tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39677752011-04-21T12:37:58.873-06:00A Good OmanThoughts from Nate Oman, a law geek.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comBlogger1891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1078422948267258092004-03-04T10:55:00.000-07:002004-03-04T10:57:58.670-07:00THE END: I am no longer blogging here, however, I do have a new blog, Tutissima Cassis that I hope you will visit at:
www.tutissima.comThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1073591232121557842004-01-08T12:47:00.000-07:002004-01-08T12:48:26.013-07:00A WONDERFUL BLOG: I had vowed to do no blogging here until after January 21, but I have to put in a plug for this wonderful blog: www.pepysdiary.com. Some enterprising soul is putting Samuel Pepys entire diary online one entry at a time, as a blog. The discussion in the annotations is really quite good, and the diary itself is incredible, a literally day by day account of Restoration London The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1070467670010755212003-12-03T09:07:00.000-07:002003-12-03T09:09:32.250-07:00DAHLIA MISSES THE POINT: In her Slate article covering the oral arguments in Locke v. Davey, Ms. Lithwick misses the point. In her grand and deep summary of the issues presented in the case, she writes:There is a doctrinal tension built into the long tradition of walling off church from state, and also in the claim that this wall evinces no hostility toward the church. Of course chasing religionThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1069827802218173392003-11-25T23:23:00.000-07:002003-11-26T01:28:39.200-07:00A GOOD OMAN RETROSPECTIVE: In the tradition of blogosphere navel gazing, I am offering here a list of "best of a goodoman" posts. Also, I am probably not going to have any time to blog here in the near future, so I wanted to a good anchor post. Here is the list in no particular order:
Private Law and Basic Structures
Law Review Idiocy
Why I Hate "Capitalism"
Sacred Space and Liberal Space
The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1069536417821536472003-11-22T14:26:00.000-07:002003-11-22T14:27:25.640-07:00A BIRTHDAY: One year ago today, I made my first tenative steps into the blogosphere and launched this blog. I don't suppose that this will ever become a national holiday, but I just wanted to express my thanks to the Academy, my agent, my producer, and all of the other little people who have made this blog what it is...The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1069455675168950302003-11-21T16:01:00.000-07:002003-11-21T16:01:42.310-07:00TIMES AND SEASONS: I have joined a new group blog Times & Seasons. It is a group of Mormon bloggers who wanted to have a specifically Mormon themed blog. I will continue to post "law geek" stuff here, although I suspect that I am not going to have time to do a great deal of blogging in the near future. Alas...The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1069270396696677452003-11-19T12:33:00.000-07:002003-11-19T12:33:41.296-07:00INTERESTING: Check out Notes From An Iranian Girl, a interesting blog that I discovered today.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1069169961087722152003-11-18T08:39:00.000-07:002003-11-18T08:39:44.700-07:00WHY I LOVE ADVERTISING: Check out Squirell Tagging. Just do it. (Link thanks to Gordon Smith)The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1069125713262210132003-11-17T20:21:00.000-07:002003-11-17T20:22:16.466-07:00IS TITHING GENEROUS: Kaimi Wenger has a post arguing that Utah does not deserve its high rank on the generosity index because the index (which looks to itemized deduction on tax returns) counts tithing paid to the Mormon church as a gift. Wenger argues that the because tithing is a requirement for believing Mormons and there are strong social pressures in predominantly Mormon Utah for Mormons toThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1068826220586500222003-11-14T09:10:00.000-07:002003-11-14T09:13:29.216-07:00EUROPEANS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW: Since Lawrence came down the blogosphere has done a bit of kibitizing about the role of international law in American constitutional interpretation. For the latest contribution, check out Jacob Levy's column on the subject in TNR. I think that the basic gist of sentiment on this issue can be summed up this way: American lawyers and judges are highly skeptical The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1068483941034133432003-11-10T10:05:00.000-07:002003-11-10T10:05:38.843-07:00PRIVATE LAW AND BASIC STRUCTURES: Larry Solum's marathon blogging at the "Rawls and the Law" conference has put me in a bit of a Rawlsian mood. I offer the following question and musings: Are the basic rules of private law a part of the basic structure of society?
