Academic

Religious Exemptions--Skeel

Posted on November 13, 2009
At a law and religion conference at Seton Hall's law school yesterday, Rob Vischer, a law professor at St. Thomas, gave a fascinating talk that touched on the debate over religious exemptions—the question whether religiously oriented individuals and businesses should...

Bailouts and Preemptive Strikes--Skeel

Posted on October 29, 2009
One of many interesting questions I was asked while presenting a paper called 'Bankruptcy or Bailouts?' at Professor Ted Janger's bankruptcy seminar at Brooklyn Law School yesterday was whether there's a connection between the ethos that led to the Bush...

Health News, and the Cost of Cancer Treatment--Stuntz

Posted on October 21, 2009
I haven't posted for far too long; sorry about that. I've been hunkered down, trying to manage chemo—which is harder this time around than it was last year—and also trying to make some progress on a book I'm writing.So, a quick...

Stuntz on Suffering

Posted on October 06, 2009
Bill had an article called "Three Gifts for Hard Times" in the August issue of Christianity Today, which I suspect will be of particular interest to those who have followed his posts on his cancer treatment.  I just noticed that the article is now...

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DealBook Dialogue on the Financial Crisis--Skeel

Posted on October 06, 2009
The NY Times DealBook blog is hosting a dialogue on the financial crisis, with a variety of folks (I'm the least of them, by any yardstick) weighing in.  Several of the initial columns have been quite interesting; it's continuing all...

The Ardi Fossils--Skeel

Posted on October 04, 2009
I happened to be reading the transcript of the 1925 Scopes ('Monkey') trial the other evening, then woke up to front page pictures of Ardi, who was described 'a 4.4 million-year-old human forbear.' Scopes and Ardi prompted a swirl of competing...

Deer--Skeel

Posted on September 14, 2009
As the days shorten and fall activities begin, one of the summer rituals I will miss most is sitting on our back porch at the end of the day. At around 7pm most days, white tailed deer—usually two or three—strut across...

Life Issues and Healthcare Reform--Skeel

Posted on September 08, 2009
 A key issue with both life issues that have flared up in the healthcare debate—'death panels' and funding for abortion—is coercion. If healthcare reform requires doctors to consult with their elderly or other patients about end of life healthcare options, and...

Kennedy's Passing--Skeel

Posted on August 26, 2009
Like nearly everyone who does not inhabit the left, I've always had deeply mixed feelings about Ted Kennedy—admiration for his dedication and accomplishments mixed with distaste for his partisan excesses and the seamy side of his personal history...

Bernanke--Skeel

Posted on August 26, 2009
In announcing Ben Bernanke's nomination to another term as Federal Reserve chair, President Obama said he "approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom." This seems a fair characterization of Bernanke's personal demeanor, but an odd description of...

Still More Cancer, and Hope--Stuntz

Posted on August 07, 2009
Last week, my oncologist told me the results of the latest set of films: I appear to have a cluster of four small tumors on the left side of my abdomen, and one slightly larger tumor on my liver. My cancer...

Wedding Bands--Skeel

Posted on August 05, 2009
Vacationing at the beach this week, I noticed something I notice every year: although they have been happily married for many years, neither my brother-in-law nor my sister-in-law wears a wedding band.I've always been strongly pro-wedding band. A wedding band says...

More on Calvin's 500th--Skeel

Posted on July 31, 2009
A few more thoughts on the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth, in this op-ed.Although this obviously isn't a theologically oriented country, I've been surprised the anniversary hasn't gotten more attention in the general media....

Sam Harris on Francis Collins--Skeel

Posted on July 28, 2009
That Sam Harris, one of the leading 'new atheists,' criticized the president's nomination of Francis Collins, a professed Christian, to serve as director of the National Institutes of Health in this New York Times op-ed yesterday was hardly news. But I...

The Apollo 11 Landing--Skeel

Posted on July 21, 2009
The Apollo 11 landing was one of the first public events I remember. My family was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and we had returned from a family camp in Michigan the day of the landing. It was a long day, but...

Sotomayer and the Cost of Success--Stuntz

Posted on July 15, 2009
A couple days ago, David Brooks had a wise and interesting column on Sotomayor and the price of professional success. (Link: here). Plainly, Sotomayor has paid a price for her achievements—according to Brooks, her marriage appears to have been a casualty of...

Calvin's 500th--Skeel

Posted on July 11, 2009
 Yesterday was the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth. The anniversary didn't make any newspaper that I saw, but there have been major celebrations in the church world, including a series of talks and sermons in Geneva that featured many evangelical...

The GM Sale--Skeel

Posted on July 06, 2009
Although GM is vastly larger and more significant than Chrysler, its "sale"-- which was approved by the bankruptcy court late yesterday-- has received far less attention.  There seem to be two reasons for this.The first is a been-there-done-that effect...

The New "Too Big to Fail" Proposal--Skeel

Posted on June 20, 2009
The Obama adminstation's new financial reform proposals, like the version proposed several months ago, would give regulators the power to step in and take control of large nonbank financial institutions, as the FDIC already does with commercial banks...

Democracy and Law--Stuntz

Posted on June 19, 2009
With good reason, ours is an age in which the rule of law is a terribly important concept. In the United States, support for law—and support for law's natural product: order—is near-universal. Not so with respect to support for democracy...

Consumer Financial Protection Agency--Skeel

Posted on June 18, 2009
The most surprising of Obama administration's new financial reform proposals would establish a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to look after consumers' interests in financial services contracts such as credit cards and mortgages. It's been discussed in Washington for many months,...

