From Lincoln’s Address before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, a speech well worth reading in full: At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All […]
Scalia was possibly the best writer on the Supreme Court–ever. Kagan, almost his political polar opposite, will likewise rank as one of its best writers. These are generous, kind thoughts and a worthy example to emulate when we speak of someone we may otherwise disagree with.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer delivered the court’s majority opinion today in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a case in which the plaintiff challenged the “admitting-privileges” and “surgical-center” requirements that were part of legislation enacted by the Texas Legislature in 2013. Those requirements, the Legislature said, were to ensure safer practices by Texas abortion providers and […]
Things I learned while on Twitter: Thomas Jefferson owned a 22-shot rifle, a Girandoni air rifle. You can read all about these air rifles here. Pretty nifty rifle. Here’s a video explaining how the rifle works. Here’s another video (not as well done), this time showing the rifle in action. The implications of Jefferson owning […]
The 9th Circuit rules against concealed carry in California. The court said there was no constitutional right to concealed carry. I’m guessing we haven’t heard the last of this case. And for what it’s worth, the 9th Circuit hasn’t fared too well in the Supreme Court: The Justices [of the Supreme Court] have long had […]
Two things interest me about the two quotes below: First, that original material was written in 1764–in Italy–by Cesare Beccaria in his treatise On Crimes and Punishments. Yes, I know. It sounds like something right out of an NRA press release in response to yet another move by the [name your president] to implement by executive order more […]
David Koppel’s got it if you want it: a complete review of federal circuit court jurisprudence on the 2nd Amendment post Heller and McDonald. Here’s the abstract: “The Supreme Court decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago left lower courts with the responsibility to flesh out many aspects of Second Amendment […]
The key paragraph from an article discussing recent oral arguments at the Supreme Court on the Clean Water Act, a case called U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs v. Hawkes Co., Inc: “The oral argument focused on whether the Corps jurisdictional determination meets the second condition of the Supreme Court’s test for identifying final agency action […]
My blog focuses on issues related to estate and business planning, which includes posts on water and real estate law and on other issues affecting farms and ranches. But you might also occasionally encounter posts on other legal subjects that interest me. This is one of those posts. I find the intersection of federalism and […]