The Faculty Lounge

St. James Infirmary UPDATED

"St. James Infirmary" is an old song of unknown origin, famously recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1928 and covered countless times since then. There have been several conflicting authorship and copyright claims. The song is sometimes called "St. James Infirmary Blues," although it is atypically eight bars, rather than twelve, and in a minor key. There are more than the usual number of audio-only clips, mostly at the bottom of this post, because I found some classic performances that I could not bring myself to omit. (h/t WSK)

UPDATED with clips of Jon Batiste and Jack Teagarden.

University of Florida Law & J School Seek Media Law Scholar

This just in:

The Opportunity

The College of Journalism and Communications and the Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida, ranked number five nationally among public universities, invites applications from established teacher-scholars with demonstrated and sustained excellence in media law, communications law, and/or First Amendment law, broadly defined. This is a nine-month, tenured professor position with the title of Eminent Scholar, open to candidates who already have or will have earned a terminal degree before August 2023.

Hiring Announcement: Queen's University

From an email message that I recently received:

The Faculty of Law at Queen’s University is seeking qualified candidates for two tenure-stream appointments, to begin July 1, 2023.  We welcome applicants in all areas of legal study, though wish to signal a special interest in receiving applications in the areas of:

• Business Law including Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, Commercial Law, Competition Law, International Investment Law, Law & Technology, and Tax Law
• Family Law
• Indigenous Law and Legal Traditions
• Legal Theory
• Public Law including Environmental and Climate Law, Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Law, and Land and Natural Resource Law

The full job posting can be found on the Faculty of Law website at: https://law.queensu.ca/sites/lawwww/files/files/HR/2022-09-27_JobPosting_AssistantorAssociate_FINAL.pdf

The application deadline is November 25, 2022.

Call for Entries: Law Professor Twitter Census 2022-2023 Edition

Bumping to the top 10/5/22. Deadline to add entries is 10/6/22, 5pm Eastern

If you'd like to be listed in the semi-regular census of law professor Twitter users (or confirm that you are listed already), please read on.

It’s been about one year since the last Law Prof Twitter Census here at the Lounge. Prior surveys are here (2012), here (2012), here (2015),  here (2018),  here (2019),  here (2020) and here (2021).

As with prior versions, the list is meant to cover individual law professor tweeters only (not accounts of groups, programs, blogs, law schools, print publications, students, practitioners, staff).  Folks should be full-time law school faculty members (not, say, law-trained profs working in business schools or lawyers working in law schools in roles other than full-time faculty). Law profs outside the U.S. very, very welcome. Anonymous and pseudonymous accounts are not eligible for inclusion.

The downloadable, sortable spreadsheet can be edited directly by accessing this link. If you’d like to add your name, or if you would like to add to or modify your existing listing in census, the census calls for:

(a) Your name

(b) Your Twitter handle

(c) Your school affiliation

(d) Up to three subject-matter areas of interest that related to your teaching, scholarship or tweeting.

Here are customary responses to some anticipated questions from inquiring minds who want to know:

1.  How was the census developed?

The list is based on previous censuses. I have added or deleted very few names myself, based on law prof accounts that I have happened to encounter (typically because they follow me on Twitter or I follow them) or if I knew someone had changed schools, left the academy, etc. I have made no concerted effort to update the list myself.

2.  How accurate is the census?

Not at all.

If there are corrections, additions, etc., please feel free to make them directly to the spreadsheet.  As a last resort, you can email me directly at bcrawford at law dot pace dot edu.  The deadline for changes is October 6, 2022, 5pm eastern. I'll republish again shortly thereafter via posting here on the Lounge, and then not again until next year, most likely.

3. Why isn't my information listed in the census? Why isn't my colleague's information listed?

The census relies almost exclusively on self-identification. To be included in the list, you must actively add yourself to it.

4. Why is your list limited to full-time law school faculty members?

Because that's the population about which I wanted to capture data. Want a different survey? A better one? Feel free to start one, and I'm happy to publicize it here, if relevant to legal education.

The current census is embedded below, too (but edit via links above).

Bumping to the top 10/5/22. Deadline to add entries is 10/6/22, 5pm Eastern

If you'd like to be listed in the semi-regular census of law professor Twitter users (or confirm that you are listed already), please read on.

It’s been about one year since the last Law Prof Twitter Census here at the Lounge. Prior surveys are here (2012), here (2012), here (2015),  here (2018),  here (2019),  here (2020) and here (2021).