In both A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism, Rawls insists that his theories are meant to apply mainly to the basic The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1068240412047665942003-11-07T14:26:00.000-07:002003-11-07T14:27:05.946-07:00ESOTERIC TOPIC, GREAT SITE: For those visitors to this site interested in kalam and al-falasafa, check out www.muslimphilosophy.com. The site includes the full text in PDF format of a lot of classic texts on the subject. I studied Islamic philosophy a bit as an undergard and took a class on Islamic law at Harvard. It is worth remembering in a time when violent fundementalists grab most of our The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1067976589710516912003-11-04T13:09:00.000-07:002003-11-04T13:09:58.180-07:00A PROPOSED DEAL: I have an almost perfectly new copy of Philosophy and the Law of Torts edited by Gerald J. Postema and published by Cambridge University Press in 2001 as part of their Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Law series. I am willing to exchange this book with anyone who will give me a copy of The Theory of Contract Law edited by Peter Benson and published as part of the same series.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1067458157967707102003-10-29T13:09:00.000-07:002003-10-29T13:09:17.270-07:00MORMON LEGAL THOUGHT: BYU Law Review just published the articles from a conference held in fall of 2002 discussing "Latter-day Saint Perspectives on Legal Thought." All of the papers (save for some strange reason Steven D. Smith's) are available in PDF format here. The articles are of uneven quality, although I think that all of them are essentially professional and well executed. What anyone The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1066751667858135172003-10-21T09:54:00.000-06:002003-10-21T09:54:28.070-06:00TONY BLAIR AND WINSTON CHURCHILL: I ran across the following story yesterday. During World War II, Churchill and De Gaulle were having an argument about some dispute between De Gaulle and Eisenhower. Churchill told De Gaulle:
In our history Britain has always faced the choice between Europe and the open sea. When I am given that choice, I will always choose the open sea. If I am forced to The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1066333520255498092003-10-16T13:45:00.000-06:002003-10-16T13:45:19.886-06:00RELIEF: I passed the Virginia Bar! Hurray!The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1066315929105031722003-10-16T08:52:00.000-06:002003-10-16T08:54:54.896-06:00WHY I LOVE LIVING IN ARKANSAS: I recently got a subscription to my local paper, The Arkansas Democrat Gazette (motto: Whatever Wesley Clark is doing, no matter how trivial, is front page news), which I have been enjoying immensely. Consider this gem, for example. Today's editorial page contained a column complaining about press nitpicking of Clark. The author wrote (I am not making this up):
The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1066149416046753552003-10-14T10:36:00.000-06:002003-10-14T10:56:04.740-06:00A RESPONSE: A while ago, I posted a critique of a forthcoming article by David Hoffman and Kaimi Wenger. David was kind enough to respond to my meanderings. Here are his comments in full:I've read your recent blog-review of the article I co-authored with Kaimi Wenger, "Nullificatory Juries". I thought your comments were quite interesting (although I disagree, to be sure, regarding your The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1065801281835291992003-10-10T09:54:00.000-06:002003-10-14T09:59:46.860-06:00A DIALOGUE: All characters are fictional. Any resemblence with any real person living or dead is a matter of pure luck. Void where prohibited.
DISMALIS: What are you working on there Juris?
JURIS: I am trying to come up with a philosophical theory that justifies contract law.
DISMALIS: Psssggg! What a waste of time! Philosophers have been talking for two thousand years and have made The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1065720843169395442003-10-09T11:34:00.000-06:002003-10-09T11:35:17.880-06:00A PLEA FOR CONTRACTS HELP: As the devoted readers of this blog may know, I recently graduated from law school. Having gotten my juris doctorate, I've come rather quickly to the rather obvious realization that I don't know much of anything. Some day, I want to escape from the rigors of "real" employment and become a law professor. One of my main interests is contracts. This is where you come The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1065629311828619202003-10-08T10:08:00.000-06:002003-10-08T10:08:31.846-06:00WHY I AM NOT BUYING NULLIFICATORY JURIES: I just finished reading "Nullificatory Juries" (forthcoming from Wisc. L. Rev.) by my friend Kiami Wenger and David Hoffman. I am ultimately agnostic about the punitive damages debate at the heart of this article (I need to know something about the subject to have an opinion), but I have to admit that there were parts of this paper that bothered me. TheThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1065622388935653432003-10-08T08:13:00.000-06:002003-10-08T08:13:08.890-06:00WHAT DO LAW AND ECON THEORIES OF CONTRACT EXPLAIN?: I just finished reading Jody Kraus's article "The Methodological Commitments of Contemporary Contract Theory" in The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Legal Theory. (An earlier version of the paper is available via SSRN here.) Kraus makes a fairly persuasive argument that one of the things that separates economic and autonomy theorists of The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1065557270389119112003-10-07T14:07:00.000-06:002003-10-07T14:07:50.453-06:00LEITER CLAIMS IMMORTALITY: Read all about it here. Just skip to the end for Leiter's claims about Leiter.