Academic

The Lincoln Bible

Posted on December 25, 2008
I learned yesterday that president-elect Barack Obama has chosen to take the oath of office using the same Bible as Abraham Lincoln did when he was first sworn in as our 16th president.  The choice is laden with symbolism.  Obama, the first Black president, has chosen to use the same Bible as the Great Emancipator, the only other Senator [...

Obama and Warren

Posted on December 24, 2008
Barack Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the inauguration invocation has caused much distress among the president-elect’s supporters.  To hear the newspapers and some bloggers discuss the issue, one would think that Obama had engaged in the most treacherous act of betrayal since President Clinton’s acquiescence to don’t ask, don’t tell...

Should the Senate Negotiate a Settlement with Blagojevic?

Posted on December 22, 2008
The Constitution grants governors the privilege of appointing a replacement for a vacated United State Senate seat. Given the insinuations about Governor Blagojevich’s character or lack of character, no independent appointment by the Governor would be or should be acceptable to the Senate leadership, and consequently the Senate arguably could prevent an independent gubernatorial selection...

Obama?s First Big Mistake

Posted on December 19, 2008
Yesterday, the New York Times announced that Pastor Rick Warren, an ardent opponent of gay and lesbian marriage, will perform the invocation at the inauguration. This is an egregious mistake in judgment on the part of the President-elect.  Pastor Warren is clearly a symbol of intolerance toward the gay and lesbian community...

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Bush?s Poisonous Legacy

Posted on December 16, 2008
George W. Bush will soon be leaving the White House. Unfortunately, his pernicious legacy will plague us for decades. His gratuitous and catastrophic invasion and occupation of Iraq, his failure in Afghanistan, his failure to prevent the ruination of the American economy, and his corruption both in awarding contracts in Iraq, the failure of the [...

President-Elect Obama Should Transform The Weekly Presidential Address

Posted on December 15, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama hopes to be a transformative president. With the enormous challenges besetting the country, it remains to be seen whether he can chart a transformative course.  Amidst an economy in crisis, two foreign wars, a health care system designed to help the upper middle class and the rich and placing a strain of [...

What?s Government for?

Posted on December 12, 2008
What do most Americans want government to do? Libertarians embrace a minimal state, one in which government protects individual freedom by supporting national defense, law and order, and protecting the right to contract.  Giving government any further responsibilities is incompatible with traditional libertarianism...

What is a public high school?

Posted on December 10, 2008
For the second year in a row, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology was named the best public high school in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.  Though ranking any high school as the single best in the country is somewhat pointless, it is fairly clear that Jefferson is an [...

Hope for Israel?

Posted on December 09, 2008
While the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts continues to percolate, it is gratifying to observe a respected Israeli civil rights organizations abandoning an entrenched taboo against comparing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank with the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa...

Unbounded Ambition: Thy Name is Ignatieff

Posted on December 08, 2008
Michale Ignatieff, an early Canadian supporter of Mr. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, is now setting his sight on the leadership of the Liberal Party. Consider the report in the Globe and Mail: “Toronto MP Michael Ignatieff launched a bulldozer charge at the federal Liberal leadership on Sunday, campaigning for the party’s parliamentary caucus to [...

Who?s Afraid of the Shadow Constitution?

Posted on December 05, 2008
There is a tendency in constitutional scholarship to posit the existence of a shadow constitution lurking behind the written constitution. Sometimes the shadow constitution refers to natural law. In other cases, the shadow constitution consists of presuppositions, postulates, or axioms which give the United States Constitution meaning or provide the necessary elements in constitutional reasoning...

Hockey: The New Gentleman?s Sport?

Posted on December 03, 2008
Sean Avery, a National Hockey League player with the Dallas Stars, has been suspended indefinitely for crude comments made about NHL players going out with his former girlfriends.  The comments were likely directed at Avery’s former girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert and her current datemate Dion Phaneuf, an NHL player with the Calgary Flames...

Bowl vs. Playoff

Posted on November 28, 2008
As I am not yet ready to comment on the Mumbai tragedy, I will stick to the lighter fare of college football.  The debate rages between opposing camps, those who favor a single national championship bowl game and those who favor a playoff to determine college football’s national champion...

Terror in Mumbai While the World Continues to Do Nothing

Posted on November 28, 2008
The depraved had their way in Mumbai over the course of the past few days, while the world continues its blind response to terrorism. No doubt the terrorists and those who finance them are morally impoverished villains who trade in blood and ruin. But the real culprits are those “civilized” leaders who are simply unwilling [...

