Charles Franklin, professor of law, commented on the upcoming Republican debate and the candidate's demands. "I can't remember a time when we've seen a large number of candidates act in concert to take control of at least some aspects of debates," Franklin said. "That is a surprise, and especially as a revolt against the Republican National Committee and Chairman Reince Preibus."
Joseph Kearney, dean of the Law School, gave a history lesson on the U.S. Supreme Court. "If the judiciary is no longer protecting practices because they stem from obligations arising from one's creator, discerned from Scripture and supported by the teachings of church leaders and theologians, but instead because a claimant simply feels a higher power or inner calling, then the judiciary is not operating with a coherent theory of religious freedom but rather just deferring to individuals' idiosyncratic senses of self-realization, autonomy," Kearney said.
"The boycott tapped the deep and pervasive alienation of labor in general," historian David Ray Papke wrote in his 1999 book The Pullman Case: The Clash of Labor and Capital in Industrial America.
Idleman said the law is murkier when it comes to college football players, who are legally adults but still find themselves largely at the mercy of their coaches.
But strategy is only part of the problem, said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll.
"When your campaign's having trouble, those troubles build on one another," said Franklin, citing controversies that Walker has created over birthright citizenship and security at the U.S. border with Canada.
Janine Geske, trustee and retired professor of law, commented on the John Doe ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court fueling a call to punish prosecutors. Geske said she saw no basis for disciplining John Doe prosecutors because it was unreasonable to expect them to know in 2012 that the Supreme Court this year would narrow the definition of what constitutes illegal campaign coordination. "To me, it's a threat that ‘if you mess with us, we're going to take your livelihood away.'"
Matt Parlow, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law, commented on the rarity of ticket surcharge fees. The latest state proposal to help fund a new downtown arena includes a ticket surcharge fee. "Often times the tenant, particularly, the pro sports team, doesn't like them because for every dollar that gets added as a tax, that's one less dollar they can charge for tickets."
That was the title of the speech that Law School Dean Joseph Kearney delivered Thursday to the Western District of Wisconsin Bar Association. An audience that included one member of the court, Chief Justice Patience Roggensack, listened to Kearney argue for taking some of the politics out of the court by allowing jurists to be elected only to a single 16-year term, rather than multiple terms of 10 years.
"No one can reasonably maintain that today's court enjoys the basic collegiality that not only is a happy incident to, but is an important enabling component of, a law-declaring appellate court," Kearney said. The proposal "will eliminate the possibility that justices will publicly or privately oppose a colleague's re-election. Let no one doubt that this has been the source of much of the court's well-publicized problems in recent years."
The proposal, which was drafted by a task force organized by the State Bar Association, would require changing the state constitution. The lengthy process takes a vote of two successive Legislatures and a statewide referendum to voters.
A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, Kearney clerked for conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and formerly worked at the prominent Chicago firm of Sidley Austin. Last month, the dean saw firsthand the effects of the divisions on the panel.
Matt Mitten, director of the National Sports Law Institute, commented on the idea of a presidential commission on college sports. Mitten said a commission would go a long way toward resolving claims that athletes are being exploited because it would provide a formal process for all stakeholders to propose new measures.
Nadelle Grossman, professor of law, discussed on Bloomberg Radio the implications of ESPN’s lawsuit against Verizon Communications, alleging breach of contract due to Verizon’s new "Custom TV" packages.
