A while ago I posted about a brief that I filed in Bond v. United States on behalf of the Cato Institute et al., arguing that a treaty cannot increase the legislative power of Congress. Over at Cato, Ilya Shapiro reports that the National Law Journal recently featured our brief as its “brief of the […]
Archive | Constitutional Law
Profile of Judge Ed Korman
By Nick Rosenkranz on June 16, 2013 11:05 pm in Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Health Care, Originalism, Politicizing Science
The New York Times has a nice profile of Judge Ed Korman, the judge who faced down HHS in the Plan B case. See Jonathan Adler’s posts, here, here, here, and here. Whatever one thinks of the merits, it takes great fortitude for a district judge to stand up to a recalcitrant administration. As for […]
Can a Treaty Increase The Power of Congress?
I will be speaking on this topic at the Cato Institute on Friday, June 14, at noon. The inimitable Judge Kozinski will be commenting. Luncheon to follow. Information and registration here.
Batman, Appropriations, and “Augmentation”
By Ryan Davidson, guest-blogging on June 6, 2013 9:48 am in Constitutional Law, Literature, Popular Culture
My co-author James has made a few posts already this week, and I’d like to thank Professor Volokh for the opportunity to participate here. I’m going to chip in with a post about Batman based on the last few issues of Detective Comics vol. 1, # 871-881. Number 881 is actually the very last issue […]
The Bourne Implausibility: Movie Inspires Blog Post, Which Inspires Video, Which Inspires Blog Post
By Nick Rosenkranz on June 1, 2013 1:12 pm in Constitutional Law, Fifth Amendment, National Security, Popular Culture, Targeted Killing
Three months ago, under the heading “The Bourne Implausibility,” I offered up the following (wry?) observation: I just caught the last few minutes of The Bourne Ultimatum. At the end (spoiler alert), Bourne successfully exposes everything, and we catch a glimpse of MSNBC, reporting on a secret CIA assassination program “which in several cases may […]
Audio of My Discussion of the Supreme Court with Prof. Eric Segall on Stand Up! With Pete Dominick
Sirius Satellite Radio has posted the audio of my recentdiscussion of the Supreme Court with George State University Professor Eric Segall on Stand Up! With Pete Dominick. The audio is available here. Much of the discussion focuses on general issues of constitutional theory and the extent to which the Supreme Court is or is not […]
Bond Amicus Brief for Cato et al.
As regular readers know, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Bond v. United States in January. The case raises the question of whether a treaty can increase the power of Congress. Last week I posted about Paul Clement’s first-rate brief on behalf of the Petitioner. Yesterday, I filed an amicus brief on behalf of the […]
Upcoming XM Sirius Radio Appearance on the Current Supreme Court Term
This Thursday between 8 AM 9 AM eastern time, I will be appearing on Stand Up! With Pete Dominick, on XM Sirius satellite radio to discuss the major cases of the current Supreme Court term. I will be joined by Professor Eric Segall of Georgia State University. I am not sure exactly which cases we […]
Paul Clement’s Brief for Petitioner in Bond v. United States
As regular readers know, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Bond v. United States in January. The case raises the question of whether a treaty can increase the legislative power of Congress. In 1920, in Missouri v. Holland, the Supreme Court seemed to say yes. In 2005, in the Harvard Law Review, I said no. […]
Why maximal enforcement of federal gun laws is not always a good idea
By David Kopel on April 26, 2013 4:27 am in Commerce Clause, Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Federalism, Guns, Immigration, Necessary and Proper, Supreme Court, War on Drugs
A common trope of many Second Amendment advocates is to urge more vigorous enforcement of existing federal gun control laws, as the alternative to enacting additional laws. Rhetorically, that’s very effective. But as a policy matter, it is not always a good idea. Consider legislation recently considered by the Senate: The Manchin-Toomey amendment was supported […]
Right and Left Continue to Change Where they Stand on Standing
In this week’s oral arguments in the two gay marriage cases before the Supreme Court, right and left-wing litigants continued to take unaccustomed positions on standing: the technical legal doctrine that determines whether would-parties to a lawsuit have enough of an interest at stake to be allowed to participate in the case. Historically, conservatives have […]
Knives and the Second Amendment
By David Kopel on March 25, 2013 12:43 pm in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Defense of Property, Non-Firearms Arms, Self-Defense
That’s the title of my forthcoming article in the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. My co-authors are Clayton Cramer and Joe Olson. The abstract: This Article is the first scholarly analysis of knives and the Second Amendment. Knives are clearly among the “arms” which are protected by the Second Amendment. Under the Supreme […]
Judicial Nominations and Competing Constitutional “Mainstreams”
By Ilya Somin on March 19, 2013 8:15 pm in Conservatism, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Judicial Nominations
In a recent column, Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein argues that Republican senators who have filibustered some of Barack Obama’s judicial nominees are more to blame than Democrats who previously filibustered GOP nominees because the Democrats only tried to block nominees who were “out of the mainstream,” while the GOP targeted any nominees whom they […]
Immigration and the Constitution
The Open Borders blog – one of the best websites covering immigration issues – asked me to do a guest post on the implications of the Constitution to debates over immigration. The post is available here. Here is the intro: The US Constitution does not in itself tell us what kind of immigration policy is […]
Defining “High Seas Felonies” in Another Country
By Eugene Kontorovich on March 18, 2013 9:00 am in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Foreign and Religious Law in American Courts, Global Governance/World Government, International Law, National Security, Uncategorized, War on Drugs
A district court recently ruled that Congress’s power to “Define and Punish… Felonies on the High Seas” extends beyond the high seas, to conduct entirely within a foreign country (on dry land), with no U.S. nexus. The case is U.S. v. Carvajal, 2013 WL 619890 (Feb. 20, 2013). The Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA) […]