Supreme Court Leaks and Recusals: A Response to Professor Steven Lubet\u27s SCOTUS Ethics in the Wake of NFIB v. Sebelius

As Professor Steven Lubet notes in his article, Stonewalling, Leaks, and Counter-Leaks: SCOTUS Ethics in the Wake of NFIB v. Sebelius, the ethical conduct of Supreme Court Justices has once again gained national attention. This time, however, the context for public outcry is due to actions of an in-house source who released confidential information to a member of the press concerning the voting behavior and the overall sentiments of members of the Court\u27s minority in one of the most significant and controversial rulings of the year: NFIB v. Sebelius (the Affordable Care Act ). Professor Lubet uses this leaking of significant and confidential information regarding the Court\u27s deliberations in the Affordable Care Act case as a segue into what he believes is a much larger group of issues-those concerning Supreme Court ethics and regulation of the conduct of members of the Court, the need for the adoption by the Court of a comprehensive code of judicial conduct to govern the actions of the Justices, and the need for reform of the Court\u27s recusal process and practices. In my response, I briefly evaluate the validity of a few of Professor Lubet\u27s comments and arguments addressing some of these issues, the viability of his suggestion for adopting a comprehensive code of judicial conduct to govern members of the Court, and his ideas for reforming the Court\u27s recusal process. I conclude by sharing a few of my own thoughts and suggestions on these important issues

Do We Expect Most AGN to Live in Disks?

Recent observations have indicated that a large fraction of the low to intermediate luminosity AGN population lives in disk-dominated hosts, while the more luminous quasars live in bulge-dominated hosts, in conflict with some previous model predictions. We therefore build and compare a semi-empirical model for AGN fueling which accounts for both merger and non-merger 'triggering.' In particular, we show that the 'stochastic accretion' model - in which fueling in disk galaxies is essentially a random process arising whenever dense gas clouds reach the nucleus - provides a good match to the present observations at low/intermediate luminosities. However it falls short of the high-luminosity population. We combine this with models for major merger-induced AGN fueling, which lead to rarer but more luminous events, and predict the resulting abundance of disk-dominated and bulge-dominated AGN host galaxies as a function of luminosity and redshift. We compile and compare observational constraints from z~0-2. The models and observations generically show a transition from disk to bulge dominance in hosts near the Seyfert-quasar transition, at all redshifts. 'Stochastic' fueling dominates AGN by number (dominant at low luminosity), and dominates BH growth below the knee in the present-day BH mass function (<10^7 M_sun). However it accounts for just ~10% of BH mass growth at masses >10^8 M_sun. In total, fueling in disky hosts accounts for ~30% of the total AGN luminosity density/BH mass density. The combined model also accurately predicts the AGN luminosity function and clustering/bias as a function of luminosity and redshift; however, we argue that these are not sensitive probes of BH fueling mechanisms.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, PDF updated to match published versio

Multiscale probability mapping: groups, clusters and an algorithmic search for filaments in SDSS

We have developed a multiscale structure identification algorithm for the detection of overdensities in galaxy data that identifies structures having radii within a user-defined range. Our "multiscale probability mapping" technique combines density estimation with a shape statistic to identify local peaks in the density field. This technique takes advantage of a user-defined range of scale sizes, which are used in constructing a coarse-grained map of the underlying fine-grained galaxy distribution, from which overdense structures are then identified. In this study we have compiled a catalogue of groups and clusters at 0.025 < z < 0.24 based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Data Release 7, quantifying their significance and comparing with other catalogues. Most measured velocity dispersions for these structures lie between 50 and 400 km/s. A clear trend of increasing velocity dispersion with radius from 0.2 to 1 Mpc/h is detected, confirming the lack of a sharp division between groups and clusters. A method for quantifying elongation is also developed to measure the elongation of group and cluster environments. By using our group and cluster catalogue as a coarse-grained representation of the galaxy distribution for structure sizes of <~ 1 Mpc/h, we identify 53 filaments (from an algorithmically-derived set of 100 candidates) as elongated unions of groups and clusters at 0.025 < z < 0.13. These filaments have morphologies that are consistent with previous samples studied.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures and 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Data products, three-dimensional visualisations and further information about MSPM can be found at http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/sifa/Main/MSPM/ . v2 contains two additional references. v3 has a slightly altered title and updated reference

