Legal Commentary

Why Constitutional Conventions Aren't a Con

Posted on August 09, 2010
It is hard to pull out the serious arguments in this editorial from the N.Y. Times about a proposed constitutional convention in New York. From what I can tell, the main argument is that a convention will take years. But shouldn't constitutional design take a little while, if it is going to be done properly? I'm all for fixing state governments quickly...

Writing, Motherhood, and Guilt

Posted on August 08, 2010
It is that ugly time of the summer, when the gap between what you expected to get done and what you've actually gotten done is exposed. In my case, I have about 20-25 pages to write between now and the September 3rd deadline for the submission of drafts for the Bits Without Borders conference...

SEALS/AALS/LSA Round-tables: Can they migrate to the web here on Prawfs?

Posted on August 06, 2010
I don't know about you, but I find it's difficult to attend all the good panels going on at conferences such as SEALS, where there are simultaneous panels competing for one's attention, not to mention the temptations of the informal schmoozing, and yes, the surroundings...

Wait a Minute -- We Have Extremists Too!

Posted on August 06, 2010
It's late by Internet time, but I would like to comment on a recent post by Neil Buchanan on the Dorf on Law blog. Buchanan argues that "conservatives have gone off the rails by adopting extreme anti-government positions." He writes: "Few would doubt that there is a principled conservative position that falls well short of the Tea Partiers' 'Read the Constitution!' extremism...

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Recovery in the legal market? Some questions.

Posted on August 06, 2010
Last week, I ran into two Biglaw mid and senior-level associates. They were in good moods. Work is picking up at their respective firms, they said, and their summer classes for next year will be larger than this year, they bragged. One is a corporate associate, while the other is a litigator...

CEO Mark Hurd resigns from HP in the midst of sexual harrassment claim

Posted on August 06, 2010
Some of you may recall that Mark Hurd was HP's CEO during its pre-texting scandal and was credited with doing a good job of cleaning up the company's compliance program and strengthening its Board in the wake of that scandal. Well, it looks like he did a good job...

Some questions on Perry

Posted on August 05, 2010
I am still working my way through the district court opinion in Perry, the Prop 8 case--a 3-hour flight should allow me to finish it. Looking at some media and legal-blog coverage this morning, I would pose some questions (I may have more when I finish reading): 1) Dale Carpenter calls this a "maximalist decision" that raises the stakes, because the whole issue of SSM now is in the record going forward...

Vermeule on "The Living Constitution"

Posted on August 05, 2010
Adrian Vermeule has this review, in The New Republic, of two new books on constitutional interpretation: David Strauss's "The Living Constitution" and "Keeping Faith with the Constitution," by Pam Karlan, Chris Schroeder, and Goodwin Liu. From the first paragraph: Two new books lay out two different accounts of living constitutionalism: ?constitutional fidelity? in the first book, ?common-law constitutionalism? in the second...

When Good/Bad Opinions Happen to Impartial Judges

Posted on August 05, 2010
At the Mirror of Justice blog, Rick links to a follow-up op-ed by his colleague Gerard Bradley, questioning Judge Walker's impartiality in the Prop. 8 case. Bradley describes his view as not being that Judge Walker was biased on the grounds of his personal sexual relationships (as to which I am ignorant), but "lamenting that the question had not been frankly explored in a timely way...

Elena Kagan Confirmed

Posted on August 05, 2010
For those of you still partying down in Palm Beach, Elena Kagan was confirmed by the Senate to be our 112th Supreme Court Justice. The vote was 63-37, with one Democrat (Ben Nelson) voting against her and 5 Republicans (notably not including MA's Scott Brown) voting for her.

Do Conservatives Govern through Crime? Sometimes

Posted on August 04, 2010
Current European politics offers an interesting window into the relationship between party ideology and the attractions of governing through crime. As noted last month, Britain's Conservative led coalition government is in the midst of retrenching on the previous Labour government's embrace of tough on crime policies and politics...

Do Conservatives Govern through Crime? Sometimes

Posted on August 04, 2010
Current European politics offers an interesting window into the relationship between party ideology and the attractions of governing through crime. As noted last month, Britain's Conservative led coalition government is in the midst of retrenching on the previous Labour government's embrace of tough on crime policies and politics...

"ABA Committee Blasts 'U.S. News' for Rankings"

Posted on August 04, 2010
Inside Higher Ed reports: A special committee of the American Bar Association has issued a report criticizing the impact of U.S. News & World Report rankings on law schools. The report says that the magazine's methodology "tends to increase the costs of legal education for students" because colleges are rewarded for spending more, that the rankings "discourage the award of financial aid based upon need" because law schools are rewarded for enrolling more students with high LSAT scores and so will award merit aid, and that for similar reasons "the current methodology tends to reduce incentives to enhance the diversity...

Hiring Chairs 2010-2011: Please Announce Yourselves

Posted on August 04, 2010
N.B. This will get bumped to the front every now and then. It's that time again. I've been getting requests from some aspiring prawfs, so here's the post: law school hiring chairs for entry and lateral candidates, please announce yourselves in the comments and please feel free to share who's on the committee and whether the search is limited in a particular way (or not)...