As with prior versions, the list is meant to cover individual law professor tweeters only (not accounts of groups, programs, blogs, law schools, print publications, students, practitioners, staff).  Folks should be full-time law school faculty members (not, say, law-trained profs working in business schools or lawyers working in law schools in roles other than full-time faculty). Law profs outside the U.S. very, very welcome. Anonymous and pseudonymous accounts are not eligible for inclusion.

The downloadable, sortable spreadsheet can be edited directly by accessing this link. If you’d like to add your name, or if you would like to add to or modify your existing listing in census, the census calls for:

(a) Your name

(b) Your Twitter handle

(c) Your school affiliation

(d) Up to three subject-matter areas of interest that related to your teaching, scholarship or tweeting.

Here are customary responses to some anticipated questions from inquiring minds who want to know:

1.  How was the census developed?

The list is based on previous censuses. I have added or deleted very few names myself, based on law prof accounts that I have happened to encounter (typically because they follow me on Twitter or I follow them) or if I knew someone had changed schools, left the academy, etc. I have made no concerted effort to update the list myself.

2.  How accurate is the census?

Not at all.

If there are corrections, additions, etc., please feel free to make them directly to the spreadsheet.  As a last resort, you can email me directly at bcrawford at law dot pace dot edu.  The deadline for changes is October 6, 2022, 5pm eastern. I'll republish again shortly thereafter via posting here on the Lounge, and then not again until next year, most likely.

3. Why isn't my information listed in the census? Why isn't my colleague's information listed?

The census relies almost exclusively on self-identification. To be included in the list, you must actively add yourself to it.

4. Why is your list limited to full-time law school faculty members?

Because that's the population about which I wanted to capture data. Want a different survey? A better one? Feel free to start one, and I'm happy to publicize it here, if relevant to legal education.

The current census is embedded below, too (but edit via links above).

Bumping to the top 10/5/22. Deadline to add entries is 10/6/22, 5pm Eastern

If you'd like to be listed in the semi-regular census of law professor Twitter users (or confirm that you are listed already), please read on.

It’s been about one year since the last Law Prof Twitter Census here at the Lounge. Prior surveys are here (2012), here (2012), here (2015),  here (2018),  here (2019),  here (2020) and here (2021).

As with prior versions, the list is meant to cover individual law professor tweeters only (not accounts of groups, programs, blogs, law schools, print publications, students, practitioners, staff).  Folks should be full-time law school faculty members (not, say, law-trained profs working in business schools or lawyers working in law schools in roles other than full-time faculty). Law profs outside the U.S. very, very welcome. Anonymous and pseudonymous accounts are not eligible for inclusion.

The downloadable, sortable spreadsheet can be edited directly by accessing this link. If you’d like to add your name, or if you would like to add to or modify your existing listing in census, the census calls for:

(a) Your name

(b) Your Twitter handle

(c) Your school affiliation

(d) Up to three subject-matter areas of interest that related to your teaching, scholarship or tweeting.

Here are customary responses to some anticipated questions from inquiring minds who want to know:

1.  How was the census developed?

The list is based on previous censuses. I have added or deleted very few names myself, based on law prof accounts that I have happened to encounter (typically because they follow me on Twitter or I follow them) or if I knew someone had changed schools, left the academy, etc. I have made no concerted effort to update the list myself.

2.  How accurate is the census?

Not at all.

If there are corrections, additions, etc., please feel free to make them directly to the spreadsheet.  As a last resort, you can email me directly at bcrawford at law dot pace dot edu.  The deadline for changes is October 6, 2022, 5pm eastern. I'll republish again shortly thereafter via posting here on the Lounge, and then not again until next year, most likely.

3. Why isn't my information listed in the census? Why isn't my colleague's information listed?

The census relies almost exclusively on self-identification. To be included in the list, you must actively add yourself to it.

4. Why is your list limited to full-time law school faculty members?

Because that's the population about which I wanted to capture data. Want a different survey? A better one? Feel free to start one, and I'm happy to publicize it here, if relevant to legal education.

The current census is embedded below, too (but edit via links above).

Bumping to the top 10/5/22. Deadline to add entries is 10/6/22, 5pm Eastern

If you'd like to be listed in the semi-regular census of law professor Twitter users (or confirm that you are listed already), please read on.

It’s been about one year since the last Law Prof Twitter Census here at the Lounge. Prior surveys are here (2012), here (2012), here (2015),  here (2018),  here (2019),  here (2020) and here (2021).

