The Faculty Lounge

Drexel University Kline Law Seeks Bar Support Faculty

This just in (from my colleagues):

Drexel University Kline School of Law, in Philadelphia, seeks an Assistant Teaching Professor and Director of Bar Support for a position commencing on January 1, 2019 or later.

JD Degree and membership in at least one state bar required. Law teaching experience, expertise and experience in academic support or bar support preferred. Ability to work collaboratively and to communicate well with students, faculty and staff.

The person filling this position will develop and teach courses to support the successful bar passage of our graduates, coordinate bar support activities throughout the law school, and have additional teaching responsibilities as agreed upon.

The Kline School of Law is part of Drexel University and is centrally located in Philadelphia. Its JD program includes a professional practice requirement in the form of a clinic or co-op placement for academic credit, as well as a pro bono service requirement. Students can pursue concentrations in Health Law, Business and Entrepreneurial Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Criminal Law. Its nationally ranked legal writing program prepares students for their professional practice requirement. A robust Academic Success curriculum under the Direction of a full-time Director of Academic Success offers faculty-led workshops, Dean Scholar sessions in each large first year course, upper level courses in analysis and writing strategies, counseling, and individual assistance by a Writing Specialist.

What Does It Take to Get a Second Chance?

I had this oped in last Friday's Chicago Tribune:

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

October 26, 2018

What does it take to get a second chance?

Steven Lubet

Reginald Dwayne Betts was still in high school when he was convicted of the crime — carjacking and armed robbery — that would haunt him the rest of his life. After serving eight years in a Virginia state prison, Betts eventually became a widely published poet and graduated from Yale Law School. In a recent essay in The New York Times Magazine, he explains the devastating aftereffects of a felony conviction, and the difficulties it created for him when he applied for admission to the Connecticut bar.

Although there is no comparison between what Betts endured and my own life, his essay has moved me to tell my story of criminal convictions and ultimate admission to the Illinois bar. I had an easy time of it compared with Betts, who wrote, “I might eventually be allowed to practice law, or, I realized with a cold, dull clarity, I might not.” In contrast, I blithely assumed that everything would work out, as indeed everything did. 

I was convicted four times of misdemeanors, once each year from 1967 to 1970, between the ages of 18 and 21, all involving peace or civil rights demonstrations. I pleaded guilty three times, and my one conviction at trial was reversed on appeal. The stiffest sentence came in the last and most serious case, during my senior year in college. Although I should have gone to jail as a repeat offender, a surprisingly lenient plea bargain got me off with two years of probation.

Marcus Cole on Squirrel Hill

Marcus Cole, Stanford law prof and Northwestern law alum, has written a moving remembrance of growing up as one of the few African Americans in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Originally presented in 2015 as the keynote address at the American Jewish Committee annual dinner, Marcus re-posted it on Pileus in response to the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue.

Marcus has given me permission to post the entire piece here. 

Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Community, I Learned in the Shtetl of Squirrel Hill

October 28, 2018 by Marcus Cole

Three years ago, I was asked to deliver the keynote address at the American Jewish Committee Annual Dinner.  I chose to use that opportunity to explain what was so special about my childhood neighborhood, Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After the attack in Squirrel Hill yesterday, just a short walk from the front door of my childhood home, a number of people contacted me about that speech. I am reprinting it below because I think that the world should know just how special a place Squirrel Hill has always been. What follows is the text of that speech:

When I was asked to speak about bringing communities together, my first reaction was that, I’m no expert on this subject. But I happened to be asked on an unusual day for me and my family. It was a rare day for us because it was the only Saturday in the year when neither of my two teenage sons had a football or basketball game. They wanted to do something we never get to do – they wanted us all to go see a movie together.

They were disappointed, however, because my wife had made a prior commitment. She explained that she could not go with us because she had promised to volunteer at the Dewali festival for my son’s high school. Dewali, of course, is the Hindu festival of lights. “But mom,” my son Claude said, “you’re not even Indian.”

My sons were disappointed – but not surprised. Last month, a few Korean moms at our sons’ school re-scheduled their monthly coffee to accommodate my wife’s new work schedule. She’s not Korean either.

What she happens to be is all too rare, I think. While she is, in fact, an African-American, she views her community – our community – much more broadly than that. In the thirty years in which we have been married, I never once heard her refer to our community as “the African-American community.” Instead, she always referred to “our community” as the circles in which we live our daily lives.

