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The Score: Han Solo, Ryan Collins, Starbucks CEO, D-Day

This week on The Score – can a corporate CEO become a good president? The Supreme Court expands Fourth Amendment protections in Collins v. Virginia. Tim Hulsey reviews Solo: A Star Wars Story. A D-Day remembrance of American industry during World War II.

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Robert Bruner Darden School of Business UVAFirst up on The Score this week, I visited the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia to speak with Dr. Robert Bruner about whether and how top corporate executives can transition into the role of top government executives.

Our discussion was sparked by the announcement that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will soon retire, and widespread speculation over his plans to run for President in 2020. Dr. Bruner is emeritus dean of the Darden School and co-author of The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market’s Perfect Storm [2] (2007, with Sean D. Carr), Case Studies in Finance [3] (2009, with Kenneth Eades and Michael Schill), and The Portable MBA [4] (2002, with Mark Eaker and others).

A 2012 criminal case out of the Charlottesville area went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was decided on May 29, 2018. In Collins v. Virginia [5], the nation’s highest court ruled that the Fourth Amendment protects us from searches of our automotive property – cars, trucks, and motorcycles – in certain circumstances. The decision was 8-1, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing the majority opinion and Justice Samuel Alito writing the lone dissenting opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas filed a concurring opinion.

Charles Buddy Weber Charlottesville attorney Collins v VirginiaI was fortunate to know the attorney in this case, Charles Weber – everyone calls him Buddy – so I went to his office last week, where he explained the origins of the case and the arguments he and his colleagues (litigators from McGuire Woods) used to persuade the Court to decide in favor of their client, Albemarle County resident Ryan Collins. Buddy told his client that he will be famous, because Collins v. Virginia is destined to be taught in law schools and included in constitutional law casebooks.

One of the anticipated hit movies of the summer was supposed to be Solo: A Star Wars Story [6], starring Alden Ehrenreich and Woody Harrelson. Although its box office ticket sales have been disappointing to its producers at Disney, not disappointed was The Score’s film critic, Tim Hulsey. He liked it.

Arthur Herman AEI World War IIA few days ago, we commemorated the anniversary of the D-Day invasions of Normandy, which marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War. In this week’s “From the Archives” segment, I found an interview from June 2012 with historian Arthur Herman [7], who wrote a book called Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II [8].

In the excerpt from our conversation featured on The Score this week, Herman talks a bit about the role that Virginia-based industries played in providing the arms and equipment soldiers and sailors used on D-Day. I also asked if he noticed [9] how some of the real-life people in his book resembled characters from Ayn Rand’s fiction.

The Score will be back next week with new interviews about politics and public policy, plus a review by Tim Hulsey of an exhibit at the VMFA focused on Napoleon.