One of the biggest political changes that 2011 brought — in large part due to the tea parties and their effect on the 2010 election — is the centrality of the Constitution to our public discourse. Lawmakers and citizens no longer consider simply whether a given bill or policy proposal is a good idea but whether it is constitutional. “Where does the government get the power to do that?” is often critics’ rallying cry. (more)
As word spread that President Obama would nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, several top journalists and legal scholars readied opinions to post at the crack of dawn Monday. Others, such as the Republican National Committee and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office waited until the president made his announcement at 10 a.m. this morning. To help you sort through the support and opposition for the former Harvard Law School Dean, The Daily Caller has created an annotated roundup of opinions, sorted by ideological affiliation. (more)
On Sunday, the House voted 219-212 to approve Obamacare. Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to consider the nomination of 39-year-old Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. These two events are not unrelated: Liu’s confirmation would compromise the judiciary’s check on legislative overreaching and push the courts not only to ratify such constitutional abominations as the individual health insurance mandate but to establish socialized health care as a legal mandate itself. (more)
Two years ago, the Supreme Court decided in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. But the Second Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, only applies to the federal government, so yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in McDonald v. Chicago. McDonald will determine whether the vast majority of Americans who live in the states share the same gun rights as District residents. (more)
Houston is one of my favorite cities—I have relatives there, one of whom is a petroleum engineer; the city has the best barbeque in the world, and some of my favorite baseball memories come from Astros games at the former Enron Field. As such, it’s no surprise that I don’t like Jeff Skilling, one of the principle culprits of the Enron collapse and the subsequent economic downturn of Houston. (more)
The last few days of the Olympics passed by in a blur as I finished a three-week business trip that ended up taking me to four climates and nine different overnight locations, all without checking bags. And my gallivanting around the West paralleled the North American tour de force that the games became. (more)
ALBUQUERQUE—Having left Vancouver for a long weekend in the Bay Area, I now arrived in the frozen desert. It was 38°F when I landed, and the temperature dropped below freezing overnight. Never mind that I was now over 1,000 miles south of the Winter Games; I had returned to winter for the first time since leaving D.C. on the last flight out of Dulles before the airport shut down two weeks ago. (more)
VANCOUVER—On my last day in Vancouver, I didn’t end up attending any sporting events—preferring to save my money for sushi and souvenirs. Instead I walked around bits of the city I hadn’t previously covered, such as the bridge over False Creek by the Olympic Village (whose high rises are bedecked by various national flags, as well as Australia’s trademark-skirting boxing kangaroo). (more)
VANCOUVER—Yesterday I went downtown to the Robson Square Celebration Site (Is that like Berkeley’s free-speech zone such that you can’t celebrate anywhere else?) to see if I could pick up a hockey ticket. I love using scalpers: no waiting in line at the official box office, no Ticketmaster “service” charge, nothing but negotiating price mano-a-mano. I’m not sure how legal it is here—government does try to stamp out economic intercourse between consenting adults—but dozens of them are out in the open wearing laminated signs, so I assume they’re at least tolerated. Good for Vancouver: Scalpers make the ticket marketplace go round, ensuring efficient pricing and distribution. (more)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ilya Shapiro is currently on the ground in Vancouver and will be sending dispatches throughout the Olympic Games, posted here at The Daily Caller (more)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ilya Shapiro is currently on the ground in Vancouver and will be sending dispatches throughout the Olympic Games, posted here at The Daily Caller. (more)