So it occurred to me that while I may not be an expert on bridging communities, I’m pretty sure I am married to one. So I asked her, “Angie, how do you suppose you came to view your ‘community’ this way.” To my surprise, she pointed at me and said, “I think I got it from you.”

While I was flattered, I rejected this praise. Her response was, “Who do you think took me to my first Seder, my first bar mitzvah, my first Bris?”

Howlin' Wolf

Born Chester Burnett in Mississippi, Howlin' Wolf moved to Chicago in the early 1950s, becoming one of the most influential blues artists of his generation. 

Introduced on Shindig by the Rolling Stones 

North Texas Law Seeks Associate Dean of Academic Affairs

This just in - and a bit uncommon.  UNT Law is seeking external candidates for a new Associate Dean of Academic Affairs:

The University of North Texas Dallas College of Law invites applications for the position of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law.

The Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law is a senior administrative position within the college of law and is the second line leader of the college of law reporting to the Dean. The Associate Dean is responsible for the academic program of the college of law including the curriculum and assessment. This position is also responsible for providing leadership to the faculty and staff, and for mentoring junior faculty. The Associate Dean will teach up to six credit hours per academic year beginning with 2019-2020.

Minimum Qualifications:
The successful candidate will possess the following qualifications;
• JD degree from an accredited institution of higher education.
• Demonstrated history of academic achievements in teaching, scholarship and service at the rank of professor in an ABA accredited law school.
• Earned status of tenure from an ABA accredited law school.
• Minimum of 8 years full-time experience as a tenure-track/tenured law faculty member.
• Demonstrated effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Program leadership, program development and curriculum development experience.
• Demonstrated experience in mentoring and developing faculty.

 

For further information or to apply please follow this link.

South Dakota Law Seeks Dean

This just in:

The University of South Dakota in Vermillion, SD invites nominations and applications for the Dean of the School of Law. The Dean reports to the Provost and is a senior level administrator.

USD Law, South Dakota's premier and only law school, seeks an energetic, confident leader with a deep knowledge of the legal academy to serve as its Dean. The Dean will also be a capable executive with skills in fundraising and development, as well as in fiscal and human resource management. The Dean must possess the strategic acumen and personal leadership style necessary to inspire its faculty and students to continue advancement of the School of Law as part of USD.

USD Law is an intimate law school that combines a practical curriculum with a uniquely personal and engaging learning environment that prepares students for the practice of law in a changing world. Established in 1901, USD Law is fully accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and is a member of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS). The School of Law offers several specialized course tracks and nine joint degree programs that operate in conjunction with other Master’s degree programs at USD, as well as three dual degree programs offered in partnership with Vermont Law School. The USD Law faculty and staff are leaders in their respective fields, adding first-rate quality and diverse expertise to the USD Law program. Students at USD law will find an opportunity to study in a close-knit, cooperative environment. As the only law school in the state of South Dakota, it is USD Law's task to populate the legal infrastructure of South Dakota for the benefit of its residents. Currently, there are far more law jobs in South Dakota than USD Law can fill. All of USD Law's innovative efforts in legal education have taken the school on a strong upward trajectory as recognized by a recent 14-spot leap in U.S. News & World Report rankings. More information is available at www.usd.edu/law.

Did Chief Justice Marshall Suborn Perjury in Marbury v Madison?

On CSPAN’s Q & A program Sunday evening, Brian Lamb interviewed Joel Richard Paul about his new book, Without Precedent: Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times. The whole interview is quite good but one part of it especially caught my attention. While researching his book, Professor Paul found a letter that suggests Chief Justice John Marshall may have suborned perjury in the landmark case of Marbury v. Madison.  

The basic facts of Marbury are well-known. On March 3, 1801—the last day of the Adams Administration—the lame duck Federalist Senate confirmed 42 Federalist nominees for justices of the peace. The confirmations were part of the “Midnight Appointments” whereby the Federalists attempted to stack the federal judiciary before the Jeffersonian Republicans took power following the election of 1800.

During the final hours of the Adams presidency, John Marshall simultaneously served as chief justice and secretary of state. In the latter capacity, he signed with an official seal each of the commissions for the new justices of the peace. But amid the chaotic rush to get the commissions out, some inadvertently remained behind on a desk in the State Department. The new Secretary of State, James Madison, refused to deliver the commissions when he took office the next day. Nine months later, four of the would-be justices of the peace—including a wealthy Federalist named William Marbury—filed a writ of mandamus asking the Supreme Court to order Madison to deliver the commissions.

The case of Marbury v. Madison reached the Supreme Court in February 1803, which is where Professor Paul’s discovery comes in.

Two Great Opeds on Medical Care

Monday's newspaper feed had two excellent opeds on different aspects of medical care.

In the Washington Post, Daniel Morgan wrote "What the Tests Don't Show: Doctors Are Surprisingly Bad at Reading Lab Results." Here is the gist:

But my research has found that many physicians misunderstand test results or think tests are more accurate than they are. Doctors especially fail to grasp how false positives work, which means they make crucial medical decisions — sometimes life-or-death calls — based on incorrect assumptions that patients have ailments that they probably don’t. When we do this without understanding the science of risk and probability, we unacceptably increase the chances of making the wrong choice. In the worst cases, as with the man whose angiogram caused otherwise avoidable strokes, we increase the odds of unnecessarily putting patients in danger.

And here is a sample:

A 5 percent false-positive rate is typical of many common tests. The primary blood test to check for a heart attack, known as high-sensitivity troponin, has a 5 percent false-positive rate, for instance. U.S. emergency rooms often administer the test to people with a very low probability of a heart attack; as a result, 84 percent of positive results are false, according to a study published last year. These false-positive troponin tests often lead to stress tests, observation visits with expensive co-pays and sometimes invasive cardiac angiograms.

You can read the entire article here. (Paywalled, but with free registration; first published October 5, but in my WaPo feed Monday for some reason.)

The Musical Side of the Sears Bankruptcy Story [UPDATED]

The Sears bankruptcy is big news, especially in Chicago, with many people reminiscing about iconic house brands such as Craftsman and Kenmore. I haven't yet seen an article about Silvertone guitars, which were extremely popular during the 1960s. Silvertone guitars, both electric and acoustic, were inexpensive and widely available. Unlike other cheap guitars, they were also pretty good, with decent action and tone. According to Wikipedia, Silvertones were the first guitars of Jerry Garcia, Chet Atkins, Bob Dylan, John Fogarty, Joan Jett, and Jack White. The Who used Silvertones in the concerts, but that may have been because they famously smashed the instruments at the end of the show. Silvertones were the perfect disposable guitars and basses. Decent quality and cheap to replace. Silvertone once marketed a "Leadbelly model" 12-string, although in fact he played a Stella, which was comparably low-priced.

The Silvertone brand actually dated to 1915 and originally included phonographs and radios; it was discontinued in 1972.   As with so many vintage items, Silvertones are collector's items today, sometimes selling for thousands, even though you could once find them virtually everywhere. The cheapest model -- which was $67.95, including the in-case amplifier -- was available in the catalog and inspired garage bands everywhere.

UPDATE: Silvertone guitars also played an important role in the development of the blues, beginning in the early twentieth century:

"There was an amalgamation of a number of things that led to the development of the blues and the acoustic guitars being bought through the Sears catalog was certainly one of them," said Michael Roberts, who teaches a class on the history of the blues at DePaul University in Chicago. "It was inexpensive enough that the blues artists were able to save up the money they made as sharecroppers to make that purchase."

You can read the entire article here. (H/T Alex Lubet)

Call for Proposals... AI: Law, Practice and Legal Ed

This just in:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Thinking About Law, Law Practice, and Legal Education
A conference for lawyers, technologists, policy makers, and legal educators

April 26 & 27, 2019 Hosted by Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh, PA

Developments in artificial intelligence are changing virtually all aspects our world, ranging from autonomous vehicles to robotic surgery, and from smart phones to smart speakers. Lawyers, legal educators, and policy makers are already experiencing the effects of computers that aid and, in some cases, replace the often-tedious work done by lawyers and other members of society. Law school graduates will need to understand how intelligent systems can enhance and streamline the work that they do, and how their careers may be changed in the future. Furthermore, artificial intelligence technology will likely call for greater government oversight, result in new laws, and trigger litigation. This two-day conference seeks presentations that will demonstrate how the development of artificial intelligence is affecting society, the law, the legal profession, and legal education. We invite proposals from educators, practitioners, policy makers, and computer scientists interested in speaking about these issues. The Duquesne Law Review plans to dedicate space in its Winter 2019 symposium issue to publishing papers from this conference.

 

Cincinnati Law Seeks Dean

This just in:

The University of Cincinnati invites applications and nominations for the position of Dean of the College of Law. Reporting to the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Dean is the chief academic and administrative officer of the College of Law.  The full job posting is here.