Iranian and Iraqi Democracy--Stuntz

Posted on June 17, 2009
In the many discussions of the pro-democracy protests in Iran, I've seen precious little about the relationship between that country's democracy and democracy in its majority-Shiite neighbor: Iraq. The example of a democratic and not theocratic state on Iran's borders may be...

p.s. on Chrysler--Skeel

Posted on June 09, 2009
The Supreme Court has now lifted its stay on the Chrysler sale, which makes the first part of the last post moot.  On to GM....

The Supreme Court Stay in Chrysler--Skeel

Posted on June 09, 2009
The $64,000 questions in my little world today are 1) what to make of Justice Ginsburg's order temporarily halting the Chrysler sale; and 2) what it means for the General Motors bankruptcy. My guess is that it would be a mistake...

GM and the Railroads--Stuntz

Posted on June 05, 2009
This is more David's department than mine, so if this observation is all wet, I'm happy to take correction. But in recent weeks, I've been thinking about the fate of the railroads in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like the...

Hospitals--Stuntz

Posted on June 05, 2009
Thanks mostly to medical business, I've been out of touch for awhile. I was hospitalized for various tests and procedures nearly all of last week (no large problems, thank God), and save for a brief appearance at the law school's graduation...

Hearings in Congress and Bankruptcy Court--Skeel

Posted on June 04, 2009
            The enormous recent bankruptcies have provided a lot of reasons for a bankruptcy scholar to leave the library and venture out into the real world for a change. I've spent more time in New York and Washington in the past...

Greenspan on "Too Big to Fail"--Skeel

Posted on June 04, 2009
            I was a minor player in a very interesting conference on systemic risk yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC yesterday. In the keynote address, Alan Greenspan suggested that he sees only three plausible responses to the emergence...

Hispanics and Latinos--Stuntz

Posted on May 26, 2009
This is a trivial comment, but I note that all the early reports on Sotomayor's appointment refer to her as 'Hispanic.' This puzzles me. Brazilians aren't Hispanic—they speak Portuguese—and Spaniards are. Why should Spanish ancestry matter more than, say, Dutch or Swedish ancestry? (Full...

Banking on Bankruptcy--Skeel

Posted on May 19, 2009
This op-ed by equity fund manager Scott Sperling in today's Wall Street Journal makes an interesting case that the Obama administration's handling of Chrysler and GM is actually evidence of capitalism at work. In my view, he's right that the restructuring...

Soon to be Ex-Judge McConnell--Skeel

Posted on May 16, 2009
With the exception of Supreme Court speculation, the biggest news in my little neighborhood these days is the announcement that Judge Michael McConnell will step down to join the faculty of Stanford Law School. As many readers will know, McConnell was...

State Judges and the Supreme Court--Stuntz

Posted on May 13, 2009
Plenty of people have noted that recent Supreme Court picks have all come from the federal bench. The usual response is to argue that we should look for non-judges to appoint to the Supreme Court. There is some merit to that position,...

Spring in Boston--Stuntz

Posted on May 13, 2009
Before moving to New England nine years ago, a couple of friends told me that T.S. Eliot must have lived here when he wrote: 'April is the cruelest month.' Winter seems to last forever—and then, bang! Summer comes. Spring pretty much doesn't...

More on the Chrysler Bankruptcy--Skeel

Posted on May 08, 2009
Several days ago, I wrote a short post noting some of my concerns about the extent to which the government seems to be commandeering the bankruptcy process in Chrysler as a means of effectuating its auto policy.  This commentary develops...

More Good Cancer News--Stuntz

Posted on May 07, 2009
I was more than a little nervous about the results of my recent brain MRI. I needn't have been: the films were clear; no detectable cancer. (Insert sigh of relief here.) As a family member put it, 'they took pictures of your brain and...

Kagan, Karlan and Empathetic Judges--Stuntz

Posted on May 07, 2009
My post about Pam Karlan as a potential Supreme Court nominee (see below) got more play than I expected. (I'm always surprised when someone reads something I write. Usually, I think: this can't be a good use of readers' time . ....

Pam Karlan and Souter's Seat--Stuntz

Posted on May 02, 2009
If Obama wants to appoint a Scalia for the left, he should choose Pam Karlan, a longtime colleague of mine at Virginia who now teaches at Stanford. Pam is (1) brilliant, (2) broadly knowledgeable — Cass Sunstein aside, I can't think...

The Chrysler Bankruptcy--Skeel

Posted on April 30, 2009
T.S. Eliot famously wrote that 'The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.' I'm not sure if it's doing the right deed for the wrong reason, or doing the wrong deed for the...

The First Hundred Days--Skeel

Posted on April 30, 2009
At his press conference last night celebrating his first hundred days, the President referred again to the need for a 'house built on rock,' as he did in his speech on the economy at Georgetown last week. The reference is, of...

Signs-Stuntz

Posted on April 26, 2009
Cancer is more pickpocket than robber: it catches you unawares; you find out about it after your wallet is gone. Most of the time, anyway. But not all the time. My cancer was symptomatic before I was diagnosed in February of last year...

Working--Stuntz

Posted on April 25, 2009
The past few months have been discouraging. Thanks to pain, nausea, and fatigue—the first two are worse now than during chemo; the third is almost as bad—I've done a lousy job of teaching this semester. I've managed to do a little writing...

