Distinguishing Genuine from Sham\u27 in Grassroots Lobbying: Protecting the Right to Petition During Elections

This article returns to the debate over a proper test by collecting relevant ads and test proposals in an Appendix and using these as tools to analyze a test derived from a grassroots lobbying ad (hereinafter the PBA Ad ) that was recognized as a genuine issue ad by defense expert Goldstein in McConnell. Parts I through III provide the context for Part IV, which derives and analyzes a test from the PBA Ad. Part I provides a brief overview of the legislative, rulemaking, and constitutional context. Part II demonstrates that McConnell only decided a facial challenge, leaving as-applied challenges for later. Part III shows that the prohibition is unconstitutional as applied here. Part IV analyzes a test derived from a recognized genuine issue ad

\u3cem\u3eWebster\u3c/em\u3e and the Future of Substantive Due Process

In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the United States Supreme Court indicated that Roe v. Wade (the case that found a federal constitutional right to abortion) is without majority support on the Court. Roe is de facto overruled. However, the rejection of Roe does not mean a rejection of substantive due process analysis or the right of privacy, which have been approved by all members of the current Court. But substantive due process analysis has been significantly refined. The analysis has been made more objective in two ways. First, the Court now relies primarily on the test for fundamentality which asks whether a liberty was fundamental in the history and tradition of our Nation (rather than upon the more amorphous essential to a scheme of ordered liberty test), and eschews an analysis which asks whether a formerly discovered right is broad enough to encompass a newly-asserted right. Second, the analysis requires that before a proposed fundamental right is tested against the history and tradition or our Nation, it must be formulated in a concrete, fact sensitive manner, which is neither so overbroad as to include other activities which are logically distinct and involve separate considerations nor so narrow as to fail to reasonably accommodate all the interests at stake in a case. As a result of this refinement, when an abortion right is again expressly considered by the Court, it will not be found fundamental, for the right to abortion has been regulated by the states. Nor will abortion rights advocates be able to shelter an abortion right under any sweeping, amorphous formulation of a right, such as the right of procreative choice, which they attempted to employ in the Webster oral arguments. Roe awaits only the proper case for reconsideration to occur and it will be expressly overruled

Distinguishing Genuine from Sham\u27 in Grassroots Lobbying: Protecting the Right to Petition During Elections

This article returns to the debate over a proper test by collecting relevant ads and test proposals in an Appendix and using these as tools to analyze a test derived from a grassroots lobbying ad (hereinafter the PBA Ad ) that was recognized as a genuine issue ad by defense expert Goldstein in McConnell. Parts I through III provide the context for Part IV, which derives and analyzes a test from the PBA Ad. Part I provides a brief overview of the legislative, rulemaking, and constitutional context. Part II demonstrates that McConnell only decided a facial challenge, leaving as-applied challenges for later. Part III shows that the prohibition is unconstitutional as applied here. Part IV analyzes a test derived from a recognized genuine issue ad

Duality and Braiding in Twisted Quantum Field Theory

We re-examine various issues surrounding the definition of twisted quantum field theories on flat noncommutative spaces. We propose an interpretation based on nonlocal commutative field redefinitions which clarifies previously observed properties such as the formal equivalence of Green's functions in the noncommutative and commutative theories, causality, and the absence of UV/IR mixing. We use these fields to define the functional integral formulation of twisted quantum field theory. We exploit techniques from braided tensor algebra to argue that the twisted Fock space states of these free fields obey conventional statistics. We support our claims with a detailed analysis of the modifications induced in the presence of background magnetic fields, which induces additional twists by magnetic translation operators and alters the effective noncommutative geometry seen by the twisted quantum fields. When two such field theories are dual to one another, we demonstrate that only our braided physical states are covariant under the duality.Comment: 35 pages; v2: Typos correcte

Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide

Efforts to control climate change require the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This can only be achieved through a drastic reduction of global CO2 emissions. Yet fossil fuel emissions increased by 29% between 2000 and 2008, in conjunction with increased contributions from emerging economies, from the production and international trade of goods and services, and from the use of coal as a fuel source. In contrast, emissions from land-use changes were nearly constant. Between 1959 and 2008, 43% of each year's CO2 emissions remained in the atmosphere on average; the rest was absorbed by carbon sinks on land and in the oceans. In the past 50 years, the fraction of CO2 emissions that remains in the atmosphere each year has likely increased, from about 40% to 45%, and models suggest that this trend was caused by a decrease in the uptake of CO2 by the carbon sinks in response to climate change and variability. Changes in the CO2 sinks are highly uncertain, but they could have a significant influence on future atmospheric CO2 levels. It is therefore crucial to reduce the uncertainties