Author Archive | Sasha Volokh

June 22 is the day they started bombing my mom.

For my medieval reading group at Georgetown Law, my plan is to read works of the Pearl Poet this summer. We’re about to finish Pearl and start Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; the text I’m using is Dunn and Byrne’s anthology of Middle English literature, which is the book I used in college when […]

I will be a panelist at America’s Future Foundation‘s Thinkers vs. Doers roundtable tonight at 6:30, Rayburn House Office Building, room B-354. Here’s their blurb: Thinkers v. Doers roundtable this week… Conservatives and libertarians share some core principles that guide their policy agendas, but once theorizing gives way to politics, compromise is the name of […]

In the comments to my post on Bacon numbers below, I noted that my Erd?s number was 8, but then revised it to 6. Here’s what I previously thought my chain was: P. Erdos, C.D. Godsil, S.G. Krantz & T.D. Parsons, Intersection graphs for families of balls in R^n, European J. Combin. 9 (1988), no. […]

I was on Jeopardy! with Alex Trebek, who was in Random Hearts with Blair Brown, who was in Loverboy with Kevin Bacon! Also, if we get to count radio (and why not, if we can count TV?), I, as well as Eugene, also have a Bacon number of 3 through Warren Olney — we were […]

My theory is that the way Russian names got transliterated basically had to do with whether an obvious English equivalent exists, and whether they were well known among the broad public at a time when the relevant people — that is, those who popularized the person in the English-speaking world — didn’t care (as they […]

Opinio Juris guest blogger Marko Milanovic has posted a fascinating and provocative item on alleged misquotation of sources and apparent “footnote filching” in the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. According to Milanovic, the Hamdan majority (1) cited an authority for a proposition that is actually contrary to that which the authority supports; […]

Today the Supreme Court decided United Haulers Association v. Oneida-Kerkimer Solid Waste Management Authority, yet another dormant commerce clause challenge to local solid waste management regulations. In this case, the Court upheld a local ordinance requiring that all waste within the jurisdiction be sent to a government processing facility. Writing for the Court, Chief Justice […]

According to the Tax Foundation, today is “Tax Freedom Day.” This means, according to the Tax Foundation, that the average American worked from January 1 until today in order to earn enough just to pay for federal, state and local taxes. For the rest of the year, the average taxpayer is earning money for herself. […]

Public lands are supposed to be for the public. Yet an Interior Department audit found that many so-called public lands are effectively monopolized by private clubs, according to the Washington Post. The National Park Service has for decades allowed members-only beach, yacht and sports clubs — including New York City’s largest beach resort — to […]

Today’s New York Times looks into the debate over carbon offsets, and questions whether claims of “carbon-neutrality” are just a “gimmick.” is the carbon-neutral movement just a gimmick? On this, environmentalists aren’t neutral, and they don’t agree. Some believe it helps build support, but others argue that these purchases don’t accomplish anything meaningful — other […]

Fifteen years ago today, a jury in Simi Valley, California, acquitted three Los Angeles police officers charged with using excessive force against motorist Rodney King. (The jury failed to reach a verdict on the fourth officer charged in the incident.) As news of the officers’ acquittal broke, riots broke out in Los Angeles and elsewhere. […]

Yesterday the Financial Times reported on accusations that the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has encouraged British companies to purchase carbon dioxide emission credits that do not actually produce carbon reductions. The first charge against Defra is that under a proposed code of practice, it has been advising businesses and consumers […]

Many celebrities have sought to burnish their environmental credentials by purchasing “carbon offsets” to compensate for their lavish lifestyles. Former vice president Al Gore, among others, claims the purchase of such offsets enables him to live a “carbon neutral” lifestyle, despite his conspicuous energy consumption. Think of these carbon offsets as environmental indulgences. Some corporations […]

A new report from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) endorses claims that TV violence can increase violent behavior in children, and that existing parental controls are ineffective at limiting child exposure to violent programming. As a consequence, the FCC is encouraging Congressional action to curb “excessively violent programming” on TV. Among the measures the FCC […]