Unwelcome

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal law known as the Solomon Amendment, which withholds funds from colleges and universities that deny access to military recruiters, infringes on the free-speech rights of the schools. Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan issued a statement available here explaining that the school will now bar military recruiters.

In a legal sense, there are a couple things to note here. First, the ruling won't take effect for over 50 days, and the federal government will likely seek a stay of the mandate, followed by a review of the Supreme Court. So the ruling may never effect and Harvard won't be able to ban them for at least a while, if at all. Second, Harvard Law School has always had (including now) the right to ban military recruiters from campus. It's just that under the Solomon Amendment they have to forgo federal funding for doing so.

I would first like to thank Josh for his work managing Sapere aude and the contributions of all the site's writers, without which obviously the site would be nothing.

As a general goal, I would like to see Sapere aude grow in prominence within the IU community and among law students across the nation-- ambitious, I know. To this end, I solicit your unbridled advice and criticism at all times in regards to the site's management and content.

To begin with, what do you feel Sapere aude's strengths and weaknesses are, and what changes would you most like to see made?

Sapere Aude Update

Behind the scenes here at Sapere aude there's been a changing of the guard. Way back in August of 2003 I started this site with the intention of offering a forum for law school events and also intellectual pursuits on current legal issues. Over a year later I think we've largely achieved that, and continue to do so. The site's readership remains steady and strong, it's been featured in several local and even national publications, and it's still the go-to hub for the school's internet news and discussions.

But our time in law school is short, no matter how long it may seem during tough final studying. With that in mind I've handed over the reins here to the rising 1L star Lucas Sayre. Lucas is an accomplished writer and motivated blogger. He has a vision for taking sapere aude to a new level and I trust it will reach new heights under his leadership. I'll still write and blog here, just as I always have, but Lucas is now the top dawg. I'm sure he'd appreciate any advice and suggestions you have for the site's future, so feel free to drop him a line.

We've mentioned this before on these pages, but it's worth mentioning again. The future of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is under review.

I have an idea...

Give our law school a unique name! Simple to do? Yes. Necessary? I say yes.

The comments under the previous post uncovered a latent (and not so latent) difficulty with our law school's name. Currently we are named "Indiana University School of Law Indianapolis." How cumbersome to use in everyday conversation!

But attempt to simplify the name by referring to it as merely "Indiana" or "IU" and you'll get a response similar to, "Oh! So how do you like Bloomington?"

The best simplification seems to be "IU-Indy," but even then, as that mistaken Star headline shows, our institution is confused with IUPUI, from which we are academically separate.

So give us a unique name. Ohio State's law school has one; it's called the Moritz School of Law. And they don't even need a unique name, so maybe we could take there's. Okay, kidding about that last part.

But how nice would it be to see the signs above West St.: "IUPUI / IU Medical School / Tarr School of Law"?

I just filled in a name there in honor of our departing dean, but surely there are some cool names out there we could choose. Ideas?

Here's the Indianapolis Star article about Dean Tarr's resignation. Sadly, the article's title is wrong. It reads, "IUPUI law dean accepts Fiji post." However the "IUPUI law dean" is not leaving because no such position exists. Rather, the IU School of Law - Indianapolis law dean is leaving. A subtle but important distinction.

Dean Tarr Leaves IU-Indy

Pacific Magazine reports that law school dean Anthony A. Tarr has accepted a position with the University of the South Pacific (USP) as the school's next Vice-Chancellor. Tarr is currently executive dean and Professor of Law at Indiana University. In his short but significant tenure at IU-Indy, Dean Tarr has positively changed the face of the school in many ways, through new and improved faculty, beefed up academic programs, and a successful recruiting campaign for stellar students, among other things. I think I speak for the entire Indiana legal community in expressing gratitude for Tarr's contributions and best wishes as he moves on.

Update: Regarding the extensive discussion on whether it was propoer to link to this story, I should note a few things. First, the news story was reported over nine days ago on the very public Pacific Magazine. The story, over a week old, has been circulating extensively among the student body for a few days now. In essence, Sapere aude is only facilitating information already readily available. Finally, I specifically called the Dean's office upon receipt of the story; the office did not deny its validity but did not want to offer further comments at the time.

Proposed Amendments

Today I attended a lunch with the Indianapolis Law Club in the Columbia Club where former IU-Indy law professor William F. Harvey spoke on a number of topics. One in particular - electronic discovery - seemed interesting so I thought I'd make a short mini-series out of some of what he had to say. This will be the first of three or four posts spread out over several days.

