Yesterday, the President announced a purported fix to the problem that, under the PPACA, insurance companies are not allowed to renew policies that fail to comply with PPACA requirements, even if consumers like their existing plans. This was not an accident. Forcing all health insurance policies to comply with federal minimum requirements was a key […]
Archive | November, 2013
Want to be a Law Professor?
The Georgetown Center for the Constitution is now receiving applications for 2-year fellowships for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. Fellows will work on their scholarship as they prepare to enter the law teaching market, and are Visiting Lecturers to teach their own seminar on the subject of their research and co-teach with me. The […]
Rank Your Favorite Supreme Court Justices
Here’s a VC reader poll: Who are your favorite current Supreme Court Justices? Rank all nine at this link. For entertainment value and to satisfy idle curiosity only, naturally.
Has the Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms Outlived Its Usefulness?
I’m on a train to New York from the Federalist Society conference in D.C., headed to do a debate on this subject organized by Intelligence2 Debates. The debaters will be Sandy Levinson and Alan Dershowitz against Dave Kopel and me, and a live video stream will be available starting 6:45 Eastern tonight at this site, […]
Google Books’ Scanning and Snippet Display of Books Is Fair Use, and Thus Not Copyright Infringement
By Eugene Volokh on November 14, 2013 1:54 pm in Copyright, Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Gather Information
So holds Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google Inc. (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 14, 2013). I’m still on the road, and thus can’t blog about the opinion in detail, but I’ve read it and I think its fair use finding is quite right. Thanks to How Appealing for the pointer. UPDATE: Matthew Sag has a summary of the […]
The Constitutionality of the ObamaCare “Fix”
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 14, 2013 1:25 pm in Congress, Constitutional Law, Executive Branch, Health Care, Obama, Separation of Powers, Uncategorized
President Obama in his speech on “fixing” the Affordable Care Act today did not specify what statutory authority, if any, he thinks authorizes him to make such dictats. Given the gargantuan length of the ObamaCare statute, he might still be looking. Press reports say the President is claiming a broad “enforcement discretion.” It is true […]
My SCOTUSBlog “On Camera” Interview, Parts 3 & 4
I have never before been interviewed at such length, so we got into a lot more than one would normally expect during a video interview. And I did not remember all the ground we covered until I watched these videos. Part 3: Part 4:
Randolph, Fernandez, and the Puzzle of Limiting Third-Party Consent
In Wednesday’s oral argument in Fernandez v. California, no party asked the Supreme Court to overturn Georgia v. Randolph. But the more I think about Fernandez, the more I think the issues in the case just point to the underlying problem with Randolph. In this post, I want to say a bit about why. The […]
A Few Thoughts on the DOJ Brief in the Lavabit Case
DOJ has filed its brief in the Lavabit appeal before the Fourth Circuit. I blogged at length on Lavabit’s brief, so I thought I would offer a few thoughts on DOJ’s brief: 1) In general, it’s a solid brief. It’s going to be extremely unpopular in the IANAL computer nerd world, obviously, but it’s mostly […]
Tarek Mehanna Conviction for Aiding al Qaeda Upheld
I’m on the road right now, and won’t have the time to blog further about this, but I suspect that some of our readers have followed the case — especially given the defendant’s First Amendment arguments — so I thought I’d note today’s First Circuit opinion. (Note that the title of the post is an […]
Gay Marriage in Hawaii
The governor is signing the bill now. Hawaii has come full circle since the 1990s when the possibility of marriage for same-sex couples led to the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act. Hawaii makes 16 states recognizing same-sex marriages.
Did The Dark Knight Rises Infringe a Trademark When Catwoman Was Offered a Program Called “Clean Slate”?
Here’s one more brief that the UCLA First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic submitted last week. This one is on behalf of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in Fortres Grand Corp. v. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (7th Cir.) (the link is to the decision that is being appealed), and my students Nathan Davis, Sara Liss, and Paulette […]
Oral Argument in Fernandez v. California: An Initial Reaction
I was at the Supreme Court this morning for the oral argument in Fernandez v. California, the Fourth Amendment case on third-party consent that I blogged about last week. I have just a few minutes now and more time later, so I will offer a few quick thoughts here and hope to offer more detailed […]
Getting Ready to Study for Your Contracts Exam?
You might want to try my book: The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Contracts. Here is the publisher’s description: Written by a leading expert in the field, The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Contracts provides students with ready access to the basic doctrines of contract law, the story behind their evolution, and the rationales for their continued existence. […]
The Impact of the Volokh Conspiracy on the Obamacare Litigation
By Ilya Somin on November 13, 2013 11:10 am in Blogosphere, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate
Part of my concluding essay in my new book, A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (coauthored with VC co-bloggers Randy Barnett, Jonathan Adler, David Bernstein, Orin Kerr, and David Kopel) deals with the impact of the VC and the blogosphere on the case. Here is an excerpt: What role […]