The Faculty Lounge

Forward March

While we are still in the mood.

First Annual Michael Olivas Summer Writing Institute...

On July 21-22, 2022, the FIU College of Law and the Olivas Faculty Recruitment Initiative will be hosting the First Annual Michael Olivas Summer Writing Institute. In addition to honoring one of the profession's giants, who left us much too soon, leaders in the profession will host panels on success in the profession and provide guidance on becoming recognized scholars and public intellectuals. We will also be hosting a series of work-in-progress from Olivas Faculty Fellows (young legal academics and prospective academics). We welcome additional young scholars (age is relative). Feel free to contact me at [email protected] if interested--slots are filling rapidly. 

Here is the link to the Agenda:

file:///C:/Users/romane/Downloads/First%20Annual%20Michael%20A.%20Olivas%20Writing%20Institute%20July%2021-22,%202022.pdf

Call for Nominations for the AALS Section on Women in Legal Education 2023 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award

The AALS Section on Women in Legal Education is pleased to open nominations for its 2023 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2013, the inaugural award honored Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Subsequent winners include Catharine A. MacKinnon (2014), Herma Hill Kay (2015), Marina Angel (2016), Martha Albertson Fineman (2017), Tamar Frankel (2018), Phoebe Haddon (2019), Robin West (2020), Kimberlé Crenshaw (2021), and Camille De Jorna (2022). All of these remarkable women were recognized for their outstanding impact and contributions to the Section on Women in Legal Education, the legal academy, and the legal profession.

The purpose of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award is to honor an individual who has had a distinguished career of teaching, service, and scholarship for at least 20 years. The recipient should be someone who has impacted women, the legal community, the academy, and the issues that affect women through mentoring, writing, speaking, activism, and by providing opportunities to others.

The Section is now seeking nominations for this most prestigious award. Only individuals who are eligible for Section membership may make a nomination, and only individuals—not institutions, organizations, or law schools—are eligible for the award. More than one person may nominate the same candidate; however, the number of nominations for any one nominee is not determinative of the winner. As established by the Section’s Bylaws, the AALS Section on Women in Legal Education Executive Committee will select the award recipient, and the award will be presented at the 2022 AALS Annual Meeting.

SUBMISSION: Nominations should be submitted to Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Treasurer, AALS WILE, [email protected] with the header “RBG Nomination-AALS 2023.”

DEADLINE: September 6, 2022.

Marquette University Law School Seeks Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty

Marquette University Law School invites applications for potential openings for tenure-track or tenured faculty members who would join us beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year. We welcome candidates from all teaching and research areas, and are particularly interested in candidates whose interests include, in addition to doctrinal first-year courses, alternative dispute resolution, commercial law, health law, sports law, and tax. Candidates should have distinguished records of academic and professional achievement as well as the commitment to, and potential for, excellence in teaching and research.

Marquette University, in accordance with its Jesuit tradition and Guiding Values, is committed to fostering a diverse community of outstanding faculty, staff, and students, as well as ensuring equal educational opportunity, employment, and access to services, programs, and activities, without regard to an individual’s race, color, national origin, religion, age, disability, sex, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, predisposing genetic characteristic, or military status.

Interested individuals may submit a letter of application and curriculum vitae to Professor Chad Oldfather, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee, at [email protected]. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Washington and Lee Law Seeks Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty

This just in:

The Washington and Lee University School of Law warmly invites applications for up to three tenure-track or tenured faculty positions that will begin on July 1, 2023.

Our search will focus on applicants whose research and teaching interests include various 1L doctrinal areas (particularly civil procedure, criminal law, and constitutional law), employment law, health law, professional responsibility/legal ethics, and business law (including commercial law). In addition to our subject-matter focus, we look for colleagues who will embrace and meaningfully contribute to our close-knit, collegial, and intellectually vibrant community.

We are excited to advance our trajectory of outstanding scholarship and teaching with these new hires. A central aspect of our Law School’s mission is to promote a diverse, equitable, and collaborative intellectual community. Learn more about our mission statement at https://law.wlu.edu/about-wandl-law. We continually strive to foster an inclusive campus community, one which recognizes the value of all persons regardless of identity. To further our mission, we are committed to enhancing the diversity of our faculty and student body. In that regard, we welcome candidates from members of communities that are traditionally under-represented in the legal profession and academia.

