Dec

15

Son of SOPA

Posted by: | December 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment

The House Judiciary Committee held a markup hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act, H.R. 3261, the bill that is quickly shaping up to be this year’s big copyright battle. I’ve written two prior posts on the bill, Part I and Part II. This is a good opportunity to recap where I came out at [...]

Dec

14

Interested in Starting Your Own Minor League Baseball League and Joining Organized Baseball? Think Again.

Posted by: | December 14, 2011 | 2 Comments

The revival of independent professional baseball, which began with the establishment of a new Northern League in 1993, has been one of the most fascinating developments of the past 20 years in the world of baseball. The baseball-reference.com website, one of the authoritative sources for information on baseball history, lists thirty different independent professional baseball [...]

Dec

14

A Tale of Three States, Part 4: The Racial Threat Hypothesis

Posted by: | December 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In the previous post in this series, I highlighted a wide gap in the incarceration rates of Indiana and Minnesota, with Wisconsin in the middle.  The ordering of the three states from highest incarceration rate to lowest corresponds with the ordering from highest rate of violent crime to lowest.  However, for reasons I explained in the previous post, I [...]

Dec

13

American Indians and Equal Protection

Posted by: | December 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment

This is the second in a series of posts addressing some of the most commonly asked questions regarding American Indians, Indian Tribes, and the law. The first post addressed casinos, hunting and fishing rights, and taxes. This second post, unlike the first, is devoted to just one question, namely, why doesn’t the unique legal treatment [...]

Dec

13

Why the Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs by Great Athletes Still Bothers Us

Posted by: | December 13, 2011 | 3 Comments

The recent revelation that Milwaukee Brewer all-star Ryan Braun has tested positive for performance enhancing drugs once again raises the question of why such revelations bother sports fans so much. The answer lies, I believe, in the typical fan’s feelings about his or her lack of natural athletic ability.  It is one of the sad [...]

Dec

13

Some Thoughts on Kiobel

Posted by: | December 13, 2011 | 2 Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote a post providing a brief background on Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., the case in which the Supreme Court will likely decide whether the Alien Tort Statute confers federal jurisdiction over claims alleging corporate violations of customary international law. I’d like to offer a couple of additional thoughts on that [...]

Dec

12

A Tale of Three States, Part 3: Harsh Hoosiers

Posted by: | December 12, 2011 | 1 Comment

In the first post in this series, I explored the large gap between the incarceration rates of Minnesota and Wisconsin. In the second, I discussed racial disparities in the incarcerated populations of the two states. The disparities in both states are wide, although Wisconsin’s are somewhat larger. In this entry, I add a third state, [...]

Dec

11

Why Dive?

Posted by: | December 11, 2011 | 2 Comments

As the temperatures drop at this time of year in Wisconsin, my thoughts turn to diving in the Caribbean. Scuba diving is my family’s hobby, and we have dived (and snorkeled) throughout the Caribbean. I have seen almost anything imaginable on dives except for sharks. I know (and actually hope) they are there, swimming at [...]

Dec

10

A Tale of Three States, Part 2: Racial Disparities

Posted by: | December 10, 2011 | 2 Comments

In the first post in this series, I highlighted a sizable gap between the incarceration rates of Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Although the two states have similar crime rates, Wisconsin has more than twice Minnesota’s incarceration rate (651 per 100,000 versus 310). In this post, I cover racial disparity data in the two states.  As summarized in [...]

Dec

9

Why Following the Rules Should Get You Out of Prison Early

Posted by: | December 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment

I have a new paper on SSRN entitled “Solving the Good Time Puzzle: Why Following the Rules Should Get You Out of Prison Early.” Most U.S. jurisdictions permit inmates to obtain credit toward early release based on good behavior in prison. It’s not immediately clear, though, why the severity of a prison sentence should vary [...]

Dec

8

New Article by Prof. Calboli Explores Tension Between Free Trade and Trademark Rights

Posted by: | December 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Irene Calboli grapples with a longstanding controversy over the “first sale rule” in trademark law in her new article, “Market Integration and (the Limits of) the First Sale Rule in North American and European Trademark Law,” 51 Santa Clara L. Rev. 1241 (2011).  As she explains, Trademark law grants trademark owners the right to prevent [...]

Dec

8

A Tale of Three States, Part One

Posted by: | December 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In this post from a few months ago, I offered a preliminary assessment of the wide disparity in incarceration rates between Wisconsin and Minnesota.  I had just enough data then to raise some interesting questions.  Now, with the capable help of a research assistant, Garrett Soberalski, I’ve assembled a much more extensive body of data, which I expect to [...]

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