One Face and Another

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which one is true." --Nathaniel Hawthorne

I Need to be Subsidized

Calvin and Hobbes on the financial crisis.

Manta Ray -- Que Niño Soy

NAMUDNO v. Holder

Heather Gerkin, on why the "congruence and proportionality" test might be problematic if applied to the renewal of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act:

The question is what standard should be used [] when Congress is renewing what lawyers would call a prophylactic statute, a broad set of protections designed to deter discrimination. If Boerne were applied wholesale, Congress would be in a catch-22. If the statute was working, there wouldn't be much evidence of discrimination, and Congress wouldn't be allowed to renew the statute. If the statute wasn't working, Congress would have the evidence of discrimination it needed, but there wouldn’t be much point to renewing a failed regulatory regime.

Frustrated

It's not that I think a law and economics approach doesn't have something to bring to the table when settling legal disputes. But in a classroom setting, especially as a 1L, I am bothered by the total lack of statistical evidence used to support what seem to be essentially ideological assertions. Maybe it is a problem exasperated by the adversarial nature of the American legal system, and yes, statistics can be twisted into the service of any argument. Still though, if you are going to argue something from an efficiency standpoint, some numbers to back that argument up would be nice.

links: 17 April 2009

Black Cab Sessions: Beach House: I just stumbled on the Black Cab Sessions--behind the times of course. I'm sure I will link to more as I delve into this fantastic collection. The duo's acoustic version of Heart of Chambers is awesome.

Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S 386, 400 (1798): "it is not sufficient to urge, that the power may be abused, for, such is the nature of all power--such is the tendency of every human institution." Justice Iredell, in reference to the Takings Clause, but one I find applicable to many of the "slippery slope" arguments put forward in my law school classes.