Why, it’s obviously because President Barack Obama and his top aides hate government, and therefore can’t be trusted to run a major government program. When the government is run by political forces committed to the belief that government is always the problem, never the solution, that belief tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Key priorities […]
Author Archive | David Bernstein
Renaming the Washington Redskins
I agree with Charles Krauthammer that the Redskins should be renamed out of common courtesy. I also think the name should reflect something unique or at least prominent about the team’s metropolitan area. You can call the team the “Lobbyists,” the “Government Contractors,” the “Domestic Spies,” the “Corrupt City Officials,” the “Partisans,” the “Thirtysomething Housemates,” […]
The Shutdown and the Legal Future of Obamacare (Updated)
UPDATE BELOW Here’s an angle on the late government shutdown that I haven’t seen anywhere else: it was crucial to the potential success of the ongoing lawsuits over Obamacare. I haven’t followed the lawsuits all that carefully, but I think at least the challenge to the subsidies for federal exchanges is quite serious, legally speaking. […]
Speaking of the Scalia Interview… Three Originalists on the Harvard Faculty?
Scalia: I don’t know how much progress I’ve made on originalism. That’s to be seen. I do think originalism is more respectable than it was. But there’s still only two justices up here who are thoroughgoing originalists. I do think things are better than they were. For example, I truly thought I’d never see an […]
Some Takeaways from the Pew Study of American Jewish Life
The study is getting a lot of commentary, and there is much that one can say. But my top takeaways are that Modern Orthodoxy, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, and Orthodox outreach are, all things considered, overall failures, which implies that American Judaism is a failure. Maybe this shouldn’t be a surprise. American Jews were always […]
Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action: Forgetting the Narrative
By David Bernstein on October 2, 2013 9:39 am in Affirmative Action, Constitutional Law, Supreme Court
[See update below. This term, the Supreme Court will decide Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. The Sixth Circuit, in an en banc 8-7 opinion, invalidated a Michigan constitutional amendment, passed by referendum, that forbids racial preferences by government institutions, including public universities The court held that the amendment violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal […]
Curious Cases at the Supreme Court
That’s the title of my magazine-length article for the Phi Kappa Phi Forum. It begins: Every first-year law student learns that the United States Supreme Court only presides over real “cases” and “controversies,” according to the Constitution in Article III, Section 2. No matter how pressing the concern, the Supreme Court must wait for a […]
How’s George Mason Law School Doing?
I’ve received some concerned email from friends, after the Washington Post published an article about how D.C.-area law schools are struggling to get students. In particular the article stated that our class size has shrunk from 303 in 2010 to 151 today, suggesting that we have lost half of our tuition revenue. The article is […]
Why is Joe Biden Appearing at JStreet’s Annual Conference?
An acquaintance remarked how odd it was that Biden is appearing at the conference, for two reasons: (1) Biden is presumed to be running for president in 2016, and playing kissy-face with JStreet is likely to antagonize a significant part of his potential donor base; and (2) unlike the more mainstream AIPAC, which enthusiastically lobbied […]
The Great Dissent – A Response from the Author
[Editor’s note: Author Thomas Healy asked me to post a response to my brief review of his book, and I was happy to agree. I’m even happier now, because it’s a nicely illuminating response.] Thanks to David for starting a discussion about my book, “The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind – […]
Brief Review of “The Great Dissent” by Thomas Healy (UPDATED)
I’ve just finished reading “The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind–and Changed the History of Free Speech in America” by law professor Thomas Healy. The book has received sterling views, and happens to be directly related to something I’m writing about now, so I was looking forward to reading it. On the […]
Adversarial Bias Among Forensic Psychologists
In my recent academic work on expert testimony, I’ve emphasized the problem of “adversarial bias,” bias that arises because experts are chosen (and paid) by a partisan party to the litigation. Adversarial bias could involve a “hired gun,” an individual who unconsciously biases his testimony to be a good member of the team, or an […]
It’s a Been a Hard Day for Distinguishing the Satirical Pieces from the Real Ones
So says my friend Walter Olson. Here are two examples: (1) Slate: If You Send Your Kid to Private School, You Are a Bad Person “Reading Walt Whitman in ninth grade changed the way you see the world? Well, getting drunk before basketball games with kids who lived at the trailer park near my house […]
Human Rights Watch’s Homepage Features…
So President Assad has apparently attacked civilians with chemical weapons, killing hundreds and injuring more. The Egyptian government has slaughtered hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, who in turn have been engaging in pogroms against Egyptian Christians. Just for the heck of it, I decided to see which of these stories Human Rights Watch featured most […]
Alice Walker Kerfuffle at University of Michigan
Novelist Alice Walker was invited, then disinvited, from speaking at the Univeristy of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women’s fifiteth anniversary celebration. Walker claims that the disinvitation came because of pressure from pro-Israel donors. The Center claims that they just decided that they erred in inviting such a divisive figure to the celebration–Walker is […]