Obama’s Nobel Unconstitutional?
Ron Rotunda and Peter Pham argue in today's WaPo that it would violate the Constitution for President Obama to accept the Nobel Peace Prize while in office. Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, the emolument clause, clearly stipulates: "And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 16, 2009 10:31
Killing Presidents
Related controversies roiling the blogosphere today point to the dark side of American politics. First, NewsMax ran an article by a John L. Perry titled "Obama Risks a Domestic Military ‘Intervention.’" It has apparently been removed from the site (it's now directing to the home page and isn't showing along with the author's other pieces) but the excerpt says "There ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 30, 2009 12:51
77% Oklahoma High School Students Can’t Name 1st President?
A recent survey of Oklahoma public high school students found that the overwhelming majority can't answer even simple questions about U.S. government and history. A thousand students were given 10 questions drawn from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services item bank. Candidates for U.S. citizenship must answer six questions correctly in order to become citizens. About 92 percent of the people ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 18, 2009 07:19
Sotomayor: Overturn Corporate Personhood
It appears that Sonia Sotomayor will be an activist judge after all. During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court's majority conservatives seemed persuaded that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled. But Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong -- and that instead the court ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 17, 2009 09:48
Supreme Court May Overturn Campaign Finance Laws
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that could overturn two recent precedents allowing the restriction of political speech by corporations for the purpose of curbing the appearance of undue influence. There's an excellent chance they will do so. [caption id="attachment_41594" align="alignright" width="350" caption="Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., left, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. have backed challenges to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 8, 2009 08:50
Innocent Person’s Right Not to Be Executed
Though I follow a number of lawblogs, I missed a rather interesting Supreme Court decision until reading about it on the blog of entrepreneur Mark Cuban. For reasons understandable to those who follow Cuban, he has a Google alert for "prosecutorial misconduct," which yields more results than one would like. It led him to Michael Dorf's FindLaw essay "Did ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 28, 2009 10:12
Hal Turner and the Limits of Free Speech
How far does the 1st Amendment go? Hal Turner is about to find out. [caption id="attachment_40787" align="alignright" width="496" caption="Hal Turner, an Internet radio host and blogger, posted photos of the three judges who displeased him and a map of the courthouse where they work. (By Jessica Hill -- Associated Press) "][/caption] Internet radio host Hal Turner disliked how three federal judges rejected ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 16, 2009 06:44
Is the Filibuster Unconstitutional?
Matt Yglesias cites a 15-year-old essay by Hendrick Hertzberg arguing that the filibuster is unconstitutional: It’s true that the framers did not specify that the Senate would do its normal business by simple majority vote, but that’s because it didn’t occur to them that they had to specify it, any more than it occurred to them to specify that senators should ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 6, 2009 11:58
Congressional Revolution Needed?
Ezra Klein and Steve Benen are recirculating this somewhat interesting chart on political polarization in America by political scientists Nolan McCarty, Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal. Ezra argues that "this level of polarization makes it virtually impossible to govern in a system that is designed to foil majorities and require a constant three-fifths consensus. It's not good if the country ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 2, 2009 08:08
Ideological Wind Tunnels
Glenn Greenwald rebuts those who think his strident attacks on Presidents Bush and Obama for abusing their power make his blog "an ideological wind tunnel" and that he is "oblivious to the practical considerations policymakers must contend with." By the design of the Founders, most American political issues are driven by the vicissitudes of political realities, shaped by practicalities and resolved by ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 30, 2009 11:29
Federalism and Democracy
Continuing a long-running theme at his blog, Matt Yglesias laments that Senators from small states wield so much power. The latest fuel is a NYT feature on six moderates who are supposedly the linchpins to putting together a bipartisan health care deal and who routinely hash out the details of same over snacks. [V]ast power is being wielded by people who, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 28, 2009 14:37
More on the Honduran Crisis
I was able to find the exact text of the plebiscite that Manuel "Mel" Zelaya wanted to proffer to the citizens of Honduras this past Sunday. The text and a photo of the ballot that was to be used can be found here. The odd thing, and a fact that hasn't made it into a lot of press accounts or ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 30, 2009 12:24
On the Honduran Coup
The events in Honduras today have been some of the more dramatic in recent Latin American (and especially Central American) politics. The events are certainly of relevance to the democratic evolution of Honduras. Dave Schuler asked that I post a few comments given my academic focus on Latin America. If anyone is interested in the topic, I have written ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 28, 2009 23:22
Advil Strip Search Illegal, Says Supreme Court
The Supreme Court sided with a 13-year-old honor student suspended after she was strip searched for Advil. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school's strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal. In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said school officials violated the law with their search of Savana Redding in the rural eastern Arizona ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 25, 2009 11:47
Post Office Too Big to Mail?
Having stolen Pete Davis' post title, I'll at least attempt to answer his question: the U.S. Postal Service was established by the Constitution. I'd be interested if any constitutional lawyers think the Postal Service could be dismantled without amending the Constitution. Well, IANA(C)L but am almost certain that nothing in the Constitution requires Congress to maintain a post office. The relevant passage ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 23, 2009 14:31
