Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

MSNBC wonders whether conservative groups will mobilize to defeat controversial judicial nominations if Senator Obama is elected president. I hope not. While I doubt a President Obama’s nominees would be much to my liking, I do not think the Senate should reject a President’s judicial nominees on ideological grounds. Rather, I believe the Senate’s “advise […]

The Legal Times has an interesting article suggesting that either prospective VP could play a role in the selection of judicial nominees during the next administration. In Biden, Sen. Barack Obama selected a running mate who, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995, officiated at the confirmation hearings of five Supreme […]

A British jury cleared a half-dozen Greenpeace activists of charges they caused £35,000 of damage to a coal-fired power plant on the grounds that such actions were justified to help prevent the threat posed by climate change. Among those who testified on behalf of the activist was NASA scientist James Hansen. The Independent reports on […]

In 2004, Ohio Democrats alleged Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was applying the state’s election rules to benefit Republicans. Now the shoe is on the other foot and Ohio Republicans are accusing Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is make rule changes to help Democrats. Specifically, Ohio Republicans are challenging new rules that would […]

On Friday, the Washington Post ran this story about Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech before a brigade of soldiers bound for Iraq — at least, that link is to the story that is on the Post‘s web page. But this is not the story as it originally appeared. As Bill Kristol notes here, the second paragraph […]

Today’s Washington Post has a front-page story headlined “Many Versions of ‘Bush Doctrine.’” Over on the op-ed page, Charles Krauthammer — apparently the first pundit to coin the phrase, and a critic of Palin’s nomination — suggests there are at least four “Bush Doctrines,” and the one Charles Gibson elucidated is the wrong one. For […]

The National Law Journal reports that lawyer and law firm campaign contributions to the presidential candidates increased over the summer. McCain saw a bigger increase in law-related contributions, but Obama’s take was still twice as high.

A new Interior Department Inspector General report details serious shenanigans at the Minerals Management Service office responsible for the “royalty-in-kind” program, including the acceptance of gifts from industry, cronyism, and “a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity,” including illicit drug use and sexual relations with energy company representatives. (It even sounds worse than the Ohio […]

It might not be a surprise that major law firm donations largely mirror those of law professors, and are weighted heavily toward Barack Obama (albeit not as heavily as lawprof donations), as Bruce Batista summarizes here. Why is this? Batista has his own ideas, and I’d be curious about others.

BBC reports: A row has broken out in France after a court postponed a trial, apparently because it was to take place during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Critics say the decision is a breach of France’s strict separation of religion and state. The trial of seven men for armed robbery was due to […]

reports the Times (London): Prosecutors took action against the 2×2 television channel for broadcasting an episode [Mr Hankey’s Christmas Classics] of the animated comedy show that featured Christmas songs including a medley duet performed by Santa Claus and Jesus Christ. The Basmanny regional prosecutors office in Moscow has announced that the programme “bore signs of […]

That’s what Politico reports that “[a] spokeswoman for the National Organization for Women, noting Palin’s opposition to abortion rights and support of other parts of the social conservative agenda, told Politico.” This sort of “not a real woman” argument strikes me as quite reprehensible, a denial of individuals’ right to come to their own moral […]

Here’s an interesting report on Senator Biden’s turn as a professor. It seems he got high marks.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is leading a lawsuit to prevent the sealing or destruction of Vice President Cheney’s records, the Washington Post reports. The group expects to file the lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It will name Cheney, the executive offices of the president and […]

David Frum has an interesting op-ed in the NYT on the “vanishing Republican voter.” Here’s a taste: Measured by money income, Washington qualifies as one the most unequal cities in the United States. Yet these two very different halves of a single city do share at least one thing. They vote the same way: Democratic. […]