Federal Law & Legal System – Page 144 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Constitution Day Symposium on Judicial Elections

Post author:Jessica E. Slavin
Post published:September 8, 2009
Post category:First Amendment Legal Education Political Processes & Rhetoric U.S. Supreme Court Wisconsin Law & Legal System Wisconsin Supreme Court

On Saturday, I ran a 5K in Stevens Point, in support of Justiceworks, Ltd., a nonprofit organization “dedicated to the advancement of programs and practices that secure right relationships between offenders, victims, and their communities” in Portage County. My father lives and works in that community and asked me and my sisters to participate in the race. It was incredibly pleasant, a flat run along the river in picture-perfect weather.

I knew very little about the organization before agreeing to do the run, and in my post-race googling I discovered that Justiceworks is a co-sponsor (along with the Portage County Bar Association and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point) of an upcoming symposium entitled Judicial Elections: Navigating the Collision Course (note to lawyers: 7 CLE credits approved). The conference will take place on September 17, 2009, and the lineup of presenters is impressive, including Bert Brandenburg, Executive Director of the national Justice at Stake Campaign; Thomas J. Basting, Sr., who served as President of the Wisconsin State Bar Association in 2007-08; and Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

The conference brochure promises that the program will “raise awareness about the significant issues confronting the State of Wisconsin in its judicial elections,” noting that

Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: Ink Blots, Allocution, and Error

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:September 6, 2009
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Federal Criminal Law & Process Federal Sentencing Seventh Circuit

seventh circuit

The Seventh’s Circuit opinion last week in United States v. Noel (No. 07-2468) reveals a substantial division over how to handle violations of a defendant’s right to address the court at sentencing. As now codified in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32, the Supreme Court has held that defendants must be personally invited to address the court before being sentenced; it is not enough for defense counsel to be given an opportunity to speak. I have long thought this right of allocution to be a Rorschach test of sorts, revealing fundamental disagreements in the way that criminal procedure rights are conceptualized.

Catholics on the Court

Post author:Edward A. Fallone
Post published:August 31, 2009
Post category:Constitutional Interpretation Criminal Law & Process Judges & Judicial Process Religion & Law U.S. Supreme Court

Three recent events have added a new wrinkle to a debate that has been taking place among legal scholars: what, if anything, does it mean to be both a Catholic and a Supreme Court Justice?

First, the confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor has added a sixth practicing Catholic to the Supreme Court. As a proportion of the Court’s membership, Catholics on the Court currently exceed their proportionate representation in the general public by a significant amount. This is an astonishing historical fact, although its significance is not self-evident.

Second, Frank Colucci’s book, Justice Kennedy’s Jurisprudence, was recently reviewed in the Wall Street Journal by Northwestern University Law School Professor John McGinnis. Apparently, Mr. Colucci does not adhere to the conventional wisdom that Justice Kennedy is an unpredictable jurist whose primary concerns are the aggrandizement of the Supreme Court and the divination of narrow, fact-based holdings. Instead, and somewhat unexpectedly, Corlucci argues that Justice Kennedy’s approach to the interpretation of the Constitution is best understood as seeking to advance a moral imperative.

Justice Kennedy’s objective, according to Corlucci, is to vindicate and preserve an ever increasing share of individual liberty within our broader society. Here is the key portion of Professor McGinnis’ review:

Looking for the sources of Justice Kennedy’s moral judgment, Mr. Colucci discovers one in post-Vatican II Catholic thought, including papal encyclicals like Dignitatis Humanae. In Roper v. Simmons, a ruling forbidding the death penalty for criminals under the age of 18, Justice Kennedy wrote that juveniles only rarely exhibit ‘irreparable corruption’ – a phrase that a secular judge might not have used. (Justice Kennedy is an observant Catholic). It is odd to reflect that the justice most influenced by contemporary Catholic thought may today be – because of his emphasis on individual rights – the decisive vote for preserving the abortion status quo.

It is intriguing to consider whether there is, in fact, a demonstrable connection between Catholic social thought and Justice Kennedy’s interpretation of an evolving liberty interest guaranteed by the Constitution.