Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

Some legal analysts have been anticipating a surge of lawsuits against fast-food chains and other purveyors of “unhealthy” foods. The underlying assumption is that fat would be the “next tobacco” — a prospect derided by proponents of tort reform and critics of our litigious society. Thus far, however, the wave of fat suits have yet […]

Stewart Brand was an early environmental leader, publishing the Whole Earth Catalog, “the bible for the counterculture and the back-to-the-land movement,” and pushing environmental responsibility. Now, however, Brand is an environmental heretic who favors nuclear power, and agricultural biotechnology, and dismisses environmental fears about “sprawling megacities” and population growth. John Tierney profiles Brand in today’s […]

My colleague Jessie Hill blogs on the prospects of a Roe reversal at Prawfsblawg here.

Last week, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford had an op-ed in the Washington Post outlining a conservative approach to climate change. In this article, Sanford appeared to take seriously the challenge of reconciling conservative principles with a serious approach to climate change policy. I am not sure he succeeded, but the effort itself is significant. […]

Fellow Conspirator Orin Kerr was recently awarded this year’s Paul M. Bator Award. The award is given each year by the Federalist Society to an academic under 40 for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and commitment to students. It is well deserved.

Noted songwriter Randy Newman held the record for the most consecutive Academy Award nominations without winning an Oscar — fifteen. Newman’s drought ended in 2001, when he won the Oscar for best song for “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monster’s Inc. Newman is up for another best song Oscar tonight, and it’s my unprofessional, […]

It is now official that the Ave Maria School of Law will move from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Ave Maria, Florida. Paul Caron rounds up some coverage and commentary of the school’s controversial decision. My prior posts on Ave Maria’s potential move, as JNoV, are here.

Raja M. Kamal and Tom Palmer chronicle the plight of Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, an Egyptian college student who was arrested and convicted for blogging politically unpopular opinions on his blog. He is to be sentenced tomorrow. Soliman, 22, was expelled from Al-Azhar University last spring for sharply criticizing the university’s rigid curriculum and faulting religious […]

As this Washington Post report indicates, we still don’t know for sure what Sandy Burglar took from the National Archives. A report last month by the Republican staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said for the first time that Berger’s visits were so badly mishandled that Archives officials had acknowledged not knowing […]

Today a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that federal courts lack jurisdiction over the habeas corpus petitions filed by Guantanamo detainees. Judge Randolph wrote the majority decision for himself and Judge Sentelle. Judge Rogers dissented. I have not had time to read the decision yet, but […]

I’ll be returning to my home town on Wednesday to deliver two talks. First, I’ll be speaking before the Federalist Society student chapter at Temple University Law School at 12:00 noon on the topic: “Federalism after Raich v. Ashcroft: Up in Smoke?” Later that afternoon I’ll be speaking to the Philadelphia area lawyers chapter of […]

Of course I am flattered by the attention, even if the lawyer/cartoonist either misunderstood or chose to misrepresent my views. (Now if only I could get Chris Muir to do a strip . . . )

It was a snowy Valentine’s Day in Northeast Ohio. All the schools were closed (including Case). In our neck of the woods, there was no scheduled trash pick up or mail delivery either. UPS, however, made it through.

This afternoon, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, is delivering the Klatsky Seminar on Human Rights at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law on the subject “Global Human Rights Leadership: Who Will Fill the Void Left by the U.S.?” The event will be webcast here. I can’t make the event, but […]

Granting the District of Columbia a vote in Congress would likely be unconstitutional concludes a just-released report by the Congressional Research Service. The Washington Post reports here, and the CRS report itself is available here.