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1065046473308793112003-10-01T16:14:00.000-06:002003-10-01T16:14:33.260-06:00WE ARE ALL BEING RULED BY 16th CENTURY SPAINISH MONKS!: At least that seems to be the thesis of James Gordley, "Enforcing Promises," 82 Cal. L. Rev. 547 (1995), which I just finished reading. Gordley's historical thesis -- laid out in greater detail in his book I am told -- is that many of our basic concents in contract law were invented by a group of Spainish, late-scholastic philosophers and The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1064343201534246562003-09-23T12:53:00.000-06:002003-09-23T12:56:09.730-06:00SPAM IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS: The truth is out. Wearing 17th century style wigs while discussing modern legal issues does lead to misunderstandings. Thomas Jefferson seems to have been right about the link between wigs ("judges ought not to look like mice smothered in oakum") and the quality of justice. During a recent debate in the House of Lords regarding anti-spamming legislation, one of The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1064253740665820582003-09-22T12:02:00.000-06:002003-09-22T12:07:00.373-06:00JUST LEAVE DAUBERT WHERE IT IS PLEASE: Brian Leiter has been obsessed of late with the Texas text book wars. However, I was surprised when he let loose recently againt Francis J. Beckwith, who has argued inter alia that creationism in the text books does not violate the Establisment Clause, McLean v. Arkansas notwithstanding. My surprise came because I know Francis J. Beckwith as one of the The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1064242446511729952003-09-22T08:54:00.000-06:002003-09-22T08:54:05.916-06:00FOR JIM: This post is for Jim, my brother-in-law, a recovering actor. Sound isn't everything, and I am looking forward to the DVD.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1063847534029519982003-09-17T19:12:00.000-06:002003-09-17T19:15:10.040-06:00COMMUNITIES AND EXPLOITATION: Actual, gainful employment has limited my blogging time, but I did want to throw out my two (or three) cents worth on a very interesting exchange between Jacob Levy and Russell Arben Fox. You can check out Russell's post here. It has links back to Levy's original collumn. The basic gist of the joust is that Levy argues that many arguments for policies based on theThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1062685553342913072003-09-04T08:25:00.000-06:002003-09-04T08:25:53.326-06:00LEITER LOSES IT: The (apparently) sane Brian Leiter has gone off the deep end and accused Harvard Law School of -- I am not making this up -- "right wing political correctness." The comment comes in a post criticizing HLS for, among other things, left wing political correctness, and I can understand how the urge to fairness might lead one to a kind of "pox on both your houses" criticism. The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1062610652770090822003-09-03T11:37:00.000-06:002003-09-03T11:37:32.720-06:00IS THERE AN AWARD FOR THIS SORT OF THING?: I have come across the most incoherent thing that has ever been posted in response to my blog. Check it out here. Warning: the author seems to have an extreme aversion to complete sentences or coherent thoughts. But who am I to complain...The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1062168673417962762003-08-29T08:51:00.000-06:002003-08-29T08:51:58.660-06:00A POSTSCRIPT: What lawyer or law student doesn't think fondly of Hawkins v. McGee, 146 A. 641 (N.H. 1929), the famous "hairy hand case" in which a doctor was held to have breached a contract to provide his patient with "a perfect hand one hundred per cent good." The case achieved an even greater level of fame when it formed the subject for the opening scene of The Paper Chase.
At work today, The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1061061708604581902003-08-16T13:21:00.000-06:002003-08-16T13:21:48.600-06:00RESPONDING TO CHAD: Chad Flanders does me the honor of replying to my last post on Audi. He defends Audi by arguing that alienation need not be a “subjective” concept, pointing out as counter examples Marx's theory of labor or the possibility of being alienated from God or “the truth” without knowing it. I appreciate what Chad is saying, but ultimately I think that this defense is little more The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1061043224013640322003-08-16T08:13:00.000-06:002003-08-16T08:13:44.073-06:00MY OLD JOB WITHOUT THE SUBCITING: I have been asked by The Journal of Law and Religion to be a peer reviewer, which ought to be fun.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1060915905483364872003-08-14T20:51:00.000-06:002003-08-14T20:56:13.066-06:00AUDI'S ALIENATION: The side bar not withstanding, I am not really reading Audi anymore (I will fix it some time). I am actually reading David Ibbetson's A Historical Introduction to the Law of Obligations, which is quite fun if you want to be a contract law geek when you grow up. However, I would like to pick a bone with at least one argument that Audi makes.
One of the philosophical The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1060614077486948782003-08-11T09:01:00.000-06:002003-08-11T09:01:17.366-06:00HETERODOX MARRIAGES AND LEGAL PLURALISM: Gay marriage has cropped up of late as a topic in the blogosphere. It strikes me that there is an interesting historical parallell here that might be worth mentioning in passing. During the 19th century Mormon polygamists also faced the problem how to give some legal status to heterodox marriages. They came up with a somewhat interesting solution. The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1060303924395144522003-08-07T18:52:00.000-06:002003-08-07T18:52:04.383-06:00MORE ON RAND: Chad Flanders charitably (no Randian he) offers me "a few arguments, free of charge (and which I hope aren’t merely ways of falling back on the “Judeo-Christian” ethic that Nate cites in passing)." As he points out, my main objection to Rand below is more aesthetic than substantive. What bugs me about Rand is the plodding earnestness of it all as much as the (as Chad points