Federal judge strikes down Prop 8

Posted on August 04, 2010
United States District Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of California struck down Proposition 8, the voter-enacted California ban on same-sex marriage, on both Due Process and Equal Protection grounds. The opinion is here. Reportedly, Prop 8 supporters are already planning to appeal to the Ninth Circuit (no surprise) and to request a stay pending appeal (which probably makes sense, lest thousands of same-sex couples get married, only to have the district court's judgment reversed and the ban reinstated, creating the problem of what to then do about these marriages).

Politics, Networks, Status, and Faculty Hiring

Posted on August 03, 2010
Brian Leiter has another item begging to retire what he thinks is the canard that conservatives face disadvantages in the legal academy. One part of his argument is that it is wrong on the numbers, or at least more complex than the usual trope suggests...

The dilution of tenure?

Posted on August 03, 2010
Paul Caron reports, here, on some "dramatic changes" -- including changes to rules involving tenure -- that were set to be discussed at the ABA Standards Review Committee's July 2010 meetings. His report provides an occasion, maybe, for taking a look atthis series of posts, in The New York Times, on tenure and academic freedom...

The Mosque at Ground Zero: Religious Freedom, saved by the usual lawlessness of land-use regulation

Posted on August 03, 2010
In a display of respect for the rule of law and general decency utterly atypical of land-use law, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously not to landmark the old Burlington Coat Factory building at 45 Park Place and thereby refrained from blocking the effort of the owner, Sharif El-Gamal, to demolish the building and erect a mosque in its place...

There's law . . . And there's life

Posted on August 02, 2010
I regularly criticize the portrayal of law and lawyers in popular culture. So when culture gets it right, I should acknowledge it. I give you Friday Night Lights, which had a great piece of law (and lawyers) in action last week. For those of you who do not watch one of the best shows on television: One of the season-long plots is that a student (at East Dillon), Becky, became pregnant by Luke, one of the East Dillon football players...

Something You Ought To Know if You Teach a Class that Sounds "Sexy"

Posted on August 02, 2010
If you teach a class like Mass Media Law, or Entertainment Law, or Sports Law that sounds "sexy" or "fun" to students, you owe it to the students and yourself to go in the first day of class and dramatically lower students' expectations before the class begins...

Reminder: SEALS Happy Hours Tonight and Tomorrow Night

Posted on August 01, 2010
Just a reminder that tonight we have a gathering planned at 9pm at the Back Bar at Nick and Johnnie's, right near the Breakers--it's about a 7 minute *walk.* They'll have drinks and, from what I understand, a *complimentary* gelato bar, so save room for dessert tonight...

Happy trails...

Posted on July 31, 2010
I have enjoyed this extended stay on Prawfs over the summer. Thank you for having me! A happy, healthy, and productive 2010-11 to all.

Signing Off & Thanks

Posted on July 31, 2010
This is my final day as a guest on Prawfs. Thanks to Dan Markel and everyone else at Prawfs for allowing my guest stint. Thanks to all of you who read my posts. If I can be informative or helpful to any of you in the future, feel free to contact me at krederj1@nku...

PrawfsPuzzler: Law Trivia Sudoku!

Posted on July 31, 2010
And now, the first prawfs-themed sudoku! Here's the deal, this sudoku puzzle is quite hard ... unless you correctly answer the questions below about the law. Answers fill in blanks, helping you solve the sudoku. If you get all the answers, solving the rest of the puzzle should be no problem...

Where do you write?

Posted on July 30, 2010
Before entering the academy, I had a job with heavy travel demands. The travel forced me to write documents in airports, on airplanes, in hotels, hotel lobbies, windowless conference rooms, in cabs, in parking lots, on trains, the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Ferry (too windy on top deck), coffee shops, and yes, even in a bar...

Final July 2010 Posting on Nazi-looted Art Trafficking

Posted on July 30, 2010
A document I recently saw for the first time really opened my eyes to the amount of trafficking in Nazi-looted art into U.S. museums. It was a report completed by art historian Laurie A. Stein that was mentioned in the final report of the Bergier Commission, an Independent Commission of Experts established by the Swiss Parliament to study the role of Switzerland in trafficking during World War II...

The New Realities of the Legal Academy...

Posted on July 30, 2010
For all aspiring prawfs (and those interested in their success), check out The New Realities of the Legal Academy, which Larry Solum has just put up on SSRN. The paper is the preface to a book I've read and enjoyed in manuscript, and recommend to students of mine interested in joining the legal academy...

Happy Hours this Coming Week at SEALS conference at the Breakers

Posted on July 29, 2010
I'm feeling particularly happy today. Benjamin just celebrated his first birthday this afternoon with a "smash cake." See the evidence in the photo. And speaking of smashing good times, tomorrow marks the onset of the wonderful SEALS conference. As Bodie put it the other day, the whole conference at SEALS is one delightful happy hour, but just to intensify the experience, I thought Prawfs should organize a little rendezvous on a couple nights...

Not Obvious to Me

Posted on July 29, 2010
Let me gently disagree with Eric's post below, which argues that "[o]ur system of justice is absurdly complex and time consuming," and that this is a problem that is generally unnoticed or unaddressed by the legal profession, including its academic arm...

FBI training mess

Posted on July 29, 2010
It never fails to amaze me when the government pushes organizational compliance programs on corporations, but then does a relatively poor job backing up its own compliance efforts. Last year, I reported on the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility, whose reporting suggested that OPR was more reactive than proactive, and seemed to intervene only in the worst of situations, thus setting itself up for compliance failure...

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