The Faculty Lounge

Twinkies Are Back (at Wal-Mart); When Will Hostess Ho-Ho's, Suzy-Q's, Zingers, And Sno-Balls Return?

Hostess pastries are back, now as an in-house brand for Wal-Mart.  As of today, Twinkies hit the first Wal-Mart...and they'll be in thousands of stores by Sunday.  I trust that at least a few of our allegedly high-brow, locavoracious, Wal-Mart hating readers will make the pilgrimage to the House that Sam Built in the next few days to stock up on those death-encouraging, Kessler-enraging, artificially flavored, colored, and textured treats.

But what about those of us who were never really taken by the Twinkie?  Those of us who prefer chocolate style junk food treats?  Don't despair!  It appears that Ho-Ho's, Cupcakes, Zingers and Suzy-Q's will arrive later this summer.  With Sno-Balls coming in the fall, presumably in time to mock those disgusting, cold, and flavorless "genuine" snowballs.

Of course, Wal-Mart wasn't the inevitable caretaker of Hostess.  It could have gone to the nation's largest retailer of pastries, after all.  A Zinger and a tall Kati Kati anyone?

Image: Zingers from those halcyon days of Dolly Madison Bakery, before being acquired by Hostess.

Janet Napolitano To Head University of California System

Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano - the former governor of Arizona - is resigning to become the President of the University of California.  She holds a JD from the University of Virginia and clerked for Judge Mary Schroeder on the Ninth Circuit.

June LSAT Takers Down Slightly From 2012

LSAC has released test taker data for the June LSAT.  23,997 individuals took the June test, down 1,226 - 4.9% - from June 2012.   The number of first-time takers was down about 5% compared to June 2012.  

Thinking About Plagiarism

I'm probably late to the party in noticing Richard Posner's book on plagiarism that was originally published in 2007, but it was an interesting read. I do have a bone to pick with calling it a "book" or even a "little book" as it's not much longer than a law review article and you can read it in an hour or two, but it was a fun hour or two on my part.  Posner doesn't answer many of the questions he raises about the nature of plagiarism, why it is considered a wrong, when it might not be a wrong, what are the appropriate sanctions etc. However, he raises great issues worth musing about, and it's a great survey of the different contexts in which we see conduct that may be described as plagiarism - including academia, judicial opinion writing, commercial fiction, historical literature, and art. While he talks about the significance of digital technology both in enabling plagiarism and in identifying instances of plagiarism, he doesn't come to any meaningful conclusions about whether plagiarism is qualitatively "different" in the digital world. However, he does look at how different economic models of literary production over the years impact on concepts of the wrongfulness of plagiarism over time. So if anyone is interested in thinking about the broad strokes of plagiarsm, the contexts in which it arises and how it differs from copyright infringement and fraud - and sometimes doesn't differ that much in practice - this is an interesting read.

Edith Windsor, Heiress v. Edith Windsor, Civil Servant

Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion in United States v. Windsor ultimately relied on the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, and its protection of liberty, to invalidate Section 3 of DOMA.  Yet Justice Kennedy’s understanding of liberty is an odd bird, relying heavily on peculiar notions of dignity, which DOMA purportedly demeaned.  Indeed, many of the examples of this DOMA-demeaning that Justice Kennedy provides sound more like cut-and-paste clichés rather than soundly reasoned or evidenced examples of how queer dignity is demeaned by this contentious federal statute.  Here, I am somewhat in concurrence with David Cohen’s lament about the lack of liberal Supreme Court voices in the past Term speaking directly to same-sex marriage, but I would caution that these voices wouldn’t really have added much if they also were to rely on thinly-reasoned assertions about the liberal kitchen-sink of (American) liberty, equality, and dignity.

That Edith Windsor had to pay substantial (for the U.S.) taxes on the estate she inherited doesn’t sound much like a dignity issue, though I imagine that some readers may fault me for failing to see the connection between asking ‘unmarried’ gay people to pay their fair share—while letting married straight people evade reasonable taxes—and a hand-waving notion of equality (or is it dignity?).  Yet, moving beyond the entirely problematic actual plaintiff in United States v. Windsor, and her estate tax issues, it’s worth exploring other plaintiffs—other Edith Windsors, if you will—who might have better served as poster-children for DOMA’s alleged indignities.

