“Our Constitution Is Out of Step with the Rest of the World”

And thank goodness for that, observes my Cato colleague Roger Pilon. Promising more while in practice delivering less, other countries’ constitutions tend to be less careful in enumerating and limiting government powers, even as they promise all manner of (often unsustainable) entitlements. More: Mike Rappaport and relatedly, on the academic left, Mark Tushnet (among his colleagues “debate has ended over whether constitutions should include …rights” of the social/economic sort that depart from U.S. constitutional practice).

February 8 roundup

  • Popular proposal to curb Congressional insider trading (“STOCK Act”) could have disturbing unintended consequences [John Berlau, CEI “Open Market”] A contrary view: Bainbridge.
  • Here’s Joe’s number, he’ll do a good job of suing us: “Some Maryland hospitals recommend lawyers to patients” [Baltimore Sun, Ron Miller]
  • Bribing the states to spend: follies of our fiscal federalism, and other themes from Michael Greve’s new book The Upside-Down Constitution [LLL, more, yet more] “Atlas Croaks, Supreme Court Shrugs” [Greve, Charleston Law Review; related, Ted Frank]
  • “… Daubert Relevancy is the Sentry That Guards Against the Tyranny of Experts” [David Oliver on new First Circuit opinion or scroll to Jan. 23]
  • Goodbye old political tweets, Eric Turkewitz is off to trial;
  • State laws squelch election speech, and political class shrugs (or secretly smiles) [George Will]
  • Too bad Carlyle Group got scared off promising experiment to revamp corporate governance to curb role of litigation [Ted Frank, Gordon Smith] AAJ should try harder to use people’s quotes in context [Bainbridge]

“Never let law profs near the Oval Office”

My Cato colleague Gene Healy points out that President Obama is the fourth chief executive who also taught constitutional law, joining William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton. “Taft did comparatively little damage, but the rest hardly inspire confidence that familiarity with constitutional scholarship encourages fidelity to the national charter.” [Washington Examiner] He lets me have a parting shot:

My Cato Institute colleague Walter Olson, author of “Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America”, explains that “legal academia rewards cleverness in coming up with strained arguments for ideologically favored (or just expedient) positions; marginalizes as eccentric thinkers who favor original understanding as a guide” to the Constitution and often reduces law to “politics by other means.”

Unfortunately, that training has served Obama well.

My spring speaking schedule

I’ll be traveling quite a bit this spring speaking on my book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America. Unless otherwise specified, the talks will be at Federalist Society student chapters. At some, a faculty member will be commenting or debating me. There’s still time to add more events, so if you’d like to book me, email editor – at – overlawyered – dot – com. And if my travels bring me to your own hometown or nearby, please feel free to drop me a line — sometimes my arrival/departure schedule leaves extra time for meeting friends old or new.

Feb. 14 Fordham (NYC, with Prof. Zephyr Teachout)
Feb. 22 Brooklyn Law School (midday)
Feb. 22 Yale (New Haven; evening, with Prof. John Fabian Witt)
Feb. 27 Syracuse
Feb. 28 Cleveland/Marshall
Mar. 1 Pitt
Mar. 7 Emory (Atlanta)
Mar. 19 Boston U.
Apr. 11 Vanderbilt (Nashville)

Employment law roundup

Occupational licensure vs. free speech

Is a pattern developing in North Carolina? First an official in that state sought an investigation of a man who prepared a traffic analysis for a neighborhood group agitating for traffic signals, on the grounds that he was practicing engineering without a license. [News & Observer] Now a blogger who offers dietary advice based on his own struggles against diabetes faces possible charges of practicing nutrition without a license [Diabetes Warrior; via Radley Balko, earlier]

“Democrats vs. Teacher Unions: The Battle Heats Up”

Walter Russell Mead notes a reformist initiative on teacher certification with perhaps an unexpected sponsor, the Democratic governor of Connecticut. [The American Interest; CTNewsJunkie.com]

P.S. On the ultimate frontier of teacher reform — the firing of bad teachers — see new reports from Troy Senik [Public Sector Inc.] and Marcus Winters [NY Post].