Author Archive | Randy Barnett

I write this as I look out my 29th floor hotel room in the direction of Pearl Harbor. My wife and I came to Oahu, Hawaii to celebrate our 29th anniversary on December 2nd. Although it is a coincidence that we are still here on December 7th, it still feels eerie. On Wednesday, we visited […]

Avoid Australia–not the continent, the movie. To see why, go to this link on Rotten Tomatoes and read all the negative reviews–something I did not do before wasting 3 hours of my life. They summarize quite well how bad this film is. My two favorite lines are these: “Within five minutes, Australia seems headed for […]

I was on Glenn Reynolds’ new PJTV show yesterday discussing the impact of the election on libertarianism with Glenn, Brink Lindsey of the Cato Institute and Manny Klausner of Reason. You can watch the show here (after a free registration to PJTV). Also posted today is a YouTube video of my keynote speech in Toronto […]

I was not a supporter of Barack Obama. I did not hope he would win yesterday’s election, and I am not looking forward to the short of “change” I believe he has in mind. I hope I am wrong, but I think some really bad stuff is going to happen as a result of Democratic […]

From the LA Times: But behind the elaborate preparations and gung-ho attitude, the television networks are heading into the night with a sense of cautious restraint — especially when it comes to exit polls — all too aware of the implications of a botched call. “We don’t want ever a repeat of what happened in […]

From FiveThirtyEight: 1. Exit polls have a much larger intrinsic margin for error than regular polls. This is because of what are known as cluster sampling techniques. Exit polls are not conducted at all precincts, but only at some fraction thereof. Although these precincts are selected at random and are supposed to be reflective of […]

This is from The Campaign Spot: We all remember how far off the exit polls were in 2004. But we don’t recall how far off some of the leaked exit poll results were in 2006. In the races were expected blowouts — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island — the exit polls were pretty accurate. But on […]

Manny Klausner is the [co-]founder of Reason [Foundation and a founding co-editor of Reason] Magazine, stalwart supporter of the Federalist Society, and libertarian lawyer extraordinaire. When he was representing Matt Drudge, I once watched him brilliantly depose the charming Sid Blumenthal who had sued Drudge for defamation. The memory is bittersweet, however, because the other […]

No one can accuse Charles Krauthammer of not calling it the way he sees it. Today he refused to join fellow conservative and/or Republican opinionators in abandoning the McCain candidacy. His column, McCain for President starts this way: Contrarian that I am, I’m voting for John McCain. I’m not talking about bucking the polls or […]

Although not particularly funny (like the Mac-PC commercials) or substantive (like the Mac-PC commercials) this celebrity endorsement is sort of amazing.

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP DEAR AMERICAN: I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE. I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF […]

Pajama’s Media Roger Simon posts this Open Letter to My Fellow Jews: The Democratic Party is not your religion (or anybody

I will be speaking on Scrutiny Land at the University of Alberta law law school tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon. Details here. If you are in the Edmonton area stop by and say you read the Volokh Conspiracy! The University of Alberta is an impressive campus.

I though some might appreciate a link to my September 18th, 2001 Guest Comment on National Review Online entitled, Saved by the Militia: Arming an army against terrorism. Here is how it began: A well-regulated militia being essential to the security of a free state. . . .” The next time someone tells you that […]

Just when you thought all constitutional challenges to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act were six feet under, a new theory has just survived a motion to dismiss in the Northern District of California. The case is Santa Cruz v. Gonzales, Case Number C 03-01802 JF. (If someone provides me a link to the […]