the weaker party

This might be worth chewing over next semester when we discuss federalism. Secession continues to be on the minds of some. From Edward Tenne...

A primer on the reconciliation process .

I didn't mean to take a month off, but I did anyway. The end of the semester always gets hectic and I unfortunately let the blog slip. I...

ScotusBlog predicts which cases the Supreme Court is likely to agree to hear .

According to ScotusBlog , a challenge to Chicago's gun control laws ( McDonald v Chicago ) will focus on the Fourteenth Amendment's ...

No: Keep New York out of harm's way Yes: New York Court Is Best Place for Worst Terrorists

A useful read for my 2302's from Jeffrey Rosen in the NYT . When talking about the Supreme Court , Barack Obama has resisted the famil...

From the New Republic , an overview of the contradictory stances Americans tend to have about government. Though majorities often support th...

Justice died recently at the age of 89. He was a Texas born federal court judge responsible for some of the more consequential court cases i...

From the NYT : President Obama has sent the Senate far fewer judicial nominations than former President George W. Bush did in his first 10...

The Famous ' Kelo House' Property Is Now A Vacant Lot Add on: A Takings Setback?

A Texas school teacher risks losing her job for not allowing herself to be fingerprinted because she believes it is the Mark of the Beast, a...

We're covering participatory rights this week in 2301, including the right to peaceably assemble. The, let's say unique , protests o...

Just in time for our discussion of judicial review in 2302 comes a terrific article about a face-of between Breyer and Scalia that include...

A new verb has been created. From the Urban Dictionary . Scozzafava verb -- 1) to incite internal opposition against and undermine a moderat...

Last week Democratic State Representative Chuck Hopson became Republican State Representative Chuck Hopson , in a move he states was a refl...

Maybe, Maybe not. The Supreme Court will decide. The case is Pottawattamie County v. McGhee . Commentary and links from Grits for Breakfast...

Was it really a referendum on Obama, or was it simply due to turnout? The anti-Obama crowd is more likely to vote than the pro-Obama crowd. ...

I added a link to my "Lobbyists" section below. Lobby Data is a pay service for people who want info on lobbyists , but there are ...

From the Texas Tribune . Texas Speaker Joe Straus has named members of the Texas Sunset Committee for 2010. Texas Sunset Commission .

Critics argue that the health care bill passed by the house will not accomplish some of its goals, like cutting the cost of health care, bu...

We discussed standing in 2302 today and how the recent Supreme Court has used it to make it easier to not have to make decisions in certain ...

Those are the subjects of two Supreme Court cases we covered in 2302 today: - Supreme Court Ruling May Transform Tech Industry - Supreme Cou...

From the Texas Tribune: A Brief History of Fraticide . Few things are uglier that intraparty conflict.

The contest between conservatives and moderates within the Texas Republican Party will play out in a primary battle for the State Board of E...

An addition to the online news environment .

The Democrats have their own issues attempting to restrain activists . Democrats who want to aggressively push abortion rights and civil ri...

From the NYT , GOP leaders try to minimize internal disputes.

Yesterday's elections seem to prove the importance of running centrist campaigns if a party wishes to actually win elections to office, ...

From Politico : In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge le...

A Chron story on a TIRZ and the redevelopment of Almeda Road . - description . - early controversy .

A great site if you want to track contributions to candidates: Follow the Money .

From Texas Watchdog , an invitation to learn how to investigate quasi- governmental agencies, what we call single purpose local governments...

Here's a rundown on the expenditures on recent city council races in Houston.

From the National Journal : Can the conservative base of the Republican Party peacefully coexist with independents and enable the GOP to ret...

The latest compilation from pollster.com : All U.S. Adults Independents: 37.9% Democrats: 33.7% Republicans: 21.4%

The latest in an ongoing story, from Bloomberg : Some of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ’s closest aides, none of whom faced Senate co...

From The National Journal : Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced today that the full Senate health care bill will include a ...

Testing the limits of free speech : A Faribault nurse who authorities say visited Internet suicide chat rooms and encouraging depressed peo...

For 2301. File this under single purpose local government financing : Harris County taxpayers may have to inject up to $7 million a year int...

The Supreme Court has been veering towards eliminating most restrictions on campaign finance. This illustrates a variety of subjects we...

I had no idea. The exemption was established in 1945 in the McCarran-Ferguson Act , which " gives states the authority to regulate the ...

