform statutes. Here’s an excerpt: Faced with public pension crises, many states have recently enacted pension-reform laws—increasing the rates at which their employees must contribute to their pension funds, reducing or eliminating cost-of-living adjustments, increasing the […]
Archive | September, 2013
Democracy and Political Ignorance – The Book Tour
It’s not actually an integrated book tour, but merely a set of individual speaking engagements. But, for readers who may be interested, here is a list of upcoming talks I will be giving about my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. In most cases, these events will last about 60 to […]
Steven Teles on “Kludgeocracy” and the Role of Government in Society
By Ilya Somin on September 25, 2013 11:15 am in Federalism, Growth of Government, Political Ignorance, Public Opinion, Separation of Powers
In the fall issue of National Affairs, Johns Hopkins political scientist Steven Teles has an interesting article on what he dubs the problem of “kludgeocracy” in American government: In recent decades, American politics has been dominated, at least rhetorically, by a battle over the size of government. But that is not what the next few […]
Legal Systems Very Different From Ours
I’ve just started reading a very interesting draft book by David Friedman, called Legal Systems Very Different From Ours. It includes chapters on “Gypsy Law,” “Amish Law,” “Jewish Law,” “Islamic Law,” “Somali Law,” “Athenian Law,” “Irish Law,” “Chinese Law,” and “Plains Indian Law,” as well as a number of analytical chapters connecting these legal systems. […]
Neomi Rao, Guest-Blogging about Windsor, Dignity, Recognition, and Individual Rights
Prof. Neomi Rao (George Mason) has a very interesting essay on Windsor — one of the same-sex marriage cases — called The Trouble with Dignity and Rights of Recognition [UPDATE: link fixed], and I’m delighted to say that she’ll be guest-blogging about it for the next few days. Here’s a summary of the paper: In […]
The New York Times Loves Arguendo
By Nick Rosenkranz on September 25, 2013 9:32 am in Constitutional Law, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech
A few weeks ago, I posted about Arguendo, a new show by Elevator Repair Service Theater (ERS), which opened last night at the Public Theater in New York City. Arguendo is a sort of topsy-turvy dramatization of the oral argument in Barnes v. Glen Theatre, an important Supreme Court case about nude dancing and the […]
Russia’s Piracy Charges Against Greenpeace Groundless and Illegal
Russia has seized a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace vessel in international waters, and plans to charge the crew with piracy. The environmentalists had attempted to unfurl a protest banner on a Russian Arctic oil platform. Russian commandos raided the Arctic Dawn and towed it to port. The unusual piracy charges may well be inspired by a Ninth […]
The Obama Administration and (Future) Feeder Judges
As Jonathan notes below, Harvard Law professor David Barron, former Acting AAG of the Office of Legal Counsel, has been nominated to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. It’s interesting that the Obama Administration seems to have nominated recently an unusual number of feeder-type candidates to the circuit […]
Professor David Barron Nominated to the First Circuit
This afternoon President Obama nominated Harvard Law School professor David Barron to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Professor Barron is currently the S. William Green Professor of Public Law and previously served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of […]
Murder Prosecution Raises Multiple Same-Sex Marriage Recognition Questions
A current murder prosecution in Kentucky happens to simultaneously raise two different same-sex-marriage recognition problems that I’ve previously blogged about. In Kentucky, as in many states, spouses don’t have to testify against one another about things they said while married. Ms. Bobby Jo Clary is on trial for murder, and the state wants her partner, […]
Shameless Plug: Law Review Edition
Pepperdine’s Derek Muller considers the purpose of law reviews and asks: “Why aren’t more journals like the Case Western Reserve Law Review?” Among other things, Professor Muller notes the law review’s e-reader friendly formatting and typeface, podcast series, and substantive Twitter feed. I’d also note that articles are promptly published online in PDF and that the […]
When a “Ridiculous” Argument Is Correct
This morning’s lesson comes from Judge Kethledge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Bennett v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Co. Judge Kethledge’s opinion for the court begins: There are good reasons not to call an opponent’s argument “ridiculous,” which is what State Farm calls Barbara Bennett’s principal argument here. The reasons include civility; […]
Religious Freedom Lawsuit Over Street Naming
From NorthJersey.com (via Prof. Howard Friedman [Religion Clause]): The leaders of a city mosque filed a federal lawsuit on Sunday saying municipal officials violated their Constitutional rights of freedom of religion by naming the street where the building is located after a deceased member of the Islamic group. The lawsuit also accuses Councilman Mohammed Aktraruzzman […]
Another ObamaCare “Glitch” – Family Coverage Edition
From USA Today: Congress defined “affordable” as 9.5% or less of an employee’s household income, mostly to make sure people did not leave their workplace plans for subsidized coverage through the exchanges. But the “error” was that it only applies to the employee — and not his or her family. So, if an employer offers a […]
“Does Technology Lead to Tyranny? – The Fourth Amendment and New Technologies in a Digitized World”
Last Friday, I spoke on a very interesting panel about how the Fourth Amendment should respond to new technologies hosted by the Heritage Foundation. The panelists were Miguel Estrada of Gibson Dunn, Susan Herman of the ACLU and Brooklyn Law, and me. Paul Larkin of the Heritage Foundation moderated. You can watch the panel here: