I'm sorry. I was laughing too hard over this bit of stonewalling by Maryland Democratic Senators Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin. FROM 1997 to 2001, Rod J. Rosenstein worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Greenbelt. For the past two years, he has been the top federal prosecutor in Maryland and has earned plaudits for […]
In Boulder, Colo., they make the Kelo land-grab look like the epitome of government adherence to the rule of law. Despite owning the land, despite living only 200 yards from the property, despite hiking past it every week with their three dogs, despite spraying for weeds and fixing fences, despite paying homeowner association dues and […]
On Thursday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- the most-overturned circuit in the land -- ruled that the Bush administration's fuel economy/pollution standards are too lax. Now, I'm all for increased fuel efficency. If Detroit (and Europe and Japan) could make a safe, spacious SUV with enough power to merge safely into freeway traffic […]
I know you're thinking I've got the story wrong, but Judge Leslie Southwick was filibustered yesterday on his way to finally winning Senate confirmation to a seat on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. You can find a list of the 35 senators who filibustered Southwick here. Yes, you're a smarty. You know that it […]
than to be Frank Rich and remove all doubt. The New York Times columnist on Sunday took on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and was quickly handed his hat by Orin Kerr, who points out that the "Yalie" law school network doesn't typically (read: never) count an entry level lawyering job in Missouri as a […]
In an article earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal, Northwestern University law professor Stephen Calabresi makes the point that those who disdain the legal principle of "originalism" when it comes to interpreting the Constitution in favor of "evolving standards of decency" are a bunch of hypocrites. For starters, the long-accepted rule for interpreting […]
You can't always blame the education system for the poor state of civics education -- sometimes you get to blame judges. In a story in Sunday's Union-Tribune about a program to educate teachers on how t teach about the justice system to their students, Superior Court Judge Richard G. Cline had the following take on […]
A federal judge in San Francisco of all places has tossed out state Attorney General Jerry "Space Command" Brown's lawsuit (originially filed by his predecessor) that sought to sue auto manufacturers for global warming. But District Judge Martin Jenkins in San Francisco handed California Attorney General Jerry Brown's environmental crusade a stinging rebuke when he […]
Monday morning the remaining charges were dropped against the two 13-year-old boys who were arrested and charged with crimes that would require them to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives for (stupidly) slapping girls on their butts. "I believe these youths have now moved from a model of bad behavior in […]
Richard Paey is serving a 25 year sentence in Florida for possessing 100 Percocet pills which he used to dull the chronic pain with which he lives. Two years into Paey's 25 year sentence you could see his feet twisted, his hands trembling and his body failing. An old car accident ruined his spine and […]