A member of the White House Staff, White House Counsel Gregory Craig , may have to prove his loyalty to the president and fall on his sword....

This fits with our discussion of federalism, Gonzalez v. Raich and separated powers .

Obama's Office of Communication made a tactical decision to take on Fox News. Whether this is a good idea or not I don't know, but ...

Frank Rich argues that little has been done to reform the financial system which continues to enjoy the fruits of the bailout: The first sta...

From the NYT : As the Senate prepares to tackle global warming , the nation’s energy producers, once united, are battling one another over p...

Sample ballot from the Brazoria County Clerk. Info on the AISD Bond proposal .

While putting notes together for this week's 2302 review of contemporary executive branch issues (I want to look at health care) I stumb...

Fault lines seem to be opening up in both political parties. For Democrats its the empathy wing vs. the tightfisted discipline wing . For Re...

In a few weeks Texans will vote on a series of constitutional amendments. I want to review these in class soon. Here are a few links with in...

This story shouldn't be a surprise to my 2301 students after the time we spent discussing Federalist #10, demosclerosis , and the conseq...

We'll conclude this week's 2301 lecture with a discussion of state sovereign immunity, a controversial topic which holds that states...

Here's a long post on some material to cover before we take the 2301 quiz on federalism this week. I pulled all of this from oyez .org. ...

Slate Magazine has a positive profile of FCC chair Julius Genackowski , the first FCC chair with a background in Silicon Valley. As with mos...

Here's commentary about a recently leaked memo by General McChrystal that includes a discussion of the responsibilities of military lea...

Members of Congress are attempting to reverse the results of a Supreme Court ruling on age discrimination. The case is Gross v. FBL Financ...

Not all policy is set by Congress. Once an executive agency is established, it has discretion -- within limits ultimately defined by the Sup...

I stumbled across the following article from the Heritage Foundation a moment ago: Federalism and Financial Services It's worth a quick ...

The Supreme Court heard arguments today in United States v Stevens. The issue presented before the court: Whether 18 U.S.C. § 48’s ban on ...

Here are a couple of stories to add to our discussion of the limits of the free exercise clause: - Prayer Trumps Medicine in Decision over C...

Some recent news involving the National Security Council : - A Call To Duty, Changes To Obama's National Security Staff - Take the O...

For 2302, some info about presidential advising as we wade into the executive branch: - Measures may have staved off collapse - 'Mr. Pre...

A state bureaucratic agency in the news recently: - Website: Texas Forensic Science Commission - Relevant Legal Code: Texas Code of Criminal...

Relevant stories: - NYT . - Time: Five Supreme Court Cases to Watch This Term - ScotusBlog : Thoughts on this Term and the Next

Can gay couples married elsewhere, be divorced in Texas? A Dallas judge says yes , but seems to want to mostly pick a constitutional fight w...

Legislators in some states are prepared to challenge the constitutionality of the requirement that individuals carry health insurance on fed...

If you're in my M/W classes (and showed up today) you know class was cancelled because somehow I caught a bug. That's my fault for g...

A current survey predicts that in 20 years, 25% of the population will claim to be disinterested in any religion. Here are predictions about...

If you have hour to kill, here's a great interview with the ex-Supreme Court Justice .

Still no clear leader for the party. From the Hill : Two recent controversies that became high-profile Republican victories sprouted from th...

From an Insider's Poll in the National Journal: A list if the columnists most likely to be read by Democrats and Republicans ("the ...

Here's evidence that the Republican Party is primarily popular in the South .

Here's a great piece about an unappreciated and neglected right . It adds to our discussion of Federalist #10 in 2301. Madison would u...

This could lead to a seismic political shift : The incomes of the young and middle-aged — especially men — have fallen off a cliff since 200...

Here's a great, and damning , piece about the influence of Goldman-Sachs . The author sees them fueling and profiting from every bubble ...

Thomas Friedman argues that solar power shows signs of booming in countries where regulations allow it to grow. He suggests that existing r...

While people are talking mostly about the pros and cons of socialized health care, the same question is being applied elsewhere. We have soc...

This is a very provocative piece. It comments on an important dispute underlying politics in the United States, though it is never stated in...

In 2301 we are covering Federalist #10 and its consequences. In it Madison argues that the way to break up majority factions -- and thus pre...

Story in - the Washington Post . - the New York Times . - Baucus Press Release .

An NYT Editorial : The Supreme Court may be about to radically change politics by striking down the longstanding rule that says corporation...