Today’s WSJ has an interesting and eye-opening article on corporate-funded opposition to proposed Wal-Mart stores disguised as local community activism. When I saw local busybodies try to stop the opening of a Wal-Mart in Cleveland — a Wal-Mart that did not receive any local subsidies nor require the use of eminent domain — I realized […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Upcoming Talks
I’ll be giving a few talks in the next few weeks that may be of interest to VC readers. June 9 – I’ll be speaking to the Cleveland lawyers chapter of the Federalist Society on “Climate Policy Heats Up: What’s Not Cool About Global Warming Regulations.” June 12 – I’ll be speaking on a plenary […]
Suing EPA Over Gulf Cleanup
The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a notice of intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for authorizing the use of chemical dispersants to faciliate the cleanup of oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico. According to a CBD attorney, “The fact that no one in the federal government ever […]
Prosecuting BP
University of Michigan law professor David Uhlmann, former chief of the environmental crimes section in the Department of Justice, had an op-ed in the NYT discussing the potential prosecution of British Petroleum and its executives for the Deepwater Horizon blowout and spill. He writes: If the spill had resulted from a hurricane or lightning strike, […]
Sunday Song Lyric
If I hear one more song with Auto-Tune I think I’ll foreswear the FM dial for good. Don’t these guys know it makes them sound like Cher? I am not alone in my disdain for the over-use of pitch-correction technology. Jay-Z even wrote an award-winning song about it, “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune).” The lead single […]
Assessing the Chrysler Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy scholars Mark Roe and David Skeel have a new paper on SSRN “Assessing the Chrysler Bankruptcy.” Their conclusion? Not so good. Here’s the abstract: Chrysler entered and exited bankruptcy in 42 days, making it one of the fastest major industrial bankruptcies in memory. It entered as a company widely thought to be ripe for […]
The Federal Workforce and Our Economic Future
From an op-ed in today’s WSJ by AEI President Arthur Brooks: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in the last year the federal government added 86,000 permanent (non-Census) jobs to the rolls. And high-paying jobs at that: The number of federal salaries over $100,000 per year has increased by nearly 50% since the beginning […]
Is the Sixth Now the “Most Reversed” Circuit?
The Daily Journal reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has gone 0-5 before the Supreme Court this term. As I noted here, all five cases were pro-prisoner habeas cases. The article discusses the role of the Michigan AG’s office in encouraging the Supreme Court to review the Sixth Circuit’s habeas […]
Kagan’s Clinton Administration Memos
The NYT reports on some of the memoranda from the Clinton White House written be Elena Kagan that were released this past week. A new cache of documents from Elena Kagan’s days as an adviser to President Bill Clinton shows that she frequently scribbled notes in the margins of memorandums yet rarely expressed forceful views. […]
Sessions Responds to Kagan’s Marshall Memos
Jan Crawford reports that Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said some of the memos Elena Kagan wrote as a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall are “troubling” and warrant greater scrutiny. Also today, the Clinton Presidential Library has begun to release documents from Kagan’s time in the Clinton White House. […]
Kagan’s Memos for Justice Marshall
Jan Crawford reports on memos Elena Kagan wrote for Justice Thurgood Marshall during her clerkship that appear to reveal that she is quite liberal on social issues. This is not particularly surprising, but it is interesting. Here’s a taste of her report: On abortion, Kagan wrote a memo in a case involving a prisoner who […]
How Baseball Gets It Wrong, and Hockey Gets It Right
The sports world is atwitter over Major League umpire Jim Joyce’s blown call in the ninth inning that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a well-deserved perfect game. The play at first base was made to end the game. It would have been the 27th out on the 27th batter, but Joyce called the runner […]
Is the Sixth Circuit the New Ninth (At Least in Habeas Cases)?
With today’s decision in Berghuis v. Thompkins the Supreme Court has once again reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in a habeas case. Indeed, this is the fifthsuch reversal this year. In each case, a panel of the Sixth Circuit granted a prisoner’s habeas corpus petition. In each case, the Supreme Court […]
Interesting SCOTUS Line-Up
Today provided yet another reminder that not every closely divided opinion splits the Supreme Court along ideological lines. In Carr v. United States, the Supreme Court held, 6-3, that the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), which requires convicted sex offenders to register with local authorities when they move from one state to another, […]
Waiting for the Kagan Papers
The Senate Judiciary Committee is waiting for the Clinton Presidential Library to release of over 100,000 of pages from Elena Kagan’s time in the Clinton White House. According to the AP, the documents will be released “in waves,” and some could be released to the public at the end of this week. The AP also […]