Legal Commentary

A new "hot topics" program at AALS

Posted on December 12, 2008
My colleague Lloyd Mayer -- whose work relating to the constraints on political activity by tax-exempt churches has been mentioned here before -- sent me this announcement about an interesting looking "hot topics" program at the upcoming AALS meeting...

Pork as Economic Salvation

Posted on December 12, 2008
Who would have thunk it last Spring, when McCain was touting himself as the crusader against earmarks? It turns out that pork-barrel spending is not the bane of the republic, but its salvation. If you find that claim outlandish, consider the staid, conservative Economist Magazine's call last month for immediate federal spending on local infrastructure...

Notes from the Faculty Recruitment Conference, 2000

Posted on December 12, 2008
I can't be the only prawf out there who gets heart palpitations reading this Law School Hiring Thread that's being hosted here on PrawfsBlawg. Thinking about my experience going on the market eight years ago is about as pleasant as remembering the school dances I went to in seventh grade--awful experiences all of them, even when I didn't get sent to the principal's office for making out in the girl's bathroom...

A (Perhaps Ignorant) Question About Cold Offers and Fraud

Posted on December 11, 2008
I had fun the last few days kicking around my old stomping ground at the University of Miami, and catching up with some former colleagues. Somehow, one of them and I ended up on the topic of "cold offers" (something he hadn't heard about), and the notion that firms may sometimes tell their summer associates that, even though there won't really be a permanent job for them at the firm, the summer associate may tell other employers that s/he does have an offer, and may even so note on their resume...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Setttlement at Republic Windows and Doors

Posted on December 11, 2008
Because I'm an idiot, I inadvertently deleted my previous blog post here about the sit-down strike at Republic Windows iand Doors in Chicago. Fortunately, events give me a chance to update the story. Jobs With Justice has the following report. Workers at Republic Window and Doors in Chicago voted to accept a settlement late last night...

Ideological Polarization among SCOTUS clerks

Posted on December 11, 2008
My colleague, Bill Nelson, has written a fascinating and perhaps troubling history of Supreme Court clerkships since the appointment of Justice Brandeis in 1916. Nelson's troubling finding is that, since 1990, conservative justices increasingly hired clerks from the pool of clerks of conservative circuit judges...

Alcohol and illegal drug use by law students

Posted on December 10, 2008
Here are a couple of polls for current or recent law students: (1) Prior to entering law school, had you ever been disciplined by any educational institution for conduct related to alcohol use or illegal drug use?; and (2) How common is excessive alcohol or illegal drug use in law school? For the first poll, please select the answer that describes your experience...

When is it illegal for a politician to sell government jobs?

Posted on December 10, 2008
The answer surely must be that it depends on how the money is used. Politicians who raise money on behalf of a campaign or party or a cause are not corrupt: They are good fund-raisers. Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean owe much of their reputation for political savvy to their fund-raising acumen...

Mister . . . . . Hahhhrrrt

Posted on December 10, 2008
(Hat tip to John Houseman.) Jay's post on using first or last names as a professor has provoked interesting follow-up discussion in the comments and on Concurring Opinions. There, in a comment on a post by Nate Oman, Marty Lederman writes that in the "adult enterprise" on which students will embark after law school, they will usually use first names, not last names, except in court...

Epps et al. on Freedom of the Press

Posted on December 10, 2008
Let me take a moment to plug a fine new book, Freedom of the Press, edited by Garrett Epps. The book contains a selection of readings on freedom of the press, including historically significant writings such as Milton's Aereopagitica, Ben Franklin's An Apology for the Printers, and others; major cases on free press issues; and contemporary writers on the Free Press Clause, including Thomas Emerson, Robert Bork, Potter Stewart, and others...

A Good Explanation of Labor Costs in the Auto Industry

Posted on December 10, 2008
With a bailout/bridge loan for the auto industry a perhaps increasing possibility albeit not a certainty, it's worth checking out an article in today's New York Times which breaks down the labor costs for the unionized American car makers and their competitors in non-union plants in the U...

The Name Game

Posted on December 10, 2008
In response to Professor Wexler's interesting post (all posts with Lebowski allusions have intrinsic value), the apparently almost universal practice in my experience is for students to refer to faculty as Professor. I suspect that there are good reasons around that, rooted in a need to maintain a certain professional distance and to instill respect for professional standards...

The Last Time I Called a Student by a Last Name . . .

Posted on December 10, 2008
was in the fall 2001 semester, my first one teaching. I was reluctant to use last names to call on students to begin with--it seemed needlessly formal and my own teachers hadn't done it--but a lot of people had advised me that it made sense to do as a new teacher, particularly because it's easier to ramp down the formality if you decide you're being too formal than to one day suddenly start being more stodgy ("today, class, I will become more stodgy; got that, Mr...

"Corruptovich"

Posted on December 09, 2008
On the disappointing news concerning the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich: Legal Theory Blog, "Blagojevich Complaint and Press Release" WSJ Law Blog, "Chicago Trib: Illinois Governor Taken Into Custody" Above the Law, "Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Taken Into Custody By BOA Feds"

Holy Hullabaloos, The Title

Posted on December 09, 2008
So, back in 2007 I got tenure (barely, but that's a story for a separate post and ongoing bi-weekly sessions with my therapist) and I wanted to do something fun and different for my sabbatical. I spent half the year teaching on a Fulbright in Krakow, which was glorious, and for the other half I researched this book I have coming out in June from Beacon Press called Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battlegrounds of the Church/State Wars...

