The NYT reports on how two non-profit organizations — ACORN and the Points of Light Foundation — responded to the discovery of embezzlement or other financial irregularities. Acorn chose to treat the embezzlement of nearly $1 million eight years ago as an internal matter and did not even notify its board. After Points of Light […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Poor Exercise of DWI Discretion:
Yesterday, I posted about a woman arrested for DWI when she hadn’t had a drop to drink. Now here’s a case where an ex-cop was three or four sheets to the wind and caused a multi-car accident, and yet was not subjected to any alcohol test, and almost escaped drunk driving charges altogether.
Interior Wins ESA Listing Case:
The Bush Administration has had an extremely difficult time defending decisions not to list species as “threatened” or “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). I suppose it was about time that they won one. Well, they did. In American Wildlands v. Kempthorne, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the Administration’s […]
Is It Love or Confusion?
Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit opens an opinion released today quoting Jimi Hendrix. Forty years ago Jimi Hendrix trilled his plaintive query: “Is this love, baby, or is it … [just] confusion?” JIMI HENDRIX, Love or Confusion, on ARE YOU EXPERIENCED (Reprise Records 1967). In this […]
Arrested for DWI without Drinking:
Radley Balko reports on a woman who was arrested for DWI after refusing a roadside sobriety test even though she had not one drop to drink. Her blood test came back 0.0, but the police officer’s report described a woman who almost had to be drunk. One possibility is the officer recited boilerplate indications of […]
How Significant Is Lands Council Decision?
The more I think about it, the more I think Lands Council v. McNair is an important decision. Here are some other assessments from the Jackson Hole Star Tribune: U.S. Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, called this “the most important decision involving a Forest Service environmental case in the last […]
Colburn on Navy Sonar Case:
Jamison Colburn has two posts on Dorf on Law discussing Winter v. NRDC, in which the Supreme Court will hear the Navy’s challenge to a court injunction limiting the use of a high-powered sonar system that may harm whales. In his first post, Colburn considers what, precisely, would constitute the sort of “emergency” that could […]
The Bill of Rights in Film:
In honor of the 4th of July holiday, Rotten Tomatoes has posted a list of films that put the first ten amendments to the constitution in “cinematic context.” They’re film guys, but VC readers should know a little more about the law, so give us your recommendations for film scenes that capture the significance of […]
Post Calls for Kennedy Rehearing:
On Saturday, the Washington Post called for the Supreme Court to rehear its decision in Kennedy v.Louisiana holding unconstitutional the death penalty for child rape. There was quite a goof in the court’s 5 to 4 decision on June 25 banning the death penalty for those who rape children. The majority determined that capital punishment […]
Lands Council v. McNair:
I’ve finally had the chance to read through the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s en banc opinion in Lands Council v. McNair. I think it could be quite a significant environmental case, even beyond the federal land management issues it directly addresses. Of initial note is the court’s simple disposition: an 11-0 […]
Judge Brown’s Non-Delegation Doctrinal Revival:
It is not very often that the non-delegation doctrine is raised in federal appellate litigation, and perhaps for good reason. The Supreme Court has not looked favorably upon a non-delegation challenge to federal agency action in decades. Yet in a recent case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Michigan Gambling Opposition […]
Sunday Song Lyric:
We’re in the Scottish highlands for a wedding. (Kilt picture may follow.) We saw the Eilean Donan Castle yesterday. The castle was featured in Highlander, one of those films that has an oddly enduring popularity, but that also seems like an appropriate source for this week’s song lyric. Here’s the opening of Queen’s “Princes of […]
Ninth Circuit Overrules Ecology Center:
A unanimous en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned the Circuit’s 2005 ruling in Ecology Center v. Austin today, and appears to have narrowed the court’s review of federal agency NEPA compliance. After briefly skimming the court’s opinion in Lands Council v. McNair, I think it could be […]
Blogger Finds Factual Error in Kennedy’s Kennedy Opinion:
In turns out that Justice Kennedy’s opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana declaring the death penalty unconstitutional as a punishment for child rape mischaracterized federal law on the matter. As the NYT reports this morning, Kennedy’s opinion claimed that the death penalty was only available in six jurisdictions within the United States, but that’s not true. […]
What’s Dionne Been Drinking?
Judging from this morning’s essay, “The Court vs. Voters,” WaPo columnist has drunk deep from the “Constitution in Exile” Kool-Aid. The column is so hysterical it almost defies response, but I’ll make a few quick points. Dionne warns we could be on the verge of a conservative assault on popular progressive legislation. A President Obama, […]