Speakers at Marquette – Page 111 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Parlow and Pilon Rumble in Room 325

Post author:Richard M. Esenberg
Post published:April 8, 2009
Post category:Race & Law Speakers at Marquette

Yeah, that doesn’t quite recall the Ali-Foreman fight, but there was still a pretty good conversation between Dr. Roger Pilon and our own Professor Matt Parlow yesterday. Dr. Pilon argued that public sector affirmative action encroached upon libertarian principles (he does not believe that such efforts should be prohibited in the private sector) and the idea of equal protection. Professor Parlow argued for such efforts, emphasizing the need, not only for diversity but, as the Supreme Court has not allowed, to ameliorate the impact of past discrimination. Thanks are in order to the Federalist Society and American Constitution Society for sponsoring the event.

Imaginative Justice in the Trial Court: Judge Sarah Evans Barker to Deliver Hallows Lecture Next Week

Post author:Joseph D. Kearney
Post published:April 7, 2009
Post category:Judges & Judicial Process Speakers at Marquette

Next Tuesday, April 14, will be the occasion for the Law School’s Hallows Lecture. This annual event, named in memory of the late Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice (and Marquette Professor) E. Harold Hallows, brings to the school a distinguished jurist who in a variety of ways has occasion to converse with and teach students, faculty, and others. Past Hallows Lecturers have included Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. More recently, over the last three years, the Hallows Lecture has served as the occasion for a significant address by a judge serving on a federal court of appeals (as can be seen in the 2006 speech by Judge Diane S. Sykes, L’84, of the Seventh Circuit, the 2007 speech by Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the Fifth Circuit, and the 2008 speech by Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the Ninth Circuit).

I am very pleased that this year, for the first time, the Hallows Lecture will be delivered by a distinguished sitting trial judge: viz., the Honorable Sarah Evans Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Judge Barker, who has served on the federal bench since 1984 and is president of the Federal Judges Association (a voluntary organization of Article III judges), is a national figure among trial judges and the federal judiciary more broadly. For the Hallows Lecture, she has selected as her title “Beyond Decisional Templates: The Role of Imaginative Justice in the Trial Court,” and takes as her point of departure Judge Richard A. Posner’s recent book, How Judges Think (Harvard, 2008).

The following is from the Law School’s description of the lecture: “Accepting Judge Posner’s premise that under certain circumstances judges must perform as legislators, Judge Sarah Evans Barker will attempt to expand his focus on appellate decision-making to include a discussion of when and how this approach is and can and should be properly applied in the trial court and of the role of imagination when adjudicating in the ‘open area.'”

The lecture will take place in Room 307 at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14. The event is open to all, but registration is required.

Community Justice Conference Follow-Up

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:April 4, 2009
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Milwaukee Speakers at Marquette

As discussed in an earlier post, the Law School recently hosted a very successful conference on community justice in Wisconsin. More than 200 government officials, lawyers, and citizens came together to discuss how the criminal justice system can be improved at the local level through enhanced interagency collaboration and grass-roots citizen engagement. The Conference website has now been updated to include audio and video of the Conference, reports, and links to blogs and commentary to keep the conversation moving forward. Still to come on the website are workgroup reports and conference evaluation results. Thanks to Assistant Dean Dan Idzikowski for his leadership of this important Law School initiative.