It now appears that the Obama administration, which once seemed so eager to explicitly press the case for liberal constitutional jurisprudence, is trying to characterize Sonia Sotomayor as a bona fide judicial moderate, if not an outright conservative. Take a look at the administration’s talking points: no more talk of “empathy” is to be found. Rather, they highlight her frequent ... Read More
How inequality can spiral out of control “Let me tell you about the very rich,” F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote. “They are very different from you and me.” To this, Ernest Hemingway famously replied: “Yes, they have more money.” This exchange occurred in 1926, a time in America that was very good for the very rich, paralleled by today’s socioeconomic ... Read More
Daring to end homelessness While the recent collapse of the U.S. housing market has prompted a renewed debate about American homeownership and its future, the related topic of homelessness has remained largely ignored. Hundreds of thousands of citizens live lives of addiction and mental illness on the streets of American cities. On any given day, 900,000 people — including 200,000 ... Read More
For an allegedly “grotesque” (but, thankfully, “innocuous”) confusion, Sam Barr’s equation of liberty and equally is pretty well-founded empirically. Think about the history of America. Think about the struggle to integrate non-land-owners, Catholics, Jews, women, blacks and now gays. Surely, as Sam notes, all this expanded both liberty and equality at once. One way to understand the relationship between liberty ... Read More
It would be a pity to let go without comment Obama’s recent speech in Prague. For those of you who didn’t follow it (the North Korean missile launch an hour before somewhat overshadowed it), it was surprisingly consequential. A decent number of commentators dismissed it, echoing Slate’s Anne Applebaum in critiquing Obama’s “odd obsession with universal nuclear disarmament”. It’s interesting ... Read More
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the interesting, vexing, and somewhat hilarious case of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. The question before the Court is whether the low-budget hit-piece “Hillary: The Movie” is subject to the financing restrictions of McCain-Feingold, which regulates so-called “electioneering communications.” In other words, is a 90-minute movie slamming a presidential candidate ... Read More
It’s noteworthy how some right-wing bloggers seem just as interested in the idea that the poor don’t work hard, as they are in the idea that the rich work really hard and ought not be “punished.” National Review’s Lisa Schiffren, who wrote an ode to the “professionals and entrepreneurs who make this country run,” had to add for good measure ... Read More
The conservative blogs are afire with Ayn Rand love. Apparently, by raising the top marginal tax rate back to where it was in the Clinton years, President Obama is “punishing” the most productive members of society. Au contraire. Here is my idea of “punishment.” You take a person who was born into poverty, who was born without highly marketable skills, ... Read More
The economic crisis strikes Main Street
Creating precedent for the law The term “legislating from the bench” is frequently used but rarely explained. In the 2008 presidential debates Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) promised he would not appoint judges who legislate from the bench. But as Bruce Peabody, author of Legislating from the Bench, a Definition and a Defense, told the HPR, “I don’t think we can ... Read More
It’s somewhat unclear what exactly Senators Nelson, Collins, Specter and Snowe were aiming for in the cuts they demanded from the Senate stimulus bill. They didn’t dispute the need for a large economic stimulus, nor did they offer a detailed critique of why spending on school construction or state aid would be “less stimulative” than other far less stimulative measures ... Read More
As I studied for my ConLaw final, this question popped into my head: How can people claim to be able to wring objective meaning or “original intent” out of vague phrases like “the freedom of speech,” “equal protection of the laws,” and “due process of law,” when constitutional experts can’t even agree whether or not the Senate is allowed to ... Read More
Lately, I’ve become more accustomed to seeing Saturday Night Live’s Tina Fey as Governor Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin as herself. And apparently I’m not alone: The New York Times’ television blog, “TV Decoder,” noted on September 16 that the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler sketch, presenting the mock joint television appearance of Sarah Palin and Hillary Rodham Clinton, had been viewed ... Read More
Reading through the article, “Tear Down this Wal“, I couldn’t help but comment that if the people don’t want Wal Mart, then they will stop shopping there. The issue of Wal Mart has been around and prominent for quite a while and people have chosen to stop shopping there, but the fact remains that millions shop at Wal Mart each ... Read More
