Late this morning I turned on my local FOX TV station and tried to figure out why it was showing a Televangelist rather than the NFL pregame show. It took awhile for me to realize that it must be the end of Daylight Saving Time. I had incorrectly thought that the new Daylight Savings law […]
Author Archive | Jim Lindgren
More Criticisms of Miers’ Response to the Senate.–
Professor Bainbridge reviews some of the criticisms of Harriet Miers’ submission to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In particular, he questions the meme about Miers’ supposed attention to detail.
Cass Sunstein on Ideological Voting on the Court of Appeals.–
Last night I went to the Rational Choice Workshop at the University of Chicago (run by Gary Becker and Dick Posner). Cass Sunstein presented an excellent paper showing that the ideological make-up of 3-judge panels tended to lead to more extreme voting and decisions when the panels were ideologically homogeneous. It can be downloaded here. […]
Trouble With Commas: More on Miers’ Writing.–
The written response of Harriet Miers to Senate questions does little to comfort those of us concerned about her writing ability (tip to Conglomerate). (I have been unable to find a copy on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s website, relying instead on a pdf posted on NRO. As before, it is possible that there has been […]
What Sort of Supreme Court Nominees “Grow in Office”?
The OpinionJournal article by John Fund (tip to Orin) recounts the long list of appointees by Republican Presidents who have failed to reflect the appointing President’s principles, listing seven failures to keep the Republican faith: Justices Warren, Brennan, Blackmun, Stevens, Souter, O’Connor, and Kennedy: After leaving office, Dwight Eisenhower was asked by a reporter if […]
White House Releases List of Terrorist Actions Disrupted.–
To support President Bush’s claims about thwarted terrorist attacks, the White House has put out a fact sheet that in general language describes plots disrupted: 10 Plots The West Coast Airliner Plot: In mid-2002 the U.S. disrupted a plot to attack targets on the West Coast of the United States using hijacked airplanes. The plotters […]
Beldar Defends Miers’ Litigation Skills.–
Beldar has a long post defending Harriet Miers’ career as a litigator, including her brief-writing skills. The last case he covers is a constitutional one, “Jones v. Bush, 122 F. Supp. 2d 713 (N.D. Tex), aff’d mem., 244 F.3d 134 (5th Cir. 2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1062 (2001).” It appears that Harriet Miers, on […]
Earl Warren Burger Is Miers’ Favorite Justice?–
Orin quotes from the Washington Post on Harriet Miers’ favorite Justice: In an initial chat with Miers, according to several people with knowledge of the exchange, Leahy asked her to name her favorite Supreme Court justices. Miers responded with “Warren” — which led Leahy to ask her whether she meant former Chief Justice Earl Warren, […]
The Harriet Miers Oeuvre.–
The University of Michigan has helpfully put online much of Harriet Miers’ published wrtiting (scroll down to “Articles by Miers“). I have read about a half dozen of Miers’ pieces so far–nothing particularly good or bad about any of them. They are pretty standard practitioner fare, apparently fully competent, but seemingly no better or worse […]
A Dilemma for the Democrats.–
It is becoming clear that the criticism of Harriet Miers is strong enough from both the right and the center that Democrats can oppose her nomination without paying much of a political price. We learned in the Roberts nomination that some Democratic Senators were willing to find reasons to go back on their earlier assurances […]
Harriet Miers: Some Undistinguished Writing.–
I just read a series of excerpts collected by Time Magazine from Harriet Miers’ article in the 1992 Texas Lawyer. (In the comments below, perhaps someone can link a full copy. [UPDATE: Here it is.] I want to see if Time slyly picked out the worst passages, or whether (as I fear) the entire article […]
Harriet Miers and the Meaning of Cronyism–
I want to endorse the thoughts of my co-conspirator Randy Barnett expressed in the Wall Street Journal: “Cronyism.” At the time of the Roberts appointment, I thought that one thing that endeared Roberts to Bush was his likely support for government power in the War Against Terror. That reason looks to be much more significant […]
A Forthcoming Study on Sexual Happiness in People 40-80.–
Tonight I went to the University of Chicago’s Rational Choice Workshop, run by Gary Becker and Dick Posner. The eminent sociologist Ed Laumann presented a paper on a survey he led on the sexual practices and opinions of 27,500 people aged 40-80 in 29 countries around the world. The paper was on subjective sexual satisfaction. […]
Pledging Allegiance to the “Eternal Separation of Church and State.”–
After reading some of the online comments on the Pledge of Allegiance case this week, I offer some casual thoughts on the words “under God” in the Pledge. I am not analyzing recent Court jurisprudence, and am addressing only the establishment clause issue (which is how Newdow was previously presented to the Supreme Court), not […]
Cornyn asks Roberts About Blog Post on the Umpire Analogy.–
As Orin noted, in Senator Cornyn’s first question of John Roberts today, Cornyn discussed my Volokh Conspiracy post yesterday on three different ways that umpires can approach the task of judging balls and strikes. CORNYN: Well, I happened to be looking at my computer last night, and one of the blogs, and it’s always frightening […]