Robert Prather agrees with Jeralynn of TalkLeft that the proposed Victims’ Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a bad idea, and I tend to agree with that assessment.

In general, the amendment seems to be an example of a solution that is in search of a problem. At the federal level, there is nothing in this proposed amendment that couldn’t be guaranteed by statute in federal criminal proceedings. At the state level, there is little evidence that states have failed to consider (and either accept or reject) the need for similar provisions in their jurisdictions, or have deliberately excluded the interests of crime victims from political debate, which is the general threshold I’d say you need to cross to justify a federal intervention into areas of traditional state sovereignty like criminal justice.

In any event, you can read the full text of the proposed amendment at THOMAS and decide for yourself.

There are three new philosophy grad student group blogs, one of which is from my graduate alma mater.

• What is the name of this blog? (University of Rochester)
• Orange Philosophy (Syracuse University)
• Fake Barn Country (Brown University)

Looking at the list of bloggers at Rochester, I see two “tenured grad students” who were there when I was, seven years ago. I wonder what the record is for the longest amount of time spent in grad school.

(Link via Crooked Timber.)