Legal Commentary

Sex, Jokes, and Breast Cancer Awareness

Posted on February 10, 2008
We attended a small-college basketball game this weekend for what appeared to be breast-cancer awareness night; many of the students wore pink t-shirts and several students wore shirts bearing messages such as "I'm Here for the Boobs," "Save the Boobies," and "Great Breasts are Worth Fighting For...

"The Things that are not Caesar's"

Posted on February 10, 2008
Here's more information about a conference -- sponsored by The Federalist Society -- on religious freedom and church-autonomy, that might be of interest to Prawfs readers. The invited presenters include John Garvey, Nick Wolterstorff, Chip Lupu, Bob Tuttle, Doug Laycock, Tom Berg, and others...

Omaha Recommendations?

Posted on February 08, 2008
I co-coach my school's trial advocacy team, and the team is off next week to Omaha, Nebraska for the regional competition being held at Creighton Law School. No one on the team, however, has a great deal of familiarity with Omaha beyond this Times article...

Lack of Freebies, Image of Forlorn Boy Mar 2008 AALS Conference

Posted on February 08, 2008
[By request, I am re-printing this post from my personal blog, The Backbencher. -EEJ] I was drawn to the 2008 law professors' convention - the Association of American Law Schools' annual meeting in New York - because of its upbeat theme: "Passport to the World's Celebrations!" Not only does that phrase capture the essence of what is on all of our minds, as law professors, but it clearly sounded more fun than the 2008 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, theme: "Reassessing our Roles as Scholars and Educators in Light of Change...

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Marriage of minors, marriage between minors

Posted on February 08, 2008
Yesterday's post about what the scope of criminal law should be with respect to adult sex with teens and teen sex with other teens (both in the familial and extra-familial contexts) generated some good comments. Today I'm interested in reactions to marriages with minors and between minors in both polygamous and monogamous situations...

Superb Law and Religion Symposium

Posted on February 08, 2008
Congratulations to the West Virginia Law Review for its latest issue, which contains a terrific symposium titled The Religion Clauses in the 21st Century. I've barely had time to skim the surface, given that the symposium issue is over 500 pages long with 16 contributions, but I've enjoyed what I've seen so far...

An Update on Criminal Law Conversations

Posted on February 08, 2008
As you may have heard, the Criminal Law Conversations project went public on February 4. The current state of the project is summarized on the CLC Status Table. Those who would like occasional notification of what is happening on the website can sign up here...

Teaching Pleading in a Post-Twombly World

Posted on February 07, 2008
Much bandwidth and ink (see Scott's bibliography) has been spilled on the question of what Bell Atlantic v. Twombly means, what it does to pleading under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and what to tell our students about it in Civ Pro. I want to see what people think on a slightly different point: What is the best way to teach the complaint portion of pleading with Twombly in the mix...

Dep't of Broken Records

Posted on February 07, 2008
The WSJ Law Blog reports that Brian McNamee has allegedly turned over "bloody gauze pads, vials and syringes allegedly used to inject [Roger] Clemens in his New York apartment in 2000 and 2001. " It adds that Clemens's lawyer, Lanny Breuer, said in a statement that McNamee "apparently has manufactured evidence" and is "a troubled man who is obsessed with doing everything possible to destroy Roger Clemens...

Republican America vs. Conservative "Legal Talent"

Posted on February 07, 2008
Today's news about Romney's withdrawal from the presidential race reminds me of this earlier post on the VC, which noted the large number of prominent conservative lawyers, both academics and cause-oriented lawyers in public and quasi-public positions, who had supported Romney...

The Faculty Lounge

Posted on February 07, 2008
Some new folks are blogging at "The Faculty Lounge." It looks like a great line-up: Dan Filler, Laura Appleman, Al Brophy, Calvin Massey, among others. Although you may not want yet another blog to have to check, this one will be worth the time. Welcome!

The Phelps Family and the First Amendment, Again

Posted on February 07, 2008
During my prior guest stint, I wrote about the multi-million-dollar civil verdict against Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church for their protest outside a slain soldier's funeral in Maryland. On Tuesday, the AP reported on a criminal prosecution in Omaha against a different member of the Phelps family and the Church (the categories are largely co-extensive), Shirley Phelps-Roper, arising from a different funeral protest last June...

"Religion and the Constitution" at Princeton

Posted on February 07, 2008
If you are in the area, consider coming to this conference, on "The Contributions of William H. Rehnquist to Constitutional Jurisprudence", tomorrow at Princeton. The conference is co-sponsored by the James Madison Program there and by the Program in Law and Public Affairs...

Is the Right to Bear Arms an "Underenforced Constitutional Norm"?

Posted on February 07, 2008
In an influential article three decades ago, Larry Sager argued that some individual rights were ?underenforced constitutional norms.? By this, Sager meant that the courts did not provide judicial protection for a right up to that right?s conceptual limits...

Sex with minors, sex between minors

Posted on February 07, 2008
In the news today is the arrest of a 38 year old man, a Rhodes Scholar and HLS grad who is a high-ranking Mass. gov't official, for allegedly masturbating and performing oral sex on a 15 year old male in a steam room at a resort in Florida. (HT: ATL) I'm less interested in the facts here and more interested in the normative legal questions posed by this conduct and conduct similar to but different to it as posed in the following scenarios...

As Al Gore Might Say: It's Time For Me To Go

Posted on February 06, 2008
As with my last run here at PB, I've enjoyed having the chance to pontificate. Unfortunately, though, I'm going to have to call it a guest visit now. I'd hoped to have more time to spend on politics-oriented posts, but various personal and professional obligations have prevented me from spending as much time as I'd have liked (I don't even have time to read the NYT every day anymore, which is something I never thought I'd write!)...

