In a thoughtful post below, Orin suggests that we don’t know enough about the federal government’s seizure of the AP’s records. As Orin notes, the Justice Department has special rules for this sort of thing. Yet there are reasons to doubt whether the government followed these rules. Among other things, the government is required to […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Justice Department Seized AP Phone Records
By Jonathan H. Adler on May 13, 2013 8:04 pm in Executive Branch, Freedom to Gather Information, Press, War on Terror
The AP reports: The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news. The records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and […]
IRS Disclosed Confidential Material Too
ProPublica reports: The same IRS office that deliberatelytargeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year. The IRS did not respond to requests Monday following up about that release, and whether it had determined how the applications were sent […]
When There Are Many Ways to Lose a Single Case
Today a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Platinum Sports Ltd. v. Snyder. The opinion by Judge Sutton begins: In 2011, the Michigan legislature enacted two laws. One barred sexually oriented businesses from displaying signs on the premises that contained more than “words or numbers.” Mich. […]
“To Regulate” Not “To Prohibit”
Barry Friedman of New York University School of Law and Genevieve Lakier of the University of Chicago Law School have an interesting new paper on the meaning of “regulate” as used in the Commerce Clause, “‘To Regulate,’ Not ‘To Prohibit’: Limiting the Commerce Power.” Here’s the abstract: Today it is taken for granted that Congress’s […]
IRS Scrutinized Teaching the Constitution
The Washington Post reports this gem: At various points over the past two years, Internal Revenue Service officials targeted nonprofit groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution, according to documents in an audit conducted by the agency’s inspector general. The documents, obtained by The Washington Post from a congressional aide with knowledge […]
Judge Denies Administration Request for Stay of Plan B Order
Judge Edward Korman is unhappy with the Administration’s handling of Plan B contraception. On Friday, the NYT reports, he denied the Administration’s request to stay his order requiring that Plan B be made available over-the-counter to all women and girls of any age.
James Harkin Does Not Know Much About Economics
Henry Farrell takes apart a James Harkin essay on Marx and public choice in the Los Angeles Review of Books, and it ain’t pretty.
IRS Officials Knew of Targeting in 2011
AP, The Hill and Politico are all reporting that senior IRS officials were aware that Tea Party groups were being targeted as early as 2011. The disclosure is reportedly contained in a draft inspector general report that is due to be released later this year. In March 2012, the IRS Commissioner denied charges that the IRS was […]
Nullification Nonsense
Earlier this week I took Steve Benen to task for suggesting that state governments could not refuse to enforce federal laws. Benen had suggested that such decisions were tantamount to nullification. (A claim he has walked back, to his credit.) While Benen’s outrage was a bit misplaced in the post I critiqued, it’s not as […]
IRS Admits Targeting “Tea Party” Groups
Some conservative and libertarian groups have long suspected that the Internal Revenue Service has targeted right-leaning non-profits for extra scrutiny, but such allegations were always difficult to prove (and often sounded a bit conspiratorial). Now, however, the head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations has admitted her division targeted “tea party” and “patriot” […]
Louisiana Supreme Court Rules Voucher Plan Violates State Constitution
In a 6-1 decision, the Supreme Court of Louisiana has ruled that a statewide educational voucher plan is unconstitutional. The decision is here.
“Judge Rips Obama’s Right-Wing Plan B Stance”
Salon has an interesting report on Tuesday’s court hearing before federal district judge Edward Korman in which the Administration sought to defend its newly announced policy of limiting the over-the-counter availability of Plan-B contraception to females 15 and older instead of removing all restrictions as Korman had previously ordered. A taste: This morning, Korman repeatedly […]
A Constitutional Law Lesson for Steve Benen
On Monday, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill that would bar state officials from enforcing any new federal gun laws. Via Kevin Drum, I see that the MaddowBlog’s Steve Benen calls the bill “crazy.” In this case, Texas’ nullification bill effectively hopes to freeze the status quo of federal gun laws in place […]
A Blue Ridge Bunker
Jess Bravin has an interesting report on the Cold War-era plans to relocate the Supreme Court to Asheville, North Carolina in the event of an enemy attack on Washington, D.C.