Constitutional Law

Paper on gun control, race, etc.

Posted on April 26, 2008
"Much Ado About...Something Else: D.C. v. Heller, the Racialized Mythology of the Second Amendment, and Gun Policy Reform." I actually found it good, on a quick skim, if you allow for what the author has to do to get it published. The core of it deals with how blacks were disarmed under the Slave Codes and then the Black Codes, how the 14th Amendment was meant to stop that, and didn't, how early in the 20th century blacks formed militias for defense against mobs, and how armed resistance was used in the civil rights movement...

Newspaper gets list of CCW holders

Posted on April 26, 2008
An Oregon court has ruled that the Mail-Tribune has a right to copies of the CCW permit holders in Jackson County.

Now a surprising article from BBC

Posted on April 25, 2008
"America's Safety Catch. Subtitle: "Despite the fact there are more than 200 million guns in circulation, there is a certain tranquility and civility about American life." Hat tip to Peter Buxton....

Government found liable

Posted on April 25, 2008
here's a report of a verdict and settlement over a 911 call. The woman was being beaten, and ultimately smothered, while she made repeated 911 calls. For some reason the dispatcher merely sent out a call relating a domestic disturbance. The officers took 26 minutes to respond, found nobody responded to the door, and naturally left (you don't bust down a door over a report of a "disturbance," esp...

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Surprising article in Chicago Tribune

Posted on April 24, 2008
Here it is. "When a rash of gun murders takes place, it makes sense for the police to do one of two things: renew tactics that have been effective in the past at curbing homicides, or embrace ideas that have not been tried before. But those options don't appeal to Chicago Police Supt...

Pizza Hut self-defender fired

Posted on April 24, 2008
SayUncle has the story. Local contrast: in Tucson, one of the more sickening crimes of the last decade was the "Pizza Hut killings." Two young local thugs robbed a Pizza Hut, became concerned that one of the clerks might have recognized them, and so herded everyone into the back and murdered them all...

FLA Chamber of Commerce suit vs. commuter self defense

Posted on April 24, 2008
Here's a pdf file of the complaint, scanned and thus rather large. The three theories are deprivation of property w/o due process, taking of property by regulation w/o compensation, and violation of the Federal OSHA standards. I'd rate the first two as very weak, and don't do OSHA so I can't size up the last...

Sen. Coburn on the M4

Posted on April 23, 2008
Senator Coburn raises questions about the M4 rifle. I've no experience with one. I know that its predecessor, the M-16, had serious jamming problems in Vietnam, and I've read reports of jamming in Iraq, but no idea whether those were common or rare...

Prof. tries to ban empty holsters

Posted on April 23, 2008
Story here.

4th Amendment case

Posted on April 23, 2008
The Supremes just decided Virginia v. Moore. Defendant was caught driving on a suspended license. State law provided that he be given a summons, rather than arrested, for that. Officers instead arrested him, and a search incident to arrest uncovered drugs...

ABC News in another hit piece

Posted on April 23, 2008
I was too busy to give it justice, but Confederate Yankee does a great job. It is a sign of the weakening dollar that now you're expected to pay a $20 bribe to get your car, and anything hidden in its truck, across the border. In the days when I had time, $10 did it, and offering $20 would excite suspicion that you really did have a trunk full of AKs and C4 and a body.

Joyce, Obama, and the Heller case

Posted on April 22, 2008
I've mentioned below the Politico article on how, during Obama's time as a Director of the Joyce Foundation, it pumped millions into anti-individual rights scholarship. It also goes into Joyce's essentially "buying up" law reviews to run exclusively anti-individual rights article, and the effect on the Heller case (i...

One incredible self-defense tale...

Posted on April 22, 2008
Blind man encounters burglar, pins him to the floor, beats him senseless, then holds him at knifepoint for police. Memo: do not cross this guy.

Joyce Foundation, Heller case, and Obama

Posted on April 21, 2008
I've mentioned the Joyce Foundation, and its devotion of millions to funding anti-second amendment scholarship. Yesterday, Politico.com ran an interesting story, noting that Joyce's efforts date to when a lawyer named Barack Obama sat on its Board. Joyce's protests that they really aren't antigun, just funding legal research, is shot down with the note that all the groups they sent money to filed amicus briefs supporting DC in the Heler case...

