The Georgetown Law Journal and the Supreme Court Institute have an impressive lineup of speakers this morning for a conference on retired Justice John Paul Stevens. It makes me a bit uncomfortable, however, that (a) the conference is styled “The Finest Legal Mind”: A Symposium in Celebration of Justice John Paul Stevens; (b) the conference […]
Author Archive | David Bernstein
The Demise of Progressive Legal History
I’m not one to generally praise law reviews, but the latest issue of the George Washington Law Review contains lots of interesting stuff. I wanted to call particular attention to G. Edward White’s review of Phil Hamburger’s Law and Judicial Duty. White, one of my favorite legal historians, treats readers to an excellent discussion of […]
Blumenthal vs. McMahon
Interesting race in Connecticut. One candidate’s adult life has been spent in a profession in which testosterone-infused alpha male types engage in well-choreographed bombast for the benefit of the credulous masses. And the other has spent her career in professional wrestling.
Teaching English and Math Means “Imposing Western culture on Jewish culture”
Here’s an article that reads like a parody, but isn’t. A former education minister of Israel, Yitzhak Levy, objects to the imposition of a core curriculum on state-funded Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) schools. This core curriculum, apparently, consists of English and Mathematics, neither of which, to my knowledge, are in tension with any known version of Judaism. […]
More J Street Scandal
Contrary to J Street denials, the Washington Times uncovers evidence that J Street facilitated meetings between Judge Richard Goldstone–author of the “Goldstone Report” on the war in Gaza which is considered unfairly hostile to Israel across all but the very extreme left of both the Israeli and American Jewish political spectrums–and members of Congress. Jeffrey […]
Ineffective “Law Porn”
I am once again chair of the GMUSL appointments committee, which means I am eligible to vote in the U.S. News law school reputation survey, which means, in turn, that I am once again being inundated with p.r. materials from various law schools. Most of it is done badly, and is at best a waste […]
Afghanistan Idiocy
I didn’t need any more evidence that the U.S. has no idea what it’s doing in Afghanistan, what it can reasonably accomplish, and why we’re shoveling billions of dollars down this particular rat hole, but here it is. The story starts with an idea so dumb that the alert reader recognizes that the U.S. government […]
J Street Credibility: Not So Good
JStreet, the liberal lobby group that proclaims itself to be the “pro-peace, pro-Israel” alternative to AIPAC, has denied that it receives funding from George Soros. Here is what the organization’s “myths and facts” page said, and still says: Myth: Liberal financier George Soros founded and is the primary funder of J Street. Fact: George Soros […]
Barack Obama’s “Centrism and Constitutionalism”
I was reading the Harvard University Press’s marketing summary of Yale Law School professor Bruce Ackerman’s new book, The Decline and Fall of the American Republic. It starts, “Bruce Ackerman shows how the institutional dynamics of the last half-century have transformed the American presidency into a potential platform for political extremism and lawlessness. Watergate, Iran-Contra, […]
Dahlia Lithwick: It’s “Weird” for a Senator to Consider the Constitutionality of Legislation
Lithwick in Slate: O’Donnell explained that “when I go to Washington, D.C., the litmus test by which I cast my vote for every piece of legislation that comes across my desk will be whether or not it is constitutional.” How weird is that, I thought. Isn’t it a court’s job to determine whether or not […]
The Country is in the Best of Hands…
Dana Milbank: To defend the Democrats, the majority leader [Steny Hoyer] had to employ some inventive math. At one point, he erroneously added up quarterly growth rates, asserting that GDP had seen “almost a 25 percent turnaround from negative to positive.” At another point, he made the impossible claim that from Bill Clinton to George […]
Interesting Rule 702 Causation Case
In Tamraz v. Lincoln Electric Co., the Sixth Circuit recently overturned a district court verdict awarding $20 million to a plaintiff who claimed that his manganese exposure in the workplace led to his Parkinson’s disease. Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote an excellent opinion for the majority. Judge Boyce Martin dissented. Judge Sutton and Judge Martin both […]
“Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” Author Goes Underground
Seattle Weekly, via Althouse: [O]n the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is… moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity… in effect, being put into a witness-protection program—except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab. It’s all because of the appalling fatwa issued against her this […]
Talks Thursday and Monday
Tomorrow (Thursday) at noon, I’m presenting a Constitution Day lecture at George Mason Law School. Unsurprisingly, the topic is “Rehabilitating Lochner.” We’re meto (Orange Line: Clarendon or Virginia Square) accessible, and the public is welcome. On Monday at noon, I will be providing comments at a Cato Institute book forum on Tim Sandefur’s excellent new […]
Should Conservative and Libertarian Law Students Consider a Career in Legal Academia?
As I’ve noted on this blog before, and despite the occasional contrary protestation, there is no doubt that conservatives and libertarians face discrimination when seeking academic jobs. But that shouldn’t necessarily stop a motivated individual from pursuing an academic career. Here are some additional things to consider: (1) The amount of discrimination one faces is […]