Author Archive | David Bernstein

Let’s say you represent a condo board. The board has forcibly removed at least two mezuzot from the homes of Jewish families in the building. The families sue, claiming intentional discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The condo board claims it is just enforcing a neutral rule. In your reply brief, you are […]

Ha’aretz: “Political campaign buttons in Hebrew are a popular way to woo Jewish votes – but sometimes things get lost (or added) in translation. When Democrat John Kerry ran for president in 2004, his transliterated name appeared on thousands of buttons, stickers and coffee mugs. To the amusement of those familiar with Talmudic Hebrew, ‘keri’ […]

Back in August 2005, at the tail end of the housing bubble (but when many VC readers were still berating me for saying [or, more precisely, siding with the many “doomsayers” who were saying] there was a housing bubble), I pointed out one future source of trouble for the housing and mortgage markets: Just read […]

The American Medical Association is reportedly going to apologize today for its history of discrimination against African American physicians. I doubt that this apology will include any reference to the fact that the AMA’s control of the physician licensing process suppressed the supply of black doctors for decades. Here is a relevant excerpt from my […]

My wife, children, and I travel to Israel once or twice a year to visit my wife’s family. (We couldn’t get a flight that suited our schedule this Summer–Israel is enjoying a record tourist season–but plan to go this Winter.) Perhaps not surprisingly, when I tell people where I’m going they often express concern for […]

I said yes. Sandy Levinson at Balkinizationsays no, and suggests we are living in “parallel universes.” More likely, we are using different standards, and perhaps different definitions of the word “scholarly.” Sandy seems define a scholarly Supreme Court opinion on a historical subject as one in which a Justice approaches the subject matter like an […]

The Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, upholding the Second Amendment right of individuals to own firearms, should finally lay to rest the widespread myth that the defining difference between liberal and conservative justices is that the former support “individual rights” and “civil liberties,” while the latter routinely defer to government assertions […]

It’s pretty clearly not the spin the author (who lionizes–but also reveals the identity of–an investigator who didn’t lay a hand on suspects) wants to emphasize, but this New York Times article strongly suggests that harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, helped U.S. investigators get some very important information out of some very high-level Al Qaeda […]

Comparing people to Hitler is an easy way for white people to get a strong point across to the less enlightened, or the insufficiently white. Everyone knows who Adolf Hitler was. And everyone knows that Hitler was very, very bad….. No matter what your gut reaction may be at that point, do not disagree with […]

Jim notes that the opinions in Heller are very scholarly, especially with reference to historical sources. This marks a vast improvement in Supreme Court opinion writing. Consider, by contrast, the Supreme Court’s use of history when it was issuing some of the most consequential decisions in its history, those requiring that every state reapportion each […]

Noted climatologist James Hansen, one of the foremost proponents of apocalyptic global warming, and is calling for more than greenhouse gas emission reductions. Special interests have blocked transition to our renewable energy future. Instead of moving heavily into renewable energies, fossil companies choose to spread doubt about global warming, as tobacco companies discredited the smoking-cancer […]

Three more decisions were handed down today. One, Sprint Communications Co. v. APCC, was 5-4. In that case, which concerned standing for assignees, Justice Kennedy joined Justice Breyer’s majority opinion along with the other three liberal justices. The other two cases were decided 8-1 and 6-3. Of note, in the latter case, Greenlaw v. United […]

Senator McCain gave another speech on energy policy today in Fresno. As I discuss here, it was more promising than what he said last week. In particular, I like that he is calling for a government-sponsored prize for innovation (something I’ve discussed before here).

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a potentially important case concerning the relationship between national security and environmental protection. In Winter v. NRDC the Navy sought review of a court injunction against the use of high frequency sonar facilities during naval training exercises due to their potential impact on whales. Specifically, the district court […]

Gary Cone’s habeas appeals have ping ponged throughout the federal court system for years, and they are not over yet. Today the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Cone v. Bell. At issue is whether Cone procedurally defaulted on some of his potential claims. I covered the last opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for […]