Several related Mississippi legal rules prohibit “earwigging.” Without looking it up, can you tell what it means? Note that no other states even mention “earwig” or its forms in their statutes, even though there’s nothing Mississippi-specific about that behavior. Also, only six cases accessible in Westlaw mention the term (setting aside those mentioning either insects […]
Archive | November, 2013
Forgetting the Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries
My wife and I just attended a tour at the National Archives of the exhibit of Iraqi-Jewish documents that were rescued and preserved from the flooded basement of the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in 2003. My Iraqi-Jewish wife, along with many others, is very upset that these documents, having been stolen from the Jewish community, are […]
My Fed Soc Panel on Textualist Interpretation
Here is the panel on Textualism and Constitutional Interpretation from the Federalist Society Lawyer’s Convention last Friday. It was a dynamite line-up with the super smart (and fellow Guggenheim Fellow) Richard Primus (Michigan), conservative originalist John McGinnis (Northwestern), and originalism critic Mitch Berman (Texas). I go first to defend originalist constitutional interpretation and distinguish it […]
More on the Legality of the Latest ObamaCare Fix
By Jonathan H. Adler on November 18, 2013 11:52 pm in Administrative Law, Health Care, Insurance Exchanges
Last Thursday, the President announced a change in Administration policy designed to ensure that those who like their health insurance plans will be able to keep them for at least one more year, despite the legal requirements of the PPACA and its implementing regulations. On Friday, I explained the President lacks the authority to waive […]
Judge Rejects Immediate Appeal in Fast and Furious Document Case
Last month, Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied the federal government’s motion to dismiss a suit filed by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to enforce a subpoena for documents related to the “Fast and Furious” scandal. Today, Judge Jackson rebuffed the Justice Department again, refusing to certify her decision for an immediate appeal. According to Judge […]
Minnesota Bound
This Wednesday I will be in Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota to give a pair of talks. At 12:15 I will be speaking on property rights and environmental protection to the University of Minnesota Law School student chapter of the Federalist Society. Details here. Then at 3pm I will be speaking on federalism and environmental […]
Who Qualifies as “Media” for Purposes of Texas Law Governing Appeals?
I wanted to pass along another brief the UCLA First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic submitted last week. This one is on behalf of the bloggers at SCOTUSblog, the Supreme Court of Texas Blog, How Appealing, InstaPundit, and Power Line (3/4 of the bloggers there), in SEIU v. Professional Janitorial Service, Inc. (Tex. Sup. Ct.) (the […]
Parrillo on the Rise of Legislative History in Statutory Interpretation
An interesting article, just out in the Yale Law Journal: Nicholas R. Parrillo, Leviathan and Interpretive Revolution: The Administrative State, the Judiciary, and the Rise of Legislative History, 1890-1950.
Upcoming Talks in Britain on Democracy and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on November 18, 2013 10:04 am in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance
Next week, I will be giving four talks about my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter in the United Kingdom. Here is the list: November 25, 7-8:30 PM: Oxford Hayek Society, Oxford University, Christ Church College, Lecture Room TBC, Oxford (more details and RSVP link here). November 26, 6:30 PM-8 PM: […]
Asheesh Agarwal Reviews Unprecedented
Asheesh Agarwal has a review of Josh Blackman’s book Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare over at the Liberty Law blog: The story of the Affordable Care Act is as twisted and bizarre as anything ever written by Stephenson, Kafka, or Orwell. It is an Act that saw the President oppose his signature legislation, before […]
Discussing Obamacare Fix on WABC in LA
I’ll be on KABC Radio at the heart of the Conspiracy – LA (AM 790) at 0615 Monday, discussing the constitutionality of the ObamaCare Fix on the Doug McIntyre Show. Live streaming available here.
Pew Study: 27% of Jewish Children Live in Orthodox Homes
By comparison, only 11% of Jews ages 18-29 are Orthodox. Two caveats. First, only 80% of those 18-29 who were raised Orthodox call themselves Orthodox, so if trends hold the 27% will be more like 21.5%. Second, there is a confidence interval, unknown to me, and the numbers may not be quite so dramatic. But […]
Question about Corporate Social Responsibility Policies and Obamacare
Just wondering…. If (a) you are running a business that has a commitment as part of ingrained policy to obey the law; (b) President Obama announces that his administration will for the time being not be enforcing the law with regard, e.g., to existing insurance policies, or for that matter, the employer mandate; (c) is […]
Results of the VC Reader Poll on Ranking Supreme Court Justices
The results so far are here, based on 1,853 votes. A few thoughts: 1) As you might expect from a right-of-center blog, the right-of-center Justices were more popular than the left-of-center Justices. At the same time, every Justice had his or her fans. For example, in a one-on-one matchup between the most favorite of the […]
Theftuous
Just ran across this unusual bit of legalese, which I thought I’d pass along, mostly for its funny sound. It means just what you think it means.