[With permission of SCOTUSBlog, I am cross-posting my analysis of today’s Windsor DOMA decision, Federalism Marries Liberty in the DOM Decision. Other essays have or will be posted by William Duncan – Marriage Family Law Foundation, Larry Tribe – Harvard Law School, Suzanne Goldberg – Columbia Law School, Helen Alvare – George Mason University School of Law, Gerard Bradley – Notre Dame Law […]
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Crime Doesn’t Pay, Local Edition
From a local crime report: ROBBERY, 06/25/13, 3200 block of S. Columbia Pike. At 7:50 pm on June 25, a juvenile subject grabbed an iPhone from a store employee and fled the scene on foot. Police located the subject a short distance away bleeding from the left eye after he was robbed of the phone […]
New Jersey Federalist Society Talk Tomorrow Night
I will be giving an evening talk to the New Jersey Federalist Society Lawyers Division tomorrow evening (Thursday) at 6pm at the Morris Museum in Morristown. My topic is “Separation of Powers and Accountability at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” Among other topics I plan to address the Supreme Court’s grant of cert in the Noel Canning […]
Misreporting Vance
What is it about civil rights cases that causes otherwise sensible reporters and commentators to lose their senses? The Supreme Court’s controversial Ledbetter was repeatedly mischaracterized by people who should know better. Now, as Walter Olson documents, we’re seeing knowledgeable commentators mischaracterize the Supreme Court’s decision in Vance v. Ball State. Reasonable people will disagree […]
Second Circuit Suggests That the Plain View Exception Should Be Applied More Narrowly to Digital Searches
As regular readers know, I am very interested in the scope of the plain view exception for computer searches. In physical searches, if the government comes across evidence unrelated to the search it is lawfully conducting, the government can seize that evidence as long as its incriminating nature is immediately apparent. I have argued that […]
IRS Scandal Still a Scandal (But Still Not “Watergate”)
New revelations about the conduct of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials continues to trickle out. Paul Caron’s latest compilation is here. Some of these revelations are significant, but none of them contradict the account of the Inspector General’s report. Recently disclosed documents show that some BOLO (“Be on the Lookout”) documents called on IRS officials […]
What is The “Real Story” About Edward Snowden and His Disclosure of NSA Activities?
Whenever Edward Snowden is discussed, I invariably encounter the following response: Edward Snowden is not the issue. You’re trying to distract people by changing the topic. The real issue is what Snowden disclosed about government surveillance, and anyone who talks about Snowden is not talking about the real issue. I find this response puzzling. There […]
Edward Snowden Took the Job at Booz Allen Just to Collect (and Then Release) US Government Secrets
The South China Morning Post reports: Edward Snowden secured a job with a US government contractor for one reason alone – to obtain evidence of Washington’s cyberspying networks, the South China Morning Post can reveal. For the first time, Snowden has admitted he sought a position at Booz Allen Hamilton so he could collect proof […]
“Boo-Frickin’-Hoo”
I read two online items recently, a Huffington Post article by writer Lisa Endlich Heffernan called “Why I Regret Being a Stay-at-Home Mom,” and a critique of that article by Michael Graham, a talk show host and a Boston Herald columnist. The Heffernan article wasn’t political, but I think it’s fair to say that it […]
The Supreme Court Hands Down Fisher v. University of Texas
The opinion is here, but it’s not the blockbuster 5-4 lots of people were expecting. Instead, the 7-1 opinion steers clear of controversy and sends the case back to the lower courts for a do-over.
What the Prism Stories Tell Us About the Press
If you don’t share my fascination with the journalistic ethics of the Snowden reporters, you can skip this long piece. But both of the protagonists have now defended themselves, so I’m posting their messages, with commentary. I began the exchange when I questioned why Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian waited two weeks to release NSA’s […]
Getting the Details of Online Courses Right Is Likely to Be More Difficult Than Anticipated
I’m afraid I’ve been absent from blogging for quite a while, but am eager to pick it up again on a more regular basis … and one reason I’ve been away from blogging is some work on online higher ed. There’s a lot of discussion about MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – and while […]
Council on American-Islamic Relations Asks University to “Thoroughly Review[]” Professor’s Classes, Based on Professor’s Public Lecture on Islam and Terrorism and Membership in Group Critical of Islam
ClickOrlando has video and text on this. The video in the program seems to come from this nearly hour-long lecture (available on YouTube) by the professor; the lecture starts about 25 minutes into the video, following the remarks from then-Rep. Sandy Adams. You can read the CAIR letter here; CAIR argues closes the letter by […]
Social Worker Reliance on Article About Domestic Violence in Iranian Society
From F.M. v. Commissioner of Children & Families (Conn. App. Ct. June 25, 2013) (some paragraph breaks added): The plaintiff father, who is self-represented in this court, appeals from the judgment of the trial court dismissing his administrative appeal from the decision of a department of children and families … hearing officer who found that […]
A Warning to Lawyers and Law Firms
Several times, I’ve seen people trying to promote law firms in ways that struck me as quite counterproductive. A couple of times, this was using spam comments pitching the lawyer’s services. Most recently, I got an e-mail asking whether I would take guest posts from a law firm’s lawyers — but the e-mail was badly […]