This is an announcement for George Mason University Law School students only. This summer, I may end up hiring more research assistants than I originally anticipated. As a result, if you are a GMU law student, have strong research skills, and have any interest in constitutional law, property rights, political ignorance, or other topics on […]
Author Archive | Ilya Somin
The Zombie Defense
In the proud tradition of the Twinkie Defense and the Chewbacca Defense, we now have the Zombie Defense: A young transient who said he was trying to shake zombies off a stolen semi-trailer truck he was driving caused a major freeway incident in southern California that sent four people to the hospital and tied up […]
Three Upcoming Talks in New York City
By Ilya Somin on April 8, 2013 11:20 am in 17th Amendment, Democracy, Federalism, Political Ignorance
This coming week, on Thursday and Friday, I will be doing three different two talks in New York City, two at NYU Law School, and one at Columbia Law School. On Thursday, April 11, from 12:10 to about 1:10, Columbia law Professor Theodore Shaw and I will be debating affirmative action and the Supreme Court’s […]
Upcoming George Mason University Event on Drones and the War on Terror
By Ilya Somin on April 8, 2013 10:40 am in Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
This Wednesday, April 10, at 12 PM, I will be taking part in an event on the legal and policy issues surrounding the use of drones in the War on Terror, at George Mason University School of Law. I will be on a panel with my GMU colleagues Jeremy Rabkin and Nathan Sales. The event […]
Don’t Believe the Denials – Alabama Really Did Undermine its Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reform Law
Last week, I blogged about how the Alabama state legislature recently adopted a bill that undermines its post-Kelo eminent domain reform law and opens the door to the taking of private property for transfer to a wide range of politically connected private interests. Two state senators who sponsored the law have claimed that their bill […]
Massachusetts Judge Bans Tweeting, but Permits Blogging in his Courtroom
Prominent lawyer and legal blogger Robert Ambrogi reports on an interesting recent decision by Massachusetts judge Peter Lauriat, who has decided to ban tweeting but permit blogging by members of the audience in his courtroom [HT: Josh Blackman]: Does it make sense for a judge to allow blogging but ban tweeting from the courtroom? That […]
Linda Greenhouse’s Misrepresentation of the Federalism Argument Against DOMA
By Ilya Somin on April 4, 2013 2:16 pm in DOMA, Federalism, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Same-Sex Marriage
In a recent New York Times column, prominent Supreme Court commentator Linda Greenhouse grossly misrepresents the federalism argument against the Defense of Marriage Act put forward in an amicus brief co-signed by several federalism scholars, including co-bloggers Randy Barnett, Jonathan Adler, Dale Carpenter, and myself. She claims that it is a “Trojan horse” for an […]
Forthcoming Article on Voter Errors in Attributing Responsibility to Public Officials
In a forthcoming article I coauthored with economists Bryan Caplan, Eric Crampton, and Wayne Grove, we find that voters routinely make major mistakes in attributing responsibility for a variety of policy outcomes to different branches and levels of government. This undermines voters’ ability to properly reward and punish political incumbents for their performance. The article […]
Another Example of Unconstitutional Religious Discrimination in Virginia Marriage Law
By Ilya Somin on April 4, 2013 12:49 am in Atheism, Fourteenth Amendment, Religion, Religion and the Law
Co-blogger Eugene Volokh recently linked to a Virginia state court decision striking down as unconstitutional a state law that allowed religious societies without official clergy to designate only one member as having the power to perform wedding ceremonies, while religious groups that do have clergy can designate more. The court concluded that the First and […]
Alabama Undermines its Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reform Law
By Ilya Somin on April 3, 2013 10:55 am in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s controversial 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which ruled that state and local governments could condemn property for transfer to private parties for “economic development,” 44 states passed eminent domain reform laws intended to curtail abusive condemnations. Many of the new laws only pretended to […]
Prediction Markets and Political Ignorance
In two recent posts, guest-blogger John McGinnis makes a strong case that the US government should legalize prediction markets, that these markets are valuable sources of information, and that claims that prediction markets can easily be “manipulated” are overblown. I agree completely on all counts. Nevertheless, I am somewhat pessimistic that prediction markets will do […]
The Court’s Seven Options in the California Same-Sex Marriage Case
Before oral argument in the California Proposition 8 gay marriage case, Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman wrote a post outlining five possible options before the Court; I commented on it here. Since the argument, Lederman believes the number of possible options has grown to seven, as he outlines in this interesting post. The two new […]
How I Became a (Minor) Victim of Academic Plagiarism
Today, the Baltimore Sun published a detailed story about Towson University Professor Benjamin Neil, who has been accused of numerous instances of plagiarism, especially in a 2012 article on Kelo v. City of New London and post-Kelo eminent domain reform which has since been withdrawn by the Journal of Academic and Business Ethics: A longtime […]
Reflections on John McGinnis’ Accelerating Democracy
By Ilya Somin on March 29, 2013 11:45 am in Democracy, Federalism, Political Ignorance, Voting With Your Feet
Guest blogger John McGinnis’ new book Accelerating Democracy is an outstanding analysis of the ways in which modern technology and social science can improve the quality of decision-making in government and society. It is probably the most important book on that subject in a long time. Much of John’s thesis is compelling. He is right […]
Why Striking Down DOMA on Federalism Grounds Would not Lead to “Litigation Chaos”
By Ilya Somin on March 28, 2013 5:48 pm in DOMA, Federalism, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Same-Sex Marriage
In a recent op ed, Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman argues that striking down the Defense of Marriage Act on federalism grounds – as advocated in an amicus brief I signed along with several other federalism scholars, including co-bloggers Jonathan Adler, Randy Barnett, and Dale Carpenter – would lead to “litigation chaos”: [T]he problem with […]