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A characteristically well-written and thoughtful article; much worth reading. Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.

[Editor’s note: Author Thomas Healy asked me to post a response to my brief review of his book, and I was happy to agree. I’m even happier now, because it’s a nicely illuminating response.] Thanks to David for starting a discussion about my book, “The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind – […]

Does anyone know of some classic (or just good) history or legal-history book about how the American Revolution and constitution(al thought) were influenced by the English civil wars and Glorious Revolution? UPDATE: Right now plausible candidates seem to be Bailyn’s The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution and Pocock’s The Machiavellian Moment. Any comments on […]

I’m still working my way through all the FISA court material that was declassified today, and acquiring a new appreciation for how hard a journalist’s job can be. But I’ve gotten far enough to start worrying, seriously, about the role we’ve given to the FISA court and what it does to the court and NSA. […]

I’ve been struck by an aspect of the Snowden affair that hasn’t been covered so far — the Guardian’s troubling decision to destroy its UK trove of Snowden documents rather than let the UK government see them.  Court filings in the UK tell the government’s side of that story, and they don’t make the Guardian look good. […]

Max Boot asks the question, which seems like the important one at this point. (He also had a related post yesterday.) I’m no expert at all on such matters, but Boot’s analysis strikes me as worth reading. An excerpt: The language coming from the Syrians and Russians suggests that Syria’s arsenal will not be moved […]

I’ll be testifying tomorrow, September 11, about DHS’s progress in over a decade of existence.  A copy of the full testimony is here: Baker testimony to Senate Homeland Sep 2013. But I suspect that  the most interesting section concerns cybersecurity, which I’ve excerpted below. Sometimes it’s easier to persuade the team to give you the ball […]

Back from a fine hiking vacation, I have a short op-ed in USA Today: Many of us played Pick Up Sticks in our youth, slowly pulling first one then another stick from the jumble. You lost the game by pulling out the stick that collapsed the pile. It’s a great way to pass a rainy […]

This morning the DC Circuit heard oral argument in the facial challenge to the FCC’s net neutrality rulemaking (which, full disclosure, I worked on when I was at the FCC). The most extensive writeup I have seen about the oral argument is here (note that the author, Harold Feld, is a strong supporter of the […]

I’ve posted this before, but in light of recent developments I thought it was worth reposting. This was supposedly written for and sung at a U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel Christmas party during the Carter administration; please let me know if you have a more precise attribution: You’d better watch out, You’d […]

A story in The Hill begins: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will address a key faction of the liberal base Monday as speculation intensifies that she will someday seek the presidency. Todd Zywicki, call your office.

Confronted with consumer and tech-friendly innovations such as Uber, traditional taxicab companies have responded by the challenge of making their services less expensive and their taxis more pleasant in order to meet this new competition. Just kidding.  Of course, they have responded not by meeting competition, but by trying to use the regulatory process to […]

From State v. Cahill (Ohio Ct. App. Aug. 30, 2013): For all of Cahill’s protestations to the contrary, this was an open-and-shut case, competently presented by the prosecutor. The finest criminal defense lawyer in the land cannot work a miracle. Cahill was not constitutionally entitled to a victorious defense counsel, he was merely entitled to […]

From R.I. Chapter, Assoc. Gen. Contractors v. Kreps, 450 F. Supp. 338 (D.R.I. 1978) The First Amendment … embodies an analogous vision: a diverse country free of balkinization …. And from Dickerson v. Bailey, 336 F.3d 388 (5th Cir. 2003): The [Supreme] Court explained further in Bacchus that … [“]It is also beyond a doubt […]