Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

The Washington Post has an extensive story about the White Hose vetting of Bernard Kerik, who President Bush nominated to be Secretary of of Homeland Security. Although the background investigation turned up many potential problems, Bush went ahead with the nomination, only to have Kerik withdraw under a cloud. According to the Post account, Attorney […]

Georgetown law professor David Cole explains why he banned laptops from this class: Some years back, our law school, like many around the country, wired its classrooms with Internet hookups. It’s the way of the future, I was told. Now we are a wireless campus, and incoming students are required to have laptops. So my […]

On Monday, new Ohio attorney general Marc Dann filed suit against several paint manufacturers alleging that they contributed to a “public nuisance” by manufacturing lead paint decades ago. (See also here.) Lead paint remains in many older homes where it can pose a risk to children if not properly contained or remediated. RightAngleBlog has collected […]

This is a good reason not to use grow lamps to grow tomatoes in your closet. [LvIP] [Note to local officials: That water pipe in my office was a just prop for a recent law school event on the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case. Honest.]

David Luban has an interesting post at Balkinization on the plea bargain of David Hicks and the controversial defense strategy of Major Michael Mori. This outcome seems like poetic justice, because the result spectacularly vindicates Maj. Mori’s decision to go to Australia to try to arouse political indignation about Hicks’s imprisonment – and Colonel Davis […]

Setting aside whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s amateur effort at shuttle diplomacy was wise or effective, did she violate the Logan Act and commit a felony during her visit to Syria? Robert Turner thinks the answer could be “yes.” Ms. Pelosi’s trip was not authorized, and Syria is one of the world’s leading sponsors of […]

As Roger Pielke Jr. points out at Prometheus, there is a scientific error in Justice Stevens’ Massachusetts v. EPA opinion: there is a science error in the majority opinion, though it seems clear that it would not change their judgment of injury. It states: . . . global sea levels rose somewhere between 10 and […]

My (soon-to-be-former) colleague Amos Guiora has a new paper on “Interrogation of Detainees: Extending a Hand or a Boot?” in which he makes the case for clearer interrogation guidelines and greater protection of detainees in the coercive interrogation context. Given Amos’ extensive real-world counter-terrorism experience, his work is always worth reading, and often quite thought-provoking. […]

For those who want more commentary on the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, I have an op-ed-style commentary about the case on National Review Online. For those who want still more, SCOTUSBlog is posting commentary and analysis by various folks. Among those up so far are posts by Mark Moller of the Cato […]

Massachusetts v. EPA was not the only Clean Air Act decision handed down yesterday. In a second decision, Environmental Defense v. Duke Energy, the Supreme Court waded into the ongoing controversy over “New Source Review,” specifically when modifications to existing power plants and industrial facilities trigger costly upgrades in emission control technology. Some hoped or […]

I found Chief Justice Roberts’ dissent on the standing issue in Massachusetts v. EPA to be quite powerful. There were reasons to believe that the Chief Justice had strong opinions about standing before he joined the Court, and this was confirmed by his opinion. I was not nearly as impressed by Justice Scalia’s dissent on […]

In his dissent, Chief Justice Roberts argues that the standing analysis adopted by the Court’s majority in Massachusetts v. EPA “recalls the previous high-water mark of diluted standing requirements, United States v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP).” In this 1973 opinion, the Supreme Court found standing for an environmental group to challenge an increase […]

I have long beleived that one problem for the U.S. EPA’s position in Massachusetts v. EPA was that it was difficult to square the federal government’s litigating position with various statements, reports, and actions taken by the federal government related to climate change. Particualrly insofar as the case boiled down to whether the EPA could […]

Today was Clean Air Act day at the Supreme Court, as the justices issued two long-awaited opinions in cases involving the scope of the EPA’s power under the Clean Air Act. The marquee case was Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the Court held, 5-4, that (a) states have standing to sue the EPA alleging injuries […]

Yesterday, Judge Phyllis Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California struck down the Bush Administration’s forest management reforms for failing to conduct adequate analyses of the new rules’ environmental impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act. Judge Hamilton also found that the Forest Service did not adequately address the reforms’ […]