Academic

No West Va. State Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette in Japan

Posted on March 27, 2009
The New York Times reports that a Japanese court has ruled that the Japanese Constitution does not protect teachers from compulsion to stand and face the national flag and sing Kimigayo, the national anthem, as part of the school day....

Lateral Hiring List Updated. And Links To Old Entry Hiring Lists To Boot!

Posted on March 26, 2009
We're sweating towards the finish line in hiring this year, and we've again updated the 2009 lateral move list here. Wondering what happened last year? That list is here. Suffering from serious procrastination? Set yourself up for minutes, or even...

Lupinus Texensis

Posted on March 26, 2009
The bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas. Probably the most popular species is the lupinus texensis. Blossoms are deep blue, and often hundreds or even thousands bloom next to each other to form a beautiful tapestry of color. This...

Advice I Wouldn't Give Most Law Students

Posted on March 26, 2009
The WSJ had an interesting essay by Nathan Koppel the other day about whether folks should hide from this dreadful economy by attending law school. The author's verdict: maybe. (And this suggests that - at the last minute - lots...

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R.B. Bernstein and Rush Limbaugh

Posted on March 26, 2009
Rush Limbaugh's been talking about R.B. Bernstein's biography of Jefferson. Here's R.B.'s response--now this is a mighty interesting story. I'd like to hear R.B. and Rush talk to one another--now that would would be real entertainment! In the meantime, we...

Rockefeller Drug Laws Repealed!

Posted on March 26, 2009
As of yesterday, the NYTimes has reported, the punitive Rockefeller Drug Laws have finally gotten the requisite votes to be repealed: The deal would repeal many of the mandatory minimum prison sentences now in place for lower-level drug felons, giving...

Disaster Law Reader: Call for Papers

Posted on March 26, 2009
Editors: Kathleen A. Bergin and Tracy L. McGaugh Hurricane Katrina was unlike any other weather disaster to hit the United States in the way it exposed deficiencies in federal, state, and local disaster planning and management. It was also unique...

John Hope Franklin (1915-2009)

Posted on March 25, 2009
It is with great sadness that I heard the news today that my hero John Hope Franklin has passed away. His life began in Jim Crow Oklahoma and stretched far and wide--to Harvard, the University of Chicago, Duke, and the...

The President's Schedule of Commencement Addresses

Posted on March 25, 2009
President Obama is scheduled to deliver commencement addresses at Arizona State, Notre Dame, and the U.S. Naval Academy. Guess which one has stirred up some protests. Story here.

Law Review Dreaming

Posted on March 25, 2009
After reading Tim Z's post, I just had to write my own - as a colleague dared me to share this (although to be precise, he dared me to write it in the form of a law review article rather...

"After Careful Consideration ..."

Posted on March 25, 2009
Many of us have submitted manuscripts to law journals this month. I?m looking for good homes for two articles. (Student editors, call me please! Yes, my titles refer to the dreaded and oft-loathed UCC Article 9, but that doesn?t necessarily...

Legal Scholarship Is Dead. And Richard Posner Is On The Case.

Posted on March 24, 2009
The Georgetown Law Journal's got a nice little debate in its most recent issue, with Pierre Schlag declaring that: "American legal scholarship today is dead?totally dead, deader than at any time in the past thirty years. It is more dead,...

Judicial Elections: Making Merit Matter

Posted on March 24, 2009
Texas is a state that elects its judges, so political affiliation and money can have a significant impact on the outcome. Wallace Jefferson (pictured), Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, recently said: "When a judge?s victory is based on...

The Latest on Thomas Ruffin

Posted on March 24, 2009
My colleagues Eric Muller and Sally Greene put together a wonderful symposium on North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Thomas Ruffin back in November 2007, "The Perils of Public Homage: Thomas Ruffin and State v. Mann in History and Memory." They...

NYU Launches Takeover of Harvard & Yale Law. Schools Seen As "Weak" Under Interim Leadership

Posted on March 24, 2009
In what is seen as the most significant law school news story in several generations, NYU Law School has unexpectedly launched a hostile takeover of Harvard and Yale Law Schools. For the first time in memory, both of these iconic...

