On January 15, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in McCullen v. Coakley, a challenge to Massachusetts’s abortion-clinic-entrance-access law. In this case, the Court will have the opportunity to limit, or overrule, Hill v. Colorado, “what may well be its most indefensible First Amendment ruling so far this century,” according to First Amendment lawyer extraordinaire Floyd Abrams. […]
Archive | January, 2014
Senator Johnson’s ObamaCare Lawsuit
In tomorrow’s WSJ, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) has an op-ed explaining a new lawsuit he is filing against the Obama Administration’s implementation of the PPACA. Specifically, this lawsuit targets a rule by the federal Office of Personnel Management that allows the federal government to subsidize health insurance for members of Congress and some legislative staff. According […]
En Banc Ninth Circuit Invalidates Hotel Inspection Regulation
Regular readers may recall my blog post last year on the panel decision in Patel v. City of Los Angeles, involving a facial challenge to a Los Angeles regulation requiring that LA hotels shall make hotel guest records “available . . . for inspection” by the LAPD. The 2-1 panel decision ruled that a facial […]
The “Law Revolution”
Although there have been endless reports/commentaries etc. about the crisis in legal education and the legal profession, this one, by Jordan Furlong, struck me as particularly cogent and well put together.
Open Thread on Personal Experiences With the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
Before posting about my experiences trying to get health insurance for a family member for whom I have a power of attorney, I want to ask VC readers about their personal experiences (and those of their family members). I want to hear both positive and negative experiences. For example, who had no health insurance before […]
Hardest Exam Question?
What’s the hardest exam question you ever faced in law school? Was there one so difficult it is seared into your memory? One fiendish question I recall was on the final exam given by Judge Jay Plager in his Legislation class. I don’t recall the precise substance, but it was immaterial. There was a reasonably […]
Sundays With Stendhal … Revived
‘What are you dreaming of, sir?’ Mathilde asked him. There was a note of intimacy in her question, and she had come back running and was quite out of breath in her eagerness to be with him. Julian was tired of self-suppression. In a moment of pride, he told frankly what he was thinking. The […]
How Mature
The Modern Language Association (not a group with which I normally sympathize much) apparently denied the Daily Caller press credentials for this year’s MLA conference. The response of Eric Owens, “Education Editor” of the Daily Caller? Calling the MLA “douchebags” six times, plus once in the headline of the column, a headline that right now […]
The Sanders Letter: Is This the Dumbest NSA-Hating Stunt Yet? And Did Ted Cruz Fall For It?
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has written a letter to NSA’s director, asking whether the agency has spied on members of Congress. It sounds like he’s uncovered a scandal, until you read the fine print. It turns out that Sen. Sanders is simply asking whether NSA collects the metadata for calls made by members of Congress, […]
Welcome John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport!
I am very glad to see that John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport are going to be guest-blogging here about their excellent new book, Originalism and the Good Constitution. I have some disagreements with their analysis. But it is nonetheless one of the best defenses of originalism in a long time. I reviewed the book in […]
Profs. John McGinnis & Michael Rappaport Guest-Blogging This Coming Week
I’m delighted to report that Profs. John McGinnis & Michael Rappaport will be guest-blogging this coming week about their new book, Originalism and the Good Constitution. Both are among the most prominent originalist scholars in America, and their book sounds extremely interesting; here is a summary from the publisher: Originalism holds that the U.S. Constitution […]
Which First Amendment Decision Would You Overturn?
In his Brown v. Allen concurrence, Justice Robert Jackson famously said of the Supreme Court “We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.” The Supreme Court inevitably makes mistakes and reaches the wrong result in some non-trivial number of cases. Accordingly, for the past two years I have […]
The Intelligence of Plants
The New Yorker has a remarkably thought-provoking article on what some call the “neurobiology” of plants. That’s a deliberately edgy way of pointing out just how much communicating and sensing and adapting plants do, all without anything resembling a brain. Some samples: Plants have evolved between fifteen and twenty distinct senses, including analogues of our five: […]
A Reporter’s Guide to Applications Pending Before the U.S. Supreme Court
It’s published by the Court and intended for reporters, but I suspect other Court-followers will find it useful. Thanks to Michelle Olsen of Appellate Daily for the link.
Wisconsin Lawyers Interested in Being Pro Bono Local Counsel for an Interesting First Amendment Criminal Harassment Case?
A student and I will be filing a brief in an interesting Wisconsin First Amendment/criminal harassment case, and we need pro bono local counsel, for help with filing and for review for compliance with Wisconsin formatting details. (UCLA will pay any filing and printing fees.) Might any of you folks be interested? If so, please […]