My co-blogger Jonathan Adler points out the story reporting that the House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether Eric Holder lied under oath: The panel is looking at a statement Holder made during a back-and-forth with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) about whether the DOJ could prosecute reporters under the Espionage Act of 1917, an aide close […]
Archive | Uncategorized
You Read it Here First
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page picks up the possible relation between the New York Times’ blatant call for IRS harassment of right-wing Jewish groups for their political views and the ensuing IRS harassement of rights-wing Jewish groups for their political views. You read it here first…
Notice for E-Mail Warrants and the James Rosen Case
A few days ago, Ryan Lizza had a story in the New Yorker detailing litigation over whether the search warrant to search James Rosen’s e-mail account required that the government notify Rosen of the search. The procedural history is actually kind of complicated, but the key idea is that Magistrate Judges Kay and Facciola thought […]
Ban on Note-Taking by Spectators in Court
The Daily Times Herald (Iowa) reports: District Judge James Richardson forbade a Daily Times Herald reporter from taking notes at a vehicular homicide trial Tuesday in Audubon, a rare courtroom rule that some say is unconstitutional. Richardson said a reporter’s scrawls could “influence the jury in that they might think something is important if they […]
Still More on Justice Scalia’s Footnote
Eugene has a somewhat different take on Justice Scalia’s now-infamous footnote than I did . . . He writes [M]y sense is that the footnote is just a somewhat indirect way to remind lawyers of a useful rule of brief writing — always decode any abbreviations that you use. Of course, as David points out, it’s not […]
Sri Srinivasan Confirmed to the DC Circuit
Congratulations to Sri Srinivasan for being confirmed today to a judgeship on the DC Circuit. The final vote was a squeaker — 97-0. There is going to be a lot of speculation that Srinivasan may be nominated to the Supreme Court someday, so it’s perhaps worth noting that Justice Ginsburg has indicated that she is […]
Future Democratic Supreme Court Picks?
Ian Millhiser speculates about future Democratic Supreme Court nominees over at ThinkProgress, naming names. Some of the names Ian mentions strike me as very very plausible; others strike me as very very implausible. But I’m not privy to the thinking of either current or future Democratic administrations, so who knows.
The Higher Ed Bubble
Interesting commentary in The Atlantic Monthly on the rising cost and decreasing quality of higher education: HIGHER education has long been growing more rational. Yet there is a widespread feeling of discontent with the present ideal of academic culture which sometimes degenerates into down- right pessimism. It must be conceded that education costs too much […]
Native American Tribe Challenges CFPB CID Based on Illegality of Cordray Non-Recess Appointment
According to Bloomberg the Chippewa-Cree tribe in Montana has refused to comply with a CID from the CFPB based on the illegality of the non-recess appointment of Richard Cordray as Bureau director: Under Dodd-Frank, the bulk of the bureau’s authority to supervise banks with assets above $10 billion, a group of about 110 that includesJPMorgan Chase […]
Can A Congressional Witness Deny Guilt and Then Plead the Fifth?
Today Lois Lerner was called to testify before a House Committee about the recent scandal involving the IRS targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny. Before the Committee, Lerner was invited to make an opening statement. Her opening statement included the following: On May 14th, the Treasury inspector general released a report finding that the Exempt […]
Establishment Support Builds for Sanctions and Active Defense in Cyberdefense
Anger at Chinese hacking continues to build in American business and government circles. As a result, establishment figures have begun to embrace the idea of letting private companies do more than passively defend their networks. The latest evidence is the report of a commission headed by two Obama appointees, former US Ambassador to China (and […]
An Unidentified Senior Administration Official on the Leak Investigations at Lawfare
At the Lawfare blog, a communication from an unidentified “senior national security official” in the Obama administration on the leak investigation against Fox News’ James Rosen. It’s striking that a senior official would decide to communicate these views via a blog – though Lawfare (whose editor-in-chief is the former Washington Post journalist turned Brookings scholar […]
IRS Attorney to Take the Fifth
Via John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum comes news that Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official who oversees the tax-exempt office and who first disclosed her office’s targeting of Tea Party groups in response to a planted question at an ABA conference, will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to testify […]
Dumb footnote, cont’d
So I received a few interesting responses from readers to my post on Justice Scalia’s silly footnote in City of Arlington v. FCC. First, Jacob Gershman over on wsj.com writes: To be fair, though, it’s not exactly obvious what CTIA stands for. Yes, the group was originally called the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. But before […]
Be Civil, You Lynch Mob Supporters
From James Taranto (thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer): In a CNN.com column Donna Brazile [writes] with a sinister twist: A government of, by, and for the people requires that people talk to people, that we can agree to disagree but do so in civility. If we let the politicians and those who report dictate […]