Author Archive | David Kopel

I rarely disagree with Eugene. Nonetheless, I am not convinced by his argument Congress could not suspend habeas to prevent the filing thousands of writs by enemy detainees in U.S. hands on foreign soil in his Monday hypothetical. As Eugene notes, the text of the Suspension Clause provides: “The privilege of the writ of habeas […]

Eugene’s post on the infamous Cuyahoga River fire brings to mind the R.E.M. song, “Cuyahoga” off of “Life’s Rich Pageant.” The lyrics are somewhat dense (as is typical for R.E.M. tunes). Nonetheless, I suspect the song was inspired — at least in part — by the myths about the 1969 fire discussed in Eugene’s post […]

This is the Sunday song lyric I had tried to schedule for posting last week. Alas, I goofed, so here it is. On June 12, 1963, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated in Mississippi. This event, and the subsequent deaths of four young girls in a church bombing, inspired Nina Simone — the “High […]

I must apologize to the song lyric fans that nothing appeared this past Sunday. I have been traveling and I had thought that I had managed to successfully publish a song lyric for a later date. Alas, I was mistaken, and the song lyric (by Nina Simone) disappeared into the ether. I’m still on the […]

We all know that oil accounts for the lion’s share of America’s trade deficit, but who would ever imagine that seafood is the next largest share? At a conference this past weekend, I learned that the U.S. imported over $7 billion net in seafood products in 2001, and the number has only grown since.

A few weeks back I commented on a petition organized by Berkeley law students calling on Professor John Yoo to repudiate the opinions he expressed in legal memoranda while working at the Justice Department or resign his post at the law school (see posts here, here, and here). These posts produced some back-and-forth with Michael […]

Former Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett is once again running for Parliament in Australia. (He left the band in 2002.) While I’ve never been much of a fan of Garrett’s politics (or those that infuse Midnight Oil’s lyrics), I’ve always been a big fan of the band, especially once I saw them live in 1988 […]

Sorry about not posting a song lyric last Sunday. I was unexpectedly out-of-pocket for several days. In any event, here’s an index of all of the song lyrics I’ve posted to date: – May 23 – P.O.D., Alive – May 16 – Something Corporate, If I Were a Terrorist (I’d Bomb Your Graduation) – May […]

I had thought a song honoring the late President Ronald Wilson Reagan would be appropriate for today, but there are not many positive songs about Reagan (and, no, nothing by Reagan Youth would fit the bill). But there are songs about President Reagan’s most important legacy: the fall of Communism. Reagan’s policies directly contributed to […]

Now a group of students and alumni of Boalt Hall have organized a counter-petition to defend free speech, open inquiry, and academic freedom at Berkeley’s law school. The petition is here. Meanwhile, the organizer of the petition against Professor Yoo appears to be backpedaling. He now tacitly acknowledges the legal basis for claiming Professor Yoo […]

2004 Boalt Hall grad Mike Anderson defends the anti-Yoo petition on his blog, Mere Dicta. (See my prior post here.) While Anderson claims his petition does not challenge academic freedom, I don’t buy it. According to Mr. Anderson and his fellow petitioners, because Professor Yoo, on behalf of a client (the United States), adopted a […]

Speaking of tolerance at Berkeley, How Appealing noted this story on Berkeley law students graduation-day protest of Professor John Yoo. While in the Bush Justice Department, Professor Yoo co-authored a memo arguing that the protections of the Geneva Conventions did not apply to captured members of Al Qaeda or the Taliban militia (A copy of […]

Once again, the Pew Research Center survey finds that journalists are more liberal than the general public, Editor and Publisher reports. Specifically, a higher percentage of journalists self-identify themselves as “liberal” than of the public at large. Perhaps more significantly, the Pew survey also finds that on certain issues, such as religion and homosexuality, journalists […]

America may be a “Christian” nation — or at least a very religious one — but religious messages are not particularly prominent in popular culture (let alone Christian ones). Although I am not particularly religious myself, I often notice that religion is more likely to be mocked or disdained in popular culture than celebrated (“The […]

Sometimes I pause to reflect how the events of September 11 have changed American culture. The reverberations of that event will continue for quite some time, if not forever. Consider, for example, what is acceptable humor. It’s graduation season. Were it not for the attack on the World Trade Center thirty two months ago, high […]