As with prior versions, the list is meant to cover individual law professor tweeters only (not accounts of groups, programs, blogs, law schools, print publications, students, practitioners, staff).  Folks should be full-time law school faculty members (not, say, law-trained profs working in business schools or lawyers working in law schools in roles other than full-time faculty). Law profs outside the U.S. very, very welcome. Anonymous and pseudonymous accounts are not eligible for inclusion.

The downloadable, sortable spreadsheet can be edited directly by accessing this link. If you’d like to add your name, or if you would like to add to or modify your existing listing in census, the census calls for:

(a) Your name

(b) Your Twitter handle

(c) Your school affiliation

(d) Up to three subject-matter areas of interest that related to your teaching, scholarship or tweeting.

Here are customary responses to some anticipated questions from inquiring minds who want to know:

1.  How was the census developed?

The list is based on previous censuses. I have added or deleted very few names myself, based on law prof accounts that I have happened to encounter (typically because they follow me on Twitter or I follow them) or if I knew someone had changed schools, left the academy, etc. I have made no concerted effort to update the list myself.

2.  How accurate is the census?

Not at all.

If there are corrections, additions, etc., please feel free to make them directly to the spreadsheet.  As a last resort, you can email me directly at bcrawford at law dot pace dot edu.  The deadline for changes is October 6, 2022, 5pm eastern. I'll republish again shortly thereafter via posting here on the Lounge, and then not again until next year, most likely.

3. Why isn't my information listed in the census? Why isn't my colleague's information listed?

The census relies almost exclusively on self-identification. To be included in the list, you must actively add yourself to it.

4. Why is your list limited to full-time law school faculty members?

Because that's the population about which I wanted to capture data. Want a different survey? A better one? Feel free to start one, and I'm happy to publicize it here, if relevant to legal education.

The current census is embedded below, too (but edit via links above).

Oklahoma Law Seeks Chair in Oil, Gas and Natural Resources

This just in:

The University of Oklahoma College of Law announces that applications and nominations are being accepted for the EUGENE KUNTZ CHAIR OF LAW IN OIL, GAS, AND NATURAL RESOURCES.

The Eugene Kuntz Chair is named after an OU professor who achieved legendary status in the field of oil and gas law. Funding for the Kuntz Chair is provided by gifts from former students, friends, and the family of Eugene Kuntz. OU, with support from the Kuntz Chair endowment, offers a competitive salary plus significant support for research and travel. The Kuntz Chair was most recently held by internationally renowned scholar and OU Professor Emeritus Owen L. Anderson.

 

Faulkner Law Seeks Faculty

This just in:

 

Faulkner University's Thomas Goode Jones School of Law (Montgomery, AL) invites entry-level or junior-level applications for a tenure-track faculty position, beginning in Fall 2023.  The law school welcomes applications from candidates across all areas of the law; however, the law school's primary hiring interests are Criminal Law and Procedure.  Materials should be submitted online at faulkner.applicantpro.com/jobs.  Questions may be addressed to Professor Andy Olree at [email protected].

 

Faulkner University's Thomas Goode Jones School of Law (Montgomery, AL) invites applications for a clinical faculty position overseeing the school's Mediation Clinic, beginning in Fall 2023.  The school is particularly interested in candidates with practical experience and academic interest in dispute resolution models.  Materials should be submitted online at faulkner.applicantpro.com/jobs.  Questions may be addressed to Professor Andy Olree at [email protected].

 

Taboo Trades Podcast: Breach By Violence—Sharecropper Litigation with Brittany Farr

In this episode, UVA Law 3L Marley Peters and I interview Brittany Farr, Assistant Professor of Law at NYU School of Law. Farr is a scholar of private law and race. With more than a decade of interdisciplinary training, her research draws on history, legal theory, and cultural studies to theorize how marginalized populations have availed themselves of otherwise inhospitable legal regimes. In particular, her research focuses on enslaved and free African Americans’ use of contract law during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and interrogates the ways in which contract law mediated African Americans’ relationship to bodily autonomy, economic freedom, and legal agency both during and after slavery. 

We’re discussing her article, Breach By Violence, forthcoming in the UCLA Law Review, which analyzes the use of private law by sharecroppers and tenant farmers in the Jim Crow South to address violent breaches of contract by landlords. 

 

 

Brittany Farr NYU Homepage: https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.overview&personid=57053

Interview with Samuel James (S. J.) and Leonia Farrar, May 28, 2003.
Interview K-0652. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007). https://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/playback.html?base_file=K-0652&duration=01:29:20

Oral history with 84 year old black female, Joiner, Arkansas https://www.loc.gov/item/afccal000030

Rushdie Redux

I have a new piece at Real Clear Politics, following up on Prof. Nader Hashemi’s theory, as expanded in his recent essay, of Mossad responsibility for the Rushdie stabbing. Here is the gist.

