HLPR Blog: Notice and Comment

by bloizides on February 3, 2011

Ninth Circuit Suffers “Decade of Reversal,” Judge Says

Michael Stephan

The Lewis & Clark Law Review recently published an essay by Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the Ninth Circuit. The essay discusses the reversal rate of Ninth Circuit cases at the Supreme Court over the past decade. Judge O’Scannlain, who is considered strongly conservative by some, concludes that “the Ninth Circuit’s record in the Supreme Court has been strikingly poor.”

Judge O’Scannlain points out that, in the last ten years, the Ninth Circuit was reversed or vacated in 81% of its cases that the Supreme Court heard. The other twelve circuits had a combined reversal rate of only 71%. These figures, Judge O’Scannlain explains, suggest that the Ninth Circuit’s reversal rate is especially high.

by bloizides on February 2, 2011

Bloomberg, Progressives, and 2012

Rachel Lauter

A lot has been written about whether or not New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is preparing himself for a presidential run in 2012. His recent advocacy on gun control (including this pretty awesome and brazen undercover sting at an Arizona gun show), and his calls for federal immigration reform, are certainly plays to shape the policy agenda, and might be an effort to garner support from the left-leaning electorate. They are also likely an effort to reaffirm his reputation for competency in governance after a few missteps this fall and winter, including a politically contentious appointment for school chancellor and the failure to properly prepare for and respond to a snowpocalypse.

by bloizides on February 2, 2011

A Progressive Paradox: Environmental Regulations and Affordable Housing

Yevgeny Shrago

An interesting paper (gated) by Matthew Kahn and Jonathan Zasloff focuses on the effects that California’s Coastal Boundary Zone regulations had on housing prices in the area. The authors find (unsurprisingly) that a house located within the Boundary Zone sells for a substantial price premium over a similar house located just over the boundary. This is a fantastic support for the seemingly intuitive but hotly contested thesis that land use regulations are a determinant of high house prices.

This paper’s conclusions highlight an important contradiction between two major planks of progressive policy: environmental protection and affordable housing. The Coastal Boundary Zone and the commission that administers it were created in the 1970′s to protect California’s natural coast. The Coastal Commission takes this job seriously and has done it admirably, fighting interests like the Hearst Estate and David Geffento protect against major development. Unfortunately, as the paper finds, the result of this smashing success are persistently high house prices across the region.

by bloizides on February 2, 2011

Oklahoma’s Wind Blows

Smita Ghosh

Lawmakers in several states have followed the Oklahoma’s lead in seeking to ban the enforcement of international law in state and federal courts.

Say what you will about Oklahomans, they certainly know how to pass a ballot initiative. Last Fall, Oklahomans voted to make English the “common and unifying language” of the state, allow individuals to opt-out of the individual healthcare mandate and—not surprisingly—to make it easier for advocates to pass more ballot initiatives in the future. (Election results here). Another Oklahoma proposition, SQ 755, has been gaining some traction among both commentators and legislators in other states.

by bloizides on February 1, 2011

Punishment > Crime

Zach Luck

Last week the blogs buzzed with the story of a mother hit with a 10-day jail sentence and a $30,000 fine for misstating where she lived (she used her father’s address) to get her daughters into a better school. The mother, Kelley Williams-Bolar, is now unable to get an Ohio teaching license despite being only a few credit hours away from her degree due to this felony conviction.

There are so many things wrong here its hard to know where to begin. The heart-wrenching human drama of a woman severely punished for doing what she thought was right? The continuing racial divide in American’s schools more than half a century after Brown? The selective enforcement of a rule against a black family? A criminal system which places ever-higher penalties on a felony conviction and ever-lower bars on what constitutes a felony?

[Read more…] about Punishment > Crime

by bloizides on February 1, 2011

Blackwater trial tests the effectiveness of U.S. courts

Marshall Thompson

A federal judge held last week that a civil suit against military contractors who allegedly shot 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007 can move forward in a North Carolina state court. The move came because Judge Terrence Boyle ruled that the non-resident plaintiffs, the relatives of the killed Iraqis, would not be able to sue in U.S. federal court for wrongs occurring outside of the U.S. This civil action in state court is the last chance for the Iraqi families to find closure for a terrible tragedy.

In September, 2007, military contractors working for Blackwater, now called Xe, opened fire in Nisoor Square in Baghdad. The military contractors say they were reacting to an attack. An Iraqi government investigation and a separate FBI investigation, however, found the contractors were probably unprovoked. Facing criminal charges in the U.S., one of the six contractors struck a deal with prosecutors to testify against the others. Despite video evidence and the testimony of the contractor, the case was thrown outbecause of other evidentiary problems involving testimony taken from the other contractors.