Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

The WSJ reports corporations have given substantially more money to the Democrats for their just-concluded convention than to the Republicans for theirs. A list of Democratic convention events compiled by the Washington lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates LLC is three times as long as one it compiled for the Republican convention. A separate study […]

I just learned — much to my dismay — that I was not listed in the 2007-08 AALS Directory of Law Teachers. I was forwarded our school’s data from a forthcoming faculty productivity study and noticed that my work had not been included in the tabulations. When I asked why, I learned it was because […]

Peter Spiro has an interesting post on a law review article Biden co-authored in 1988 on constitutional war powers. Here’s the cite: Joseph R. Biden Jr. & John B. Ritch III, The War Power at Constitutional Impasse, 77 Geo. L.J. 367, 397-98 (1988).

The Washington Post reports that the Bush Administration is proposing to enact less protective whale buffer zones around ports designed than had initially been proposed. The protections will be the first for whales along the Atlantic Coast, but they will be less stringent than environmentalist groups had sought (but more stringent than shippers would like). […]

Yesterday, twelve state attorneys general filed suit against the EPA seeking the regulation of emissions of greenhouse gases from oil refineries. According to the suit, the EPA is required to set New Source Performance Standards for greenhouse gas emissions from such facilities, but has failed to do so. Given Massachusetts v. EPA, and the Supreme […]

Historian David Greenberg thinks that the plagiarism and puffery that drove Senator Biden from the presidential race in 1988 are “worth recalling in detail.” He writes: Biden’s misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect. In some ways, the 1988 campaign—in which scandal forced not just […]

This was simply too funny not to post. Who knew that Chevron was so “stylish”? [UPDATE: And just so there is no confusion: That’s a different Jonathan Adler.]

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit considered whether federal law preempts application of the Ohio Mortgage Broker Act to agents who sell mortgage products for State Farm Bank in State Farm Bank FSB v. Reardon. Yes, the court concluded. While the court agreed with the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, […]

Ron Paul has apparently endorsed Alaska Rep. Don Young for re-election (HT: Instapundit).

The songwriting duo of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg may be best known for the songs they wrote for The Wizard of Oz, particularly “Over the Rainbow.” This weekend’s news brings to mind another Arle-Yarburg gem: Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe. It begins: It seem like happiness is jus’ a thing called Joe He […]

The New York Times reports on a political fight over a proposed mine near Dillingham, Alaska,on Bristol Bay. Rarely are Alaskans at odds over which of their natural resources they want to exploit. Oil? Timber? Minerals? Fish? While outsiders and some state residents may urge restraint, most people here typically just select all. Yet the […]

Greg Conko laments an increasingly cautious Food & Drug Administration. The FDA approved just 16 new drugs last year, and is on pace to approve only 18 this year. That’s down from a high of 53 in 1996 and 39 in 1997. After a few high-profile drug scares, such as the 2004 withdrawal of Vioxx […]

This morning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released its long-awaited opinion in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a challenge to the constitutionality of the PCAOB on appointments clause grounds. Judge Rogers, joined by Judge Brown, rejected the Free Enterprise Fund’s challenge. In this facial challenge, appellants contend […]

The Food & Drug Administration has decided to allow the irradiation of spinach and iceberg lettuce for the purpose of killing bacteria and reducing the risk of foodborne illness. Irradiation is sometimes used on meat and spices, but this is the first time the FDA has allowed irradiation of produce. More here.

The list of college administrators calling for reconsideration of the national drinking age is growing, but the withdrawal of two from the list of signatories gets the headline. As of now, the Amethyst Initiative list includes top administrators from over 120 colleges and universities.