Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rule on Gary Bradford Cone’s habeas corpus petition for the third time. Yet this time was not the charm for Cone — as it was the first time he lost before the Sixth. As Judge Ryan summarized for the court in Cone v. Bell: In […]

Here is an interesting paper by Washington University economist Charles Courtemanche, “A Silver Lining? The Connection between Gas Prices and Obesity,” recently posted on SSRN. Rising gasoline prices have become a major concern in the U.S. over the past few years. An increase in the cost of driving causes people to consider substitutes, such as […]

Yesterday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer featured an extensive article on the increasingly slow pace of decisions at the Ohio Supreme Court. In 2004 it took the Court an average of five months from oral argument to issue an opinion. By 2006, it took an average of seven months. Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who is reluctant to […]

This year, hiring bonuses for former Supreme Court clerks at major law firms are expected to reach $250,000. That sounds like an extraordinary and unwarranted sum. In today’s New York Times, however, Above the Law‘s David Lat argues that these gargantuan bonuses may be irrational for individual firms, but good for the legal system as […]

What would make a good Sunday Song Lyric for Father’s Day? How about “Father Knows Best,” by Ricky Skaggs? I am not the biggest country music fan, and I don’t know too many of Skaggs’ songs, but it is hard not to be impressed by his commercial and artistic success. “Father Knows Best” appeared on […]

Food in the United States is relatively cheap — but it could be even cheaper. There are a wide range of federal policies that increase the price of various foods. Federal marketing orders for various agricultural products increase prices for milk various fruits. Restrictions on sugar imports dramatically increase the price of sugar, and therefore […]

Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an interesting divided opinion in Walls v. Konteh, a habeas case arising from a particularly interesting — and somewhat unique — set of facts connected to the events of September 11, 2001. In September 2001, Lawrence Walls was on trial in an Ohio court […]

The Gallenthin Realty case Ilya mentions below nicely illustrates the risk that eminent domain can pose to environmental conservation if governments are allowed to take property for economic development purposes — a problem Ilya and I discuss in our paper, The Green Costs of Kelo: Economic Development Takings and Environmental Protection, 84 Wash U. L. […]

This is a real question. Over the weekend I wrote an article for NRO on the new Bush climate initiative and the G-8 summit, and came to the conclusion that the Bush Administration has potentially set the stage for a meaningful international agreement on climate by, among other things, proposing an approach that could be […]

Ted Gup, a professor of journalism at Case Western Reserve University, summarizes the themes of his new book, Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life in today’s Washington Post “Outlook” section. Today the nation’s obsession with secrecy is redefining public and private institutions and taking a toll on the […]

Like others, I was initially struck by the footnote in Judge Walton’s order granting the motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief on whether Scooter Libby should be released on bail pending appeal. It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors of well-respected […]

Speaking of Linkin Park, the latest issue of Wired has an interesting story about how a techie at the Sandia National Labs cyber-stalked LP frontman Chester Bennington. It’s good to know that someone working at one of the nation’s top-secret nuclear research labs can spend their time infiltrating the life of a celebrity, taking over […]

Many people love to hate Linkin Park. Based on record sales, however, even more love their music. Hybrid Theory was extraordinarily successful for a debut album, selling some 24 million copies. The new album, Minutes to Midnight is a bit more “mature” than LP’s earlier work — if by “mature” one means it substitutes political […]

In today’s Washington Post, columnist David Broder defends Judge Walton’s decision to sentence Scooter Libby to 30-months in prison. I think [conservatives] have a point. This whole controversy is a sideshow — engineered partly by the publicity-seeking former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife and heightened by the hunger in parts of Washington to “get” […]

The Daily Mail reports on an interesting judicial opinion from Montana. The judge asked Andrew McCormack, a Beatle-loving beer thief, what he thought his sentence should be. He wrote: