Aug

23

Gender Discrimination in Jury Selection as Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

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

A defendant’s right to reasonably competent legal representation is violated when the defendant’s lawyer discriminates on the basis of gender during jury selection, the Seventh Circuit ruled last week inWinston v. Boatwright (No. 10-1156).  The court’s reasoning would presumably apply equally to racial discrimination.  However, because of the peculiarities of federal habeas law, the particular defendant who [...]

Aug

22

ICC Jurisdiction Over Gaddafi

Posted by: | August 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Last week I wrote that the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) is unlikely to try Syria’s President Assad for crimes against humanity because the Court would probably lack jurisdiction. The Rome Statute—the ICC’s founding treaty—empowers the Court to exercise jurisdiction only with respect to crimes (1) committed within the territory of a state-party, (2) committed by [...]

Aug

22

The Constitutional Right of Recall

Posted by: | August 22, 2011 | 4 Comments

The largest newspaper in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, continues to take the editorial position that the public’s right to recall elected officials should only be exercised in cases of misfeasance in office or of criminal conduct.  The editorial page actively disparages the use of the recall process in cases where voters simply disagree with the [...]

Aug

20

Judge Must Explain New Sentencing Decision After Revocation of Supervised Release

Posted by: | August 20, 2011 | 1 Comment

As I described here and here, the Seventh Circuit has an interesting line of cases that attempt to establish some minimal standards for the way that district judges explain their sentences.  Add to that line the court’s decision last week in United States v. Robertson (No. 10-3543).  I think that Robertson is the court’s first decision to apply the explanation requirement to [...]

Aug

19

Syrian Culpability for “Crimes Against Humanity”

Posted by: | August 19, 2011 | 3 Comments

Like a handful of other states in the Middle East, Syria has experienced significant domestic political turmoil in recent months, with a sizable and seemingly increasing percentage of its population openly protesting against the autocratic government of Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government has responded with a crackdown comprised of some of the most violent and [...]

Aug

18

The Dodgers Debacle

Posted by: | August 18, 2011 | 2 Comments

Straight out of Hollywood, in what has turned into a long-running soap opera, is Major League Baseball’s own “War of the Roses.” MLB’s version, featuring the divorce of the Los Angeles Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt, is being played out in court venues across three states and in a sundry of court proceedings and [...]

Aug

18

Postcard from Giessen

Posted by: | August 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment

The third annual U.S.- German Summer School in International and Comparative Law came to a successful conclusion with the program’s closing ceremony on August 12, in Giessen, Germany.  This year’s session of the program, sponsored jointly by Marquette University Law School, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Giessen, featured 68 law students from [...]

Aug

18

The Constitutional Equality of Women

Posted by: | August 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment

For young women coming of age today, their equality with men seems assured.  As youngsters they’ve played on co-ed sports teams; they’ve often been more successful than boys in school; they’ve pursued careers in previously male-dominated fields like math and science, medicine and law.  For them, women have always been able to vote, abortion has [...]

Aug

18

Two Circuits Approve Use of Uncounseled Convictions Against Native Americans

Posted by: | August 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In Burgett v. Texas, 389 U.S. 109 (1967), the Supreme Court held that a prior conviction cannot be used to enhance a defendant’s sentence under a recidivism statute if the prior conviction was obtained in violation of the defendant’s constitutional right to counsel. Native Americans, however, must deal with an apparent loophole in the Burgett [...]

Aug

17

Farewell, Judge Terence T. Evans

Posted by: | August 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment

One of Marquette’s most distinguished judicial alumni passed away last week.  Judge Terence T. Evans ’67 had served since 1995 on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  Before that, he served as a trial judge in federal district court and Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Judge Evans was profiled here in the Marquette Lawyer, along with his Seventh Circuit colleagues [...]

Aug

16

Mabel Watson Raimey

Posted by: | August 16, 2011 | 2 Comments

Recently a friend lent me a wonderful book, More than Petticoats: Remarkable Wisconsin Women, by Greta Anderson.* The book biographies a number of notable Wisconsin women, but the biography that stood out the most to me was of Mabel Watson Raimey. Mabel Watson Raimey was the first African-American woman to attend Marquette University Law School. [...]

Aug

16

Dean Howard Eisenberg in His Own Voice

Posted by: | August 16, 2011 | 4 Comments

One of the activities that many of us faculty members undertake during the summer months is to clean out some drawers and shelves. While recently tackling that chore, I was thrilled to find an old tape from a 1999 conference we put on at the law school on “Spirituality and Work.” I had forgotten that Dean Howard Eisenberg [...]

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