Torture--Stuntz

Posted on April 25, 2009
I have several reactions to the torture memos and the frenzy that has erupted since their publication. On the one hand, some of the behavior at issue—like pushing a prisoner against a wall designed to yield to pressure—seem far too mild...

Veronese and John the Baptist--Skeel

Posted on April 16, 2009
With the possible exception of several Caravaggios, my favorite painting in Rome on my most recent visit was this painting (the reproduction here isn't great) of Saint John the Baptist by Veronese, in the Borghese Gallery. The planes of the painting—John's body...

Googling Jurors--Skeel

Posted on April 13, 2009
A couple of weeks ago, a friend showed me this article on jurors doing their own research during the breaks from a trial.  Given how quickly most of us go to the Internet to research our latest health concerns, it's not...

Debtors' Prisons Old and New--Skeel

Posted on April 13, 2009
Debtors' prisons seem to be back in the news. Last week's New Yorker included an interesting article about debtors' prisons in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century America (a link to the abstract is here). Decreasingly few states allowed imprisonment for debt...

A Pain Poem--Stuntz

Posted on March 30, 2009
Recently, I stumbled across this wonderful and sad poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It's the best description I've ever read or heard of living with chronic pain:   And must I then, indeed, Pain, live with you All through my...

Weekly Standard Article--Stuntz

Posted on March 29, 2009
Here is the link to a magazine piece I wrote.  The subject is a model of domestic policymaking that is usually ignored in public discussion: Lincoln's model. While fighting and winning the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln also shepherded through Congress one of...

The Geithner Proposals--Skeel

Posted on March 27, 2009
Treasury Secretary Geithner finally sketched out the administration's blueprint for new financial regulation yesterday.  Many of the proposals, such as a new registration requirement for hedge funds, strike me as sensible.  But I think the proposal to give federal regulators the...

Bankruptcy vs. Bailouts--Skeel

Posted on March 24, 2009
Readers of this blog are no doubt tired of hearing me argue that bankruptcy would often be a better solution to the financial distress of large financial firms like AIG or Bear Stearns than the bailouts the government has used...

Depopulation--Stuntz

Posted on March 24, 2009
This article made me sad. The subject is the coming depopulation of much of the world. Here's the key graph:For the majority of the world's inhabitants who no longer live on farms or rely on home production, children are no longer an...

Christianity and Secular Values--Skeel

Posted on March 23, 2009
Rome is full of reminders both of the layers of history and of the temptation to marry Christianity with pagan religions. Sitting by the fountain with Bernini's Four River Gods fountain in Piazza Navona—a revelation both because of the light gleaming...

Reforming the Health Care System--Stuntz

Posted on March 23, 2009
It's often claimed that other Western nations achieve as good or better outcomes from their nationalized health care systems as Americans achieve with our strange mix of private and government-funded health insurance—and at far less cost. Assuming that claim is true,...

American Politics Through Italian Eyes--Skeel

Posted on March 16, 2009
I've been in Rome for a week, with ten days to go, and have asked people what they think of the Obama administration and of the Berlusconi government in Italy. I should note that I've been talking to Italian academics, so...

Rome Baptist Church--Skeel

Posted on March 09, 2009
Few experiences remind me of the common bond that unites all Christians as vividly as attending a worship service in a different city or country when I'm traveling. When I'm in Rome—as I am for the next two and a half...

More Good Cancer News--Stuntz

Posted on March 09, 2009
I got the results of my latest set of films a few days ago—no visible cancer in my lungs or abdomen: the places where it is likeliest to show up. Happy news indeed. As my oncologist puts it, each clean set of...

Stanley Fish on Christianity and Bankruptcy--Skeel

Posted on March 08, 2009
A student emailed me this marvelous commentary by Stanley Fish, which I hadn't seen. I'll only add two brief thoughts, since Fish speaks for himself as always: 1) the two Christian discourses Fish discusses don't strike me as necessarily at odds...

Bankruptcy Phobia--Skeel

Posted on March 05, 2009

Anniversary--Skeel

Posted on March 02, 2009

More Films--Stuntz

Posted on February 25, 2009
 Every few months, the docs check my lungs and liver and assorted other places to see whether the cancer has returned. Today was my day to be filmed. Film days are usually easy, though sometimes unpleasant: I spent the minutes before heading to...

Brooks on Burke and Obama--Stuntz

Posted on February 25, 2009
 This column perfectly captures my own sentiments—both the hope that the new Administration would succeed, and the growing concern that its confidence is misplaced. One unpleasant surprise in the Administration’s economic plans, at least to me, has been Obama’s lack of...

Penn Forum on the Financial Crisis--Skeel

Posted on February 22, 2009
Like just about every university, we recently had a forum to talk about the financial crisis-- its apparent causes and possible implications.  The panel was moderated by the university president, Amy Gutmann, and I was one of five panelists.  For...

Stimulus Spending--Stuntz

Posted on February 15, 2009
There is a lot of talk these days about America’s, and the world’s, lurch to the political left.  Seems to me, that talk gets things backward. Given the massive public debt that Congress is creating, in the near future—that is, before...

Weekly Standard Article--Stuntz

Posted on February 15, 2009
I have an article in this week’s TWS. The link is here. The subject is the need for a policing “surge.”...

Testimony--Stuntz

Posted on February 09, 2009
 My spouse and I are in the process of joining a Boston church; the church requires that would-be members give their testimony. Because my memory is lousy these days, I wrote mine out; it’s pasted below with a few minor edits. Some...

