Since last week’s Brexit vote, new evidence has emerged suggesting that the result many have been influenced by widespread political ignorance. In the immediate aftermath of the vote, there was a massive spike in internet searches in Britain asking questions like “What is the EU?” and “What does it mean to leave the EU?” Obviously, […]
Chief Idaho federal prosecutor warns: “The spread of false information or inflammatory or threatening statements … may violate federal law”
On June 2, a 5-year old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted at a Twin Falls, Idaho, apartment building by three boys ages 7, 10 and 14. The exact nature of the sexual assault is unclear; but apparently the 7-year-old sexually touched the girl, and it seems that the 10- and 14-year-olds are being charged because they […]
‘I hope 2016 doesn’t get renewed. The plot is ridiculous and none of the characters are likable.’ (@pourmecoffee)
Words of wisdom, from @pourmecoffee; thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.
Are Trump delegates bound to support Trump at the convention?
Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president because he won a majority of delegates awarded in state primaries, caucuses and conventions. If every delegate votes in accordance with the primary results, Trump will be declared the Republican candidate at the GOP convention in Cleveland. But what if, in their heart of hearts, a […]
A brief word on Brexit
I agree with much of what Ilya Somin has written about Brexit, and only have one thought to add. It is, as Ilya writes, a “victory for nationalistic, xenophobic forces opposed to free trade and migration,” and it is pretty clear that much of the momentum behind Brexit came from anti-immigrant sentiment unleashed in response to the […]
Thoughts on Britain’s vote for Brexit
Although the finally tally is not yet complete, it is now clear that Britain has voted in favor of Brexit, and will likely leave the European Union. “Leave” won by a fairly narrow margin (about 52-48), but win it did. For reasons I outlined here, I think this is a bad development, and that the […]
Dangerous Implications of today’s Supreme Court ruling upholding racial preferences at the University of Texas
Today’s Supreme Court decision upholding racial preferences in admissions at the University of Texas (UT) has potentially far-reaching implications. It might well license extensive racial discrimination in college admissions policies. But its impact may be limited by hedging in the majority opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy. When Fisher v. University of Texas first reached the […]
And speaking of outlandish trademark claims . . .
As I noted a few days ago, it’s becoming increasingly easy to ridicule and parody intellectual property developments these days — and then along comes this story, which pushes the envelope of silliness so far out that I thought, at first, that it must be a spoof. There were about a zillion stories flying around the […]
Warrantless breath tests are okay after drunken driving arrests — but warrantless blood tests are not
The Supreme Court has handed down an important Fourth Amendment case, Birchfield v. North Dakota, on the government’s power to compel people arrested for drunken driving to take breath tests and blood tests. The upshot: The government can require a person arrested for drunken driving to take a warrantless breath test, but ordinarily the government […]
Today’s unusual Supreme Court lineup
The first opinion issued this morning by the Supreme Court produced yet another unusual lineup of justices. The case, Mathis v. United States, concerned when state-law criminal offenses satisfied the requirements of predicate offenses for sentence enhancements under the Armed Career Criminal Act. In this case, a majority of the court concluded that a conviction for […]
Race-conscious university admissions policies survive Supreme Court review
Today the Supreme Court issued its much-awaited decision in Fisher v. University of Texas, a challenge to the University of Texas’s use of race-conscious admissions criteria. When the case was first argued, many speculated that the days of relying upon race in university admissions were numbered. Justice Anthony Kennedy was seen as the swing vote, and he had […]
Equally divided Supreme Court affirms lower court decision on Obama immigration policies
Today, the Supreme Court announced that it was affirming the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the immigration case, United States v. Texas. What this means, as a practical matter, is that the challenge to the Obama administration’s deferred-action immigration reforms is successful, as a 4-4 split leaves the lower […]
Thoughts on today’s Supreme Court immigration ruling
The Supreme Court today split 4-4 on the legality of President Obama’s DAPA policy, which deferred deportation for some 4 million of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States. As co-blogger Jonathan Adler points out, this means that the lower court ruling invalidating the policy is affirmed – at least for […]
Federal court opinion blocking California law that bans use of Assembly video
