Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing (subsequently postponed) to consider President Obama’s nomination of Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In anticipation of the hearing, SCOTUSBlog founder Thomas Goldstein discussed the Liu nomination and its potential broader significance on The Huffington […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Back to the House
The AP is reporting that the health care reform amendment legislation being considered in the Senate will have to go back to the U.S. House of Representatives because Seante Republicans were successful in striking a few portions from the bill. After nine straight hours of beating back Republican amendments, Senate Democrats hit a temporary snag […]
Liu Goes Before the Judiciary Committee
The Los Angeles Times previews today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. As I predicted, it looks like this nomination will face substantial opposition from Republicans. UPDATE: At NRO, Ed Whelan outlines the case against Liu. I […]
13 States File Suit Against Health Care Reform
Thirteen state attorneys general — twelve Republicans and one Democrat — filed suit today against the health care reform signed into law by President Obama. Their complaint is here. In a separate action, a fourteenth state (Virginia) also filed suit.
Public Opinion on Legal Challenges to the Individual Mandate
Rasmussen Reports has just released a poll purporting to show that 49 percent of likely voters favor state litigation against the individual mandate, while 37 percent are opposed. The poll also reports that likely voters oppose the individual mandate 53% to 43%. This is only one poll, of course. All of the usual caveats […]
OMB Has Its Eyes on Prizes
Earlier this month, with little fanfare, the Obama Administration took a small but significant step toward encouraging greater technological innovation. On March 8, the Office of Management and Budget issued a guidance to federal agencies on the use of challenges and prizes to spur technological innovation. This memorandum seeks to “strongly encourage” federal agencies to […]
What Will Courts Do with the Individual Mandate?
Like Orin, were I forced to make a prediction, I would predict that the individual mandate will survive judicial review. Federal courts have been quite reluctant to strike down federal statutes on enumerated powers grounds for quite some time, and the individual mandate is a larger and more consequential piece of legislation than those invalidated […]
A New Nuclear Option
Energy Scecretary Steven Chu writes on the promise and potential of small nuclear reactors: Small modular reactors would be less than one-third the size of current plants. They have compact designs and could be made in factories and transported to sites by truck or rail. SMRs would be ready to “plug and play” upon arrival. […]
The Stupak Solution?
On Friday, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) announced the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration had awarded nearly three-quarters of a million dollars to three Michigan airports to fund maintenance and improvement projects. Given the apparent consensus that the President’s Executive Order on abortion funding gave Rep. Stupak relatively little of what he sought on […]
The Abortion Deal
Final passage of the Senate health care bill in the U.S. House of Representatives was facilitated by a last minute deal over abortion funding. Specifically, the President agreed to issue an Executive Order reaffirming limits on federal funding of abortion. As I read the E.O., it does not appear to limit federal funding beyond those […]
Super-Powered Copyright Suits
Today’s NYT has an interesting story on the raging copyright battles between Disney, Marvel Comics and the estate of Jack Kirby. Bam! Pow! Whammo!
Constitutional Challenges to the Health Care Bill
Our own Randy Barnett has an article in today’s Washington Post surveying possible constitutional challenges to the health care reform bill, should it pass. As Randy notes, constitutional litigation is inevitable, as several state attorneys general and conservative public interest organizations have already announced their intention to file suit.
Sunday Song Lyric
Alex Chilton died this week at 59. His music did not have much commercial success beyond a few songs recorded with the Box Tops as a teen, (most notably “The Letter”). But his influence was substantial. When I was in college, most of the “cool” bands listed Alex Chilton and Big Star as important influences. […]
A Constitutional Slaughter Solution?
Yale’s Jack Balkin is now convinced that Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have found a constitutional way to combine passage of the Senate health care reform bill with revisions to be passed as part of a reconciliation process. In a letter to House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter (reproduced here) Balkin writes: Under […]
Does Marshall Field v. Clark Preclude a Challenge to “Deem and Pass”?
Is a constitutional challenge to the use of “deem and pass” to enact health care reform precluded by the Supreme Court’s 1892 decision in Marshall Field & Co. v. Clark? In that decision, the Supreme Court held that federal courts must accept the certification of the presiding officers of the House and Senate that a […]