From Tennessee House Bill 540, which has been recommended for passage by the House Local Government Committee: A person commits an offense who intentionally, without or prior to the filing of a [lawsuit] … communicates, in writing or by electronic communication, with a local government unit or local public servant in an offensively repetitious manner […]
Archive | December, 2013
ObamaCare and the Silence of the Liberals
The Hudson Institute’s Christopher DeMuth writes in the Weekly Standard on the practical reality of ObamaCare as it is being implemented. Obamacare will never achieve its promise of affordable health care for all paid for with improved efficiencies in health insurance and medical care. The initial troubles and compromises have revealed that the program improves “access” mainly […]
George Will on “Enforcement Discretion and Executive Duty”
George Will’s latest column discusses my article. You can read it here. I’m of course enormously pleased and flattered.
American Studies Association Faces Consequences from its Boycott
I previously posted about the proposed boycott of Israeli institutions by the American Studies Association, which was approved by a vote of its membership over the weekend. The boycott is pretty lame; it’s supposed to be in solidarity with the international boycott movement advocated by Palestinian “civil society” organizations, which calls for a complete cultural […]
Update on United States v. Auernheimer
Some readers have asked me about the oral argument schedule in United States v. Auernheimer, the Third Circuit appeal I am working on pro bono involving charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Unfortunately, the case is somewhat stuck right now. Although all the briefs have been filed, the Third Circuit has yet to […]
President’s Review Group Releases Report
The report — from Messrs. Sunstein, Swire, Stone, Clarke, and Morell — is here. On the whole, it strikes a middle ground. On one hand, it disagrees with a lot of the status quo, making many recommendations for change. On the other hand, the changes it suggests aren’t particularly radical or dramatic: Most of the […]
The Correct Framework for Executive Enforcement Discretion
So what is the correct framework for enforcement discretion? I believe the Constitution carries a central tension on this point, one that’s best resolved by the two presumptions I articulated at the outset — a presumption in favor of case-by-case discretion and a presumption against categorical or prospective non-enforcement for policy reasons. At the outset, […]
Just in Time for Christmas!
A customizable gift for your favorite imperialist traitor. Thanks to Glenn Reynolds (InstaPundit) for the pointer.
Why Presidents Resort to Policy-Based Non-Enforcement, and Why It’s Concerning
Before I go on to explain the basis for the framework I propose in my article, I want to offer a few thoughts on one last preliminary issue, namely, why modern presidents may be tempted to use non-enforcement as a policy tool. We live in an age of presidential administration and partisan gridlock. The public […]
University of Chicago Law Review Symposium on the Work of Judge Robert Bork
By Ilya Somin on December 18, 2013 11:10 am in Conservatism, Constitutional Theory, Democracy, Originalism
The University of Chicago Law Review recently posted its online symposium on the work of Judge Robert Bork, who passed away last year. The symposium includes essays by several prominent legal scholars, including Steven Calabresi, Bradford Clark, Richard Epstein, John Harrison, Kurt Lash, John McGinnis, and John Yoo. My own contribution, “The Borkean Dilemma: Robert […]
Reality Law
What do Whale Wars and Sister Wives have in common? The activities and participants in both are the subjects of fairly novel federal court decisions. Most recently, the polygamy show yielded Brown v. Burnham, which we’ve written about extensively here. The whale show yielded Institute of Cetacean Research v. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, dealing with […]
Why Enforcement Discretion Is Hard to Think About Clearly
As I indicated in my previous post, before I go further into the framework that I believe governs the scope of executive enforcement discretion, I want to offer a few thoughts on why the problem is hard to think about and why recent presidents have resorted to non-enforcement of statutes as a means of advancing […]
Another Problem With Judge Leon’s NSA Opinion: Absolute vs. Relative Measurements and Fourth Amendment Reasonableness
The more I re-read Judge Leon’s opinion in Klayman v. Obama, the more I am struck by how many parts of the opinion strike me as strange, off-key, or just wrong. This post will focus on an aspect of the opinion that has been ignored so far: Fourth Amendment reasonableness. In particular, I hope to […]
Colorado Sheriffs and the duty to enforce statutes
I represent 55 elected Colorado Sheriffs, plus one retired police officer, in a federal civil rights lawsuit that has been filed against two bills passed by the state legislature last March. Information about the case, including major case filings, is available at ColoradoGunCase.org. I am writing this post to correct a serious and inaccurate accusation […]
“38 Test Answers That Are 100% Wrong But Totally Genius At The Same Time”
From Distractify. I do not vouch for their authenticity, but I laughed out loud at some of them. Thanks to GeekPress for the pointer.