Archives for April 2011

Yevgeny Shrago The Economist ran a special report last week about the dysfunctional mess that is California’s finances. Along with providing their outsider’s perspective on the out of whack initiative process and legislative supermajority rules that make the Senate filibuster look sane, the Economist considered, with gentle British mockery, the multitude of elected state officials. Californians vote for nine statewide offices, including such politically explosive positions as Insurance …

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Michael Stephan Last Thursday, the Ninth Circuit decided Tobar v. United States, a case dealing with sovereign immunity in the admiralty law context.  At first glance, Tobar appears to be a relatively straightforward decision about whether the United States has waived sovereign immunity from a suit brought by Ecuadorian fishermen who had their boat temporarily seized by the United States Coast Guard.  A close look at Tobar, however, reveals a very interesting question at issue: To what extent …

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Smita Ghosh  “If that’s the kind of New Jersey you want to live in, that’s find by me,” Chris Christie noted threateningly at a Town Hall meeting in Hamilton Township.  Chris Christie wasn’t talking about Snooki’s Jersey Shore, or reported bed bug sightings in Hackensack and Paramus.  In fact, Christie was referring to the state-wide effects of Judge Barry Albin, who has been a frequent target of some of the Governor’s recent barbs. …

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Jake Laperruque Our criminal system has a straightforward structure:  First, the defendant is tried.  Next, a verdict is rendered.  Finally, if found guilty, a sentence is carried out.  However, for Pfc. Bradley Manning, this process has gone in reverse.  For his alleged role as a key Wikileaks source, Manning is being subjected to the Bizarro World Rules of Criminal Procedure, first facing imprisonment then being declared guilty, all before being given a trial. …

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Marshall Thompson The high-priced firm that Rep. John Boehner hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act dropped out yesterday amid pressure from its clients. This comes after the Obama Administration decided that the law was constitutionally indefensible and passed the onus on to the House of Representatives to defend it in February. Former Solicitor General Paul Clement, who originally contracted with Rep. Boehner to defend DOMA, has resigned and moved to a different firm to continue …

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Jay Willis Yesterday, the Boston Globe profiled the expanded use of technology in colleges and law schools, writing that institutional eagerness to make the Internet available in classrooms has been replaced with trepidation at what many professors and administrators now feel is a counterproductive distraction; for example, Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, calls it “demoralizing” to see students shopping for …

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