Author Archive | David Bernstein

That’s the title of my forthcoming Northwestern University Law Review review essay of Martin Redish’s The Logic of Persecution: Free Expression and the McCarthy Era. You can find the whole text at SSRN. Here’s the abstract: This is a review essay of Martin Redish, The Logic of Persecution. This book wades into the debate over […]

With new home sales slumping, and many buyers backing out their contracts even at the cost of losing their deposits for fear of losing even more money as the bubble deflates, builder Brookfield Homes has a great idea: threaten not simply to keep cold-footed buyers’ deposits, but to sue them for the difference between the […]

Bork: “Liberty in America can be enhanced by reinstating, legislatively, restraints upon the direction of our culture and morality. Censorship as an enhancement of liberty may seem paradoxical. Yet it should be obvious, to all but dogmatic First Amendment absolutists, that people forced to live in an increasingly brutalized culture are, in a very real […]

Denver Post: Arapahoe County is threatening to fire a veteran Public Works employee for promoting the fact that he is an English speaking American.”They claim it’s offensive and I’ve been accused of discrimination and harassment, believe it or not, because of this,” said Mike Gray, a heavy equipment operator with the Arapahoe County Road and […]

disqualify someone from serving on a state hate crimes commission? You would think so, but, at least in Illinois, you’d be wrong: “On Wednesday, [Governor] Blagojevich expressed support for Claudette Marie Muhammad, director of community outreach for the Nation of Islam, a black Muslim group led by the Rev. Louis Farrakhan… Muhammad recently invited commission […]

Here are details of a proposal to prohibit law schools from relying on the LSAT, because of the “disparate impact” the test has on African American and Mexican law school applicants. This proposal will be brought to the relevant ABA committee in June. I wouldn’t normally give this a snowball’s chance of passing, but who […]

Via Drudge, I learn that a high school teacher in Denver has been suspended pending an investigation into remarks he made during class that were recorded by one of his students. According to the Denver Post, teacher Jay Bennish described capitalism as a system “at odds with human rights.” He also said there were “eerie […]

Every once in a while, I come across a c.v. boasting that the author published the “lead article” in a particular law review. I’ve also had young colleagues ask me whether they should publish in a higher-ranked law review, or a slightly lower-ranked one that offered them “lead article” status. My own view is that […]

To followup Todd’s post, here is an excerpt from National Review’s piece [not online, though Lexis will have it eventually] on George Mason Law School: To use a baseball metaphor, [former Dean Henry] Manne was a scout who specialized in the minor leagues. Whereas his competitors were obsessed with signing big-name free agents in hot […]

Your friendly neighborhood Volokh Conspirator, lovely wife, and beautiful baby are planning a mid-May return to the D.C. area, and are looking for a house to rent. We have a little flexibility on a lease starting date (e.g., May 1 or June 1), and a lot of flexibility on a lease ending date. Furnished or […]

Ha’aretz: A new group in the United States, Christians United for Israel, will serve as an umbrella organization for Christian congregations that support Israel, and will lobby for Israel. Some 400 Christian community leaders met in San Antonio, Texas, two weeks ago to establish the group, which Christians United officials said represents about 30 million […]

From Ha’aretz: Today’s quiz: Nearly 200 nations hold membership in the United Nations. How many have a right to exist?… This is it. One hundred and ninety-one nations, and only one lacks the “right to exist” in the eyes of fellow states. No other country even has a “right to exist.” No other country needs […]

This impressive graph (click for larger, much more readable version) of housing inventory growth in Northern Virginia is courtesy of the Bubblemeter blog. Let’s see, a huge increase in supply; declining demand as short term interest rates get higher (reducing the ability of buyers to qualify under low short-term “teaser” rates) and speculators flee. I […]

Man, I wish I had come across this story while researching You Can’t Say That! In fact, I’m amazed I didn’t, but I only found out about it from a VC commenter on a recent post (Thanks!). It took me quite a while to confirm this really happened, because for some reason it got very […]

Prof. Paul McKaskle of University of San Francisco comments: As to the main issue raised in the post and by most commentators–the issue of affirmative action to increase the number of African-American attorneys, as I noted at the outset, the real problem is, in terms of law schools as a whole, there are simply not […]