Today’s U.S. Supreme Court justices, critics cry, are serving longer than ever (darned improved life expectancy!). And because these people just won’t go away, the court risks becoming an institution where ideological swings have long-lasting impact (or damage), and where present decisions are made by justices grounded in the past. So legal scholars and amateur court watchers are at it again, agitating for the end of life terms on the nation’s highest court. One oft-quoted and particularly alarming statistic, from Northwestern’s Steven Calabresi and James Lindgren, shows that ... Read More
Can We Make College Cheaper?
April 12, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Critics of American higher education have a set of theories to explain the ever-rising cost of college tuition. Schools are inefficient. They blow too much money on administrators, not enough on academics. The academics they do have spend their time on research, not students. And those students live in an increasingly plush world created by the arms race for prestige rankings: Best medium-sized college in the Midwest! Most wired campus in the country! Top-rated college for would-be aerospace engineers! “These people are going to say, ‘Ah! Colleges, they’ve turned themselves into ... Read More
Not Twitter Revolutions, But Twitter-Assisted Revolutions
April 6, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
It’s tempting to think of the Internet as the world’s best weapon against authoritarianism. Where it goes, democracy will follow, if we can just figure out how to strategically drop enough thumb drives, cell phones, and “shadow” technology. But, of course, the relationship between the Internet and democracy is much messier. And what we are now beginning to understand about it – with scientific rigor, that is – suggests that the laws governing this latest technology are not so different from its predecessors like radio and TV. “The Internet can play a role and facilitate ... Read More
Is It Worth Paying People to Be Healthy?
April 3, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
The Supreme Court spent a significant share of last week’s oral arguments on the Affordable Care Act debating the role of money in public health. Can the government rightly fine people for not buying health-care coverage? And what happens if such rebels face no penalty? Would we all, as a result, wind up less healthy? This line of thinking — the fine as a stick used to punish people who won’t get health care — isn’t the only potential contribution of money on public well being. Health researchers and behavioral economists are increasingly pondering the reverse: cash as carrot. ... Read More
‘Stand Your Ground’ Stats Point to High Costs
March 30, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
“Stand your ground” laws, such as the one prominently cited in Florida’s Trayvon Martin shooting last month, are on the books in 28 states. These laws represent a kind of gamble, that by shifting the justice system in favor of the shooter, society will aid people who have acted in self-defense more than it will enable those who might exploit the concept. By claiming Stand Your Ground status, a shooter (or stabber) never enters a courtroom to defend their actions unless police cite probable cause to believe the homicide or assault with a deadly weapon was, in fact, ... Read More
WikiLeaks Has Not Ushered in New Era of Transparency
March 28, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Many breathless things have been written and said about WikiLeaks since the organization first released that startling video in 2010 of an Army helicopter over Baghdad firing on civilians. The site went on to drop hundreds of thousands of American diplomatic and defense documents that year. Amid all that raw data, WikiLeaks’ supporters and media theorists on multiple continents suggested we were now entering a new era of transparency — one in which secrecy might be dead. “All of this,” concludes legal scholar Alasdair Roberts in a new paper, “is vastly overwrought.” Roberts, ... Read More
Talmud, Internet Unlock James Madison
March 23, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
James Madison’s Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 has never been a bestseller. Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, randomly flips open his own copy of a published edition to page 129 and starts reading aloud to illustrate why. “Mr. Randolph's plan,” Madison wrote, “as reported from the Committee June 13 being before the house, the 1. propos: ‘that a Natl. Govt. ought to be established consisting &c.’ being taken up.” For one, this stuff doesn’t translate out loud very well. The book continues like this for some 600 ... Read More
Accepting Climate Change an Economic Luxury
March 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Environmentalists, scientists, and pollsters have devoted a lot of ink and energy over the last few years assessing a curious trend in perceptions about climate change. Several years ago, the American public appeared to start rejecting the idea of climate change: poll after poll showed concern over the problem tailing off and suspicion of the science behind it rising. What was going on here? Did opinion on climate reflect the partisan politics of the moment? Were people swayed by the weather outside, perhaps by that rash of crazy snowstorms in the winter of 2009-10? Were the dipping poll ... Read More
Spotting Election Fraud Gets Smarter, Cheaper
March 15, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
International election monitors have observed a number of high-profile, highly suspect victories over the past few years: Hamid Karzai’s in 2009, Alexander Lukashenko’s in 2010, Vladimir Putin’s earlier this month. Observers have flagged ballot inconsistencies and missing vote totals and voter intimidation. But hardly anyone seems deterred. “It’s very hard to conduct free and fair elections in a new democracy, even in old democracies,” said James Long, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, San Diego. “This is kind of curious because for 20 years, elections ... Read More
Great Debate: Will Politicians Answer the Question?
March 9, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
During the Republican primary debate in Arizona a couple of weeks ago, CNN moderator John King asked one of those slightly askew questions that’s designed to poke through the candidates’ finely tuned allegiance to their talking points. What, King asked the would-be U.S. presidents, is the biggest misconception the public has about you? Here is where Mitt Romney went with that one: “We’ve got to restore America’s promise in this country, where people know that with hard work and education that they’re going to be secure and prosperous and that their kids will have a brighter ... Read More