out) The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1059113126701495542003-07-25T00:05:00.000-06:002003-07-25T00:05:26.693-06:00WHY I AM NOT A RANDIAN: Check out this article from Capitalism Magazine in which the author defends Martha Stewart from the attacks of the "Tall Poppy Syndrome" afflicted American media. The argument is that Martha is hated because she has succeeded. I share the article's skepticism about insider trading laws, and I am willing to be persuaded that Martha has been unfairly targetted. On the The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1059068559069642752003-07-24T11:42:00.000-06:002003-07-24T11:42:39.160-06:00MY FATHER IS FAMOUS: Check out this article in which my father (an art historian) holds forth on the history of Utah landscape painting. Interesting stuff!The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1058974925620680312003-07-23T09:42:00.000-06:002003-07-23T22:18:09.526-06:00DOES JUDGE KOZINSKI HAVE A HOMEPAGE?: There is a Kozinsky.com, although it is written in some Eastern European language (Romanian?) and doesn't seem to be run by the Judge. Facinatingly, however Eugene Volokh does provide a link to this recent article by the Judge. The article it turns out is posted on a URL calling itself server.kozinski.com, although a link directly to that site produces The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1058561684113763482003-07-18T14:54:00.000-06:002003-07-18T14:59:00.743-06:00SIMPLY THE BEST DEFENSE OF LAWRENCE YET: This paper by Randy Barnett is simply the best defense that I have read thus far of Lawrence. I am not sure that I buy Barnett's argument, and I am skeptical that the Court will follow through on the libertarian implications that Barnett draws out of Kennedy's decision. However, Barnett's analysis does have the virtue of charity in that it takes what The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1058466338022215042003-07-17T12:25:00.000-06:002003-07-17T12:25:38.023-06:00THE VIETNAM STORY: Speaking of the hold that particular narratives have (see "Evangelical Brights" infra), David over at OxBlog has this to say:
Yet in spite of . . . compelling alternatives, the WaPo decided to favor the least plausible explanation of Bush's falling numbers: the supposed quagmire in Iraq. It is precisely this sort of indefensible decision which highlights the lasting impact of The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1058375613876089422003-07-16T11:13:00.000-06:002003-07-16T11:13:33.893-06:00A BUSINESS PLAN: Check out the website tortfeasor.com. This is a business whose sole product, as near as I can tell, is a t-shirt emblazoned with the word "tortfeasor." According to Unlearned Hand, however, all of the "cool law students" are wearing them. I will have to take his word on this since, I was not a cool law student. Indeed, I don't think that I even knew any cool law students, if The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1058282001809578362003-07-15T09:13:00.000-06:002003-07-15T09:46:07.403-06:00EVANGELICAL BRIGHTS: Daniel Dennett (Tufts, Philosophy) has a rather breezy piece in the NYT calling for "Brights" -- essentially atheists and other philosophical naturalists -- to stand up, be counted, burnish their image, and make their political clout be felt. I mainly agree with Chad Flake who argues that:
For one, it seems silly on its face to form a political coalition around holding The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1058060326688217452003-07-12T19:38:00.000-06:002003-07-12T19:38:46.716-06:00BLOGGER INCOGNITA: I have a friend full of interesting things to say. He is finishing up a Ph.D in political philosophy from the University of Chicago and will be enrolling in Yale Law School (it isn't Harvard, but the architecture is nicer). He also has a blog on which he says interesting things. However, according to my friend, the blog is not ready to "go public," and he therefore doesn't The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1057704447733455232003-07-08T16:47:00.000-06:002003-07-08T16:47:27.850-06:00MORE ON COKE, TRADITION AND CUSTOM (Warning: Post for the Hard Core Law Geek): Gary O'Connor of Statutory Construction Zone fame offers the following criticism of my post on Sir Edward Coke and the Lawrence decision:
In responding, I presume that what Mr. Oman refers to as “the Cokian position” is actually a reflection of the idea of custom in the English common law. I also presume that when heThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1057693555602836632003-07-08T13:45:00.000-06:002003-07-08T13:53:00.040-06:00WORRYING ABOUT LEGITIMACY: Larry Solum has a post here about the concept of a "legitimate state interest," as used in Lawrence. Solum is essentially trying to sort out what Kennedy and Scalia are trying to do with the term in their opinions. He comes to the conclusion that the Court could be taking one of three approaches to the term:
--The Eclectic Option. The Court might not try to The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1057428669613549312003-07-05T12:11:00.000-06:002003-07-05T12:11:09.653-06:00EQUITY IS AS EQUITY DOES: In the spirit of my last post, I am feeling very medieval today. It turns out that in the Commonwealth of Virginia the distinction between law and equity remains alive and well. Thus, in learning procedure I get to learn not only law but also the mysteries of chancery. Law school -- of course -- creates the impression that all legal systems are built on the model of The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1057076379163446732003-07-01T10:19:00.000-06:002003-07-04T14:49:19.483-06:00LAWRENCE AND LORD COKE: The blogosphere has been churning out streams of commentary on Lawrence at an amazing rate. Since the substance of those opinions having been exhaustively analyzed by people with greater insight (and wit) than me, I will refrain (for now) from saying anything. However, I do find that discussion of history that swirls through the case fascinating.
