My wife Alison Somin and University of San Diego law professor Gail Heriot have published a short article in Engage criticizing recent claims that the Thirteenth Amendment, which bans “slavery” and “involuntary servitude,” and authorizes Congress to pass “appropriate” enforcement legislation, actually gives Congress broad authority to legislate on a wide range of other issues: […]
Author Archive | Ilya Somin
Criticizing Darth Vader’s Strategy at the Battle of Hoth
In this Wired magazine article [HT: Instapundit], Spencer Ackerman gives a detailed critique of Darth Vader’s strategy at the Battle of Hoth. Presented with a golden opportunity to wipe out the rebels once and for all, Vader let them slip through his fingers: How did the Galactic Empire ever cement its hold on the Star […]
A Changing GOP Position on Immigration?
It was interesting to see that both Marco Rubio in his official Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union and libertarian-leaning Senator Rand Paul in the Tea Party response argued for a less restrictive immigration policy. This is an important development for a party whose conservative wing has long been known for its […]
The War on Drugs, Overcriminalization, and the Rise of Militarized Police Raids
Deroy Murdock has an interesting National Review column describing the rise of abusive, military-style police raids: Overarmed federal officials increasingly employ military tactics as a first resort in routine law enforcement. From food-safety cases to mundane financial matters, battle-ready public employees are turning America into the United States of SWAT. FBI agents and U.S. marshals […]
The Drone Targeting Dilemma
By Ilya Somin on February 8, 2013 10:45 am in Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
The Obama administration memo on targeted killing has drawn an enormous amount of commentary, much of it hostile. To my mind, a lot of the criticism is overblown because it doesn’t give enough consideration to the fact that the memo’s rationale for targeted killing is strictly limited to American citizens who are “senior operational leader[s] […]
Perils of Prosecutorial Discretion in a World Where Everyone is a Criminal
University of Tennessee lawprof Glenn Reynolds (AkA “Instapundit”) has an interesting short paper on the dangers of prosecutorial discretion in a world where the scope of criminal law has gotten so vast that almost anyone can be convicted of a crime if the prosecutor goes after them aggressively enough: Attorney General (and later Supreme Court […]
The Collapse of the Judicial Law Clerk Hiring Cartel
BYU Law Professor Aaron Nielson has an excellent National Law Journal column on the collapse of the federal judicial law clerk hiring cartel: Law students everywhere, be warned — the Federal Judges Law Clerk Hiring Plan is dead. If you want a clerkship, don’t think you can wait until the fall of your 3L year […]
One Last Clarification on Federalism and the Treaty Power
Before leaving off the subject of federalism and the treaty power, I would like to clarify one aspect of my position. In arguing, as I have from the beginning, that the treaty power cannot expand the scope of federal authority beyond that which is granted by other parts of the Constitution, I do not mean […]
Transparency and Political Ignorance
Jerry Brito, a technology policy expert at the Mercatus Center, has an interesting essay describing his loss of faith in the idea that increasing government transparency will necessarily lead to smaller government or better policy: The theory that government transparency, and in particular better access to government spending data, will lead to limited government is […]
More on Federalism and the Limits of the Treaty Power
We are, I thinking, nearing the end of the ongoing debate over federalism and the treaty power between guest-blogger Rick Pildes, Nick Rosenkranz, Eugene Kontorovich, and myself. My own view remains unchanged: the treaty power does not allow the federal government to make treaties that go beyond the scope of the authority granted to Congress […]
The 200th Anniversary of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single blog in possession of a good readership must commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice, which occurred this week. Literary and science fiction blogger Abigail Nussbaum has some interesting thoughts for the occasion. In this 2010 post, I […]
What to Do When Illiberal, Anti-Democratic Forces Take Power Through the Democratic Process
When Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship began to collapse two years ago, I expressed the fear that the ultimate outcome might be a new Egyptian government more oppressive than the old. The main reasons for my concern were that illiberal radical Islamists were far better positioned to seize power than liberal democrats, and that Egyptian public opinion […]
Ronald Coase on China’s Transition to Capitalism
Legendary Nobel Prize-winning economist and legal scholar Ronald Coase has just published a new book, How China Became Capitalist, coauthored with political scientist Ning Wang. It’s incredible that Coase is still publishing books at the age of 102! He puts the rest of us academics to shame. Coase and Wang summarize their thesis in this […]
Women in Combat and the Constitutionality of Male-Only Draft Registration
By Ilya Somin on January 31, 2013 10:50 am in Conscription, Sex Discrimination, War and Armed Conflict
The Pentagon’s recent decision to open up combat roles to women has led legal scholar Gerard Magliocca wonder whether our current system of male-only draft registration is still constitutional. Conservative commentator Dave Carter predicts that the courts will rule that it is not, and women will be made subject to the draft. In the 1981 […]
US Attorney Carmen Ortiz May Appeal Carswell Forfeiture Case
The Boston Herald reports that controversial US Attorney Carmen Ortiz may be planning to appeal her trial court defeat in United States v. 434 Main Street, Tewksbury, the highly abusive asset forfeiture case I blogged about on Friday: U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said her office is weighing an appeal against a Tewksbury motel owner who […]