New Marquette Lawyer Sheds Light on Urban Neighborhoods—and Much More

Marquette LawyerPair up the wisdom of a leading national expert on understanding urban neighborhoods with an effort to increase the vitality of a large section of Milwaukee’s west side and what do you have? You have the cover package of the Summer 2016 issue of Marquette Lawyer magazine.

Professor Robert J. Sampson, the Henry J. Ford II Professor of Social Sciences at Harvard University, delivered the Robert F. Boden Lecture at Marquette Law School in September 2015, drawing on his work in Chicago and Boston examining the fabric of urban neighborhoods. ”Neighborhood Inequality and Public Policy: What Can Milwaukee Learn from Chicago and Boston?” offers an essay version of Sampson’s lecture, along with reactions from several Milwaukee leaders.

A partner piece describes efforts by Marquette University and other major institutions to improve housing, business and commercial life, safety, and community amenities in near west side areas of Milwaukee—generally between the Marquette campus and the Harley-Davidson offices and factory a couple miles to the northwest. “Writing a New West Side Story” describes the ambitious undertaking under the leadership of Marquette’s President Michael R. Lovell.  The piece concludes with a comment by Provost Daniel J. Myers.

The cover package also includes a reflection by Mike Gousha, distinguished fellow in law and public policy, on the Law School’s public policy initiative, which aims to increase dialogue about major issues and shed light on subjects such as what can help urban neighborhoods. The dean’s column at the beginning of the magazine also speaks to Milwaukee, urban America, and the Law School’s interest in these matters. 

This quartet of pieces is hardly the only good reading in the new magazine. Along with links, here are other articles we hope you will find worth attention:

Marquette Law Professor Scott C. Idleman coauthored Religion and the State in American Law, a new book offering a comprehensive review of ways in which religion and government policy intersect. Idleman discusses the subject in a question-and-answer format in “At the Intersection of God and Country.”

Three members of the Wisconsin Assembly are Marquette Law School graduates. “The Declining Ranks of Legislator Lawyers” profiles them and offers some perspective and insights on the decreasing number of state legislators across the nation who have law degrees.

In “Defining Moments: World War II Heroes, Marquette Lawyers,” Thomas G. Cannon, a former Marquette law professor and combat veteran, tells the stories of two World War II heroes who went on to graduate from Marquette Law School.

The “From the Podium” section of the magazine offers insights from five thought leaders:

Dean Joseph D. Kearney, a former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, reflects on the justice’s passing in “Justice Antonin Scalia—Ave Atque Vale.

Donald W. Layden, L’82, was honored by the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Research Center, and the magazine offers his remarks at the event.

The Law School and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cosponsored a conference, “The Future of the American Public Library,” in October 2015. The remarks of Milwaukee historian John Gurda, who is president of the Milwaukee Public Library board, are reprinted in “’My Library’—The Evolution of a Milwaukee Institution.”

The Supreme Court and the Future of Religion in the Public Square” provides the text of remarks by Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at the Red Mass Dinner of the St. Thomas More Lawyers Society of Wisconsin on October 8, 2015.

Henry E. Smith, the Fessenden Professor at Harvard law School, delivered Marquette Law School’s 2015 Helen Wilson Nies Lecture in Intellectual Property. An excerpt from “Semicommons in Fluid Resources” is included in the magazine.

The Law School News section includes articles describing the fast start for the Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, a new externship for Marquette law students with the NCAA, a student trip to Cuba, and programs at the Law School shedding light variously on the U.S. Senate race this year in Wisconsin, the impact of evictions, and the importance of public libraries.

The alumni section includes class notes in addition to profiles of Paul Bernstein, L’07, and Jennifer Kratochvil, L’08. And, certainly not least, it includes remembrances by former students and colleagues of the late, incomparable Professor James D. Ghiardi, a member of the Law School faculty for almost 70 years, in “Revered, Feared, Beloved for Decades.”

 

 

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