Real Clear Politics 

Rushdie Attack Births New Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theory

By Steven Lubet

October 01, 2022

Anti-Jewish conspiracy theories never die; they simply assume new forms and content. A surprising iteration of this phenomenon recently surfaced when a prominent university professor suggested that the life-threatening attack on the novelist Salmon Rushdie was part of an Israeli intrigue.

In an interview on the Iran Podcast, Hashemi speculated about several ways Matar might have been prompted to attack Rushdie, before opining it was “much more likely” that Matar had been “lured” into action by a “Mossad operative” posing as someone “affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Hashemi then expounded on purportedly “corroborating evidence [of] an Israeli link.” He began with Israel’s “long history of covert activity across the Middle East, including false flag operations” such as the “Lavon Affair in Egypt in 1954.” He pointed out that “Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world,” and noted the Mossad’s many “covert action[s] against important nuclear and economic sites within Iran.”

None of Hashemi’s professed evidence – conflating covert and false flag operations, the latter having occurred almost 70 years ago – is remotely connected to the Rushdie stabbing in time, location, or modus operandi.

In fact, Hashemi’s invented story follows the format of a classic conspiracy theory, stitching together a few random facts, tying them to a fantasized plot, and insisting that the “corroborating evidence” makes logical sense.

In an earlier article, I wrote that Hashemi was no doubt a person of good will, with no ill intentions. I hope I was not wrong. To his credit, Hashemi appears truly saddened to be associated with antisemitism. On the other hand, he does not even try to understand why so many Jews were offended by his baseless speculation. Instead, he assails “orchestrated campaigns of defamation, slander, and intimidation for offering an opinion.”

Hashemi does not believe he is a conspiracist, but what other word is there for someone who imagines “orchestrated campaigns” with ulterior motives behind every reproach?

You can read the entire piece at Real Clear Politics.

George Washington University Law School Seeks Senior First Amendment Scholar

This just in:

The George Washington University Law School seeks to hire a nationally prominent scholar to fill the newly created Bobby Burchfield Professorship of First Amendment and Free Speech Law, a tenured appointment starting as early as Fall 2023.

The University and Law School have a strong commitment to achieving diversity among faculty and staff. We are particularly interested in receiving applications from members of underrepresented groups and strongly encourage women, persons of color, and LGBTQ candidates to apply for this position.

Minimum Qualifications:

Applicants must possess a J.D. degree or an advanced degree in a relevant field and have relevant experience such as teaching, legal practice, or judicial clerkships. Applicants must have achieved national prominence in the field and show continued scholarly promise, evidenced by publications in scholarly journals or scholarly works in progress.

Application Procedure:

Complete an online faculty application at https://www.gwu.jobs/postings/95619 and upload a cover letter indicating the area of interest with a current c.v., including a list of references.

Please email questions to [email protected]. Review of applications will begin September 30, 2022 and continue until the position is filled. Only complete applications submitted through GW’s online system will be considered.

Employment offers are contingent on the satisfactory outcome of a standard background screening.

The university is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer that does not unlawfully discriminate in any of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity expression, or on any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

Trump and Tyler

NBC News has posted my short explanation of the thinking behind my essay on Donald Trump and John Tyler:

What Steven Lubet was THINKing about this week when he wrote:  Donald Trump is not the worst U.S. ex-president — yet When you think of which former U.S. president gets compared to Donald Trump the most, who comes to mind? Most likely Richard Nixon. Andrew Jackson perhaps comes in a close second. As a historian of the abolitionist legal movement, I wanted to add another name to the mix: John Tyler. I have long been aware of Tyler’s dishonorable choice to join the Confederacy, thus making him the only former president to have actually betrayed his country. But I thought perhaps a more general interest audience would find the history fascinating, particularly since the word “unprecedented” has been attached to Trump a lot. Before I heard Trump vowing to issue pardons to Capitol rioters if re-elected, I would not have compared him with Tyler. Trump was a terrible president, but not a disloyal one – until the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection, and even then it seemed to me that he could claim to have operated at least within the nominal bounds of the law. The Constitution defines treason against the U.S., in slightly archaic language, as “levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Tyler was unique in doing just that, and Trump has now been flirting with it. Historical analogies can sometimes have great explanatory force, and I hoped this would be one such occasion. Steven Lubet is the Williams Memorial Professor at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.