Yesterday afternoon I attended a lecture by Michael Greenstone, the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics and former chief economist of the Council of Economic Advisers during the first year of the Obama Administration, addressing the question, “Will Adaptation Save Us from Climate Change?” This lecture was the keynote address at a PERC workshop on “Human […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Corporate Lobbying as a Principal-Agent Problem
Do corporate lobbyists effectively represent the interests of their clients? I’m not so sure, for reasons I explain in this column on NRO.
Monday Bear Blogging
The NYT reports on an apparent increase in human-bear encounters in the western U.S. Bears — dangerous and unpredictable always — are prowling broader areas of the West in closer contact with people than ever. In some places, drought is driving the animals out of their wilder haunts and into human settlements. Longer-term climate change, […]
Learning How to Fish
Overfishing is one of the world’s more serious environmental problems, but it does not have to be that way. In 1974, less than ten percent of the world’s fisheries were depleted or overexploited, according to the FAO. By 1998, over 30 percent of fisheries were overexploited and depleted. At the same time, the percentage of […]
Could a Debt Ceiling Veto Be Unconstitutional?
If it could be unconstitutional for Congress to fail to raise the debt ceiling, thereby calling the government’s debts in doubt, could not a Presidential veto of legislation increasing the debt ceiling also be unconstitutional? Michael Stern has an interesting post exploring this question at PointofOrder.com
How Long a Nap Is Ineffective Assistance of Counsel?
If your defense attorney falls asleep during your trial, and you are convicted, do you have an ineffective assistance of counsel claim? That may depend on how long your attorney was asleep, and whether you can demonstrate prejudice. Yesterday, in Muniz v. Smith, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied a habeas […]
A Partisan Pattern on Debt Ceiling Votes
Byron York has an interesting column documenting the partisan pattern of debt ceiling votes by Senate leaders. One thing York does not discuss, however, is that most of these votes were symbolic, as there was little doubt that the debt ceiling increase would pass. This time around, however, partisan voting won’t get the job done.
Failing to Save the Spotted Owl
James L. Huffman, former Dean of the Lewis & Clark Law School, examines the federal government’s flagging efforts to save the endangered spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest. Despite a 90% cutback in harvesting on federal lands (which constitute 46% of Oregon and Washington combined), the population of spotted owls continues to decline, as do […]
Justice Liu
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that California Governor Jerry Brown is nominating University of California at Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the California Supreme Court. President Obama had nominated Liu to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, but Liu withdrew his nomination after Senate Republicans blocked his confirmation. (Hat tip: […]
Monday Bear Blogging
I spent yesterday afternoon and early evening in Yellowstone with my family and the animals were out in force. We saw dozens of buffalo and elk, of course, but also a half-dozen pronghorn, and (of critical importance) two young black bears, one by the petrified tree turnoff and the other by Roosevelt Junction. Both were […]
Chief Justice Roberts and Current Legal Scholarship
CQ‘s Kenneth Jost assesses “Chief Justice Roberts’ Ill-Informed Attack on Legal Scholarship” on his blog. As had been widely reported and discussed, Chief Justice Roberts was dismissive of the value of much legal scholarship at the Fourth Circuit judicial conference in June. “Pick up a copy of any law review that you see,” Roberts said, […]
D.C. Circuit Strikes Down SEC’s Proxy Access Rule
Yesterday, in Business Roundtable v. SEC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the Security and Exchange Commission Rule 14a-11, the “proxy access” rule on the grounds that the Commission acted arbitrarily and capriciously because it failed “adequately to assess the economic effects of a new rule.” Wrote Judge Ginsburg for […]
Posner & Vermeule: Obama Should Raise Debt Ceiling On His Own
Law professors Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule, authors of The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic, have an NYT op-ed arguing President Obama should announce he will raise the debt ceiling unilaterally if a deal is not soon reached. Our argument is not based on some obscure provision of the 14th amendment, but on the […]
President Obama Rejects Authority to Violate Debt Ceiling
At the tail end of an NYT story there is a bit of news for those interested in the debate over the constitutionality of the debt ceiling and whether the President could issue debt unilaterally if the ceiling is not raised. President Obama addressed the question at a town hall meeting at the University of […]
Law Professors Object to Obstruction of Law Professor
The Journal-Sentinel reports on a letter by several dozen prominent law professors objecting to Senator Ron Johnson’s efforts to block consideration of President Obama’s nomination of University of Wisconsin law professor Victoria Nourse to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The signatories represent quite an ideologically diverse group (and […]