What exactly is a vaccine mandate?
Before the current pandemic, I had never read the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s opinion in Commonwealth v. Jacobson. That case observed, “[i]f a person should deem it important that vaccination …
Reason
Now that Pennsylvania has certified its election results, we may never know whether Justice Barrett would have recused from the election litigation
Today, the Pennsylvania Secretary of State certified the final count for the presidential election. At this point, the Supreme Court likely has no urgent need to decide any of the …
UMD Public Policy School Mandating Ideological Statements on Syllabus, Requiring That Class “Materials” and “Discussions” “Respect All Forms of Diversity”
The University of Maryland School of Public Policy School is apparently about to require faculty members to add a statement to their syllabus; here’s the cover e-mail, which I got …
ConLaw Class 28: Modern Substantive Due Process III: Protecting “Dignity”
Class 28: Modern Substantive Due Process III: Protecting “Dignity” Lawrence v. Texas (1249-1270) United States v. Windsor (1270-1272) Obergefell v. Hodges (1272-1299) ReasonFounded in 1968, Reason is the magazine of …
Poetry Tuesday!: “Uznik” (“The Prisoner”) by Aleksandr Pushkin
Here’s “Узник” (“Uznik”, “The Prisoner” or “The Captive”) (1822) by Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837). For the rest of my playlist, click here. Past poems are: “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson “The …
Revisiting the Rule of Law and Legal and Constitutional Norms
When my book Lawless: The Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Assault on the Constitution and the Rule of Law was published, one criticism I faced was that my conception of what violates …
Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Pick Has Been an Avid Backer of American Military Intervention
President-elect Joe Biden will soon formally announce his appointments for top foreign policy and national security positions, including longtime adviser Antony Blinken as secretary of state. As a veteran of …
Netflix’s Hillbilly Elegy Is a Movie Afraid of the Book It’s Based on
When J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy was released in summer 2016, it quickly became an object of fascination: Donald Trump was in the process of claiming the Republican presidential nomination, surprising …
District Court Rejects Attempt to Bind Social Media Platforms to Anti-Libel Injunction
From Weitsman v. Levesque, decided Friday by Judge Janis L. Sammartino (S.D. Cal.): [T]he Court has concerns about ordering third parties, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, to take action …
Is It Individually Rational to Loosen Up Near the End of a Pandemic?
With distribution of vaccines starting in the next month or so, should one rationally change one’s behavior? If one assumes that one’s choice in a period has no effect on …