Legal Commentary

Supreme Prudes

Posted on June 15, 2009
Remember back in the fall when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the so-called (by me, anyway) "fuck and shit case"? The case involved a challenge by various television broadcasters to the FCC's relatively new practice of fining "fleeting expletives," like when Bono said "fuck" at the Golden Globes or Nicole Richie said "Have you ever tried to get cow shit out of a Prada purse? It's not so fucking simple" at the Billboard Music Awards...

Who's afraid of offensive speech?

Posted on June 15, 2009
The pre-argument gag rule that the Court imposed in FCC v. Fox Television earlier this term, as described in Jay's post is appalling. If the words "fuck" and "shit" (see, no euphemisms here) are too unseemly for the Court's "hallowed," doesn't that effectively prejudge the question of their constitutional and legal status? How can the Court genuinely evaluate the words as a legal matter if the Court cannot even utter them or hear them uttered? It would be as if the Court were deciding whether a movie is constitutionally protected without watching the movie or discussing what is going on...

Remembering Officer Johns

Posted on June 14, 2009
In case you were wondering how to help the family of Officer Stephen Johns, who was murdered in the line of duty at the US Holocaust Museum earlier this week, the Museum has established a special fund for the benefit of Officer Johns? family. Make a contribution to the USHMM Officer Johns Family Fund...

Organizing Academic Conferences

Posted on June 14, 2009
Sorry for a slow blogging week this week ? I?ve been totally preoccupied with the last-minute preparations for the Criminal Appeals Conference next week, which I?ve organized with my colleague Chad Oldfather. With a lull in the preparations today, though, I thought I would share some thoughts ? questions, really ? about when and how to organize academic conferences...

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Introducing Tablet

Posted on June 14, 2009
One of my favorite gateways to Jewish cultural and literary trends over the last few years has been via Nextbook, which I've linked to repeatedly here at Prawfs (and also on Facebook). Happily, Nextbook has been re-branded and re-launched as Tablet, edited by Alana Newhouse and assisted by a cast of wonderful, quirky, and thoughtful writers (including former Prawfs guest Jay Michaelson)...

Last Month's News?

Posted on June 14, 2009
A friend of mine appears in the May issue of Playboy magazine (no, not in the way you might think!). I am not a regular consumer of Playboy; in fact, my comments from 30 years ago, when Playboy planned a special article (if that?s the right word) on ?Girls/Women of the Ivy League? were quite strong...

High School Graduation

Posted on June 12, 2009
Not sure if he's the original Jay-Z, but Jonathan Zittrain posted his characteristically witty remarks at his alma mater's graduation ceremony over here. A taste: It?s fantastic to be back on campus. I confess that when I was a student here I had good days, bad days, and, well, surreal days...

Some Thoughts on the Book-Writing Sentence

Posted on June 12, 2009
As promised earlier in the week, I thought I'd share some reflections on the unusual sentence Judge Urbina imposed on an offender convicted of lying to the feds: namely, that he must, among other things, write a book about what he's done. I did an interview with Ashby Jones over at the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, the substance of which is posted here, and which I'll reproduce after the jump...

Minow to be new dean at HLS

Posted on June 11, 2009
Though there were many great finalists, it's really exciting to announce that Martha Minow, a beloved former teacher of mine, will now be the new dean at HLS. Here's President Drew Faust's announcement, after the jump. Dear Colleagues, Alumni and Friends, I am delighted to let you know that Martha Minow has agreed to serve as the next Dean of Harvard Law School...

Britney

Posted on June 11, 2009
At the risk of playing into Spears' obvious marketing ploy, I thought I'd post a little question about her most recent single, which repeats over and over again the phrase "If you seek Amy" in various contexts where it makes no sense except as spelling out "F-U-C-K me...

Evidence Based Policy, Law, and Uncertainty

Posted on June 11, 2009
In some cases, incorporating systematic reviews into legal proceedings will be relatively easy. When the review conclusively (according to some decision rule) establishes that causation either exists or does not exist (or, more precisely, conclusively establishes such a finding for now), then the judge's next step is straightforward...

Grouchy Justice(s): NRF's defense of judicial bad behavior...

Posted on June 11, 2009
For those of you who missed it, Noah Feldman's got an unusually interesting take in this morning's NYT on the Sotomayor nomination and why judicial temperament is not a pre-req for being a great Justice. He examines why the "no asshole workplace" is not necessarily a desideratum if we're looking for great constitutional developments, whatever those are...

Research tools revisited

Posted on June 11, 2009
Last October, I blogged about various ways I organize research: 1) emailing myself articles, 2) a spreadsheet, 3) a research database. Having used the latter two methods more in the last eight months, I thought I would update that post with new observations...

Jurisdiction in the Court

Posted on June 10, 2009
While everyone has been talking about Monday's decision in Caperton, two other cases caught my eye, going as they do to my ongoing search for lines between subject matter jurisdiction and substantive merits. The first was United States v. Denedo (Majority by Kennedy, Concurrence/Dissent by Roberts), in which the Court held that the authority of the Navy Marine Corps Court of Military Appeals to issue a writ of coram nobis was distinct from the question of whether the case was one in which the writ should issue...

