New Marquette Lawyer magazine takes long-term view of major issues 

The long-term view: That’s a theme that underlies much of the content in the just-released Spring 2015 issue of Marquette Lawyer magazine. The way events and trends that date back decades shed light on major issues today is at the heart of several of the feature articles in the magazine.
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That is especially true of the cover story, “Screws v. United States and the Birth of Federal Civil Rights Enforcement,” an essay version of Marquette Law School’s 2014 E. Harold Hallows Lecture by Judge Paul J. Watford of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Watford recounts the history behind a 1945 U.S. Supreme Court decision which opened the way for more widely known landmark decisions on civil rights. Accompanying the article is a commentary piece by John J. Pauly, Gretchen and Cyril Colnik Chair in the Marquette University Diederich College of Communication, and Janice S. Welburn, dean of university libraries at Marquette University.

A November 2014 conference at the Law School on the state of kindergarten through twelfth-grade Catholic schools, both nationwide and in Milwaukee, is the basis of “Much to Preserve—and Much to Change: The Challenges Facing Catholic K-12 Education,” by Alan J. Borsuk, senior fellow in law and public policy at the Law School. The article reports on the decline in enrollment in Catholic schools, going back to the 1960s, and current efforts to reverse that trend.

Columbia Law School’s Robert E. Scott, a leading expert on contract law, proposes a path for navigating different theories of contract law in “Contract Design and the Goldilocks Problem,” a print version of his 2014 Robert F. Boden Lecture at Eckstein Hall. Scott analyzes the interpretive approaches, going back decades, of contract law titans Samuel Williston (focused on text)and Arthur Corbin (emphasizing context) and suggests a middle path. The magazine includes reactions to Scott’s approach from George Triantis of Stanford Law School; Victor A. Lazzaretti, L’93, of Emerson Electric Co. in St. Louis; Nadelle E. Grossman of Marquette Law School; and Stewart Macaulay and William C. Whitford of the University of Wisconsin Law School.

The magazine includes excerpts from nine articles by Law School faculty members in the current issue of the Marquette Sports Law Review. Each excerpt focuses on an aspect of the interaction between law and the world of sports. The nine professors are Michael K. McChrystal, Nadelle E. Grossman, Matthew J. Mitten, Kali N. Murray, Chad M. Oldfather, Judith McMullen, Edward A. Fallone, Jay E. Grenig, and Lisa A. Mazzie.

Dean Joseph D. Kearney takes a long-term view of the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, including the Law School’s involvement with the society’s work, in remarks that he made at a Legal Aid Society event.

The magazine begins with the dean’s column and law school news and concludes with the Class Notes section, including extended profiles of several accomplished Marquette lawyers: Jessica Poliner, L’06; Tim Reardon, L’88; R. L. McNeely, L’94; and Daniel Chudnow, L’84.

The full magazine may be found by clicking here.

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Court of Appeals Upholds Dismissal of Sing-Along Citation

Woody_Guthrie_NYWTSToday the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a citation issued to a “solidarity singer,” one of the participants in the ongoing State Capitol Sing-a-Long in which the participants sing songs protesting Governor Walker’s policies.  The Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of the citation by the Circuit Court, agreeing with the lower court that the permitting policy instituted by the Walker Administration unconstitutionally infringes on the First Amendment rights of individuals and small groups to engage in protests in the Capitol Building.  The decision of the Court of Appeals can be read in its entirety here.  Today’s ruling is unsurprising.  I argued that an earlier version of the permitting policy was unconstitutional a little over three years ago, in a post on the Faculty Blog that can be read here.  Reading the flimsy legal arguments put forth by the State in defense of the policy before the Court of Appeals (and I do not use the word “flimsy” lightly), I remain baffled as to why the Walker Administration would spend so much time and money in pursuing a permitting policy that so obviously conflicts with established First Amendment precedent.  While the Walker Administration typically rushes to appeal contrary judicial rulings to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, confident of receiving a sympathetic hearing from that body, I suggest that they think long and hard before appealing today’s ruling.

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Wisconsin to Allow Same-Sex Marriage

wedding cakeOn Monday, the United States Supreme Court quietly denied certiorari on cases from three federal courts of appeals (the 4th Circuit, the 7th Circuit, and the 10th Circuit) that found bans on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. The Court’s denial leaves those federal decisions standing, thus making same-sex marriage legal in five states: Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The decision is also likely to mean that the other states covered by those federal appellate court districts—Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming—will also allow same-sex marriage. Or at least, they can’t ban it.

Most surprising to many SCOTUS observers was that the Court made no comment about its decision to deny certiorari.

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