The Federal Judicial Conference's Advisory Commiteees on Bankruptcy Rules, Civil Rules, Criminal Rules and Evidence Rules have proposed amendments to various rules and forms. The proposed schedule suggests that rules amendments would become effective on December 1, 2006. I'd like to highlight a few of the proposed changes. The first is Rule 26(b)(2)(C).

Under the proposed amendments to Rule 26(b)(2)(C), a party need not provide electronically stored information in response to a discovery request if the information is not reasonably accessible.

If the requesting party moves to compel discovery of such information, the responding party must demonstrate that the information is not reasonably accessible. If that showing is made, the court may still order the party to provide the information, if the requesting party shows good cause.

After good cause is shown, the court may - as with any discovery - impose conditions and terms on the discovery of electronically stored information that is not reasonably accessible.

Thoughts on this?

'The law and politics are indistinguishable. There is no difference, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.'

Posner
I was pondering a post about the possibility of Judge Posner ascending to the post of Supreme Court justice (the possibility is less than slim, by the way), when I saw that Paul Musgrave stole my thunder. So instead of write about it I'll just link to this fine post.

"Tales from the blogosphere"

This story is in today's Indianapolis Star, in the Indiana Living section. It quotes IU Law student and Sapere aude contributor, Josh Claybourn, and it quotes former IU Law student Lawren Mills, so check it out.

Thought for the Day
Remember, you're unique like everybody else.

Ashcroft says judges threaten national security by questioning Bush decisions

From the AP article:

WASHINGTON - Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.

In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called "a profoundly disturbing trend" among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.

"The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war," Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers' group.

No matter if one agrees with Ashcroft's politics, all of us aspiring to the legal profession should be abhorred by his notion that judges should turn a blind eye to their role of constitutional adjudication on these issues.

Speaking of Ethics...

Governor Kernan instituted tough ethical standards this past summer for Indiana's public employees. The new standards took effect July 1 and prohibit employees from accepting gifts or favors from companies doing business with the state.

27 year old Nicole Edgar, a program manager for the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, recently lost her job as a result of the restrictions and questions about gifts she allegedly accepted from friend and WFMS account manager Jill Potasnik.

The 2, seen in the Indystar article posing with country star Toby Keith, enjoyed a 4 day trip in October to a resort town in Cancun, Mexico. Edgar and WFMS insist that Potasnik charged expenses for the trip to her personal credit card and that the radio station had no intention of paying for any of it. ICJI executive director Robin Tew indicated Edgar, as a state worker, should not even have accepted the favor of the charges being put on Potasnik's credit card - whether or not she intended to pay the money back.

In addition, state records show promotional spending on WFMS more than tripled after Edgar began working for ICJI in March 2003. She also recently pitched an approx $400,000 proposal from WFMS involving a statewide safe driving campaign that would have consumed the remainder of ICJI's $1 million promotional budget. The project has been 'killed' and Edgar is under investigation by the state Ethics Commission.

Maybe if you tweaked some facts this could be a good fact pattern for an MPRE question in the future!

Think Ethical Thoughts

Good luck to all those taking the MPRE tomorrow!!!

Advice given to me by a local attorney before I took the exam in August:

• An attorney is not a bus
• Rat on your friends

Take all such advice with a grain of salt - and know those rules.

Congrats to those making Order of the Barristers

I know everyone had such a fun time with moot court these past few weeks. Believe me when I say that regardless of whether or not your made Order of the Barristers, you learned so much just by going through the experience. It is also something employers notice. If you see any of the following people give them a special congratulation for their achievement and a condolence that the experience is not over just yet ;-)

Kenneth Allsop, Chris Americanos, Jennie Beller, Matthew Besmer, Debra Brooks, Joshua Claybourn, Tonya Combs, Mark Conner, R.J. Corning, Gillian DePrez, Samantha DeWester, Matthew Dorsett, Lisa Gethers, Rachel Gilmour, Lynn Grunloh, Adrienne Henning, Karl Horlander, Brett Hoy, Lesley Kelsey, Lori Lampert, Michael Lang, Krysten Lester, Thomas Logan, Jon Mayes, Ryan Metzing, Sean Monkhouse, Michael Montagano, Susie Mroz, David Nguyen, Jaclyn Palos, Elizabeth Raynor, Joshua Renbarger, Stephen Rost, Steve Runyan, Seema Shah, Jessica Sperath, Rebecca St. Andre, Seth Thomas, Marilyn Tucker, Mary Wyman,
Todd Young

Scheduling for Classes

I am very sorry, but in all the excitement of the past few weeks I forgot to say anything about scheduling for classes. It is a bit late to recommend any strategies for you. I'll say this:

May you get into the classes that you want, and may OneStart work properly for all concerned.

