Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has finally resigned. Based on the early reports, it does not appear that he was able to strike any exit deal to ensure a soft landing or protect himself from prosecution. More here and here. Until Governor Ted Strickland appoints a successor, First Assistant Attorney General Tom Winters will serve […]

Embattled and scandal-ridden Ohio Attorney General Marc “Dannimal House” Dann will give a statement at noon today amid reports that his resignation is imminent. Stay tuned . . . UPDATE: At 12:15pm there’s still no sign of Dann. Meanwhile, the Dispatch reports on a truly ridiculous rumor: some of those close to Dann speculated this […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is sending rather blunt letters rejecting applicants for Transportation Worker Identification Credentials, an ID necessary for employment as a dock worker and in other transportation-related fields where security is a concern. As the NYT reports: A German graduate student in oceanography at M.I.T. applied to the Transportation Security Administration […]

The Washington Post reports: U.S. authorities have long considered Mohammed al-Qahtani one of the most dangerous alleged terrorists in U.S. custody, a man who could have been the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, plot if he had not been denied entry into the country. But yesterday, amid concerns about using information obtained during […]

The faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder is apparently quite left-leaning, like the faculty at many academic institutions. University Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson fears such a strong ideological tilt compromises the institution’s commitment to diversity, of which intellectual diversity is an integral part. So the Chancellor has come up with a rather simple […]

Democrats in the Ohio House of Representatives introduced articles of impeachment against state Attorney General Marc Dann this morning. The articles, available here, feature nine counts of “misconduct in office rising to the level of malfeasance, neglect, nonfeasance, gross neglect of duty, improper exercise of authority and gross immorality,” including the obstruction of an investigation […]

Suppose you owned a piece of land and took no legal action while others used it for more than two decades. When you (or your successor) eventually tried to evict those users, would you prevail? For centuries, the doctrines of adverse possession and easements by prescription have stood in the way of such long-delayed action. […]

Taking a breather from arcane copyright doctrine, here’s an issue that’s not specific to copyright, or even to law at all. What is the proper role of anecdotes in making policy arguments? Suppose that I’m arguing that the term of copyright is too long, and I say, “because of Congressional pandering to special interests in […]

Via Tim Sandefur comes news that Nathaniel Abraham’s lawsuit against the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has been tossed. Abraham, readers may recall, alleged he was a victim of religious discrimination after Woods Hole fired him as a biologist because he refused to work on “evolutionary aspects” of an NIH research grant. As I noted before, […]

In July 2006 I blogged about an odd case in which Senior Judge Gilbert Merritt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a last-minute stay of execution for convicted murderer Sedley Alley, despite not being on the panel that had heard Alley’s latest appeal. The stay was quickly vacated with an […]

Floyd Abrams, arguably the nation’s most accomplished First Amendment lawyer, has an interesting op-ed in today’s WSJ on the potential impact of British libel law on free speech in the United States. Today, there are sharp distinctions between U.S. and English law. One difference is that under the First Amendment we provide far more protection […]

I agree with Orin that the Supreme Court’s Voter ID decision shares a structural similarity with that in McConnell v. FEC. It seems to me that another parallel between the two cases is the extent to which voter perceptions about the integrity (or lack thereof) can form the basis of a governmental interest that can […]

The Washington Post reports on Col. Morris Davis’ testimony at Salim Ahmed Hamdan’s military commission trial yesterday. Davis told Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, who presided over the hearing, that top Pentagon officials, including Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England, made it clear to him that charging some of the highest-profile detainees before elections this […]

The Philadelphia Eagles are suing wide receiver Terrell Owens for bonus money he owes the team due to his 2005 suspension from the team. Dave Hoffman has some thoughts (and a copy of the complaint) here. I wonder if T.O. will do sit-ups in the courtroom?

John Fund speculates that Justice Stevens’ experience with the rough-and-tumble world of Daley-era Chicago politics may have influenced his decision in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the decision, grew up in Hyde Park. . . . [He saw] how the Daley machine has governed the city for so […]