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In Hillary Clinton’s speech yesterday, she did not come out in favor of repealing the Cadillac Tax, as early reports suggested. But Senators Sanders, Schumer, Leahy, Murphy, Blumenthal, and Bennet support a bill that would do just that.

Obama administration officials have dismissed talk of repeal because they say none of the bills — including one introduced by Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) — have proposed a replacement for the estimated $87 billion in revenue from the tax.

Sanders said his bill would “strike the excise tax while demanding that repeal be paid for.” He proposed generating the revenue through “a surtax on the wealthiest people in this country,” which had been included in the House version of the Affordable Care Act.

 

Clinton is still “examining” the issue.

Chief Justice Roberts, along with Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor were in attendance during Pope Frances address to congress.

In a related SCOTUS news, Pope Francis visited the Little Sisters of the Poor as “a sign of support” for their opposition to the contraception mandate (I filed an amicus brief in support of the Little Sisters’ petition for certiorari).

Washington D.C., Sep 23, 2015 / 08:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis paid a short visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor community in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to support them in their court case over the contraception mandate, the Vatican’s spokesman revealed.

It was a “short visit that was not in the program,” Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, said at an evening press conference during the papal visit to the nation’s capital.

“This is a sign, obviously, of support for them” in their court case, he affirmed. …

It was a “little addition to the program, but I think it has an important meaning,” Fr. Lombardi said.

He added that the visit “is connected” to “the words that the Pope has said in support of the position of the bishops of the United States in the speech to President Obama and also in the speech to the bishops.”

Pope Francis, with President Obama at the White House, called religious freedom “one of America’s most precious possessions” and had hearkened to the U.S. bishops’ defense of religious freedom. “All are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it,” he had said.

In response to the news of the visit with the sisters, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, said that he was “so pleased” to hear of the visit.

“As you know the last thing the Little Sisters of the Poor want to do is sue somebody. They don’t want to sue in court,” he insisted. “They simply want to serve people who are poor and elderly, and they want to do it in a way that doesn’t conflict with their beliefs.”

 

 

Earlier this week I was a guest on the Dan Caplis Show on 710 KNUS in Denver, and discussed the article I co-authored with Randy Barnett about appointing the next Justices. You can listen here:

The lecture notes are here.

We will use this resource about the Coase Theorem in class (courtesy of Professor Frank Buckley at George Mason Law). Alas, Ronald Coase passed away in September 2013 at the age of 102.

To illustrate the Coase Theorem, we will utilize the classic example of the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami.

Or this related case from Dallas:

The Nasher contends that the developers of the $200 million tower, completed in January, have been intransigent in refusing to modify its reflective glass skin; the Nasher has proposed louvers for the facade.

Museum officials say the garden has had to be resodded twice because of the higher temperatures created by sunlight bouncing off the glass; that some trees have burned; and that light-blocking panels were needed for the roof during a recent Ken Price sculpture retrospective.

And the owners have suggested building screens to block the sun!

Gizmodo has a great writeup of the case:

They also hired a group of designers to study the feasibility of installing a gigantic shading system to block the rays, rather than fixing the problem at the source.

This month, the architects behind the project—a New York firm called REX, which built the (fantastic) Wyly Theater near the Nasher—presented their final proposal, dubbed Surya.

It looks complex, but the concept is actually very simple: The team looked at the annual path of the “death ray” and, based on its coordinates, created a huge shading system to block it as it changes. To lessen the presence of the shade, they also devised a series of umbrella-like devices that only open up when needed. So, for most of the year, these devices look like thin tubes strung up on a massive metal frame—which is better than an opaque surface… I guess?

Coase!

This is like something Mr. Burns would design.

The “umbrellas” open up during different times of the day so as not to obstruct the views.

And they follow the sun’s path through the year.

Images courtesy of dukeminier-property.com, Wikipedia, and Professor Frank Buckley.

Here are the diagrams of the land from Del Webb.

In 1962:

In 1965:

View Larger Map

There was massive opposition to the site, which will be completed in Spring 2014 at Bissonnet and Ashby, north of Rice University.

The lecture notes are here.

Scope of Federal Powers III

• Taxing Power (637-643).
• The Spending “Power” (643-645).
• United States v. Butler (645-648).
• South Dakota v. Dole (648-656).
• New York v. United States (657-670).
• Printz v. United States (670-683)

Baiely v. Drexel Furniture Co. (The Child Labor Tax Case)

The Drexel Furniture Company was established on November 10, 1903 in Drexel, North Carolina. B

By 1968, after several acquisitions, the company became known as the Drexel Heritage Furnishings, Inc. It is still known as that today.

Here is a photograph form 1906 of the Drexel Furniture Company in  Drexel, North Carolina that employed child laborers.

The company’s first plant burned in 1906.  The plant pictured was built in two weeks after the fire and was identical to the first one. The plant consisted of two buildings. In 1917, the building got electricity.  An addition was added in 1918.

Steward Machine Company v. Davis (1937)

The Steward Machine Company, based in Birmingham, Alabama, challenged the constitutionality of the social security tax cases. The company was founded in 1900. Here is one of their first facilities.

I think this photograph is dated February 19, 1900, but it is too blurry to make out for sure.

Here is their modern-day image.

United States v. Butler

This is President Roosevelt signing the Agricultural Adjustment Act into law.

And some cartoons.

South Dakota v. Dole

This case involved Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole, whose husband (Viagra spokesman) Bob Dole, was a long-time Senator from Kansas, and Republican nominee for President in 1996.

Printz v. United States

The case of Printz v. United States was brought by two sheriffs. Sheriff/Coroner Jay Printz of Ravali County, Montana, and Sheriff Richard Mack of Graham County, Arizona. Both were the Chief Law Enforcement Officers (CLEO), subject to the background-check mandate of the Brady Act’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Printz was represented by Stephen Halbrook, and Mack represented by David Hardy.

I’ve spoken to both plaintiffs, and they are very interesting officers–they certainly look the part of CLEOs. Mack insists that the case should be called Mack v. United States, because his name came first alphabetically (docket numbers be damned!).

Following this case, Jay Printz would serve as Sheriff until 1999, and then became a member of the Board of the National Rifle Association. Richard Mack ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Arizona and Texas.

From left to right: Atty. Dave Hardy; Sheriff Richard Mack, Arizona; Sheriff Sam Frank, Vermont; Atty. Stephen Hallbrook; Sheriff Printz, Montana.

Sheriff Richard Mack at the Utah Capitol.

Stephen Halbrook arguing Printz v. United States. Note Justice Scalia has a hipsteriffic beard.

More pictures of Sheriff Printz