An interesting question now pending before the Massachusetts high court in Commonwealth v. Eldred (see, e.g., this article in the Boston Globe [Maria Cramer]); Sally Satel, who has guest-blogged here before, co-wrote a brief in the case and was kind enough to pass along a...
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and mayoral candidate Pat Harris called on the leadership of the Minnesota city’s police union to resign Thursday evening, decrying as racist the group’s recent criticism of Harris’ opponent Melvin Carter III, reports the Pioneer Press. The St. Paul Police...
The long-stalled effort to overhaul federal sentencing laws still stands a decent chance of passage in Congress despite opposition in the past by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, two Republican senators told a criminal justice conference on Thursday. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) said that...
On behalf of the American Unity Fund and ourselves, Eugene and I have filed a Supreme Court amicus brief (available here) in support of a same-sex couple in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which involves a baker’s refusal to provide the couple a...
President Trump is promising a “massive advertising campaign” as part of his administration’s response to the worst drug crisis in U.S. history, but past marketing efforts have shown few results, and experts say other measures could be far more effective in curbing the current epidemic,...
As central banks go, the Federal Reserve is one of the best. Much academic literature suggests that one of the reasons for its relative success is its relative political independence and freedom from partisanship. Central banks that are partisan or politicized are likely to engineer...
Coulibaly v. Stevance, decided Wednesday by the Indiana Court of Appeals, considers whether Indiana courts should honor a Malian child custody decree (involving Malian citizens). Indiana has adopted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), under which state courts must enforce out-of-state and...
To the loved ones of those devastated by opioids, President Trump’s declaration Thursday of a public health care emergency is too little, too late, says USA Today. It’s “like trying to put a Band Aid on a fatal wound,” says Charlotte Wethington of northern Kentucky,...
New reports on Richard Thaler, who received the “Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences” this year usually mentioned, albeit in passing, Thaler’s doctoral dissertation on the topic of estimating the value of a human life. This topic is often taken to represent economics at its...
The Nuts and Bolts: Elements of a Legal Brief Every standard brief has a few basic elements: An introduction that articulates the party’s claim and introduces the party’s theory of the case and the procedural history of the case. A table of authorities (TOA) section that describes all...