The Petitioner’s Reply Brief in McDonald v. City of Chicago has an interesting passage in which the Petitioners urge the Court not to rule in their favor on grounds argued by the NRA, which will be sharing argument time with the Petitioners: NRA’s novel theory, at 40, that Cruikshank did not bar the Second Amendment’s […]
Author Archive | Orin Kerr
1957: Introducing Pizza Pie
A funny video from Canadian TV archives, about the recently discovered “popular Italian dish” called “pizza pie.” More on the history of pizza here.
Matthew Berry Runs For Congress
My friend Matthew Berry recently announced that he is running for Congress in Northern Virginia. Specifically, he is presently running in the GOP primary in the Virginia 8th District that covers the Virginia suburbs right outside DC (Arlington, Alexandria, and Reston). The seat is presently held by Democrat Jim Moran. Matthew is the former General […]
Reply Brief in McDonald v. City of Chicago
It’s available here. Here’s the Summary: 1. Respondents offer no coherent alternative interpretation of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, nor do they defend the reasoning of The Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873). Relying on illogical assumptions, selective quotation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s opponents and discredited scholarship, Respondents aver only that the Clause […]
An Exchange on Comment Moderating
A few minutes ago I deleted a comment from a conservative commenter, “Gaydude,” that was an obnoxious and personal attack in response to liberal commenter “ArthurKirkland.” GayDude then wrote another comment directed to me that I think deserves a wider audience: Wait, my post criticizing Arthur’s post was removed? Oh, right, this is an Orin […]
Awkward Moment At the State of the Union Address
President Obama criticizes the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance case, and the Justices have to sit there silently and motionless with the cameras focused in directly on them while the rest of the room applauds Obama’s criticism: Justice Alito has the very human reaction of mouthing disagreement, but I tend to think the episode shows […]
“Judicial Nominations in the First Year of the Obama Administration”
Tomorrow I will be participating on a panel discussion hosted by the American Constitution Society, “Judicial Nominations in the First Year of the Obama Administration,” at the National Press Club. The event is moderated by Michael Gerhardt and my co-panelists are Lynn Rhinehart of the AFL/CIO and Doug Kendall of the Constitutional Accountability Center. It […]
Archived State of the Union Addresses
C-SPAN’s archives go back to 1988, with additional video of 1974, 1975 and 1977. So if you really want to watch Reagan’s 1988 address, Clinton’s 1995 addess, or Nixon’s 1974 address, knock yourself out.
More on Hat Tips
I like Ilya’s default rule on hat tips. Also, I think the ideal approach when submitting a tip is to say either way if you want your name mentioned. The problem I have found is that some people really don’t want their names mentioned but others really really do. (Indeed, I have received follow-up e-mails […]
Bad Names for Legal Blogs
It’s common for legal blogs to use some legal phrase as their title, such as Concurring Opinions, Res Ipsa Loquitur, etc. Here’s my question: What are the worst possible names for legal blogs — or at least the funniest or most awkward — based solely on widely used legal phrases? Assume the blog name has […]
NRA Gets Oral Argument Time in McDonald v. City of Chicago
The Blog of Legal Times notes that the Supreme Court granted the NRA’s contested motion for oral argument time in McDonald v. City of Chicago. The NRA had asked for argument time to make sure the Due Process arguments were fully made, in light of the fact that McDonald’s counsel Alan Gura had focused so […]
Briscoe v. Virginia Ends With a Whimper
Briscoe v. Virginia, a case on Confrontation Clause rights in criminal trials, has been one of the most closely-watched criminal law cases at the Supreme Court this Term. As detailed here, the Court’s decision to take the case suggested that it might use the case to overrule or sharply limit last Term’s major decision in […]
Money-as-Speech Versus Speech to Get Money
Over at Slate, Temple law professor David Kairys argues that conservative judges have been inconsistent in enforcing the principle that spending money can have a speech component protected by the First Amendment. He writes: The first theory appeared in a 1976 decision, Buckley v. Valeo, which invalidated some campaign-finance reforms that came out of Watergate. […]
Plain View for Computer Searches Generates Two Circuit Splits in Two Days: United States v. Williams and United States v. Mann
Should courts adopt a new set of Fourth Amendment rules to regulate how the police can search computers for evidence? In particular, does the fact that so much electronic evidence outside the scope of a warrant can come into “plain view” during a computer search require a different approach to whether that evidence outside the […]
“If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe”
Today’s New York Times has this interesting story on the use of easily-guessed passwords.