Here, I am going to rely on one such alleged indignity that Justice Kennedy highlighted, thinking about the kind of plaintiff/Edith Windsor who might have been born from such ‘indignity.’  On p. 23 of the slip opinion, Kennedy notes how “[f]or certain unmarried couples, DOMA’s unequal effects are even more serious,” going on to note how same-sex spouses, because of DOMA, are not comprehended by 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)—the part of the federal code making it a crime to “assaul[t], kidna[p], or murde[r] . . . a member of the immediate family of a United States official . . . with intent to impede, intimidate, or interfere with such official . . . while engaged in the performance of official duties.” (emphasis added)

So, imagine that Edith Windsor had not been a mathematician heiress in her lifetime but, rather, had served as a United States civil servant.  Imagine as well that Edith Windsor’s spouse, Thea Spyer, had been criminally targeted in an attempt to influence U.S. Officer Windsor’s official actions yet, because of DOMA, Thea Spyer’s attacker had not been prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1).  Would Edith Windsor have been a sympathetic plaintiff in this instance?

CFP: New Voices in Gender Studies

The AALS Section on Women in Legal Education will hold a program, New Voices in Gender Studies, during the AALS 2014 Annual Meeting in New York City.  They are soliciting papers now.  From the CFP:

Submissions should be of scholarship relating to: (1) women in legal education; (2) any aspect of women’s or men’s relationship to the law; or (3) gender, sexuality and the law.  There is a maximum 30,000 word limit (inclusive of footnotes) for the submission. Since this is a paper presentation opportunity, and not one for publication, submitted papers can be committed for publication prior to their submission, but cannot be actually in print prior to their submission.  Each professor may submit only one paper for consideration.

Full-time faculty members of AALS member and fee-paid law schools, who have been teaching seven (7) or fewer years as of August 1, 2013, are eligible to submit papers. Foreign, visiting (and not full-time on a different faculty) and adjunct faculty members, graduate students, and fellows are not eligible. Faculty members who have presented their papers during previous New Voices in Gender Studies programs are also ineligible. 

Papers will be reviewed anonymously. The manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter with the author’s name and contact information. The manuscript itself, including title page and footnotes, must not contain any references that identify the author or the author’s school. The submitting author is responsible for taking any steps necessary to redact self-identifying text or footnotes.

To be considered, papers must be submitted electronically to Professor Wendy Greene, Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law, at wendy.greene@samford.edu. The deadline for submission is Friday, August 30, 2013. Authors of selected papers will be notified by September 28, 2013.  Call for Paper participants will also be responsible for paying their annual meeting registration fee and travel expenses.

Papers will be selected after review by a sub-committee composed of Section on Women in Legal Education members. This is a wonderful showcase for junior scholars’ work on gender and women’s issues; therefore, if you have been teaching for seven (7) or fewer years, please consider submitting a paper.

Any inquiries about the Call for Papers should be submitted to:  Professor Wendy Greene, Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law, 205. 726. 2419 or wendy.greene@samford.edu

Hiring Announcement: Notre Dame

From an email message that I received earlier today:

NOTRE DAME LAW SCHOOL may have one or more tenured or tenure-track faculty positions that will begin in fall 2014.  The Law School is interested in persons with experience or a demonstrated interest in teaching and writing.  The Law School’s interest is not limited to any particular subject or subjects.  Applicants should possess excellence in academic background and either demonstrated excellence in scholarship and teaching or the potential for such excellence.  We welcome applications from women, members of minority groups, and others who will enrich and diversify our faculty.  The University of Notre Dame supports the needs of dual career couples and has a Dual Career Assistance Program in place to assist relocating spouses and significant others with their job search.  The University is also a member of the Greater Chicago Midwest Higher Education Recruitment Consortium.  Contact:  Professor Lloyd H. Mayer, Vice Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee, via email at lmayer@nd.edu or by mail at Notre Dame Law School, P.O. Box 780, Notre Dame, IN 46556.

Apple Loses E-Book Antitrust Litigation

Cross-posted from Madisonian.net ...