 

Launch of "Queer and Religious Alliances in Family Law Politics and Beyond"

I am very excited to announce the publication and book launch for the new Anthem Press Law and Society Series volume co-edited by Nausica Palazzo and myself. This volume is a collection of original essays first presented at an international workshop at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler–Center for Religious Studies in Trento, Italy in 2020. It is also a testament to the resilience of our authors as the conference and all subsequent communications about the volume had to move online due to the pandemic. We are honored to have the contributions of fine scholars like Mariano Croce, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Robin Fretwell Wilson and Rebecca Valek, Ilaria Valenzi, Beatrice Gusmano, Ayelet Blecher-Prigat and Noy Naaman, Christian Klesse, and Laura Kessler.

The volume aims for a bold approach to relations between queer left and religious right groups. As a result, we distinguish this collection from previous efforts and proposals aimed at compromise. By way of contrast, this volume explores points of convergence or even friendship between queer and religious political and legal actors. In this sense, it is not a simple armistice project and, instead, looks to the so-called margins to see what potential they hold for rethinking family law and other politics across the globe.

Befitting the series in which it appears, we are officially launching the book in Lisbon one day before the start of the Law and Society Association annual meeting. Details of the book launch are available at the link above and on our Twitter account @queerreligious where we also have chapter summaries up. We look forward to seeing you in person or online!

 

California Western School of Law Hiring Announcement

California Western School of Law (CWSL) is seeking applications from lateral candidates for two tenure or tenure-track positions to begin on or about August 1, 2023.  We are looking for candidates with strong academic backgrounds, a commitment to excellence in teaching, and demonstrated potential to be productive scholars.  We specifically are interested in an experienced instructor to teach Contracts and Civil Procedure beginning in Academic Year 2023-24, and particularly welcome applications from individuals who would contribute to the vibrancy and diversity of our faculty. 

Established in 1924, CWSL is an ABA accredited and AALS member, non-profit law school, and has the distinction of being San Diego’s oldest law school. At CWSL we pride ourselves on the diversity of our student body.  This year, around 50% of our incoming students are from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.  We are committed to having a faculty that reflects our student body and our community.  CWSL continues to rethink the status quo in legal education – balancing a rigorous practical education with cutting edge scholarship and community service.  As a result, our graduates have a reputation for being uniquely practice-ready.  

CWSL is located in downtown San Diego, literally overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  A city of breathtaking beauty, we have perfect weather, miles of beaches, and nearby mountains.  We are a family-friendly, diverse city with small city traffic and walkable neighborhoods.  

Application materials should include a cover letter, C.V., research agenda, and a diversity statement that addresses how you will contribute to CWSL’s goal of creating a diverse faculty. Please direct application materials and questions to the chair of the Lateral Appointments Committee, Professor Erin Sheley, at the following email address:  [email protected]. We will begin considering applications on August 12 2022. 

Tamara Lawson Named Dean of University of Washington School of Law

University of Washington School of Law has announced that Tamara Lawson will be the new dean of its law school.   She is currently dean and professor of law at St. Thomas University School of Law in Florida.  Lawson, who holds a JD from University of San Francisco Law and an LLM from Georgetown, will take over on August 16th.

Colorado Law Seeks Entry and Lateral Faculty

This just in:

The University of Colorado Law School invites applications from entry-level and lateral candidates for one or more full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty positions to begin at the start of the 2023-24 academic year. We welcome applications from candidates in all subject areas and at all levels of seniority. However, we have especially strong needs in Health Law, Business/Commercial Law, American Indian & Indigenous Peoples Law, Immigration Law, and Telecommunications & Internet Law. We also have needs in Negotiation/Alternative Dispute Resolution, Race and the Law (broadly construed), Environmental/Natural Resources Law (with an emphasis on Energy Law), International Law, and Evidence. We are also very interested in candidates who can teach classes in the first-year curriculum, especially Tort Law, Criminal Law, and Constitutional Law.  We seek candidates with great potential for, and/or records of, both innovative scholarship and engaged teaching. Candidates must hold a J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school or equivalent degree in a related field.

