Wow.  It looks, from SCOTUSblog’s Lyle Denniston’s report on the argument this afternoon in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, that I was, um … right in saying yesterday and again earlier today that this case is not, at heart, an affirmative action case.  The case is really about when a voter referendum can […]

As Dan Crawford posted below, SCOTUSblog linked in its daily Round-up feature this morning to my AB post yesterday about Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, which is being argued at the Supreme Court this afternoon. Dan posted the Round-up paragraph in which the reference appears.  It says: Commentary on Schuette comes from Richard […]

Scotusblog Round up quote: Commentary on Schuette comes from Richard Kahlenberg, who in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal argues that “[a] ruling in Schuette that promotes race-neutral strategies to boost minority admissions would reinforce the message the court tried to deliver last term in Fisher v. University of Texas but has largely fallen […]

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Tuesday put forward the outline of a response to a Senate proposal that would end the government shutdown and raise the debt limit into next year, but would also make some changes to the health care law. Under their plan, members of Congress and the cabinet would be compelled to […]

Eric Cantor rules on the debt ceiling?  From Talking Points Memo comes this bit of knowledge on who can propose a vote on the debt. Under normal House rules, according to House Democrats, once that bill had been rejected again by the Senate, then any member of the House could have made a motion to […]

by David Zetland (re-posted from Aguanomics) Columbus and the destruction of endless resources 14 October 2013 Today is Thanksgiving in Canada and Columbus Day in the US.[1] Both of these holidays touch on the topics of indigenous people, resource use and sustainability — and not in a good way.

by Linda Beale The Countermajoritarian Difficulty and Congressional Ethics–Ending the Shutdown [Edited to add Marcotte article on role of fundamentalism in Tea Party politics.] We have seen congressional ethics probes of Congressmen for exacting quid pro quo bribes from businessmen or for conflicts of interest or apparent failure to pay personal taxes.  What about failing […]

Since I write about effective demand quite a bit here, I just want to post some of its basic principles. What is Effective Demand? Effective demand is a measure of the potential demand for the output of an economy. This potential establishes a limit upon output. In simple terms, the output of the economy will […]

  The Way to Stop Discrimination on the Basis of Race Is To Stop Discriminating on the Basis of Race. — Chief Justice John Roberts, Jun. 28, 2007, writing for a four-justice plurality in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. Given that statement of his own belief, and his concomitant […]