Author Archive | David Bernstein

The Rockin’ Book Tour for Restoring the Lost Constitution is drawing to an end. This week I go to Notre Dame. Next week to the Pacific Northwest. This week:Thursday 4/15:South Bend, IndianaNotre Dame law school (1:00pm, Moot Courtroom) Next week: Monday, 4/19:Eugene, OregonUniverstity of Oregon law School (noon, Room 142)Portland, OregonThe Cascade Institute & The […]

While we’re on the subject of great songs popularized by someone other than the composer, I thought it appropriate to post one of my absolute favorites: “Crazy.” This song was one of Patsy Cline‘s greatest hits, but she did not write it. Rather, the lyrics were penned by Willie Nelson. Not being much of a […]

One reader takes me to task for omitting the poignant prologue to last week’s song lyric, Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye”: We love each other so deeply That I ask you this, sweetheart, Why should we quarrel ever? Why can’t we be enough clever, never to part? The ever-vigilant James Lindgren also found […]

I just saw the Coen Brothers’ latest film, The Ladykillers. Although a remake of an older film, it retained the quirky Coen feel. One particularly odd touch: an elderly, chuch-going and morally upright African-American woman who sends monthly checks to Bob Jones University. As this was a Coen production, I suppose the reference to that […]

Excellent article in the Mobile Register (via Overlawyered) about the scandalous behavior of attorneys and their physician accomplices who have been pursuing claims on behalf of tens of thousands of phony purported victims of asbestos-related diseases. The lawyers sends clients to the doctors, and the doctors conveniently find that every single one of them has […]

Interesting New Yorker article, found via Alex at Marginal Revolution, discussing the fact that Europeans are growing taller, but Americans are not. The article claims that any population can grow to the same height as any other (height is not genetic, but based on nutrition), and concludes that Americans are not growing taller due to […]

The Associaton for Public Interest Law at George Mason Law School is holding its annual fundraising auction tomorrow night, starting at 8:00 p.m., at the Ballston Hilton in Arlington. Among other items that will be auctioned off are three Justice Stevens bobblehead dolls, courtesy of the Green Bag, which is published at GMU. These dolls […]

“So When Are We Going To Get That Free-Market Health Care Everyone’s Complaining About?” Read this post, all our lives are at stake. Here is the clincher: “If I had to make a wild guess, our health care system will be paid for by explicit or implicit public funds at a rate of 65-70%. My […]

This week’s Rockin’ Book Tour for Restoring the Lost Constitution takes me to Phoenix, Arizona. Tuesday 4/6:Phoenix Fed Society Lawyers (4:30pm – The Goldwater Institute) Wednesday 4/7:ASU (12:05 – 1:25pm, Armstrong Hall – 114) Next week: Notre Dame on April 15th at 1:00pm.Two Weeks: Universtity of Oregon, Washington University, Puget Sound Lawyers.

NRO’s Ramesh Ponnuru takes on frequent NRO contributor Maggie Gallagher on Senator Hatch’s proposed marriage amendment. In a related item, AEI federalism guru Michael Greve argues that a “constitutional DOMA” (similar to the Hatch proposal) is the proper federalist approach to the gay marriage issue.

I second Tyler’s excellent point, below. I once asked a very prominent “modern liberal” scholar, someone everyone reading this blog would likely have heard of, how he reconciled his support of a Social Democratic welfare state with general principles of liberalism holding that each individual has equal value, given that stringent immigration restrictions would inevitably […]

Like Randy and Howard Bashman, I liked Shattered Glass, and will reiterate my recommendation of it, and also urge you once again to see my favorite recent movie, American Splendor, which Howard also really liked.

I have been on a bit of an Ella Fitzgerald kick the past week. So last Sunday I posted a Duke Ellington lyric popularized by Ella. Today, I thought I would go with Cole Porter, another masterful song writer whose work Ella helped make famous (though, like Ellington, Porter’s body of work extends far beyond […]

Brian Leiter provides a handy chart, with the U.S. News top 40 law schools, faculty quality as determined by Leiter’s rather good survey of top law professors, LSAT at the 75th percentile (as a measure of student quality), and class size. Leiter notes that George Mason’s 165 75th percentile LSAT is based on a very […]

For all the talk, including by me, of the excessive weight given by prospective law students to U.S. News rankings, I heard a rankings story last Summer that was much worse than anything I’ve heard about prospective law students. I was chatting with a Yale Law student, and I asked him where Yale grads work […]