The Batman bin Suparman story, from Prof. Ben Zimmer (Slate‘s Lexicon Valley).
Archive | November, 2013
NAACP Backs State Autonomy on Marijuana Policy
By Ilya Somin on November 11, 2013 11:20 am in Federalism, Racial Discrimination, Racism, War on Drugs
The NAACP recently passed a resolution backing a proposed federal law that would prohibit enforcement of federal laws banning marijuana in states that have imposed lesser penalties or have legalized marijuana entirely. The resolution cites the “misguided and misplaced policies” of the War on Drugs, which have resulted in “the disproportionate over-confinement of racial and […]
Venezuela Goes from a Seeming Parody of Third World Socialist Populism to
such heights of absurdity that if you came across it in an Ayn Rand novel, you would say to yourself, “Oh come on Ayn, even Socialist despots have to try to govern with a straight face” and “the public wouldn’t be dumb enough to fall for such things.” Yet, as one of my Facebook friends […]
Flipping on Trans Fats
This week the Food and Drug Administration announced that it is targeting trans fats in food. Specifically, the FDA announced its preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), the primary source of trans fat in the American diet, are [no longer] “generally recognized as safe” as food additives. If finalized, this determination would mean that […]
Kenneth Andersons Are Particularly Bad People and You’d Be Wise to Steer Clear of Us
Jonathan points to news stories and a NYT editorial about former prosecutor (and former judge and former lawyer) Kenneth Anderson serving 10 days for prosecutorial misconduct. I wanted to point out something different, however. A quick Google search reveals that Kenneth Andersons are a really bad group of people. Apparently we Kenneth Andersons are prone to […]
Holding Prosecutors Accountable
An editorial in yesterday’s NYT begins: For what may be the first time on record, a former prosecutor in Texas is going to jail for failing to turn over exculpatory evidence in a murder trial. The 10-day jail sentence for the prosecutor, Ken Anderson, is insultingly short — the victim of his misconduct, Michael Morton, spent […]
Gonzaga Students Facing Expulsion for Legally Possessing Guns in Private University-Owned Apartments
An interesting story from the Gonzaga Bulletin: Roommates Erik Fagan and Dan McIntosh, both seniors, may be expelled this week after they used McIntosh’s pistol to repel a late-night trespasser from the doorway of their 207 E. Sinto Ave. apartment. Fagan answered a 10:15 p.m. knock on their front door Thursday, Oct. 24. A friend […]
Watch the Final Debate on Same-Sex Marriage in Hawaii
The live feed is here.
Lost Maxims of Equity
From 52 J. Legal Ed. 619 (2003): He who seeks equity must do so with full pockets. Equity is not for the squeamish. Equity, schmequity. Equity can be grumpy before its first cup of coffee. Equity is crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. Equity is a mean drunk. Equity, like all […]
Book Signing at the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention
By Ilya Somin on November 8, 2013 1:40 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Federalism, Individual Mandate
Next Friday, November 15, from 11 to 12 AM, I will be signing copies of my recently published books Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter and A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case, at the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention, in the main promenade of the hotel […]
Religious Law in American Criminal Courts
From Torres v. State (Fla. Ct. App. Nov. 6, 2013): Appellant challenges his [thirty-year sentence] for first-degree sexual battery…. We agree that the trial court’s comments could reasonably be construed to suggest that the trial court based appellant’s sentence, at least in part, on religion. Therefore, we reverse and remand for resentencing before a different […]
Video of my Cato Institute Book Forum on Democracy and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on November 8, 2013 11:02 am in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance
For readers who may be interested, the video of my recent Cato Institute Book Forum on my recently published Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. is linked below. The event includes commentary by George Washington University political scientist John Sides (coauthor of an important new book on the 2012 presidential election), and […]
Equity Abhors Historical Error
Well, maybe it doesn’t, but it should. My colleague Sam Bray, who’s a remedies scholar, passed this along to me, and I thought it very much worth posting: As every lawyer and law student knows, the old separation between courts of law and courts of equity has been abolished almost everywhere. Some of the historical […]
My SCOTUSBlog Argument Recap of Walden v. Fiore
There were a lot of high-profile cases argued at the Court this week, but one case that was argued was Walden v. Fiore, the personal-jurisdiction/venue dispute about a deputized DEA agent who seized a bunch of money from some professional gamblers. I’ve posted my assessment of the oral argument at SCOTUSBlog: As the first few […]
Commenter Sues Newspaper for Refusing to Remove Comments About Him
He loses, in Hupp v. Freedom Communications, Inc. (Cal. Ct. App. Nov. 17, 2013), and will likely have to pay the defendant’s attorney fees to boot (under the California anti-SLAPP statute). Plaintiff Paul Hupp’s claim was that the Orange County Register “violated its user agreement ‘by making public comments and not removing said comment about […]