George Mason is proud to celebrate the newly-mandated Constitution Day obligations in the appropriate manner by asking whether said Constitution Day obligations are actually constitutional: The Byrd Rider to this year’s Omnibus Appropriations Bill requires schools that receive federal funding — nearly all of them — to have ceremonies each year marking Constitution Day. Join […]
Author Archive | Todd Zywicki
Eviction of Kelo Homeowners:
Notwithstanding a promise to abide by a moratorium on taking the homes of the individual homeowners in Kelo, the New London Development Corp. has issued eviction notices to them and demanded the payment of rent. BizzyBlog has the story (with a bit of pungent commentary too). More here and here. The CEO of the development […]
Bork’s Advice for Roberts:
Robert Bork’s advice for Senate hearings: Don’t write or say anything about the Constitution. Judge Roberts has already satisfied that requirement. The second: Don’t commit your vote at the hearings on any issues. If you are drawn into a commitment to how you will vote, you’ll only be ratifying the corruption of the confirmation process. […]
Americans First:
Interesting (and entertaining) column on the challenges for modern liberalism by Andrew Seal, Editor of the Dartmouth Free Press, a liberal student newspaper. The primary reason I flag the article is for this passage, which cracked me up: One thing is for sure: the strategies of the Old Left—the Left of the past four decades—are […]
More Anti-Kelo Backlash:
This time in Missouri.
Tradeoffs, Self-Insurance, and Externalities:
A common refrain in response to the hurricane situation and the interruption in gas supplies that it has occasioned is the argument that this demonstrates the need to reduce our reliance on oil and gasoline, including providing incentives to get people out of their SUVs (I own one) and into smaller cars. It is argued […]
Where Does Roberts Stand on the Third Amendment?
I thought this was pretty funny, including a fictional quote from our fearless leader.
Economics of Levees and Hurricanes:
Andrew Samwick points to several insightful analyses of the lessons of Katrina in terms of levee maintenance and lessons about hurricane preparedness.
More on Brown:
Orin’s post on Brown’s libertarianism prompts me to re-post a post of mine from July, which discussed an article by some political scientists that tended to confirm Orin’s observations about Brown. According to the data reported there, Brown is substantially more “liberal” than the judges to whom she was compared in that study, not only […]
Why Roberts?
Why did the President decide to nominate Roberts for Chief? The first reason is obvious–the way things are shaping up, he seems like an easy confirmation. But allow me to propose a second, more speculative possibility. A distinguishing characteristic of this President seems to be the faith he puts in his own personal judgements and […]
Roberts Nominated to Be Chief:
President Bush on Monday nominated Judge John Roberts to succeed the late William H. Rehnquist as chief justice of the United States. That was fast. (HT: Jurisprude in a Comment to the prior post). Now I’m really wondering–if Roberts is being nominated to replace Rehnquist, does that mean that O’Connor is still on the Court […]
O’Connor’s Resignation and Rehnquist’s Death:
Some time back, we had a debate here (I think Jim raised it) that touched upon the legal effect of O’Connor’s resignation letter. Here’s my question–in light of the fact that there are two vacancies, could O’Connor simply announce today that she is withdrawing her earlier letter announcing that she was retiring effective upon the […]
Another Vote for Rudy:
From today’s Washington Post: Gingrich told the Associated Press that the government’s performance “puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years,” and urged Bush to tap former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) to take over the response. I think that it is a good […]
George Mason Law School Hurricane Relief Fund-Raiser:
George Mason Law School students and alumni may be interested in helping out in the following relief efforts, dedicated to one of our own: !!!ATTENTION – DONATIONS FOR HURRICANE RELIEF FUNDRAISER SOUGHT!!! The GMU School of Law is working to raise money to donate to the American Red Cross to benefit the victims of Hurricane […]
Institutions and Katrina:
Lots of interesting commentary on the relationships between economic institutions and Katrina. In addition to Tyler’s post yesterday on the economics of levees as public goods, Vic Fleisher asks whether what happened in New Orleans is a natural or man-made disaster. He’s right that to a large extent the disaster has been self-inflicted. And at […]