Legal Commentary

We up and moved...click here, and

Posted on April 06, 2008
We up and moved...click here, and we'll see you at the new digs.

Race in AmericaYears since Martin

Posted on April 04, 2008
Race in AmericaYears since Martin Luther King?s assassination: 40Days since Barack Obama?s speech on race in America: 17The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial column this morning by Juan Williams (of NPR News fame). Mr. Williams argues that Senator Obama has broken with Dr...

huh?The main paper back home, Raleigh's

Posted on March 31, 2008
huh?The main paper back home, Raleigh's News and Observer, usually includes a sports column penned by Caulton Tudor. Because he's not biased towards UNC, it is difficult for me to entirely appreciate Tudor's columns.Tudor's presence on the sports page is as the sort-of wise man of the block; reading him is like reading George Will...

On speaking It is too bad the

Posted on March 26, 2008
On speaking It is too bad the Sophists are not around these days to offer insights into persuasive public speaking. One wonders if HBOified John Adams will fling his main man Cicero, with all his thoughts on rhetoric, into the public imagination...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Let the Market Determine?Seems

Posted on March 01, 2008
Let the Market Determine?Seems a long time since we've debated the notion of the market on here...and even when we did, the 'market' debate was probably indirectly related to some other issue. If memory serves, the issue tends to be whether government imperatives or the market should dictate certain trends (like environmental regulation, say)...

Seems to me that Frank Rich best

Posted on February 18, 2008
Seems to me that Frank Rich best describes why Obama stands a better chance than Clinton against McCain...not on policy, but on the other major issue on electioneering: appearance/persona/presence/whatever.

A Northeast Temperament?

Posted on February 06, 2008
 For a moment last night, I wondered if there is (or a popular perception of) such thing as a sentiment in the northeast towards the thing that words of various motivation imply: establishment, elite, old money, snobbery, trusted, tested, old, known, institutionalized...

Apart from his putting quotes around

Posted on January 30, 2008
Apart from his putting quotes around signing statements, a good conversation starter from Froomkin. In today's Globe, Savage writes: "President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill...

Second FiddleThe Supreme Court

Posted on December 16, 2007
Second FiddleThe Supreme Court has not looked squarely in the face of our second amendment since 1939. Back then, the Court ruled that it was OK for the National Firearms Act to ban the interstate transport of sawed-off shotguns. The defendants argued the law was unconstitutional, pointing to...

Nutritious I got

Posted on November 05, 2007
Nutritious I got to thinking today about nutrition. I reckon that nutrition, as I am thinking of it, is the process of putting things into our bellies?and thus permeating our cells, organs, and inside-eco-systems?with stuff from outside...

Side Note to our Polygyny Debate:The

Posted on October 25, 2007
Side Note to our Polygyny Debate:The Economist has an article this week about the inter-relation between lifespan and monogamy. Apparently there is new scientific research to suggest that male members of monogamous species outlive their male counterparts from polygynous species...

More J. RBG Bits from 10/19/07-On

Posted on October 22, 2007
More J. RBG Bits from 10/19/07-On whether the government should regulate speech: The best way to fight hate speech is with good speech -- not with repressing freedom of expression.-On squabbles between the Court and Congress: We shouldn't worry about them too much -- they are ultimately healthy, and they are as old as the Republic! The venerable case of Marbury v...

?Bush v. Gore Was In A Class Of

Posted on October 18, 2007
?Bush v. Gore Was In A Class Of One? ? An Evening with Justice GinsburgThis evening I had the opportunity to attend a dinner reception featuring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. During the course of a conversation moderated by Professor Suzanne Reynolds from Wake Forest Law School -- which included time for Q&A with the audience -- the Justice spoke with remarkable frankness about her life at the Court...

Lunch on the rocks

Posted on October 10, 2007
Lunch on the rocks

Disinterestedness, of the good

Posted on October 01, 2007
Disinterestedness, of the good sortStanley Fish writes for today's Times. The column rightly, to my thinking, notes that the head-administrator at an academic institution ought to restrain from taking political-like stances:The obligation of a senior administrator is to conduct himself or herself in such a way as always to bring honor and credit to the institution he or she serves...

** NB: Despite an appallingly long

Posted on September 26, 2007
** NB: Despite an appallingly long hiatus (which was entirely my own fault), Andrew has kindly let me resume my occasional guest posts on Owens Rhetoric. Thanks, APO! ~ A grateful LilyPolygamy TrialsAs all you OR news junkies have doubtless heard, yesterday a Utah jury convicted the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints of two counts of being an accomplice to rape...

