Jan

26

Health Care Magnet?

Posted by: | January 26, 2009 | 1 Comment

Last January, I published a piece in WI Interest, the journal of the Wisconsin Public Policy Research Institute, arguing that the drafters of Healthy Wisconsin — or any similar program purporting to enact a universal entitlement to health care in a single state — could not constitutionally impose a residency requirement, creating the risk of [...]

Jan

25

Seventh Circuit Week in Review: Prior Crimes Evidence, Career Offender Guideline, and More

Posted by: | January 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The Seventh Circuit had four new opinions in criminal cases last week.  In United States v. Millbrook (No. 07-2931), the court (per Judge Rovner) affirmed the defendant’s conviction and sentence for drug trafficking and other offenses.  The defendant’s appeal raised several issues, the most interesting of which was yet another Rule 404(b) question regarding the use of prior [...]

Jan

24

Environmental Crime and “Real” Crime

Posted by: | January 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I just got back from a couple days at the University of Utah, where I was participating in a national conference on environmental crimes at the S.J. Quinney School of Law.  It was a terrific conference, and I was honored to be included among the many distinguished speakers.  But it was also among the more contentious academic conferences [...]

Jan

23

Religion in Public Places

Posted by: | January 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment

An unsettled question in the law of limited purpose public forums is whether forums that are made available for broad purposes can exclude religious worship. In a trio of cases culminating in Good News Club v. Milford Central School, the Supreme Court has made clear that religious uses that are within a forum’s purpose cannot [...]

Jan

23

I Refer to the Woman with Whom You Have a Child But Who Is Not Your Wife (Hereafter “Baby Mama”)

Posted by: | January 23, 2009 | 3 Comments

Perhaps Professor O’Hear can straighten me out on this. The decision of a divided Court of Appeals setting aside the sentence of Landray Harris has gotten a fair amount of play in the blogs and on talk radio. Put briefly, the court vacated the sentence because the sentencing judge, apparently frustrated by the defendant’s failure [...]

Jan

23

Taking Oaths Seriously

Posted by: | January 23, 2009 | 2 Comments

  Most presidents take the oath of office twice in their lives only if reelected.  Yesterday night, Barack Obama took the oath – again –  from Chief Justice John Roberts because of the miscues during the inauguration ceremony the day before.  The media’s take, thus far, is to poke fun at what is called the [...]

Jan

22

Supreme Court Provides for Civil Rights Claim in Peer Sexual Harassment Case

Posted by: | January 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment

In somewhat of a shocking fashion, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday ruled to permit victims of peer sexual harassment in the educational context to pursue civil rights claims against schools and school officials under Section 1983, even if they have separate viable claims under Title IX.  The decision was unanimous, with Justice Alito writing for [...]

Jan

22

Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in Nken v. Filip, on Question of Standard of Review for Stays of Removal Pending Appeal

Posted by: | January 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard the argument in Nken v. Filip (formerly Nken v. Mukasey), which asks whether an alien who seeks a stay of deportation pending appeal must prove by clear and convincing evidence that his deportation is prohibited by law.  The majority of courts have held that the ordinary standard for stays pending appeal [...]

Jan

21

Wisconsin Supreme Court Accepts Two More Cases, Including Question of Probable Cause to Arrest for OWI

Posted by: | January 21, 2009 | 2 Comments

Yesterday the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to accept two more cases this term, Zellner v. Herrick, no. 2007AP2584, and State v. Lange, 2008AP882-CR. At issue in Zellner v. Herrick is whether the transcript of Robert Zellner’s closed arbitration proceeding is a “public record” under Wisconsin’s public records law, and if so, whether personal information must be redacted [...]

Jan

21

Chief Flynn Discusses “Issues”

Posted by: | January 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Mike Gousha began his spring-semester series of conversations “On the Issues” by hosting Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn, who had come to the Law School last January within weeks of starting as chief and thus has a year under his belt (in addition to his substantial experience elsewhere). Anyone who has never heard Flynn speak [...]

Jan

21

Tuesday’s Gone

Posted by: | January 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Inauguration day has come and gone, but the euphoria of a historic election will likely remain for some time.  For President Obama and the 110th Congress, the work is just beginning.  The economy continues to show signs of weakening, even amidst hope that the downturn will be neither as severe nor as prolonged as some [...]

Jan

20

That Was the Copyright Year That Was

Posted by: | January 20, 2009 | 3 Comments

I recently compiled a list of the biggest developments in copyright law in 2008, based on a not very systematic survey. I thought it would be worth sharing here, as I know that I often wish for lists like this myself. So here for your perusal is my list, grouped by topic:

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