A ?Rust Belt? Thanksgiving

Posted on November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving Day is a great time to stop and reflect about the state of the world and the reasons why I am thankful.  Aside from the most important things - my health and my family, I am thankful for the following: 1)  I have a job.  This is not something I take for granted...

Constitutional Deficiencies

Posted on November 25, 2008
Contrary to conventional wisdom our founding document suffers from a myriad of serious, even deadly deficiencies. One such deficiency is clearly the inability to control or even influence a rogue administration intent on imposing its own ideological dogma on on a nation even when sustained popular opinion and congressional elections indicate that the electorate opposes [...

The Logical Consequences of Judicial Supremacy?

Posted on November 21, 2008
At one time the Indian Supreme Court assumed the power and authority to determine the legitimacy of constitutional amendments.  Could that ever happen in the United States. Consider this humorous, but nevertheless scary (?), possibility: In a landmark decision Monday, the U...

Depression and War

Posted on November 18, 2008
The current economic downturn has not yet reached bottom. Indeed, no one is sure where the bottom is. How many lives will be affected, ruined, and even lost before a significant economic recovery begins to develop? Will we reach the depth of depression? Should we prepare for years of devastating economic collapse? Will home ownership [...

Should Hilary Clinton Be Secretary of State?

Posted on November 14, 2008
There’s speculation that President-elect Obama intends to select Senator Clinton for Secretary of State. If so why? One reason might be to repay her for so energetically campaigning for him in the general election. Another reason might be because she presumably has a great deal of knowledge how international relations operate...

What?s Wrong with Anti-Discrimination Law

Posted on November 12, 2008
Last term in Engquist v. Oregon Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a state employee could not bring an Equal Protection claim to challenge her employer for treating her unfairly.  Anup Engquist claimed that her Equal Protection rights were violated because her employer had no rational reason for treating her poorly and constructively firing her...

Does Bush?s Hypocrisy Know No Bounds?

Posted on November 11, 2008
Although the Iraqi government insists that the American troop withdrawal from Iraq be given with a fixed date of withdrawal, the Bush administration rejected this proposal. Check out the following story: “Two days after the election of Barack Obama, Iraq’s chief spokesman said with unusual forcefulness Thursday that his government will continue to insist [...

Why Rahm Emanuel?

Posted on November 10, 2008
Among the reasons President-Elect Obama chose Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff might be his sharp elbows, abrasiveness, and attack dog demeanor.  However, everyone assumes the reason for a chief of staff with these qualities is to bully Republicans and conservatives...

?Cheap Shots Against Palin?

Posted on November 08, 2008
Professor Marci A. Hamilton posted the following item on ConlawProf Listserv moderated by Professor Eugene Volokh in a thread entitled “Cheap shots against Plain.” Professor Hamilton is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the Benjamin N...

My Friend, Barack Obama

Posted on November 06, 2008
I?m feeling pretty emotional about our president-elect.    One reason is obvious ?Barack Obama is going to be the first Black president of the United States.  This is a truly momentous event to me, a former legal services lawyer in a virtually all-Black neighborhood, and a scholar of the civil rights movement and the Reconstruction eras...

Barack Obama and Tiger Woods

Posted on November 05, 2008
It may seem inappropriate to compare the accomplishments of the first African American president-elect and the first African American golfer to win a major championship.  However, they are linked in more than one way.  Both have been treated as supernatural chosen ones who have been touched from above...

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA: The Most Radical President in American History

Posted on November 05, 2008
Congratulations to Barack Hussein Obama who, when the Electoral College meets next month, will become the President-Elect of the United States. On 20 January 2009, then President-Elect Obama will assume office as the most radical president in American history...

AMERICANS VOTE!

Posted on November 04, 2008
Citizens of the United States of America go to the polls today in record numbers to begin a fundamentally new direction in the American experiment. (Click here.) Will the poisonous rot of the contemporary Republican Party remain in place or will the Party be punished for permitting itself to be hijacked by the most dangerous, [...

Will Conservatism Survive?

Posted on November 03, 2008
If there’s an Obama mandate tomorrow, conservatism–Bush-Cheney’s radical, conservatism, as well as reactionary conservatism–will have imploded. A new, more principled, more sophisticated conservatism will need to be devised, if conservatism is to survive at all...

More on ?Socialism? and ?Spreading the Wealth Around?

Posted on November 02, 2008
Americans concerned about “socialism,” “spreading the wealth around,” and “class warfare” might do well to check out this piece in CommonDreams.org. Here’s a taste:  According to the Republican candidate for U...

SATURDAY ELECTION SPECIALS

Posted on November 01, 2008
 ”Socialist” Health Care? Click here.

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