tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36574062024-03-13T11:55:20.363-04:00NINOMANIAKeep your "Yankee From Olympus" -- Give me Sancho Panza from New Jersey!
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Ver me si fece, e io ver' lui mi fei:<br>
giudice Nin gentil, quanto mi piacque<br>
quando ti vidi non esser tra' rei!<br>
-- Dante, <i>Purgatorio</i> VIII 52-54
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This is an independent blog by Prof. David M. Wagner, Research Fellow, National Legal Foundation, and Teacher, Veritas Preparatory Academy. All views expressed here are exclusively the author's own.David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.comBlogger1043125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-35375717273124652442016-02-13T23:19:00.001-05:002016-02-14T00:12:49.317-05:00JUSTICE SCALIA LEAVES US
I can't not-update this semi-retired blog today. Perhaps now is the time to tell how I named it.
It was the story about the bunch of pet fish: this one. The punch-line is "Justice Scalia ate all the others." But what I noticed was that, in all the various re-tellings, when told that the young man had named the biggest fish after him, the Justice's articulated assumptionDavid M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-66298485612492014602015-06-18T11:57:00.003-04:002015-06-19T00:47:08.999-04:00CONFRONTATION CLAUSE ALERT: This morning's Ohio v. Clark is a time-bomb under Crawford v. Washington (much as, I have argued, Crawford was potentially - may still be - a time-bomb under Maryland v. Craig). Clark is unanimous as to outcome, but the Scalia-Ginsburg concurrence outright accuses the "author" of the majority - that would be Justice Alito - of weakening Crawford through word-choice andDavid M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-63306505067236440812015-05-04T17:14:00.004-04:002015-05-04T17:14:34.261-04:00Tsk, tsk, Ohio State. - At least it's ranked, though. Above the Law with the latest on the pushback against caution about going to law school, here.David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-85036114086730896752014-07-09T23:22:00.000-04:002015-06-11T02:17:31.037-04:00ICYMI - and I'm sure you didn't miss it, if you visit here, but as the long-past Washington gossip columnist once said, if you haven't got anything nice to say, come sit right here next to me - Slate and Above the Law have been in a bit of a tiff over whether the law-school applications pool has finally cratered to the point where now may be a "buying opportunity," on the theory that with fewer David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-53091934972038886142014-07-01T00:19:00.001-04:002014-07-01T01:23:02.627-04:00Alitomania!
Hobby Lobby came out the Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita-way I mentioned yesterday, except with Alito writing rather than Roberts. On the surface it's a limited holding - applies only to closely-held corporations, depends entirely on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), and at that, on the second, "least restrictive means" prong of RFRA.
1. RFRA gives protection to David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-87413455087084144212014-06-29T22:30:00.000-04:002014-06-29T22:35:25.631-04:00Oh and while we're waiting, I should remark - I should have remarked it back on April 22, when it was handed down - that on that date, the Court, per Justice Thomas, handed down Prado Navarette v. California, a very dangerous crim pro decision expanding the already-immense power of police to pull over motorists based on thin suspicion (and then carry out plain-sight searches, of course, or David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-24586264092545311552014-06-29T21:53:00.001-04:002014-06-29T21:58:16.602-04:00So tomorrow we get Hobby Lobby, and based on who's been writing from each sitting, either Alito or Roberts is expected to write it. But Alito could deliver the labor opinion that's also expected, and with Roberts writing Hobby Lobby, it could be a victory for religious freedom in the marketplace, or it could be a split, like Noel Canning and McMullen.
The unanimous loss for Obama's position in David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-51874590144689864782014-04-07T20:47:00.003-04:002014-04-07T20:47:19.908-04:00Jeremiah Denton
Catholic, Naval officer, POW, hero, U.S. Senator, attorney. 89. RIP.David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-45223976590963541562014-03-24T14:01:00.002-04:002014-06-29T22:08:28.269-04:00Civil Juries
Last Friday we had a panel at Regent, co-sponsored by our Federalist Society chapter and by The Seventh Admentment Advocate (Andrew Cochran, Washington rep.). Our principal speaker was legal history Prof. Paul Finkelman, of Albany Law School, currently visiting at Louisiana State; I added some comments, and there was q-&-a between us and with the audience.
We had hoped to have David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-53308677186062385962014-01-12T22:35:00.004-05:002014-01-12T22:35:58.561-05:00Many thanks to The Weekly Standard for running my piece on civil juries. Spoiler ahead: the Framers liked them, ergo. so do I.David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-47122444435426466342013-12-24T16:53:00.000-05:002013-12-24T16:53:43.809-05:00Crastina erit vobis salus, dicit Dominus Deus exercitum. - From Nones for the Vigil (day before) ChristmasDavid M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-36087551775927591242013-12-04T12:56:00.000-05:002013-12-04T14:30:39.552-05:00Goodlatte Patent Troll bill - dubitandum
Friends who know my penchant for cross-ideological coalitions (wail til I bring you the news of the glorious Scalia-Kagan alliance on the Confrontation Clause!) have called my attention to H.R. 3309 the Innovation Protection Act, introduced by the reliably conservative Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R.-Va.) and supported by the Obama administration.
