10 July 2014

So what happens when a superstar gets selected for jury duty in New York? Find out here.

08 July 2014

SZ: "Fünf ältere Herren gegen das liberale Amerika"

The SZ recently had a piece with the catchy title above. Their take concerned a recent Supreme Court decision that some claim is anti-woman. Students of American Law should give it a quick look. It's in German!

07 July 2014

The always informative Constitution Center website has a fascinating post asking the question of whether it is too hard to amend the U.S. Constitution. For a review of what is necessary to make changes to the constitution, I encourage you to check out the post.

03 July 2014

Can Congress Sue the President

Republicans in Congress are mad. They are mad at President Obama for, as they claim, failing to enforce the laws they have passed. They are so mad that they are threatening to sue the President. But can they do that? In class, as part of our discussion about the "cases and controversies" requirement found in Article III of the Constitution, I have basically told you that the answer is no. See what the experts think.

02 July 2014

Unanimity on the Supreme Court

As students of American law well know, at least those who have read U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the Court rarely speaks with one voice. Almost every opinion issued by the Court these days seems to have concurring and dissenting opinions attached to them. There is an interesting discussion going on among legal scholars in the U.S. about a new rash of unanimous rulings issued by the Court over the past few weeks. Some argue that this is a dawning of a new day, while others say that this unanimity is nothing more than window dressing (i.e. it is a mirage, it does not really exists). Follow the links above to get a taste of this very important discussion. Your ability to understand the discussion is one way to test whether you understand the importance of the rationale in a written court opinion.