Tung grew up all over Southern California and graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Economics. He spent five years at the University of California, Berkeley, earning graduate degrees in Journalism (Master's) and Law (J.D.). He has been a lawyer, a law clerk to three different federal judges, a newspaper reporting intern with the Wall Street Journal and the San Jose Mercury News, a standardized test prep instructor for the SAT, GRE, GMAT, and LSAT, and an aerospace engineering intern. Since 2009, he has been a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School; prior to that, he was a law professor at the University of Iowa. His academic specialties are national security law and counterterrorism law.
Here’s an example of how California arguably over-regulates. California Proposition 65 requires businesses to post a sign warning customers about the potential presence of significant amounts of toxic chemicals in their locations. That sounds like a good idea! But the devil is in the details. During our winter break trip to southern California, the place we were [...]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OREGONLIVE.COM 11/15/11 – Chapman and Lownsdale squares were transformed into mini-tent cities for more than a month by the Occupy Portland movement. People tend to be motivated by self-interest, so Occupy Portland’s class-warfare message of being part of the 99 percent ganging up on the 1 percent should have appealed to a [...]
Former Attorney General (and former Chief U.S. District Court Judge) Michael Mukasey has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that poses an important question: is the Obama Administration’s heavy reliance on targeted killing via unmanned aerial vehicles potentially compromising national security by eschewing the possibility of capturing targets and interrogating them for actionable intelligence? I think it’s [...]
I just got back from a week on an Alaskan cruise, and it struck me that being on a cruise ship is sort of analogous to our federal budget situation. Imagine that the federal debt is like weight; if you’re within your ideal weight range (i.e., BMI between 18.5 and 24.9), it’s equivalent to having no [...]
The “individual mandate” aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) has naturally drawn the most attention due to the multiple lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. However, section 2572 of Obamacare, titled “NUTRITION LABELING OF STANDARD MENU ITEMS AT CHAIN RESTAURANTS AND OF ARTICLES OF FOOD SOLD FROM VENDING MACHINES,” presents an interesting [...]
POLITICIANS LYING, PHILANDERING, AND SOMETIMES BREAKING THE LAW – Having now admitted he was responsible for sending a picture of a pants-clad man’s crotch from his Twitter account – and that his previous vociferous claims of having been the victim of a “prank” and hacking were false – Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is facing some [...]
A few days ago, Jim Huffman argued that a “divided conservative vote is a sure prescription for a second Obama term.” From a fiscal libertarian perspective, however, it’s not clear that having a Republican in the White House is necessarily preferable to a second Obama term. The key assumption here is that Republicans will build [...]
By Tung Yin – Oregon death row inmate Gary Haugen has been in the news lately because he has asked to forego any remaining post-conviction appeals that he might have, which would clear the way for his execution. The judge in the case has ruled that Haugen is mentally competent to make this decision and [...]
On May 2, 2011, a U.S. Navy SEAL team stormed a luxury compound in Pakistan and killed four people inside, including al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Across the country, Americans cheered upon hearing the news. Yet, some people – Americans as well as others – questioned the legality of the targeted killing. Was it [...]
[via Oregonlive 02/15/11 - photo:Jennifer Combs] By Tung Yin: The Portland City Council will soon decide whether to have the Police Bureau rejoin the Joint Terrorism Task Force in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Police Bureau used to be part of the JTTF but ceased involvement in 2005 because of concerns that [...]
[via Oregonlive 11/01/10] By Tung Yin: Critics of Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s Social Security and Medicare reform proposals (Letters to the editor, Oct. 23) claim that concerns about both programs are exaggerated because they are funded with dedicated taxes and not out of the federal budget and because they have enough money now to [...]
[via Oregonlive 02/21/11] Should public schoolteachers be allowed to wear religious garbs such as head scarves and turbans while teaching? Right now, Oregon law says no, but the Legislature is considering House Bill 3686, which would repeal that prohibition. Those who would benefit from the passage of this bill include Muslim women and Orthodox Jewish [...]
