Politico reports that quite a few constitutional experts, in addition to Stanford’s Michael McConnell and Yale’s Jack Balkin, believe the so-called “Slaughter Solution” (aka “Deem and Pass”) could present a thorny constitutional question. McConnell thinks it’s clearly unconstitutional; Balkin believes its constitutionality depends on its final form. To McConnell and Balkin, Politico adds GW’s Alan […]
Archive | Congress
Is the Slaughter Solution constitutional?
Can the House vote to adopt a rule which “deems” that a particular bill has been passed, even if that particular bill has not been passed? If so, are there any limits to the adoption of House rules which eliminate voting on bills? For example, could the House at the start of a session adopt […]
Is Repealing McCarran-Ferguson Health Reform?
H.L. Mencken once observed that for every human problem, there is a solution that is “neat, plausible, and wrong.” Exhibit A is the “Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act” – also known as H.R. 4626. This bill seeks to repeal the antitrust exemption granted to health insurance companies by the McCarran-Ferguson Act. The Obama Administration […]
Goodwin Liu on the Second Amendment
By David Kopel on February 25, 2010 8:58 pm in Congress, Constitutional Theory, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, Judicial Nominations, Legal Professor
Boalt Hall Associate Dean Goodwin H. Liu has been nominated to serve on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Some readers and Senators may be interested in his viewpoint on Second Amendment and other constitutional issues related to firearms policy. So here’s an excerpt from his article Separation Anxiety: Congress, The Courts, And The Constitution, 91 Georgetown Law […]
Reid’s Reversal on Recess Appointments
The Politico reports: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used to consider recess appointments “an end run around the Senate and the Constitution” — so much so that he kept the chamber open during breaks to prevent President George W. Bush from making any more of them. But with a Democrat in the White House, and […]
Bloggers estimate Dem House losses. Agree that more Obama question times would be good
Last week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers asked for an estimate of House Democratic losses in the 2010 election. While the answers are reported in clusters of 10, the median estimate for the Left appears to about 20 seats. The median on the Right was in the mid-30s. I estimated 38, adding “Could be […]
Signing Statements–the Administration’s (Reported) New Take
I am sure that I am not alone in noticing that the White House webpage hasn’t had a new constitutional signing statement posted since last summer. This article by the NY Times’ Charlie Savage Friday sheds new light on why that is. According to the article, the Administration has a new policy on signing statements […]
The Constitutionality of an Individual Mandate — A Reply to Sen. Baucus
By Jonathan H. Adler on December 23, 2009 3:28 pm in Commerce Clause, Congress, Constitutional Theory, Health Care
Yesterday, on the Senate floor, Senator Max Baucus quoted my August 22 VC post on the constitutionality of an individual mandate. Specifically, he quoted the following passage: In this case, the overall scheme would involve the regulation of “commerce” as the Supreme Court has defined it for several decades, as it would involve the regulation […]
Constitutionality of the “Nebraska Compromise”
By David Kopel on December 23, 2009 2:02 pm in Congress, Constitutional History, Necessary and Proper, Originalism, Supreme Court
The original “Nebraska Compromise” (the Kansas-Nebraska Act) was an attempt to compromise a contentious national issue. At least arguably, the abortion spending restrictions in the Senate health care bill fits in this broad description, and like the KNA, the new abortion provision includes an element of state-based choice. However, another provision of the Senate bill […]
An Interesting Wrinkle in the Reid Bill Entrenchment Provisions
Over at NRO’s Bench Memos, Matt Franck points out that insofar as the Reid bill alters Senate rules in order to entrench some of the bill’s reforms, there may not have been enough votes for cloture on the bill. while cloture to end debate on legislation ordinarily takes “three-fifths of all the Senators duly chosen […]
Future Amendments Are Out of Order
By Jonathan H. Adler on December 22, 2009 11:01 am in Congress, Government Transparency, Health Care
The Senate health care bill contains provisions that purport to prevent a future Congress from revising portions of the legislation my majority vote. Specifically, at pages 1019-1021, the bill requires a three-fifths vote in order to alter or repeal recommendations made by the Independent Medicare Advisory Board. The relevant language is below. As noted here, […]
The Right to Arms in the Living Constitution
By David Kopel on December 19, 2009 1:55 pm in Congress, Constitutional History, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, Popular Culture, Registration, Supreme Court
That’s the topic of my new article, for a forthcoming issue of Cardozo Law Review de Novo (the on-line supplement to Cardozo’s printed journal). The article will be part of a symposium issue on McDonald v. Chicago. Here’s the abstract for my Cardozo article: This Article presents a brief history of the Second Amendment as […]
Bloggers agree: Obama foreign policy not very good. Both parties deserves blame for public’s low opinion of Congress
This week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers asked for a grade for President Obama’s foreign policy. The average grade from the Left was a C. From the Right, it was a D-. I gave him the highest grade of any voter, which was a B, and explained: “Finally did the right thing on the […]
Political bloggers: We love Tom Coburn and Bernie Sanders
Last week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers asked Left-leaning and Right-leaning bloggers about their favorite political figures. Herewith, the results: Most-admired House member: On the Left, Alan Grayson. My father’s former campaign treasurer, Denver Rep. Diana DeGette, tied for second. On the Right, tie between Jeff Flake, Mike Pence, and Paul Ryan. I voted […]
Left/Right bloggers not confident in Obama Afghanistan plan
By David Kopel on December 4, 2009 5:47 pm in Afghanistan, Congress, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Economy
This week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers asked “How much confidence do you have in President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy?” On both the Left and the Right, no-one chose “A great deal of confidence.” The figures for “some confidence”/”not much confidence”/”no confidence” were 29%/50%/21% on the Left; and 43%/43%/14% on the Right. I was among […]