Apparently, there is some question about the legality of the bill recently (as in yesterday) signed into law by President Obama. I’ve already discussed the questionable procedures used to pass it in the House. But what about the bill itself? Is it legal? Is it constitutional? Let me just say at the outset that rational […]
HCR and the Constitution: procedural problems?
March 22, 2010 by
I get a lot of questions from my friends about the HCR bill that just passed. What happened? might be a good what to sum up most of the questions. They are confused about how it passed (not to mention about why the Congress would pass something that seems so unpopular…but that’s another issue altogether), […]
Christianity and the Common Law
February 23, 2010 by
Of all my posts, the question I tweeted a few weeks back about Christianity and the common law has gotten the most views, much to my surprise. Despite the attention, I have no idea whether Christianity is a part of the American legal system’s common law. Justice and mercy, and crime and punishment, the language […]
Kabuki or dissent?
February 1, 2010 by
New York Times writer Linda Greenhouse has an interesting analysis of Justice Scalia’s criticism of Chief Justice Robert’s opinion in Citizens United. In the campaign finance case, he accused Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. of “faux judicial modesty” for writing an opinion that in Justice Scalia’s view effectively overturned the court’s 2003 campaign finance decision […]
“Money talks,” say Angus and Malcolm Young; SCOTUS listens.
January 22, 2010 by
When they penned “Money Talks,” Angus and Malcolm probably didn’t know how close they were to the First Amendment, but on Wednesday the Supremes agreed: money is speech, and under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Congress cannot pass any law which restrains speech. For a lot of people, Senator John McCain among the exceptions, […]
Orthogonal: or “SCOTUS learns a new word.”
January 19, 2010 by
Orthogonal. As in: Professor Richard Friedman’s direction became orthogonal during his oral arguments before the Supreme Court last week. The newest word to enter the Supreme Court lexicon made its appearance when the before mentioned professor stated: “I think that issue is entirely orthogonal to the issue here.” If you think a sesquipedalian is going […]
The good, the bad, and the fired: something of a weekly round-up of law industry news
January 8, 2010 by
2009 the worst year for layoffs First “the fired:” last year, according to LawShucks, over 12,000 people in the legal services industry were laid off, which includes over four thousand lawyers. This year’s story was largely written by the end of March, when 73% of the year’s total layoffs had happened, as we noted in […]
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