The Following is an excerpt an op ed by Associate Professor of Law Jeffrey Fisher printed in The New York Times on Dec 2, 2011 ON Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Williams v. Illinois, the latest in a string of cases addressing whether the Sixth Amendment’s [...]

Professor of Law and John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar Alison D. Morantz in her recent working paper series examines the relationship between unionization and underground, bituminous coal mine safety from 1993 to 2008. Her study uses a more comprehensive dataset and updated methodology and finds that [...]

The photos flashing on the screen required little explanation, though Michael Bien offered it anyway to students assembled for their third meeting of the fall quarter‘s Advanced Seminar on Criminal Law & Public Policy: A Research Practicum. “Areas that once provided recreation space are now lined with bunk beds, some [...]

In the latest issue of the Texas Law Review (89), Dean Larry Kramer joined   Judge Marsha Berzon, Frank Michelman, and several legal scholars in a “Book Review Symposium” for which each contributed a review of Justice Brennan:Liberal Champion by Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel. Here is an excerpt from Kramer’s article Believing in the Goodness of People: Judicial biography [...]

Four and half months after oral argument, a three judge panel of the D.C. Circuit has reversed the preliminary injunction against NIH funding of human embryonic stem cell research. The Court of Appeals Decision: As I predicted in a March 7, 2011 post, the court was split [...]

When Philip Senegal considers the 21 years and seven months he’s served in San Quentin since his murder conviction, he can’t help but think his time behind bars will one day come to an end. Although his parole was recently denied, he’s banking on another shot at freedom in seven [...]

(This short excerpt was first published in the New York Times on January 11, 2011)  “In an ideal world, stable, cautious law-abiding citizens would have access to guns and others would not. Ideally, we would like wise regulation and prudent personal decisions about carrying and using guns. Deciding on the [...]

A stalled economic recovery. The airwaves filled with demagoguery about important constitutional issues. A president who chides the Supreme Court for striking down a major piece of federal reform legislation. And, in response to charges of a pro-corporate tilt on a Court with a narrow conservative majority, Justice Roberts defends [...]

In big news – which happened late on a Friday afternoon – the Department of Justice has filed an amicus brief arguing that at least one common kind of gene patents should not be granted or found valid.

The brief came in the appeal to the Federal Circuit of the Myriad BRCA 1 and 2 patent case. Judge Sweet of the Southern District of New York ruled early this year that many of Myriad’s claims were invalid.