Law Gone Wrong: Wisconsin’s Spousal Maintenance Statute

This is the fourth post in an occasional series entitled “Law Gone Wrong.”  The editors of the Faculty Blog invited Law School faculty to share their thoughts on misguided statutes, disastrous judicial decisions, and other examples where the law has gone wrong (and needs to be nudged back on course).  Today’s contribution is from Professor Judith G.  McMullen.

The current Wisconsin statute governing spousal maintenance, §767.56, is an undoubtedly well-meaning legislative attempt to give broad discretion to judges who must make difficult decisions about the division of financial assets at the time of a divorce.  I believe, however, that the breathtakingly broad discretion granted under the statute is a mistake.  

Spousal maintenance, also known as alimony, is the payment by one ex-spouse for the support of the other ex-spouse.  Although media accounts of celebrities like Tiger Woods may leave the impression that maintenance payments are commonplace (not to mention large), in fact only a small percentage of divorce judgments include awards of spousal maintenance.

Continue ReadingLaw Gone Wrong: Wisconsin’s Spousal Maintenance Statute

Israel Reflections–Use of Force & Civilian Targets

In light of the events in Israel earlier this week – Hamas launched a missile attack on an Israeli schoolbus and the Israelis responded with missile attacks into Gaza – one of the speakers from our trip to Israel is particularly on point today.  How do you determine an “appropriate” response to the Hamas attack?  Here are one student’s reflections on our meeting with Roni Lev, the military attorney for the Northern Command of the Israel Defense Forces:

For me, Roni Lev was one of the most interesting speakers we had during the trip. She presented on the operational legal questions she would face in her job as legal adviser to the Northern Command of the IDF. I was most interested in how Israeli law has evolved to address targeting and weighing the risk of civilian casualties. It was fairly clear the Israeli military and legal system had devoted a considerable amount of time to those questions, and that Israeli ethics had weighed heavily in the determination of operational rules. The whole discussion was rounded out nicely by Roni’s father, who provided an anecdote from his Air Force days of an Israeli pilot who received orders to fire but chose not to because of the probability of substantial civilian casualties. The commanding officer expressed his disagreement but respected the pilot’s decision. Overall, it was an interesting look at how the law tries to solve difficult operational questions, but also how the law will never be able to govern the complex situations that confront the Israeli military.

Cross posted at Indisputably.

 

Continue ReadingIsrael Reflections–Use of Force & Civilian Targets

Another Law Gone Wrong

I’m not sure if this meets the precise definition of a “law gone wrong,” but in my home state of Virginia it is illegal “to hunt or kill any wild bird or wild animal, including any nuisance species, with a gun, firearm or other weapon on Sunday, which is hereby declared a rest day for all species of wild bird and wild animal life.”

Although I was born into a family of church-going hunters, I was always more sympathetic to the church part than to the hunting part.  Consequently, I have no problem whatsoever with Sunday, or any other day for that matter, being declared a day of rest for wild animals (or at least a day on which they cannot be killed).

What I find peculiar (and wrong) is the statute’s one exception:  day of rest notwithstanding, raccoons can be hunted and killed in Virginia on Sundays, so long as the hunting is done between midnight and 2:00 a.m.  (I am not making this up.  If you doubt this, check out Va. Code § 29.1-521(A)(1).)

Because of their semi-domesticated qualities, especially when young, raccoons have always been my favorite wild animals.  But even without this affection, I would like to think that I would find it unfair, and  maybe even unconstitutional in some sublime sense, that one species of woodland animal would be deprived of 1/12 of its statutory day of rest.

Can such a classification purport to have a rational basis?  After Romer v. Evans and United States v. Virginia, I think not.

 

Continue ReadingAnother Law Gone Wrong
Newer Posts
Older Posts