1.11.16
Defining Ideas
Recently, Rebecca Skloot, author of the major best-seller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, wrote an impassioned plea in the New York Times, urging people to support sweeping revisions to the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, which is now under active review in the Department of Health and Human Services. These revisions are directed to […]
1.4.16
Defining Ideas
On Monday, January 11, the United States Supreme Court will address in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association two long-standing issues about the status of public unions that have vexed the Court for at least 60 years.
1.2.16
Library of Law and Liberty
The topic of this essay is to identify the proper role of antidiscrimination laws in relation to the general principle of freedom of association, which is itself a subset of the basic principle of freedom of contract. Historically, the usual understanding was that the principle of freedom of association enjoyed pride of place in the […]
12.16.15
Forbes
The new round of Fannie and Freddie litigation – Jacobs v. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has opened up a second-front in the ongoing struggle between the preferred and common shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, often called Government Sponsored Enterprises, or GSEs, and the United States government. As an advisor to various institutional investors, I […]
12.14.15
Defining Ideas
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the much-mooted case of Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. At issue in the case was whether the University of Texas at Austin’s affirmative action program complied with the stringent legal test the Court set out in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). Grutter held that the University of Michigan had a […]
12.7.15
Defining Ideas
The mass shooting in San Bernardino by the young Muslim couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, now clearly identified as middle-class ISIS terrorists, has created a vast sense of unease in the United States. Everyone agrees that their heinous conduct was horribly wrong. But the consensus ends there. Come to the next question, and there […]
11.30.15
Defining Ideas
Back in 2008, the Princeton Alumni Weekly published the results of a panel deliberation ranking the university’s most influential alumni. At the top of the list was James Madison (class of 1771) and close behind him, in third place, was Woodrow Wilson (class of 1879), who was Princeton’s president from 1902 to 1910. He left the university to enter […]
11.27.15
Yahoo Finance
Recent worldwide bans and regulations on Uber have reignited the debate surrounding the ride service in the United States. Most prominently, critics continue to decry the supposed mistreatment of Uber workers, which sparked a national Uber strike weekend in October. The company is also facing a class-action lawsuit in California by drivers challenging its business model and seeking to […]
11.23.15
Defining Ideas
The recent events in Paris and elsewhere have led the leaders of the civilized world to search for an appropriate response to the barbaric actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The toll of deaths, injuries, and property damage all point to a single conclusion: something powerful must be done, and done now. […]
11.16.15
Defining Ideas
When Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, my many progressive friends frequently reassured me that his presidency would mark a transformation of race relations in the United States. That prediction has proved half true. Things have surely changed in the last seven years—but for the worse. Racial tension and discord has gone way up, […]