We strongly encourage applications from people of color, women, individuals with disabilities, LGBTQ people, veterans, and others whose background, experience, and viewpoints would contribute to the diversity of our faculty. The University of Colorado Boulder is committed to building a culturally diverse community of faculty, staff, and students dedicated to contributing to an inclusive campus environment. We are an Equal Opportunity employer, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Application materials will not be accepted via email. For consideration, applications must be submitted through CU Boulder Jobs. For full consideration, candidates should apply by Sept. 1, 2022, although we recommend that you submit your materials as soon as possible.

For questions, please contact Professor Scott Skinner-Thompson, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee, [email protected], and/or Victoria Johnson, Faculty Affairs Program Manager, [email protected].

Today's Fan Mail

At 9:28 this morning, presumably in response to yesterday's column at Law & Crime:

You're supposed to be a professor and you still can't get it right you educated dumbass.  Either you are too stupid or too ignorant to understand the ruling.  All the SCOTUS said it that there is NO constitutional right to an abortion.  if you want to give women the right to chose, then add it to constitution otherwise it's up to the states you STUPID FUCKING LIBERAL IDIOT.  FUCK YOU

--Frank

Note: The column was about Kennedy v. Bremerton, the high school football coach prayer case, not Dobbs.

CFP for Law & Rurality Workshop

Workshop to be held at University of Nebraska Lincoln on October 21. Proposals are due 8/22. See attached for more information: Download CFP - 10.21.2022 Law and Rurality Workshop 

Maine Law Hiring Announcement

The University of Maine School of Law, in the thriving and increasingly diverse coastal community of Portland, Maine, invites applications for up to four full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty positions to begin in the Fall of 2023.  The Law School is particularly interested in candidates whose focus includes business law (and other transactional courses); civil procedure (and associated courses); criminal law (including criminal procedure); and property law (including land use and real estate transactions).  Other curricular needs include administrative law, environmental law, health law, and professional responsibility.  Candidates interested in clinical or experiential teaching in any one of these areas are also encouraged to apply.

Both lateral and entry level candidates will be considered.  Rank and salary will be competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience. Members of minority groups, women, and others whose background would contribute to the diversity of the Law School are encouraged to apply.  Information about Maine Law’s diversity initiatives can be found on our website.

Required:  Applicants must possess a J. D. degree or its equivalent, an excellent academic record, a record or promise of high scholarly achievement, and a record or promise of successful teaching and student mentoring.

Application materials must be submitted to the University of Maine System Hire Touch portal.   You will need to create an applicant profile, complete an application (which includes contact information for three professional references), and upload (1) a cover letter which fully describes your qualifications and experiences with specific reference to the qualifications, (2) a resume or c.v., and (3) a research agenda.  You will also need to complete the affirmative action survey, the self-identification of disability form, and the self-identification of veteran status form. 

Although the Appointments Committee will be participating this year in the AALS faculty recruitment process, we encourage interested candidates to submit their materials early and directly to us.  To ensure full consideration, we encourage you to submit materials by August 18, 2022. You may email any questions to [email protected]. Applications, however, must be submitted via Hire Touch.

Appropriate background screening will be conducted for the successful candidate.

The University of Maine System is an EEO/AA employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UNLV Law Seeks Entry and Lateral Faculty

This just in:

The William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, invites applications from both entry-level and lateral candidates for two tenure-track or tenured faculty positions expected to begin July 1, 2023. For these two positions, we seek creative and productive scholars: one with relevant expertise in teaching Legal Writing and one with experience teaching a live-client Clinic. Our faculty who teach legal writing or clinical courses are full members of our unified tenure system with all of the privileges and scholarly expectations associated with tenure; faculty who teach legal writing or clinical courses may teach a podium course as part of our standard 3-course teaching load. Subject matter needs for podium courses are broad and include, but are not limited to, business and commercial law, criminal law, evidence, and property. 

The William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV is a leading public law school founded on a commitment to public service and community engagement. With its nationally ranked Lawyering Process Program, Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution, and the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic, Boyd offers a dynamic curriculum designed to teach students critical thinking and lawyering skills. Boyd has an LL.M. in Gaming Law and Regulation and a variety of distinctive Programs in Health Law; Indian Nations Gaming and Governance; International, Transnational, and Comparative Law; and Race, Gender & Policing. Through its J.D. curriculum, students can pursue academic concentrations in Business and Commercial Law, Dispute Resolution, Health Law, Intellectual Property, and Workplace and Employment Law. The law school is located at the heart of the UNLV campus. UNLV is an R1 research university that is among the most diverse campuses in the nation and is also the state’s largest comprehensive doctoral degree granting institution with Schools of Business, Dental Medicine, Engineering, Hospitality, Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health, among many others.

