Melissa Love Koenig – Page 42 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Congratulations to the 2013 Jenkins Finalists

Post author:Melissa Love Koenig
Post published:March 27, 2013
Post category:Marquette Law School Public

Congratulations to this year’s Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition finalists: Paul Jonas, Brittany Kachingwe, Kerri Puig, and Robert Steele.

Thank you to the judges of the semifinal round: Atty. Beth Hanan, Hon. Donald Hassin, Hon. G. Michael Halfenger, Hon. Joan Kessler, Hon. Lisa Neubauer, and Hon. Paul Reilly. All the competitors presented strong oral arguments tonight.

The final round will be held on April 3 at 6:00 p.m. in the Appellate Courtroom. The teams will be matched as follows:

Kerri Puig and Robert Steele v. Brittany Kachingwe and Paul Jonas.

Best of luck to the finalists.

Congratulations to the 2013 Jenkins Semifinalists

Post author:Melissa Love Koenig
Post published:March 24, 2013
Post category:Marquette Law School Public

Congratulations to this year’s Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition semifinalists: Michael Beckman, Kelly Cavey, Paul Jonas, Brittany Kachingwe, Hans Lodge, Tea Norfolk, Kerri Puig, and Robert Steele. Teams are advancing after four rounds of preliminary competition.

Thank you to the numerous judges who graded briefs and heard oral arguments, as well as to all the competitors, who prepared hard for the competition and fought good battles this weekend.

The semifinal round will be held on March 27 at 6:30 p.m. The teams will be matched as follows:

Brittany Kachingwe and Paul Jonas v. Tea Norfolk and Kelly Cavey in the Appellate Courtroom.

Kerri Puig and Robert Steele v. Hans Lodge and Michael Beckman will argue in the Trial Courtroom.

Good luck to the semifinalists.

When Rules Are Invisible

Post author:Melissa Love Koenig
Post published:March 16, 2013
Post category:Constitutional Interpretation Public

Researchers at CERN laboratory in Switzerland announced this week that they believe they have evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson, or Higgs particle. The Higgs boson and the associated Higgs field help to explain, among other things, how particles achieve mass. In 1964 physicist Peter Higgs and five other researchers theorized the Higgs boson. Researchers at CERN have been colliding particles in the Large Hydron Collider to look for the Higgs boson.

The Higgs boson is part of the Standard Model theory, which explains the interactions and characteristics of subatomic particles. Researchers had accounted for the Higgs boson in their Standard Model calculations over the years. In November 2011, a CERN physicist said, “’For our theory to be right, we need the Higgs to exist. If it doesn’t, we need something to replace it.’” The question now appears to be what kind of Higgs boson researchers have observed.

Reading about the Higgs boson announcement reminded me of Professor Lawrence Tribe’s book The Invisible Constitution. The Higgs boson and the United States Constitution don’t at first glance have much in common, but the way Tribe approaches interpreting the Constitution parallels the approach of theoretical physicists in creating models that explain the invisible rules that govern the physical universe. In fact, Tribe himself draws an analogy to physics throughout the book.