Atheist Bus Ads--Skeel

Posted on February 08, 2009
My first impulse when I saw a picture of Richard Dawkins standing in front of a London bus emblazoned with an atheist ad--“ There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”—was to chuckle. My second was to skim...

John Updike's Passing--Skeel

Posted on January 28, 2009
John Updike was for me a little like an old friend you keep meaning to visit but never quite get around to visiting. Years ago, I read several of his Rabbit novels, and I occasionally read his short stories later...

Obama and Roosevelt--Skeel

Posted on January 27, 2009
            The most frequent worry I’ve heard about the new administration is that President Obama will get swept up in the messianism surrounding his historic presidency, and he will take advantage of it to pass a vast legislative agenda that...

Obama's Abortion Order--Skeel

Posted on January 24, 2009
Ever since Ronald Reagan first banned funding to international organizations that promote or provide abortions in developing countries and elsewhere in 1984, this executive order has been the most visible culture wars prize of our presidential elections...

The Inauguration--Skeel

Posted on January 20, 2009
A few immedate thoughts on the inauguration:President Obama's speech: I didn't think this was his most memorable, but no one delivers a speech like Obama.  The highlight for me came when he explicitly referred to scripture, and said "The time has come...

God Bless America--Stuntz

Posted on January 20, 2009
I never much liked the Ronald Reagan rhetoric treating the United States as the new Jerusalem, the “shining city on a hill.”  It struck me then and, most days, strikes me now as idolatrous.  But I can’t help feeling that...

What Will Bush Do Next?--Skeel

Posted on January 16, 2009
Listening to President Bush’s short, somber farewell speech last night, I found myself wondering what he will do next. (It has been striking how much less speculation about Bush’s future there has been than with Bill Clinton, due to the failures of...

Neuhaus' Passing--Stuntz

Posted on January 09, 2009
David is right:  Father Neuhaus was indeed one of a kind, and also a deeply admirable man.  He was the happy warrior of the culture wars:  eager to mix it up with those with whom he disagreed, but always with...

Father Richard John Neuhaus--Skeel

Posted on January 08, 2009
It is hard to imagine a world without Father Richard John Neuhaus– his dazzling intellect; the wide-ranging "The Public Square" columns he wrote each month in First Things; his love of ideas and of his Creator. But with his passing away this...

Policing and Stimulus Packages--Stuntz

Posted on January 03, 2009
Obama and his underlings have emphasized, rightly, that federal spending designed to pump up the economy should do more than that: spending should rebuild needed infrastructure, invest in cleaner energy, and the like, so that money spent now would yield...

Chemo Aftermath--Stuntz

Posted on January 03, 2009
Apologies for the long silence:  my chemo ended just before Thanksgiving, but the six weeks since them has been rougher than I'd expected:  I'm still pretty tired and a little queasy all the time, and have been struggling to fight...

Inaugural Poets--Skeel

Posted on December 30, 2008
            After poet and Yale professor Elizabeth Alexander was announced as the inaugural poet, fellow poet Paul Muldoon was quoted as saying he was confident the choice was due to literary merit...

Rick Warren at the Obama Inauguration--Skeel

Posted on December 18, 2008
The New York Times noted in a small article this morning that President-elect Obama has invited Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, and called this an olive branch to evangelicals. Two thoughts on the choice. First, as...

Poetry in Motion--Skeel

Posted on December 14, 2008
One of the most exciting contemporary poets is the Polish poet Adam Zagajewski. I review "Eternal Enemies," his new book of poems, here. But don't take my word for it. Next time you're in a bookstore, skim through a few...

Will There be Lawyers in Heaven?--Skeel

Posted on December 09, 2008
            A few weeks ago, I was struck by a line in Abraham Kuyper's "Lectures on Calvinism" (1898), one of the great (and accessible!) modern Protestant works on politics and law.   In a world without sin, Kuyper wrote, "every rule...

Paris--Skeel

Posted on November 29, 2008
I`ve been in Paris this week for a wonderful conference at the University of Paris-Nanterre.  It`s my third visit to Paris, separated by twenty years from my second (a short visit during my honeymoon) and twenty-four from my first (a...

Clinton and Geithner, not Holbrooke and Summers--Stuntz

Posted on November 21, 2008
According to news reports, Timothy Geithner, chair of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, will be the new Treasury Secretary--not Larry Summers.  Perhaps Hillary Clinton and Summers in the top two slots was one ex-Clinton official too many:  as...

For Larry Summers--Stuntz

Posted on November 21, 2008
It would be an exaggerated piece of name-dropping to say that I know Larry Summers.  I'm one of thousands of people who've had contact with him over the years.  For me, that contact consists of two hour-long conversations with him...

Chemo's End, Cancer's Closet--Stuntz

Posted on November 20, 2008
On Wednesday of this week, I had my last chemo session--at least for awhile and maybe for good.  I'm not quite done--I'll carry around a pump with a drug called (believe it or not) 5-FU until tomorrow afternoon.  Cancer treatment...

Where Should GM File for Bankruptcy?--Skeel

Posted on November 18, 2008
The most surprising development in the Big 3's campaign for a bailout has been the amount of resistence it's met. Surprising to me, at least. After all the money that's been committed to the financial bailout, I assumed the carmakers...

A Too-Transparent Treasury--Skeel

Posted on November 14, 2008
In their handling of the credit crisis, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve have repeatedly been criticized for their lack of transparency. The decisions as to which financial institutions to bail out have been made behind closed doors, the complaint...

