Mary Ellen O’Connell, Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law, applauded yesterday’s announcement that the Justice Department would move the case of the only enemy combatant to be held on American soil, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, into a civilian criminal court. Read More

The Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision today (Feb. 25, 2009) in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum states that the government, when speaking on behalf of itself, is allowed to control its own message, and is not necessarily required to invite private speakers to join the conversation. “The Free Speech Clause, in other words, prevents the government from regulating or discriminating against private expression; it does not regulate the content of the government’s own speech,” explains Notre Dame Professor of Law Richard Garnett. Read More

The Supreme Court decided today that Pleasant Grove, Utah, is not legally required to permit a religious group to erect a display in a city park which already features a monument to the Ten Commandments. Read More

Notre Dame Professor of Law Richard Garnett participates in Villanova University School of Law’s third annual John F. Scarpa Conference on Law, Politics, and Culture today, Feb. 19. The conference title is “Liberty of Conscience and Religious Equality.” Read More

Prof. Paolo Carozza, president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), was in Strasbourg on Jan. 30 at the invitation of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to deliver remarks on the occasion of the Court’s 50th anniversary. Read More

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies will present the prestigious Paul M. Bator Award to Notre Dame Professor of Law Nicole Garnett. The award recognizes a young academic—under the age of 40— who has demonstrated excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact. Read More

According to Notre Dame Professor of Law Richard Garnett, President Obama’s decision to continue allowing faith-based agencies to receive public funds for their social-welfare services is welcome and correct. Garnett praised the President for rejecting the argument of some of his supporters that this policy violates the Constitution’s religious-freedom guarantees. Writes Garnett: Read More

Wolfgang Kaleck, a German human rights lawyer, will discuss the cases he has filed in German and French courts against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials for their roles in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. His presentation, “The Case for War Crimes Prosecution of Donald Rumsfeld et al.,” is Tuesday, Feb. 10 at noon in room 1130. Read More

Six 2L and 3L students will engage in pro bono work in Appalachia over spring break, March 8-14. The Law School’s Pro Bono at Notre Dame Program organized the trip in conjunction with the Appalachia Seminar of the Notre Dame Center for Social Concerns.

Law students will work with the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky (AppalReD)—the umbrella legal services organization for Eastern Kentucky—to implement a pilot program of legal assistance to pro se litigants in various Eastern Kentucky counties. Students will travel to several counties where they will meet with AppalReD clients—under the direction of AppalReD attorneys—to provide legal information and to help clients prepare pleadings to file in Kentucky courts, primarily in family law cases. Read More