David O. Stewart

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Boumediene v. Bush recognizing the right of detainees in Guantanamo to press habeas corpus petitions to their continued detention, is a huge moment in the nation’s constitutional and political life. FULL DISCLOSURE: I submitted, with assistance from colleagues at Ropes & Gray, a brief amicus curiae on behalf of…

Paul Krugman in the New York Times has a fascinating/appalling treatment of the future of the book. As in, not much of a future. His message, that the Kindle e-book-reader is good, confirms a report I recently received from a friend from college. What does this mean economically for writers? Nothing good. At least not…

Some commentators are suggesting that Barack Obama’s apparent winning of the presidential nomination is the biggest upset ever in winning a nomination. Pish posh. Did he basically come out of nowhere? Yes, indeed, I’ll grant that point. He didn’t bring a whole lot to the fight. Few achievements in public service, no family connections or…

OK, it’s getting personal now, this shrinking of the media, this revolution in our world of writers and readers. Last week I tried to get in touch with the travel editor of a major newspaper to pitch a project. Oops, she just took a buyout. Her successor? His voicemailbox was full. A tiny symptom of…

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, gave an interview with the Washington Post on June 5 in which he said: “[T]here will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an…

Even people who spend a lot of time with dusty documents from long ago, like me, have noticed the huge changes in our information industry. I’m a book-and-newspaper guy. I can spend 20-30 happy minutes every day with the Washington Post. I write books. But those are swiftly becoming pleasures equivalent to riding in buckboard…

I’m going to do in one post the “bottom 90” of Professor Robert Blomquist’s “100 Most Creative Moments in American Law” (having dealt with the top 10 in the last two posts). I still applaud the professor’s enterprise: it’s a provocative activity, and a useful one. With the bottom 90, though, things get a bit…

I’m still chewing over Professor Robert Blomquist’s fascinating paper, Thinking About Law and Creativity: On the 100 Most Creative Moments in American Law. Approaching his Moments 6 through 10, I begin to have more bones to pick with the rankings. 6. Marbury v. Madison: No argument here. Chief Justice John Marshall’s classic passive/aggressive decision stands…

A professor at Valparaiso Law School, Robert Blomquist, has produced a fascinating list of the 100 most creative moments in American law. To compile the survey, he solicited submissions from over 400 teachers of American legal history. It is a fascinating effort, and one sure to provoke barroom arguments — or perhaps wine bar arguments…

Slightly late, I am struck by the coincidence of anniversaries in the month of May which play a central role in my two books. For The Summer of 1787, May 14 was the date when the Constitutional Convention was supposed to convene. But only two state delegations were present in Philadelphia on May 14, Virginia…