Five Things I Love About This Country--Stuntz

Posted on November 06, 2008
Speaking as a conflicted McCain voter, I'd say Obama's election captures the five things I love most about my country.  In no particular order:   1.  Not counting his years living abroad, the President-elect has lived in Hawaii, California, New...

Obama's Victory--Skeel

Posted on November 05, 2008
A little over a month ago, just as it was becoming clear that Barack Obama would win the election, I happened to be reading several commentaries on the Civil Rights Movement written by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, whose theology was...

Good News on the Cancer Front--Stuntz

Posted on October 31, 2008
On Wednesday of this week, I heard that the latest round of films were clean--no tumors in my lungs or in my abdomen.  Lungs and livers are the places advanced-stage colon cancer likes best.  The fact that they appear to...

McCain or Obama?--Stuntz

Posted on October 31, 2008
This Stuart Taylor column captures half of my frustration with this presidential election.  Taylor argues that, if Obama governs as a centrist, he could have a spectacularly successful presidency.  If he governs from the left, Taylor says, he will fail...

The Pulpit Initiative--Skeel

Posted on October 31, 2008
A month ago, 33 pastors around the country preached sermons that overtly endorsed a candidate (usually John McCain) as part of Pulpit Freedom Sunday and the Pulpit Initiative organized by Alliance Defense Fund, a prominent Christian legal fund. The Pulpit...

Health Care and the Election--Stuntz

Posted on October 29, 2008
Health care may be the most heavily covered domestic issue in the current presidential race.  But the coverage has been lousy.  E.g.:  If I understand correctly, McCain's health care proposal would make employer-provided health insurance much more costly (by taxing...

The California Anti Gay Marriage Referendum--Skeel

Posted on October 26, 2008
Reading the daily updates on the prospects of the California Anti-Gay Marriage referendum, I find myself quite conflicted. Like the two presidential candidates, I am not in favor of gay marriage, but I have long been troubled by the tenor...

Is the Era of Big Government Back?--Stuntz

Posted on October 18, 2008
Everyone seems to think so, thanks to the financial crisis.  I wonder.  I have a short article about to come out in The Weekly Standard suggesting otherwise.  The link is here.   Early in his first Administration, Bill Clinton turned...

Teachers, Professors, and Obama Buttons--Skeel

Posted on October 13, 2008
Stanley Fish has an interesting op-ed in this morning's New York Times about whether a school or university can prohibit its teachers from wearing a button advocating a particular candidate in the classroom. Fish argues that such a rule would...

Is Government Ownership the Right Strategy?--Skeel

Posted on October 12, 2008
We now have yet another switch in the Treasury's strategy for stabilizing the markets. Plan A with the $700 billion rescue plan was to use the money to buy some of the questionable mortgage-related securities that are held by the nation's troubled...

C.S. Lewis and the Financial Crisis--Skeel

Posted on October 09, 2008
I suspect I'm not the only one who feels vaguely guilty when I'm not thinking about or talking about or trying in some small, inept way to do something about the financial crisis. Everything else seems secondary. How can we...

Where are the Burkeans?--Stuntz

Posted on October 04, 2008
Along with Friedrich Hayek, Edmund Burke is among the intellectual fathers of American conservatism.  Hayek taught conservatives to love freedom.  Burke taught conservatives to respect tradition even when its rationale seems obscure, for tradition often represents the accumulated wisdom of...

Bailout Stories--Skeel

Posted on October 02, 2008
One reason the current financial crisis seems so mystifying is, I think, the absence of a simple, coherent story that explains what the crisis is about. The Enron and WorldCom scandals earlier in the decade could be distilled to a...

The War on Executive Compensation--Skeel

Posted on September 23, 2008
As Congress rushes to enact the Treasury's $700 billion bailout plan this week, Obama, McCain, and politicians of both parties are insisting that the bailout include restrictions on executive pay at the firms whose mortgage backed securities will be bought...

Illness, Grace, and Friendship--Stuntz

Posted on September 19, 2008
Not long ago, I read something by Roger Ebert, a skilled and insightful movie critic who has battled thyroid cancer and related conditions for a long time now, in which Ebert said roughly this:  Cancer patients are widely seen as...

McCain's Age--Stuntz

Posted on September 19, 2008
Like millions of my fellow citizens, I have a bad back; I take prescription pain medications for it.  Three years ago, I had a long conversation with a doctor who, in addition to his clinical work, does research on chronic...

The Candidates and the Crisis--Skeel

Posted on September 17, 2008
I wasn't among those who were disturbed about the increasingly trivial bickering between Senators McCain and Obama until the tumultuous events in the financial services markets over the past several days. I'm now greatly disturbed, because I fear that a...

Lehman's Demise--Skeel

Posted on September 15, 2008
The government's dance with Lehman after having bailed out Bear Stearns reminded me of a game we used to play as kids. One kid would stand in front of another and fall backwards. The idea was that the kid in...

Sarah Palin's Faith, and Mine--Stuntz

Posted on September 13, 2008
I didn't like Mike Huckabee's campaign in the Republican primaries, because Huckabee argued, sometimes explicitly, that Christian voters should support him because he's a Christian.  I wouldn't have voted for him anyway, but that sealed the point for me...

The McCain-Palin Salvo on Fannie Mae--Skeel

Posted on September 09, 2008
I may be over-reading the McCain-Palin op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this morning, but it seems to me to mark a sharp break from the Bush administration on the subprime crisis. Not on...