As I noted a few weeks ago, Brad Benbrook, Steve Duvernay and I are representing the Firearms Policy Coalition in its challenge to a curious California statute — California Penal Code § 9026.5, which makes it a crime to rebroadcast televised California Assembly proceedings “for any political or commercial purpose, including … any campaign for […]
Federalist Society podcast on Brexit, devolution, and secession
In anticipation of tomorrow’s Brexit vote, the Federalist Society has produced up a podcast on Brexit, devolution, and secession. The podcast covers both the pros and cons of secession and devolution generally, and those of Brexit specifically. The participants are Philip Booth of the Institute of Economic Affairs (Britain’s leading pro-free market think tank), and […]
Thoughts on the California amicus brief in Murr v. Wisconsin – an important takings case currently before the Supreme Court
In April, the state of Nevada filed an amicus brief that I coauthored on behalf of Nevada itself and eight other state governments in Murr v. Wisconsin, a major property rights case currently before the Supreme Court. The case addresses an important question about when property owners are entitled to compensation under the Takings Clause […]
District court voids Obama administration fracking regulations
On Tuesday, a federal district court in Wyoming invalidated Interior Department regulations limiting hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. “fracking” or “fracing”) on federal lands. The opinion, by Judge Scott Skavdahl, begins: This matter comes before the Court on the Petitions for Review of Final Agency Action filed separately in each of these consolidated actions, challenging the Bureau […]
The Justice Department’s dropping of the charges against FedEx
I haven’t been following this case closely, but it appears to be a huge win for defense lawyer Cristina Arguedas, whom I don’t know personally but who I thought deserved congratulations. An excerpt from the AP story: A criminal trial nearly two years in the making alleging FedEx knowingly delivered illegal prescription drugs to dealers […]
Applying the Fourth Amendment to placing calls from a locked phone to identify its owner
A story in the Sacramento Bee flags a novel Fourth Amendment issue pending in federal court. Here’s the issue: If the police find a locked phone that was left behind at a crime scene, do the police need to get a warrant before trying to identify the phone’s owner by calling 911, thereby generating a […]
The EEOC, religious accommodation claims, and Muslims
Federal law requires employers to exempt religious employees from various kinds of generally applicable rules, so long as those exemptions are relatively easy and cheap for the employer. A classic example is an employer no-headgear rule: If an Orthodox Jew, a Sikh, a Muslim or anyone else who belongs to a religion that bars its […]
17-year-old harasser is convicted of distributing child porn of himself
I was traveling with family last week, and will be traveling for most of this week and the next, so blogging has been and will be light (or absent). But today I had a moment, so I thought I’d pass along State v. E.G., decided last week by the Washington Court of Appeals: E.G. began […]
Thanks for reading
It looks as though the IP Furies, having successfully liberated “Happy Birthday to You” from the clutches of Evil Corporate Content Man (see here), will have to suit up yet again. Two real heavyweights — AT&T and Citigroup — are preparing to do battle over the word “Thanks.” Aux armes, citoyens!! Citi has filed a […]
Supreme Court construes the exclusionary rule narrowly in Utah v. Strieff
On Monday morning, the Supreme Court handed down Utah v. Strieff, a case on the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule. The court held that the exclusionary rule does not apply when an officer makes an illegal stop, runs a warrant check on the suspect’s ID, learns that the suspect has an outstanding warrant, and then searches […]
Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions
(Here is the latest edition of the Institute for Justice’s weekly Short Circuit newsletter, written by John Ross.) The Supreme Court recently ruled that a prosecutor-turned-judge should have recused himself from a death-row inmate’s appeal because he had played a part in the original conviction. Hear hear, says Evan Bernick of the Center for Judicial […]
Mapping the world, Part 2
You heard it here first! I took a bit of what my British friends call “stick” a while back when I wrote (see here) about a scheme that seemed to me to hold real game-changer promise: the what3words.com project of mapping the entire planet into 3 x 3 meter square blocks of space and giving […]
The case for sports boycotts
Insights on Law and Society, a journal produced by the American Bar Association, recently published a short article of mine on the case for boycotting international sports events hosted by repressive regimes. It is part of an issue devoted to “International Sports and the Law.” Here is an excerpt: For decades, people of goodwill have […]
Part II of interview about the new edition of my book “Democracy and Political and Political Ignorance,” conducted by Yale Law School Prof. Jack Balkin
Part II of an interview about the new edition of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter conducted by Yale Law School Professor Jack Balkin is now available here, at the Balkinization blog (one of the leading left of center blogs focusing on constitutional law and public policy). Part I can […]
