Margaret M. (“Peggy”) J.D. ’79, has been given a warm tribute by the quarterly journal Directors & Boards.

The special feature article called Foran, the chief governance officer and corporate secretary of Prudential Financial, “the rare individual who has earned the respect of all constituencies in the ongoing governance debates.” Read More

The University of Notre Dame has been selected as the U.S. partner in a British Leverhulme Trust initiative to take part in an international network considering the intersection of families and the state from interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives.

Professor Margaret Brinig, the Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law, has been asked by the British participants to direct and organize the third of the project’s four workshops. In making the appointment, the Trust noted that Professor Brinig is well known for her interdisciplinary and empirical focus and for her experience in international family law organizations. The workshop will take place at Notre Dame and involve principals from the U.K. and Australia as well as a number of scholars from Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters and family law experts from around the U.S. to be selected by Professor Brinig. Read More

Since joining NDLS in 2000, Bellia has become well known to students for teaching popular courses in Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, and Cyberlaw, and to colleagues for being among the faculty’s best scholars (she has published numerous articles on Internet law and separation of powers and is the co-author of a leading cyberlaw casebook).

Perhaps less well known is that she is also in her third year as the University’s Faculty Athletics Representative to the NCAA and Chair of the University’s 15-member Faculty Board on Athletics. In that role, Bellia oversees the principal advisory group to the President on educational issues related to intercollegiate athletics. She also works closely with the football, volleyball, and women’s tennis programs as each team’s faculty liaison.

To recognize her for outstanding contributions to the academic performance of Notre Dame student-athletes, athletics director Jack Swarbrick surprised Bellia with an honorary Monogram at the Notre Dame Football Awards Show December 9 in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

Joining Swarbrick on stage for the presentation were Monogram Club president Dick Nussbaum (‘74, ’77), executive director Beth Hunter, Bellia’s husband, A.J., and daughters, Kate and Molly. > Read More Read More

Professor Donald Kommers has been awarded a yearlong Emeritus Fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study Germany’s postwar constitutional order.

The Emeritus Fellowships honor faculty across the United States who, after their official retirements, continue “active and productive” scholarship in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

Professor Kommers’ project will examine the country’s constitution, called the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, within the framework of Germany’s political development from 1949 to the present. > Read the full story Read More

The insanity defense: Defendants in two high-profile local cases to make an argument lawyers say rarely wins (Quoting Jimmy Gurulé) South Bend Tribune, December 10, 2011 Read More

Professor Paolo Carozza participated in the Second Seminar of the Catholic-Muslim Forum on November 21 – 23, held at the site of Jesus’ baptism in Jordan.

Carozza was one of 24 Catholics invited to attend the seminar by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, headed by Cardinal Jean-François Tauran. Twenty-four prominent Muslim religious leaders and scholars also attended, led by H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan.

The First Seminar, whose theme was “Love of God, Love of Neighbour: The Dignity of the Human Person and Mutual Respect,” took place in Rome in 2008. This year’s theme was “Reason, Faith, and the Human Person.” > Read More Read More

Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell has agreed to participate in a bipartisan, off-the-record, bicameral staff briefing in the Capitol Visitor Center on the use of armed drones in conflict areas. At the December 9 briefing, Prof. O’Connell will be asked to discuss the current use of drones, the legal and ethical ramifications of the technology’s use, and the future of drone warfare from a strategic and moral perspective. Read More

Professor O. Carter Snead will discuss his essay "Cognitive Neuroscience and the Future of Punishment" at a Judicial Issues Forum at the Brookings Institution December 13 at 10 a.m.

To examine the challenge of adapting our constitutional values to future technology that was unimaginable at the time of the nation’s founding, the conference will consider the scenarios posed by Professor Snead and other contributors to the book Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change (Brookings Institution Press, 2011). Read More Read More

Sofía Galván Puente, a 2009 graduate of Notre Dame Law School’s LL.M. degree program in international human rights law, will receive the National Youth Award of 2011 for Human Rights. The award recognizes Mexican youth “whose career trajectory, commitment, or study brings honor to their generation and inspires individual or community progress.” Mexican President Felipe Calderon will personally present Ms. Galván with the award, a gold medal, in December 2011. Read More

Ophelia Camiña, J.D. ’82, is the subject of a feature story in the 2011 Texas Super Lawyers Magazine. Ms. Camiña, who took trial advocacy with Professor James Seckinger, is now a partner with Susman Godfrey LLP, where she specializes in business litigation.

