We bid adieu today to our terrific January bloggers, Professor Judi McMullen, Professor Michael Ariens ’82, and Matthew Fernholz ’10. Featured in February will be Professor Nadelle Grossman, Anthony Murdock ’06, and Ashanti Cook ’12.
In a series of posts (e.g., here and here), I have been tracking the fallout in the Seventh Circuit of the Supreme Court’s decision in Begay v. United States, 128 S. Ct. 1581 (2008). Begay adopted a new approach for deciding when former convictions count as “crimes of violence” that trigger the fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence of the Armed Career Criminal Act.
Earlier this week, the Seventh Circuit had another in its increasingly long line of post-Begay decisions holding that this or that specific offense does not fit the new definition of “crime of violence.” More specifically, in United States v. McDonald (No. 08-2703) (Sykes, J.), the court held that first-degree reckless injury (in violation of Wis. Stat. § 940.23) and second-degree sexual assault of a child (what would be colloquially called “statutory rape,” in violation of Wis. Stat. § 948.02(2)) do not count as crimes of violence.
The Marquette Law Review today launches its cutting-edge new website: http://law.marquette.edu/lawreview. Among other new features, the website includes the entire archive of the Law Review stretching back to 1916. With full-text searchability, the new archive represents a leap forward in the accessibility of scholarship published in the Law Review. (For those interested in the preoccupations of Marquette students and faculty members in earlier eras, individual issues are easily browsed.) The new website also includes draft versions of forthcoming articles, abstracts of recently published articles, links to the most downloaded articles, information for prospective authors and members, and a subscription feature. Coming soon will be video recordings and other media associated with recent Law Review symposia.
Today’s launch marks the culmination of a year’s worth of effort by many talented people. Particular thanks are owed to the Law Review’s Editor-in-Chief Marvin Bynum and Technology Editor Bryant Ferguson for their leadership. Thanks also to Raynor Library’s Ann Hanlon and to Dax Phillips, Julie Norton, and Megan O’Brien at the Law School for lending their expertise to the project. Ann played a particularly important role in helping us to work effectively with the Berkeley Electronic Press Digital Commons (where our diligent contact was Jonathan Cadle). Dan Blinka, Patricia Cervenka, Melissa McCord, and Stephen Boyett (the latter two of last year’s Law Review board) also made valuable contributions in the initial planning stages. Students Caitlin Brock and Mark Positano put a great deal of meticulous work into the creation of the archive PDFs. Finally, Dean Kearney has been unstintingly supportive of this initiative from start to finish.