Scribbling, scribbling, scribbling on the Internet.
Judge Neil Gorsuch is a genuinely outstanding jurist, who would be a superb addition to the United States Supreme Court. All Americans can and should be deeply proud that his intellect, his devotion to scholarship, and his fidelity to original public meaning jurisprudence has brought him to this extraordinary moment in his career and his …
Continue reading "Democrats Should Hold the Gorsuch Nomination Hostage"
And yes, I mean every word in the title of this blog post. Here is why. To start, let it be noted that Donald Trump, by himself, can do more to disrupt international security and stability than can most latent geopolitical threats out there: A Donald Trump presidency poses a top-10 risk event that could …
Before getting into the meat of this post, let me state the following: The president of the United States has every right to nominate someone to the United States Supreme Court, despite the fact that this is an election year. The United States Senate has every right not to act on the nomination, and no …
Continue reading "Merrick Garland and the United States Supreme Court"
In the aftermath of last week's Supreme Court ruling on Obergefell, I have engaged in some online debates with people of goodwill regarding the issue of same-sex marriage. I expect that those debates will continue for some time to come, but in the event that it is useful, here is a comprehensive outline regarding where …
Continue reading "Thoughts and Clarifications on the Issue of Same-Sex Marriage"
Notwithstanding the paranoid fantasies of some religious conservatives, no church or clergy in the United States will be compelled to perform same-sex marriages, any more than they are compelled to perform remarriages or interreligious marriages. Neither will religious teachings about sexuality and marriage be penalized; Kennedy’s opinion reaffirms this obvious point. Kennedy moreover steps away …
The United States Supreme Court has come out with two major opinions, in as many days. The first concerned Barack Obama's health care law, and featured a bad outcome based on poor reasoning. The second concerned the issue of same-sex marriage and featured a laudable outcome based on less-than-good reasoning. We'll take the health care …
Continue reading "The Supreme Court Bats .500. Legal and Political Analysis Follows."
There has been a lot of debate about the letter sent by 47 Republican senators to the Iranian regime regarding the negotiations over nuclear energy use--likely for weapons--by Iran. I happen to think that sending the letter was a bad idea; foreign policy has been found to be the province of the executive branch, with …
Continue reading "Social Media: Not the Place to Go for Sober-Headed Legal Analysis"
In reacting to President Obama's recent speech on immigration, I find myself in the same position as Ilya Shapiro; I commend the president on a truly excellent, much-needed policy change, while deploring the way in which the change is being implemented. Like Shapiro, I cannot get past the fact that previously, the president swore up …
Continue reading "Our Very Wise and Poorly Implemented New Immigration Policy"
"Money Rules Elections--Except When It Doesn't." Read the whole thing. I guess it's too much to think that people who believe Citizens United is destroying the fabric of Western Civilization will reconsider their beliefs upon reading Walter Olson's post. But hope springs eternal.
Stephen Bainbridge takes the young Kennedy to task for pretending that corporations can somehow be given some kind of "death penalty" for not agreeing with Kennedy's views on climate policy. Of course, to say that Professor Bainbridge has forgotten more about corporate law than the young Kennedy will ever learn is to understate matters (and you …
Pejman Yousefzadeh 