Senate votes to extend draft registration to women – but they would have done better to end it for men
Earlier this week, the Senate voted to end sex discrimination in draft registration by requiring women to register for selective service, as well as men: Under the Senate bill passed on Tuesday, women turning 18 on or after Jan. 1, 2018, would be forced to register for Selective Service, as men must do now. Failure […]
The history of LGBT gun-rights litigation
As a result of the terrorist attack in Orlando, greater attention is being paid to the self-defense rights of sexual minorities. In Las Vegas, where many people work in nightclubs, the group Out For Liberty will be offering free firearms safety classes to LGBT nightclub employees: “Managers, bartenders, security, DJs, drag queens are all encouraged to attend.” […]
Part I of interview about “Democracy and Political Ignorance” conducted by Yale Law School Prof. Jack Balkin
Part I of an interview about the new edition of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter conducted by Yale Law School Prof. Jack Balkin is now available at the Balkinization blog. Part II will be posted tomorrow. Prof. Balkin is one of the nation’s leading constitutional law scholars, and has […]
Audio of two radio programs about my book “Democracy and Political Ignorance”
The audio of two recent recent radio programs based on the just-published new edition of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter is now available. The first is an Australian Broadcast Company program of a presentation about the book I did at an event sponsored by the University of Queensland. It […]
Eighth Circuit holds that accessing credit card magnetic stripe is not a ‘search’
In the past few months, I’ve been posting about new cases mostly at my Twitter feed rather than here at the blog. Still, I thought I would flag the Eighth Circuit’s decision last week on whether reading the magnetic stripe on the back of a credit card is a Fourth Amendment “search.” As regular readers […]
Net neutrality and the changing of the guard on the D.C. Circuit — guest post by Daniel Lyons
This week, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order (a.k.a. “net neutrality”). As I noted in an earlier post, this decision handed the Commission and the Obama administration a significant victory after a string of losses. In my prior post, […]
Providing Internet access isn’t speech
Disclaimer: I have been serving as a consultant to the FCC in the net neutrality proceeding and worked on the order and its legal defense, so you can add whatever grains of salt you deem appropriate. Commentators so far have not focused on the First Amendment arguments in the D.C. Circuit’s net neutrality opinion. Some […]
Can “sortition” sort out the problem of political ignorance?
Widespread political ignorance is a serious problem for modern democracy. In recent years, many scholars have argued that we can overcome it by relying on “sortition”: delegating various political decisions to jury-like bodies selected at random from the general population. In this post, I explain why such proposals are unlikely to succeed. This is the […]
Divided D.C. Circuit upholds FCC ‘net neutrality’ rule
This morning, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s so-called “net neutrality” rules. Under these rules, all broadband service providers are required to treat all content or internet traffic identically. The court’s 180-plus-page decision in U.S. Telecom Association v. […]
Brexit and political ignorance
The people of Britain will soon be voting in a referendum on Brexit: whether Britain should leave the European Union. Whatever side you support, it is clear that this is an extremely important decision for the future of Britain and Europe. Yet a recent survey by the British polling firm Ipsos MORI finds that most […]
Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions
(Here is the latest edition of the Institute for Justice’s weekly Short Circuit newsletter, written by John Ross.) Is “the rule of law” just an empty phrase trotted out when convenient? Hardly, argues Evan Bernick of the Center for Judicial Engagement, but thanks to the federal judiciary’s failure to uphold the rule of law, it’s […]
Why our emotional reactions to terrorist attacks and other tragedies are a poor guide to policy
Today’s horrible mass shooting (and likely terrorist attack) at a gay night club in Orlando naturally generates strong emotional reactions. It is entirely understandable for us to feel anger, fear, and sorrow. But it is also important to remember that such emotions are a poor guide to public policy. Strong emotional reactions to dramatic events […]
An important legal victory for property rights in the North Carolina Supreme Court
The North Carolina Supreme Court recently issued an important unanimous decision blocking what would have been a major uncompensated expropriation of property rights by the state. Prominent takings expert Robert Thomas has a summary of the decision at the Inverse Condemnation blog: [T]he North Carolina Supreme Court has issued an opinion in an important case […]
Peruta v. San Diego, analyzed
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