The Supreme Court issued five decisions today — Salinas v. Texas, FTC v. Actavis, Inc., Alleyne v. United States, Maracich v. Spears, Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council — but we’re still waiting for Fisher (and Shelby County and the same-sex marriage cases). Today still produced some interesting rulings, and some interesting line-ups as Justices Scalia […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Fourth Circuit Voids NLRB Posting Rule
Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit joined the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in invalidating the National Labor Relations Board “poster rule.” This rule required employers to post a notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act on their properties and websites. In Chamber of Commerce […]
Did the President’s Remarks Constitute “Unlawful Command Influence” on Military Sentencing?
The President is, among other things, the Commander-in-Chief of the military. So if a President makes comments that could be interpreted as applying to cases pending in military courts, could those comments constitute “unlawful command influence”? Perhaps so. Stars and Stripes reports that President Obama’s remarks urging stern sanctions for members of the military found […]
Still Waiting for Fisher
The Supreme Court released opinions in four argued cases this morning: American Trucking Assn. v. Los Angeles, Tarrant Regional Water District v. Hermann, United States v. Davila, and Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics. All four were unanimous in the judgment. (Justice Scalia authored opinions concurring-in-part and concurring in the judgment in Davila and […]
DELPF’s “Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future” Symposium
The Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum has published the papers from the Fall conference on “Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future” about which I blogged here. Other contributors include former Rep. Bob Inglis, Shi-Ling Hsu (Florida State), Reed Watson (PERC), Nicholas Loris (Heritage Foundation), Eli Lehrer (R Street Institute), and James Salzman (Duke). PDFs […]
Whistle-Blower, Criminal, or Both?
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 11, 2013 9:59 pm in Freedom to Gather Information, Government Transparency, War on Terror
The NYT has posted a “Room for Debate” feature on whether Edward Snowden should be seen as a whistle-blower or a criminal (if not both). My contribution begins: Investigating and prosecuting Edward Snowden is a priority, but it should not distract from the far more important issues raised in the past week. Although some Americans […]
Did James Clapper Lie to Congress?
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 11, 2013 9:42 pm in Government Transparency, Uncategorized, War on Terror
In March, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate Committee that the National Security Agency does not “collect any type of data” on Americans, at least “not wittingly.” Recent leaks about NSA surveillance activity suggest this was not true. Here is Clapper’s exchange with Senator Wyden from the March hearing: Senator Wyden: “Last […]
Obama Administration Drops Plan B Appeal
Yesterday the Obama Administration announced it would drop its appeal of a district court ruling ordering the Food and Drug Administration to make Plan B contraception available over-the-counter to women and girls of all ages. According to the FDA, the pill will become available as soon as the manufacturer submits an application for OTC sales […]
Not All ObamaCare Lawsuits Will Come from Law’s Opponents
Most of the lawsuits filed to date challenging the constitutionality or implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have come from the law’s opponents. Yet as the federal government implements various provisions of the law, groups that backed the PPACA’s passage will file suits over the law’s implementation, often in an effort to […]
CAP’s Glass House
The Center for American Progress and its affiliated 501(c)(4) Center for American Progress Action Fund often attack conservative and libertarian organizations as tools of corporate interests. The latter’s Think Progress blog, for instance, has often suggested corporate donations undermine the credibility of CAP’s ideological adversaries. This makes a recent report and follow-up in The Nation on […]
A Month of IRS Scandal
As he has for the past 30 days, Paul Caron rounds up the latest on the IRS scandal. Among the key developments are claims by IRS employees in the Cincinnati office suggesting D.C. involvement in the targeting of conservative groups and renewed allegations that an IRS employee released confidential tax information of a conservative group. […]
DoJ Seeks to Keep FISA Court Decision Invalidating NSA Surveillance Under Wraps
There have been some interesting disclosures in the past week or so about the extent of federal government surveillance. Could there be still more to come? On Friday, the Department of Justice filed a motion opposing public release of a 2011 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court decision declaring some aspect of National Security Agency surveillance under the […]
State May Check DNA of Arrestee
The Supreme Court decided Maryland v. King this morning. By a 5-4 vote, the Court held that when making an arrest supported by probable cause, the police may take a cheek swab of an arrestee’s DNA as part of the standard booking procedure. Justice Kennedy wrote for the Court, joined by the Chief Justice and Justices […]
Did Eric Holder Lie to Congress?
The Hill reports that the House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether Attorney General Eric holder lied to Congress when testifying about the Justice Department’s surveillance of reporters and media organizations. The panel is looking at a statement Holder made during a back-and-forth with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) about whether the DOJ could prosecute reporters under […]
Is Murder in a State Without the Death Penalty a Mitigating Factor in a Federal Death Penalty Case?
In 2002, Marvin Gabrion was convicted of first-degree murder in federal court for the 1997 killing of Rachel Timmerman. Gabrion had allegedly raped Timmerman and she was scheduled to testify against him in state court days before she and her infant daughter disappeared. Timmerman was bound, gagged, and tossed into a lake where she drowned. […]