 

Marxist Music [UPDATED with Harpo on I Love Lucy]

UPDATE: Harpo on I Love Lucy (h/t Alberto Bernabe) 

Chico in Go West: 

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Tax Returns

Eleanor Roosevelt probably would have disagreed with Donald Trump on many topics. But a new article in Modern American History highlights one issue Roosevelt saw eye-to-eye with President Trump: the non-disclosure of presidential tax returns. 

In “Eleanor Roosevelt’s Tax Returns,” Carolyn Jones provides a short but illuminating history of how tax returns became confidential documents, shielded from public access. As Professor Jones explains in her article, tax privacy was not always the order of the day in Washington. When Congress adopted an income tax during the Civil War to pay for the Union war effort, the government allowed public inspection of all tax returns. Six decades later, in the case of United States v. Dickey, the Supreme Court held that no congressional statute or constitutional provision barred newspapers from publishing the details of individual taxpayers’ federal income tax returns.

In response to the Dickey decision, the Coolidge Administration made tax returns confidential. But during the Great Depression allegations of widespread tax evasion by the rich became a highly partisan issue. As Jones points out, when President Franklin Roosevelt called for disclosing the names of “very wealthy individuals” who used loopholes to avoid paying taxes, the IRS Commissioner publicly identified 67 wealthy people (mostly Republicans) who allegedly had not paid “their full share of taxes.”

Viewing the tax disclosures as a partisan attack as well as a blatant abuse of power, Congressional Republicans responded by demanding an investigation into the Roosevelt family’s finances. The intrusive nature of the investigation affected Eleanor Roosevelt as much as her husband. As Professor Jones notes, the First Lady made so much money from her product endorsements, speaking fees, and writing royalties that “her income sometimes exceeded her husband’s salary.” Although proud of her financial independence from her husband, Eleanor Roosevelt had little interest in revealing to the world the most private details of her personal finances, let alone those of her family. The controversy soon fizzled out, but the experience left Roosevelt with a deeply wary view of mandatory disclosure of government officials’ tax returns. 

During the 1952 election, the issue of presidential taxes returned to public prominence when Senator (and Republican vice presidential candidate) Richard Nixon challenged the Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates to disclose their tax information. Eleanor Roosevelt, however, publicly disagreed with Nixon in a newspaper column. Although she understood the benefits of public disclosure, she nevertheless argued that asking “government officials to reveal their finances . . .  is a sign that we no longer believe people should be proved guilty before they are accused of wrongdoing.” The controversy over the Roosevelt family finances, Jones concludes, “helps explain [Eleanor] Roosevelt’s reticence in 1952 to Nixon’s call for politicians to disclose their filings.”

Professor Jones’s excellent article is timely, engaging, and concise (it is only 4 pages long). It is available here at the Cambridge University Press website. In addition, Legal History Blog has a link to the other articles in the new issue of Modern American History.

Three Academic Organizations Weigh in on Reference Letters at the University of Michigan

At least three academic organizations have weighed in on the situation of the University of Michigan instructors who refused to provide references for undergraduates seeking to participate in the study-abroad program at Tel Aviv University. As readers may recall – and as I explained here and here – both instructors were candid about their reasons, explaining that their support of the BDS movement (boycott, divestment, sanctions) precluded even minimal participation in anything related to Israel. John Cheney-Lippold is a tenured associate professor of American Culture, and Lucy Peterson is a graduate student instructor in Political Science. As has been widely reported, Cheney-Lippold was severely penalized; he will not receive a merit raise for 2018-19 and his scheduled sabbatical was canceled and frozen for two years. Because she is a graduate student, Peterson is protected by privacy laws, so it is not known whether or how she has been disciplined.

After the jump, I will discuss the statements of the three academic organizations. As I will explain, the AAUP gets it right, the American Political Science Association gets it mostly right, and the Middle East Studies Association gets it mostly wrong.

Northern Illinois Law Seeks Dean

This just in:

Northern Illinois University College of Law seeks a proven and dynamic academic leader with a deep knowledge of and commitment to legal education for the position of Dean of NIU Law.

