In Tucker v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit made relatively quick work of a constitutional challenge to the authority of the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Appeals. Senior Judge Stephen Williams’ opinion for the court begins: Taxpayer Larry Tucker appeals a judgment of the Tax Court rejecting […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Potential Court Picks for a President Romney
Reuters previews what a Romney Administration short-list for a Supreme Court vacancy might look like. Among those identified are former Solicitor General Paul Clement and federal appellate judges Neil Gorsuch (10th Circuit), Brett Kavanaugh (D.C. Circuit), Jeffrey Sutton (6th Circuit), Diane Sykes (7th Circuit), and Steve Colloton (8th Circuit). The story also identifies others who could […]
Mankiw on Jurisdictional Competition
Greg Mankiw has a good column explaining why competition among governments produces benefits much like competition among firms. This is one of the arguments for federalism. Yet Mankiw also explains why what some conservatives see as a feature of federalism strikes some liberals as a bug. While conservatives embrace governmental competition, liberals have good reason […]
Studies Undermine “Food Desert”-Obesity Link
The NYT reports: t has become an article of faith among some policy makers and advocates, including Michelle Obama, that poor urban neighborhoods are food deserts, bereft of fresh fruits and vegetables. But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent […]
Supreme Ignorance
Via “The Fix” comes an interesting poll result: As of July 2010, only 28 percent of Americans knew John Roberts was Chief Justice of the United States. Over half (53%) admitted they did not know, while others selected John Paul Stevens, Thurgood Marshall, or Harry Reid.
EPA Adopts Fracking Rules
Today the Environmental Protection Agency announced new air pollution regulations for natural gas production including emission control standards for hydraulic fracturing. The WSJ reports and Ron Bailey comments.
Justice Department Failed to Disclose Forensic Flaws
Today’s Washington Post has an extensive report by Spencer Hsu on the Department of Justice’s failure to disclose flaws in forensic work that may have led to the conviction of innocent people. It begins: Justice Department officials have known for years that flawed forensic work might have led to the convictions of potentially innocent people nationwide, but prosecutors failed to […]
A Scholar in the Senate
The Washington Examiner reports: Vice President Joe Biden described former Saturday Night Live comedian, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., as a “leading legal scholar,” presumably in the Senate, today. “He has been one of the leading legal scholars,” Biden said of Franken today, according to the pool report. He also said that Franken “is deadly serious” as […]
Koch v. Cato Round II – A Second Koch Lawsuit
On Tuesday, Charles and David Koch filed a second lawsuit against the Cato Institute objecting to a decision by the Institute’s Board of Directors to expand the size of the Board and reappoint four board members who had been removed when the Kochs installed new board members earlier this year. Here’s a WaPo story on the […]
Have Conservatives Lost Confidence in “Science”?
A new study purports to show that trust in “science” as an institution has declined precipitously in recent decades. This study has received substantial attention, including these stories in Inside Higher Ed and the Los Angeles Times. The IHE story, which is fairly representative of the coverage, begins: Just over 34 percent of conservatives had confidence […]
Beware of Barracudas!
Does the federal government, and the National Park Service in particular, have a duty to warn visitors to the Buck Island Reef National Monument that barracudas can be dangerous to swimmers? No, concluded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in S.R.P. v. United States. The opinion begins: S.R.P., a minor, appeals from […]
Poll: Two-thirds of Americans Want Supreme Court to Throw Out Individual Mandate
The Washington Post reported today on findings from a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. According to the Post‘s story, when asked whether they expect “the Supreme Court justices will rule on this case mainly (on the basis of the law) or mainly (on the basis of their partisan political views),” 50 percent chose “partisan political views” while […]
Upcoming Talks
Here are a few talks I have scheduled in the next two weeks: Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 11, I’ll be speaking on “Let 50 Flowers Bloom: Federalism and the Environment” at the Rutgers- Newark School of Law. The event is sponsored by the Federalist Society student chapter and Environmental Law Society and is at 12:35 in […]
Lying in the Bed We’ve Made
Conor Friedersdorf has a hard time taking seriously many commentators who complain a decision striking down the individual mandate would be an unprecedented exercise of “judicial activism.” I don’t doubt that movement liberals will be upset if the individual mandate is struck down. But what exactly would the reaction against such a decision look like? […]
Chrysler’s Newfound Immunity
The WSJ reports on an easter egg contained in Chrysler’s bankruptcy restructuring. Chrysler is immune from new punitive-damage claims from any alleged manufacturing defects in vehicles sold before the auto maker’s 2009 government-brokered restructuring. Chrysler’s legal exemption, approved by a bankruptcy judge, is the product of rules embedded in the federal bankruptcy law. These rules allow […]