Public – Page 655 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Doing Better Than “Nailing and Jailing” in the Fight Against Violence

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:September 27, 2011
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Marquette Law School Milwaukee Popular Culture & Law Poverty & Law Public Speakers at Marquette

As Milwaukee County Children’s Court Judge Joe Donald put it, “We do a very good job of trailing, nailing, and jailing.” But can Milwaukee do more when it comes to dealing with crime so that it can be prevented and the lives of those on the path to committing crimes turn out better?

The good news, participants in an “On the Issues” discussion Monday at Eckstein Hall generally agreed, is that the large majority of young people in the community are not involved in crime, that there are existing constructive programs involving thousands of youths , and those who went on highly-publicized sprees in the Riverwest neighborhood on July 3 and in and around the State Fair grounds on Aug. 4 are not typical.

The bad news is that it doesn’t take very many crimes to cause great harm, not only to the victims but to neighborhoods and the city as a whole, panel members agreed. Furthermore, criminals are getting younger and more violent, and the poverty which is so often the environment for criminals is getting broader and deeper in the city.

The panel discussion, hosted by Mike Gousha, the Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, before an audience of about 200, followed the showing Sunday night at the Milwaukee Film Festival of a documentary, “The Interrupters,” about efforts to reduce youth violence in Chicago.

Generalist Versus Specialist Judges

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:September 26, 2011
Post category:Judges & Judicial Process Legal Scholarship Public

The Federal Circuit and a few other counterexamples notwithstanding, American courts are not substantively specialized. By and large, the American judge is thus a generalist. For better or worse, our judiciary seems to be holding out against the pressures toward specialization that have so marked the contemporary legal and medical professions.

Is this a good thing? In the law review literature, there are plenty of calls for the creation of this or that new specialized court. Certainly, specialization leads to quicker and more efficient decisionmaking. But should we expect the specialized judge also to render decisions that are substantively better?

This is the question that lies at the heart of Chad Oldfather’s new article, “Judging, Expertise, and the Rule of Law.”

The Supreme Court and the Fate of the Ministerial Exception

Post author:Scott C. Idleman
Post published:September 25, 2011
Post category:Civil Rights Constitutional Interpretation Education & Law First Amendment Public Religion & Law U.S. Supreme Court

In 1999, Cheryl Perich began service as a lay teacher at the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Michigan. A year later, she became a “called teacher,” selected by the congregation to serve as a commissioned minister and charged with duties of a more pastoral nature, such as teaching religion classes, leading the students in devotional exercises, and participating in weekly chapel functions, though continuing to teach predominantly secular subjects.

In June 2004, however, Perich developed symptoms of a medical disorder, eventually diagnosed as narcolepsy. Despite obtaining in February 2005 a doctor’s certification of her ability to return to work, the school had already made alternative arrangements and proposed that she resign her call. After she threatened legal action for alleged disability discrimination, the congregation then rescinded her call and she was duly terminated from her teaching position at the school.