A self-described “group of Latino/a Law Professors” has published a strange response to my commentary on Hispanics and affirmative action after Fisher, published on Scotus blog, noted by me here, and followed up yesterday. Why strange? Because the response has very little to do with my post. My post, being commentary on a Supreme Court […]
Author Archive | David Bernstein
Question about Foundation Donations
Often when I listen to NPR, I’ll hear something along the lines of, “Morning Edition is sponsored by the Smith Foundation. The Smith Foundation, working to improve the lives of the disabled.” I always wonder if the purpose of the Foundation is X, why is it donating to something that is clearly non-X, i.e., NPR. […]
Brief Followup on Post on Hispanics and Affirmative Action after Fisher
I’ve said most of these things in previous posts, but judging from the comments, memories are short (and we get a lot of new readers the last week of the Supreme Court term), so let me reiterate: (1) I think private universities should be free to have whatever affirmative action policies they want, for whatever […]
They Hate Us And/Or Want to Convert Us
Anytime the issue of evangelical Christian support for Israel comes up in a conversation among Jews, someone is bound to say something like, “they may love Israel, but only for theological reasons and they are anti-Semites” or “they are just trying to cozy up to us so that they can convert us all because they […]
Fisher is a Significant Loss for Opponents of Affirmative Action Preferences
Sure, the Court tightened the official standards for preferences. But judging from past experience, unless otherwise compelled by state officials in a few conservative states, university officials will ignore Fisher to the extent it conflicts with their current practices. The only way Fisher can then be enforced is through lawsuits over university policies, which are […]
Hispanics and Affirmative Action after Fisher
My commentary is up at Scotusblog. Here are the key paragraphs: Hispanics can be the direct descendants of Spanish conquistadors, their indigenous victims, African slaves, immigrants from anywhere in the world, or any combination of these. Hispanics’ ancestors have come to the U.S. from any one of twenty-one very diverse Spanish-speaking countries, plus possibly Portugal, […]
Fisher Mystery
Given that the Court issued a rather plain vanilla 7-1 ruling remanding the case to the Fifth Circuit to apply strict scrutiny, why did it take nine months to issue the opinion?
Kens on Rehabilitating Lochner
Paul Kens, a professor of political science at Texas State University, is the author of Lochner v. New York: Economic Regulation on Trial. I described the book in 2011 as “The last major scholarly work on Lochner to propound the traditional view of Lochner–that its origins lie in ‘laissez faire Social Darwinism’ and that its […]
Irony Alert: Michael Lind on Lochner
If you are going to accuse a critic of being “astonishingly ignorant of history,” your response to said critic should not include this: State and local licensing rules and trade laws governed economic life in detail, down to the size of spigots in wine casks, in some cases. It was precisely these state and local […]
We’ve Apparently Come to Admire the Petty Corruption of the Political Class
I noticed two anecdotes about the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, both of which were meant to be complimentary but in fact speak volumes about the petty corruption of our political class and how inured to it we’ve become. The first was told by a friend of his who was at a conference of Jewish philanthropists […]
Joseph Massad Update
Long-time readers will recall the controversy over tenure for Columbia professor Joseph Massad. Massad’s defenders argued that his tenure was only in doubt because pro-Israel forces were out to get him due to his anti-Israel views. I wrote in response, after Massad received tenure It’s often alleged, as in the Finkelstein case at DePaul, that […]
My Review Fear Itself by Ira Katznelson
has been published at Reason.com. It’s not a favorable review–I argue that Katznelson grossly exaggerates the extent to which FDR was stymied from pursuing a progressive agenda by the power of southern Congressmen, and that he is unpersuasive in excusing some of Roosevelt’s worst policies on the grounds that the alternative was to put democracy […]
Congratulations to Jeffrey Rosen, New President and CEO of the National Constitution Center
My law school classmate and GW professor Jeff Rosen has been named the new president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Jeff and I have sometimes sparred on this blog (no, Jeff, there is no still such thing as the “Constitution in Exile movement,”) but he’s a top notch and amazingly prolific […]
Standing Up for Matthew Yglesias on International Labor Standards
I missed this controversy when it broke two weeks ago, but Matthew Yglesias noted that the “entire Internet” seemed to be mad at him for a post that, really, just reflects common economic sense. He wrote: Bangladesh may or may not need tougher workplace safety rules, but it’s entirely appropriate for Bangladesh to have different—and, […]
The Moral Sickness of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel
Summarized in two headlines: Today: Chomsky helped lobby Hawking to boycott Israel event Last October: Islamic University of Gaza awards honorary doctorate to Chomsky You might assume that Chomsky at least avoided meeting with officials of the repressive, theocratic, dictatorial, anti-Semitic, government of Gaza, which, at the very time of Chomsky’s visit was lobbing rockets […]