Jan

30

Parents Before Their Time

Posted by: | January 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment

The pregnancy rate among teenage girls is on the rise in the United States, according to a new study released by the Guttmacher Institute (a nonpartisan, nonprofit group). The study examined the most recent statistical data available, and concluded that the pregnancy rate among teenagers aged 15-19 rose three percent in 2006. It had been previously reported [...]

Jan

29

A Short Primer on Apostrophe Usage

Posted by: | January 29, 2010 | 7 Comments

For those of you who list mastery of apostrophe usage with the rest of your New Year’s resolutions, here is a short primer: 1. Use an apostrophe to indicate possession. 2. Place the apostrophe before the “s” when referring to a singular entity. For example, “the dog’s food bowl is in the kitchen.” Or, “Karen’s [...]

Jan

29

Come to the Seventeenth Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ (PILS) Auction

Posted by: | January 29, 2010 | 1 Comment

The Seventeenth Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ (PILS) Auction will be held on Friday, February 12, from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the Italian Conference Center at 631 East Chicago Street in Milwaukee. The event, which is named after the late Dean Howard Eisenberg, raises funds for the Public Interest Law Society’s Summer Fellowship Program. [...]

Jan

29

American Legal History and the Hessian Effect

Posted by: | January 29, 2010 | 2 Comments

It is curious thing that, even as undergraduate liberal arts programs continue to take a beating, law schools designed to train professionals now offer more humanistic (sometimes called perspective) courses than ever. What may be even more curious is that the presence of these courses in the curriculum is justified on instrumental grounds. Courses in [...]

Jan

28

Garcetti, Academic Freedom, and Public School Teacher’s Right to Free Speech

Posted by: | January 28, 2010 | 3 Comments

In Weintraub v. Board of Education of the City of New York, No. 07-2376 (2d Cir. Jan. 27, 2010), the Second Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, has delivered a body blow to the First Amendment speech rights of public school teachers. The case concerns a fifth-grade teacher who was dealing with a disruptive student throwing books [...]

Jan

28

Justice Kennedy Goes to the Movies

Posted by: | January 28, 2010 | 4 Comments

Those industrious enough to reach the final paragraphs of the recent opinion of the Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) might have been surprised to find Justice Kennedy discussing Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939).  A Hollywood classic directed by Frank Capra, the film is the fictional story of a handpicked bumpkin [...]

Jan

28

Does the ABA Do Good? (Part II)

Posted by: | January 28, 2010 | 1 Comment

The ABA has been the official federal accrediting body of law schools since 1952, a task it undertook informally after the issuance of the Root Committee Report in 1921. A law school approved by the ABA can remain in business because its students are eligible for federally guaranteed loans and because every state’s licensing authority [...]

Jan

27

Vincent Lyles: Taking the Positive Approach

Posted by: | January 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment

“It can be done” – Vincent Lyles says that’s a lesson that successful economic development in Indianapolis can teach other urban centers around the country. That phrase also sums up Lyles’ attitude about the work he does as president of M&I Community Development Corporation — and, in many ways, it summarizes Lyles’ personality. Describing his [...]

Jan

27

Seventh Circuit Decides That Reckless Injury and Statutory Rape Are Not “Crimes of Violence”

Posted by: | January 27, 2010 | 1 Comment

In a series of posts (e.g., here and here), I have been tracking the fallout in the Seventh Circuit of the Supreme Court’s decision in Begay v. United States, 128 S. Ct. 1581 (2008).  Begay adopted a new approach for deciding when former convictions count as “crimes of violence” that trigger the fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence of [...]

Jan

27

Chocolate Cake v. Fruit – Or Why We Get Emotional During “Rational” Negotiations

Posted by: | January 27, 2010 | 4 Comments

I was listening to a great story earlier this week on NPR which described an interesting experiment: In his book How We Decide, and in a recent Wall Street Journal article, Jonah Lehrer writes about an experiment by Stanford University professor Baba Shiv, who collected several dozen undergraduates and divided them into two groups. In the [...]

Jan

26

Asking the Right Questions About Justifying War

Posted by: | January 26, 2010 | 2 Comments

If you think of “just war” theory as something associated with pacifism or as a path for justifying not using military tactics in many world situations, you’re looking at the subject from the wrong perspective, Catholic commentator George Weigel said Tuesday in a talk at Marquette Law School. You’re looking at it the way President [...]

Jan

26

Does the ABA Do Good? (Part I)

Posted by: | January 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment

No. (This, however, is a polemic, and as such I am unfairly neglecting some of the fine work done by some ABA sections.) As a law student, I had an inchoate thought that the ABA could be a kind of strong mediating institution between the state and the individual that would make it beneficial to the public, not [...]

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