From Cato, with video: “In 1920, in Missouri v. Holland, the Supreme Court seemed to say, contrary to basic constitutional principles, that a treaty could increase the legislative power of Congress. That issue is now back before the Court in Bond v. United States, a case with deliciously lurid facts involving adultery, revenge, and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Cato has filed an amicus brief in the case, written by Nicholas Rosenkranz, based on his Harvard Law Review article on the subject.” Earlier here.
Archive for 2013
“BP tried to do right by the victims of the oil spill….”
“Then the lawyers pounced.” [Joe Nocera, “Justice, Louisiana Style,” New York Times, earlier]
Maryland court won’t toss contributory negligence
Some had urged the state’s highest court to abandon the old common-law standard in favor of a comparative negligence standard, but the court said any such move will need to come from the Maryland legislature. [Daily Record, earlier; Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia]
N.J. court: loss of ocean view in dune condemnation
New Jersey’s highest court ruled that a Harvey Cedars couple do not have to be compensated for the loss of an ocean view, as distinct from the loss of actual land, after the government condemned a strip of their beachfront for a dune restoration project. Relevant factor: the dune restoration is believed to have saved the couple’s home when Hurricane Sandy hit, and that benefit could properly be offset from the taking. [MaryAnn Spoto, Star-Ledger; earlier; edited/corrected to reflect comment]
More from reader TD in comments: “The reporter absolutely got it wrong. The court agreed the loss of a view could be a taking, but that it needed to be offset by the benefit incurred because the dune would presumably prevent future flooding. The lower courts had not allowed for the offset.”
Law schools roundup
- “Law school plotted to sabotage its own students?” [Steele, Cassandra Burke Robertson, Caron on Phoenix allegations]
- Bryan Garner’s take on law reviews [Green Bag]
- Washington & Lee’s innovative practice-oriented third year has drawn much attention, but job placement results lag [Deborah Merritt via Alice Woolley]
- “Law school sues for liability insurance coverage” [VLW on Liberty U., Miller-Jenkins kidnapping case]
- The business of one high-flying law school: documents shed light on NYU [Joe Patrice, Above the Law]
- Concussions: NFL players’ union to fund $100 million Harvard project, including HLS, on football and health [Cohen, Prawfs, with further thoughts from a notorious gadfly on lobbying by lawprofs]
- John O. McGinnis and Russell Mangas, “An Undergraduate Option for Legal Education” [IRLE/SSRN]
- Toward more sensible law school rankings? ABA makes it harder to count higher expenditures themselves as a plus [Above the Law]
The return of Eliot Spitzer
I have a few things to say about it at Cato at Liberty (& welcome Reihan Salam, Abby Schachter, Scott Greenfield readers).
P.S. “Eliot Spitzer wants New Yorkers to give him the one thing he has never shown anyone else: forgiveness.” [John Dickerson] “Spitzer: Prostitution Should Remain Illegal, ‘Fundamentally Wrong'” [Daniel Halper, Weekly Standard]
“…in five years there’d be a shortage of sand.”
In Argentina, famed for agricultural bounty, government folly leads to shortages of wheat [Bloomberg; original Milton Friedman quote]
Redefining obesity as a disease
Aside from the important employment law implications linked last week in this space, the American Medical Association’s decision to reclassify obesity as a disease has implications for Medicaid and private reimbursement of therapy (“now coverage policy must catch up to that consensus,” exulted an officer of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery) and more pervasively for nanny-state initiatives: “Already, Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, has cited the AMA declaration to boost his group’s efforts to ban junk food and tax soft drinks.” [Mike Tanner] (& welcome Joe Palazzolo, WSJ Law Blog readers)
July 8 roundup
- Judge Ruehlman orders seizure of Ohio town’s traffic cameras [Cincinnati.com, earlier]
- On Citizens United, liberal foundations should preach what they practice [Washington Examiner editorial linking my new Capital Research piece]
- “Texas teen makes violent joke during video game, is jailed for months” [Robby Soave, Daily Caller]
- Fulton County judge gets award from Georgia bar as questions linger about custody ruling [WGCL]
- Patton Boggs has reason to regret involvement in Chevron-Ecuador legal slugfest [WaPo]
- WSJ: “Risk-Averse Culture Infects U.S. Workers, Entrepreneurs” Now why might that be? [Prof. Bainbridge]
- Much more coverage for Mimolette cheese story [Washington Post front-pager quotes my groaner pun; Simon Lester, Cato, on the trade-law aspects]
“I’m a [Muskogee Creek] Native American woman…”
“… and I oppose the Indian Child Welfare Act…..I fought for my right to choose where my child grew up.” [Frances Danger, XOJane, earlier here, etc.]