Congratulations to AWL Scholarship Winners Dockendorff and Roelandts

005571233005856550Today, September 27, 2016, the Milwaukee Association for Women Lawyers (AWL) Foundation honored two Marquette University Law School students with scholarships.

Hannah Dockendorff, 3L (pictured at left), received the AWL Foundation scholarship. The AWL Foundation Scholarship is awarded to a woman who has exhibited service to others, diversity, compelling financial need, academic achievement, unique life experiences (such as overcoming obstacles to attend or continue law school), and advancement of women in the profession. Dockendorff’s history of serving others began with her father, a U.S. Army sergeant in the Gulf War. She has provided legal assistance for the Milwaukee Justice Center, the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic, and Catholic Charities immigration services. In Washington, D.C., on a National Day of Service, she worked with the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington to integrate recently released convicts into the community by going to their group home to help them build their meals. In addition to her volunteer work, her school work, and her work this semester with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Equal Rights Division, Dockendorff is the main caretaker for her mother, who has cancer.

Courtney Roelandts, 2L (pictured at right), received the AWL Foundation’s Virginia A. Pomeroy scholarship. This scholarship honors the late Virginia A. Pomeroy, a former deputy state public defender and a past president of AWL. In addition to meeting the same criteria as for the AWL Foundation scholarship, the winner of this scholarship must also exhibit what the AWL Foundation calls “a special emphasis, through experience, employment, class work or clinical programs” in one of several particular areas:  appellate practice, civil rights law, public interest law, public policy, public service, or service to the vulnerable or disadvantaged. Roelandts, who is from a law enforcement family, received her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and psychology and went on to receive a master of social work degree. She hopes to combine law and social work in pursuit of social justice. She consistently works with three area pro bono legal clinics assisting with court forms, immigration issues, and domestic violence injunction hearings. She has already completed more than 100 hours of pro bono service and was inducted into the Pro Bono Honor Society in her 1L year. In addition, she is a member of the Marquette Law Review, president of the student American Constitution Society, and an original board member and current secretary for the Organization for Student Wellbeing.

Congratulations to both women for outstanding service and for their representation of Marquette University Law School.

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Obama Clemency Grants Pick Up Steam

Somewhat lost amidst the wall-to-wall media coverage of the Clinton and Trump campaigns, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 111 federal prisoners on August 30. This builds on what has quietly become one of Obama’s most significant end-of-term domestic policy initiatives. He has now commuted 673 sentences, more than the previous ten presidents combined. The August 30 grants, however, had special significance for me and a small group of recent Marquette Law School graduates.

Commutation (that is, a reduction in the severity of a criminal sentence) is a form of executive clemency. The Constitution expressly grants clemency powers, and presidents since George Washington have used these powers in a variety of different ways. In recent decades, though, there has been a certain whiff of disrepute surrounding clemency. Reinforcing the negative perceptions, President Bill Clinton’s pardon of financier Marc Rich and President George W. Bush’s commutation of the sentence of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby seemed to confirm that clemency was mostly used to benefit wealthy, powerful defendants.

The Obama Administration, however, envisioned a very different way to use clemency.  

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Summer Law Studies in Germany with MU Law

DSC09137Just one week remains in the 8th Annual Summer Session in International and Comparative Law taking place in Giessen, Germany.  In the photo you can see me with some of my students in the Comparative Constitutional Law class.  It is a great group, mixing U.S. students from Marquette and the University of Wisconsin Law Schools (and one attendee from Touro Law School in New York) with students from Brazil, Italy, India, Russia and Georgia.  We had fun comparing the constitutions of our home countries and talking about the ways that the preambles of the various constitutions reflected similar yet different values.  For example, India’s Constitution is adamant that the national government is secular in nature — reflecting that countries enormous diversity of religious faiths and unfortunate history of religious strife.  Meanwhile, Russia’s Constitution is clear that the union of nations into one country is permanent unless unanimously dissolved, in a way that reminds me of Abraham Lincoln’s view of the United States.

After two weeks with me and Professor Thilo Marauhn from Justus Liebig University Law School, discussing and comparing topics related to constitutional structure, we turned the class over to Professor Heinz Klug of the University of Wisconsin and Professor Ignaz Stegmiller from Justus Liebig University Law School.  They focused on comparing civil rights and liberties under various constitutional systems.  All in all, a very thought-provoking course.

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