Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court today at 3pm. It looks like there will be just shy of 70 votes in favor of her confirmation. Back in June I wrote: If I had to make a prediction, I’d guess that the vote will actually occur […]

The WSJ law blog reports that Senators Arlen Specter (D-PA) Jack Reed (D-RI) and Edward Kaufman (D-DE) are pushing legislation to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta. In this case, the Supreme Court held, 5-3, that private rights of action under Section 10(b) of the Securities Act do not reach […]

The Associated Press reports: The Obama administration is refusing to quickly release government records on its “cash-for-clunkers” rebate program that would substantiate — or undercut — White House claims of the program’s success, even as the president presses the Senate for a quick vote for $2 billion to boost car sales. . . . The […]

The Lakeland (Florida) Ledger reports: [Antavio Johnson, 20, was charged with two counts of corruption by threat of a public servant after a Polk County gang detective found the song on a MySpace page belonging to Hood Certified Entertainment in February. In his song, “Kill Me a Cop,” Johnson mentions two Lakeland police officers by […]

A review of existing research on the purported health benefits of organic foods confirms that organic food is no better for you than “conventional” food. From Reuters: Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global […]

That’s in 15 Penn. Stats. § 1303. In October 2007, the Pennsylvania Department of State in October 2007 told George Kalman that he can’t get a corporate Certificate of Organization for a company called “I Choose Hell Productions, LLC.” Kalman is now suing to invalidate that restrictions on Establishment Clause and Free Speech Clause grounds. […]

A very interesting column by the National Journal‘s Stuart Taylor, whose work I have long much admired.

That’s a very important question in obscenity law, given both the realities that different juries apply vague terms differently, and the specific legal mandate to apply “contemporary community standards.” It’s well-settled that it’s constitutionally permissible to prosecute someone who sends alleged obscenity from New Jersey to Montana in either place. But it appears that the […]

That’s the rule in Alabama, and it’s apparently being enforced against a wine that bears this label: Seems pretty clearly unconstitutional; though commercial advertising (which would include product labels) is less protected by the First Amendment than most other speech, it generally can’t be restricted on the grounds that it’s offensive. Nor do I see […]

That’s the decision in which the Circuit held that the Second Amendment was incorporated against the states, and also that counties could — despite that — bar guns from county property (at least the fairgrounds and the fairground parking lots involved in that particular challenge). As is usual with decisions to take the case en […]

Radley Balko (The Agitator) writes: A Virginia woman has been arrested for blogging about the members of a local drug task force. The charge is harassment of a police officer. She apparently posted on the blog one officer’s home address, as well as photos of all members of the task force, and a photo of […]

The Department of Homeland Security is planning a $700 million pathogen research facility in a tornado-prone part of Kansas. The Government Accountability Office thinks this is a supremely bad idea, and that the analysis supporting the decision for placing the facility on the U.S. mainland — let alone in tornado alley — is not “scientifically […]

PointofLaw.com is hosting a discussion/debate on corporate criminal liability.

Sally Satel thinks politicians are drawing the wrong lessons from the connection between clandestine kidney brokering and the New Jersey public corruption busts. According to a federal criminal complaint filed in district court in New Jersey, Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn conspired to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant. The cost […]

The Washington Post has an interesting article today on John Yoo’s efforts to defend his work at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. It begins: Some public figures, if their judgment and ethics come under fire, retreat into solitude. Then there is John C. Yoo. The former Justice Department official, whose memos blessed the […]