Posted by Ilya Shapiro on August 3, 2010
By Ilya Shapiro
As Michael already noted, Judge Henry Hudson of the Eastern District of Virginia denied the government’s motion to dismiss Virginia’s legal challenge to Obamacare. Notably, Judge Hudson agreed with Cato senior fellow Randy Barnett (see here, here, and here) that the government’s assertion of Commerce Clause authority for the individual mandate is unprecedented:
The guiding precedent is informative, but [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: amicus briefs, Commerce Clause, Health, Welfare & Entitlements, Law and Civil Liberties, Obamacare, taxing power, Virginia v Sebelius | 
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Posted by Ilya Shapiro on June 18, 2010
By Ilya Shapiro
The very day President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, Virginia’s attorney general filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the health care overhaul. Virginia’s complaint alleges, in relevant part, that the PPACA’s requirement that every individual purchase health insurance or pay a fine — the “individual [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: amicus briefs, Commerce Clause, Health, Welfare & Entitlements, individual mandate, Law and Civil Liberties, necessary and proper clause, Obamacare | No Comments »
Posted by Ilya Shapiro on June 17, 2010
By Ilya Shapiro
Today the Supreme Court came down with its ruling in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, a case I previously blogged about here and here, and in which Cato filed a brief.
While the Court’s 8-0 ruling against the Florida oceanfront (now ocean-view) property owners was not the result we wanted, the [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: amicus briefs, Fifth Amendment, General, Law and Civil Liberties, Scalia, stop the beach, takings | No Comments »
Posted by Ilya Shapiro on June 2, 2010
By Ilya Shapiro
We have reached a denouement of sorts in the “blame XYZ companies for causing global warming which caused Hurricane Katrina which damaged my property” lawsuit that I’ve previously discussed and in which Cato filed an amicus brief. When last I blogged about this, the Fifth Circuit had apparently lost its en banc quorum — a late judicial [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: amicus briefs, Comer, Energy and Environment, Fifth Circuit, global warming, Law and Civil Liberties | No Comments »
Posted by Ilya Shapiro on June 2, 2010
By Ilya Shapiro
We have reached a denouement of sorts in the “blame XYZ companies for causing global warming which caused Hurricane Katrina which damaged my property” lawsuit that I’ve previously discussed and in which Cato filed an amicus brief. When last I blogged about this, the Fifth Circuit had apparently lost its en banc quorum — a late judicial [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: amicus briefs, Comer, Energy and Environment, Fifth Circuit, global warming, Law and Civil Liberties | No Comments »
Posted by Ilya Shapiro on May 20, 2010
By Ilya Shapiro
One quick addendum to my previous commentary on this week’s decision in Graham v. Florida the use of foreign law by U.S. courts: Toward the very end of Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion, in part D where he gratuitously nods to world opinion about juvenile life-without-parole (LWOP) sentences, he takes issue with one of the lesser arguments we make in our [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: amicus briefs, Eighth Amendment, Graham v. Florida, Law and Civil Liberties, use of foreign law | No Comments »
Posted by Ilya Shapiro on May 20, 2010
By Ilya Shapiro
One quick addendum to my previous commentary on this week’s decision in Graham v. Florida the use of foreign law by U.S. courts: Toward the very end of Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion, in part D where he gratuitously nods to world opinion about juvenile life-without-parole (LWOP) sentences, he takes issue with one of the lesser arguments we make in our [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: amicus briefs, Eighth Amendment, Graham v. Florida, Law and Civil Liberties, use of foreign law | No Comments »
Posted by Ilya Shapiro on May 17, 2010
By Ilya Shapiro
As Roger has just blogged, the Supreme Court in today’s Comstock decision has ”turned an instrumental power, dependent on Congress’s other powers, into an independent power.” That is, Justice Breyer’s decision has imbued the Necessary and Proper Clause — which merely gives Congress the power to enact laws that are “necessary and proper” for “carrying into execution” one of the [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: amicus briefs, Commerce Clause, Government and Politics, Law and Civil Liberties, Necessary and Proper, Supreme Court, supreme court justices | No Comments »
