SCOTUSBlog’s Lyle Denniston reports that oral argument did not appear to go very well for the landowners in Koontz v. St. Johns River Management Authority. Something really big, and potentially decisive, happened to a major new property rights case between the time the Supreme Court took it on, and Tuesday’s argument by lawyers before the […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Here Comes “Mandate Plus”
The point of the individual mandate was to counteract the adverse selection problem caused by community rating and the requirement that insurance companies issue insurance policies without regard for preexisting conditions. The mandate — or, as we now know it, the tax on being uninsured — provides an incentive for younger, healthier (and less costly […]
Who Needs a Budget?
The Hill reports: The White House has informed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that it will miss the legal deadline for sending a budget to Congress. Acting Budget Director Jeff Zients told Ryan in a letter delivered Friday that the budget will not be delivered by Feb. 4, as required by law. Zients […]
Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District
By Jonathan H. Adler on January 14, 2013 10:52 pm in Property Rights, Regulatory Takings, Supreme Court
Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a potentially important takings case, Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. In this case, a landowner is challenging the state’s refusal to grant a permit to develop wetlands unless the landowner agreed to various conditions, including the performance of off-site mitigation. When the landowner […]
What Can Be Done about the Debt Ceiling?
The NYT “Room for Debate” feature focuses on how the President should respond if Congress fails to increase the debt ceiling. Among the contributors is Harvard’s Laurence Tribe. After explaining why the President cannot unilaterally disregard the debt ceiling (expanding on arguments he made in 2011), Tribe considers the alternative: A second approach calls for […]
Treasury Rejects Platinum Coin Ploy
Paul Krugman and Larry Tribe may think minting a platinum coin to evade the debt ceiling is legal, but the Department of the Treasury thinks otherwise, according to this report from Ezra Klein. According to The Treasury Department will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling. If they did, the […]
The Origins of the Platinum Coin Ploy
TPM has an interesting post on the origins of the idea to use a commemorative platinum coin to evade the debt limit. UPDATE: Apparently there’s even more to the story.
Yet Another Bush EPA Air Rule Goes Down – 2013 Edition
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit struck down rules promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency to implement the national air quality standards for fine particulates in Natural Resources Defense Council v. EPA. (Story here.) One thing that’s notable about the decision is that the Court was reviewing a pair of rules […]
2012 Was the Warmest Year on Record (for the Continental U.S.)
This week the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reported that 2012 was the warmest year on record for the contiguous United States. NOAA’s not the only one to reach this conclusion. As Ron Bailey noted
Is the Platinum Coin Ploy Legal?
The idea of creating a $1 trillion platinum coin to evade the debt ceiling may be unwise — even “idiotic” — but is it legal? Proponents of the idea point to the following language in the U.S. Code: The Secretary may mint and issue bullion and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, […]
Boudreaux on Buchanan
GMU’s Donald Boudreaux on the late James Buchanan: The theme of his life’s work is best summarized in the title of his 1997 article “Politics Without Romance.” With longtime colleague Gordon Tullock, Jim launched a research program—public-choice economics—that challenged the widespread notion that politicians in democratic societies are more nobly motivated and trustworthy than are […]
The Platinum Coin Ploy
During the last major debt limit standoff in 2011, pundits and professors debated whether the debt ceiling itself was constitutional. According to some, placing a limit on the issuance of debt to cover the federal government’s financial obligations would violate Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which provides “The validity of the public debt of […]
The Financial Crisis in the Courts
UPenn’s David Zaring comments in Dealbook: Courts are supposed to put the policies of presidents and Congress to the test of judicial review, to evaluate decisions by the executive to sanction someone for wrongdoing and to resolve disputes between private parties. But the really sweeping programs that Congress and the president put in place during […]
Corporate Tax Breaks in Fiscal Cliff Deal
“Congress, apparently, couldn’t end the year without showering billions on a handful of interest groups, some of which you probably didn’t even know existed,” the Washington Post editorializes. the final bill incorporated a Senate measure that extended various corporate tax breaks and a farm bill extension. More from Brad Plumer and Matt Stoller have more […]
Drone Memos Can Remain Secret
The federal government does not need to disclose the legal opinions and other documents justifying the use of drone to target suspected terrorists overseas, a federal judge ruled this week. As Josh Gerstein reports, the ACLU and New York Times had sought their release under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). While Judge Colleen McMahon […]