The Bible in Palin's Speech--Skeel

Posted on September 04, 2008
I found myself listening for Biblical echoes in Sarah Palin's speech last night after hearing the familiar cadences of Ecclesiastes in its opening paragraphs, when she said that the voters rallied behind McCain in the primaries because he understands "there...

Palin, Obama, and the Experience Issue--Stuntz

Posted on August 29, 2008
Everything is faster in the internet age.  It took about ten seconds from the time McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate for the conventional wisdom to congeal:  Palin forfeits the experience issue and opens the way for attacks...

Lake House--Stuntz

Posted on August 28, 2008
Thanks to the kindness of some local friends, Ruth and I have spent most of this week at a lake house in New Hampshire.  It's a remarkable place.  Staggeringly lovely and (much to my surprise) nearly deserted:  I guess the...

Chemo Again--Stuntz

Posted on August 28, 2008
Last week, my latest and I hope last round of chemo began; unless things change, the plan is to keep going til mid-December and then quit for good.  I feel lousy:  low-grade nausea is a constant companion, and sometimes it...

The Obama-Biden Ticket and Business Reform--Skeel

Posted on August 23, 2008
Most of the commentary on Obama's decision to tap Senator Joseph Biden as his V.P. pick has focused on the foreign policy expertise that Biden brings to the ticket. But I think the implications for some of Obama's business...

Olympic Medal Count--Stuntz

Posted on August 23, 2008
I'm not the biggest Olympic junkie around, but I've enjoyed watching, and following the Chinese and American medal counts. So far, everyone I've read uses one of two measures: who has the most gold, and who has the most total...

Eastern Christians and Environmentalism--Skeel

Posted on August 22, 2008
Some of our earlier discussion on this blog about evangelicals and the environment prompted a email from my colleague Stephanos Bibas that may be of interest to those who are following this issue. The email argues that there is a...

A Few More Thoughts on Mere Christianity--Skeel

Posted on August 21, 2008
Thanks to everyone who has chimed in on the question of whether there's a true successor to Mere Christianity. The discussion has prompted many thoughts, but I'll mention three for now: 1) Several people (both in the comments and...

Abortion, Fighting Evil, and the Saddleback "Debate"--Stuntz

Posted on August 18, 2008
Two comments about the excellent speaking event (I don?t know what to call it) at Rick Warren?s church: First, as many bloggers have pointed out, Obama was wrong to say that the abortion rate hasn?t fallen on George W. Bush?s...

The Great (Debt) Seduction--Skeel

Posted on June 11, 2008
David Brooks argued in his column yesterday that traditional norms of thrift and frugality have been displaced in America by norms that ?encourage debt and living for the moment.? Among the causes of this shift, he blames state governments?...

Gifts and Bribes--Skeel

Posted on June 06, 2008
If you ever read the verses on bribes and gifts in the book of Proverbs, as I did for a Sunday school lesson last week, you will quickly run into apparent contradictions. ?Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles...

Living and Surviving--Stuntz

Posted on June 05, 2008
Last week, I got some very good news?but it didn?t feel good at all. This week?s news was medically neutral, as these things are usually judged. But it felt incredibly sweet. That sounds strange, so let me try to explain....

Obama--Stuntz

Posted on June 04, 2008
I?m a registered Republican and will probably vote for McCain in November. Even so, yesterday seems to me one of the great days in American history. And it?s a great day in part because it all seems so ordinary: two...

Prophets and Non-Prophets--Skeel

Posted on May 31, 2008
An article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday described a celebration of the work of the late rabbi and scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel, who wrote a famous book (?The Prophets?) about Biblical prophesy and was intensely involved in the...

Memorial Day--Skeel

Posted on May 26, 2008
The Memorial Day tributes in the papers today reminded me of one of the few pleasant airline experiences I?ve had in recent months. Of the hundred or so passengers on a flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta, roughly a dozen...

The Iowa Immigration Raid--Skeel

Posted on May 26, 2008
The big immigration story over the weekend was the arrest and sentencing of 297 illegal immigrants for using false documents to work at an Iowa meeting packing plant, as reported in this New York Times story. The raid is...

The (Invisible) Immigration Issue--Skeel

Posted on May 19, 2008
?So, whatever happened to immigration as a presidential campaign issue?,? Wall Street Journal editor Jason Riley asked in an interesting op-ed last week. He speculates that the candidates have been avoiding it because Americans are ?basically pro-immigrant but conflicted...

An Evangelical Manifesto--Skeel

Posted on May 14, 2008
The response to ?An Evangelical Manifesto?-- which was released a week ago, with the endorsement of many prominent evangelicals, and is designed to ?address the confusions and corruptions that attend the term Evangelical in the United States? and to....

Nicolas Poussin, the Art-- Skeel

Posted on May 14, 2008
Two final stray thoughts on the Nicolas Poussin exhibit at the Met (now over, alas), without the attempt to link the art to current events: 1) According to the wall text, ?Poussin studied nature less to imitate its surface...

Living Weak--Stuntz

Posted on May 10, 2008
?Live strong? is a common slogan among cancer patients. I think I understand the slogan?s appeal, and I admire the spirit that lies behind it. But it doesn?t fit my experience, and I suspect I?m not alone. Reduced life expectancy...

Nicolas Poussin and the New Morning in American Politics--Skeel

Posted on May 10, 2008
Making my way through the splendid ?Poussin and Nature? exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York yesterday, I kept thinking about a comment Jed Perl, the New Republic?s art critic, had made in his review of...

