Harvard Law & Policy Review

Archives for February 2015

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The Problem with Kicking the Can Down the Road

By Tharuni Jayaraman It’s happening again. As has been reported endlessly this past week, if Congress does not act soon to pass a funding measure, the Department of Homeland Security will shut down at 12:01 AM on Saturday. Notwithstanding the endless speculation and sound bites, the long-term implications for the country of such a shutdown are unclear. Indeed, given that about 85% of DHS employees would likely be considered “essential,” the term “shutdown” might, in itself, be a bit of a …

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Thinking About an Agenda for a New Supreme Court, Part II

By Mark Tushnet The first post on this topic briefly discussed what a new Supreme Court might do about campaign finance regulation. I suggested that the best course would be to go back to the beginning, rather than try to work within the framework developed over the past forty years. Doing so would allow a new Court both to eliminate much of the doctrinal complexity in the field and, far more important, to place the constitutional analysis of campaign finance regulation on a firmer …

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This is Why Einstein was a Genius (And Rand Paul is Not)

By Tom Watts Science has taken a beating in the policy world lately. While discussing the recent measles outbreak, Rand Paul, who is a medical doctor and should know better, said that vaccinations can lead to “profound mental disorders” (which, needless to say, is false). The Senate has also struggled with whether climate change is real and, if so, whether it is human-induced (which, needless to say, it is). These problematic incidents involving elected officials highlight some fundamental …

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