Author Archive | Ilya Somin

In recent months, I have repeatedly blogged about how our misguided War on Drugs is undermining the War on Terror in Afghanistan by alienating Afghans who depend on poppy cultivation for their livelihoods and by providing the Taliban with a ready-made source of income (see here and here, for my previous posts on the subject). […]

Today was the last day of class for my section of Constitutional Law I; So I thought I would take this opportunity to mention a little-known historical fact that I always make sure to emphasize to my Con Law Students: We today are so inured to to the idea that the Constitution is a good […]

The Virginia Court of Appeals issued an opinion yesterday in Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins, the case on which the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in August. Here’s a brief summary of the facts from the Vermont Supreme Court opinion: Lisa and Janet lived together in Virginia for several years in the late 1990’s. In December 2000, the […]

The widespread use of aggressive no-knock police raids – often criticized here and in Radley Balko’s important study – is just part of a broader trend towards the militarization of police departments over the last forty years. In this recent column, law professor Glenn Reynolds (AKA – Instapundit) summarizes some of the negative effects. For […]

from funding and space generally available to other student groups. The university student association vice-president for student services agrees; so does a student association vice-president at another Canadian school. Anti-abortion speech, the theory goes, is “gender-discriminatory,” and debate about abortion upsets some women because it “happen[s] in a space that they thought they were safe […]

to take the buffet and cushion the shock. It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock. My post about the romance of engineering reminded me of one of my favorite poems, The Sons of Martha. I’d blogged about it in 2002 and again in 2004, so I […]

Economists Tyler Cowen and Tim Harford provide an important insight into the dynamics of long-distance relationships: Here’s Harford (quoted by Tyler): Economist Tyler Cowen, a professor at George Mason University, has pointed out that the Alchian-Allen theorem applies to any long-distance relationship. The theorem, briefly, implies that Australians drink higher-quality Californian wine than Californians, and […]

It turns out that the answer, somewhat to my surprise, seems to be “no.” (I had thought there would be some such risk.) See Mary D. Ellison et al., Living Kidney Donors in Need of Kidney Transplants: A Report from Organ Procur. & Transp. Net., 74 Transplantation 1349 (2002) (noting that the best current estimates […]

or perhaps of the decade for those of us with small kids — Kipling’s Six Honest Serving Men I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and […]

Which political leader expressed concern about this, and suggested that abolishing race-based admissions could lead to this (in his view unfortunate) result? (Show the answer.) President Clinton, in 1995, when Prop. 209 was being discussed in California. Prop. 209, which was enacted the following year, banned race and sex preferences in public education, employment, and […]

Radley Balko responds to Orin Kerr’s criticism of his position on paramilitary police raids here.

In a rare show of agreement, both liberal constitutional law scholar Sandy Levinson and conservative Michael Rappaport argue that the the 1947 presidential Succession in Office Act should be amended to allow the Secretary of State to be third in line for the presidency after the president and vice president (hat tip Instapundit). Under the […]

after the Thanksgiving meal. So says Snopes and various other sources; thanks to Geek Press for the pointer. The large meal and the wine might be the culprits, though.

In a recent decision, the High Court of Israel has ruled that the Israeli government must recognize gay marriages contracted by its citizens abroad and extend to them the same benefits granted to heterosexual marriages. The decision does not mean that Israeli gays and lesbians can enter into homosexual marriages in Israel itself. The Israeli […]

The Faculty Blog (U. Chicago Law School) runs a group blog session on my colleague Kal Raustiala’s and Chris Sprigman’s paper The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design. Lots of interesting posts from top scholars; much worth reading if you’re interested in intellectual property. Here’s Prof. Sprigman’s summary of the paper: The […]