The magazine profile notes that Ms. Camiña’s trial victories include Dilliard’s v. i2 Technologies, Inc. The $238 million jury verdict awarded in that case ranks among the Top 10 Jury Verdicts in the United States for 2010. Read More

Julie Veldman, J.D. ’11, and Carolyn Wendel, J.D. ’11, have joined Barnes & Thornburg LLP’s Chicago, Ill., office. Read More

Why contraception mandate should be scrapped — (Opinion: by Richard Garnett) USA Today, November 27, 2011 Read More

Thomas, Kagan asked to sit out health care case — (quotes: Richard Garnett) AP, November 26, 2011 Read More

The NBA Players Could Win – But it isn’t Likely
Forbes
Also, notes antitrust expert Joseph Bauer, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, part of the players’ suit was filed in California’s 9th Circuit, Read More

NBA lockout: Law professor predicts players’ union to file more …
Los Angeles Times
Below are excepts of an interview with Notre Dame law professor Joseph Bauer on the NBA players’ union filing antitrust lawsuits against the league. Read More

Supreme Court Takes On Obamacare Challenge – Forbes
Source: forbes.com

The Supreme Court takes on the case of whether Obamacare is constitutional, with all of its political ramifications. Read More

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will deliver the keynote address during a day-long symposium titled "Educational Innovation and the Law" to be held at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 18 (Friday) in the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom at the Notre Dame Law School. The symposium is free and open to the public, but tickets are required for the keynote address. Ticketing information is available on the Forum website, where the keynote will also be streamed live.

The event is part of the 2011-12 Notre Dame Forum, "Reimagining School: To Nurture the Soul of a Nation," a year-long discussion of the profound and challenging questions that shape the national debate about K-12 education. Read More

Professor Richard W. Garnett has been appointed as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty. The Committee is updating the bishops on religious liberty issues at the Conference’s November 14-16 meeting in Baltimore. More information about the Committee on Religious Liberty is available here. Read More

Summer 2011 Research Interns with the Program on Law and Human Development (PLHD) described their experiences conducting research on “Migration, Law and Human Development” at a law school event November 2. Read More

The Program on Church, State, and Society is presenting a talk by Penn State Law School Professor David Flatto on the Trial of Herod/Jannaeus and its effects on Jewish conceptions of law and power.
The discussion, entitled “Struggling for Justice: Law’s confrontation with Political Power in Narratives of Post-Biblical Literature,” will be held on Thursday, November 10, at 4:30 p.m. in Biolchini Room 1315. Read More

The Hon. William H. Pryor Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit will deliver remarks on Friday October 28 at 12:30 p.m. in Room 1140. Judge Pryor will speak about “The Unbearable Rightness of Marbury v. Madison: Its Real Lessons and Irrepressible Myths.” He will be introduced by Professor O. Carter Snead. This Federalist Society event is open to the public and free Chick-Fil-A will be served. Read More

What Will Be the Outcome of Catholic Answers vs. IRS?
National Catholic Register (also published at Catholic News Agnecy)
However, the lawsuit’s success is “highly unlikely,” said Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a University of Notre Dame Law School professor. Read More

Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell is speaking on "Peace as a Global Public Good" at a global public goods symposium in San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy. The October 24 symposium, “Public Goods and the Plurality of Legal Orders,” is organized by the European Society of International Law, the American Society of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, and the HiiL Project on Private Transnational Regulatory Regimes. > Read More Read More

O. Carter Snead, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed the W.P. and H.B. White Director of the University’s Center for Ethics and Culture (CEC) by John McGreevy, I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters.

A member of the Notre Dame Law School faculty since 2005, Snead will succeed W. David Solomon, associate professor of philosophy, effective July 1. Read More

Prof. Lloyd Mayer was quoted in the NY Times on October 12, 2011 in the article As Anti-Climate Group’s Activities Rise, So Do Questions About Its Secret Finances Read More

Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, is urgently concerned with the reform of the nation’s immigration policy, and he wants Catholic college and university students to be as concerned as he is.

Speaking with nearly 100 students and faculty members in the auditorium of Notre Dame’s Eck Hall of Law last week, Cardinal Mahony insisted that America’s 220 Catholic colleges and universities and the 800,000 students enrolled in them have a crucial role to play in immigration reform. Read More

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades celebrated the Red Mass in the Basilica on Monday October 10. The Red Mass is an annual Mass for those of all faiths working in law and politics and is open to the public. Read More

Sean O’Brien, assistant director of the NDLS Center for Civil and Human Rights, moderated a panel discussion on the history and significance of civil rights memorials October 11 at Indiana University South Bend’s Civil Rights Heritage Center, 1040 W. Washington St.

On the panel were NDLS Professor Douglass Cassel; the chair of Notre Dame’s Department of American Studies, Prof. Erika Doss; Notre Dame Professor of Spanish Carlos Jerez-Farrán; and the director of the Civil Rights Heritage Center at the Natatorium, IUSB Assistant Professor of Sociology Kevin Lamarr James. Read More

Obama’s lawyers bid to regulate religious hiring
Yahoo! News
The department “is going against what almost every court has decided … it has taken an outlier position,” said Richard Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law & Religion at Emory University. Read More

As the U.S. Supreme Court opens its October 2011 term, there is intense focus on several high-profile cases and questions the justices are likely to tackle later, including those involving affirmative action, health-care reform and immigration policy. However, according to Notre Dame Law School Professor Rick Garnett, the court is already set to hear, during this first week of the new term, one of the most important church-state cases in decades (Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC).

“The case involves the ‘ministerial exception’ to employment-discrimination laws,” Garnett says. “This exception prevents courts from second-guessing employment decisions made by religious employers regarding ‘ministerial’ employees. Although the Supreme Court has never squarely addressed this exception, it is a crucial doctrine for protecting religious freedom and the separation of church and state.” Read More