In an earlier post, I noted that one of the problems with the California City of Richmond’s plan to use eminent domain to condemn mortgages is that taxpayers will have to pay for it. However, some defenders of the plan – such as Mortgage Resolution Partners – the “community advisory” firm that has been hired […]
Author Archive | Ilya Somin
A Knowledgeable but Selfish Electorate May be Better than a Well-Meaning but Ignorant One
By Ilya Somin on August 8, 2013 2:50 pm in Democracy, Democracy and Political Ignorance, Elections, Political Ignorance, Public Opinion
In my last post, I discussed economist Dwight R. Lee’s article about why most of the electorate does not decide who to vote for on the basis of narrow self-interest. Unfortunately, the very same incentive structure that leads most voters to base their decisions on the public interest also leads most of them to be […]
Selfish Voters are Not the Problem that Ails Democracy
By Ilya Somin on August 8, 2013 11:40 am in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Elections, Political Ignorance, Public Opinion
Both right and left have standard stories explaining how selfish voters often prevent the government from adopting good policies. The right-wing story – made famous by Mitt Romney’s much-derided “47 percent” speech last year – is that voters become dependent on government transfer programs and then support those programs despite the harm they cause to […]
Lawsuit Challenges Richmond, CA’s Plan to Use Eminent Domain to Condemn Mortgages
By Ilya Somin on August 7, 2013 11:10 pm in Eminent Domain, Just Compensation Clause, Kelo, Property Rights
A group of bond investors has filed a lawsuit challenging the California City of Richmond’s plan to use eminent domain to condemn mortgages: Bond investors including Pacific Investment Management Co. and BlackRock Inc. (BLK) are seeking a court order blocking Richmond, California, and Mortgage Resolution Partners LLC from seizing mortgages through eminent domain, saying the […]
Should We Boycott the Sochi Olympics?
Gay rights advocates such as actor Harvey Fierstein are calling for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, over Russia’s highly repressive new law banning “homosexual propaganda,” any speech that equates the social status same-sex relationships with heterosexual ones. Others argue that the West should not boycott the Olympics, but should instead […]
New Yorker Article on Asset Forfeiture Abuse
By Ilya Somin on August 5, 2013 4:31 pm in Asset Forfeiture, Due Process Clause Property Rights, Property Rights
The New Yorker has an interesting article on asset forfeiture abuse, describing how law enforcement authorities routinely use it to seize property from people who have never been convicted of any crime, and often have not even been charged: On a bright Thursday afternoon in 2007, Jennifer Boatright, a waitress at a Houston bar-and-grill, drove […]
I Should Not Have Opined About Facebook’s TOS and its Relationship to the CFAA
Some commenters on Stewart Baker’s, Orin Kerr’s, and my own recent posts on the Obama 2012 campaign’s possible violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act argue that, even if the CFAA does criminalize use of websites in violation of their terms of service, the Obama campaign did not in fact violate Facebook’s TOS, as […]
Obama Probably Did Not Win the 2012 Election by Violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
In a recent post, co-blogger Stewart Baker writes that there is “a very real possibility” that the Obama campaign won the 2012 election by increasing turnout among its supporters, using tactics that violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It is difficult to definitively disprove such claims. But the available evidence cuts the other way […]
Just Compensation Problems with the City of Richmond’s Plan to Use Eminent Domain to Condemn Mortgages
In my previous post on the the California city of of Richmond’s plan to use eminent domain to condemn underwater mortgages, I noted that the plan is likely to be permissible under the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which says that a taking is for a constitutional “public use,” so […]
Using Eminent Domain to Condemn Mortgages
The New York Times has an interesting article describing one California city’s plan to use eminent domain to condemn and restructure mortgages [HT: numerous readers who have written me requesting that I do a post about this issue]: The power of eminent domain has traditionally worked against homeowners, who can be forced to sell their […]
Libertarianism and the Supreme Court
By Ilya Somin on July 29, 2013 6:14 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Libertarianism, Property Rights, Supreme Court
Simon Lazarus of the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center is correct to point out that the Supreme Court’s decisions have trended in a somewhat libertarian direction over the last year. I also agree with many of co-blogger Randy Barnett’s explanations for why this has happened. In addition to the cases cited by Lazarus, it’s also worth […]
Former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Responds to my USA Today Op Ed on Unanimous Supreme Court Decisions and Executive Overreach
By Ilya Somin on July 29, 2013 5:07 pm in Constitutional Law, Executive Branch, National Security, Supreme Court, War on Terror
Former Bush Administration attorney general and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales has written a response to my USA Today op ed on unanimous Supreme Court opinions and executive overreach. Gonzales largely agrees with my assessment of the Obama administration’s record, but – not surprisingly – he takes issue with my argument that Obama’s overreach was […]
Baptists, Bootleggers, and Marijuana Prohibition
Public choice economist Bruce Yandle famously developed the concept of a “baptist-bootlegger coalition” to describe situations in which regulation is supported by a strange bedfellow alliance of groups who favor it for narrowly self-interested reasons and those who support it out of moral or ideological considerations. The paradigmatic example was the way in which Baptists […]
Sports Stadium Corporate Welfare Continues in Detroit
By Ilya Somin on July 26, 2013 3:38 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance, Public Choice, Sports and Games
Despite the having filed for bankruptcy, Detroit is going ahead with plans to spend over $400 million in public funds on a new hockey arena for the Detroit Red Wings [HT: Josh Blackman]: Detroit’s financial crisis hasn’t derailed the city’s plans to spend more than $400 million in Michigan taxpayer funds on a new hockey […]
Court Ruling Forces Nebraska Police to Return $1 Million Seized from a Former Exotic Dancer by Asset Forfeiture
A federal judge recently ordered the return of $1 million seized from a former exotic dancer by asset forfeiture [HT: VC reader Tom Kamenick]: A federal judge has ruled that Nebraska cops must return over $1 million confiscated at a traffic stop from a woman who saved the money $1 at a time during her […]