Harvard

CNN reports that former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) will be a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics in the fall. Six years ago, Al Franken — the man who took Coleman’s job — had a similar gig at Harvard, as a fellow at the Shorenstein Center. Franken used his resources to write “Lies and the [...]

Little evidence backs claims that medical malpractice suits are driving up health care costs.

Glenn Thrush reports on how the National Republican Congressional Committee is attacking Democrats over President Obama’s comment that Sgt. Joseph Crowley and Cambridge police “acted stupidly” in arresting Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. for breaking into his own home and then complaining about the police showing up to investigate.
The NRCC is sending out a raft [...]

So just who are those “civil liberties groups” that have encouraged the Obama administration to issue an executive order creating a system of prolonged preventive detention?
As Spencer wrote today, someone in the administration told ProPublica’s Dafna Linzner and The Washington Post’s Peter Finn that yes, civil liberties groups support the idea of an order that [...]

Here’s an insightful observation from Harper’s Scott Horton today about Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz’s latest defense of the academic freedom of John Yoo, who reportedly may be asked to leave his tenured professorship at the University of California at Berkeley if an internal Justice Department report finds him guilty of ethical violations, as is [...]

As expected, the Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as solicitor general Thursday.  Kagan, the first woman to hold the post, was confirmed by a vote of 61-31.
As I reported earlier, she had some vehement Republican critics. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) made a point of noting, in announcing her confirmation, that every solicitor general [...]

The nomination of Elena Kagan, President Obama’s nominee for solicitor general — the government’s top legal representative in cases before the Supreme Court — is now being debated on the Senate floor. The Senate is expected to vote on the nomination by the end of today.
Despite some tough questioning about past experience and legal positions [...]

“Has the Obama administration changed the legal rules for detaining suspects in the war on terrorism,” asked Harvard law professor Noah Feldman in an op-ed in The New York Times today, “or is it continuing in the footsteps of the Bush administration?”
As I wrote when the administration first announced it would stop using the term [...]

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to tap Cass Sunstein, a Harvard constitutional scholar and contributor to The Washington Independent, to lead the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, according to the Chicago Tribune.
From the Trib:
A low-profile position in the current administration, the job is likely to be a higher-wattage one after Obama takes office this [...]

There I was, moments ago, just minding my own business with CNN droning on in the background, when I heard Wolf Blitzer declare that “you have better odds of being admitted to Harvard than getting one of those plum Obama appointments.”
Gee, Wolf, what an amazing insight. However, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve heard [...]