I’ve been meaning to mention this book for a while — I read it a few months ago and found it to be a lot of fun. It’s very different from Old Man’s War; both are well-written, but Old Man’s War (which was written after Agent) is more serious and generally meatier. Still, Agent is […]
Author Archive | David Bernstein
Translation of the Swedish Decision on Anti-Homosexuality Speech
(in the Ake Green case): The Alliance Defense Fund has produced it — many thanks to them, and to Roger Alford (Opinio Juris) who pointed me to it.
Leading Atheist Legal Activist and Candidate for Alabama Attorney General
Has Some Rather Interesting Views About Jews, Zionism, and the Holocaust: Larry Darby is apparently a pretty prominent atheist legal activist. He was the president of the Atheist Law Center (though he has since stepped down to run for public office); filed amicus briefs in the Supreme Court’s Ten Commandments cases on behalf of various […]
Well, That’s One Way of Trying to Influence a Court in Your Favor:
The plaintiff in a Third Circuit case decided yesterday filed the case as Awala, and the People of the Philadelphia Religious Community Center, et al. v. People Who Want to Restrict Our First Amendment Rights, Primarily to Intimidate Rather Than Religious Purposes Maintenance on Courthouse Grounds of Illuminated Granite Monolith On Which “Ten Commandments” Were […]
Which Government Records Should Be Open to the Public?
Lawprof Daniel Solove argues that records related to divorce proceedings (presumably not the fact of the divorce itself, but the facts discovered or alleged during the proceedings) should generally be kept private, even when the divorce involves a politician, such as former Illinois senatorial candidate Jack Ryan. I strongly support people’s right to speak about […]
Judge Kozinski at Cato Unbound Responds to James Buchanan’s Three Proposed Constitutional Amendments:
Dr. Buchanan’s original proposals are here; Judge Kozinski’s response is here; lawprof Akhil Amar’s response to Dr. Buchanan is here. Here’s Judge Kozinski’s introduction Dr. Buchanan advances a vision of government — especially the federal government — that I find attractive. There is, alas, a lingering nostalgia for the vision of the minimalist state as […]
When Is Anti-War Speech Immoral?
Fernando Teson (PrawfsBlawg) has a very interesting post, which Juan links to below. Let me reproduce it here, so I can say a few things about it: Let’s assume, without deciding, that the following propositions are true: 1) Americans have a robust First Amendment right to criticize the government. This includes both the decision to […]
Public University’s Punishment of Employee for Anti-Homosexuality E-Mail Set Aside:
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education: [Jihad Daniel, an employee of William Patterson University, a public school in New Jersey] privately replied to an unsolicited March 7 mass e-mail from Professor Arlene Holpp Scala promoting a viewing and discussion of a film described as “a lesbian relationship story.” Daniel’s March 8 e-mail to Professor […]
Marquette Suspends Dental Student for Things He Wrote on His Blog,
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: A dental student at Marquette University has been suspended for the rest of the academic year and ordered to repeat a semester after a committee of professors, administrators and students determined that he violated professional conduct codes when he posted negative comments about unnamed students and professors on a blog. . […]
Yale Law Students on Intellectual Diversity:
Hartford Courant: Notably lacking among Yale’s professors has been any vigorous defense of Judge Alito or of the conservative judicial philosophy he’s believed to hold. No one has stepped forward to defend or even suggest that the country would be better off with another Roe vs. Wade skeptic on the court who is also an […]
A Remarkable Turn of Events in the Prof. Bradford (Indiana University Law School) Matter:
I blogged in June about Prof. Bradford and the Indiana University (Indianapolis) Law School, who claimed that he was being discriminated against by the faculty for his political views: Several people pointed me to this Indianapolis Star story: In 2001, [William C.] Bradford was hired as an associate professor at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. […]
Speaking of Rhetorical Excess:
Professor Thomas Ross, reviewing Constitutional Law Stories in the Journal of Legal Education, has this to say about my chapter on Lochner v. New York: “At one point Bernstein actually manages to suggest a connection between the ascendance of the Nazis, the collapse of Lochner, and the rise of the New Deal. (Discerning and unpackaging […]
Thugs Beat Professor:
KU professor Paul Mirecki was hospitalized Monday morning after two men beat him on the side of the road in rural Douglas County, he said. Mirecki said the two men beat him for about one minute with a metal object, striking him repeatedly on the head, shoulders and back. Mirecki, chairman of the department of […]
No Cajoling or Proselytizing — We’re a University!
Hampton University decided to enforce a quite remarkable provision in its Code of Conduct, which says that to accost, cajole, or proselytize students, faculty or staff, parents or others, to engage in gender and sexual harassment, use vile, obscene or abusive language or exhibit lewd behavior, to possess weapons such as knives or firearms, or […]
Public Trust in the Judicial System:
A story in Saturday’s Boston Globe reports: The chief justice of the state Supreme Judicial Court yesterday apologized for a joke she made at the beginning of her commencement speech at Brandeis University in May, when she quipped to spectators gathered beneath blue and white balloons, “No red states here.” The remark by Chief Justice […]