 

Judicial Ethics and School Prayer

My new essay at Law & Crime, explains how the SCOTUS supermajority should have paid more attention to judicial ethics in their recent decision allowing prayer on the high school football field:

Supreme Court Should’ve Looked to Judicial Ethics Rules When Deciding High School Football Field Prayer Case

Steven Lubet Jul 5th, 2022, 12:05 pm

The recently completed U.S. Supreme Court term featured the sweeping handiwork of the new Republican supermajority, who upset long-standing precedents in pursuit of their conservative vision of American society. With the three liberal justices virtually always in dissent, the court eliminated women’s right to reproductive choice, restricted states’ abilities to enact gun control statutes, and crippled the federal government’s efforts to combat climate change. The majority justices were so keen to enhance the role of religion in public schools that they blew past an analogous principle of judicial ethics that every one of them had accepted in the past.

It might seem obvious that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause would prohibit a high school football coach from leading his students in Christian prayer while kneeling at midfield following a game. The coach, after all, is the epitome of an authority figure, with the sole and unreviewable power to decide which kids will get meaningful playing time and who will be recommended to college scouts. But that is exactly what Coach Joseph Kennedy did at Bremerton High School in Washington State, eventually attracting crowds of players from his own and even opposing teams. He refused to stop when ordered by the school board, which led to his firing. Kennedy took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the six-justice majority ruled in his favor in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, stating that Kennedy had been impermissibly punished “for engaging in a personal religious observance.”

But what about the rights of any non-Christian students who might have experienced silent pressure to join the prayer, or perhaps felt alienated or even outcast because they refrained? That is no concern of the court’s, according to Justice Neil Gorsuch‘s majority opinion, because the Bremerton School District “admitted that it possessed ‘no evidence that students have been directly coerced to pray with Kennedy.'” In other words, the coach’s discomfort over being told to pray off-field takes precedence over any students’ sense of religious intimidation or exclusion, so long as there is insufficient “evidence that coercion actually occurred.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor‘s dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer, clearly revealed the flaws in the majority’s “toothless version of the coercion analysis,” which failed to acknowledge the “unique pressures faced by students when participating in school-sponsored activities.” It should not have been necessary for the dissenters to explain that “indirect coercion” is a very real phenomenon in high schools, and that “subtle coercive pressures,” especially from teachers and coaches, may impel students to participate in religious activities “they might otherwise reject.” This is especially true in the case of a football coach, who is in a position to provide players with discretionary benefits, such as “extra playing time to a stronger letter of recommendation to additional support in college athletic recruiting.”

Twinette Johnson Named Acting Dean of UDC Law

The University of the District of Columbia has announced that Associate Dean Twinette Johnson will be the law school's acting dean effective August 1.  She replaces Renée Hutchins who is departing to lead Maryland Law.  Johnson, who joined UDC in 2017, holds a JD from Tulane and a Ph.D from Saint Louis University.

New Comment Policy

At the urging of readers, I have adopted a new comment policy, effective immediately. Following the lead of law blogs such as Prawfs, Dorf, Balkinization, and Leiter, as well as general interest sites such as CNN.com and The Hill, comments will be closed on most political, legal education, and law-oriented posts (with occasional exceptions).

Comments on the Saturday music blogs will remain open for the time being, as they have been mostly (but not entirely) free of the whiny, humorless, repetitive, trollish comments that have prompted so many complaints. Comments on music posts will continue to be subject to the previously announced policy.

Happy Fourth 2022

Stars and Stripes Forever

And here is Guy Van Duser himself, demonstrating just how difficult his arrangement is to play:

94 piccolos

No piccolos (marimbas instead)

Note: the story that fifteen year old Bob Heft designed the current 50-star flag in 1959 (in a caption above) is apocryphal.

Guitar duet

 

And here is Guy Van Duser himself, demonstrating just how difficult his arrangement is to play:

94 piccolos

No piccolos (marimbas instead)

Note: the story that fifteen year old Bob Heft designed the current 50-star flag in 1959 (in a caption above) is apocryphal.

Guitar duet