I just came across this essay in The Nation by one Corey Robin about Ayn Rand. I think Robin is serious, but the piece works best as a satire of a certain type of right-wing hit piece on left-wing intellectuals. Mocking the subject because she has many Hollywood devotees who don’t seem that bright? Check! […]
Author Archive | David Bernstein
Yet More on Libertarianism and Antidiscrimination Law
Jeffrey Miron responds to my essay, and I respond to his, Richman’s, and Kuznicki’s responses.
More on Libertarianism and Antidiscrimination Laws
Sheldon Richman responds to my Cato Unbound essay here, criticizing my position as being insufficiently libertarian, although he otherwise shares many of my underlying premises. And Jason Kuznicki responds to my essay here, supporting Title II from a Hayekian perspective, while, unlike me, expressing no noticeable qualms about the vast expansion of the antidiscrimination edifice […]
A Funny Thing About “Substantive Due Process”
By David Bernstein on June 17, 2010 2:09 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Economic LIberties, Originalism, Rehabilitating Lochner
In his Stop the Beach opinion, Justice Scalia writes, “The first problem with using Substantive Due Process to do the work of the Takings Clause is that we have held it cannot be done.” But hold on! The Takings Clause does not apply to the states. The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause applies to the […]
So Why Not Roe?
By David Bernstein on June 17, 2010 1:50 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Due Process Clause Property Rights, Just Compensation Clause, Property Rights, Rehabilitating Lochner
In today’s Stop the Beach opinion, Justice Scalia (joined by the other three conservatives) criticizes Justice Kennedy for arguing that what Scalia consider “judicial takings” should instead be handled as violation of the Due Process Clause: The second problem is that we have held for many years (logically or not) that the “liberties” protected by […]
That Explains It
Washington Times:Pornography normalizes sexual harm, Dr. Cooper said. It shows children a lack of any kind of emotional commitment or relationship between two consensual partners, shows unprotected sexual contact and visual examples often of violent rape. “When a child sees this image of adult pornography, the mirror neurons that are in their brain will convince […]
Essay on Libertarianism and Antidiscrimination Law
I’ve written an essay for Cato Unbound, which the editors have titled “Context Matters: A Better Libertarian Approach to Antidiscrimination Law.” Over the next few days, Sheldon Richman of the Foundation for Economic Education, Jason Kuznicki of Cato, and Jeff Miron of Harvard will write comments, and then we’ll have some back and forth. Should […]
Funny Definition of “Most”
Sixty-nine law school deans have signed a letter endorsing Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. According to the Washington Post, “The letter was signed by the deans of most Washington area law schools, with the exception of those at George Washington and George Mason universities.” The letter was signed by the deans at AU, Georgetown, […]
First Review of Rehabilitating Lochner
Stumbled across this at goodreads.com. I don’t know who wrote it; only that it’s one of the approximately 50 people who read the book in manuscript form, including colloquium participants at NYU and Georgetown. It’s a nice review, and the good news is that the book has undergone additional revisions/editing since it the review was […]
More on Souter’s Bad History
Jonathan has already pointed to the McGinnnis and Rappaport op-ed taking on Justice Souter’s Harvard commencement address. McGinnis and Rappaport are making a point about originalism. I’m not as convinced that originalism provided an easy answer in Plessy–but then again, I’m not a committed originalist, so that’s easy for me to say. Anyway, I do […]
“From Date to Mate” Update
I blogged about this show on Jan. 1: That’s the name of a mock reality show available online on Shalom TV. It’s about four single Jewish twenty-somethings in Manhattan who have agreed to have their online dating life followed by t.v. cameras for eight months. I’ve watched the first two episodes, and two things strike […]
Rufus Peckham KOs Oliver Wendell Holmes
I recently sent the final version of my “Rehabilitating Lochner” manuscript to University of Chicago Press for proofreading, typesetting and so forth. Yay! The book should be out in Spring 2011. At some point, my editor asked me for my conception of the cover. I chose something unrealistic, but that I really liked. And I […]
Ghostwriter Kagan
N.Y. Times: In the Whitewater case, she worked to deflect a Senate subpoena for notes of meetings between the White House and private lawyers. She solicited supportive statements or op-ed articles from former officials and law professors, even ghostwriting or editing some of them. I don’t this reflects badly on Kagan; her job was to […]
Tony Judt, Israel Expert
A certain group of aging and mostly otherwise irrelevant academics have reinvented themselves as prophetic critics of Israel, despite a lack of real knowledge of the relevant subject matter. Mearsheimer and Walt are two; Tony Judt, whose academic specialty is European history, is another. Judt has a rather predictable op-ed in today’s Times, replete with […]
Genetic Evidence Shows Common Origins of Jews
N.Y. Times: Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East share many genes inherited from the ancestral Jewish population that lived in the Middle East some 3,000 years ago, even though each community also carries genes from other sources — usually the country in which it lives. That is the conclusion of two new genetic […]