Thoughts On Last Night's Democratic Results

Posted on February 06, 2008
For all the noise, last night didn't change much in terms of delegates on the Democratic side. By the accounts I've heard and read, Obama and Clinton split the 1,678 pledged (i.e., non-super) delegates almost exactly down the middle. I think I read that Obama's folks are saying 845 for them, though I think I also read that Clinton's folks are disputing that...

Thoughts On Last Night's GOP Results

Posted on February 06, 2008
Fascinating results. The biggest story, I think, is that Mike Huckabee seems to have a new lease on life as a candidate in his own right. (Silly me -- just yesterday I left Huckabee for dead.) That is, for at least a little while, the story line on Huckabee isn't going to be that he's just obstructing Romney's shot at beating McCain in a one-on-one showdown...

Law Reviews and Lateral Hiring

Posted on February 06, 2008
Over at Concurring Opinions, workplace blogger extraordinaire Paul Secunda is doing a series of guest posts on the elusive lateral hiring market (here and here). I want to piggy back on Paul's illuminating posts by offering another possible explanation for how potential lateral candidates make it onto a school's radar for a lateral move...

The Bradley (or Wilder) Effect and Negative Campaigning

Posted on February 06, 2008
Just after the New Hampshire Democratic primary in January, there was some discussion on the legal blogs of the Bradley Effect, when Hillary Clinton won despite exit polls indicating a sizeable lead for Barack Obama. The Bradley Effect (also called the "Wilder Effect") refers to people's reluctance to admit their own biases on issues of race and gender...

CNN Focuses on Georgia (Again)

Posted on February 06, 2008
I watched CNN?s coverage of Super Tuesday last night, and what I learned, mostly, is that Georgia is the key to the whole thing. CNN went IN-DEPTH in their analysis of voting in the Peach State, nearly to the exclusion of talking about anything else. Reporter John King used a giant interactive map to go county-by-county...

McCain: Don't Criticize Veterans (Except Maybe John Kerry)

Posted on February 05, 2008
Interesting the way John McCain suddenly is scandalized by Mitt Romney's criticism of Bob Dole. Unless there's more to the story than I've read, Romney didn't mention Bob Dole's war record at all. All he said was that Dole was "probably the last person I would have wanted to have write a letter for me" (this is after Dole wrote a letter to Rush Limbaugh defending McCain against Rush Limbaugh's attacks on McCain)...

The Ethics of Email Listserves?

Posted on February 05, 2008
Like many folks, I subscribe to a handful of email listserves, some academic and some practical. I've chatted with some colleagues recently about a curious practice I've noticed on some listserves of subscribers posting information about clients, information that on its face would appear to be confidential...

Abstain From Message Wallpaper, and My Vote is Yours

Posted on February 05, 2008
I hope you enjoyed Super Monday. Didn't you notice? It was the Monday between Super Sunday and Super Tuesday. Super Monday! I celebrated in a traditional North Dakota fashion by eating canned foods and shivering. Now that it's Super Tuesday, I am laying down the gauntlet and putting out my challenge to the candidates...

Friends of the Internet Unite: Citizen Media Law Guide

Posted on February 05, 2008
This is pretty awesome. The Citizen Media Law Project has announced the launch of a new online guide for your average Joe to participate in "semiotic democracy." Here's a link to the Florida guide. Here's some more info from the media release: The Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP) launched the first sections of its Citizen Media Legal Guide (http://www...

The Mystery of Twombly Continues

Posted on February 05, 2008
Today, the Third Circuit decided Phillips v. County of Allegheny (a Section 1983 case) in an opinion written by Judge Nygaard. The opinion is the latest to expound upon the Supreme Court?s pleading opinion of last term, Bell Atlantic v. Twombly. It is worth a read if for no other reason than that it shows just how much the circuits continue to struggle to understand what Bell Atlantic means.

Random* Thoughts On Super Tuesday's Eve

Posted on February 04, 2008
Here are a few observations regarding tomorrow's votestravaganza. First, the GOP side: It seems likely that McCain will grab a dominating position by tomorrow night. I have to admit that I didn't see this coming. Like most other observers, and with apologies to the Sugarhill Gang, I thought McCain was like cold butter on breakfast toast back when he canned the consultants who were paying themselves all his money (or whatever it is they were doing with it)...

How Not to Take Work Home with You

Posted on February 04, 2008
It's a real challenge to turn the last seconds of one of the most exciting Super Bowls in recent memory into a rather dullish procedure issue, but I can't help myself. With one second left on the game clock and the outcome certain, Pats coach Bill Belichik effectively conceded by crossing the field to shake hands with opposing Giants coach Tom Coughlin...

The writing is on the wall

Posted on February 04, 2008
Despite my appreciation for the merits of both candidates for the Dems, my sense is that Obama will win, and win handily, tomorrow and later in November. Here's why. Rick, how can McCain, who admittedly is the best Republican the Dems could hope for in a non-cynical world, compete against this dynamism?

The Giants, Carnival, and Antinomianism

Posted on February 04, 2008
It's good to be back on Prawfsblawg -- thanks to Dan & Co. for inviting me back. I'm a visiting professor at BU law school, teaching law & religion this semester, and a Ph.D candidate in Jewish Thought at Hebrew University. I'm also, like one of my fellow bloggers this month, a lifelong Giants fan who is still in some stage of shock and awe over last night's miracle...

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