Principle, Politics, and Pharmacist Protection Laws

Posted on June 10, 2009
In the past year or so, there?s been an increasing amount of chat on the law blogosphere and elsewhere about religious accommodation laws. President Obama called for a law that would protect doctors who declined to provide abortion services for religious reasons...

Don't Stare at the Marshmallow

Posted on June 10, 2009
Among the interesting things I've read this summer is last month's New Yorker article by Jonah Lehrer, which tells the story of Stanford psychologists' study of four-year-olds and their self-control. In the study, each young subject was presented with a marshmallow and the choice between eating it right away or instead waiting while the researcher stepped out of the room for a few minutes -- in which case he or she would receive TWO marshmallows upon the researcher's return...

Facebook and More Network Economics

Posted on June 09, 2009
After years of protests, I finally joined Facebook last week. Much to my surprise, I'm really digging it. I realize that I'm the last person on the planet to figure out how great Facebook is (except my wife, who is still a holdout), but that's kind of the point of this post...

The Chrysler Bailout: Who Wins with Failure?

Posted on June 09, 2009
David Zaring offers up his as-always savvy analysis on the Supreme Court's grant of a stay in the Chrysler bailout. Here are some quick thoughts: Fiat can pull out if the deal is not wrapped up by June 15. Would Fiat pull out? It's unclear what has changed...

If they asked me, I could write a book...

Posted on June 09, 2009
Check out the NYT article on Judge Urbina's unusual alternative sanction: the offender must write a book about his experience: Call him the homework judge, not the hanging judge. On Monday, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, sentenced a former senior pharmaceutical executive to write a book...

Our Inquisitorial History

Posted on June 09, 2009
My previous post provided a (cursory) glance at broad changes in legal procedure that came about in response to fundamental changes in epistemology. In this post I want to narrow my focus to transformations that have taken place within the United States...

Cord Blood Banking: Worth It?

Posted on June 08, 2009
As I indicated in Eduardo's post the other day about paternity leave, I'm thrilled and a bit nervous about the prospect of becoming a dad later this summer--blogging has thus fallen a bit as I try to take care of a number of loose ends both in and outside my professional life, e...

Sentencing Judges, Explain Yourselves

Posted on June 08, 2009
It's always interesting to see a topic one is writing about show up in the advance sheets. (I suppose "interesting" isn't quite the right word for it when a new case requires a massive rewrite -- as happened to me when the Supreme Court decided Blakely v...

How Do You Write and Publish an Op-Ed?

Posted on June 08, 2009
One thing it seems that a good number of law prawfs do from time to time is to write op-ed pieces for newspapers. I've tried to do this a number of times. My attempts have always failed. Generally, some issue comes up that I think I could say something about, so I write 700 words about it and email it to the editors of some newspapers and then nothing at all happens...

Chaim Saiman (Villanova) on Caperton

Posted on June 08, 2009
In, Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal, (released Monday, June 8) the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a West Virginia judge violated the Due Process Clause by not recusing himself from a case in which one of the parties spent $3 million towards the judge?s election campaign...

Just in Case You're Collecting Fact Patterns for Next Year's Exams . . .

Posted on June 08, 2009
Here in Colorado, the Boulder Daily Camera reports a new wrinkle on the meaning of nuisance that provides potential fodder for next year's tort and property exams. A local affordable housing program has warned two tenants that they need to reconsider their penchant for outdoor gardening while clad only in thongs (and, in the woman's case, pasties)...

Pure Social Norms and the Seinfeldian In-town Courtesy Call

Posted on June 08, 2009
The funny thing about the cliché ?it?s funny because it?s true? is that it?s true. Take, for example, the TV show Seinfeld. I was never a huge fan, but what seemed to give the show such broad appeal was that it identified so many quirks of human behavior that persist as strong social norms despite their apparent irrationality (thus setting up the next generation of humor in Curb Your Enthusiasm, where Larry David created oodles of awkward-tainment by openly violating those norms)...

Federalism and Abortion

Posted on June 08, 2009
Today?s Washington Post includes a depressing article for those of us who are pro-choice. The article documents how the abortion fight has moved to the state level, and details some of the means by which anti-abortion groups are chipping away at a woman?s right to choose...

Chaim Saiman (guest post) on Caperton

Posted on June 08, 2009
In, Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal, (released Monday, June 8) the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a West Virginia judge violated the Due Process Clause by not recusing himself from a case in which one of the parties spent $3 million towards the judge?s election campaign...

AALS Happy Hour with the Conglomerate & Workplace Prof Blog

Posted on June 06, 2009
Fresh off the Law & Society festivities comes another happy hour opportunity for those of you in Long Beach next week for the AALS Mid-Year Meeting or otherwise: Mai Tai Bar Long Beach, Wednesday, June 10, at 8:15 Here are walking directions from the Westin...

Baseball Stories in Search of a Good Legal Analogy

Posted on June 05, 2009
There?s a Supreme Court confirmation hearing on the way and that probably means we?ll be hearing some more baseball analogies. At Chief Justice Roberts? hearing four years ago, we heard him compare judges to umpires calling balls and strikes as they see them...

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