NIU College of Law is dedicated to offering a high quality, legal education at an affordable price. Located just over an hour from the city of Chicago, NIU College of Law is a vibrant school focused on the student experience, experiential education, serving the public interest, diversity, and promoting collegiality within the law school community. Housed in stately Swen Parson Hall in the heart of the NIU campus, the College offers easy access to the Chicago area in a comfortable and tranquil setting for rigorous academic study. NIU College of Law is particularly proud to have been named a top law school nationally for diversity, value, and careers in public interest and government service. Class sizes are traditionally smaller to foster closer connections between students and faculty. The school’s close-knit community and alumni network also connect students to mentors and legal practitioners in Illinois and across the nation. More information can be found at www.niu.edu/law and www.niu.edu.

Internally, the Dean is expected to provide the open and collaborative leadership necessary to preserve and enhance NIU College of Law’s commitment to scholarship and outstanding, student-centered legal education. Externally, the Dean has major responsibilities for the College of Law’s relationships with alumni, the legal profession, the academy, and the larger public it serves. Creative fund raising, development initiatives, and the enhancement of NIU College of Law’s reputation will be priorities. The successful candidate must possess a J.D. or equivalent degree and ordinarily should possess qualifications appropriate to a tenured professor in the College of Law. The University actively encourages applications from and nominations of women, minorities, and candidates with diverse backgrounds.

Notre Dame Law Review Online Hosts Symposium on Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court

The Notre Dame Law Review Online has published a Symposium featuring several essays relating to Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court (Kathryn M. Stanchi, Linda L. Berger & Bridget J. Crawford eds., Cambridge University Press, 2016).  Here's the table of contents for 94 Notre Dame L. Rev. Online (2018):

• Linda L. Berger, Kathryn M. Stanchi & Bridget J. Crawford, Rewriting Judicial Opinions and the Feminist Scholarly Project
• Gillian Thomas, Feminist Judgments and Women's Rights at Work
• Sandra Sperino, Feminist Judgments and the Rewritten Price Waterhouse
• Elizabeth Kukura, Revisiting Roe to Advance Reproductive Justice for Childbearing Women
• Noa Ben-Asher, How is Sex Harassment Discriminatory?
• Justice Leah Ward Sears (Ret.) & Sasha N. Greenberg, The Love in Loving: Overcoming Artificial Racial Barriers
• Claire B. Wofford, Looking to the Litigant: Reaction Essay to Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court
• Gabrielle Appleby & Rosalind Dixon, Extending the Critical Rereading Project
• Sarah Weddington, Feminist Judgments and the Future of Reproductive Justice
• Margaret E. Johnson, Feminist Judgments & #MeToo

One useful aspect of these essays is that individuals and nonprofit institutions are able to copy or distribute any of the essays at or below cost, for educational purposes, as long as the copy includes the full citation and the copyright notice. I know that sometimes I need to direct students to models of what a short review looks like. So these essays may be useful for teaching purposes, separate and apart from their substance (which is quite thought-provoking, if I do say so myself!).

 

Did Michigan's Prof. Cheney-Lippold Misuse His Position in Class?

In addition to denying a student's requested study-abroad reference for political reasons (as explained here), it appears that Prof. Cheney-Lippold also misused his position in class. Here is what Dean Elizabeth Cole said in the letter informing Cheney-Lippold of the school's disciplinary measures:

[Y]ou used class time in your course Amcult 3S8 on Tuesday, September 18, 2018 to discuss your political opinions. In your meeting with me on September 20, 20I8, you contended that you spent only 15 minutes of class time on these issues. But [names redacted] revealed that you dedicated all or nearly all of class time in Amcult 358 and Amadt I03 to discuss your reasons for not writing the recommendation, as well as your opinions on the boycott movement. Beyond issues of candor, you did not honor your responsibility to teach your students the material on your syllabus related to your field of expertise. . . . Although this material was discussed in only one session, an entire class period was a significant portion of your total contact hours with students over the semester.

This use of class time to discuss your personal opinions was a misuse of your  role as a faculty member. The result was that at least [number redacted] students [dropped the course].

You can read the entire letter here. [Note: the bracketed phrase "dropped the course" was provided to me by a knowledgeable source; it is redacted in my copy of the letter itself.]

Cheney-Lippold's conduct, however, was actually worse than that. Here is how he described it himself in an interview with the Washington Post:

He also has been able to turn the dispute into a valuable teaching opportunity, he said. Cheney-Lippold, who is the author of “We Are Data: Algorithms and the Making of our Digital Selves,” is teaching two courses this semester, one on cultural studies “from origins to the Internet” and the other on “the politics of code.”

In both class meetings on Tuesday, he said, he opened the floor for questions and discussion. Some of his students were critical of him, he said. Others affirmed their support.

