For Love of the Game…

I had my “eureka” moment about appellate advocacy when I was still a law student. With too few credits to even apply for the Milwaukee District Attorney’s “prosecutor clinic,” I still made an appointment to meet with a deputy DA to see if there was some way I could still volunteer and be useful.

I was stashed aside in a room with a table, lots of books and stacks of papers to wait for the meeting, but as I waited my eye was drawn to a slip opinion sitting on the table. I started to read, of course. The case, as I recall, had something to do with how much Spanish language interpretation was due to a defendant at a particular point in the process. I never got to the end of the opinion, so I don’t know how it turned out.

But I remember feeling the light turn on in my head, recognizing in an instant that this was an area of the law where, if you believed passionately in something and gave it your all in the higher courts, win or lose, your words and your efforts had a resonance beyond just a single case.

Of course, at that time I don’t think I even realized that there was a difference between “published” and “unpublished” opinions. Too late now, the fuse was lit!

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Constitutional Adjudication and Social Division – A Judicial Perspective

I am pleased to be leading a very vibrant seminar this semester, during which we contemplate the judicial process as evident in constitutional/human rights decisions from jurisdictions as far-flung as Germany, Jamaica and India. Covering a range of substantive topics, from torture to religious freedom to socio-economic rights, our discussions and analysis can be distilled down to two underlying questions: what do judges say they are doing, and what are judges actually doing? A plethora of historical/social/contextual factors feed into the judicial process, and determine the scope and nature of the project of constitutional adjudication.

The upcoming SCOTUS decisions on the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (denying federal benefits to same-sex couples that are legally married in their states) and California’s Proposition 8 (a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage), in addition to their potentially profound personal significance to persons on all sides of the marriage debate, will no doubt provide rich fodder for human rights jurists.

So it is timely, I believe, to bring attention to the story of South Africa’s constitutional adjudication of this sensitive issue, and to consider the role the South African Constitutional Court sees itself playing when it deals with the complexities of constitutional rights.

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Restorative Justice Conference: “Grief Is Inevitable; Misery Is Optional”

There is no way the legal system – or anyone else — can undo the terrible wounds left on people who have had a loved one murdered. But can the system or those involved in different aspects of it help survivors of a murder victim go forward in leading their lives?

That was the underlying question at the remarkable and emotionally intense 2013 Restorative Justice Conference held last week at Marquette Law School’s Eckstein Hall. “The Death Penalty Versus Life Without Parole: Comparing the Healing Impact on Victims’ Families and the Community” brought together about 200 people from Wisconsin and much of the country to examine the post-murder lives of family members.

But among the many speakers, six stood out – because, as survivors of victims, they personally had gone through the grieving and dealt with the legal system and so many other problems. Three from Texas, two from Minnesota, and one from the Milwaukee area told their searing stories in a pair of panel discussions on Friday morning, the second day of the conference.

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