What's on the Shelf?

18 ABA Journal What's on the Shelf? articles.

Want to understand the logic behind a Supreme Court opinion? Focus on footnotes, says professor

Numerous books have been written about the U.S. Supreme Court, including some by justices and former justices themselves. But a new book by Peter Charles Hoffer, a distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia, looks at historic rulings through a different lens in The Supreme Court Footnote: A Surprising History.

Jun 18, 2024 8:59 AM CDT

Retired D.C. Circuit judge talks about his memoir on navigating a legal career through blindness

Judge David Tatel retired late last year after nearly 30 years on the federal appeals court. In all that time, he never saw a single piece of paper nor an attorney arguing before him. Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice shares his journey.

Jun 11, 2024 8:35 AM CDT

‘Like Nike’s Slogan’: Veteran litigator has some advice about trying cases—‘just do it’

Daniel Small spoke to the ABA Journal about his latest book, Lessons Learned from a Life on Trial: Landmark Cases from a Veteran Litigator and What They Can Teach Trial Lawyers, which was published by ABA Publishing in February.

Jun 3, 2024 8:47 AM CDT

Law prof’s textbook stresses AI ethics

“All legal writing classes are a situation where students may be tempted to use these tools without really understanding them. It would be very easy for students to make the wrong decisions in terms of exercising judgment,” says April Dawson, author of Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity.

Jun 1, 2024 1:30 AM CDT

Lawyer writes children’s book based on her childhood in Nigeria

In March, Bunmi Emenanjo, an ethics and compliance lawyer, released her debut children’s book, I’ll See You in Ijebu. The book tells the story of a Catholic girl growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, who takes a trip to the rural town of Ijebu to celebrate Eid al-Adha with her Muslim extended family.

May 16, 2024 9:32 AM CDT

Lawyer’s true-crime book explores how he defended a neurodivergent client charged with murder

Updated: In 1997, in the small town of Ringgold in northwest Georgia, a reclusive man was accused of keeping his wife captive in his home and murdering her. A local politician-turned-defense attorney took on the case.

May 13, 2024 4:00 PM CDT

Lawyer’s new book traces today’s true-crime fascination to salacious 1800s murder trial

The case of Polly Bodine is the subject of Alex Hortis’ new book, The Witch of New York. But a whodunnit is only part of the story that Hortis, the associate university counsel at the University of Maryland Baltimore, sets out to tell. The book’s subtitle shares the rest: “The cursed birth of tabloid justice.”

May 2, 2024 2:16 PM CDT

More lawyers—and clients—want to learn about sustainable development practices

As many industries develop sustainable development practices, lawyers can play a role too. In a book released by ABA Publishing, Sustainability Essentials: A Leadership Guide for Lawyers, John Dernbach, with co-authors Irma Russell and Matthew Bogoshian, provide digestible how-to tips for proactively infusing a sustainable development framework into legal work.

Apr 1, 2024 1:20 AM CDT

Retired Justice Stephen Breyer discusses new book in interview with ABA Journal

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer makes his case in Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism, scheduled for release on Tuesday. After 40-plus years as a judge, Breyer’s book is a logical capstone. “For better or for worse, it might be helpful to put down my approach how I go about interpreting difficult phrases, the Constitution or statutes.”

Mar 25, 2024 8:23 AM CDT

‘There are obstacles, and it’s not you,’ says co-editor of collection of essays focused on female lawyers

In Her Story: The Resilient Woman Lawyer’s Guide to Conquering Obstacles, three women co-edited a compilation of first-person essays written by women sharing their thoughts, challenges and experiences in the legal field. One of the co-editors, a former president of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations, spoke with the ABA Journal.

Mar 8, 2024 1:39 PM CST

Needless complexity in the courts and 50 ways to reduce it

Just before stepping down as a judge on the Connecticut Superior Court, Thomas G. Moukawsher published The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It. Moukawsher admits his guide “gets pretty far down in the weeds.” But there’s good reason. It is the weeds, he says, “that are choking the litigation-centered humanity out of courts—with snarled complaints, tangled motion practice, choking discovery, smothering trials and stultifying legal rulings.”

Dec 1, 2023 1:10 AM CST

Long-lost trial transcript answers many questions about ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and baseball’s ‘Black Sox Scandal’

In Joe Jackson, Plaintiff, vs. Chicago American League Baseball Club, Defendant—Never-Before-Seen Trial Transcript, its editors promise that the unearthed testimony settles many persistent questions in baseball’s “who killed Kennedy.”

Oct 18, 2023 8:13 AM CDT

New book explores how qualified immunity protects police in brutality and wrongful death cases

High-profile cases like the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police have led to further growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, calls for defunding the police, police reform and greater police accountability. In her new book, Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable, Joanna Schwartz, a professor at the UCLA School of Law and an expert in qualified immunity, tells the stories of people who have been wrongly harmed or killed by police.

Oct 1, 2023 2:20 AM CDT

How collegiality can influence judicial decisions

When dissenting from an ideological foe, judges from federal courts of appeal use an estimated 8.3 fewer negative emotional words if the author of the majority opinion works in the same building. Apparently, it can be uncomfortable riding on an elevator with someone whose opinion you have called “plainly wrong.”

Aug 1, 2023 1:30 AM CDT

New book details Justice Antonin Scalia’s early life

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in office in 2016, remains a revered figure among conservatives for his pugnaciousness, quick wit and his commitment to deciding cases based on “textualist” readings of statutes and an “originalist” interpretation of the Constitution. But Scalia’s combativeness also was polarizing.

Jun 1, 2023 1:10 AM CDT

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