Oil Politics--Skeel

Posted on May 06, 2008
I?m not an economist and don?t even play one on TV, so I didn?t get quite as worked up as my economist friends on Sunday when Hillary Clinton said, in defense of the gas tax holiday first dreamed up...

More on Evangelicals and Climate Change--Skeel

Posted on May 03, 2008
Three follow-up comments about evangelicals and climate change, inspired in large part by the comments to the earlier post: 1) Perhaps the biggest point of disagreement among evangelicals, which shows up in spades in the comments, can be traced...

More on the Prison Population--Stuntz

Posted on May 01, 2008
Thanks for the kind post, David. Many of the comments to my last post took issue with the claim that America?s enormous prison is a serious social problem, and that ?pretty much everyone familiar with the justice system? agrees with...

Stuntz Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences-- Skeel

Posted on April 29, 2008
I learned through the grapevine yesterday that Bill is one of a small handful of law fellows (the others are Justice Stevens and six law professors) who have just been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. This...

Who is Responsible for America's Swollen Prison Population?--Stuntz

Posted on April 26, 2008
Pretty much everyone?Republican or Democrat, right or left?familiar with America?s criminal justice system agrees that our prison population is far too large. The data are familiar: Adjusted for population, imprisonment has quintupled in the last thirty-five years...

Where's a Real Villain When You Need One--Skeel

Posted on April 25, 2008
Almost a year into the subprime crisis, we still haven?t seen any major reforms. The Enron and WorldCom scandals six years ago, by contrast, prompted sweeping reforms in Congress and on Wall Street. Why the difference? I increasingly think...

Evangelicals and Climate Change--Skeel

Posted on April 20, 2008
One of the more interesting things I learned (thanks to Vanderbilt Earth & Environmental Sciences professor Jonathan Gilligan) at a very interesting conference on consumption and climate change at Vanderbilt Law School this weekend was a tidbit from Mike...

Precedent and Judicial Method--Stuntz

Posted on April 18, 2008
The Supreme Court?s recent lethal injection decision, Baze v. Rees, reminds me of a puzzle. Supreme Court Justices, and appellate judges generally I think, often feel bound by previous case holdings and by the core reasoning that supports those holdings...

Chemo Brain--Stuntz

Posted on April 18, 2008
Thanks to some of my cancer survivor friends, I recently discovered that Wikipedia has an entry for ?Chemo brain.? (The link is here.) They call it ?Post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment,? but I think the simpler label works better.) So far as...

Obama's Multiple Audience Problem--Skeel

Posted on April 14, 2008
 There?s a clear pattern to Obama?s three biggest recent slip-ups? the controversy over his former pastor?s anti-American remarks, his economic advisor?s alleged assurance to Canadian officials that he doesn?t really mean the critical things he says about Nafta, and now...

Good and Bad Pro-Life Arguments--Skeel

Posted on April 10, 2008
While Bill?s most recent post focuses on the effects of the pro-choice movement?s overplaying of its hand in the Roe v. Wade era, the attempt to ban abortion altogether in South Dakota several years ago was a sobering experience...

Prohibition and Abortion--Stuntz

Posted on April 08, 2008
For an article I was writing a decade ago, I read a lot about Prohibition: both the then-current literature on the subject?the best book, as of then, was David Kyvig?s ?Repealing National Prohibition? ?and the impressions of people on the...

More Cancer--Stuntz

Posted on April 03, 2008
My cancer has been promoted: I?m officially in stage 4. My doctors have found two cancerous nodules?a euphemism for ?small tumors??one on each of my lungs. I started chemo this week. Next week, I?ll see a thoracic surgeon who will,...

Beware of the Home Owner's Loan Corporation Mirage--Skeel

Posted on April 01, 2008
As the Bush administration begins its defense of the new Treasury Department proposal to revamp U.S. financial regulation, Democrats are arguing, rightly in my view, that the more urgent concern should be to directly address the mortgage crisis. Unfortunately,...

Frida Kahlo and Immigration--Skeel

Posted on March 30, 2008
The hottest ticket in my neighborhood these days is the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. One of the most arresting images in a show filled with startling images is a 1932 painting called ?Self-Portrait on...

Hospitals and Cancer Treatment Centers--Stuntz

Posted on March 28, 2008
I?ve spent a fair bit of time around hospitals over the years: two major abdominal surgeries, three lower-back fusions, and more injections and films and tests of various sorts than I can count. The Boston-area hospital I?ve come to know...

Clinton's Bank-Friendly Populism--Skeel

Posted on March 27, 2008
Hillary Clinton has just rolled out her most extensive recipe yet for addressing the subprime crisis. The plan, which includes $30 billion to purchase troubled mortgages and for foreclosure auctions, as well as a freeze on foreclosures and interest...

Easter--Stuntz

Posted on March 23, 2008
Every year, it staggers me. Mostly, I think it?s the improbability of the enterprise that knocks the wind out of me, leaves me utterly shattered. The notion that the God of the universe would submit Himself to all the ugliness...

Race and Crime: More Thoughts--Stuntz

Posted on March 22, 2008
Thanks for the thoughtful comments on yesterday?s post. A few responses: 1. Several posts suggested that high crime in urban black neighborhoods might be due to the ?don?t snitch? movement and to rising levels of jury nullification. I think this...

Battling Cancer--Stuntz

Posted on March 22, 2008
I?ve spent the month of March, so far, recuperating from surgery for colon cancer. You read a lot when you?re getting over surgery?and, if you?re like me, you watch a lot of ?Law and Order? reruns (preferably, any episode that...

