prior probability

Nigel Chiwaya and Jiachuan Wu kept track of all the times special counsel Bob Mueller declined to answer questions by members of Congress about his two-year investigation of President Trump. (See the screenshot of their compilation of deflections below.) The reasons for these artful dodges were varied. In some cases, for example, Mr Mueller objected to a question when he thought the question was beyond the scope of his investigation (9:31 AM: “Outside my purview”); in other cases, Mueller did not want to disclose his “internal deliberations” (e.g. 10:00 AM: “I can’t get into internal deliberations”). Mueller deflected 198 times in all.

Source: NBC News

By way of example, could a tweet disparaging special counsel Bob Mueller or an op-ed criticizing the Department of Justice’s new antitrust review of Big Tech be considered an “obstruction of justice” under the open-textured federal obstruction of justice statute (18 US Code, Section 1503)? Here is the text of paragraph (a) of the law:

Whoever corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, endeavors to influence, intimidate, or impede any grand or petit juror, or officer in or of any court of the United States, or officer who may be serving at any examination or other proceeding before any United States magistrate judge or other committing magistrate, in the discharge of his duty, or injures any such grand or petit juror in his person or property on account of any verdict or indictment assented to by him, or on account of his being or having been such juror, or injures any such officer, magistrate judge, or other committing magistrate in his person or property on account of the performance of his official duties, or corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b) ….

Available here. (Hat tip: Bruce Sterling.)

Check out this excellent essay by Andy Murdock on the history and aesthetics of airline route maps. By way of example, below are the route maps of two defunct airlines, National Airlines and TWA.

The great Benito Juarez died on this day in 1872. (Hat tip: Alex Tabarrok.)

In addition to reading John Finnis’s classic book on “Natural Law and Natural Rights” and attending Brian Leiter’s lectures on realist jurisprudence, I have been working on the following projects this summer:

1. A Coasean analysis of the fair use doctrine, along with a brief critique of Mill’s theory of harms, which is titled “Of Coase and copyrights: the law and economics of literary fan art,” available on SSRN here.
2. Addendum and revisions to my intellectual autobiography titled “Life, love, and law: confessions of a Cuban-American law professor” to commemorate my 20th year of teaching, research, and service. I have also included a photo gallery and posted this essay on SSRN here.
3. Revisions to my forthcoming paper “So long suckers: bargaining and betrayal in Breaking Bad,” which will be published next month in The Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation. I have posted this paper on SSRN here.

The art pictured below is not a painting. It’s a futuristic, illuminated tunnel below the main buildings of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.

Photo credit: F. E. Guerra-Pujol