Slide Hampton conducts the Dizzy

Posted on September 19, 2007
Slide Hampton conducts the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Band to close out this years Duke Ellington Jazz Fesival in DC. It's a great joy in life to walk through a crisp Sunday, plop down under Washington's Memorial, and listen to Slide, James Moody, Roy Hargrove, and Jimmy Heath...

Still not representingWell, three

Posted on September 18, 2007
Still not representingWell, three Senators couldn't come around to the American cause of representation.GOP Minority leader McConnell makes the odd point:"I opposed this bill because it is clearly and unambiguously unconstitutional," McConnell said in a statement...

The Dred Taney, IIAlong with being

Posted on August 24, 2007
The Dred Taney, IIAlong with being the sibling with Plessy in the family of hated cases, Dred Scott is an important case in both U.S. political/policy history and judicial history (i.e., precedent). As discussed briefly below (comment if more on this is suitable), Dred Scott is about the Court's jurisdiction (in this case, that Mr...

The Dred Justice Taney

Posted on August 23, 2007
 A hundred-fifty years ago, a couple days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, for the second time in the Court's history, that the Constitution barred a Congressional Act. The first time was in Marbury v. Madison.  In Marbury, the Court struck down the Judiciary Act, passed by Congress in 1789...

If you missed the NY Times op-ed

Posted on August 22, 2007
If you missed the NY Times op-ed penned by 7 officers at the end of their tours in Iraq, let Fred Kaplan's Slate article catch you up. The gravamen of the piece is that their experience of the insurgency/counterinsurgency causes the officers to be "skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and [to] feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest [they] see every day...

over the bay

Posted on August 22, 2007
over the bay

Summarizing Massachusetts v. EPA

Posted on April 14, 2007
Summarizing Massachusetts v. EPA The following is a summary of what the Supreme Court decided in Massachusetts v. EPA. The lawsuit arose out of EPA?s decision to deny a rulemaking petition asking the agency to regulate greenhouse gases pursuant to the agency?s authority under the Clean Air Act...

Did Prince Write that Sign?To have

Posted on March 24, 2007
Did Prince Write that Sign?To have a laugh one day, Joseph Frederick held up a banner while the Olympic torch passed him by in Juneau, Alaska with the message, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." This being across the street from his school, during school hours, the principle rushed over, grabbed the banner, tore it up, and gave the high school senior a 10 day suspension...

hmmmLithwick makes a very good

Posted on March 05, 2007
hmmmLithwick makes a very good point on this US Attorney business...But it seems to me that that's precisely 50 percent of the scandal here. And there are some other folks deserving of subpoenas as well. Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Tolman spring to mind. The outrage isn't merely that the Justice Department abused its power to hire and fire...

stand in the place where you liveIn

Posted on February 19, 2007
stand in the place where you liveIn order to bring a lawsuit to court, a person must have a case. You need to show the court that you've been harmed in some way that some law offers a solution, and that you have brought in along with you a person that is responsible with providing that solution...

dc is filled with honkeysi live

Posted on February 17, 2007
dc is filled with honkeysi live in downtown dc about a 10 minute walk from work. surely as the day is long, this walk is accompanied by a steady drumbeat of car horns.honking is not going to make a stupid driver less stupid. further, it is fundamentally wrong to honk at a pedestrian that has the little white man walk signal...

Checking out the premium stuff

Posted on January 31, 2007
Checking out the premium stuff

Family and IdentityInteresting

Posted on December 13, 2006
Family and IdentityInteresting post at one of the sites especially useful if you feel like having some juicy thought but are yourself out of oranges, Left2Right. The post discusses the impact of biological parents, and raises some interesting questions about society and family...

An Inconvenient DeferenceIn contemplating

Posted on December 12, 2006
An Inconvenient DeferenceIn contemplating the manner in which we allow ourselves to be governed, one of the basic decisions we address, and with which we ought apply intellectual consistency, is deference. To whom do we defer ultimate decisions? Should local government or federal government set education policy and standards? Should State courts or the Supreme Court make final determinations on a community's criminal code? Should a State legislature or the State high court determine whether certain people can be married or not?In short, who do we trust to make the final decision on various issues that fall upon government, some part of government, to decide?It generally seems to me that the issue is contextual and that deference ought be given to the body of government most suited to the decision--because of expertise, tradition, or a combination thereof...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.