Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

Yesterday, in Terrell v. United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals held that the United States Parole Commission cannot use video conferencing to conduct parole determination hearings. Rather, under 18 U.S.C. § 4208(e), such proceedings must be held in person. Of note, according to the opinion this was a question of first impression for the […]

The noted historian, John Hope Franklin, died yesterday at the age of 94. His most important book was probably From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, though he authored many others. Walter Dellinger has a rememberance of Franklin in the Washington Post. It begins: John Hope Franklin, who died yesterday at 94, was […]

Richard Epstein in today’s WSJ: The AIG bonuses were made pursuant to valid contracts entered into before the receipt of the bailout money. They were ratified in the legislation that provided for the bailout, and efforts to find loopholes in these contracts have proved unavailing. Thus any sensible system of limited government should consider the […]

Environmental advocates are learning that there is no free lunch, and that even alternative energy production can involve serious environmental trade-offs. From the NYT: As the Obama administration puts development of geothermal, wind and solar power on a fast track, the environmental movement finds itself torn between fighting climate change and a passion for saving […]

University of Virginia law professor Jonathan Cannon has withdrawn from consideration for Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Details here.

The executive vice president of AIG’s financial services unit quits, and his resignation letter is featured in the NYT. I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung […]

Last December, the Department of the Interior promulgated a midnight regulation relaxing the federal prohibition on gun possession in national parks and wildlife refuges. Under the new regulation, individuals would be permitted to possess concealed, loaded, and operable firearms in national parks and refuges insofar as such possession was permitted under the laws of the […]

George Will on our political leaders.

A year ago commentators regularly claimed that the Roberts Court was a “pro-business” court. This year’s two preemption decisions, Altria v. Good and (in particular) Wyeth v. Levine, have caused some to reconsider. Michael Greve of the American Enterprise Institute goes even farther, arguing the Wyeth decision is positively disastrous for business and reflects a […]

The NYT reports that the EPA is preparing to issue a formal endangerment finding in response to the Supreme Court’s Massachusetts v. EPA decision. From what I hear, the finding will be made on or before April 30. Once made, this finding will trigger a wide range of regulatory initiatives under the Clean Air Act. […]

This Thursday I will be in Boston to participate in a panel discussion on whether the Congress should enact legislation to “restore” the Clean Water Act in response to the Supreme Court’s decisions in SWANCC v. Army Corps of Engineers and Rapanos v. United States. Other panelists will include Reed Hopper of the Pacific Legal […]

Even if courts are unwilling to strike down a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to AIG executives as a unconstitutional Bill of Attainder, might the provision be vulnerable on other grounds? As written, the provision would seem to present Equal Protection and ex post facto issues — though such arguments might well be losers […]

From Barrons: Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago Law School says that while the tax is more egregious than others, there’s no precedent to point to that says the scheme is unconstitutional. But this assumes that what Congress has designed really is a tax, says Erik Jensen of Case Western Reserve University Law School. […]

Newsweek reports that the Justice Department is preparing to declassify and release more internal memoranda on “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Over objections from the U.S. intelligence community, the White House is moving to declassify

The prevailing academic view seems to be that courts are unlikely to invalidate a confiscatory tax on bonuses received by executives at AIG and other TARP recipient companies. Paul Sracic at Youngstown State takes a different view. Congress may have more of a problem with the Bill of Attainder provision than they are admitting. This […]