Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

From Daily Business Review, via Law.com, comes the story of a lawyer’s “super-size” gaffe and its consequences. Saying a bankruptcy judge was “a few french fries short of a Happy Meal” may cost an out-of-state lawyer the ability to practice in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida. The comment already has cost […]

The Cato Institute’s David Boaz thinks Rudy Giuliani would be a most un-libertarian president, particularly given the expansion of executive power under President Bush. Throughout his career, Giuliani has displayed an authoritarian streak that would be all the more problematic in a man who would assume executive powers vastly expanded by President Bush. . . […]

The Reason Foundation’s Shikha Dalmia challenges environmentalist calls to remove dams from western rivers. Hydroelectric dams may have been wasteful and environmentally destructive boondoggles when they were built, but now that they are in place they provide relatively cheap electricity without emitting carbon dioxide. Once regarded as the symbol of national greatness, hydroelectric dams have […]

Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit turned away Public Citizen’s challenge to the validity of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) in Public Citizen v. United States District Court for the District of Columbia. According to Public Citizen, the DRA was invalid because the House and Senate did not both […]

is here.

It seems to me that there are many song lyrics that should be appropriate for Memorial Day. Knee-deep in exam grading, however, I am devoid of inspiration for a song lyric today, particualrly one that would seem appropriate. So, I am leaving it up to you. What song lyrics would be appropriate for Memorial Day […]

David Schraub wants the real Jonathan Adler to stand up. He found three (including me) but forgot this one.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled 7-6, en banc, in Van Hook v. Anderson, that a criminal suspect who has invoked his constitutional right to counsel may reinitiate communication with police through a trusted third-party. Judge McKeague’s opinion for the majority summarizes Following the arrest of a suspect, the police advise […]

When does a consensual police encounter become a seizure under the Fourth Amendment? If a police officer approached you at night and said he “would like to see your ID, just to log that I talked to you,” would you feel free to decline his request or leave? (And for the CrimPro guru readers, did […]

Despite American inaction on climate change, emissions dropped in 2006. The AP reports: The department’s Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that preliminary data shows a 1.3 percent decline in the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide released in 2006 from energy-related sources, the first decline in 11 years and the biggest decline since 1990. . . […]

Yesterday’s Senate hearing on California’s request for a waiver from federal preemption of its greenhouse gas emission standards for new motor vehicles was largely a platform for California Attorney General Jerry Brown and Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to complain about Bush Administration intransigence on climate change and failure to act on the waiver before […]

The Virginia Law Review has just posted two essays evaluating the Supreme Court’s landmark environmental decision in Massachusetts v. EPA for its InBrief online magazine, with a third to follow shortly. In the first essay, Virginia’s Jonathan Cannon, who served as General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton Administration, argues the decision […]

California is seeking permission from the federal government to implement and enforce regulations controlling greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles. Under the Clean Air Act, states are preempted from adopting their own vehicle emission standards. Section 209(b) of the Act, however, authorizes the EPA to waive this preemption for standards adopted by California meeting […]

Marty Lederman responds to Douglas Kmiec (and to Sandy Levinson) here.

Douglas Kmiec has a guest post on Balkinization responding to Marty Lederman on the Comey testimony, the late night hospital visit, executive power, and all that. It’s worth a look. Sandy Levinson provides some commentary here.