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Between 2009 and 2020, Josh published more than 10,000 blog posts. Here, you can access his blog archives.

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Happy Belated Birthday to the 16th Amendment

March 31st, 2013

Well, not really. The 16th Amendment, which gave Congress the “power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration” was ratified on February 3, 1913.

Recently, my parents visited some of the mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, where many of the great industrialists of the 19th century maintained palatial homes. My dad asked me how did Congress fund the government before the 16th Amendment. My response–they spent less.

H/T TaxProfBlog

Liptak On O’Connor’s New Book – “gift shop bauble”

March 30th, 2013

Very accurate:

She has a lot to say. But, the provocative title of her new book notwithstanding, she is not saying it here. Instead, she has delivered a disjointed collection of anodyne anecdotes and bar-association bromides about the history of the Supreme Court. “Out of Order” is a gift shop bauble, and its title might as well refer to how disorganized and meandering it is.

This is particularly disappointing in light of the recent string of quite good books from other justices. Antonin Scalia and Stephen G. Breyer have published competing accounts of their judicial philosophies; Sonia Sotomayor a vivid and moving memoir; and John Paul Stevens, who retired in 2010, a candid account of his 35 years on the court.

O’Connor says she wrote the book in response to requests from “people across the country and across the world for my ‘insider’ perspective on the court and its goings-on.” What she has given them is institutional hagiography.

The book is short and padded. The main part, only 165 pages long, is interrupted by stock photographs and curious, unexplained editorial cartoons. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are included in an appendix. They are surely worth rereading from time to time, but their main purpose here seems to be to add some bulk to a very skimpy effort.

The ending is brutal:

The larger problem is not that Justice O’Connor’s little sketches and lessons are wrong. Quite the contrary. The problem is that they are empty. She writes, correctly, that “the court’s only weapon is its moral authority.” But she refuses to give this and similar sentiments substance.

In retirement, she writes, she has “taken up the cause of promoting civics education in our nation’s schools.” But civics are just a skeleton. They need the flesh of argument to come to life, to have bite, to matter.

If you’re interested in reading more, the book is on sale in the Supreme Court’s gift shop.

“Postscript to a Deanship.”

March 30th, 2013

An essay from Annette Clark, the former Dean of the St. Louis University of Law, who resigned last August. It’s worth a read.

Guy Tweeting Entire Affordable Care Act, word-by-word

March 30th, 2013

This will take a very, very long time.

McClain admits that he’s going to have to keep up the Twitter barrage for a long time in order to get through all 906 pages of the “Obamacare” law.

“November 4th if I go 4 pages a day. I did 5 today…keep going up and it’ll be about middle of October,” he tweeted in reference to how long it will take him to tweet the entirety of the legislation.

Public Choice Exhibit A: Two Representatives Send Same Letter to HHS Drafted By Health Lobby

March 29th, 2013

Captured, literally:

Not so with Rep. Phil Gingrey who, in a letter to the federal Department of Health and Human Services, used the exact same phrasing that showed up in another letter signed by Rep. John Barrow and other House Republicans.

The letters both originated with America’s Health Insurance Plans, a group that, among other priorities, wants to prevent cuts to spending on Medicare Advantage.

Other lawmakers were more creative with their letters backing that cause: Sen. Orrin Hatch and Reps. Dave Camp and Fred Upton reworded their message, and they even added bullet points to diverge from the form letter.

All received press-release nods for their written support — however unoriginal.