Race and Crime--Stuntz

Posted on March 21, 2008
Like many who heard it, I was powerfully impressed by Barack Obama?s speech in Philadelphia this week. But I found the speech unsatisfying, because it all but ignores the issue that is central to racial division in twenty-first-century America: crime...

Angry Churches--Stuntz

Posted on March 21, 2008
Judging by Jeremiah Wright?s sermons, Barack Obama?s church seems to be an angry place?angry at white America for the many ways it has held back and held down the black community represented in its congregation. I want to write about...

Should Obama Leave His Church?--Skeel

Posted on March 21, 2008
In the furor this week over the anti-American comments of Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of Barack Obama?s church in Chicago, the one question that?s gotten surprisingly little attention is the most obvious one: Should Obama leave his church?...

Bear Stearns and its Shareholders--Skeel

Posted on March 20, 2008
Many of Bear Stearns? biggest shareholders are screaming about its proposed sale to JPMorgan for $2/share. This is a good sign. It is important that shareholders bear the costs of the bank?s missteps in the subprime market. But their...

Giotto and the Art of Heaven--Skeel

Posted on March 17, 2008
Like nearly everyone who loves Italian Renaissance art, I?ve often wondered why hell seems so much more interesting than heaven in the Last Judgment paintings. My own answer has usually been that, because we are sinful, we understand sin...

Spitzer, Bear Stearns and the Uses of Corporate Criminal Law--Skeel

Posted on March 17, 2008
Bill speculated several days ago that prosecutors? use of criminal law to pursue the executives of firms that go spectacularly bust may often serve no other purpose than to discourage firms from engaging in the kinds of risks that...

The Fall of the House of Spitzer: Notes from Rome--Skeel

Posted on March 14, 2008
Shortly after I learned of Spitzer?s resignation, I was at dinner with several Italian lawyers. At the table next to us at a lovely restaurant near the Trevi Fountain sat the leading director of soft core porn movies in Italy....

Punishing Corporate Crime--Stuntz

Posted on March 14, 2008
David?s post about Spitzer and his excesses prompts a thought: I wonder whether those excesses might be hard-wired into the enterprise of prosecuting corporate crime. Think about it this way. Thieves who never quite manage to steal anything aren?t likely...

The Debate Over Wiretapping Liability--Stuntz

Posted on March 14, 2008
I confess I don?t understand the current debate in Congress about legal liability for telecom companies that cooperated with the government in the wake of September 11. The issue isn?t whether the kinds of assistance those companies provided ought to...

Spitzer-Stuntz

Posted on March 12, 2008
I have two related reactions to the Eliot Spitzer story. First, it seems to me that we have to expect this sort of thing when we ban conduct like prostitution but tolerate upscale call-girl networks like the one Spitzer apparently...

King Lear and the Culture Wars--Stuntz

Posted on March 10, 2008
The two sides in America?s long-running culture war disagree about much, but agree about something very important: both sides believe law shapes cultures, not the other way around. Sometimes, it seems to work that way. The civil rights legislation of...

My Condition--Stuntz

Posted on March 10, 2008
My surgery happened about ten days ago; I?ve been home from the hospital for a week. The surgery went well, as these things go: the tumor was sizeable but they apparently got all of it, which is good news. Cancer...

The Most Famous Evangelical Intellectual You've Never Heard Of--Skeel

Posted on March 09, 2008
Thanks to Crazy for God, a new tell-all memoir by his son Frank, Francis Schaeffer is back in the news in evangelical circles. Twenty-four years after his death, the height of his fame has long since passed, but Schaeffer...

More on Subprime: Bernanke and Bankruptcy--Skeel

Posted on March 06, 2008
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has now called on banks to forgive portions of the principal owed by struggling subprime borrowers, which suggests that a major intervention may be coming. As between jawboning (the Republican inclination) and a bailout (the...

Evangelicals and the Choice of Democratic Nominee--Skeel

Posted on March 03, 2008
The standard storyline about religion and the nomination process has been the failure of evangelicals to agree on a single preferred Republican candidate. But the choice of Democratic nominee has more momentous implications. If Clinton is the nominee, evangelicals...

Pain and Ugliness-- Stuntz

Posted on March 02, 2008
Physical pain hurts, ugly things look bad, nasty smells smell nasty. What do these basic realities have to do with one another? I?m pretty sure the conventional response is: not much. Ugliness is an aesthetic judgment, and aesthetics seem somehow...

Michelle Obama's Pride--Stuntz

Posted on February 28, 2008
A lot of ink has been spilled on Michelle Obama?s comment that ?for the first time in my life, I am really proud of my country.? I?m a McCain man myself, but the criticism seems dumb to me. She isn?t...

The Subprime Mess-- Skeel

Posted on February 28, 2008
As Obama, Clinton, and everyone else tout their remedies for the subprime crisis, I?m reminded of the old joke about a group of blind men who encounter an elephant. The man who grabs the elephant?s leg tells the others...

On Being Weary-- Stuntz

Posted on February 28, 2008
I?m unbelievably tired these days, and I know I?ll feel more so after this week?s surgery. I?m tired from the drugs I take, tired from the pain in my back and leg, and now tired from the tumor inside me....

Welcome

Posted on February 28, 2008
Greetings, and welcome to those who have found their way to this site. I have no experience at blogging, so I?m not quite sure how to begin. But a bit of autobiography seems in order. Like David, I?m a law...