From around the internet

Textualism

The Indiana Court of appeals issued an opinion this week offering a good example of textualism. In Owens v. State, the prosecutor filed the habitual offender enhancement twenty-one days prior to the defendant’s first trial setting. That first trial setting was ultimatily continued, and the actual trial did not take place for another eighteen months. The HFO statute says that the enhancement must be filed at least thirty days before the commencement of trial. The defense filed a motion to dismiss the HFO enhancement arguing that it was untimely filed. The analysis in the opinion begins by laying out some statutory construction rules emphasizing the primary importance of the text. Next, the opinion digs into the meanings of the words used in the statute, and compares word choices across the statute. In an execellent example of a textualist approach, the Court ultimatly held that the statutes means thirty days before the start of the actual trial. You can read the opinion here.

Free Speech

Free speech on law school campuses continues to be a problem this week. This time, Columbia Law School student groups erupted in protests after the law school’s official Instagram page featured a photo of students from the law school’s Federalist Society chapter with U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh. The groups, and those associated with them, are calling on the law school to ban the Federalist Society. Nothing official from the law school yet, but let’s hope the response is similar to the recent example set by Stanford Law School’s dean. You can read more about it here.

Due Process

The Manhattan Institute, along with other conservative groups, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court this week in College of the Ozarks v. Biden. The case involves regulations issued by HUD. The plaintiffs argue that the regulations were issued without the notice-and-comment procedure required by the Federal Administrative Procedures Act. The administration contends that the plaintiff does not have standing because the regulations have not yet been enforced. You can read more about it here.