September 28, 2007

Thomas Goldstein Offers S.Ct. Predictions

Link: Previewing the new Supreme Court term. - By Thomas Goldstein - Slate Magazine.

A nice round-up of cases by ScotUSBlog founder Thomas Goldstein.

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 28, 2007 at 03:23 PM in Law School | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Burmese Government Clamps Down on Internet

Link: Burmese Government Clamps Down on Internet - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog.

It appears from difficult-to-verify reports that the Government has adopted a number of methods to shut down information flow: closing down Internet cafes; searching office computers in downtown office towers, perhaps going after specific blogs and bloggers, and perhaps even shutting down the Internet backbone to Burma.

The last option would likely be the most dramatic--leaving international phone calls to ISPs in foreign countries as perhaps the only alternative, and one perhaps beyond the economic means of many. Perhaps the Burmese economy would not be as severely harmed by shutting down the Internet as would other economies with greater reliance on information technology.

India, China, and Japan need to apply far more pressure on the Burmese government than they have thus far. The consequences of their failure have already been tragic.

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 28, 2007 at 11:52 AM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 26, 2007

Is Internet Access Different, for Tax Purposes?

Link: Clash over Internet access tax heats up - Los Angeles Times.

For nearly a decade, the lines carrying the Internet into homes and businesses have been a virtual tax-free zone. But that could change Nov. 1, when a federal ban on Internet access taxes expires.

Almost everybody agrees the politically popular moratorium should be extended to encourage continued investment in the high-speed lines crucial to delivering phone calls and video. But changing Internet usage has complicated the issue, threatening to derail an extension and raising the specter of local officials engaging in a land-rush-like race to enact new taxes for surfing the Web.

But as phone and TV services increasingly are delivered over the Internet, state and local governments worry that more of their tax revenues will disappear because of the federal moratorium. They oppose the permanent extension championed by McCain and a slew of lawmakers, along with Don't Tax Our Web, a coalition of major telecommunications, computer and Internet companies, including AT&T Corp., Google Inc. and Time Warner Inc.

Instead, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Governors Assn. and other local government groups want to narrow the definition of Internet access put in place in 1998, which could be interpreted to cover anything delivered online, and to make the extension temporary in case technology again overtakes the law.

A permanent ban seems unwise (though one supposes that a tax could be reinstituted without raising any Fifth Amendment issue). The implicit federal subsidy to the Internet Service Provider industry has not spurred the rollout of high speed access at anywhere near the rate at which it has occurred in Europe, Japan, and South Korea.

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 26, 2007 at 10:01 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 25, 2007

Columbia Law Dean Criticizes Ahmadinejad Invite

An interesting rift has opened between Dean Schizer and his President, Lee Bollinger, also a law professor. Schizer offers a thoughtful critique of the invitation, and I personally side with him. (After all, there's no obligation to invite anyone; is there something that the Columbia community needed to hear from the Iranian President? There are a nearly endless supply of more informative alternatives.) Bollinger, of course, did much to parry his critics by his careful denunciation of Ahmadinejad delivered to his face. Active discussion at the WSJ blawg and at Above The Law.

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 25, 2007 at 10:30 PM in Law School | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

US Supreme Court to Hear Patent Case by LG v. Quanta (Taiwan)

Link: Patent Law Blog (Patently-O): Supreme Court to Decide Patent Exhaustion Case.

Patently-O is on the case. The Supreme Court has a newfound love of patent cases. Note also how transnational disputes occupy such a large share of the Court's docket.

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 25, 2007 at 09:41 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

ImmigrationProf Blog: Exclusive Interview With Senator Barack Obama

Link: ImmigrationProf Blog: Exclusive Interview With Senator Barack Obama.

I suspect that this is the first interview on a law professor blog of a leading presidential candidate. Congratulations to my UC Davis colleagues for obtaining this interview!

Senator Obama's answers are thoughtful, and he takes some positions that might be controversial. I especially appreciated his support for retaining a family-based immigration policy, and supplementing it, rather than replacing it, with a point based system depending on education. Here is what the Senator says:

Family immigration should remain the foundation of our system. We need comprehensive immigration reform that is safe, orderly, humane, and legal, and that places an emphasis on families. This issue was one of the most disturbing aspects of the recent immigration bill. Along with Senator Menendez, I led the fight against the proposal to take visas away from families and put them into a new untested point system. The point system for more skilled immigrants would not have been as offensive had it supplemented our existing visa categories. But instead it took visas from families and gave them to highly educated and skilled workers, thereby effectively moving us toward a class based immigration system. The point system instead of family visas betrays American family values, the same values that the family-based preferences in our immigration law are designed to enforce. It gave no preference to an immigrant with a brother or sister or even a parent who is a United States citizen unless the immigrant met some minimum and arbitrary threshold on education and skills. That’s just wrong. It places a person’s class status over his character and work ethic. How many of our forefathers would have measured up under this point system? How many would have been turned back at Ellis Island?

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 25, 2007 at 07:36 AM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 23, 2007

Republican Candidates Support Gitmo

Link: Closing Guantanamo lockup increasingly looks unlikely - Los Angeles Times.

As the 2008 elections approach, many in the GOP are seizing on the detention unit as a get-tough issue. By Noam N. Levey,

A lightning rod for international criticism, the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, not long ago appeared headed for closure. President Bush and his top advisors said they wanted to shutter the controversial lockup.

But the latest attempt to shut it down is facing collapse. The detention facility has been embraced by many Republicans as a potent political symbol in their quest to seize the terrorism issue ahead of next year's elections.

GOP presidential candidates have jockeyed to demonstrate their support for the prison. One candidate has called for doubling its use. Another praised the menu and health plan offered to detainees. [ed. I presume that this candidate likes his meals administered forcefully through feeding tubes.]

The Senate Republican leader has accused Democrats of wanting to move terrorists "into American communities."

And the president, who last year told German television that he "would like to end Guantanamo," is now threatening to veto any move to "micromanage the detention of enemy combatants."

"It's a Republican litmus test this year," complained Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a maverick Republican critic of the Iraq war. He is one of the few GOP lawmakers calling for the facility's swift closure of Guantanamo.

"The Republican Party has won two elections on the issue of fear and terrorism," Hagel said. "[It's] going to try again."

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 23, 2007 at 08:21 PM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 20, 2007

Sen. John McCain Votes Against Habeas Rights

Link: Restore-Habeas.org | Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007.

If he believes that Americans should not torture others, should he not back that up with a legal process to challenge torture in court?

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 20, 2007 at 12:19 PM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 19, 2007

Anne Marie Slaughter's Year in China

Link: A Ground-Eye View of the Chinese Economy - Nicholas D. Kristof - Opinion - New York Times Blog.

Dean Slaughter offers observations at the start of her year in Shanghai. I for one will be following her expedition vicariously.

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 19, 2007 at 10:51 PM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 14, 2007

U.S. Visa Restraints Foil Foreign Musicians

Link: U.S. Repels British Invasion - WSJ.com.

At first there seems to be a (likely unintentional) protectionist edge to the failure to approve visas for performances by foreign musicians.

Immigration restrictions are stopping some popular United Kingdom acts from reaching U.S. borders. At least three anticipated tours by British artists scheduled for this month alone have been called off or pushed back because of musicians' visa problems. That is on top of at least 10 scuttled tours by buzzed-about British acts in the last year.

But then one sees that it might actually harm American production (in two senses of the word):

When she couldn't get into the U.S. to work with a top producer, [M.I.A.] collaborated with musicians in India and Trinidad

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 14, 2007 at 11:02 PM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack