Jan

30

Collecting Judges, Past and Present

Posted by: | January 30, 2012 | 1 Comment

Tom Shriner’s recent remembrance of Judge Dale Ihlenfeldt said to law students and new lawyers that “you can—must—learn the lessons of the law (and life) from everyone, not just your professors, but your colleagues, your adversaries, your clients, and even from judges.” This last (neatly phrased) is the case, in my estimation, both of judges [...]

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Jan

30

Cockfighting, Congress, and Interstate Commerce

Posted by: | January 30, 2012 | 1 Comment

Some convicted defendants in South Carolina are crying foul at the application of the federal Animal Welfare Act to criminally punish the promotion of cockfighting. The statute is said to be based in the power of Congress, found in article I, section 8 of the Constitution, to “regulate commerce . . . among the several [...]

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Jan

24

The Roots of Progressivism Lie in . . . the Republican Party?

Posted by: | January 24, 2012 | 10 Comments

Tonight, when President Barack Obama delivers his third State of the Union address, he is widely expected to channel the progressive rhetoric of Theodore Roosevelt. It was Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism” speech in 1910 (quoted in my previous post here) that called for the federal government to play an active role in regulating the economy. When he speaks [...]

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Jan

20

How Should the Supreme Court Handle Warrantless GPS Tracking?

Posted by: | January 20, 2012 | 2 Comments

One of the most anticipated decisions of the current U.S. Supreme Court term is United States v. Jones, which was argued last fall (transcript here).  The case concerns Fourth Amendment protections from GPS tracking of automobiles.   The lower court, the D.C. Circuit, held that the government was prohibited from placing a GPS tracking device on the [...]

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Jan

20

Cory Maples May Avoid Procedural Default, But Will Anyone Else Ride His Coattails?

Posted by: | January 20, 2012 | 1 Comment

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that habeas petitioner Cory Maples may not have to bear the consequences of a truly egregious dereliction of duty by his pro bono lawyers.  The lower federal courts had refused to consider Maples’ petition on the merits because he had missed a filing deadline in state court.  Normally, criminal [...]

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Jan

17

Private Prisons and Accountability

Posted by: | January 17, 2012 | 4 Comments

Last week, in Minneci v. Pollard (No. 10-1104), the United States Supreme Court held that employees of privately run federal prisons cannot be sued for money damages for violations of constitutional rights.  By coincidence, last week also saw the release of a new report on private prisons by the Sentencing Project.  The report raises a multitude [...]

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Jan

16

John Paul Stevens’ Restraint

Posted by: | January 16, 2012 | 1 Comment

After he retired in 2010, John Paul Stevens published Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir.  After a brief description of the first twelve Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court, from John Jay through Harlan Fiske Stone, he describes in more detail the last five with whom he was professionally acquainted.  Stevens clerked for [...]

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Jan

13

Delay in Criminal Procedure: What’s Good for the Goose Is . . . Well, Never Mind

Posted by: | January 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Earlier this week, in Gonzalez v. Thaler (No. 10-895), the Supreme Court rejected Rafael Gonzalez’s pro se habeas corpus petition because it was filed about five weeks too late.  The Court did not comment on the deep irony of this decision: what Gonzalez was complaining about in his petition — the issue that the Court refused to address on [...]

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Jan

12

Tebowing and the Constitution

Posted by: | January 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Much has been made of Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow’s outward expressions of his Christian faith, especially his practice of kneeling in moments of prayer—“Tebowing” as it is now called—after touchdowns, some of them admittedly a bit miraculous. A recent issue of Time magazine, for example, included an article on Mr. Tebow, his faith, and the [...]

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Jan

9

A Lesson Learned from a Great Bankruptcy Judge

Posted by: | January 9, 2012 | 1 Comment

Judge Dale Ihlenfeldt died right after Christmas. He was 92 years old and hadn’t sat on the bankruptcy court bench in Milwaukee for many years, though he remained active until fairly recently, including by teaching an annual CLE program in Madison in which I also participate. Teaching CLE required him to keep up on developments [...]

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Dec

27

A Visit From the Ghost of Jury Service Past

Posted by: | December 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment

What do you remember about November 29, 1995? That was the day when one of the jurors in Jesse Webster’s drug trafficking trial was out sick. The next day, with all twelve jurors again present, Webster was convicted. Many years later, Webster claimed in a petition for post-conviction relief that the eleven jurors who showed [...]

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Dec

16

New Database Creates Time-Series Plots of Phrases in U.S. Supreme Court Opinions

Posted by: | December 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Emory and Michigan State Law Schools have teamed up to create a free database that allows you to search for a term or phrase in U.S. Supreme Court opinions (1791-2005) and automatically generate a time-series frequency chart of the phrase’s appearance.

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