The Shark

justice thomas loosens the tie at a law school event.

[cynthia]

Sharon Nichols, a blogger and law student from Alabama, posted an interesting recap today of SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas's appearance at her school. 

Justice Thomas played the question and answer game with law students, resulting in some pretty casual, conversational comments that almost verge on blase. Some excerpts below, but check out the full post at Thank You Ma'am to read more (including what happened when Sharon asked how a law school-trained individual can actually come down on side or another in a close argument).

"First year [of law school] was clear as cement!"

"You'd think I was in a concentration camp or something and I had to find a way to fill my time -- law school."

"I don't like excerpts because people have agendas when they excerpt cases."

sheriff cites fake law, blames cornell law website.

[dennis]

An Arizona sheriff faces criticism after citing a nonexistent law to bolster his claim that he can continue to arrest undocumented immigrants during controversial crime sweeps even without a special agreement with ICE.

The Wall Street Journal has covered the story of Sheriff Joe extensively:

Those who follow immigration policy in this country certainly know about Sheriff Joe.

Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County which includes Phoenix, has forged a reputation for being perhaps second only to Lou Dobbs in his zeal for staunching illegal immigration.

In light of a new offensive by Homeland Security, Arpaio’s deputies no longer have the authority the randomly check the immigration status of people. Yet, the sheriff recently announced that his deputies will continue to round up illegal immigrants in the streets.

AzCentral.com reports that Arpaio’s staff alleged that the citation came from Cornell’s website:

The Arpaio document cites a provision of Title 8 of the federal code followed by language that says "state and local law-enforcement officials have the general power to investigate and arrest violators of federal immigration statutes without prior INS knowledge or approval, as long as they are authorized to do so by state law."

The sheriff's claim seems odd until one realizes how extensive Cornell's law website is. 

what do americans know about their justice system? short answer: not much.

[patrick]

Nine years after the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the counting of ballots in Florida, its decision in Bush v. Gore appears to have had lasting effect on how the public views the justices.

A poll from C-SPAN asked voters whether the ruling affected their view of the Court. A substantial minority, 29%, said that the ruling did. And not surprisingly, those who said so saw the ruling as incorrect, as a sham or as an area the justices should have avoided altogether.

(...or was it (d) "all of the above"?)

Even less surprisingly, only 52% of Americans polled knew that there is no constitutional requirement that the chief justice be a lawyer, 37% knew how many female justices have graced the Court (three), and 39% knew the correct number of African American justices in the Court's history (two).

Seems disappointing for the leaders of the free world, but I wonder - would third year law students fare any better?

Ed. Note: Well, 3Ls, do you?

rivalry could be healthy for chapman and irvine law schools.

[julie anne]

When the UC Irvine School of Law first opened its doors in August, and perhaps even before, some were speculating that the presence of another Orange County, Calif., school — a public school no less — would put a stop to the private Chapman University School of Law's plans to make it to the Valhalla of law schools: the U.S. News and World Report's Tier 1. 

But after Thursday night's "Battle of the Law School Deans" — a debate between Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of Irvine and Dean John Eastman of Chapman — I don't believe that a neighborhood rival is such a bad thing for Chapman or Irvine, which also has its sights set on a top spot.

obama and yoo: freedom within a school.

[patrick]

Today, the President of the United States will brainwash a group of vulnerable young school children and under the guise of a "stay in school speech." 

By this time tomorrow, we'll be well on our way over the slippery slope to socialism.

If you think that's absurd, it's likely because you realize that the content of the President's speech are distinguishable from politics, and that people should be able to get behind some messages (like "stay in school") regardless of party affiliation.  

The same principles apply to the teaching of John Yoo, the now-infamous author of the so-called torture memos, and a current professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. If you feel the rabid response to the President's speech is unwarranted, and yet you feel Yoo shouldn't teach at Berkeley Law, consider whether you can reconcile your views.

yoo protesters arrested after entering classroom and refusing to leave.

[cynthia]

The four prostesters who were arrested on Berkeley's law campus yesterday were detained inside Professor Yoo's classroom, according to an email sent out to students regarding the situation this morning. The protesters had entered Yoo's Civil Procedure II class in a loud enough way to disturb all the surrounding classrooms, and had refused to leave after UC Police entered the fray.

Berkeley Law students received an email this morning, alerting them that the school will be working with UC Police in the coming days to develop a "strategy" to deal with the protesters, who vowed to return as long as Yoo is employed

The full email can be found after the jump.

yoo protestors arrested in berkeley.

[cynthia]

The Associated Press is reporting that four individuals were arrested today at on campus protests against John Yoo's continuing employment at Berkeley Law.

The arrests were made outside of the law school, after protestors refused to leave the protest site.

The news of the arrests broke at 4:45pm this afternoon. Check back here for more info as I get it.

 

UPDATE: Protesters gained access to Yoo's classroom, refused to leave.

berkeley law prof john yoo visited by ghost of memos past

[julie anne]

While the justice department is still trying to figure what to do with John Yoo - the UC Berkeley law professor and former Bush administration lawyer who drafted memos that endorsed torture - "The Chaser's War on Everything" took a less veiled approach ... by donning hoods.

The Australian comedy show sent an actor to one of Yoo's law classes wearing a black robe and hood reminiscent of the hoods worn by prisoners in the Abu Ghraib scandal photos and videotaped Yoo's reaction to the hooded figure. 

