The Washington Post reports on the continuing use of rendition as national security policy tool by the Obama Administration. Renditions are taking on renewed significance because the administration and Congress have not reached agreement on a consistent legal pathway for apprehending terrorism suspects overseas and bringing them to justice. Congress has thwarted President Obama’s pledge […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
The Right to Display Armorial Bearings
The Case Western Reserve Law Review recently published the late Peter Junger’s essay “The Original Plain Meaning of the Right to Bear Arms.” According to Junger, “the ‘right to bear arms’ is the same as the right to display armorial bearings, and that the original plain meaning of the Second Amendment is that the government […]
Seidman: “Let’s Give Up on [Parts of] the Constitution”
By Jonathan H. Adler on December 31, 2012 9:29 am in Constitutional Amendments, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Popular Constitutionalism
Georgetown’s Louis Michael Seidman, author of On Constitutional Disobedience has an NYT op-ed (noted in the comments to Orin’s open thread) calling for ignoring the Constitution — or at least those parts that he does not like. As the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American […]
Did White House Suppress Science on GMO Salmon?
Jon Entine details the evidence that the White House forced the Food & Drug Administration to sit on a scientific assessment concluding that approval of a genetically modified salmon developed by AquaBounty Technologies would have “no significant impact” on the environment. After Slate published an investigative report, the FDA quietly released assessment last Friday, over […]
2012 Unified Agenda Released Before End of Year
Regulatory policy mavens have been wondering all year when the federal government would release the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. This report details the various actions planned by federal regulatory agencies. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the White House Office of Management and Budget is supposed to release the […]
ASPCA Pays Circus to Settle Suit
The Associated Press reports: An animal rights group will pay Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus $9.3 million to settle a lawsuit the circus filed after courts found that activists paid a former circus worker for his help in claiming the circus abused elephants. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals […]
Contraception Mandate Faces Justice Sotomayor and Seventh Circuit
It’s been a significant week for litigation over the contraception mandate. On December 20, a motions panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit denied employer Hobby Lobby’s motion for an injunction pending appeal. As a private employer, Hobby Lobby is not eligible for the safe harbor from enforcement, and will be […]
Selecting a Supreme Court Justice for Ohio
Judges are elected in Ohio. Those seeking judicial office, whether the state supreme court or court of common pleas, must seek party endorsements and run in contested elections. While party affiliation is not displayed on the November ballot, candidates run in partisan primaries and mount serious campaigns, complete with television ads. Because judicial elections are […]
Seventh Circuit Sidesteps Challenge to NLRB Recess Appointment
Today, in Richards v. NLRB, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit declined to consider whether President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were constitutional. As Judge Williams explained for the court, the petitioners lacked standing to challenge the NLRB’s actions, as the complained-of policy had already been overturned. Other […]
Greenberg on “Borking” Before Bork
Last week, historian David Greenberg surveyed political fights over Supreme Court confirmations prior to the Senate’s rejection of Robert Bork in 1987 in an NYT op-ed. “Although Mr. Bork’s confirmation certainly represented a major battle of the Reagan years, the campaign to defeat him was neither unprecedented nor illegitimate,” he writes. According to Greenberg: “The […]
Did the CRA Lead to Risky Lending?
“Yes, it did,” is the conclusion of a new NBER study of bank lending behavior, “Did the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Lead to Risky Lending?” by Sumit Agarwal, Efraim Benmelech, Nittai Bergman, Amit Seru, Here’s the abstract, which begins uncharacteristically with direct answer to the question in the paper’s title: Yes, it did. We use […]
Goldberg & Kopel on Guns and Gun Control
The December 2012 issue of The Atlantic features a lengthy article by Jeffrey Goldberg, “The Case for More Guns (And More Gun Control).” Though written before the Newton massacre, the article is quite timely and relevant — and provides much food for thought. The VC’s own David Kopel was among those Goldberg interviewed for the […]
Meese on Bork’s Legacy in Antitrust Law
William & Mary’s Alan Meese explains why the late Robert Bork likely had an even greater effect on antitrust law than on the popular debate over constitutional interpretation. Many know Bork from his classic book, The Antitrust Paradox, published in 1978. For instance, one remembrance states “The Antitrust Paradox, published in 1978, shifted the entire […]
Filibuster Suit Dismissed
By Jonathan H. Adler on December 22, 2012 1:23 pm in Administrative Law, Congress, Separation of Powers, Standing
Yesterday, Judge Emmet Sullivan dismissed Common Cause’s suit attempting to have the use of the filibuster declared unconstitutional. As I explained here, this was always a futile suit. Even if one thinks the substance of the suit has merit, standing and the political quesiton doctrine are major obstacles to getting such claims heard. Sure enough, […]
Can We Talk (about Guns)?
Mark Kleiman wonders why so many of his ideological compatriots are driven to fits of rage by Megan McArdle, noting the fevered reaction to her recent column on the Sandy Hook shooting and potential policy responses. (See also here.) Though Kleiman would not endorse everything in the piece, he thinks it’s “one of the more […]