memeorandum: Insurers Sued Over Death Bets (Leslie Scism/Wall Street Journal)

10:45 AM ET, January 4, 2011

Top Items:

Scalia: Women Don't Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … WASHINGTON — The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Balkinization, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Scholars and Rogues and Hullabaloo

callawyer.com:

THE ORIGINALIST — Last October marked the 24th anniversary of Justice Antonin Scalia's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Well known for his sharp wit as well as his originalist approach to the Constitution, Justice Scalia consistently asks more questions during oral arguments and makes …

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay, Washington Post, Raw Story, Pam's House Blend and Advocate

Roger Pilon / Wall Street Journal:
Congress Rediscovers the Constitution

Discussion: National Review and Cold Fury

Liz Goodwin / Yahoo! News:
14 states may target birthright citizenship

Discussion: Flopping Aces, Outside the Beltway and Weasel Zippers

Joshua Green / The Atlantic Online:

Strict Obstructionist — Mitch McConnell is a master manipulator and strategist— the unheralded architect of the Republican resurgence. Now that his relentless tactics have made his party victorious, he is poised to take down the president and win the Senate majority he covets …

Discussion: msnbc.com

Erika Niedowski / The Hill:
Obama urges House, Senate GOP leaders to put politics aside

Discussion: CNN, Caffeinated Thoughts, Right Wing News and TPMDC

Mike Allen / The Politico: Bill Daley talks West Wing with Rahm …

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Senate Dems warn Boehner: Don't bother with healthcare repeal

Discussion: The Politico, Don Surber, Hot Air, CNN, New York Times, Michelle Malkin, Nice Deb, Toledo Blade, PERRspectives, USA Today, Sister Toldjah, Liberty Central, Doug Ross, The Political Carnival and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Obama May Bypass Guantánamo Rules, Aides Say — WASHINGTON — President Obama's legal advisers, confronting the prospect of new restrictions on the transfer of Guantánamo detainees, are debating whether to recommend that he issue a signing statement asserting that his executive powers …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Politics Daily, Outside the Beltway, Prairie Weather and TigerHawk

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Incoming House GOP chairmen have a long list of issues to investigate — House Republican leaders announced plans Monday for congressional investigations into a wide range of issues, from corruption in Afghanistan to Washington's regulation of private industries, using the power of their new majority …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, ThinkProgress, The BLT, THEROOT.COM and The Page

Darren Goode / The Politico:
Issa to business: Tell me what to fix

Discussion: Yglesias, Washington Monthly and Bankrupting America

Dafna Linzer / ProPublica:
Administration Prepares to Defy Efforts to Limit Obama's Options for Guantanamo

Discussion: TPMMuckraker, TalkLeft, Oliver Willis and Emptywheel

Bloomberg:

Obama Said to Consider William Daley for Top White House Post — President Barack Obama is considering naming William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, to a high-level White House post, possibly as his chief of staff, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: Online NewsHour, Politics Daily, DownWithTyranny!, New York Magazine, Top of the Ticket, Raw Story, The Sundries Shack, Ben Smith's Blog, Political Punch, Suburban Guerrilla, Publius Forum, Right Pundits, Weasel Zippers, Hotline On Call, The Political Carnival, The Page and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

The Caucus:
Obama Talks With William Daley About a Job

Discussion: Ezra Klein, The Politico, Ben Smith's Blog, DealBook and Balloon Juice

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Great news: New Obama chief of staff might be ... William Daley

Discussion: Bloomberg, Oliver Willis and Moe Lane

The Politico:
William Daley in running for top White House job

Discussion: The New Republic, POWIP, Outside the Beltway, CNN and The Hill

Gideon Rachman / Foreign Policy:

Think Again: American Decline — This time it's for real. — “We've Heard All This About American Decline Before.” — This time it's different. — It's certainly true that America has been through cycles of declinism in the past. Campaigning for the presidency in 1960 …

John Rossomando / The Daily Caller:

The ACLU's untold Stalinist heritage — Noted author Paul Kengor has unearthed declassified letters and other documents in the Soviet Comintern archives linking early leaders of the ACLU with the Communist Party. — Kengor found a May 23, 1931 letter in the archives signed by ACLU founder Roger Baldwin …