The District Court for the Southern District of New York today handed down its decision in the ongoing Apple e-book antitrust litigation holding that Apple violated antitrust law in its participation in (one might say orchestration of) a scheme to raise retail prices of e-books in 2009-2010 when it launched its iBookstore with the iPad. Story and judgment available here. And for anyone interested in the structure of the e-book industry, the recitation of the facts re how the industry works and how Apple sought to change the original model dominated by Amazon is very instructive and reads not unlike a Greek drama. It’s probably the most detailed account I’ve read explaining the distribution and price determination models within the industry.

Final 2013 Lateral Faculty Moves List

It's here.  I sure hope it's final, though history suggests that I left somebody off the list and I'll learn of the omission upon the posting of this announcement.

Villanova Law Seeks Director Of Entrepreneurship Clinic

Villanova University School of Law has started a search for  a Director of the school's Entrepreneurship Clinic.  Click on through for details but the announcement says that they'd like applications submitted by July 15.  

Vic Fleischer On The Unseen Costs Of Cutting Faculty

In the NY Times here.  

I'm sure this article will stoke a great deal of discussion.  And one issue that he doesn't address, but I think is relevant, is the status and protection of full-time, non tenure-track faculty.  I'm not sure whether he sees these folks as being comparable to untenured tenure-stream faculty or more akin to adjunct faculty, whom he sees as a better starting point for cutting.   

Update: I have removed comments that gratuitously insult people as well as (entirely understandable) blowback to those comments.  I know that means that I've deleted substance, but I don't have the ability to edit out insults from otherwise substantive comments.  I don't have the energy to track discussion constantly but I'll continue to check in periodically and continue that approach.

William Brewbaker Now Named Interim Dean At Alabama Law

Professor Bill Brewbaker, who was originally named a short term "acting dean" - pending appointment of an interim dean - has now become that interim dean.  I imagine that Bill fought long and hard to avoid the appointment, given that his interests tend more towards theological perspectives on  law  rather than herding cats, but he is an excellent choice. 

Biological Father and Stepmother and Paternal Grandparents Move to Adopt Baby Girl

A new development in the Baby Girl case has occurred--namely, the attempted adoption of the child by her biological father and stepmother and, alternatively, her paternal grandparents.  More information is availiable here.  This is something that Justice Sotomayor predicted could happen in the case, given that ICWA mandates placement preferences for adoption of Indian children that include the child's extended family.  Slip Op. at 25.

The case remains troubling to me in a number of respects, most importantly its exceedingly narrow interpretation of ICWA.  I also remain concerned, as I noted earlier, that sub silento termination of unmarried fathers' rights, as is allowed under South Carolina law, conflicts with the equal protection clause.  Finally, I'm skeptical of the Majority's notion of abandoning children "in utero."  Slip Op. at 16; see also Slip Op. at 2.  I fully acknowledge that it can be harmful and distressing for a pregnant woman to be deserted by her partner, and that this can harm the child who is later born, but I am not sure that that is the same thing as abandoning a child.  It seems to me that it may be necessary to assume a pro-life stance to get to this conclusion (although I think a parent's actions during pregnancy should certainly be relevant in a later proceeding regarding parental rights).     

McGeorge Reduces Size, But Not Quite As Much As News Accounts Suggest

Yesterday I noted that the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law was shrinking its staff.  Now it appears that the school is framing this as a part of a broader realignment .   Dean Jay Mootz announced that, over the next three years, the law school will reduce its student body to approximately 600 students.  

A Sacramento Bee news  report claims that McGeorge is shrinking by 40%.  That might be true if one considers the baseline 2010, when the school had over 1000 students.  But in the fall of 2012, there were 248 students (including day and evening) in the entering class.  And in 2011, there were only 215 1L's.  I assume that the McGeorge is moving to a  normal 1Lclass of 200.   That's newsworthy, but not quite as potent as the 40% number. 

I don't know if McGeorge was promoting this 40% number - it seems to be giving the school some press, and it also appears to explain the recent layoffs - or whether the reporters at the Sacramento Bee pulled out their calculators and  ran the comparison between the  2010 student census and the projected tally in 2016.   But pretty soon, this drop may no longer be newsworthy.  I'm guessing that there will be plenty of schools that reduce their 1L class by 20% this fall.  And, I assume, some will reduce payroll accordingly.  