John Lott on "Gun Free Zones"

Posted on April 21, 2008
Right here.

Florida Chamber of Commerce sues over commuter self-defense law

Posted on April 21, 2008
So reports the Orlando Sentinel. It doesn't state the legal theory, and I have trouble envisioning one, or at least one that might win.

Clinton and McCain can sleep easy

Posted on April 21, 2008
This endorsement tells us Obama's candidacy is doomed. Moore has never yet endorsed a candidate that didn't crash and burn. I mean, last time around he backed Wesley Clark, who flamed out two weeks later. Then he went with "anybody but Bush," and we know who came out on top there.

Chicago's handgun ban

Posted on April 20, 2008
Chicago's attempt at banning handguns makes that of DC look like a success. Of course to the city government that's just proof that if there was more regulation of private firearms, it'd work even better. I recall once reading an advocate of Prohibition, after its repeal, still arguing that it would have work if just there had really been a complete ban on alcohol...

Good editorial on recent GA law

Posted on April 20, 2008
Over at Jason Pye's blog. Hat tip to reader Mike M. ....

Blood baths in Kanas

Posted on April 19, 2008
The (anti)"gunguys" worries about the prospect that Kanasa might allow private sake of licensed Title II firearms. I.e., firearms that cost $5000 and up, require FBI fingerprint clearance, and in 70 years have been involved in, depending upon which report you want to believe, either zero or one violent crimes...

Crime drop in prisons

Posted on April 19, 2008
A Weekly Standard article notes that, while violent crime has dropped generally, violent crime in prisons has fallen to an incredible degree -- as in a 94% fall in homicides. The article attributes it to better administration, which I suspect is correct...

Approaches to judging a case

Posted on April 19, 2008
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy Orin Kerr has a link to an interview of a prof. who clerked for Justice Goldberg on the Supreme Court, in the early 60s. One passage caught my eye: "Working for him was an eye-opening experience. His first question in approaching a case always was, ?What is the just result?? Then he would work backward from the answer to that question to see how it would comport with relevant theory or precedent...

Waco, 15 years after

Posted on April 19, 2008
Here's a link to my Waco page, established years ago (and never had time to update, so some audio files are out of order). It took 3-4 years of Freedom of Information Act litigation to get the data. I'll give you one teaser.... For months before the first raid, they had agents watching from a house across the street...

Bit of embarassment for TV personality

Posted on April 19, 2008
Oops. I think with a declining value of the dollar you now have to be worth *ten* million to become eccentric.... Via Instapundit...

Gun owners hardly bitter

Posted on April 19, 2008
An article by the author of the book "Gross National Happiness" reports survey data indicating that, compared to nonowners, gun owners were: 20% more likely to rate themselves as "very happen," and about half as likely to rate themselves as "not very happy": Spent 15% less time feeling outraged at someone else Although more likely to feel that those in need should take care of themselves, were more likely to give to charity and to donate blood...

Never bring a bat to a gunfight, pt. 2

Posted on April 18, 2008
More detail here. The explanation of suicide by cop raises questions in my mind. If a person wants the officer to kill him, it's hardly wise to begin by nailing the officer over the head with a bat, likely knocking him out or killing him. Or to attack from behind...

Search service that contributes to NRA Foundation

Posted on April 18, 2008
It's powered by Yahoo, and called Goodsearch. If you click on the shopping panel, you can search Amazon, Apple Store, Ebay, etc., and a percent of your buy goes to NRA Foundation.

More on the campaign...

Posted on April 18, 2008
Here. Must be rather disheartening to Brady. Two candidates very favorable to you, falling over each other to tell the public that they're not, and accusing the other of being your true ally, treating such status as a horrible thing. Busy today, so blogging will be light.

Law clerks and reversal rates

Posted on April 18, 2008
An interesting paper with the interesting title of "Want Your Opinions Questioned or Reversed? Hire a Yale Clerk." He takes nearly 13,000 federal decisions, tracks whether they have been reversed or questioned, and then compares that to the rank of the law school from which the judge's clerks graduated...

NRA gets court order blocking Philadelphia's new ordinances

Posted on April 17, 2008
A judge this morning issued an order temporarily enjoining enforcement of the city's new ordinances. The injunction will last at least until the next hearing on April 28. Another story here.

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