Legal Commentary

Corfield v. Coryell and the Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the Several States

Posted on September 29, 2009
In a previous post, I explained how antebellum legal and political use of the paired terms ?privileges and immunities? generally involved a reference to a limited set of specially conferred rights. The phrase was used not as a reference to natural rights belonging to all, but instead referred to a limited set of rights conferred upon a particular person, group or institution...

When There's a Will, There's a Way...

Posted on September 28, 2009
Thank you so very much to the Prawfsblawg gang, especially Dan, for the wonderful opportunity to guest blog. It was a blast! I'll make my final post a bit of a mea culpa. I've recently been motivated by the impending birth of our daughter (and sheer embarrassment) to actually sit my lawyerly self down and draft wills, health care proxies, powers of attorney, etc...

The First Amendment in 2020: An Institutional Perspective

Posted on September 28, 2009
Here's a link to my second and final post on the Constitution in 2020 blog in advance of the conference later this week. This one is more directly related to the individual rights panel, on which Rick and I will both be speaking (and, I think, hitting some of the same themes)...

What did the Carnegie report say anyway?

Posted on September 27, 2009
In the last few years, there's been a fair amount of talk in the legal academy about how legal education ought to change, in part in response to the 2007 Carnegie Foundation report. Many assume that the report is a repeat of the familiar "law school should be more practical," and to a certain extent that's true...

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Extraterritoriality in Export Controls

Posted on September 26, 2009
For more than sixty years, U.S. export controls have been a key U.S. national security tool for preventing undesirable exports of goods and technology. Although the overall structure of these controls has changed relatively little since the enactment of the Export Administration Act of 1979 (?EAA of 1979?), the United States? interpretation and application of its export control laws is in some ways radically different than upon the act?s passage...

The Constitution in 2030

Posted on September 25, 2009
My contribution to the blog discussion of The Constitution in 2020 is up here, in advance of next week's conference, on which I'll be speaking on the individual rights panel along with Rick; I'll have another post in a few days specifically targeted to First Amendment questions raised by the book...

A Thread for Aspiring Prawfs and Current Prawfs.

Posted on September 25, 2009
I've received a few requests by aspiring prawfs asking for a thread that's not related to the AALS meat market and the timing of callbacks, etc. This can be a thread in which candidates could ask questions about the conference, interviews, clothing protocol, questions to ask/not to ask, etc...

Learning from the P&T Process

Posted on September 24, 2009
This year marks my first time on the other side of the promotion-and-tenure process, which means I have to visit and evaluate my junior colleagues' teaching. This has been educational in several respects. First, I am learning substantive law. After observing a contracts class, for the first time I understand Kirksey v...

Read the Bill! Or Read the Bill?

Posted on September 24, 2009
At the Volokh blog, the conspirators have been having a very interesting conversation about whether legislators should be obliged to read the full text of every piece of legislation on which they vote. I won't provide all the links; you can surf on over and check it out...

What's happening in legal education?

Posted on September 24, 2009
With the beginning of a new school year, and a new law professor hiring season, one might want to know the answer to this question. Specifically, I can imagine law-professor job candidates being asked the question: "Are you familiar with the Carnegie report on legal education, and how would it affect your approach to teaching?" So I'd recommend you at least read the executive summary...

GOP lawsuit to stop Senate appointment

Posted on September 24, 2009
The Massachusetts GOP has filed suit in state court, seeking an injunction against Gov. Deval Patrick's appointment of a replacement for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, arguing that Patrick lacked the authority to declare the emergency that constitutionally allows him to make the appointment now, rather than having to wait 90 days...

Who's Your Mommy?

Posted on September 23, 2009
Yesterday CNN posted a story about a couple who underwent IVF in order to conceive and mistakenly received another couple?s embryo. The couple have decided to carry the pregnancy to term and give the child to its biological parents upon birth. As IVF becomes more and more common it is reasonable to assume more mix-ups like this may occur in the future and such pregnancies raise interesting legal question...

Elyn Saks Wins MacArthur Genius Award

Posted on September 22, 2009
USC law professor Elyn Saks has just won a $500,000 MacArthur "Genius" Award (see here). Saks writes about a variety of issues at the intersection of law and mental health, including her own struggles with schizophrenia and psychosis. Here is a link to her recent book, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness...

The Obama Administration's "A Strategy for American Innovation"

Posted on September 22, 2009
Dennis Crouch's Patently O blog draws to the Obama administration's "A Strategy for American Innovation: Driving Toward Sustainable Growth and Quality Jobs." Although Dennis focuses on the patent aspects of the document, the 26-page document is sweeping in its scope, making it an interesting read for almost everyone...

More on Catholic Social Teaching and Crisis

Posted on September 22, 2009
Further to my post last week on subsidiarity and the implications of Catholic Social Thought for responses to the economic crisis and the policy proposals of the new administration, I want to comment on a post by Rob Vischer (whose work I enjoy and admire) over at the most excellent Mirror of Justice, Rob reflects on the comments of Sioux City Bishop R...