The sodomy case The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1056945346485959342003-06-29T21:55:00.000-06:002003-06-30T07:30:52.820-06:00CONTRACTING AROUND YOUR FUTURE SELF OR IN PRAISE OF PENALTY CLAUSES: The always fun and interesting Sasha Volokh has a fascinating round up of the debates in the latest issue of Regulation regarding smoking and hyperbolic discounting. The best thing to do is simply read Sasha's post here. Here is the gist of the issue. You engage in some behavior -- smoking in this case -- that gives you The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1056859340871392632003-06-28T22:02:00.000-06:002003-06-28T22:06:35.470-06:00VIRGINIA HITS HARD: By and large we do not punish people for failure to pay their debts. For better (or for worse) debtors' prisons seem to be a thing of the past. We let jilted creditors attach property, but you are not going to be able to get a contempt citation or other punitive action against a deliquent debtor. The one major exception to this is child support, a form of debt that you willThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1056838065866432292003-06-28T16:07:00.000-06:002003-06-28T16:07:45.880-06:00CONTRACTS: Professor Gordon Smith has an interesting post here on the contract with American Debt Management. It turns out that ADM is "helping" debtors out of debt by asking them to take their available cash and pay it to ADM rather than to their creditors. Smith also has an interesting analysis of the mechanics and tactics of the ADM contract. Kudos to Smith (and others) for operating a The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1056131429563966692003-06-20T11:50:00.000-06:002003-06-20T11:50:29.560-06:00ENRON AND KLEPTOCRACY: I recently had an exchange with an acquaintance on the topic of “liberation.” I was a bit confused about what the term was supposed to refer to but given the context it seemed to have vaguely Marxist, Spirit of 1968 overtones. It turned out that I was right and further elaboration produced a list of evils: Big Government, Big Business, the CIA, Enron, American pressure onThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1055703243378632282003-06-15T12:54:00.000-06:002003-06-15T12:59:35.653-06:00WHIGGISH HISTORY?: Here is another thought on legal history. Generally speaking legal history, particularlly when told by modern lawyers, tends to be quite whiggish. Since Maine we have thought about progression from primative forms of law to more enlightened ones. Think of Maine's posited progression from fiction to equity to legislation or from status to contract. Certainly modern tort law The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-1055702681351711562003-06-15T12:44:00.000-06:002003-06-15T12:57:48.856-06:00HALACHA ON THE WEB: Check out www.jlaw.com, a website devoted to developments in Halacha (Jewish religious law) and Jewish issues and secular law. I am not Jewish, although my name is vaguely semetic sounding, so all through school teachers calling the roll have had a vaguely cressfallen look when they see my freckled face and red hair. However, I find Halacha (as well as Shar'ia) facinating The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-955696172003-06-11T18:16:00.000-06:002003-06-11T19:04:16.000-06:00MORE THOUGHTS ON LAW AND HISTORY: Lawrence Solum has a short response to my last post. Solum's beef is with what he percieves as the intellectual sloppiness of much of what passes as theorizing about causation among historians. Solum writes:
Historians toss off sweeping generalizations about the nature of historical causation--even though their methods have little to teach us about the causes The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-955259002003-06-10T17:15:00.000-06:002003-06-10T21:36:14.000-06:00SO THIS IS WHAT IT IS LIKE (OR CHEAP REALISM): A couple of weeks ago I gave my first ever paper at a "real" acedemic conference. My paper had to do with natural law and positivist arguments in the nineteenth century. It was a history rather than a law conference and the paper was moderately well recieved. At least no one booed. It was interesting to see what my respondent picked up on. In The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-955251502003-06-10T16:51:00.000-06:002003-06-10T16:51:21.843-06:00VENTURPRENEUR: Check out Professor D. Gordon Smith's new blog Venturpreneur. Smith (not to be confused with the Senator of the same name) is a law prof specializing in corporate stuff. The blog claims to focus on entrepreneurship, but as one of the celebrity endorsements notes, it has already veered into other topics. Still, given that so many blawgs tend to be relentlessly focused on issues The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-955249722003-06-10T16:45:00.000-06:002003-06-10T17:18:48.000-06:00A CHANGE: As you have no doubt already noticed, the tag line for this blog has changed. That's because last week I graduated from Harvard Law School and must thus lay aside the exhaulted title of law student. I remain, however, a student of the law.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-954665612003-06-09T09:06:00.000-06:002003-06-09T09:06:22.103-06:00BARNETT BLOGS!: Professor Randy Barnett of Boston University Law School joins the Volokh Conspiracy. Check out his first post here. Barnett is probably the leading libertarian legal philosopher writing in English today. He's a nice addition to the blogosphere.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-952009532003-06-02T12:06:00.000-06:002003-06-02T12:06:18.380-06:00ENRON AND WITTGENSTEIN: No time to comment now but check the Guardian's two part story on the subject here and here.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-951708622003-06-01T19:17:00.000-06:002003-06-02T08:39:08.000-06:00SOLUM'S TOP TEN: Check out the keeper of The Legal Theory Blog's list of the top ten books to read in jurisprudence here. I am happy to say that I own eight of the ten. Some day when I am richer, I will break down and buy Duncan Kennedy (or maybe I won't -- I have already waded through "Form and Substance in Private Law Adjudication" several times). I am also missing the one on Wittgenstein.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-951698602003-06-01T18:45:00.000-06:002003-06-02T08:40:30.000-06:00ROBERT AUDI AND THE SOURCES OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: This afternoon-- appropriately enough after coming home from church -- I read Robert Audi, "The Place of Religious Argument in a Free and Democratic Society," 30 San Diego L. Rev. 677 (1993). Audi's article is an intelligent contribution to the debates in political and legal theory about the proper role of religious arguments in political or The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-950565042003-05-29T17:57:00.000-06:002003-05-29T17:57:15.840-06:00A TRUE HIT: Apparently this site comes up as the second hit when you run the search "dumb Mormon" in some search engines. It looks as though the truth is finally out...The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-950562332003-05-29T17:48:00.000-06:002003-05-29T17:48:31.983-06:00THE MARKET FOR SHAR'IA: Check out this article on American lawyers working to produce Shar'ia compliant investment products for Islamic investors. Islamic