Victory in free speech case The City of San Juan Capistrano agreed this week to stop enforcing it’s ban on putting “for sale” signs in car windows in Cefali v. San Juan Capistrano. Because any other sort of sign is allowed, we argued that this sort of content-based restriction on speech violates the First Amendment. … ...
Reason has published my column responding to the hubbub surrounding Sen. Rand Paul’s remarks (and Cass Sunstein’s) about “judicial activism” and “judicial restraint.” Here’s a taste: Senator Rand Paul’s recent remarks about “judicial restraint” have shaken up both left and right, but any ...
Our Constitution includes several ingenious mechanisms for protecting individual rights—checks and balances, the separation of powers, federalism, enumerated powers, the Bill of Rights. Central to these was the idea of an active and independent judiciary, which would contribute its part by balancing the other branches and ensuring the legality of ...
This week Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly rightly pointed out that Justice Robert’s opinion upholding the individual mandate under the taxing power could be construed as a conservative opinion. However, Bill went on to imply that Justice Robert’s opinion should be forgiven as merely a mistaken application of a strain of con ...
Over the years, the Ninth Circuit has developed a reputation in some circles for Judicial Activism (i.e. substituting its opinion for that of the legislature in matters that are none of its concern). However, last week the court’s opinion in National Association of Optometrists v. Harris showed that it is just as apt at avoiding … ...
Author: Damien M. Schiff Grist.com has this fairly well-balanced piece by Doug Kendall lauding retiring Justice John Paul Stevens' judicial decisions dealing with environmental law issues over his three-decade-plus tenure on the Supreme Court. The article's thesis is that Justice Stevens universally practiced "deference to ...