John Yoo: Talk about, um, constitutionality. Any questions on how this works?

Hooded figure (standing on table with arms held out to his sides as in the Abu Ghraib photos): Actually, professor, I’ve got one question. Um, how long can I be required to stand here ’til it counts as torture?”

Yoo - who moves to end the class early - is made visibly uncomfortable by the presence of the figure. I imagine it was something like ol' Ebenzer Scrooge getting a visit from the ghost of Christmas past.

Unlike Scrooge, who was moved by images of his youthful folly, however, Yoo dismisses the actor and threatens to have him removed from the classroom.

The actor's response?

Hooded figure: OK. I’ll just go to the human rights class down the road, professor. I think you probably won’t be teaching there.

Watch the video here.

According to Wired's Threat Level blog, the prank took place at the Chapman University School of Law, where Yoo was a visiting professor this spring. According to Nuts & Boalts the incident took place at Berkeley.

Regardless of what school the taping took place at, the fact that the prank went down in a classroom has offended some students, like Berkeley law student and Nuts & Boalts blogger "Dan".

"It struck me as a heinous violation of the sanctity of a classroom and a hostile invasion of a place I consider home. It felt more like an attack than a joke. More than that, I felt bad for Y*o. I don't agree with his opinions on executive authority, but all he was trying to do that day was teach. I could sense his shame at being forced to end the course over something that had so little to do with his job at Boalt. It seemed like his sins were being visited upon his students, which strikes me as unfair no matter how terrible the sin. For lack of a more eloquent term, the whole thing just seemed gross."

I'm not sure I agree with the whole "sanctity of the classroom" bit. The classroom is where you should be free to give birth to muck: the still-gestating, half-formed bits of opinion that may or may not survive out in the "real world". (I know you're thinking it so I'll say it: It's kind of like a blog).

In the classroom, one should have those opinions confronted and attacked by forces inside and outside the classroom; whatever doesn't kill them, should makes them stronger. In the classroom, one should be exposed to ideas, both agreeable and disagreeable, with one's world view, which I think the hooded dude represented. 

Rather than call it an "attack" or even a "joke," to use an overused phrase in child development books, it could have been but was a wasted "teaching moment".

What do you think?

some law students say sotomayor ready to step into the big leagues.

[julie anne]

Even before Sonia Sotomayor stepped up to the plate for the beginning of the confirmation hearings yesterday, she had already hit the ball out of the park for some law students. And when it was her turn at bat during opening remarks, she even brought tears to the eyes of some.

News organizations interviewed students in Kentucky, Texas and Arkansas law schools to get their perspective on the "wise Latina" candidate, and most of the students interviewed thought Sotomayor was ready to step into the Big Leagues.

Unlike in the confirmation hearings so far, baseball analogies were strikingly absent from the student comments.

Here's a sampling of what students had to say:

• "The possibility of a Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court is a 'proud moment for Latinos' and proves that 'anything is possible.'" Mark Flores, a Mexican American who grew up in Texas who is heading into his third year as a law student at the University of Kentucky (Hispanic law students react to Sotomayor)
• "The fact that she grew up in a housing project in New York, that's not something that most justices on the supreme court have in their background. ... This is important to let people know that anybody can serve."Aimie Lockwood, a first-year student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. (UALR law students react to Sotomayor nomination)
• “On a scale from 1 to 10 I would say she scored a nine. She seemed very calm, and she had a great delivery. She's going to make a great Supreme Court justice.” Mike Zhang, Columbia University law student. (First day of hearings emotional for S.A. group)

1,000+ law profs vote yes on sotomayor.

[julie anne]

Turns out that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor - or "So So" as some talking heads have dubbed her - is better than just so so, at least in the eyes of some legal scholars.

Today, more than 1,000 legal brains from law schools across the country sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing their support for the confirmation of Judge Sotomayor to the highest court in the land, according to the SCOTUS Blog.

In the letter, Sotomayor is lauded for her work as a federal judge and certain soft factors she brings to the table, which are best summed up by UC Irvine School of Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky in an opinion published in the LA Times in May:

"Sotomayor has a life story unlike anyone who ever has sat on the Supreme Court. She will be a wonderful role model for girls, Latinos, those with lifelong serious illnesses and children being raised by families of modest means. She will bring all of this to the bench, and the Supreme Court will be much better off for it."

Other law deans and professors agreed. Here's a bit from the letter, which was signed by - in addition to Chemerinsky - professors and deans at the University of Berkeley School of Law, Yale Law School, Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School, among others.

"As a federal judge at both the trial and appellate levels, Judge Sotomayor has distinguished herself as a brilliant, careful, fair-minded jurist whose rulings exhibit unfailing adherence to the rule of law. Her opinions reflect careful attention to the facts of each case and a reading of the law that demonstrates fidelity to the text of statutes and the Constitution. She pays close attention to precedent and has proper respect for the role of courts and the other branches of government in our society.  She has not been reluctant to protect core constitutional values and has shown a commitment to providing equal justice for all who come before her.  

... Judge Sotomayor will bring to the Supreme Court an extraordinary personal story, academic
qualifications, remarkable professional accomplishments and much needed ethnic and gender diversity. We are confident that Judge Sotomayor’s intelligence, her character forged by her extraordinary background and experience, and her profound respect for the law and the craft of judging make her an exceptionally well-qualified nominee to the Supreme Court and we urge her speedy confirmation."

Read the letter in full at the SCOTUS Blog.