Author Archive | David Bernstein

Obama’s tax plan, according to this article, would raise the marginal rate on the self-employed who earn more than 250K to 53%, including income and social security taxes (taxes would be lower for employees, but their wages will be reduced because their employers will have to pay half of the social security tax increase). The […]

“Moonglow” by Eddie DeLange (music by Will Hudson and Irving Mills) is a classic recorded by Tony Bennett, Billie Holiday, and Rod Stewart, and k.d. lang, among many others. Here’s how the lyrics begin It must have been moonglow, way up in the blue It must have been moonglow that led me straight to you […]

The University of Chicago’s Richard Epstein has an interesting op-ed on the Boumediene decision in today’s NYT. Here’s a taste: This 5-4 decision was correct. The conservative justices in the minority were wrong to suggest that the decision constitutes reckless judicial intervention in military matters that the Constitution reserves exclusively for Congress and the president. […]

Under a new smoking ban that will take effect in the Netherlands July 1, tobacco smoking in coffee shops and other public places will be prohibited. Marijuana smoking, on the other hand, will still be permitted.

The New York Times reports that the federal government is considering allowing farmers to plant corn on lands that have been set aside for conservation purposes under various government programs. The immediate impetus for the potential policy change is the midwestern floods, but the increase in food prices brought about by Washington’s long love affair […]

(Sketchy) details here. Northwestern will also require all students to take two new course, one in “analytic skills” (finance, statistics, accounting, etc.), and one in “legal services behavior.”

The Supreme Court handed down five more opinions today. SCOTUSBlog has the details. Only one of the five, Kentucky Retirement Systems v. EEOC, was 5-4, and it produced an interesting line-up. Justice Breyer wrote the majority opinion, joined by the Chief Justice and Justices Stevens, Souter and Thomas. Justice Kennedy filed a dissenting opinion, joined […]

Thomas Evans suggests a new target for activist state Attorneys General: the member states of OPEC. The attorneys general of the various states should sue OPEC as an alien or, pleading alternatively, as a foreign state. (A joint action by the attorneys general is the method the states used to collectively sue tobacco companies, Microsoft […]

President Bush and Senator McCain have both called for renewed offshore oil and gas drilling. With gasoline prices inching above $4 per gallon, political opposition to such development may be on the ebb. What about opposition to offshore wind development? The WSJ investigates. While there is no formal moratorium against offshore wind power, environmentalist and […]

In today’s WSJ, Karl Rove observes both John McCain and Barack Obama are proving “that in close elections during tough economic times, candidates for president can be economically illiterate and irresponsibly populist.” He criticizes Obama for embracing a Carter-esque windfall profits tax, and McCain for seeking to direct how oil companies invest their own profits. […]

Washington Post columnist writes of her hope that the Supreme Court becomes an election issue this November. Conservatives, seizing on the Supreme Court’s ruling last week on Guantanamo detainees, want to turn the court into election fodder. I hope they succeed. At Bench Memos, Ed Whelan replies “Marcus grossly misestimates how a well-informed public would […]

Yesterday John McCain gave a major speech on energy policy in Houston. His campaign will unveil additional details about his proposed energy policies in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I offer an initial critique of McCain’s energy platform — “Running on Half a Tank” — on NRO.

Via How Appealing I’ve learned that two more judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit have issued opinions respecting the court’s denial of en banc review in Ricci v. DeStefano. Judge Calabresi concurred in the denial, and Chief Judge Jacobs dissented. As I suggested in my prior post, I think the […]

This morning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the conviction of David Safavian, former chief of staff of the General Services Administration and a figure in the Jack Abramoff scandals, and remanded the case for a new trial.

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit divided 7-6 over whether to hear Ricci v. DeStefano en banc. The case involves a challenge by several white and Hispanic firefighters to the New Haven Fire Department’s alleged failure to use the results of two promotional exams because the NHFD did not like […]