Shortly after John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, President Andrew Johnson directed that Boothโs alleged coconspirators be tried in a makeshift military tribunal, rather than in the Article III court that was open for business just a few blocks from Fordโs Theatre. Johnsonโs decision implicated a fundamental constituยญtional question that was heatedly debated throughout the Civil War: When, if ever, may the federal...
Issue Archives
Employers seeking to test job applicants for strength or speed while adhering to the mandates of Title VII often use gender-normed physical-ability tests. Gender-normed tests set different raw cutoffs for male and female applicants such that each class would be expected to have roughยญly equal pass rates. This practice has helped employersโespecially law enforcement agenciesโretain physical hiring standards while mitiยญgating their disparate...
The 2016 presidential election was one of the most divisive in reยญcent memory, but it produced a surprising bipartisan consensus. Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders all agreed that U.S. trade agreements should be, but are not, โfair.โ Although it...
Professor Robert Ferguson enriched all of our lives. The man lived by and luxuriated in words. They are important to all of us, but they had a particularly magical significance to Robert. He chose them carefully, crafted their construction, and gloried in their rhythm. He encouraged all of usโhis colleagues, students, friends, and […]
โBut always, always, / A man must wait the final day, and no man / Should ever be called happy before burial.โ So warns the narrator of Ovidโs Metamorphoses, in recounting how Cadmus founded Thebes. This dark pronouncement underscores the caprice of fate, to which Cadmus himself would fall prey. Were Robert Ferguson here, […]
Introduction President Donald Trump has quickly marshalled the powers of the presidency to challenge President Barack Obamaโs environmental legacy. Facing an increasingly intransigent Congress, the Obama Administration placed significant emphasis on rulemaking and other administrative actions to push its progressive agenda. Whatever the merits of this approach, many of these actions are not safe from […]
County of Los Angeles v. Mendez, the Supreme Courtโs recent decision rejecting shooting victimsโ excessive force claims, has been written off as yet another case in which police violence has no civil rights consequences. The Court found that the deputies who shot Jennifer Garcia and Angel Mendez fifteen times used reasonable force because Mendez was holding a BB gun. But the deputies barged in on Garcia and Mendez while they were napping...
Early in 2013, in the midst of interviews conducted by several upstate bar associations reviewing candidates for a seat on the New York Court of Appeals, I sat down at lunch and met Sheila Abdus-Salaam. I was not in my element, and Iโm sure she noticed that when she decided to sit next to […]
Our lives are measured by the impact we have on the lives of others. We are valued when we labor not for ourselves alone, but with an eye toward building a world better than the one we have known. By that measure, Sheila was a giant. She inspired us with her vision and brightยญened […]
Historically, the legal system justified family lawโs rules and policies through morality, common sense, and prevailing cultural norms. In a sharp departure, and consistent with a broader trend across the legal system, empirical evidence increasingly dominates the regulation of families.
There is much to celebrate in this empirical turn. Properly used, empirical evidence in family law can help the state act more effectively and efficiently,...