Blog

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

2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009

Trump Doubles Down on Constitution as Suicide Pact: “Our Constitution is great” but it doesn’t “Give us the Right to Commit Suicide”

July 24th, 2016

Last week I noticed that Donald Trump justified his muslim-immigration ban in language was reminiscent of Justice Jackson’s dissent in Terminello v. Chicago, which explained that the Constitution was not a suicide pact.

On Meet the Press, he used similar language. Someone on his team must have given him the suicide pact language, and he is running with it.

I actually don’t think it’s a rollback. In fact, you could say it’s an expansion. I’m looking now at territory. People were so upset when I used the word Muslim. Oh, you can’t use the word Muslim. Remember this. And I’m okay with that because I’m talking territory instead of Muslim. But just remember this. Our Constitution is great. But it doesn’t necessarily give us the right to commit suicide, okay? Now, we have a religious, you know, everybody wants to be protected. And that’s great. And that’s the wonderful part of our Constitution. I view it differently. Why are we committing suicide? Why are we doing that? But you know what? I live with our Constitution. I love our Constitution. I cherish our Constitution. We’re making it territorial.

The suicide clause in Article XII must have override the “religious” clause in Article I.

Downgraded back to Economy

July 23rd, 2016

I had a new travel experience today on United. For my flight this morning, I received a complimentary upgrade to business class, so I relinquished my Economy Plus seat. After I was seated, enjoying my pre-takeoff orange juice, the gate agent told me I had to go back to coach. Why? I had to give up my seat to someone else, whose business class seat was broken. I asked “Am I the lowest-status person in business class”? She replied, “Yeah.” I got sent back to 18B, a regular economy seat–not even economy plus. I was actually worse off because of the upgrade followed by the downgrade. Though, on the bright side, I received a $250 travel voucher. Always something new in the friendly skies.

Looking for volunteers to crowdsource edits for Unraveled

July 22nd, 2016

Unraveled will be published on September 27. The final proofs will be going through the editing process between July 25 and August 8. I am looking for volunteers to help crowdsource the proofs. To make this feasible, each volunteer will receive one chapter to review (about 20 pages), with a fairly short window to review it (2 days or so). At this late stage, I am only looking to fix typos, grammatical errors, or factual mistakes. No disagreements about usage and style.

As a reward, in addition to my eternal thanks, you’ll get a PDF of the book–though I hope you can also buy a copy when it’s released. There are 32 chapters, so I only need a limited number of volunteers. If you’re interested, and able to turn a chapter around on a fairly short basis, please drop me a line: josh at josh blackman dot com. Thanks!

Final-Unraveled-Cover

90 Second Recess with Bloomberg BNA

July 21st, 2016

Last month I filmed a 90-second rapid fire Q&A session with Kimberly Robinson of Bloomberg BNA. (I assure you, she is real, and not just a Twitter bot). Kimberly asked me about everything from frozen yogurt at SCOTUS to my favorite case that I worked on, followed by a bonus trivia question. At the time I filmed it, my answer was correct, but as of this week, no longer.

bloomberg

Talk tomorrow in Nashville on 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, and 3D-Printed Guns

July 19th, 2016

On Wednesday, I am speaking to the Nashville Federalist Society Chapter about our ongoing case involving 3D Printed Guns, the 1st Amendment, and the 2nd Amendment. You can find the details here.