Three recent events have added a new wrinkle to a debate that has been taking place among legal scholars: what, if anything, does it mean to be both a Catholic and a Supreme Court Justice?
First, the confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor has added a sixth practicing Catholic to the Supreme Court. As a proportion of the Court’s membership, Catholics on the Court currently exceed their proportionate representation in the general public by a significant amount. This is an astonishing historical fact, although its significance is not self-evident.
Second, Frank Colucci’s book, Justice Kennedy’s Jurisprudence, was recently reviewed in the Wall Street Journal by Northwestern University Law School Professor John McGinnis. Apparently, Mr. Colucci does not adhere to the conventional wisdom that Justice Kennedy is an unpredictable jurist whose primary concerns are the aggrandizement of the Supreme Court and the divination of narrow, fact-based holdings. Instead, and somewhat unexpectedly, Corlucci argues that Justice Kennedy’s approach to the interpretation of the Constitution is best understood as seeking to advance a moral imperative.
Justice Kennedy’s objective, according to Corlucci, is to vindicate and preserve an ever ... Read more..
Archive for August, 2009
“Till death do us part, in richer and in poorer, in sickness and in health” – sound familiar?
Of course it does, this being the standard for wedding vows, the verbiage of marital commitment and a decree of unity which is suppose to outline the future. In today’s world of “two out four marriages ending in divorce,” someone might want to add a standard to this, such as “with a low TransUnion score, in mortgage denial and high APR, and in credit distress.”
Maybe this would help those who either marry into a partnership of credit foul or become one of the “two” of the “four” that find themselves navigating divorce. And then there are those who have great credit, only to find that also separated from them at the time of their marital collapse, they are divorced of their high credit worthiness, or are in a state of splitsville from the ability to secure a loan.
This is not to say that in contemplating divorce that the two should consider how their credit will be effected and possibly stay together for the ... Read more..
Since separate state and federal prosecutions are permissible for the same criminal act, federal law appropriately permits district judges to impose federal sentences so that they run concurrently with states sentences; that way, defendants can be protected from what would otherwise amount to double punishment for the same crime. But what if federal prosecution is delayed, and the state sentence has already been served by the time sentencing occurs in federal court? The federal sentence cannot be made concurrent in those circumstances. Is it permissible then for the district judge to reduce the federal sentence length in light of the missed opportunity for a concurrent sentence?
At least three circuits have answered the question in the affirmative, but the Seventh Circuit has not yet provided its answer. Last week, though, the court came close, holding in United States v. Villegas-Miranda (No. 08-2308) (Williams, J.) that district judges must at least respond when a “consecutive sentences” argument is one of a defendant’s principal arguments for a reduced sentence.
Villegas-Miranda follows in a very interesting line of cases from United States v. Cunningham, 429 F.3d 673 (7th Cir. 2005), ... Read more..
Domestic violence has always been a difficult issue, says Broward criminal attorney William Moore. Until relatively recently, violence within the home had little or nothing to do with the criminal justice system. Violence that occurred behind closed doors was not a topic for public discussion and police were infrequently involved in domestic disputes, according to Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer Moore.
During the past 20 to 30 years, that attitude has changed greatly, says Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney Moore. Rather than simply ignoring the problem, some states have enacted laws that says law enforcement agencies must separate a couple if they are called to a domestic disturbance – which usually means taking one to jail.
In cases where both people allege that they were attacked by the other, the law enforcement officers responding to the scene attempt to weigh the available evidence to determine which party was the aggressor or who inflicted the most damage. This evaluation includes figuring out which party, if any, has visible injuries and the extent of those injuries. Law enforcement officers ... Read more..
Mitch Rubinstein from Adjunct Law Prof Blog writes to me that, “this is a bit different, but I think readers may be interested in this posting about the Pope’s encyclical supporting unions.” Here’s the post and a taste of Caritas in Veritate, issued on June 29, 2009:
While reflecting on the theme of work, it is appropriate to recall how important it is that labour unions — which have always been encouraged and supported by the Church — should be open to the new perspectives that are emerging in the world of work. Looking to wider concerns than the specific category of labour for which they were formed, union organizations are called to address some of the new questions arising in our society: I am thinking, for example, of the complex of issues that social scientists describe in terms of a conflict between worker and consumer. Without necessarily endorsing the thesis that the central focus on the worker has given way to a central focus on the consumer, this would still appear to constitute new ground for unions to explore ... Read more..
