Mar

23

U.S. Attorney Candidates Advance

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

The Federal Nominating Commission for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, which I chair, has forwarded four names to Senators Kohl and Feingold for further consideration as the next United States Attorney.  The four candidates include three current federal prosecutors, Richard Frohling, Mel Johnson, and James Santelle, as well as Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Maxine [...]

Mar

23

Seventh Circuit Week in Review: Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection and Improper Closing Arguments

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

The Seventh Circuit had three new opinions in criminal cases last week.  The most interesting was United States v. McMath (No. 08-2316), which featured the Seventh Circuit’s most extended discussion to date of Snyder v. Louisana, 128 S. Ct. 1203 (2008).  In my view, the Supreme Court’s decision in Snyder represented a real break-through in the [...]

Mar

23

The Eyes Have It

Posted by: | March 23, 2009 | 4 Comments

During my freshman year at Boston University, I was engaged to a girl from just outside of Houston. It didn’t work out in the end, but it was a good relationship, and so I’ve tended to refrain from joining in on the jokes people like to make about Texans, particularly as pertains to their creative [...]

Mar

23

Rant on the Economy

Posted by: | March 23, 2009 | 12 Comments

The collapse of the economy is the result of many different causes. There is plenty of blame to go around. For all too long, the government, under the spell of the mantra that “the government is the problem, the free market is the solution,” let much of the financial industry escape any real regulation by [...]

Mar

22

Let the (Oral) Argument Begin

Posted by: | March 22, 2009 | 3 Comments

Kudos (on getting this far) and best wishes (as we move forward) to the sixteen upper-level students who are competing this week in the quarterfinals of the Jenkins Moot Court Competition. The students earned this right based on their top performance in last fall’s Appellate Writing and Advocacy course, which is a prerequisite or gateway [...]

Mar

20

Obama Extends Protected Status for Liberians for Twelve More Months

Posted by: | March 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The AP reports that President Obama has issued an executive order extended protection (“deferred enforced departure”) for twelve more months.  Advocates for the extension are pleased.  As I wrote previously, I also support this extension, but for the reasons explained in that longer post, I hope that during this twelve months, some legislative solution can [...]

Mar

19

Drug Courts, Racial Disparities, and Restorative Justice

Posted by: | March 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I have a new paper on SSRN dealing with drug courts, focusing particularly on their (poor) prospects as a mechanism to address racial disparities in the prison population.  Here is the abstract: Specialized drug treatment courts have become a popular alternative to more punitive approaches to the “war on drugs,” with nearly 2,000 such courts [...]

Mar

19

AIG, Bailouts, and Suffering Stupidity

Posted by: | March 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

  “A beggar’s mistake harms no one but the beggar. A king’s mistake, however, harms everyone but the king. Too often, the measure of power lies not in the number who obey your will, but in the number who will suffer your stupidity,” writes R. Scott Bakker in his latest novel, The Judging Eye.  Bakker’s [...]

Mar

19

Professor Schneider Receives the Women in the Law 2009 Award by the Wisconsin Law Journal

Posted by: | March 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

A few weeks ago, the Wisconsin Law Journal awarded my colleague Andrea Kupfer Schneider the prestigious Women in the Law Award for 2009.  Professor Schneider was one of 21 outstanding women who were selected this year by the Journal for their work with Wisconsin’s legal community.  In its tribute to Professor Schneider, the Journal traces her passion for the [...]

Mar

18

That Must Have Been Some Presentation

Posted by: | March 18, 2009 | 3 Comments

The NFL Players Association new executive director, DeMaurice Smith (left), “wowed . . . player representatives with an hour long presentation,” but prior to his election was “a relative unknown quantity in NFL circles,” according to a report by Sports Illustrated‘s Don Banks. Prior to his election, Smith was a “trial and litigation partner at [...]

Mar

18

The New Wisconsin Logo “Live Like You Mean It” and Its Early Criticism: Much Ado About Nothing?

Posted by: | March 18, 2009 | 3 Comments

Newspapers, web sites, and blogs are all talking these days about the newly launched Wisconsin slogan (“Live Like You Mean It”) that will replace the slogan “Life’s So Good” in promoting Wisconsin as a tourism and business destination. In the words of Governor Doyle, “This is another tool we’ll use to keep loyal visitors coming [...]

Mar

17

May Jurors Twitter?

Posted by: | March 17, 2009 | 4 Comments

From Scientific American:   Avid tweeter Jonhathan Powell of Fayetteville, Ark., will have his name in the New York Times tomorrow. How do we know this? From his Twitter feed, of course. That would be the same feed he used last month to tweet about a trial while a member of the jury, which pleased his [...]

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