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

House Republicans set Jan. 12 vote on repeal of health-care law — House Republicans have set Jan. 12 as their day to vote on a repeal of President Obama's health-care law, after a midterm election in which they campaigned against the landmark legislation as a government takeover of the health industry.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Foundry, The Politico, Hotline On Call, Big Think and Roll Call

Wall Street Journal:
Rules for Smaller Government

Discussion: New York Times and Betsy's Page

Terry / CNSNews:
Republican Congressman: Ban Funding of Obamacare in Every …

Discussion: The Politico and Weasel Zippers

Gil Ronen / Arutz Sheva:

Vulture in Saudi Custody Suspected as Mossad Agent — Follow Israel news on and . — Saudi Arabian security forces have captured a vulture that was carrying a global positioning satellite (GPS) transmitter and a ring etched with the words “Tel Aviv University.”

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Sense of Events and Israel Matzav

David Dayen / news.firedoglake.com:

Ohio Ruling: No Substitution of Foreclosure Documents in Robo-Signing Cases — Thanks to an obscure ruling from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, mortgage lenders in the Cleveland, Ohio area trying to substitute new documents for ones found to be faulty will have 30 days to explain …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Rachel Slajda / TPM LiveWire:

There's One Huge State Budget Crisis That Everyone Is Refusing To Talk About — You know the story and you know the names: states like Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and California are supposed to be in huge financial trouble thanks to bloated governments, business-unfriendly regulations, and strong public sector unions.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Arkansas Blog

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:

Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions — Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics.

Steve Everley / American Solutions:

Top Five Things Obama Has Done to Raise Gasoline Prices — With gasoline currently above $3 per gallon nationwide and economists expecting that price to rise even further in 2011, America should be getting serious about producing more of its own resources. But instead of focusing on how to bring …

Discussion: Questions and Observations, Wizbang, The Foundry, Michelle Malkin and The Volokh Conspiracy

Oregonian:

Are recent snows from global warming? — By David Appell — Can we talk about global warming? — Scientists already know that man is behind it. They have known it for decades. 'Nough said. — But that hardly means that every little bit of weather can be blamed on it.Sometimes, it is just cold.

Discussion: Stop The ACLU

Philip Caulfield / NY Daily News:

Chilling photo captures Philippines politician's killer moments before he is shot dead — A politician in the Philippines who was shot dead while taking a photograph of his family on New Year's Day captured his killer on camera just seconds before the assassin fired the fatal shots.

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Leslie Scism / Wall Street Journal:

Insurers Sued Over Death Bets — Scrutiny on Secondary-Market Policies That Paid Investors When Others Died — New investor lawsuits are emerging amid the wreckage of an investment boom in life-insurance policies that spectacularly collapsed. — The suits involve the secondary market in life policies …

Discussion: The Agonist and The Volokh Conspiracy

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Obama and Air Force One: It's good to have a 747 — President Obama will spend Monday night flying across the Pacific and United States after his latest vacation, 11 days in Hawaii. It will be his first trip of 2011 aboard Air Force One. — Last year Obama flew in Air Force One 172 times, almost every other day.

Discussion: Hot Air and Ric's Rulez

Ronald Bailey / Hit & Run:

Women or Wine? Monogamy and Alcohol — The headline is the title of an intriguing new working paper [PDF] by two University of Leuven economists Mara Squicciarini and Jo Swinnen. The two note an interesting correlation between societies that practice monogamy and those that drink alcohol.

Discussion: Hot Air and Mediaite

David A. Fahrenthold / Washington Post:

Nine incoming House Democrats assume place in pecking order: the end — They call themselves “the Mighty Nine.” — Which is half true - there are, in fact, nine of them. — But “mighty” is definitely the wrong word for the nine lonely Democrats who will be sworn in as House members on Wednesday.

Discussion: The Note and USA Today

Alexander Mooney / CNN:

TRENDING: Palin re-tweet raises questions — (CNN) - Normally, it's what Sarah Palin tweets that makes news. This time it's what she has re-tweeted. — The former Alaska governor Monday relayed a comment from gay conservative pundit Tammy Bruce, who was expressing her criticism …

Discussion: The Note, Gawker and NewsBusters.org blogs