Colonel Morris Davis was allegedly fired from his position as assistant director of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division of the Congressional Research Service, which is a part of the Library of Congress for criticizing Bush and Obama Administration policy regarding the trial of alleged terrorist detainees. Specifically, Col. Davis wrote an op-ed in […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Irish Scientists Solve Stout Mystery
Irish mathematicians have reportedly determined why the bubbles in a pint of Guinness appear to sink. The answer, apparently, lies in the circulation of liquid within the glass. (Hat tip: Instapundit)
House Republicans’ Anti-Market, Anti-Environmental Fishery Policy
There is substantial theoretical and empirical evidence that property-based management schemes, such as catch-shares, prevent fishery collapse and ensure sustainability. The creation of property rights in ecological resources is also a principled conservative alternative to centralized regulation. Yet somehow a majority of House Republicans were bamboozled into voting to bar funding for further implementation of […]
Atlantic Guest Posts on Environmental Policy
For the past ten days I’ve been one of the guest bloggers on Megan McArdle’s blog on The Atlantic‘s website. During this time I’ve written five posts on environmental policy. Here they are: – Property Rights and the Tragedy of the Commons – Property Rights and Fishery Conservation – How Property Rights Could Help Save […]
Economic Freedom and Tolerance
I just came across what looks like a very interesting paper on SSRN, “Does Economic Freedom Foster Tolerance?” Here’s the abstract: Tolerance has the potential to affect both economic growth and wellbeing. It is therefore important to discern its determinants. We add to the literature by investigating whether the degree to which economic institutions and […]
The Search for a Limiting Principle for Federal Power: Collective Action Problems
Many of those who urge the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of the individual mandate recognize that the Court is unlikely to take this step without identifying a “limiting principle” that cabins the scope of federal power in some meaningful way. While some deride the search for a limiting principle as unnecessary, others recognize […]
NLRB Member Resigns
Over the weekend, Terence Flynn resigned from the National Labor Relations Board. As I noted here, a report of the NLRB’s Inspector General had concluded Flynn shared confidential information with outside parties in violation of the NLRB’s rules. Flynn, a Republican and who allegedly shared internal NLRB matters with an advisor to the Romney campaign, […]
The End of (the Debate Over) Evolution
Noted paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey predicts the “debate” over evolution will end within the next few decades. As Leakey sees it, scientific evidence in support of evolution will continue to accumulate to the point where “even the skeptics can accept it.” I am not so sanguine, as I don’t believe skepticism of evolution is driven by […]
George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin – A Likely Scenario
TalkLeft’s Jeralyn Merritt, a criminal defense attorney, has gone through the discovery and witness statements that have been released in the George Zimmerman trial and has produced what she thinks is the “most likely scenario” of what happened between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin on that fateful night. Her conclusion, “Zimmerman should prevail on classic […]
The Return of Heckler v. Chaney?
Back in the 1980s, some death penalty abolitionists came up with the clever idea to sue the Food and Drug Administration to force the regulation of drugs used for lethal injection. Because drugs used for lethal injection could not be considered “safe and effective” for this use — at least not as far as the […]
Enlisting Coase in Defense of the Individual Mandate
“Poor Ronald Coase.” His famous essay. “The Problem of Social Cost” is the most cited law review article of all time, but it’s also the most mis-cited. “My point of view has not in general commanded assent, nor has my argument, for the most part, been understood,” Coase himself wrote in The Firm, the Market, […]
Beyond Incivility
Patterico and Aaron Worthing recount sinister legal and personal harassment as a consequence of their blogging. Worthing and his wife reportedly lost their jobs, but Patterico could have been killed. He woke up to an armed SWAT team at his door as someone spoofed his phone and called the police to his house. Even those […]
Federal Judge Strikes Down Denial of Benefits to Same-Sex Partner under DOMA
The San Francisco Chronicle reports: Congress violated constitutional standards on legalized bigotry when it denied federal benefits from same-sex spouses and excluded domestic partners of state employees from long-term health coverage, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland was the second by a Bay Area judge this […]
Fumento on “Today’s Right-Wing Darlings”
Conservative writer Michael Fumento explains his discomfort with the “extreme right” in Salon. While I think portions of his essay are overstated, I generally agree. Further, like Professor Bainbridge, I found this passage worth repeating: Civility and respect for order – nay, demand for order – have always been tenets of conservatism. The most prominent […]
McConnell on “The Liberal Legal Meltdown Over ObamaCare”
By Jonathan H. Adler on May 25, 2012 8:16 am in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Uncategorized
In today’s WSJ, Stanford law professor and former federal appellate judge Michael McConnell has an op-ed commenting on the tone and content of much liberal commentary on the individual mandate litigation. It begins: In apparent panic at the tenor of the Supreme Court argument over the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare), liberal […]