Commentary: If felons deserve the vote, do they deserve guns?

February 28, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: If felons deserve the vote, do they deserve guns?

Voting rights for felons is an issue of convergence for liberals and libertarians. But it invites another question: What about gun rights?

Commentary: Putting caps on damages won’t fix malpractice laws

February 27, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: Putting caps on damages won’t fix malpractice laws

Evidence suggests the right way forward is not to impose arbitrary caps on liability. Instead, we should change the basis for finding a doctor guilty of malpractice in the first place.

Tagged with: damage caps medical malpractice

Commentary: Why you can’t ban gay couples from your business

February 26, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: Why you can’t ban gay couples from your business

Unlike earlier legislative efforts to block gay marriage, this law is probably constitutional. Yet Gov. Jan Brewer still shouldn’t sign it.

Tagged with: gay marriage

Commentary: Religion in public schools — still an issue

February 19, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: Religion in public schools — still an issue

Let us take a little trip to Sabine Parish. It is located in “the Bible Belt” of Louisiana. How do we know that? Because the superintendent of the Sabine Parish School District said so to the parents of a Buddhist sixth-grader.

Tagged with: Establishment Clause

Commentary: GM’s female CEO gets less pay for less work?

February 10, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: GM’s female CEO gets less pay for less work?

The media are questioning the apparent discrepancy between new General Motors CEO Mary Barra’s pay ($4.4 million) and that of her male predecessor, Dan Akerson ($9 million).

Tagged with: General Motors

Commentary: 7 steps to a relentlessly polite witness

February 6, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: 7 steps to a relentlessly polite witness

Whatever the tone of the questioner or the questions, the witness’s response should always be the same: coolly, unflappably, relentlessly — even infuriatingly — polite and positive.

Commentary: Employers, start now on preparing for ACA 2015 deadline

February 5, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: Employers, start now on preparing for ACA 2015 deadline

Even though 2015 is still nearly a year away, employers should immediately start (or restart) efforts to comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Tagged with: Affordable Care Act

Commentary: January Barometer’s false readings for investors

February 5, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: January Barometer’s false readings for investors

“As January goes, so goes the year?”

Commentary: Climate-change skeptics have free-speech rights

February 4, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: Climate-change skeptics have free-speech rights

Close cases should go to the critic, no matter how nasty or uninformed. The preservation of robust dissent allows no other result, and robust dissent is at the heart of what it means to be America.

Commentary: Sentencing for child pornography in federal court

February 3, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: Sentencing for child pornography in federal court

In imposing sentence in federal court, a judge must consider four factors: to reflect the seriousness of the offense, promote respect for the law and provide just punishment for the offense; deterrence; to protect the public from further crimes by the defendant; and to provide the defendant with needed education or training or other correctional treatment.

Tagged with: Child Pornography Criminal Law

Commentary: Leadership? The best schools don’t teach it

January 31, 2014 Comments Off on Commentary: Leadership? The best schools don’t teach it

The meritocracy we have built recruits narcissists, then rewards and promotes them under the “best and the brightest” syndrome of superior individual performance.