President Obama has picked Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Second Circuit as his nominee to replace David Souter as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Judge Sotomayor was considered the front-runner for the spot, along with Judge Diane Wood, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Solicitor General Elena Kagan. Ilya Somin has a [...]
Law professor Paul Campos takes a critical look at the Iowa Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding gay marriage. (The Court’s opinion is available here.) Campos finds that the legal reasoning behind the decision was lacking: Stripped of its verbiage, the court’s opinion comes down to the following claims: First, it’s a bad thing for the [...]
Jim Geraghty notes a curious provision in the stimulus bill directed at the State of Illinois: None of the funds provided by this Act may be made available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the State, unless (1) the use of such funds by the State is approved in legislation enacted by [...]
Tags: Blagojevich, Congress, constitution, federalism, Illinois, law
This morning, the Supreme Court will hand down its decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, a case which will likely decide as a matter of law whether the Second Amendment creates an individual right to keep and bear arms. To follow the Court’s session, SCOTUSblog‘s live coverage will provide instant results and links to [...]
One of the professors at my law school teaches a course on “atrocious cases”—and today he will have something new to add to his syllabus. The Supreme Court handed down a ruling in the case of Boumediene v. Bush that represents one of the most blatant examples of judicial activism of our time. The Supreme [...]
Heather McDonald takes a probing look at whether America’s criminal justice system truly is racially biased. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the objective evidence does not match the conventional narrative: Backing up this bias claim has been the holy grail of criminology for decades—and the prize remains as elusive as ever. In 1997, criminologists Robert Sampson and Janet [...]
Kurt Denke is the owner of a company that makes connection cables for audio/visual equipment. Monster Cable is a company that sells ridiculously-priced connection cables for audio/visual equipment. Monster Cable decided to send a cease-and-desist letter to Mr. Denke’s company. Monster Cable didn’t realize that Mr. Denke was a lawyer. This is the response they [...]