Law

Offered without comment. Historical Comments Einzige (2008-06-25): This reminds me of the discussion of names and their often negative correlation with success in life in Freakonomics.

Chris Rodda reports on the United States Services Command, a Christian evangelizing “disaster relief” organization that illegally uses U.S. military-style ranks and uniforms, yet rather than being prosecuted for its criminal impersonation, receives awards, recommendations, and commendations from military officers and from President George W. Bush. The photo Rodda links to has been deleted, but can be found here, where some real military officers express their disgust with USSC’s fake soldiers. (Hat tip to Dispatches from the Culture Wars for the Rodda story.)

Will Wilkinson gives a long quotation from an argument by Milton Friedman, along with some explication. The basic argument is that free immigration to jobs is a good thing, free immigration to welfare is a bad thing, and in the absence of a separation between legal residency and eligibility for welfare, the best result is achieved by encouraging more illegal immigration: But the important takeaway here is this: Friedman’s view is that a certain kind of unrestricted welfare state makes illegal immigration good, because it severs residency from welfare eligibility. Friedman is unequivocal about the desirability of free migration. Anyone really committed to Friedman’s stated view about welfare and immigration should by no means try to restrict immigration, but instead should try to enable illegal immigration. A devout Friedmanite should stand stoutly against every fence, every border cop, every increase in the INS budget, any proposed database check for a new workers’ legal status, etc. I think it makes more sense to argue first for a guest worker program. But if that is in fact impossible, then Friedman has it right: more illegal immigration is the best we can do.See the fuller discussion at Will Wilkinson’s blog. UPDATE (June 13, 2008): And, of related interest, a discussion of how the benefits of remittances are really the benefits of labor migration, and how Switzerland, despite being difficult to immigrate to, has the highest percentage of foreign-born in its population of any OECD country, also both from Will Wilkinson. The latter provides further evidence for the logical separability of citizenship, residency, work rights, and welfare eligibility. ...

Although his last attempt to introduce articles of impeachment (for Cheney) failed, on Monday, June 9, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced 35 new articles of impeachment for President George W. Bush. There’s no support from the Democratic leadership, of course. The mainstream media seems to be almost completely ignoring this. Two days later, a news.google.com search for “Kucinich impeachment” gives only the Village Voice in results. UPDATE: Looks like the Arizona Republic covered it today, as did CNN. ...

The June 7, 2008 issue of The Economist reports that Hugo Chavez issued a decree late last month which: authorises police raids without warrant, the use of anonymous witnesses and secret evidence. Judges are obliged to collaborate with the intelligence services. Anyone caught investigating sensitive matters faces jail. The law contains no provision for any kind of oversight. It blurs the distinction between external threats and internal political dissent. It requires all citizens, foreigners and organisations to act in support of the intelligence system whenever required–or face jail terms of up to six years.Though my employer operates in Venezuela, I think that’s one South American country I’d rather not visit at the moment… I hope November’s elections reduce Chavez’s power and he steps down from power in 2013 as he’s previously said that he would. And Daniel Ortega has suspended elections in Nicaragua… another country to avoid. ...

McCain continues to demonstrate mind-boggling ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, for someone who has already sworn numerous times to uphold it. He’s clearly unfit to be president–he’s either ignorant of U.S. history or being dishonest in order to pander to the religious right. (I previously reported similar remarks by McCain last October.) The Bible and the Christian tradition do not support a limited constitutional republic–if you got your politics from the Bible or Christian tradition, you’d argue for a monarchy with virtually limitless power. That’s probably part of the reason that the Bush administration has argued against any limits on executive power. (From Atheist Media Blog by way of Pharyngula.) ...

No, it doesn’t reduce the amount of adolescent sexual activity–it merely reduces the likelihood that teens who have sex will use condoms, and thus increases the prevalence of teens with sexually transmitted diseases. This is not merely useless, it’s actually harmful and counter-productive, like the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s anti-drug advertisements. But empirical evidence is irrelevant to those who are pushing their programs due to religious fundamentalism. For such people, the fact that they not only don’t work but have the opposite of the desired effects just means they need to be pushed harder.

Tom W. Bell proposes the following update to the pledge of allegiance: I pledge allegiance to the laws of the United States of America, on condition that it respect my rights, natural, constitutional, and statutory, with liberty and justice for all.That’s a pledge I could make, despite my skepticism about the use of the term “natural rights.” I do think there are moral rights entailed by the combination of certain common human values and empirical facts. (This conversation between Will Wilkinson and Shaun Nichols about Nichols’ book, Sentimental Rules, suggests one way of getting to moral rules I find far more plausible than the natural rights/natural law tradition.)

Reuters reports: During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama – a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School – was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office. “I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,” said Obama. That would be fantastic. Would would be even better would be if he would continue on with all standing executive orders from any president, after cleaning up the messes from the most recent one. It would be nice to see the federal government actually staying within constitutional limits of its power, but I won’t be holding my breath. (Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars.) ...

I saw on The Colbert Report that Major League Baseball is telling Little League teams that they can’t use the names of MLB teams unless they purchase their uniforms from MLB-authorized licensees. Nonsense–a Little League team called the A’s or the Twins or the Mariners is in no danger of confusion with the MLB team, so there’s no infringement. Techdirt reports on this issue, and also that MLB is also still trying to claim ownership over game statistics, even though facts cannot be copyrighted. Little League teams should tell MLB to take a hike. UPDATE (June 2, 2008): The Supreme Court denied cert on MLB’s lawsuit against C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing for its use of the names of MLB players and statistics for fantasy baseball, without a license from MLB. The court of appeals in St. Louis had already ruled that C.B.C. has a free speech right to use player names and statistics, which have previously been regarded as facts not subject to copyright. Some have worried that this ruling will endanger licensing arrangements regarding the use of celebrity names, but cases that involve an endorsement of a product seem to me to be clearly distinguishable from this case.