“A Jewish student, a student who identified himself as Jewish, said, ‘All of my friends were calling this professor an anti-Semite, and I told them he’s the furthest thing from an anti-Semite,’ ” Cheney-Lippold recounted.

An open class session, with the teacher in attendance, is inherently coercive. Cheney-Lippold therefore had no business seeking support, or even accepting it, from students to whom he will later assign grades. It is impressive that some students had the courage to criticize him, but there is no way to know how many felt pressure to express approval. And even if they were sincere, they were nonetheless pressed into making statements in front of their classmates.

What student wouldn't confirm to Cheney-Lippold that he is "the furthest thing from an anti-Semite"? Seeking and invoking that sort of endorsement -- during a class period, with other students present -- is the definition of exploitation.

The Schoolhouse Gate

Last fall I heard Justin Driver give a superb lecture at Drake Law School on free speech in the public schools. The lecture was based on a book he was writing about constitutional law and public education. The book is now out and it is called "The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind." It was published last month by Pantheon Books.

Yesterday SCOTUSblog posted an interview with Professor Driver about his new book. As he explains in the interview, the book "argues that the public school has served as the single most significant site of constitutional interpretation within the nation’s history." He contends that "when we disagree over what the Constitution means in public schools, we engage in an argument that is fundamentally about what sort of nation we want the United States to be."

One part of the interview that particularly caught my eye is Driver's revisionist account of Brown v. Board of Education. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

"Many observers have asserted that the Supreme Court’s unanimity was essential in Brown because a dissenting opinion would have stoked southern opposition. As subsequent events would demonstrate, however, southerners did not need any encouragement from the Supreme Court to resist Brown in a maximal form. In 1956, for example, 19 U.S. senators and approximately 80 congressmen joined forces to issue a document called the Southern Manifesto denouncing Brown as wrongly decided. Anti-Brown forces eventually coalesced around a rallying cry holding that they would accept racial integration exactly 'never!' Importantly, it seems quite plausible that Chief Justice Earl Warren, had he not felt compelled to placate Justice Stanley Reed — the last holdout for Jim Crow — could have written a more muscular opinion in Brown. Whatever modest gain Warren realized from Brown’s unanimity in the form of squelched dissent, in other words, could have been counterbalanced — and perhaps even outweighed — by the attendant loss of watering down the opinion’s condemnation of Jim Crow. Thus, rather than continuing to champion Warren’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering in Brown uncritically, one might more appropriately view those actions as well-intentioned but ultimately misguided." 

I have always admired Chief Justice Warren's skill in securing a unanimous opinion in Brown, but Driver's counterargument is compelling. His book looks absolutely great.  

Here is a link to the full SCOTUSblog interview with Professor Driver. And here is a link to the book's Amazon page.

CFP: ASIL-Southeast Journal Scholar Workshop

From our friends at ASIL comes the following announcement and call for papers (click on image to enlarge)

"What to Do about Professors Who Refuse to Offer Recommendations to Students Who Want to Study in Israel"

I have an essay on Slate about Prof. John Cheney-Lippold, at the University of Michigan, who rescinded his offer of a study-abroad recommendation to a student who wanted to attend Tel Aviv University.  Here is the gist:

Cheney-Lippold is well within his own rights to boycott Israel, but he is quite wrong to insist that solidarity with the BDS movement privileges him to withhold a reference from a qualified student. The Tel Aviv program is officially approved by the University of Michigan, and Cheney-Lippold is not entitled to impede a student’s access to it, just as he could not bar nonboycotting students from his courses, decline to grade their papers, or refuse to call on them in class. Every instructor has a professional responsibility to treat their students impartially, without regard to personal politics. In a letter to the campus community, President Mark Schlissel and provost Martin Filbert stated unambiguously that “faculty members’ personal political beliefs cannot interfere with their obligations to our students with regard to letter-writing and all other modes of academic support.” Withholding students’ recommendations would “violate their academic freedom and betray our university’s educational mission.”

Instructors planning to withhold references should be required to announce their intentions in advance, naming the countries for which they will not provide recommendations and thus providing fair notice before students decide to enroll in their classes. The University of Michigan sponsors programs in authoritarian countries where minorities are oppressed and academic freedom is compromised or unknown—including China, Russia, and Hungary—and it will be revealing to see whether Israel is singled out for discriminatory treatment. Those who impose political limits on references should not be allowed to teach required courses, or courses for which there is only one available section.

You can read the entire piece here.