Welcome Our April Student Blogger!

Photo of law student Courtney RoelandtsOur Student Blogger for the Month of April is Courtney Roelandts.

Courtney Roelandts received her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and psychology and her master’s degree in social work. She is a 2L law student who hopes to combine law and social work in the pursuit of social justice post-graduation. She consistently works with three area pro bono clinics, and is a member of the Marquette Law Review, President of the American Constitution Society, and Secretary of the Organization for Student Wellbeing.

We look forward to reading her posts!

 

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Equal Pay Day, Rhetoric, and Reality

Image by: Pictures of Money, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Today was Equal Pay Day, the date that indicates how much longer a woman had to work to earn what a man earned in the previous year. More than 20 years ago, the National Committee on Pay Equity started selecting one day a year—always a Tuesday in April—to highlight the continued disparity between men’s and women’s wages.

Now, you can quibble with me about the precise numbers or you can try to explain to me that there isn’t really a gender gap (both of which have been done and probably will be done again); however, as the Pew Research Center noted last summer, though some groups of women have narrowed the gap, there in fact remains some gap in wages between white men and all groups of women.

Much of that gap in wages can be explained by differing levels of education, workforce experience, or occupation. But even when you control for all of those more concrete and measurable variables, there remains an unexplained gap that may—may not—have to do with gender discrimination.

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2017 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Semifinalists

Congratulations to the students in the Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition who have moved on to the semifinal round of the competition.  The students will be competing on Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Appellate Courtroom and the Trial Courtroom to determine who will be advancing to the final round on April 11 at 4:00 p.m.

The teams will be paired as follows:

Nate Oesch and Elisabeth Thompson v. Meredith Donaldson and Ben Lucareli

AJ Lawton and Ashley Smith v. Mitch Bailey and Jacob Heuett

Congratulations to all the participants in the competition.  We also very much appreciate the judges who grade briefs and participate in the preliminary rounds.  This year we had a recent alum, Natalie Schiferl, who travelled all the way from Minnesota to judge the competition.  One of the great things about moot court is how active our alums and volunteers are, and we appreciate their time and assistance very much.  A special thank you to Samuel (Micah) Woo, Associate Justice in charge of the competition.

Best wishes to all of the competitors on Wednesday night.

Continue Reading2017 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Semifinalists