law forbids speculation and the collection of interest. There are, however, ways of structuring transactions so that investors get a return without violating Shar'ia (or at least certain fiqh schools). It looks as though there is a The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-949981752003-05-28T11:53:00.000-06:002003-05-28T11:55:47.000-06:00A EUROPEAN DEATH PENALTY: Conventional wisdom has it that the American death penalty is virtually unique among developed countries, a barbaric relic that the United States shares only with such questionable states as Israel or Iran. In particular, liberal critiques of the American death penalty look wistfully to Western Europe where on this -- as on so many issues in the leftist American The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-945883972003-05-19T11:01:00.000-06:002003-05-26T19:52:08.000-06:00AN ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE STORY: The Cambridge Public Library is a wonderful old building. Constructed in 1889, it is a marvelous example of neo-Romanesque architecture built in red sandstone with arches, turrets, carved detailing in the stone, and a marvelous reading room with a high, hammer-beam ceiling. It is the reading room that presents the constitutional problem. One entire wall is taken The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-945173092003-05-17T18:58:00.000-06:002003-05-17T19:00:27.000-06:00BREAKING A QUORUM: Check out this story about Texas legislators making a run for the border in order to break quorum and stop a vote on Texas redistricting. (link from Russell Fox) Actually, the strategic breaking of quorums (and strong arm tactics to stop it) have a long history in American politics. Carl Sandberg tells the story of how as a young Whig legislator in the Illinois legislature, The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-944541552003-05-16T09:33:00.000-06:002003-05-16T09:33:40.630-06:00C'EST FINIS: I have finished my final law school exam. Paper work willing, I will be getting my juris doctorate in a week or two. It is a bit frightening to think that I am actually finished with law school. I don't know anything yet!The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-942143782003-05-12T11:39:00.000-06:002003-05-16T09:40:14.000-06:00THE DARTH VADER OF CFR: U.S. News & World Report runs a story this week about my former boss, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky). My favorite factoid from the story comes from McConnell's first Senate campaign. "In 1984, he rallied from 44 points down to beat two-term Sen. Walter Huddleston." Think for a minute about the skill and toughness implied in that statement.
A fact not included in the The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-942077162003-05-12T09:34:00.000-06:002003-05-12T09:39:17.000-06:00IN DEFENSE OF THE BLUEBOOK: Jacob Levy of the Volokh Conspiracy takes a cheap shot at the Bluebook, writing:
The blue-book format seems to me to assume that no one's going to have any interest in tracking sources down who's not an immediate contemporary. My lawprof friends should know that, if you write something of enduring significance and publish it in a standard law review, future The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-940755512003-05-09T15:51:00.000-06:002003-05-09T15:51:31.380-06:00BERNSTIEN IN THE BLOGOSPHERE!: Professor David Bernstein of George Mason Law School has finally broken down and started a blog. David is an expert on scientific evidence and all things having to do with Lochner v. New York. You can get some idea of David's interests by checking out the 17 papers that he has uploaded to SSRN. According to Brian Lieter, David also has the distinction of being The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-939953672003-05-08T09:36:00.000-06:002003-05-09T14:04:14.000-06:00HABEAS RELIEF COMPLICATIONS: In theory, I have been studying for my Fed Courts class and this morning I reviewed the standards for habeas corpus relief for prisoners convicted in state court proceedings. The regime is a little complicated, but in essence it ought to be reducible to a simple conditional statement: If the prisoner shows such and such, then he is entitled to relief. This ought be The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-939877202003-05-08T07:11:00.000-06:002003-05-12T12:59:37.000-06:00BAD BALKIN HISTORY: Professor Balkin defends the French, pointing out that without the help of the "frogs" we would still be subjects of Her Majesty the Queen of England. Balkin's point is well taken, but he gets some of his details wrong. Balkin writes, "The Frenchies pulled our proverbial chestnuts out of the fire in 1778 when the Marquis de Lafayette arrived to whip our troops into shape . .The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-938863412003-05-06T15:31:00.000-06:002003-05-09T14:04:43.000-06:00WHEN WHAT TO MY WONDERING EYES SHOULD APPEAR, BUT...JANET RENO:
The Harvard Law Review recently took its annual photograph, which this year was to include all of the "law review babies." Just as we were taking the picture, Janet Reno arrived on the scene and was immediately facinated by my son. (An entirely understandable response.) One of the parents decided, "Hey, it's Janet Reno and she The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-938697022003-05-06T10:17:00.000-06:002003-05-06T10:21:24.000-06:00WHAT DO SORKIN AND LAW PROFS HAVE IN COMMON: At the outset I have to admit that I have never been able to sit through an entire episode of the West Wing. It seems like such a gratuitous exercise in bizarre Clinton nostalgia that I always find myself bored, furious, or nauseated about halfway through (mainly bored). Still, the HLS Democrats schedule events from time to time in which they all getThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-936070952003-05-01T12:03:00.000-06:002003-05-01T12:07:14.000-06:00CAMEO APPEARANCE: I made cameo apperance yesterday on the Legal Theory Blog. Solum plays out the full implications of a wholesale move to recess appointments, arguing that it could lead to a world of non-life tenured Article III judges serving for two year terms. The story begins with a new Supreme Court clerk asking Justice Thomas in 2035 "how it all started." It seems that the clerk is one The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-936045332003-05-01T11:13:00.000-06:002003-05-01T12:12:52.000-06:00DUMB IDEA OF THE DAY: Senator Chuck Schumer has a proposal to place the judicial nominations process in the hands of bipartisan commissions in each state. Barring evidence that a proposed nominee was "unfit for judicial service" both the President and the Senate would rubberstamp the candidate. There are problems with this proposal. First, unless the regime is entirely precatory it is flatly The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-932662002003-04-25T16:35:00.000-06:002003-04-25T20:22:51.000-06:00POLYGAMY IN THE BLOGOSPHERE: It seems that the law of plural marriage has popped up as a topic in the blogosophere just as I was finishing up my paper on the subject. Oh the lucky reading public! Eugene Volokh has a post here discussing an email from George Mason econ type. In addition, Clayton Cramer has a post here that Eugene Volokh responds to here.