MacArthur Grants: Rewards or Incentives for Creative Life on the Margins?

Posted on September 22, 2009
Following up on Adam's earlier post and the comments therein about Elyn Saks' receipt today of a MacArthur genius grant, I was wondering about a larger issue: whether foundations really should be showering $$ on folks like the professors at Harvard (and USC Law), where these folks are already making a decent living for the work they do...

Foucault, Kristol, and the Arts of Government

Posted on September 22, 2009
He believed that government programs that were not paternalistic, but merely provided social insurance, would ?engender larger loyalties,? which is ?precisely what the art of government, properly understood, is all about.? David Brooks, Three Cheers for Irving...

?Privileges and Immunities? in Antebellum America

Posted on September 22, 2009
This is part of a series of posts which explores the historical roots of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The full historical evidence is presented here. One of the most common approaches to studying the history behind the Privileges or Immunities Clause has been to seek out various historical documents which included the words ?privileges? or ?immunities...

What's in a name?

Posted on September 22, 2009
This year I began my Federal Indian law class with a discussion of modern day perceptions regarding Indian people and I used the example of Indian based sports team names and logos. Is the name Redskins offensive? Is the logo for the Cleveland Indians racist? if they are, then how come they are still around? A petition for cert has just been filed with the Supreme Court pertaining to this issue...

Obama's Chinese Tire Decision and the Importance of Not Being Earnest About Campaign Promises

Posted on September 21, 2009
I read with a sinking heart Gregory Bowman's post about the Obama Administration's September 11th decision to impose section 421 "safeguard" tariffs on Chinese tire imports. Gregory Bowman thought that the decision indicated that the Obama Administration has an interest in "regulation that achieves outcomes that are perceived of as 'fair' from some normative perspective other than efficiency...

Constitutional Conventions and the "C2020 Project"

Posted on September 21, 2009
My contribution to the C2020 project's blog is now available at the dedicated blog for the book and at Balkinization. If you are in New Haven on October 3, you can hear the talk upon which the blog post is based. You can also hear my co-bloggers Paul and Rick: look out for their posts in due course.

Workplace Violence? Making Sense of Annie Le's Murder

Posted on September 19, 2009
Am I the only one that was bothered by the effort of the New Haven Police Chief to make sure we didn't think the murder of Annie Le had anything to do with either New Haven or Yale? In their coverage in the New York Times Javier Hernandez and Serge Kovaleski write: Chief James Lewis of the New Haven police would not speak about a possible motive, but said, ?It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime, but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country...

Happy Constitution Day!

Posted on September 18, 2009
As Paul already mentioned, Yale is hosting a conference on "The Constitution in 2020." As it happens, yesterday was "Constitution Day",, and the 222nd birthday of the Constitution of 1787. Give it a read, if you haven't recently: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America...

Blogging on The Constitution in 2020

Posted on September 18, 2009
Yale Law School is holding a conference next month to discuss the recent publication of a book spearheaded by Yale professors, The Constitution in 2020. Leading up to the conference, the organizers have set up a blog on which the conference participants (including at least three of the permanent Prawfsblawgers) will be commenting on the book...

Trade Remedies in North America

Posted on September 18, 2009
Following up on my previous post on the U.S. safeguard action regarding Chinese tires, I would like to announce a forthcoming book, entitled Trade Remedies in North America, which will be published by Kluwer Law International and which I am co-authoring with Nick Covelli, David Gantz, and Ihn Ho Uhm...

The Impact of Failed Lethal Injections Upon Murder Victims' Family Members

Posted on September 18, 2009
Most of you have probably heard by now about Ohio's attempted execution of Romell Broom on Tuesday (articles can be found here and here), where Broom received a one-week reprieve from Gov. Ted Strickland after the execution team tried unsuccessfully for more than two hours to locate a vein...

New Year's Thoughts

Posted on September 18, 2009
The following comes from John Q. Barrett's (St. Johns) excellent Jackson List, dedicated to the work of Justice (and Nuremberg Prosecutor) Robert Jackson (Barrett is writing a biography of Jackson). I found it a very affecting story. To all our Prawfs readers and writers, celebrating, Happy New Year...

There Really IS a Public Domain

Posted on September 18, 2009
The other day, I was researching several sources including Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science. Although this book, originally published in 1913, is part of the public domain, no copies were readily available in a nearby library. I anticipated pulling out a credit card to get an inexpensive, used copy from Alibris or half...

A good crisis and an opportunity: The lessons of Catholic Social Teaching

Posted on September 17, 2009
In conjunction with some papers that I am completing, I have been thinking a lot about the Catholic notion of subsidiarity and what how it may inform our thinking about proposed expansions of the state in response to various "crises," e.g., the financial seizure, global warming and perceived flaws in the delivery of health care...

Expanding the Political Battleground ?

Posted on September 17, 2009
There seems to be a growing tactic on the part of proponents of same sex marriage (or civil unions) to seek to "out" opponents.* Efforts to identify supporters of Prop 8 in California received a lot of attention and a similar effort is being made in Washington through two websites...

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