The goal is David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-18415113267054399232013-11-26T16:18:00.000-05:002013-11-26T16:18:28.908-05:00The Court has granted cert in two HHS Mandate cases focusing on the question of religious liberty rights of corporations.
It chose for review the two cases that I chose to study with my First Amendment seminar, because they are the cases that stake out the most decisive position on each side: Hobby Lobby (10th Circuit, granting a preliminary injunction), and Conestoga Wood (3rd Circuit, denying David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-81556784741494185102013-10-20T19:02:00.001-04:002013-10-20T19:02:45.148-04:00Rob Natelson, a conservative (my term) law professor whom I have long admired for his deep knowledge of 18th century American and English sources (vital for understanding the Constitution) says that the Republican alternative to Obamacare abuses the Commerce Clause the same way the Obamacare bill itself tried to do, but got slapped down for it by the Roberts Court (Chief + 4 conservative "David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-30584911313546760272013-10-17T18:04:00.001-04:002013-10-17T18:04:28.810-04:00Best part of the NY Mag. interview:
Q.Isn’t it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil?
A. You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-89265457277294189912013-10-09T15:35:00.001-04:002013-10-09T15:35:42.793-04:00Scalia on theology, democracy, and media elitism, in NY Magazine
David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-14225231818557796452013-09-19T10:53:00.001-04:002013-09-19T10:56:55.044-04:00Seems Republican healthcare alternatives are an addictive thing to follow, and, from a standpoint of principled federalism, a disheartening thing to watch.
Apparently the Republican Study Committee has endorsed a bill by Rep. Phil Roe of Tennessee, H.R. 3121. It lacks the "tribunals" of the Price bill, but its mandated changes in medical malpractice law are even more detailed. For example: a $David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-43973177668451941992013-09-16T18:39:00.001-04:002013-09-16T19:04:52.967-04:00Will there be an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill coming out of the House this fall?
Well, Rep./Dr. Tom Price's Empowering Patients First Act, H.R. 2300, seems to have some momentum. It has many good features. But - and this is its relevance to a blog about constitutional law - it also has some features that make me squint a little.
Section 501 of the bill is about lawsuit reform. Fine. But David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-67753060009222873602013-06-27T17:38:00.001-04:002013-06-27T17:38:41.533-04:00Beyond what I wrote yesterday about Perry (which now seems improbable in light of Kennedy's blather for the Court in Windsor, and Scalia's dissent), I'm on vaycay today, and I'm staying that way until I'm not. When I'm not, I'll have some links.David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-30243399753442955702013-06-26T17:43:00.001-04:002013-06-26T17:44:09.067-04:00PerrySo marriage dodged the biggest bullet: a holding that Eq Pr requires ssm nationwide.One question I have is, why did Ginsburg join a restrictive opinion on standing, when expanding standing has long been one of her top agenda items (e.g. Laidlaw)? One guess I'll throw into the mix is that if she refused and thereby allowed an opinion on the merits, Kennedy would not have gone her way and the David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-3587720864915818742013-06-19T16:07:00.001-04:002013-06-19T16:13:28.494-04:00
What was the most significant part of the oral argument in Perry v. Hollingsworth, the Proposition 8/California same sex marriage case, back last March 26? I think it had to be this:
JUSTICE SCALIA: [W[hen did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage? 1791? 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted? Sometimes -- some time after Baker, where we said it didn'tDavid M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-29366892597340096952013-04-08T12:07:00.001-04:002013-04-08T12:08:32.932-04:00Mrs. Thatcher
Mrs. Thatcher
Many British columnists writing about today's sad news -- the death of Mrs. Thatcher (she was of course "Baroness" or "Lady" Thatcher, but she was "Mrs." during the meat of her political career, plus, I think her irreducible Mrs.-iness was part of her identity for her fans, so "Mrs." it shall be) -- many are a tad younger than me, and so they speak of her in terms of "growing David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-53975267386291973222013-02-18T11:37:00.001-05:002013-10-17T18:05:10.271-04:00This afternoon a 16-year-old girl will appear before a judge in Texas to ask if he would very kindly rule that she cannot be forced to have an abortion that she does not want. To this, the "choice" principle has led us. I solicit your prayers that this girl be delivered from the atrocity that threatens her.
I am very proud that two Regent Law graduates, one of them a student of mine, are David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-28826563184773328942013-01-22T12:32:00.002-05:002013-01-22T12:33:24.328-05:00
Justice Scalia attended the Inauguration yesterday wearing a replica of St. Thomas More's hat, a gift to the Justice from the Thomas More Society of Richmond, Va.
More, of course, was a high-ranking lawyer in the administration of King Henry VIII who became a martyr due to his Catholicism and his opposition to his king's break with the ecclesial jurisdiction (not doctrine, technically - David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657406.post-68293103034282459242012-12-31T20:51:00.001-05:002012-12-31T20:51:21.358-05:00Seidman
Prof. Bainbridge takes care of the matter here. I could say more - perhaps I will later, esp. about how choosing one at-the-time viable reading of the Constitution over a later, victorious one, as John Adams did re the Sedition Act, does not amount to "ignoring" the Constitution - but, spurred by a tweet from @walterolson, I realized that I have somewhat aggressively not cared what Prof.David M. Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07986833157160434927noreply@blogger.com0