Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

Like France, but unlike the Ireland or the United Kingdom, the United States combines the job of Head of State and Head of Government into a single person. A citizen can disagree with governmental policy proposals of Barack Obama, just as a citizen could disagree with the the policies of Ronald Reagan. But there is […]

This afternoon, GW law professor (and Concurring Opinions blogger) Daniel Solove will be delivering a lecture on ““The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet” at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. The talk, which is sponsored by the Center for Law, Technology, and the Arts, will build upon the […]

Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times is one of the nation’s best known and well-respected Supreme Court reporters. She also has an undisclosed conflict of interest in cases relating to military tribunals and the war on terror, according to Ed Whelan. In a series of posts (see here, here, here, and here), Whelan argued […]

John Yoo has a second op-ed on the Jose Padilla’s lawsuit against him, this one in the Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit by Padilla and his Yale Law School lawyers is an effort to open another front against U.S. anti-terrorism policies. If he succeeds, it won’t be long before opponents of the war on terror […]

In today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, John Yoo responds to the lawsuit filed against him by a Yale legal clinic on behalf of Jose Padilla. Walk down Broad Street and you pass by a brown mansion, squeezed in between a music store and a Banana Republic. With its statues of proud soldiers in front, the Union League […]

Today the U.S. Supreme Court decided Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta. By a vote of 5-3, the Court rejected “scheme liability” and held that private rights of action under Section 10(b) of the Securities Act do not reach third-party actions where shareholders did not rely upon the third party’s actions or statements. Justice Kennedy wrote […]

Over at Balkinization, David Luban has an extensive post on the issues and non-issues in Padilla v. Yoo.

As many VC readers may be aware already, the Solicitor General’s office has filed a brief in D.C. v. Heller supporting an individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment, but nonetheless calling for a remand in the case because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit applied too high a level of scrutiny […]

Matthew Yglesias has a review of Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility in today’s NYT. Here’s a taste: Nordhaus and Shellenberger have worked in the environmental movement not as grand theorists but as public opinion researchers, and their work in this realm is enormously valuable. Polls often cited as […]

Some firms and private individuals have sought to be “carbon neutral” by purchasing carbon dioxide emission credits to offset the effects of their own energy use. As I have noted before (in this series of posts), there are serious questions about the validity of such offset credits. Now the Federal Trade Commission is taking a […]

Whatever one thinks of the Ron Paul campaign, it has caused some to take a more serious look at libertarian policy ideas. This Michael Kinsley column, which is largely critical but respectful of libertarianism, is a good example. Libertarians get patronized a lot. Chipmunky and earnest, always pursuing logical consistency down wacky paths, they pose […]

The California Energy Commission recently proposed including government-controlled thermostats in new energy efficiency standards for new buildings in the state. Customers could not override the thermostats during “emergency events,” according to the proposal, part of a 236-page revision to building standards. The document is scheduled to be considered by the California Energy Commission, a state […]

Singles, 45s and Under from Squeeze seemed like something of a soundtrack in high school. Though I did not own the album until college, I seemed to hear it all the time, and almost everyone knew the songs, irrespective of their other musical tastes. Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook continued to make music together in […]

Tomorrow evening I will be participating in a panel discussion on “The 2008 Election and the Role of the Supreme Court,” at Wayne State University. The event is sponsored by the Michigan Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. Here is their description of the event: There is a strong possibility of near-term vacancies on the […]

This morning a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of a school district challenge to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. I hope to have more to say on this later today, and I am sure this is not the last we […]