Statement by interim Dean Mead to the students:

Dear Students,

I want to let you know that at long last the University processes that were initiated last fall to address the charges of violations of the Code of Academic Ethics brought by Professors Mary Mitchell and Florence Roisman against Professor William Bradford and his countercharges of discrimination against them have been completed. As you may know, Executive Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Faculties, William Plater, appointed an Academic Ethics Review Panel to provide him with recommendations for resolving the issues raised in the complaints. A number of these issues were made moot by Professor Bradford’s resignation. Nevertheless, the Panel took great care to consider the remaining issues and has issued a report to Dean Plater. It found no evidence of discrimination on the part of Professors Mitchell and Roisman and concluded that they conducted themselves responsibly and honorably. In my view, Professors Mitchell and Roisman have now been fully exonerated by these actions.

In keeping with the confidential nature of the proceedings, Dean Plater has written a confidential letter to Professors Mitchell and Roisman indicating that the matter of the grievances is now fully resolved and the matter is closed. I agree, and I ask that you join me in putting this unfortunate episode behind us and moving forward in an atmosphere of mutual respect and collegiality.

Susanah Mead
Interim Dean and Professor of Law
Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis

...

I promise I will follow up on this next week, though I do not feel there is much left to the story.

Today (Friday, March 31) is the second day of voting in the SBA elections. Below is the list of the candidates/slates again, but reversing the order in which the executive slates were published yesterday.

EXECUTIVE SLATE #2
- President: Matthew Morgan
- Vice-President (Day): Pratik Patel
- Vice-President (Night): Scott Smith
- Secretary: Meagan Merrill
- Treasurer: Michael Allen

2L DAY REPRESENTATIVE:
- Aaron Culp
- Jennifer Wilson

ABA REPRESENTATIVE:
- Lucas Sayre

SBA Elections begin today. These are the candidates:

EXECUTIVE SLATE #1
- President: Bill Saint
- Vice-President (Day): Jenna Zent
- Vice-President (Night): AT Young
- Secretary: Hillary Knipstein
- Treasurer: David Rogers

EXECUTIVE SLATE #2
- President: Matthew Morgan
- Vice-President (Day): Pratik Patel
- Vice-President (Night): Scott Smith
- Secretary: Meagan Merrill
- Treasurer: Michael Allen

2L DAY REPRESENTATIVE:
- Aaron Culp
- Jennifer Wilson

ABA REPRESENTATIVE:
- Lucas Sayre

Voting will take place today and tomorrow in the atrium from 11:30 AM-1:30 PM and 4:30 PM-6:00 PM. Graduating students are not eligible to vote.

If you were wondering whether I copied and pasted most of this from Christopher Americanos' e-mail from Monday, "Yeah, pretty much," but now, you are reminded of it.

A copy of the latest U.S. News & World Report law school rankings has been leaked, and in the rankings, IU Law-Indy has moved up to 77th. Since the rankings have not been officially released, this document's authenticity cannot be verified.

A look at the state's other law schools reveals the following: Notre Dame in a 4-way tie at 22nd, IU-Bloomington in a 2-way tie at 37th, and Valparaiso not in the top 100.

More coverage planned...

Note: Last year, IU-Indy was ranked 95th, and two years ago it was ranked 63rd.

John Fund has a column in the Wall Street Journal regarding the Taliban member who is a student at Yale. The column certainly does not protray Yale in a very good light on this matter. But Fund has a good point. Here's his closing:

There is a line beyond which tolerance and political correctness become willful blindness. Eli Muller, a reporter for the Yale Daily News, was stunned back in 2000 when the lies of another Taliban spokesman who visited Yale "went nearly unchallenged." He concluded that the "moral overconfidence of Yale students makes them subject to manipulation by people who are genuinely evil." Today, you can say that about more than just some naïve students. You can add the administrators who abdicated their moral responsibility and admitted Mr. Hashemi.

There are people in this world who really are evil. But some refuse to admit this--they instead subscribe to the philosophy of total moral relativity. The more people in the West that think this way, the more Islamist terrorists will make gains.

A law professor at the University of Memphis has banned laptops in her class room. Professor June Entman says they are too distracting.

As can be expected, "[t]he move didn't sit well with the students, who have begun collecting signatures against the move and tried to file a complaint with the American Bar Association. The complaint, based on an ABA rule for technology at law schools, was dismissed."

Well, I should clarify. I would have expected the students to be upset. I'm more than a bit surprised that they have gone so far as to file a complaint with the ABA. Since when did having a laptop in school become a right?

This is from The Onion's latest news-in-brief, headline "Constructionist Supreme Court To Revisit Women's Suffrage":

WASHINGTON, DC—The Supreme Court, demonstrating its new constructionist leaning since the appointment of Justice Samuel Alito, will re-examine arguments behind the 19th Amendment this week. "There was no constitutional precedent for amending the law of the land so dramatically," the Heritage Foundation's Trent England said Monday. "A case could be made on social grounds, but what the Court will determine is exactly what the framers of the Constitution wanted." While it's difficult to predict an outcome, observers believe Ruth Bader Ginsburg will use her three-fifths of a vote to oppose.

A friend of mine found this amicus brief on Georgetown Law's website. Check out page 9 of the .pdf to see Professor Bradford listed as one of the amici curiae. The brief supports the government's position in favor of the Solomon Amendment.

The brief can also be retrieved on LexisNexis, using the citation: 2005 U.S. S. Ct. Briefs LEXIS 455. Lexis lists the brief's filing date as July 18, 2005, explaining why Professor Bradford listed himself as a member of the Indiana law faculty.

The law would hold liable certain internet service providers and online content providers for defamatory messages posted on an online forum. Additionally, paragraph 3 provides:

An operator of an interactive computer service or an Internet service provider shall establish and maintain reasonable procedures to enable any person to request and obtain disclosure of the legal name and address of an information content provider who posts false or defamatory information about the person on a public forum website.

An "information content provider" is defined as "any person or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of information provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer service."

Read the text of the proposed law here.

Reporter Abe Aamidor of The Indianapolis Star is hoping to speak with veterans of high school and college proms (e.g., people who are now out of school) about their prom experiences, what they liked, what they'd do differently, and advice they'd give to first-time prom-goers this year.

Your experiences at the recent Barrister's Ball (otherwise known as the "law school prom") may be helpful, but so would your undergraduate and high school experiences. He is mostly looking for Indiana residents or natives. You can contact Abe at abe.aamidor@indystar.com or 317-444-6472.