Aaron Edlin Predicts Increase in Government’s Merger Reviews

San Francisco Daily Journal, March 4, 2009 by Amelia Hansen
http://www.dailyjournal.com (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

Aaron Edlin … explained that once a plan for a proposed merger has been filed with the authorities—technically the “first request” for information—the government can make a second request for more details on the deal…. “There will definitely be more situations when you didn’t see a second request before,” Edlin said. “And there will be more mergers that don’t go through.”

John Yoo Responds to Critics

-The Orange County Register, March 3, 2009 by Eugene W. Fields
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/government-think-legal-2323245-people-decisions

“These memos I wrote were not for public consumption. They lack a certain polish, I think—would have been better to explain government policy rather than try to give unvarnished, straight-talk legal advice. I certainly would have done that differently, but I don’t think I would have made the basic decisions differently.”

-The Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2009 by John Yoo
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638439733558185.html#printMode

“In these extraordinary circumstances, while our military put al Qaeda on the run, it was the duty of the government to plan for worst-case scenarios—even if, thankfully, those circumstances never materialized. This was not reckless. It was prudent and responsible. While government officials worked tirelessly to prevent the next attack, lawyers, of which I was one, provided advice on unprecedented questions under the most severe time pressures.”

Richard Frank Favors Increased Penalties for Water Polluters

The New York Times, March 3, 2009 by Debra Kahn
http://www.nytimes.com/inc_com/03greenwire-lawmakers-weigh-jail-time-for-water-polluters-9961.html?emc=eta1I

Increasing the penalties should send a message that inland waters are no less vulnerable than marine waters, said Rick Frank, a former California deputy attorney general and director of the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley. “There was a serious concern that [Kinder Morgan] … allowed this spill to occur and didn’t bother reporting it to authorities for a seriously overdue amount of time,” Frank said. “A lot of inland waters are just as sensitive as coastal waters.”

Stephen Sugarman Suggests a Cap-and-Trade Approach to Limit Dietary Salt

San Francisco Chronicle, March 1, 2009 by Stephen D. Sugarman
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/01/INDK164MAL.DTL

“Merely telling people to eat less salt is unlikely to do the trick. After all, people like salt for its flavor. Moreover, most of the salt we consume is not added in our home kitchens or at the table. Instead, it’s added by food processors to the food we buy…. A more creative way to attack this problem is with performance-based regulation. This approach imposes outcome targets on business by imposing financial penalties if those targets aren’t met.”

Goodwin Liu Explains Genesis of American Constitution Society

ABA Journal, March 1, 2009 by Leslie A. Gordon
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/left_turn_permitted/print/

“We had seen a departure by strict constructionists, who promoted expanded government with little accountability, excessive assertions of pres­idential authority, and a perverse doctrine of equal protection,” explains Goodwin Liu, chair of the ACS and an associate dean at the University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt Hall. “We believe there’s room for refashioning the legal culture to meet contemporary challenges. The Constitution is meant to be a simple and spare document that adapts to the many changes the country would confront.”

Richard Frank Reviews Jeff Benedict’s Novel Little Pink House

Daily Journal, March 1, 2009 by Richard M. Frank
http://www.dailyjournal.com (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

Little Pink House is by no means a neutral, dispassionate account of this legal and political conflict. The book has a point of view, and an ax to grind. As portrayed by Benedict, Kelo and her neighbors are noble, oppressed citizens, and their attorneys are visionary and principled advocates. The municipal officials of New London, by contrast, come across as a combination of Boss Tweed and Darth Vader, and their lawyers as both naive and ineffective. This, unfortunately, reduces the difficult and nuanced issues that were at the heart of the Kelo litigation to little more than caricature.