And so this is Christmas ... or not

Posted on December 08, 2008
Since I am spending the holidays here at Prawfs and am about to accede to my wife's insistence that I erect various symbols of the "Winter Solstice" (or at least the Christian and western celebration that occurs about that time) around our house and property...

Has Senator Leahy Forgotten Something Rather Important?

Posted on December 08, 2008
Okay -- I get that we're all in a big hurry to get the new Administration underway, but this is getting ridiculous! Courtesy of CQ Politics (my emphasis added):Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick J Leahy told reporters today that he intends to hold a confirmation hearing for Eric H...

The Irrepressible Myth of Rethinking and Taking Things Seriously: A Reply to Wexler

Posted on December 08, 2008
Jay's post on the use of Rethinking and Taking Seriously in legal scholarship reminds me that my current project (to be eviscerated at PrawfsFest! this week) is entitled The Irrepressible Myth of Klein. Surprisingly enough, a Westlaw search found only three other cases that have been tagged as irrepressible myths by scholars...

Law school as intellectual exercise

Posted on December 08, 2008
At a Christmas party this past weekend, I got into a conversation with someone thinking about going to law school. This woman has a master's and is ABD in social work. She knows she does not want to practice law. Really, she said, she is not sure what she wants to do, but thinks she would like being back in the classroom and back in an academic environment...

The Modern Sit-down Strike?

Posted on December 08, 2008
Some labor historians have a tendency to romanticize and exaggerate the importance of certain forms of worker "militancy." With that caveat, I was interested in this story about a group of union workers who were recently laid off by Republic Windows and Doors and Chicago but have thus far refused to leave the plant in what the workers are calling an "occupation...

Rethinking Rethinking: Taking Rethinking Seriously

Posted on December 08, 2008
From the "freshness of academic legal discourse department" comes this Monday morning quiz in two parts: (1) how many results does the Westlaw JLR search ti(rethinking) come up with? and (2) how many results do you get with the Westlaw JLR search ti(taking +5 seriously)? For extra credit, name five things we should be taking more seriously...

Being junior yet senior

Posted on December 07, 2008
Thanks to Dan for allowing me to spend the Holidays on Prawfs and greetings from Milwaukee on a cold Sunday. I am one of those people who came to legal academia on a full time basis after a lengthy career in practice. For that reason, I read Jeffrey Lipshaw's paper on "How Not to Retire and Teach" in the same way that our incoming students read books like "One L" and "Ivy Briefs...

Prawfsfest! comes to UMiami

Posted on December 06, 2008
Thanks to the PR people at UM, you can see these nice people up close. Here's the official announcement. The University of Miami School of Law will host the 4th Prawfsfest! from December 8-10, 2008. The event, to feature 11 sessions, will bring up-and-coming scholars from various areas of legal scholarship together to discuss their working papers on public law and legal theory and foster scholarship in those areas of law...

A Different Take on the Haywood Argument

Posted on December 05, 2008
I hope to have more to say over the weekend about today's cert. grant in al Marri (disclosure: I co-authored an amicus brief in support of certiorari on behalf of a group of law professors--apropos Adam Chandler's piece about the disparity in amicus briefs in support of cert...

Happy Hour at AALS: save the date for Thurs Jan 8th at 9ish

Posted on December 05, 2008
The very exciting news is that we will once again be hosting a happy hour with our friends from Concurring Opinions and the Empirical Legal Studies blog during the AALS conference in San Diego. Please mark your calendars for 9pm on Thursday January 8th...

Hello and what's your laptop policy?

Posted on December 04, 2008
Hi, folks, and thanks to Dan for inviting me to join the December chorus! I'll start out with a question that was raised in a meeting today: How many law schools require incoming students to own a laptop? We (the South Carolina "We") adopted a mandatory laptop purchase policy a few years ago and are now reaping the full benefits and detriments that accompany laptop use in the classroom...

'tis the season

Posted on December 04, 2008
a treasure trove of issues bluebooks christened with flop sweat 1Ls under stress The exam season is underway. A couple of days ago, I basked in the joy of giving my 1Ls their very first law school exam and am looking forward to reading my bluebooks. Being first has its perks...

Retribution: an emerging consensus?

Posted on December 04, 2008
Now a chance to trumpet other people's work. Following up on my previous post, I want to point out that the "consequentialist retributivist" position I present there is not solely my own (though I do think my article provides an especially direct and thorough elaboration of it)...

Retribution: duty, or good?

Posted on December 04, 2008
This post falls into the "trumpeting my own work" category (though it might also bear some tangential relation to Ken Simons's interesting series of recent posts on consequentialism). I'm getting it out of the way early so I can move on to asking some questions about legal education, which I'm hoping to spend most of my time here doing...

Signoff, parts I, II, III AND IV...

Posted on December 04, 2008
Many thanks to Dan for inviting me to contribute to the blog. The time has passed quickly! I enjoyed being part of several conversations. Good luck to all as you complete your teaching and turn to the dirty work of grading. Best, Ken Simons

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.