First, as Cramer points out, Mormons The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-932626372003-04-25T15:16:00.000-06:002003-04-25T15:20:26.000-06:00DINI IS SAFE: Do you remember Professor Dini? He was the Texas Tech biology professor who refused to give a letter of recommendation for medical school to students who would not swear an oath (actually the words on his website were "truthfully and forthrightly affirm") that they believe in the evolutionary account of human origins. In response to student complaints, the Department of Justice The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-931953872003-04-24T13:46:00.000-06:002003-04-24T13:46:09.300-06:00HISTORY IS MADE: The world's definitive treatement of the natural law arguments in Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1878) (aka my 3L paper) is now complete. Actually it is the only treatment of the natural law arguments in Reynolds v. United States of which I am aware. It feels good to be done! (At least until I start revising it for law review submission.)The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-931191672003-04-23T10:12:00.000-06:002003-04-23T13:08:34.000-06:00UNLAWFUL COHABITATION: The Santorum comments on homosexuality have sparked some musing on the constitutional protection for polygamy, bigamy, incest, and other kinds of consensual sex by Eugene Volokh. I am not going to get into the details of this, but since he brings up the case of polygamy and since this is what my 3L paper is about, I just have to throw out a few thoughts.
First, most The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-931174652003-04-23T09:42:00.000-06:002003-04-23T09:50:41.000-06:00SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: The ever exciting Garrett Moritz has a post arguing for the end of inheritance. The gist of his argument is that there is no reason that some people should be advantaged by accident of birth with vast economic resources, so we ought to tax inheritances by 100 percent and reduce the income tax accordingly. Since I am likely to benefit from this proposal -- my folks The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-930555602003-04-22T10:54:00.000-06:002003-04-22T10:54:31.106-06:00CONFLICTING INTUITIONS: I have spent a lot of time with libertarians. In my conversations I have noticed two things: 1. libertarians tend to like public choice theory, especially of the Chicago-Buchannan variety; and, 2. libertarians tend to no like campaign finance reform. To the extent that you see public choice theory as justifying a minimalist state it is because it supposedly demonstrates The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-930168442003-04-21T19:35:00.000-06:002003-04-21T19:35:07.483-06:00FOX IS EVIL: Monica Lewinsky is hosting a new reality TV show even as I blog. Surely there is some deep ethical imperitive that is being violated here. If there is one thing that our recent impeachment adventures produced it was a national, bi-partisan, non-ideological concensus that the nation had had too much Monica. All I can say, is please, please, please make it stop...The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-929937042003-04-21T11:52:00.000-06:002003-04-21T19:47:04.000-06:00MORMON JUST WAR THEORY: Check out this excellent post on the subject from political philosophy professor Russell Fox, which I missed earlier. Fox provides an interesting commentary on President Hinkley's somewhat cryptic sermon from the last conference. I would add just one or two points. First, Russell picks up on Hinkley's critical discussion of the British Empire and muses on its possible The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-929842712003-04-21T08:49:00.000-06:002003-04-21T08:49:15.700-06:00WELL SOMEONE LIKED IT: My final link of the day to Lawrence Solum, I promise. He has a long post here on Michael Froomkin's recent Harvard Law Review article "Habermas @Discourse.Net: Toward a Critical Theory of Cyberspace." Solum lauds the article -- which basically argues that ICANN's procedures replicate a Habermasian ideal discourse situation -- as grand accomplishment that has changed the The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-929839592003-04-21T08:43:00.000-06:002003-04-21T19:52:53.000-06:00JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS, CONTINUED AND CONTINUED AND CONTINUED: Stephen Choi and Mitu Gulati have a fun idea for how to select nominees for the Supreme Court: Have a tournament. Professor Solum doesn't like the idea, and has a long (and worth reading) response here. Fun! Fun!
