The CockleBur Blog | Cockle Legal Briefs

17 Dec, 2010

Support The Troops With A Christmas Postcard

Shon R. Hopwood2019-03-18T18:48:10-05:00December 17th, 2010|Tags: Afghanistan, Christmas Postcard, Support the troops|

The Xerox company is sponsoring a cool program to support the troops in Afghanistan. They have a site that allows you to prepare customized postcards which are sent to the troops. It takes all of about 60 seconds of your time and is completely free. You can visit the site and send the troops your [...]

17 Dec, 2010

Book Review: This Is Your Country on Drugs

Jacob H. Huebert2019-03-18T18:48:10-05:00December 17th, 2010|Tags: book review, cocaine, D.A.R.E., drug laws, drug war, drugs, libertarian, lsd, marijuana, Reefer Madness, ryan grim, this is your country on drugs, war on drugs|

This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America By Ryan Grim • John Wiley & Sons, Inc. • 2009/2010 • $24.95 hardcover; $15.95 paperback • 272 pages Americans really like to get high, and they’ll go out of their way to do so even when the government threatens to [...]

15 Dec, 2010

Health insurance mandates and facial challenges

David Franklin2019-03-18T18:48:10-05:00December 15th, 2010|Tags: facial challenge, health insurance mandate, Supreme Court|

Judge Henry Hudson’s recent decision striking down the central provision of the health insurance reform statute has gotten (pardon the pun) nearly universal coverage in the legal blogosphere. But I was struck by a section of the opinion that has received little notice: the passage early in his opinion in which Judge [...]

13 Dec, 2010

The Affordable Care Act is Unconstitutional

Shon R. Hopwood2019-03-18T18:48:10-05:00December 13th, 2010|Tags: Affordable Care Act, Commerce Clause, Health care, Judge Henry Hudson|

Federal District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled on Monday that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate requiring citizens to purchase health care insurance amounts to an unconstitutional expansion of the Commerce Clause. The historic 42-page ruling can be found here. If the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms this decision and other courts find [...]

10 Dec, 2010

The New Institutionalism and Public Law Scholarship: What Judicial Biographies have in Common with High-powered Statistical Analyses

Shon R. Hopwood2019-03-18T18:48:10-05:00December 10th, 2010|Tags: Arkansas State University, Geoffrey R. Stone, Hans Hacker, John Pallos, The Brooding Spirit of the Law: Supreme Court Justices Reading Dissents from the Bench|

This post is courtesy of our new guest blogger, Arkansas State University Professor Hans Hacker. I recently had the pleasure of meeting Hans a few weeks ago on a trip to ASU, where I worked with his students taking part in the moot court competition. I enjoyed listening to a political scientist's view of the Supreme Court, which is a conceptually different from how I usually think about the Court, as a brief writer. I think the political scientist's view can really help explain the dynamic a brief writer is working with, and sometimes against, in trying to persuade the Court. Anyway, what follows is Professor Hacker's post.

10 Dec, 2010

The President Acknowledges that the Pre-Existing Injuries Portion of the Affordable Care Act could also be in Jeopardy

Shon R. Hopwood2019-03-18T18:48:11-05:00December 10th, 2010|Tags: Affordable Care Act, Judge Henry Hudson, Randy Barnett, The Volokh Conspiracy|

Randy Barnett, at The Volokh Conspiracy, posted this article about a fact sheet recently provided by the White House. The fact sheet addresses the pending constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate currently before Judge Henry Hudson. In anticipation of a ruling, the White House admitted that should the individual mandate be held unconstitutional, the portion of the Act requiring insurance companies to accept and cover people with pre-existing injuries would likewise fall. The fact sheet explained:

9 Dec, 2010

Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri–Petitioner’s Brief

Andy Cockle2010-12-09T16:28:21-06:00December 9th, 2010|Tags: Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri, Dan Ortiz, University of Virginia Supreme Court Clinic|

One of the CockleBur contributors, Dan Ortiz, recently filed this Petitioner's Brief in Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri, No. 09-1476. The Question Presented in the case is: Can public employees sue their employers under the Petition Clause for adverse employment actions allegedly resulting from the employees’ petitioning on matters of purely private concern?

6 Dec, 2010

Worst Opening of a Legal Brief Ever

Shon R. Hopwood2019-03-18T18:48:11-05:00December 6th, 2010|Tags: Montana v. Belanus, S, Shon Hopwood, Worst Legal Brief Ever, Worst Opening to a Legal Brief|

Since I spend the majority of my days either writing legal briefs or reviewing those of others, I have seen my share of poorly drafted briefs. But after reading the Montana Supreme Court opinion in Montana v. Belanus, I do not believe I have ever spotted a worse example of how to open a brief. Let me give you a little background. The facts in Belanus are not for the faint-hearted. It involves an admittedly brutal beating and an alleged rape. It also involves a serious legal question on whether the Belanus was entitled to the intoxication defense: because defendant was intoxicated on alcohol and drugs should he be held responsible for hi

3 Dec, 2010

The Global Gender Gap (#3 of 3)–Political Empowerment and Institutional Sexism

Pamela Joy2019-03-18T18:48:11-05:00December 3rd, 2010|Tags: elected women, gender inequality, global gender gap, institutional sexicm|

In a previous post on the annual Global Gender Gap Report issued by the World Economic Forum, I reported that this year for the first time the U.S. placed in the top 20 gender-equal countries (#19 of 134 nations) and that we are doing well in terms of Economic Participation and Opportunity (U.S. at #6) and Educational Attainment (tied for #1 with 21 other countries). In a subsequent post, I noted that part of what was holding us back was inequality in Health and Survival (U.S. at #38) - which results from U.S. women’s relative lack of access to health care, an issue that 2010’s Affordable Care Act is poised to address beginning in 2014. Today I turn to the final subindex, the heaviest weight in our saddlebags: With a ranking of #40, Political Empowerment is our worst showing.

30 Nov, 2010

Chief Justice Roberts’ Facebook Page

Shon R. Hopwood2019-03-18T18:48:11-05:00November 30th, 2010|Tags: Chief Justice, Facebook Page, John Roberts, Shon Hopwood|

This weekend I was perusing Facebook to see what my friends are up to when I decided to start searching for some new Facebook friends. I came up with a brilliant idea--I would become Facebook friends with Chief Justice John Roberts. So I searched for his page, found it, and put in a friend request. A short time later, he accepted. I an now "friends" with the Chief, how cool. I copied his page and thought I would share it with you less cool people.

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