Aug

31

Catholics on the Court

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | August 31, 2009 | 6 Comments

Three recent events have added a new wrinkle to a debate that has been taking place among legal scholars: what, if anything, does it mean to be both a Catholic and a Supreme Court Justice?
First, the confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor has added a sixth practicing Catholic to the Supreme Court.  As a proportion of the [...]

Aug

30

Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: Crediting the Lost Opportunity to Serve a Concurrent Sentence

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | August 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Since separate state and federal prosecutions are permissible for the same criminal act, federal law appropriately permits district judges to impose federal sentences so that they run concurrently with states sentences; that way, defendants can be protected from what would otherwise amount to double punishment for the same crime.  But what if federal prosecution is delayed, and [...]

Aug

28

Papal Encyclical – Caritas in Veritate

Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | August 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Mitch Rubinstein from Adjunct Law Prof Blog writes to me that, “this is a bit different, but I think readers may be interested in this posting about the Pope’s encyclical supporting unions.”  Here’s the post and a taste of Caritas in Veritate, issued on June 29, 2009:
While reflecting on the theme of work, it [...]

Aug

28

Storytelling in Appellate Brief Writing

Posted by: Melissa L. Greipp | August 28, 2009 | 2 Comments

At the end of July, both Professor Michael Smith and I attended the Applied Legal Storytelling Conference at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.  The conference was entitled “Chapter 2:  Once Upon a Legal Story” and focused on storytelling in “ways that will directly and tangibly benefit law students (i.e. future lawyers) and [...]

Aug

27

I Am the Author

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | August 27, 2009 | 8 Comments

Your faithful blog committee moderates posts and comments on  a rotating basis.  I was  ”on call” on Tuesday evening and, returning home in despair after a night at Miller Park,  inadvertently published posts by Professors Greipp and Papke under my own name. The mistake was fixed in the morning.
But I found the latter error intriguing. [...]

Aug

27

The Importance of Student Organizations

Posted by: Andrew Hitt | August 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Student organizations enrich a law student’s experience.  Whether it is bringing in practitioners to discuss the practice of law or bringing in scholars to debate important legal issues, student organizations—and the events they sponsor—help law students think about the law.  To be successful and to produce successful lawyers, a law school should encourage students to [...]

Aug

27

Ashcroft v. Iqbal and the Pleading Standard

Posted by: Jay Rabideaux | August 27, 2009 | 3 Comments

Law professors teaching Civil Procedure this fall may have reason to revise their lecture notes covering the pleading standard in federal courts for the first time in a long time.  This pleading standard, as articulated in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) Rule 8(a), has presented a very low hurdle for plaintiffs since the [...]

Aug

26

Term Begins, Spector Appointed

Posted by: Joseph D. Kearney | August 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The Law School began its fall semester today, having welcomed through orientation the past two days both full-time (185) and part-time (34) students embarking upon their legal education. We welcomed—and welcome—as well a handful of transfer students. My beginning-of-semester letter to the community, with some information, I believe, of general interest about the Law School, [...]

Aug

26

Female Supervisors Face Significant Sexual Harassment

Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | August 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Probably not a big surprise to many readers out there that female supervisors are still harassed in large numbers, but the fact that this study show that they are harassed more than non-supervisor female employees is just a little surprising to me (via MSNBC):
Female managers are 137 percent more likely to experience sexual harassment [...]

Aug

25

Law School Strategies for Success

Posted by: Melissa L. Greipp | August 25, 2009 | 3 Comments

As we officially open the school year, I have been thinking a lot about what are the secrets to success in law school.  I understand that Dean Rofes spoke at Orientation about the sausage races at Miller Park.  (I personally always root for the Chorizo Sausage!)  Law school may sometimes feel a bit like a [...]

Aug

25

What Is an Author?

Posted by: David R. Papke | August 25, 2009 | 4 Comments

I greatly enjoyed last week’s exchange among colleagues Bruce Boyden, Ed Fallone, and Gordon Hylton regarding literary sequels and the general purposes of copyright law. It is my impression that most blog posts do not purport to be “scholarly,” but the posts by Boyden, Fallone, and Hylton had the length and depth necessary for that [...]

Aug

24

The Public Health Option and Lessons from the San Francisco Experiment

Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | August 24, 2009 | 4 Comments

As I prepare to provide brief commentary on various legislative provisions for a CCH publication that will explain health care reform legislation once it is finalized, I could not help but take notice of this important op-ed. It is by a trio of labor and health economists that ran in the New York Times [...]

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