In this Wall Street Journal column, Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker and his colleague Kevin Murphy do an excellent job of summarizing the failures of the War on Drugs: President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs” in 1971. The expectation then was that drug trafficking in the United States could be greatly reduced in […]
Author Archive | Ilya Somin
Putin Signs Law Banning Adoption of Russian Orphans by Americans
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a law banning the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans: President Vladimir V. Putin signed a bill on Friday that bans the adoption of Russian children by American citizens, dealing a serious blow to an already strained diplomatic relationship. But for hundreds of Americans enmeshed in the costly, complicated […]
Reducing Gun Violence By Legalizing Drugs
In the wake of the Newtown massacre, there has, understandably, been a new wave of advocacy of policy proposals aimed at preventing future incidents of the same kind. However, gun violence in schools is already extremely rare, with the average child far more at risk of dying in a car accident or backyard pool accident […]
What if Robert Bork Had Been Nominated in 1986 Instead of Scalia?
At his Balkinization blog, Yale law professor Jack Balkin has a fascinating post on the ways in which legal history might have changed if Robert Bork had been nominated to the Supreme Court in 1986 rather than 1987: Robert Bork’s passing reminds us of how much the development of constitutional doctrine depends on contingencies. Had […]
Robert Bork, RIP
National Review has posted an on-line symposium in honor of Judge Robert Bork, the great legal scholar and jurist who passed away today. Here is an excerpt from my contribution: Judge Robert Bork was an outstanding legal scholar and jurist. It is often forgotten that he first became prominent thanks to his path-breaking work on […]
Review of Peter Jackson’s First Hobbit Movie
I watched Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit movie tonight. Most previous reviews have ranged from lukewarm to mostly negative. All I can say is that I strongly disagree. Peter Jackson has done a great job of capturing the atmosphere and themes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book. And the actors playing the key characters – Bilbo Baggins, Thorin […]
Happy Saturnalia!
Today is December 17, the first day of Saturnalia, an ancient Roman holiday that has become an annual tradition here at the Volokh Conspiracy. The Encyclopedia Romana describes the holiday as follows: During the holiday, restrictions were relaxed and the social order inverted. Gambling was allowed in public. Slaves were permitted to use dice and […]
Richard Kahlenberg on Racial Preferences and Gay Marriage
By Ilya Somin on December 14, 2012 11:50 pm in Affirmative Action, Fisher v. University of Texas, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights
In a recent post, I wrote about the growing number of people who oppose racial preferences in education, while also supporting gay marriage. Richard Kahlenberg, a long-time advocate of replacing race-based affirmative action with socioeconomic affirmative action, can be added to the list: The Supreme Court’s decision to hear gay-marriage cases from New York and […]
High School Students for Liberty
In her interesting new study of young libertarians, which I discussed in my last post, Liana Gamber Thompson notes “a significant deficit” in the libertarian movement – the lack of an organization for high school students interested in libertarian ideas: Of the five participants [in her study] under age 18, four reported participating in the […]
The Politics of Young Libertarians
Liana Gamber Thompson of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism has an interesting new paper on the politics of young libertarians, focusing especially on members of Students for Liberty, the rapidly growing student libertarian organization. Here is the summary: In the past decade, young libertarians in the U.S., or members of the Liberty […]
Rand Simberg on the Need for Private Property Rights in Space
Space policy expert Rand Simberg has an interesting article in the New Atlantis on the need for private property rights in space: Space contains valuable resources. These provide a compelling reason for entrepreneurs, investors, and governments to pursue space exploration and settlement. Asteroids are known to be rich in valuable elements like neodymium, scandium, yttrium, […]
Turning Federalism Right-Side Up – My Review of Michael Greve’s The Upside-Down Constitution
By Ilya Somin on December 11, 2012 10:45 am in Commerce Clause, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Federalism, Necessary and Proper, Taxing and Spending Clause
My review of Michael Greve’s important new book, The Upside-Down Constitution is about to be published in Constitutional Commentary, and is now available on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Michael Greve’s The Upside-Down Constitution is one of the most important works on constitutional federalism in years. It is the best exposition to date of the […]
Opposing Affirmative Action While Supporting Gay Marriage
By Ilya Somin on December 11, 2012 1:23 am in Affirmative Action, Fisher v. University of Texas, Gay Marriage
In a recent post, co-blogger Orin Kerr writes that “few people have the same instinctive reaction to both [the affirmative action and gay marriage] cases” that the Supreme Court is likely to decide in the next few months. He means that few people want the Court to invalidate both affirmative programs and state and federal […]
New Poll Shows 58% Support Marijuana Legalization
A recent poll conducted by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling indicates that 58% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana. This is consistent with other recent survey data showing that public opinion is moving in a pro-legalization direction. In 2011, a Gallup poll showed 50% support for legalization for the first time. As with other recent […]
Supreme Court Rules That Temporary Government-Induced Flooding of Private Property Can Qualify as a Taking
Today, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. United States. The case involved a claim by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission that the federal government’s repeated deliberate flooding of its property between 1993 and 2000 constituted a taking requiring compensation under the Fifth Amendment, which mandates that […]