Justice for Perpetrators and Victims of Apartheid Who Fall Outside the Scope of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Mandate

The legislation that gave birth to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission provides for the possibility of amnesty to the perpetrators of certain crimes and delicts. It also provides for the possibility of reparations to the victims of apartheid who suffered as a result of their human rights being grossly violated. The problem with the legislation is that it is only competent to deal with matters falling within its ambit, but there are numerous issues that still need to be addressed which clearly fall outside of it. One might be tempted to say that such issues falling beyond the scope of the TRC mandate should then be dealt with according to the ordinary principles governing the legal relationship between those who suffer a loss and those that cause their loss. But the difficulty is that the unjust benefits and wrongful burdens imposed and facilitated by apartheid are effectively passed on from generation to generation. The descendants of apartheid’s victims continue to suffer a grave disadvantage. And in addition to this it is not only the actual perpetrators of the abuses that have benefited from apartheid but also later generations of white South Africans and corporations who continue to enjoy unequal advantage to springboard themselves ahead of black competitors who are still, for the most part, shackled by the disadvantage of apartheid. Whilst the state has made significant efforts to address the imbalance in society, and in the process accepted a tremendous burden, no meaningful effort has yet come from civil society and the unjust profiteers of the apartheid system. In this paper, we have attempted to confront some of these difficult issues. This article explores the possibility of converting the moral justification that seeks to hold these unjust profiteers liable into legal argument: “They were conquerors — nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a grand scale” (From Conrad’s Heart of Darkness).“The United Party comes and whines ‘the constitution’. Anyone listening would think that the constitution was of greater importance to them than the maintenance of white civilization in our country” (Loubscher, National Party MP, 1952)

Heavily Obscured Quasar Host Galaxies at z~2 are Disks, Not Major Mergers

We explore the nature of heavily obscured quasar host galaxies at z~2 using deep Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/IR imaging of 28 Dust Obscured Galaxies (DOGs) to investigate the role of major mergers in driving black hole growth. The high levels of obscuration of the quasars selected for this study act as a natural coronagraph, blocking the quasar light and allowing a clear view of the underlying host galaxy. The sample of heavily obscured quasars represents a significant fraction of the cosmic mass accretion on supermassive black holes as the quasars have inferred bolometric luminosities around the break of the quasar luminosity function. We find that only a small fraction (4%, at most 11-25%) of the quasar host galaxies are major mergers. Fits to their surface brightness profiles indicate that 90% of the host galaxies are either disk dominated, or have a significant disk. This disk-like host morphology, and the corresponding weakness of bulges, is evidence against major mergers and suggests that secular processes are the predominant driver of massive black hole growth. Finally, we suggest that the co-incidence of mergers and AGN activity is luminosity dependent, with only the most luminous quasars being triggered mostly by major mergers.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. To appear as a Letter in MNRA

An Economical Method for Securely Disintegrating Solid-State Drives Using Blenders

Pulverizing solid-state drives (SSDs) down to particles no larger than 2 mm is required by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) to ensure the highest level of data security, but commercial disintegrators that achieve this standard are large, heavy, costly, and often difficult to access globally. Here, we present a portable, inexpensive, and accessible method of pulverizing SSDs using a household blender and other readily available materials. We verify this approach by pulverizing SSDs with a variety of household blenders for fixed periods of time and sieve the resulting powder to ensure appropriate particle size. Among the 6 household blenders tested, sharp-blade blenders with high peak power (1,380 W) and high blade speed (28,000 RPM) properly disintegrate 2.5-inch SSDs in less than 20 min. This method is useful for pulverizing small numbers of SSDs that contain secret information when on-site conventional disintegrators are not available or practical