Nov

16

Ambiguity Is Ambiguous

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment

In an earlier post, I offered some preliminary thoughts about the Supreme Court’s six criminal statutory interpretation cases last term.  I observed that Justice Scalia’s textualist approach now seems dominant on the Court.  The six opinions thus reflect a great deal of effort to parse the texts of the statutes, and we get a number [...]

Nov

15

Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: Yes, Eco-Terrorists Are Real Terrorists

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

On the night of July 20, 2000, Katherine Christianson, Bryan Rivera, and two companions damaged or destroyed more than 500 trees at a United States Forest Service facility.  Was it a prank?  A dare?  A harvest for the thneed industry? No, Christianson and Rivera were members of the eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front, and their target was the Forest Service’s genetic-engineering [...]

Nov

13

Feingold: Sept. 11 Prosecutions Will Advance Justice and American World Standing

Posted by: Alan J. Borsuk | November 13, 2009 | 8 Comments

The decision to prosecute five people accused of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in federal court in New York drew support Friday from US Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) in comments at a one-hour discussion at Marquette University Law School.
“That’s the way to go,” said Feingold, who has been highly critical of [...]

Nov

13

Do the Justices Play Nicely Together?

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 13, 2009 | 2 Comments

For the second autumn in a row, the federal public defenders here in Milwaukee were kind enough to invite me to speak on the U.S. Supreme Court’s criminal docket, reviewing last term’s cases and previewing the new term.  The event is a great opportunity for me to think about patterns and themes that cut across individual [...]

Nov

12

SCOTUS Fantasy League Debuts

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Hey, Supreme Court buffs, think you can handicap the high court’s cases better than you can Packers games?  If so, you might want to join the Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League.  As detailed in this post on the WSJ Law Blog, participants gets points for accurately predicting not only the bottom-line outcome of cases, but [...]

Nov

12

$250 Million Worth of Fuss

Posted by: Alan J. Borsuk | November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The U.S. Department of Education released the final rules Thursday for the high-stakes competition called the Race to the Top. That’s the $4.35 billion in grants to be given out in the next year to spur states to take major steps aimed at improving a host of aspects of schooling, including the quality of teachers [...]

Nov

9

The Verdict? A Very Successful Civil Trial Conference

Posted by: Daniel D. Blinka | November 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment

One of this Law School’s most noteworthy legacies is its production of many of the region’s most outstanding trial lawyers.  The legacy was fully evident on Friday, November 6, 2009 at the Civil Trial Evidence and Litigation Conference.  The sold-out event served as a “last call for Sensenbrenner Hall” of sorts while featuring a panel [...]

Nov

7

Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: If You Own a Gun, Don’t Steal Cable

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 7, 2009 | 1 Comment

In 2005, Kevin Schultz pled guilty to one count of trafficking in counterfeit telecommunications instruments.  His offense involved modifying telecommunications equipment for the purpose of stealing cable.  His sentence? Two years on probation, including a period of home detention.
Two and a half years after his first conviction, federal agents searched Schultz’s home and found a [...]

Nov

5

Obama’s Applause Lines on Education

Posted by: Alan J. Borsuk | November 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

President Barack Obama’s 35-minute speech on education at Wright Middle School in Madison on Wednesday was interrupted by applause at many points, but most of the reaction was pretty low-key. Three lines drew what seemed to be more enthusiastic responses from the crowd of more than 500, most of them teachers, parents, and students at the 250-student school. Each of [...]

Nov

5

Myron Gordon, R.I.P.

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | November 5, 2009 | 1 Comment

I only really knew Myron Gordon as a judge on senior status and tried only one case before him. It was a challenge by the NAACP to the method of electing judges in Milwaukee County. The plaintiffs alleged that county-wide elections of judges denied black voters the opportunity to elect candidates of their own choice [...]

Oct

31

Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: Of Hearsay and Bootstraps

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | October 31, 2009 | 1 Comment

The court staked out no new legal ground in its opinions last week, so I’ll just briefly describe a case that nicely illustrates a classic problem in evidence law.  Based on information provided by a confidential informant, Milwaukee police stopped a Ford Excursion on suspicion of drug activity.  Inside were Marc Cannon (the driver), David Harris (Cannon’s cousin), [...]

Oct

26

Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: Other Bad Acts and the “Intricately Related” Doctrine

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | October 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Criminal law and procedure are structured around the act requirement: a defendant is prosecuted for performing a specifically identified unlawful act, the criminal trial is designed to determine whether the defendant actually committed that act, and, once the defendant has been convicted and punished, we commonly say that he has paid his debt to society and should be [...]

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