Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

The Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported the nomination of Elena Kagan to be Solicitor General by a vote of 13-3. Three Republicans voted against her nomination, and three more abstained, due to Kagan’s failure to answer questions about her views on various cases and legal questions, despite having written previously that nominees should be more […]

Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row” is featured in Watchmen — but it’s not Dylan’s version. Rather, the closing credits feature a cover by My Chemical Romance. The lyrics, however, appear to remain Dylan’s, which begin: They’re selling postcards of the hanging They’re painting the passports brown The beauty parlor is filled with sailors The circus is […]

Although the Obama Administration disagrees with John Yoo’s legal analyses, the Justice Department continues to defend Yoo in civil suits filed by former detainees. Politico reports: At a court hearing Friday morning in San Francisco, government lawyers said that despite the change in administration, there has been no change in Yoo’s government-run legal defense against […]

CNN’s Sanjay Gupta has withdrawn from consideration as the next Surgeon General.

Speaking of judicial nominations, next Wednesday I will participate in a panel at the Heritage Foundation titled

All 41 Senate Republicans have signed a letter to President Obama calling upon him to renominate one or more of President Bush

Former FEC Commissioner and longtime law professor Bradley Smith and his Center for Competitive Politics colleague Jeff Patch co-authored an interesting op-ed on Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal for the WSJ. The case involves a claim that Caperton

One interesting aspect of the Supreme Court’s Wyeth decision is its refusal to defer to the FDA’s conclusion that state tort suits, of the sort at issue here, conflict with the FDA’s regulatory scheme. While the Court does not foreclose deferring to similar agency determinations in the future, Justice Stevens makes clear that it is […]

This morning, in Wyeth v. Levine, the Supreme Court held, 6-3, that federal approval of warnings on prescription drug labels does not preempt state law tort suits alleging that such warnings were inadequate. Justice Stevens wrote the majority opinion, joined by the usual suspects and Justice Kennedy. Justice Thomas concurred in the judgment. Justice Alito […]

In announcing his reversal of the Bush Administration’s Section 7 consultation rule under the Endangered Species Act, President Obama declared: “For more than three decades, the Endangered Species Act has successfully protected our nation’s most threatened wildlife, and we should be looking for ways to improve it, not weaken it.” This is a strange thing […]

Among the Bush Administration’s more controversial, last-minute regulatory changes was a rule to relax the consultation requirement under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. Specifically, the rule allowed federal agencies the latitude to make their own initial determination as to whether they had to engage in consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service or […]

From the Washington Post: The U.S. House of Representatives has abandoned a plan to make its offices “carbon neutral,” a sign that Congress is wrestling with a pledge to become more green even as it crafts sweeping legislation on climate change. The promise that the House would effectively reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero […]

Several governors may reject some portion of the stimulus funding for their state. In a recent post, Jack Balkin suggests that

Professor David RePass thinks we have too many “phantom filibusters.” As a consequence, there is a de facto sixty-vote requirement for passing legislation in the Senate. While I disagree with Professor RePass’ claim that the “phantom filibuster” is “unconstitutional” — the Senate clearly has the authority to set its own internal rules — I do […]

New Hampshire’s state motto is “Live Free or Die.” But is New Hampshire the most free place to live in the United States? Apparently it is, according to a new study, Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom, just released by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. For this […]