Today the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that had set aside controversial restrictions on public employees’ collective bargaining rights. Four justices signed on to the brief order accepting the case and overturning the order. Three justices concurred-in-part and dissented-in-part. From the Journal-Sentinel: The court found a committee of lawmakers was not […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Grand Jury Investigating “War Crimes” at Abu Ghraib
Via Politico, a Time report that a federal prosecutor has opened a secret grand jury to investigate potential CIA war crimes at Abu Ghraib. It has been nearly a decade since Manadel al-Jamadi, an Iraqi prisoner known as “the Iceman” — for the bungled attempt to cool his body and make him look less dead […]
Debating Sosa in Ali Shafi v. Palestinian Authority
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of several claims filed against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) under the Alien Tort Statute. Chief Judge Sentelle wrote the opinion for the Court, and summarized the case as follows: Appellant Ali Mahmud Ali Shafi and […]
“Private bus companies do not represent a suspect class”
Today, in American Bus Association v. Rogoff, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit answers the timeless question: ” Can Congress constitutionally permit a federally subsidized transit system to take the residents of Seattle out to the ball game?” The court concludes Congress can and so, in an opinion by Judge Garland, it […]
Rise of the Dictionaries
In today’s NYT, Adam Liptak reports on a new study by CUNY’s Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier and Arizona superior court judge Samuel Thumma, published in the Marquette Law Review, documenting the increasing use of dictionaries by Supreme Court justices in their opinions. In May alone, the justices cited dictionaries in eight cases to determine what legislators […]
No Opinion in Flores-Villar
Today the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Flores-Villar v.United States, 4-4. (Justice Kagan did not participate.) The case raised the question whether the Court’s decision in Nguyen v. INS allowed for gender-differentiated citizenship rules that are not grounded in biolgocial differences between men and […]
Elwood Wins
This morning the Supreme Court issued a near-unanimous opinion in Nevada Commission on Ethics v. Carrigan, reversing the Nevada Supreme Court. Justice Scalia wrote the opinion for the Court. Justice Kennedy concurred, and Justice Alito wrote a separate opinion concurring-in-part and concurring in the judgment. The Court held that Nevada’s Ethics in Government Law was […]
Unleashing the FBI
The NYT reports on pending revisions to the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide that will give agents more leeway in their investigations. The F.B.I. recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming changes. Among them, Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that […]
States Back Boeing Against NLRB
Law.com reports that the attorneys general of sixteen states have filed an amicus brief supporting Boeing against the National Labor Relations Board. Although the Boeing-NLRB dispute has become something of a partisan issue, the brief represents AGs from both parties and both right-to-work and non-right-to-work states. It was co-authored by the AGs from Texas ans […]
Renewable Energy Sprawl
A new California law mandate that one-third of the state’s electricity come from “renewable” sources by 2020. What will this mean in practice? Robert Bryce explored some of the numbers in an NYT op-ed last week. The state’s peak electricity demand is about 52,000 megawatts. Meeting the one-third target will require (if you oversimplify a […]
Plastic Bag Makers Sue ChicoBag for Exaggerating Environmental Claims
Several manufacturers of disposable plastic bags have filed suit against reusable bag maker ChicoBag for false and misleading claims about the environmental superiority of its reusable bags over disposable bags. The complaint claims that ChicoBag’s advertising and promotional materials violate the federal Lanham Act and the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act. According to the […]
Could the ABA Satisfy Its Own Standards?
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity — the entitity which reviews and approves accreditation agencies — has serious concerns about the American Bar Association, evan as it re-approved the ABA’s role in accrediting law schools. several members of the committee expressed reservations about approving that […]
May Congress Extend the FBI Director’s Term?
FBI Director Robert Mueller’s ten-year term expires later this year. President Obama would like to keep him in the job, however, so he is asking Congress to extend Meuller’s term by two years. This is a somewhat unusual request, even if the President’s justification — the desire for continuity — is eminently reasonable. Senator Charles […]
Wisconsin’s War on Craft Brewers
Wisconsin legislators wrote a provision into the state’s budget legislation barring brewers from owning wholesale distributors. The measure is allegedly intended to prevent Anheuser-Busch from purchasing distributors and expanding its presence within the state . (Wisconsin is MillerCoors territory.) But while focused on Budweiser, the restriction threatens some of the state’s craft brewers and would […]
Justice Scalia Questions Auer Deference
In a separate concurring opinion in Talk America v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co., Justice Scalia raises concerns about so-called “Auer deference,” under which Courts grant agencies Chevron-like deference to agency interpretations of their own regulations. It is comforting to know that I would reach the Court’s result even without Auer. For while I have in […]