Amicus Brief Filed by Cockle Printing
We filed the Brief of Amicus Curiae Freedom Watch in Support of Petitioner Arizona in Arizona v. U.S., No. 11-182, on February 13, 2012.
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Feb, 2012
The Cockle Bur Blog
Legal minds on legal matters and whatever else strikes our fancy.
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Feb, 2012
The Rise and Decline of Miranda
I completely dropped the ball on this one. Back in October, University of Michigan Law Professor Yale Kamisar came to UW to talk about Miranda. If you have gone to law school in the past two or three decades, you have probably heard of the professor. His Modern Criminal Procedure book is the standard bearer [...]
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Feb, 2012
My Son’s First Sadness
When people have their first children, they tend to remember the big things, like first steps, words, bumps on the head. Me, I tend to remember the little things. My son, Mark, usually has two standard emotions. When well fed, rested and receiving attention, he is generally a happy kid. When hungry, tired, or sick of [...]
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Feb, 2012
Oral Arguments But No Briefs
In between reading gems, such as first-year law school textbooks, I've been reading David C. Frederick's book, Supreme Court And Appellate Advocacy. The book starts with a historical narrative of the Supreme Court. Surprisingly, the first decades of Supreme Court practice were geared around oral argument, and not written briefs. In fact, there were no written briefs! And [...]
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Feb, 2012
The due process debate continues
The discussion over my article, In Defense of Substantive Due Process, is continuing at Cato Unbound. Prof. Gary Lawson has posted his response here, and now the general discussion is beginning. I responded to David Bernstein’s questions this morning, and I’ll have some further thoughts soon. Please join the discussion! Update: Is my position true [...]
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Feb, 2012
PLF Urges Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare
In its final brief in the Obamacare saga, PLF has joined forces with several other pro-freedom groups in challenging the constitutionality of the Individual Mandate provision of Obamacare. This is our eleventh brief challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare. You can read it here. In it, we argue that the Mandate exceeds Congress’ constitutional authority to [...]
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Feb, 2012
The Way in Which Federal Prosecutors Charge Offenses Leads to Different Sentences Between White and Black Males
Professors Marit Rehavi and Sonja Starr recently published this piece, entitled Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal Charging and Its Sentencing Consequences. After analyzing data, the professors concluded that federal prosecutors charge offenders differently by race, and those charging differences often lead to disparities in sentences. Not surprisingly, men of color are charged, and therefore, sentenced more harshly. Here [...]
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Feb, 2012
The Best Coverage of the Ninth Circuit’s Prop. 8 Ruling
This was a big week for same-sex marriage. On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit struck down California's Proposition 8 on equal protection grounds. Then on Wednesday, the state of Washington voted to approve gay marriage. A lot has been written in the last few days and here is some of the best coverage by people on both [...]
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Feb, 2012
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Feb, 2012
The New Greenbag Almanac Is Published
The 2012 Greenbag Almanac and Reader was recently published. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Greenbag is "a quarterly journal of short, readable, useful, and sometimes entertaining legal scholarship." The Greenbag has a distinguished Board of Advisors that includes Linda Greenhouse, Howard Bashman, Adam Liptak, Judges Alex Kozinki, Diane Wood, and J. Harvie [...]