The Bigger Picture

I like it when I see the faculty realize there are bigger things in life other than a classroom lecture, things bigger than ourselves, things that are true moments in history. My professor knew we were exhausted from Election Day. Many of us worked the polls, protected voter rights, or assisted the great election machine in other ways. He knew that we had stayed up late to watch the results come in, or not come in as the case ended up being again for the Presidential race. Senator Kerry’s concession speech was scheduled for around 1pm. To have a scheduled moment in history is a rare treat. To watch in person a concluding chapter in one of the tightest elections in history is one of those big moments that we as students should observe. He cancelled class so we could go downstairs to the TV in the lounge.

Unfortunately Senator Kerry postponed his speech to 2pm. Frustrated by the wasted nature of the professor’s gesture I resigned myself to attend the 2:10 class and miss history. However the second professor in my second class asked if we wanted to watch history. We put a laptop on the podium, put the streaming video on full screen, and shoved the podium microphone towards the laptop speakers. For ten minutes, we as a class watched something bigger than a lecture. We watched history being made. An hour later we watched President Bush give his victory speech via the miracle of high speed internet access.

This student body has been very supportive of their respective candidates. For the most part we have also been respectful of each other despite differences in political leanings. I am heartened by the fact that we seemed to handle the divisiveness of this election cycle far better than the general public and numerous politicians, despite the passions of our political hearts.

Both candidates had a theme in their respective speeches; a theme of unity despite our differences.

"But in an American election, there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning we all wake up as Americans. And that -- that is the greatest privilege and the most remarkable good fortune that can come to us on earth.

With that gift also comes obligation. We are required now to work together for the good of our country. In the days ahead, we must find common cause. We must join in common effort without remorse or recrimination, without anger or rancor. America is in need of unity and longing for a larger measure of compassion."
Senator John Kerry

"Reaching these goals will require the broad support of Americans. So today I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent: To make this nation stronger and better I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust. A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation. We have one country, one Constitution and one future that binds us."
President George W. Bush

I hope that we as a school take these words to heart. We have a special ability due to our education and experience. We are the vanguards of social change and attitude and we have the ability to set an example to the outside world. It is my dream that after this bitter contest that we lay down our arms and realize that we are Americans first, and affiliated with a political party second. I hope we can let out the emotions of the past few months, and then realize that what unites us is greater than what divides us. I hope you can share that dream with others.

The latest election results

Go see the excellent CNN.com Election Results page...

...or, my blog is also live-updating with election news throughout the day

ELECTION NIGHT PARTY - Be There or Be Disenfranchised!!!

8pm - 12am, RILEY TOWERS CONVENTION ROOM ... (detailed directions below)

$5, includes beer, super-special punch, other drinks, food, entertainment, helping people to vote, etc. (the betting pool is SEPARATE, if you participated in that.. and the deadline for those has been extended to tomorrow. If you don't know what this means, don't worry about it.)

BENEFITS the Voting Rights Campaign (which means that if you're not there you hate voting rights and you aren't a patriot)

Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, Green Party members, etc... all invited to come watch together as someone "wins" the "election"

DIRECTIONS TO RILEY TOWERS:
On Alabama Street (which runs n/s), Just north of its intersection with North Street. The towers are the two very tall (30 floors or so, you can't miss them) apartment buildings. The convention room is just north of the two towers, in the same building in which the office is located, on Alabama. There'll be balloons and such outside. Parking is available along the street, and we think you can park in a big parking lot directly across the street from the party, but we're not sure. We will know by tomorrow night though.

Last Minute Help

For tomorrow, if you need to know where you vote, please go here.
If you're unsure of the positions of the candidates, please go here. Put in your zip code and you should see ALL the candidates that will appear on your ballot including the local ones.

On a personal note while I know everyone has the right to vote, I feel it is our responsibility to be reasonably informed about the candidates. If you haven't made up your mind on certain candidates please take the time to look at the candidates' positions and see who meshes with your ideas best. Good luck tomorrow and I hope to see you at the polls.

EDIT: If you live within Marion County (Indianapolis) you can go here as an alternative. I've noticed with all the provide links there is serious lag time. I suspect the web traffic is very extensive.