Legal Theory

Ken Starr, Drew Days Discuss Revealing Supreme Court Term

The Section of Litigation presented a high-powered U.S. Supreme Court wrap-up panel today featuring two former U.S. solictors general and a nationally known Stanford Law School professor providing commentary at its session “The Roberts Court—The Terrible Twos, or Childhood Bliss?” Panel members Kenneth W. Starr, solicitor general under George H.W.…

Aug 9, 2008 4:29 PM CDT

Second Amendment Opinion May Lack Firepower

Harvard Law School professor Mark Tushnet believes Justice Antonin Scalia’s recent majority opinion striking down a ban on handguns in the home was a compromise decision, crafted to appeal to a swing voter such as Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. As evidence of a compromise, Tushnet points to Scalia’s statement in…

Aug 8, 2008 11:18 PM CDT

New Motives May Save Ten Commandments Displays

After years of wrangling and a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court over the courthouse displays featuring the Ten Commandments, a federal judge has agreed to allow two Kentucky counties to argue how their motives for displaying the Commandments, while initially religious, are now purely secular. U.S. District Judge Jennifer…

Aug 8, 2008 1:53 PM CDT

Thelen Says Malpractice Plaintiff Waived Any Conflict, Seeks Unpaid Fees

Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner says in a response to a malpractice suit that the plaintiff waived any alleged conflicts of interest. The response also says the plaintiff or third parties contributed to alleged losses, and the suit was time-barred, the Recorder reports. The law firm has also counterclaimed…

Aug 4, 2008 3:15 PM CDT

Law Prof Wants to Make Animated Case Book for YouTube

An innovative law professor at California Western in San Diego wants to make an animated case book to help make the law more accessible. Professor and assistant dean James Cooper sketched his idea on Thursday at a comic book convention, the Daily Journal reports (sub. req.). “I’d take the top…

Jul 25, 2008 12:50 PM CDT

Website Lists 100 Best Law Blogs

There are lots of law blogs and many lists that try to sort out the best. The latest list has been put together by Criminal Justice Degrees Guide, a website with information on criminal justice degree programs. The editors there have compiled what they believe to be the 100 best…

Jul 2, 2008 2:29 PM CDT

Prof. Names ‘100 Most Creative Moments in American Law’

Calling on as many legal history teachers as he could, a Valparaiso University law school professor has come up with an intriguing list of the “100 Most Creative Moments in American Law.” In 2005, Robert F. Blomquist sent letters to some 426 American professors who noted that they teach legal…

May 23, 2008 6:58 PM CDT

Backdating Derivative Suit Names Wilson Sonsini

A derivative suit that targets Brocade Communications for backdating includes the company’s law firm as a defendant. The suit claims Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati committed legal malpractice by giving its approval to backdated stock options, the Recorder reports. The suit also claims the law firm gave bad advice on…

May 2, 2008 12:35 PM CDT

What a Law Firm Quarterly Earnings Report Would Say

Although law firms in the U.S. aren’t currently allowed to sell shares to non-attorney investors, American partners are keeping a close eye on the growing number of foreign competitors that do. (Australia presently allows law firms to go public, and the United Kingdom is poised to follow in Australia’s footsteps.)…

Apr 23, 2008 3:50 PM CDT

U.S. a World Incarceration Leader

With just 5 percent of the world’s population, criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations are “mystified and appalled” that the United States has nearly a quarter of its prisoners. Bad-check writers and drug use wouldn’t necessarily get jail time in other countries, but they do in the U.S.…

Apr 23, 2008 10:13 AM CDT

Law Profs Propose New Federal Court for Gitmo Detainees

As the countdown continues toward controversial military trials starting next month for terrorism suspects being detained by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, two prominent law professors at major universities are proposing another approach to the problem of providing a fair tribunal yet at the same time protecting national security. In…

Apr 9, 2008 6:12 PM CDT

CBS Legal Analyst Sees Masterful Writing in ‘Wonderland’ Torture Memo

CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen has one good thing—and only one good thing—to say about John Yoo’s so-called “torture” memo: At least the Justice Department attorney was persuasive. The recently declassified memo authorized harsh interrogation techniques by military investigators questioning al-Qaida suspects, leading critics to contend the 2003 document created…

Apr 3, 2008 2:59 PM CDT

Lawyer Writes Christian Guide to Legal Issues, Advises Against Revenge

Christian lawyer Stephen Bloom has written a new book that advises litigants to “rise above the mindset of greed and revenge so prevalent in the law.” The new book is The Believer’s Guide to Legal Issues, Legal Blog Watch reports. Bloom, a lawyer from Carlisle, Penn., says too many people…

Apr 1, 2008 12:27 PM CDT

Justice Thomas Illustrates His Constitutional Philosophy With a Coat Hanger

Justice Clarence Thomas doesn’t believe it’s his job to compensate for years of misinterpretation by reinterpreting the Constitution in a distorted way. He illustrated with a coat hanger in an interview with two former Justice Department officials who wrote a commentary for the Wall Street Journal. Thomas bent the coat…

Mar 24, 2008 12:36 PM CDT

After Serving 20 Years, Man Faces Murder Charge in Same 1966 Case

After spending about 20 years in prison for shooting a Philadelphia police officer responding to a break-in call in 1966, William Barnes seemingly had paid his debt to society. But the 71-year-old was rearrested last year and charged with murder after the officer, Walter Barclay, died of a urinary tract…

Feb 28, 2008 4:32 PM CST