Author Archive | Ilya Somin

I am happy that my post on the libertarian divisions over the Iraq War has generated so much debate both here at VC and elsewhere in the blogosphere (e.g. here and here), among other sites too numerous to list). In this post, I want to focus on the fact that the intralibertarian debate over war […]

This interesting recent Wall Street Journal interview with Milton Friedman and his wife Rose (also a prominent libertarian economist) reveals a rare disagreement between them – over the Iraq War: Mr. Friedman here shifted focus. “What’s really killed the Republican Party isn’t spending, it’s Iraq. As it happens, I was opposed to going into Iraq […]

My forthcoming Critical Review symposium article on rationality and political ignorance is now available on SSRN here. The paper explains – for the first time – why, for many citizens, it is rational to vote but irrational to acquire more than a very minimal amount of political information. The phenomenon of widespread “rationally ignorant” electoral […]

A draft of my forthcoming Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy symposium article on Gonzalez v. Raich (the medical marijuana case) is now available at SSRN. Longtime VC readers and con law mavens may be interested to know that the article to some extent takes issue with the somewhat less pessimistic interpretation of Raich […]

The Washington Post reports that the Israeli attacks on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon have caused the Lebanese government to consider efforts to disarm Hezbollah and gain control over the southern part of the country, currently dominated by the Iranian-supported terrorist group: [I]n the wake of Syria’s withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon in 2005, the […]

Entertainment Weekly has a list of the Fifty Greatest Sidekicks of all time. Unfortunately, those of us who soldier on as sidekicks of the mighty Volokh Clan didn’t quite make the cut. We won’t be taking our rightful places alongside George Costanza, Chewbacca, Robin, and Willow Rosenberg. However, as EW points out, the key to […]

Readers of this blog know that there is an ongoing controversy over the American Bar Association accreditation standards for law schools, and co-blogger David Bernstein, among others, have pointed out numerous flaws in the ABA’s approach. To my mind, the problem goes beyond the shortcomings of specific ABA standards. The real mistake is allowing an […]

Hoya makes an interesting observation regarding David’s earlier post on the Zidane meltdown in the World Cup championship yesterday. Hoya writes: Was Zizou scanning the field for the location of the officials before he turned to deliver that head butt? It looks like he was seeing where their attention was focused before he returned to […]

Over the last few weeks, I have blogged extensively about the fact that much of the legislation produced by the Kelo backlash actually does little or nothing to curb eminent domain abuse. Many new laws that seem to restrict condemnation of property for “economic development” actually have loopholes that keep them from doing so. Legislators […]

Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve moved to the suburbs. After thirty-plus years of city life (which, I admit, I still prefer in many respects), Redheadlaw7, the Ellster and I are now settling in a mid-sized neo-colonial house in northeast Ohio. This is truly suburban life, complete with homeowners association and wetlands in the back […]

In line with the discussion on the relative paucity of female Supreme Court clerks, it is interesting to note that the data show a very similar percentage of women in legal academia. According to the American Association of Law Schools, 35.3% of law school faculty were women as of the 2004-2005 academic year. There may, […]

Bert Gall of the Institute for Justice has a piece on TechCentralstation defending a significantly more optimistic assessment of Post-Kelo reforms than I have expressed here and here, among other places. IJ represented the property owners in Kelo and has probably done more to protect constitutional property rights in recent years than any other organization. […]

At a press conference earlier today, President Bush was asked several questions about the North Korean missile tests. Among his responses were the following comments about the United States’ anti-ballistic missile capabilities: Our missile systems are modest, our anti-ballistic missile systems are modest. They’re new. It’s new research. We’ve gotten — testing them. And so […]

North Korea conducted several missile tests on July 4th. I wasn’t able to comment at the time, but Daniel Drezner rounded up the various reactions here.

Redheadlaw7 said yes. At least one of us is crazy, and the other is blessed. No lyric could do it justice.