Author Archive | Randy Barnett

Professor Stephen Bainbridge, of whom I have a very high regard, posts the following curious entry on his blog entitled, Should Conservative Be Cheerful? Insofar as one may draw inferences from his letter to the editor in today’s WSJ ($), Robert Bork still thinks we’re Slouching Towards Gomorrah, and he knows where to lay the […]

David Brooks has a column in Tuesday’s New York Times expressing a feeling I have been having for some time. Here is the gist of it: These are the crucial months in Iraq. The events in Najaf and Falluja will largely determine whether Iraq will move toward normalcy or slide into chaos. So how is […]

Coverage in the media of actual military developments in Falluja has been pretty thin. We hear about deaths and some fighting in identified towns, but next to nothing about ongoing and possible military tactics. This is understandable. The last thing the military would do is share its tactics with the public in the middle of […]

In my earlier post (now corrected), I neglected to mention that I will be speaking on Saturday at 1:00pm in Washington DC at the 2004 NORML Conference, which will be held at The Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel. I will mainly be discussing the case of Raich v. Ashcroft that I argued in the Ninth Circuit. […]

You might find this excerpt from Attorney General John Ashcroft’s testimony before the 9/11 Commission to be of interest: The single greatest structural cause for September 11 was the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents. Government erected this wall. Government buttressed this wall. And before September 11, government was blinded by this wall. […]

My article, Was the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Conditioned on Service in an Organized Militia?, has made the ALL TIME HITS SSRN Top Ten Downloads for Law School Research Papers – Public Law & Legal Theory series. You can see the entire list here and can download it here. Here is the abstract: […]

Is it right to say, as the post says that Tyler links to below, that the “nationalize health care” view is silly on its face because we already have a 65-70% (estimated) public health care system? Trent writes: How do we define and measure the types of health care systems?I think this is the easy […]

Several readers e-mailed me with interesting reactions to my post My Name. I did not initially receive their messages while traveling because they were screened by my anti-spam program running at home. Because I was only at home for a few hours on Friday night before leaving early on Saturday morning for Las Vegas (where […]

I have no sympathy for deliberate serial cheating reporters, like Janet Cook or Jason Blair, especially those who have enjoyed a career of privilege. I am appalled at the life after what should be professional death that is sometimes enjoyed by those who happen also to be of the right political hew. Like Mike Barnacle, […]

One of the greatest things about blogging is hearing from readers. I try to answer or at least acknowledge messages, but all too often they slip past me, especially when I am traveling. A couple weeks ago, I blogged about anti-Semitism and one reader whose last name is “Barnett” wondered how someone Jewish like me […]

I became a state court prosecutor for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago after graduation from law school, rather than a federal prosecutor, because I cared about the most serious of real crimes with real victims: murder, rape, home invasions, armed robberies, etc. (While I am extremely proud of my service there and […]

A new and improved version of my review essay, “Was the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Conditioned on Service in an Organized Militia?” has been accepted by the Texas Law Review. Although it won’t appear in print until December (at the earliest), you can read a pre-edited version now by downloading the file from […]

For the past several years, I have lectured at the Cato University–a week-long feast of libertarian lectures and discussions in the most pleasing atmosphere of the Rancho Bernardo Inn near San Diego. This year the seminar conflicts with my annual lectures at the Europe and Liberty Seminars organized by the Institute for Economic Studies, which […]

Instapundit is doing a nice job keeping up with the problems with Dick Clarke’s book and testimony here (and scroll up for more). I agree with Stuart that serious criticisms of the government’s failure to detect and prevent the atrocity of 9/11 should be taken seriously. But many of the “serious allegations” turn entirely on […]

I received the following thoughtful response from a reader, an American now living in Europe: I agree with you that the President should be more forthright, but this almost never happens when in the midst of a war. I have been doing research into WWII and when the Germans launched the offensive that became the […]