Time is running out for schools to to get out in front of their small 1L yield in such an upbeat fashion.  

Gender, Farms, and Inheritance

As I'm thinking about Carla Spivack's conference on "trusts and estates meets gender, race, and class" -- and also testamentary practices in the Shenandoah Valley in the pre-Civil War era -- I see Hannah Alsgaard's "Rural Inheritance: Gender Disparities in Farm Transmission."  (Thanks to Gerry Beyer).

Farmers are farmers’ sons. Notable in our modern day, heralded by many as a gender-neutral society, it is farmers’ sons, not farmers’ daughters, who become farmers and take over ownership and management of the family farm. It has long been true that agricultural knowledge and land have passed through generations of men. In contrast, daughters, even today, are neither considered to be farmers nor likely to inherit family farmland. This Article begins by chronicling how farmland is inherited (by sons) then discusses why the pattern of excluding women continues. There have been substantial legal changes in the United States impacting land inheritance and ownership, culminating with the Equal Protection Clause’s extension to gender discrimination and the gender-neutral Uniform Probate Code. Social changes have also been tremendous, but even legal and social developments have been unable to correct gender disparity in farm inheritance. After exploring many legal and social factors, I conclude it is grooming – at the familial, governmental, and social levels – that plays the most vital role in training future farmers and mainly accounts for the gender difference in farm inheritance and the farming profession. This Article ultimately proposes girls must be groomed to farm in order to rectify the vast gender disparity in the ownership and management of family farms. A three pronged approach will be needed to remedy the situation, specifically: changing the role of lawyers, educating girls and women, and educating testators. What remains most important is that daughters are given the same opportunity as sons to farm based on merit, rather than being excluded from farm inheritance merely because of their gender.

The illustration is a farm in southeastern Pennsylvnia.

Brewbaker Named Interim Dean at Alabama

Following up on Dan Filler's post from last week, Bill Brewbaker has just been named interim dean (he was previously acting dean) at the University of Alabama.  Bill's a great friend and an all-around terrific person, who cares very deeply about the law school and the University.  Bill is a native of Montgomery and a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia's law school and holds an LLM from Duke.  Bill, an expert in health law, property, and law and religion, practiced in Birmingham before joining the Alabama faculty.

Roll Tide, Dean Brewbaker!

Call for Papers: Stanley Fish and the Meaning of Academic Freedom

Our friend Howard Wasserman has posted information on an upcoming micro-symposium to be hosted by FIU Law Review and the FIU College of Law, entitled "Stanley Fish and the Meaning of Academic Freedom."  You'll find details over at Prawfsblawg at this link.

Hiring Announcement: Pittsburgh

From an email message that I received earlier today:

The University of Pittsburgh School of Law invites applications from entry-level or lateral faculty for two tenure-stream positions beginning in the 2014-2015 academic year.  The appointments are expected to be at the rank of assistant professor, but appointment at a higher rank is expected for a candidate who has achieved that higher rank at another institution.  This recruitment seeks to fill particular curricular needs in Energy Law, Patents, Property, Commercial Law, Administrative Law, and Criminal Law.  However, serious consideration will also be given to strong candidates who teach in related areas.

The University of Pittsburgh is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and values equality of opportunity, human dignity and diversity.  Recruitment is subject to approval by the University’s Provost. 

Contact:  John Burkoff, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 3900 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15260.  Email: burkoff@pitt.edu.  Email submissions are preferred.

McGeorge Law Lays Off Staff

I hadn't caught this nugget before I put up my post this morning.  The University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law has bought out some staff and laid off others.   This is being done hand in hand with a reduction in the size of the entering 1L class.  

Favorite Sci-Fi Terminology

As today's Google doodle memoralizes, today is the 66th anniversary of the Roswell incident, which got me thinking of all things sci-fi. I've been catching up on some sci-fi reading lately - particularly in light of the fact that the Ender's Game movie will finally be coming out later this year - and I started thinking about some of my favorite sci-fi terminology invented by authors in the genre. A current favorite is "glasstique" - a combination glass/plastic building material that I think was coined by Ann Aguirre in "Grimspace". Does anyone have others they'd like to share?