Category Archives: Uncategorized

As regular readers know, I’ve given up this solo blog and returned to blogging regularly at the Volokh Conspiracy.  I plan to keep this site up for the archives, but at least for now I don’t plan to do any … Continue reading →

The next few weeks are going to be particularly busy for me, as I finish up a bunch of projects, start some new ones, and prepare to head out to Chicago for the fall (where I will be visiting at … Continue reading →

The Ninth Circuit has been handing down a boatload of cases applying the Fourth Amendment to computers recently, and today handed down another important case. In United States v. Hill, the Ninth Circuit (Fisher, joined by Goodwin and Schroeder) created a new constitutional … Continue reading →

Brian Lamb of C-SPAN interviewed Chief Justice Roberts recently; you can see the interview here, followed by the Chief’s remarks to the Ninth Circuit judicial conference. A few tidbits: * When asked to identfy particularly interesting parts of the Constitution, … Continue reading →

This is a very long blog post in response to a troubling new Fourth Amendment decision handed down by the Ninth Circuit yesterday, United States v. Ziegler. It’s a long post because the issues are both very important and very … Continue reading →

I’ve been working on my draft article Four Models of Fourth Amendment Protection today, and I need your help finding the right word for one of the models. First, a little bit of background. Part I of the article argues … Continue reading →

Facts: Conservative activist puts together a pamphlet alleging that a group of liberal professors at a particular university are “supporters of terrorism,” and puts a copyrighted picture of one of the professors on the cover. The professor sues the activist … Continue reading →

From the Los Angeles Times: Oklahoma’s Lethal Injections Called Fatally Flawed By Henry Weinstein, Times Staff Writer August 8, 2006 Death by lethal injection faces a significant challenge in federal court today in Oklahoma City, with doctors contending that the … Continue reading →

The Senate finally ratified the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention last Thursday. The convention was held up in the Senate for years, mostly because of unfounded fears that there must be something sneaky hidden inside it. In truth, ratification by … Continue reading →

Eric Muller points out a quite puzzling Sixth Circuit capital case involving a murder for hire, Getsy v. Mitchell.  I suspect that last week’s opinion in the case won’t be the last. Basic run-down of the case: A allegedly hires … Continue reading →

Brannon Denning is offering advice for entering first-year law students over at Instapundit, so I thought I would weigh in with a few thoughts as well. Here are two tidbits of my own: 1. Understand that it is normal to … Continue reading →

Senator Specter’s bill on the NSA domestic surveillance program has been much in the news lately, but there is a very important part of the bill that hasn’t been covered much: the bill’s changes to the definition of the key … Continue reading →

From The Onion.  Hat tip: Bench Memos.

With the beginning of law school just a few weeks away, I thought this might be a good time mention my essay, How to Read a Judicial Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students, which I wrote last year to … Continue reading →

I just returned to DC after a 9-hour flight back from Munich, where for the last two weeks I was teaching a 1-credit version of my computer crime law class as part of GW’s Munich Intellectual Property Law Summer Program.  … Continue reading →

Orly Lobel has more thoughts over at PrawfsBlawg on the question of banning laptops in law school classrooms. We discussed this issue here a few months ago, so I’ll just add one relatively recent data point to the empirical picture. … Continue reading →

The Center for Democracy and Technology, one of the leading public interest organizations  that covers electronic privacy and civil liberties issues, has started a new blog: PolicyBeta.  The contributors are a top-notch group, and this blog looks like it will … Continue reading →

The text of the Specter bill to amend FISA to allow the NSA surveillance programs has been morphing over the last few days. I have posted the latest version here.

I always find it a bit puzzling when district court judges — who decide cases themselves, without a panel of colleagues– refer to themselves as “we” in an opinion. I can understand the universal “we” in the context of an … Continue reading →

A series of very interesting posts at PrawfsBlawg, carried over to Concurring Opinions, is considering whether first-year law school courses in criminal law should focus on the Model Penal Code. I think the answer depends on what kind of class the … Continue reading →