Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

I recently completed another short paper on Rapanos v. United States, in which a splintered Supreme Court adopted a narrow construction of federal regulatory jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. Because I had already published a short paper on the decision, the title captures my approach to the piece. (It was also taken from a […]

Robert Levy, a Cato Institute senior fellow and co-counsel for the plaintiffs who successfully challenged the District of Columbia’s gun laws in Parker v. District of Columbia celebrates the ruling in a Washington Post op-ed. Unless the Court of Appeals elects to rehear Parker, the case will probably head to the Supreme Court; and that […]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has unveiled the composition of the new House “Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.” Chaired by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass), the panel was created to grease the skids for climate change legislation.

At Sentencing Law and Policy, Douglas Berman wonders how Friday’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit invalidating the District of Columbia’s gun control laws will affect sentence enhancements, particularly those predicated on simple gun possession: in the wake of Parker, defendants facing sentencing enhancements based on having guns in their […]

Somehow I missed the Buffy bandwagon. I enjoyed the movie, but never really watched the show. Joss Whedon had other notable writing credits (such as Toy Story), but I did not become a real Whedon fan until after renting the entire season of “Firefly” and “Serenity.” I now count myself among those who would love […]

Today marks the 150th Anniversary of Dred Scott v. Sandford. Tony Mauro comments at BLT here.

My colleague Jessie Hill has posted the second and third installments on “Overruling Roe over at PrawfsBlawg. I noted her first installment here. In Part II, she briefly explored the landscape of abortion law in a post-Roe environment. One possibility . . . is that the post-Roe legislation regulating abortion in ways inconsistent with earlier […]

Cully Stimson provoked legitimate outrage because he sought to encourage sanctions against private attorneys for the mere fact they represented military detainees. His remarks were contemptible because they struck at the principles upon which the American justice system depends. Colonel Davis, on the other hand, criticized a military officer (in a different service) who is […]

Colonel Morris Davis, lead government prosecutor for the Guantanamo military commissions, was sharply critical of one of the attorneys representing Guantanamo detainees this past weekend. As reported yesterday in the International Herald Tribune: The prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, said that the lawyer, Major Michael Mori of the U.S. Marine Corps, should not be running about […]

How Appealing’s Howard Bashman’s latest column explains that fears Lawrence v. Texas would result in the wholesale invalidation of morals legislation “have proven to be overblown” — at least thus far. As evidence, Bashman cites the Ohio Supreme Court’s Lowe decision I noted last week and a recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals […]

As it turns out, my unprofessional, uninformed Best Song Oscar prediction was wrong. Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up” from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth beat out Randy Newman’s “Our Town” from Cars. I prefer Melissa Etheridge’s earlier work — and I’m hardly an Al Gore fan — but this is the one that […]

Today the Wall Street Journal editorial page praises California Senator Barbara Boxer (link for $ubscribers) for proposing that the federal government set an example in promoting energy efficiency. Stop the presses: Senator Barbara Boxer of California has a good idea. Ms. Boxer, who heads the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, suggested last week that […]

After the Supreme Court declared Texas’ anti-sodomy law unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas, there was substantial speculation about the implications of the decision for other laws targeting consensual sexual activity among adults. If state prohibition on consensual homosexual activity was unconstitutional, some reasoned, then it might be difficult to maintain state prohibitions on incest, at […]

Are Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) out of control? Based on this article from the New York Times, I am inclined to say “Yes they are.” (Link via Science & Law Blog.)

An Italian Court is preparing to prosecute CIA agents for their alleged participation in the kidnapping and rendition of a Muslim cleric. The cleric was sent to Egypt where he claims he was tortured. Writing in today’s Washington Post, David Rivkin and Lee Casey argue that this prosecution is part of a disturbing trend: “Overseas […]