Aug

31

George Orwell on Writing Well

Posted by: | August 31, 2011 | 2 Comments

George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm are familiar reading for many of us. A few years ago a student suggested I also read his essays, and in particular, “Politics and the English Language.” George Orwell, A Collection of Essays 156-71 (10th ed. 1981). In this essay, Orwell claims that the English language is in [...]

Aug

31

Notice to Employees of Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act

Posted by: | August 31, 2011 | 1 Comment

On August 30, 2011 the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) published a final rule in the Federal Register entitled “Notification of Employee Rights under the National Labor Relations Act” (“Act”).” See 75 Fed. Reg. 80411 (Aug. 30, 2011). Effective November 14, 2011 private sector employers subject to the jurisdiction of the Act are required [...]

Aug

31

Learning to Learn the Law: Becoming Legal Readers

Posted by: | August 31, 2011 | 1 Comment

Ah, the start of another academic year.  Each fall brings a new group of incoming law students, eager to embark on the adventure called law school.  But what is it we actually do here in law school? Professors Tracey E. George and Suzanna Sherry from Vanderbilt Law School have said that law school has three [...]

Aug

31

Thanks and Welcome to New Guest Bloggers

Posted by: | August 31, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Many thanks to our August guest blogger, Eryn Doherty ’00.  Our September guests will be 3L Stephane Fabus and Michael Rust ’06.

Aug

30

DOJ Changes Its Mind, Seventh Circuit Does Not

Posted by: | August 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment

As I discussed in this post, the Seventh Circuit earlier this year rejected retroactivity for the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which softened the mandatory minimum penalties for crack cocaine offenses.  In the Seventh Circuit’s view, any crack offenses committed prior to August 3, 2010, when the FSA was signed into law, must still be sentenced [...]

Aug

30

Singing a September School-Start Song

Posted by: | August 30, 2011 | 4 Comments

Thursday will be the first day of the new school year for the vast majority of public school students in Wisconsin. Why? Because that’s the law. No, not that school start on a Thursday, but that it not start earlier than September 1. And why is that? Because tourism industry leaders lobbied so hard for it. [...]

Aug

29

Divorce Is for the Masses

Posted by: | August 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Americans continue to divorce at a high rate, but divorce rates have gotten smaller in recent years.  This is especially true for the professional/managerial class.  According to a study by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, only 11% of college-educated Americans are now divorcing within the first 10 years of marriage, compared [...]

Aug

28

Seventh Circuit Rejects Retroactivity for Padilla

Posted by: | August 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010), the Supreme Court held that a lawyer provides ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to inform a client of the deportation risks that result from a guilty plea.  However, the Court did not clearly indicate whether its holding must be applied retroactively to cases on collateral review, [...]

Aug

28

Fukushima and the Law of the Sea (Part I)

Posted by: | August 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Two days ago, Japan’s nuclear regulatory agency disclosed estimates of the volume of radioactive material that has escaped from the Fukushima reactor complex since the March earthquake and tsunami. The agency estimates that the emitted volume of radioactive cesium is approximately 168 times higher than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end [...]

Aug

25

Does Marijuana Possession Equal Child Neglect?

Posted by: | August 25, 2011 | 2 Comments

According to a recent NewYork Times article, many New York parents who have been caught with marijuana or who have admitted using it have found themselves charged with child neglect and have even, in some cases, lost custody of their children.  In many of these cases, the amounts of marijuana in question have been too [...]

Aug

25

Why Confess?

Posted by: | August 25, 2011 | 1 Comment

Why do suspects confess to the police? Researchers Allison Redlich, Richard Kulish, and Henry Steadman set out to answer this question by interviewing 65 jail inmates who had confessed, slightly more than half of whom claimed to have falsely confessed. The results are reported in their new article “Comparing True and False Confessions Among Persons [...]

Aug

23

Baseball Hall of Fame Dedicates Selig Center for Archives of MLB Commissioners

Posted by: | August 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment

On August 17th, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, dedicated the Allan H. “Bud” Selig Center for the Archives of Major League Baseball Commissioners. Commissioner Selig is a member of the Law School’s adjunct faculty, holding the title of Distinguished Lecturer in Sports Law and Policy; he and I [...]

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