Here are some speaking engagements I will be doing in the next two weeks: Thursday, January 22: I will be delivering the annual Brennan Lecture at Oklahoma City University. My topic (picked because it interested the organizers) is “NFIB v. Sebelius and the Constitutional Debate Over Federalism.” Perhaps Justice William Brennan would turn over in […]
Author Archive | Ilya Somin
Immigration and Political Freedom
I recently wrote a guest post for the Open Borders blog on migration and political freedom. The connection between the two is often ignored in debates over immigration policy. Here’s an excerpt: There is widespread agreement that political freedom is a fundamental human right – that everyone is entitled to substantial freedom of choice in […]
The Pot Bowl
It is perhaps worth mentioning that the two teams that made it to the Super Bowl on Sunday represent Colorado and Washington – the two states that recently legalized marijuana. If this somehow helps accelerate the recent decline in public support for the War on Drugs, it will almost be enough to offset my disappointment […]
Lawyers for Victims of WWII Internment of Japanese-Americans Urge Overruling of Korematsu
At SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston has an interesting post on an effort by lawyers who represented Fred Korematsu and other victims of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II to persuade the Obama administration to advocate the overruling of Korematsu v. United States, the notorious 1944 Supreme Court decision that upheld the forcible internment of […]
Are People Too Dismissive of Others’ Arguments or Not Dismissive Enough?
Economist Tyler Cowen argues that people too readily dismiss others’ arguments: One of the most common fallacies in the economics blogosphere — and elsewhere — is what I call “devalue and dismiss.” That is, a writer will come up with some critique of another argument, let us call that argument X, and then dismiss that […]
New Hampshire House Passes Marijuana Legalization Law
The New Hampshire House of Representatives recently became the first state legislative house to pass marijuana legalization. Legalization measures adopted in Colorado and Washington in 2012 passed by referendum. As the above-linked Concord Monitor article notes, the law faces tough sledding in the state senate, and could well be vetoed by New Hampshire’s Democratic Governor […]
Searching for Time Travelers on the Internet
Physicists Robert Nemiroff and Teresa Wilson have written an article on their research searching for time travelers on the internet. This could turn out to be the scientific paper of the year! But, sadly, no evidence of time travelers was found. Slate summarizes the study here: In a paper pre-published on arXiv, a pair of […]
Gun Control, Mass Shootings, and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on January 13, 2014 5:54 pm in Criminal Law, Democracy and Political Ignorance, Guns, Political Ignorance, Public Opinion
Law professor Josh Blackman and Yale student Shelby Baird have posted an interesting paper entitled “The Shooting Cycle,” on the reaction of public opinion to mass shooting incidents, like the tragic events in Newtown and the Washington Navy Yard in 2012 and 2013. Political ignorance plays an important role in their explanation for why such […]
Upcoming Talks in Boston on Democracy and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on January 13, 2014 11:10 am in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance
This week on Thursday and Friday, I will be giving three talks in Boston on my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter, sponsored by student Federalist Society chapters at their respective law schools: Thursday, Jan. 16 12:15: Boston College Law School, East Wing 115A 3:30 PM: New England School of Law, […]
Proposed California Referendum Initiative Would Make it Even Easier to Declare Property “Blighted” and Condemn it
By Ilya Somin on January 6, 2014 4:58 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Timothy Sandefur of the Pacific Legal Foundation has a good post outlining the the dangers posed by a California ballot question drafted by local governments interested in expanding their already very broad power to condemn property: [J]ust before Christmas, the law firm of Rutan & Tucker—the leading California law firm for cities that want to […]
Welcome John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport!
I am very glad to see that John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport are going to be guest-blogging here about their excellent new book, Originalism and the Good Constitution. I have some disagreements with their analysis. But it is nonetheless one of the best defenses of originalism in a long time. I reviewed the book in […]
Why Write a Book About a Seemingly Intractable Problem like Political Ignorance?
By Ilya Somin on January 3, 2014 10:45 am in Democracy, Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance
Some VC commenters and readers of my recent book and other work on political ignorance, wonder whether there is any point to writing about this subject if my argument is correct. If most voters are ignorant about politics because such ignorance is rational, and that problem is unlikely to be overcome by information shortcuts, education, […]
Exposing the Nefarious Plot to Make Me a Federal Judge
Perhaps the strangest reaction to George Will’s Washington Post op ed about my book Democracy and Political Ignorance is this post at the Democratic Daily blog, which claims it is all part of an effort to “groom” me to become a GOP-appointed federal judge: OK: Smart. Then “guided.” (GOPs recruit out of Yale and Harvard […]
Rational Behavior is Not the Same Thing as Morally Praiseworthy Behavior
In this recent post commenting on George Will’s column about my book Democracy and Political Ignorance, Bill Quick of the Daily Pundit blog commits the understandable and common mistake of conflating rational behavior with good behavior. He claims that my argument that voter ignorance is rational must be wrong, because voter ignorance has harmful consequences: […]
John McGinnis on the Case for Allowing Cell Phone Use on Planes
Few issues arouse as many strong emotional reactions as the possibility of permitting cell phone usage on planes. At the Law and Liberty blog, Northwestern University law professor John McGinnis has an excellent post making the case for legalization: Cell phones on airplanes frighten a lot of people and not for safety reasons. Few people […]