Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler

This issue came up in the comments to Ilya’s post below, so I thought I’d point to a post of mine from a year ago on the subject. Short version: National Opinion Research Center surveys have for years gathered information on whether people believe that homosexual sexual relations are “always wrong” (the other possible answers […]

A conversation that I had yesterday reminded me of something I posted nearly three years ago; since the issue still seems salient, and since the original post was in the pre-comment era of this blog, I thought I’d re-post the item and see what people think about it. One argument I’ve often heard against intellectual […]

The AP reports: Any Connecticut high school football coach who runs up the score in a game now runs the risk of being suspended. The football committee of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the state board that governs high school sports, has adopted a “score management” policy to keep teams from winning by more than […]

and can you think of some others that would fit the same mold? bugger cravat frank slave

by a majority of the University of Colorado Standing Committee on Research Misconduct. Six members recommended dismissal, two recommended suspension without pay for five years, and one recommended suspension without pay for two years. The committee also had this to say about the “[t]iming and [m]otivation of the [a]llegations” (paragraph break added): In his response […]

The S.F. Chronicle reports on the judge’s decision striking down the San Francisco law that (1) banned possession of handguns by residents (with a few narrow exceptions, such as for police officers and security guards), and (2) banned the sale or transfer of all guns or ammunition. Here’s one item from the story: “We’re disappointed […]

Jacob Weisberg, Slate‘s editor writes (emphasis added): Any political party counts on having a few hot buttons it can push at those moments when it is a few points behind in the polls with not much time left till Election Day. These issues have certain characteristics — a whiff of pandering, the flavor of insincerity, […]

A New York Times article discusses this, citing several serious and thoughtful scholars on the subject.

Captain Copyright, a Canadian “education” site about copyright — aimed at conveying a pro-copyright message to children, and at being used by schoolteachers for that purpose — has the following “Legal Notice”: Links from Other Web Sites … Permission is expressly granted to any person who wishes to place a link in his or her […]

As usual, an interesting and thoughtful column; I’m not sure that it’s right, but it’s definitely worth reading.

A reader asks: [W]hen are US bounties, such as the kind on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, subject to US income tax? I love the question, a perfect example of the lawyer’s gift for finding important legal issues in the unlikeliest contexts. I have no idea what the answer is, but I’m sure some of our commenters […]

A commenter to my post below wrote: I’m curious why you decided to call students and why you continue to do it. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but I’ve never heard of other professors doing it, so it does seem a little odd. My first reaction: What a strange question. Why does anyone […]

Woohoo! Plus this let me do one of my favorite things, which is to call to congratulate the students who’ve gotten an A or an A+ (generally 12-15% of the class, under our new grading system). Note to other professors who call to congratulate students, based on experience gained the hard way: If you don’t […]

That’s the remarkable Larry Darby, who was seeking the Democratic nomination; the election results are here. I don’t know whether I should (1) be sad that 160,000+ voters were willing to vote for a Holocaust denier, (2) be happy that they were willing to set aside the candidate’s atheism (I doubt that many voted for […]

The brief is here. I agree entirely with the bottom line, and almost entirely with the analysis. Thanks to Craig Oren for the pointer; a news account asserts that the brief was just filed.