Last Thursday, Governor Scott Walker repealed Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which made it possible for victims of sex discrimination to further contest such discrimination in a Wisconsin circuit court–even if their cases were already on file with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or in federal court, or with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.Continue reading “The National Review Thinks There is No Sex-Discrimination in the Workplace”
Category Archives: Law and Legal Theory
Schopenhauer on the Pernicious Influence of Copyright on Writing
Modern debates on the ‘intellectual property’ front involve several, overlapping, recurring themes. One persistent pair of inter-related concerns is: How are creators, authors, artists, ‘content producers’, and the like to be compensated for their ‘contributions’ to our commons? and, How indispensable are the protections of the various legal regimes that are termed ‘intellectual property’ (andContinue reading “Schopenhauer on the Pernicious Influence of Copyright on Writing”
That Scalia Sure Chopped the Individual Mandate Like Broccoli!
I’ve now taught Philosophy of Law twice: first, in Spring 2007, and then later, two sections in Spring 2011. An important section of the class syllabus, once we have completed a comparison and discussion of natural law, positivist, and legal realist theories of the law, is legal reasoning. And invariably, an important topic in legalContinue reading “That Scalia Sure Chopped the Individual Mandate Like Broccoli!”
Breaking News: The US Supreme Court is a Political Institution
Yesterday in Florence vs. Board of Freeholders, the US Supreme Court ruled that if you are arrested–for any reason whatsoever–the law-enforcement officials in charge of you can strip-search you. Over at ScotusBlog, Lyle Denniston sums it up a little better: Insisting that it has no expertise in how to run a jail or prison, theContinue reading “Breaking News: The US Supreme Court is a Political Institution”
David Brooks on “Centralization”
On May 23-24, 1865, the victorious Union armies marched through Washington. The columns of troops stretched back 25 miles. They marched as a single mass, clad in blue, their bayonets pointing skyward. Those lines, dear reader, are the openers of a David Brooks article about the “centralization” of power in Washington via the “Obama healthContinue reading “David Brooks on “Centralization””
Hegel’s Stoic and Prison Literature
In his Introduction to Hegel’s Metaphysics (University of Chicago Press, 1969, pp 30-31), Ivan Soll notes that, With great sociological and psychological insight Hegel says that “stoicism, the freedom which goes back into the pure universality of thought, could appear as a general form of the world spirit only in a time of general fearContinue reading “Hegel’s Stoic and Prison Literature”
Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, and the Fallacy of the ‘Lone Gunman’
It is worth remembering, the next time you see Trayvon Martin‘s parent’s on television, trying to explain their pleas for justice, that you are looking at human beings who, in the giant totem pole that mankind has constructed of Humans Who Have Suffered Terrible Losses, occupy a fairly high position. The killing of Trayvon MartinContinue reading “Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, and the Fallacy of the ‘Lone Gunman’”
The Practice of Science According to Article Abstracts and Headers
Sometimes close reading of article headers can pay rich dividends. On Monday morning, my Philosophy of Biology class and I were slated to discuss a debate crucial to understanding adaptationist paradigms: the role of bodyplan (Bauplan) constraints in restricting an organism’s occupancy of possible points in developmental space, which complicates our understanding of the supposed ubiquityContinue reading “The Practice of Science According to Article Abstracts and Headers”
Video Game ‘Cloning’: What Is It Good For?
Cloning of video games is a Bad Thing. Or so sayeth Brian X. Chen and some video game developers (New York Times, March 12th, ” For Creators of Games, A Faint Line on Cloning”). Roughly, the thesis advanced is: ‘cloning’ can be destructive of developer motivation and the video game market, and thus seems toContinue reading “Video Game ‘Cloning’: What Is It Good For?”
Statutory Interpretation, the “Nietzsche Rule”, and Stevens and Scalia in Zuni
From Chapter 8, (‘Doctrines of Statutory Interpretation’), Section 1, A. ‘Textual Canons’, 2 ‘Grammar Canons’, (f) ‘The Golden Rule (Against Absurdity) – and the Nietzsche Rule. of William N. Eskridge, Jr., Philip Fricket, and Elizabeth Garrett, Cases and Materials on Legislation: Statutes and the Creation of Public Policy, Thomson West, American Casebook Series, Saint Paul,Continue reading “Statutory Interpretation, the “Nietzsche Rule”, and Stevens and Scalia in Zuni”
Samir Chopra 