Solum's argument basically consists of a parade of horrible unintended consequences that will rain destruction upon the The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-929838122003-04-21T08:39:00.000-06:002003-04-21T10:32:36.000-06:00THE SAGA CONTINUES: The fall out from Jacob Levy's post on political theory v. political philosophy continues. In particular, Lawrence Solum reponds to your's truely's response in a lengthy post here. Professor Solum's post also contains a pretty good round up of the reactions to Levy's original post.
I add just one more point. Solum points out that within the current legal academy there The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-927415342003-04-16T16:30:00.000-06:002003-04-16T18:41:27.000-06:00LEGAL THEORY v. LEGAL PHILOSOPHY: Jacob Levy has a really cool post on the distinction between "political philosophy" and "political theory." According to Levy the gist of the distinction comes down to three factors: philosophers operate at a more general level of abstraction than theorists; philosophers get degrees from (and are hired by) philosophy departments while theorists get degrees from The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-927395552003-04-16T15:48:00.000-06:002003-04-16T15:48:40.343-06:00PROLIFIC: Check out the Univeristy of Chicago's list of Richard Posner's publications. Regardless of your view of law and economics, it is a some what awe inspiring example of sheer productivity...The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-924293342003-04-11T08:38:00.000-06:002003-04-11T08:38:04.483-06:00ANARCHY, FEUDING, AND JUDICIAL NOMINEES: Professor Solum, of The Legal Theory Blog has put up yet another post in his ongoing discussion of the judicial nominations process. Professor Solum's basic thesis throughout his posts has been that the judicial nominations process is in a bi-partisan downward spiral of obstruction, politicization, and retaliation. Let me conceed for the sake of a fun The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-923088282003-04-09T13:23:00.000-06:002003-04-09T13:26:43.000-06:00RESPONDING: Legal Guy has responded to my post below here. In his post he defends the R.A.V. case on the grounds that without prohibitions on content based restrictions on unprotected speech certain points of view will be squelched. My problem with this argument is that it ignores the fact that content based restrictions on protected speech with precisely the same viewpoint and content as the The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-922398232003-04-08T13:40:00.000-06:002003-04-08T13:41:47.000-06:00A CONTENT BASED RESTRICTION ON WHAT?: Legal Guy has a pretty good post on the Court's recent decision in Virginia v. Black, the cross burning case. He makes the reasonable point that the Court's holding is hard to square with its decision in R.A.V.. I would just offer two possible responses. The first is formalist. The law at issue in Black unlike the one at issue in R.A.V. was not a content The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-922246442003-04-08T09:06:00.000-06:002003-04-08T09:06:44.840-06:00SLIPPERY SLOPES: gTexts has good post here commenting on Eugene Volokh's recent article "Mechanisms of the Slippery Slope," which appeared in the most recent issue of the Harvard Law Review.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-921544252003-04-07T09:41:00.000-06:002003-04-07T09:41:33.763-06:00MORMONS ON WAR: Yesterday at the seminannual world general conference of the church, Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormon Church) expressed his thoughts on the war in Iraq and the church's position on war. (Check out the Salt Lake Tribune's story here. There was nothing earth shattering in the speech. President Hinckley expressed his The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-921522502003-04-07T09:02:00.000-06:002003-04-07T09:02:28.826-06:00A GENERATIONAL SHIFT: Check out this wonderful NYT piece on student protests of anti-war professors. (Thanks to Another 1L for the link).
There are some wonderful quotes by baby-boomer profs complaining about how the youth today just don't get out and protest like they (the profs) did in their youth. In other words, they are reprimanding the young for not following in their footsteps by The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-919820202003-04-04T07:10:00.000-07:002003-04-04T07:10:56.390-07:00A GOOD LAWYER: Who says that all lawyers are no damn good? It turns out that Jessica Lynch, the POW rescued by American special forces on Tuesday, was saved by a tip from an Iraqi lawyer. (Story here.) The man, whose wife worked at the hospital where Lynch was being held prisoner, provided the U.S. military with the information they needed to mount the operation. He did so over a period of The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-919337122003-04-03T13:13:00.000-07:002003-04-03T13:13:07.670-07:00THE STENCHING TIME: It is officially spring (although no one seems to have informed New England's weather of the fact), and Harvard is getting ready to host parents, alumni, and donors for commencement. How do I know? A single word:
Hydromulching.
Since the university is infested with ancient oaks with vast and spreading branches, the lawns are quickly transformed every year into The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-919331092003-04-03T13:02:00.000-07:002003-04-03T13:02:37.216-07:00OVER THE RIVER WE GO: Larry Summers just announced that Professor Elena Kagan will be the new dean of Harvard Law School. It looks like he has found an allie in his quest to move the Harvard Law School across the Charles and out of Cambridge.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967775.post-918473682003-04-02T08:25:00.000-07:002003-04-02T08:25:18.153-07:00A NEW LEGAL BLOG: Check out Legal Guy a new blog about legal(-ish) stuff. Scroll down the page a bit for the Michael Moore cartoon.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.com