Wolf Block About To Dissolve Partnership? Loss of Jobs, History

Posted on March 23, 2009
According to a breaking story in Philadelphia's Legal Intelligencer (subscription required), Wolf Block - or WolfBlock, if you take their PR seriously - is about to dissolve. If this story proves correct, and I can't say I'd be surprised, this...

Revisiting Schools' Pasts

Posted on March 23, 2009
The Organization of American Historians' annual convention (this year it's in Seattle) is now almost upon us. I'm really looking forward to the conference and to a round table discussion of revisiting universties' connections to slavery and Jim Crow there...

Congratulations to Kate Stith, new Acting Dean of Yale Law School!

Posted on March 23, 2009
As has been reported today in the NYTimes, current Yale Law School dean Harold Koh has been nominated as a legal adviser to the State Department. Taking his place as Acting Dean is the brilliant Kate Stith, criminal law professor...

Changing the Morning Commute?

Posted on March 23, 2009
This car may be just the thing I need to get to work: it doesn't go much above 40 mph, but, hey, there are no roads between my home and school where you're allowed to go above 45. Just in...

Ruthann Robson on Robert Tsai's Eloquence and Reason

Posted on March 23, 2009
Check out Ruthann Robson's review of Robert Tsai's Eloquence and Reason, over at Law and Politics Book Review. I've been working on an article that examines racialized metaphors in key First Amendment cases, so I'm looking forward to reading Tsai's...

South Texas College of Law Names New Dean

Posted on March 23, 2009
South Texas College of Law has named Donald J. Guter as its tenth dean (and president). He is a law professor at Duquesne and its former dean. Congrats, Professor Guter, on the appointment, and I look forward to being your...

University of Michigan Press' Shift to E-Books

Posted on March 23, 2009
My colleague Deborah Wieseman emailed me with this sobering news from Insidehigereducation.com: the University of Michigan Press is shifting to a model of primarily publishing its monographs electronically, rather than in print. This is huge news, I think, for a...

10 Things the IRS Won't Tell You

Posted on March 23, 2009
1. ? 2. ? 3. "Fear is often our best weapon." 4. ? 5. ? 6. ? 7. ? 8. ? 9. "We may be a government agency, but that doesn't mean your data's safe." 10. ? For the full...

Are You an Internet Addict?

Posted on March 21, 2009
To take my mind off the spring law review submission season, I've been reading "Born Digital" by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser - a very good book particularly if you're interested in cyberlaw and emerging cybernorms. One interesting factoid I...

Where Were You ...

Posted on March 21, 2009
... on this date in 1980? I'm guessing that most of us who are over 40 were witnesses to one of the most talked-about attempted murders in history. J.R. Ewing was shot. Story here.

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

Posted on March 21, 2009
Actually, the sky is NOT falling. But as Dan notes in his post immediately below this one, housing values are. One of the cover stories in this morning?s Houston Chronicle reports that residential housing prices have decreased or stagnated in...

Ouch! California Jobless Rate Hits 10.5%; Home Values Down 40% In One Year

Posted on March 20, 2009
The unemployment rate in the nation's largest state soared .4% in a month, hitting an excrutiating 10.5% for February. It's the highest jobless rate there since 1983, and the job loss in February was the steepest in 19 years. Coupled...

Licentious Gotham

Posted on March 20, 2009
This has been an absurdly busy spring, so I have written about new scholarship much less than I would have liked. But ... yesterday's mail brought a brilliant new book, Donna Dennis' Licentious Gotham: Erotic Publishing and Its Prosecution in...

Taxing the AIG Bonuses: A "bare congressional desire to harm a politically unpopular group"?

Posted on March 20, 2009
The House has passed a bill to impose a 90% tax on AIG bonuses. Of course, it's couched in more neutral terms, but that is its purpose and effect. Back in 1971, Congress enacted a bill to deprive hippies and...

Davison Douglas New Dean at William and Mary

Posted on March 20, 2009
It's my pleasure to announce that Davison Douglas, the Arthur B. Hanson Professor and a long-time faculty member at William and Mary (and also a very important legal historian!), is the new dean at William and Mary. Dave has taught...

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