Author Archive | Paul Horowitz

This is the case, recently heard by the Supreme Court, that may place some First Amendment limits on McCain-Feingold’s speech-suppression laws. The amicus brief in which the Independence Institute participated is here. A collection of other briefs and documents is here. It is a good test case because the advertisement in question (urging Wisconsin citizens […]

This quote, along with some close variants, is sometimes labeled as an Indian proverb, or attributed to Antoine de St. Exupery, or to Ralph Waldo Emerson or to David Bower. Like Chief Seattle’s famous environmental speech from 1854 (which was actually written by a screenwriter in 1971),the quote strikes me as a late-20th century idealization […]

Paul Gallant, Joanne Eisen, and I have a new article (PDF) forthcoming in the BYU Journal of Public Law. Here’s the abstract: Does a woman have a human right to resist rape or murder? Do people have a human right to resist tyranny? The United Nations Human Rights Council has said “no”—that international law recognizes […]

The Wichita Eagle reports that the Kansas State Senate this afternoon successfully voted to over-ride Governor Kathleen Sebelius’ veto of a preemption law for concealed handgun carrying. The House over-rode the veto yesterday. Last year, Kansas enacted a “shall issue” law for the licensed carrying of handguns for lawful protection. The new bill specifies that […]

In the finale of my Los Angeles Times on-line debate with Christopher Lockwood, the U.S. editor of The Economist, we each get a magic wand with which to create whatever gun laws we would like. He offers some proposals which, he frankly admits, are politically impossible. Waving my Wand of Sensible Consensus I propose: 1. […]

Today on the Los Angeles Times website, Christopher Lockwood (U.S. editor of The Economist) and I each attempt to debunk cherished myths in the gun control debate. His article is really a reply to my Wednesday article on the international aspect of the gun issue; I think it’s his best contribution so far. Thanks to […]

Today’s topic is “Should we be concerned that so much of the rest of the developed world believes U.S. gun laws are crazy?” Surprisingly, Economist U.S. editor Christopher Lockwood says “no”, while I say “yes.”

Today is the second day of my week-long Los Angeles Time on-line debate with Christopher Lockwood, the U.S. editor of The Economist. Today’s topic is the politics of the gun control issue. Tomorrow we’ll look at international opinion about U.S. gun policy. On Thursday, we each debunk a favorite shibboleth of the other side. Finally, […]

As David Bernstein points out, Justice Thomas (in a concurrence joined by Justice Scalia) raised the possibility that the federal ban may be outside the scope of congressional powers under the interstate commerce clause. In “Taking Federalism Seriously: Lopez and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban,” 30 Connecticut Law Review 59 (1997), Glenn Reynolds and I argued […]

My op-ed in the Wednesday Wall Street Journal suggests that “gun free zones,” such those proclaimed at many universities and grade schools, have become attractive havens for mass killers.

Loren Coleman’s weblog “The Copycat Effect” (which is also the name of his book) examines the copycat effect of the Virginia Tech murders. He points out that a school attack last week in Oregon (no fatalities) appeared to have been inspired by a recent National Geographic tv special on Columbine. He offers a grim warning […]

Thanks again for many interesting comments on my discussion of this article on the Religious Test Clause. Let me add that the comments to my last post may be of special interest to those who are interested primarily in the historical debate, since it contains some citations offered to critique my view that, for many […]

Thanks again for the comments on my discussion of my piece on the Religious Test Clause. Let me offer some responses, divided broadly into comments about history and comments about my broader normative argument in favor of a narrow but deep reading of the Religious Test Clause. History: First, Jon Rowe, who had many valuable […]

I’ve been very grateful for the comments so far on my posts on my paper discussing the Religious Test Clause and judicial nominations. They’ve been very thoughtful and useful. (I’d like to hear from more of you. Perhaps I should write about the Test Clause and the Second Amendment!) I’ll have much more to say […]

Yesterday I laid out a more or less historically based argument about the relatively small scope of the Religious Test Clause. “Narrow” to modern eyes, anyway; I don’t think the generation that framed it would have described it that way. Some of the comments have naturally asked, what is my normative view of this conclusion? […]