Legal Theory

Ginsburg Doesn’t Understand ‘Brouhaha’ About Foreign Law References

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she is baffled by the controversy surrounding some justices’ reference to foreign law in their U.S. Supreme Court decisions. “I frankly don’t understand all the brouhaha lately from Congress and even from some of my colleagues about referring to foreign law,” Ginsburg said. She spoke…

Apr 13, 2009 11:23 AM CDT

Apartheid Claims Against U.S. Cos Go Forward, But Narrowed

A long-running case testing whether multinational companies should be held liable for human rights abuses under South Africa’s apartheid regime gained momentum Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin of Manhattan allowed some claims under the Alien Tort Claims Act of aiding and abetting the apartheid government to proceed against companies…

Apr 9, 2009 11:37 AM CDT

Judge: Sperm Bank Can Be Sued for Product Liability

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled in a novel case that a sperm bank may be sued under product liability laws for failing to detect that a sperm donor had a genetic defect. The Legal Intelligencer, in an article posted today, reports that Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas N.…

Apr 2, 2009 2:58 PM CDT

Law Prof Examines Freedom and Obama’s Appeal in New Book

In Barack Obama’s 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention, the junior Illinois senator offered a vision of community and service that fascinated the Duke law professor who heard it. In that speech, Obama said hardships experienced by others—such as the grandmother who can’t pay for prescriptions or the high…

Mar 19, 2009 2:01 PM CDT

Progressive Originalism: ‘Way More Liberal Than Conservative’

After a summer in which gun violence in Chicago claimed more American lives last year than the war in Iraq, the National Rifle Association has gained an unlikely ally in its effort to overturn firearms ownership restrictions in Chicago and nearby Oak Park, Ill. The Constitutional Accountability Center, described by…

Mar 16, 2009 9:01 PM CDT

Big Bank Files Mortgage Racketeering Suit Against Individual Borrowers

A major international bank has filed an unusual federal civil racketeering lawsuit in Seattle against a mortgage broker, an escrow agent–and 10 couples. It contends that they conspired to defraud ING Bank of $6 million by falsifying mortgage applications, reports the Seattle Times. However, the couples say that they, too,…

Mar 16, 2009 7:11 PM CDT

Mutual Fund Case Highlights Posner and Easterbrook ‘Judicial Fisticuffs’

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to grant cert in a case challenging mutual fund fees highlights “judicial fisticuffs” between two law-and-economics judges, Frank Easterbrook and Richard Posner, according to a law professor. William Birdthistle, a Chicago-Kent law professor, points out that the federal appeals court decision curtailing suits by mutual…

Mar 11, 2009 4:38 PM CDT

Left Turn Permitted

Move over Federalist Society members. There’s a new kid in town.

Mar 2, 2009 4:10 AM CST

Posner Writes Book Questioning His Free-Market Views, and Keeps on Writing

Judge Richard Posner has written a new book questioning his own free-market views, but he’s finding it difficult to let go of the project. Posner, a judge with the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, originally finished the manuscript Jan. 30, The Boston Globe’s Brainiac blog reports. But he…

Feb 26, 2009 4:15 PM CST

Mukasey Delayed Report Criticizing Authors of Torture Memos

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey delayed a report last fall by the Justice Department’s ethics unit that criticizes three lawyers who wrote the so-called torture memos approving harsh interrogation tactics for terrorism suspects. The report by the Office of Professional Responsibility “sharply criticizes” three former Justice Department officials, according to…

Feb 17, 2009 12:14 PM CST

Identical Twin Escapes Gallows in Real-Life Prisoner’s Dilemma

In a rare real-life, high-stakes demonstration of the prisoner’s dilemma—two suspects can both escape consequences, but only by trusting each other not to snitch to authorities—a judge in Malaysia has freed a man facing the gallows in a drug-trafficking case. That’s because, due to a police error, no one but…

Feb 9, 2009 8:20 PM CST

Justices with Power or Ideological Mission Less Likely to Retire

There are two kinds of U.S. Supreme Court justices who are less likely to retire: those who have power, and those who don’t have it but retain a strong sense of ideological mission. That’s the conclusion of two Santa Clara University political science professors, Terri Peretti and Alan Rozzi, the…

Feb 3, 2009 3:23 PM CST

Prosecutor Investigating Archdiocese Is Known for Novel Legal Ideas

The prosecutor investigating the Los Angeles archdiocese for its response to pedophile priests is known for his creative use of legal theories. U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien has pursued cases that might never have been brought in other jurisdictions and used theories that some criticize as overly aggressive, the Los Angeles…

Jan 30, 2009 6:20 PM CST

Honest Services Theory Used in Priest Abuse Cover-up Probe

A U.S. attorney is applying a criminal statute in a novel way as part of a grand jury investigation into the Los Angeles archdiocese and its response to pedophile priests, according to a newspaper report. The theory is that a cover-up of priest abuse by church leaders, if proven, violates…

Jan 29, 2009 11:57 AM CST

A Judge and His Son Undermine Arguments for Higher Judicial Pay

A high-profile federal appeals judge and his son are undermining calls for higher pay for federal judges. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has said federal judges are so underpaid that the problem has “reached the level of a constitutional crisis.” But Eric Posner and his father, appeals judge Richard…

Jan 20, 2009 5:05 PM CST