Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Avoiding the “Every School Left Behind” Inevitability

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:June 15, 2011
Post category:Education & Law Milwaukee Public Schools Public

Maybe, in 2001, it seemed like 2014 was too far away to be worth much worry. In 2011, it’s not so far away. Not that it’s clear what is going to be done now about what was one of the more idealistic, well-intended, but ridiculous, notions ever put into federal law.

In 2001, and with strong bipartisan support, Congress approved the No Child Left Behind education reform law. Amid its complex notions, there were some clear intentions: Congress and the president (George W. Bush at that point, but Bill Clinton and Barack Obama would say much the same) were tired of putting a lot of money into schools across the country and not seeing much to show for it. They wanted to see the American education world buckle down to work especially on improving the achievement of low income and minority students. And they wanted every child to be reading and doing math on grade level by – oh, pick a date far away – 2014.

So they called the law No Child Left Behind. A wonderful idea – are you in favor of leaving some children behind? I’m not.

But given the real state of children, the obstacles so many face, the entrenched depth of so many issues, and the simple realities of what could be accomplished, it was an unrealistic idea. Even if everything went great, we were never going to reach 100% proficiency by 2014, or by any date.

Kearney Recognized as “Lawyer of the Year”

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:June 14, 2011
Post category:Marquette Law School

The Milwaukee Bar Association recognized our own Dean Joseph D. Kearney as “Lawyer of the Year” at its annual meeting earlier today. In presenting the award, MBA President Michael J. Cohen particularly cited Kearney’s ambitious vision for Eckstein Hall and his leadership in bringing that vision to life. Cohen noted that our new facility will serve as a valuable resource for many years to come, not only for our students, but also for the wider legal community.

In accepting the award, Kearney connected the Law School’s activities in Eckstein Hall to the ideal of the lawyer as a public citizen:

The greatness of the legal profession lies not only in its practitioners’ primary activities—doing deals, righting wrongs, protecting freedoms—but also in their other pursuits. The lawyer is, frequently at least, a public citizen, keeping his or her eye on the public good.

The effort of and in Eckstein Hall concerns all aspects of the profession, including an attention to the public good even beyond the development of future lawyers.

Marquette Law Review Article Sparks Debate on Use of Dictionaries to Decide Legal Cases

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:June 14, 2011
Post category:Judges & Judicial Process Legal Scholarship Marquette Law School U.S. Supreme Court

A recent article in the Marquette Law Review was featured in Adam Liptak’s “Sidebar” column for the New York Times earlier this week. Liptak wrote about the increasingly common citation of dictionaries in Supreme Court opinions:

A new study in The Marquette Law Review found that the justices had used dictionaries to define 295 words or phrases in 225 opinions in the 10 years starting in October 2000. That is roughly in line with the previous decade but an explosion by historical standards. In the 1960s, for instance, the court relied on dictionaries to define 23 terms in 16 opinions.

Liptak notes various objections to the practice. For instance, dictionaries were not written for the purpose of supplying precise legal definitions, and the variety of different meanings suggested by the many available dictionaries creates opportunities for “cherry picking.” He adds,

The authors of the Marquette study, Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier and Samuel A. Thumma, said the justices had never really said precisely what dictionary definitions were doing in legal opinions. They urged the justices to explain “when and how dictionaries should be used, how a specific dictionary should be chosen and how to use a dictionary for interpretation.”