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

Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell’s legal and policy analysis of the recent use of drones to kill Americans Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan in Yemen has been reported by numerous news outlets, including ABC, Reuters, MSNBC, the Inter Press Service, Huffington Post, Reuters, Financial Times, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and others. Her original CNN article on this topic can be accessed here. Read More

NDLS alum Jessica Brock (B.A. ’05, J.D. ’10, LLM ’11), Professor Paolo Carozza, and His Eminence Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, will speak on the DREAM Act October 6 at 12:45 p.m. in Eck Hall of Law Room 1140.

The DREAM Act has been brought before Congress numerous times over the past ten years.It was most recently defeated in the Senate in December 2010, and it is presently in committee in the House and Senate for consideration again this year.

Following an introduction by Professor Carozza, Ms. Brock will outline the content of the proposed DREAM Act and comment on its relationship to Catholic social teaching. Cardinal Mahony will provide reflections on the presentation and there will be an open discussion with Cardinal Mahony about the DREAM Act and Catholic social teaching. Read More

Al-Awlaki Killing In Yemen Raises Constitutional Questions
Huffington Post
That doesn’t excuse his killing, said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a Notre Dame scholar who studies targeted killings. “Derogation from the fundamental right to life is permissible only in battle zones or to save a human life immediately,” said O’Connell.

Killing of American in Yemen raises legal questions
Reuters (also published on MSNBC, ABC News, Reuters India, China Post, Malaysia Star, Chicago Tribune and four other publications)
“The fact that (al-Awlaki) was a dual U.S.-Yemeni citizen means that he had extra protections under the U.S. constitution than he would not have had if he was just a Yemeni citizen,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, an international law professor at the University of Notre Dame’s law school. “So the president has done something in my view that is highly questionable under our own Constitution.”

U.S. drone killing of American al-Awlaki prompts legal, moral debate
CNN (also published on CNN International and in 57 other publications)
But Mary Ellen O’Connell, an expert on international law at the University of Notre Dame, said the key question concerned not citizenship but location. "The real concern is where is this person?’ she said. “He is not in an armed conflict zone, not in a battle zone.”

Using Drones Outside Combat Zones
PBS
University of Notre Dame international law professor Mary Ellen O’Connell released a statement calling the strike an illegal mission.

Obama under fire over targeted killing of cleric
Australian Broadcasting Company
Mary Ellen O’Connell, an international law professor, questioned whether the targeted killing was legal.

Awlaki’s killing sparks propaganda battle
Asia Times
Mary Ellen O’Connell, an internationally recognized expert on targeted killings at the University of Notre Dame, was similarly categorical. Read More

Obama Admin Anti-Conscience Mandate Threatens Health Care
Life News
A recent rule issued by the Obama administration threatens our nation’s healthcare by attacking the consciences of our nation’s healthcare providers….O. Carter Snead is professor of law at University of Notre Dame Law School. Read More

Was Killing al-Qaida’s YouTube Preacher Illegal?
Wired
Dunlap’s friend Mary Ellen O’Connell disagrees. And her credentials are just as impressive: she’s the vice chairman of the prestigious American Society of International Law, as well as a professor at the University of Notre Dame. Her argument doesn’t rely on Awlaki’s American citizenship. Read More

Professor criticizes execution
The Observer
Rick Garnett, professor of law and associate dean at the Notre Dame Law School, said the execution highlighted the American courts’ inability to properly handle new evidence in cases after a conviction has been reached.

“The publicity [Davis’] case received had the useful effect of reminding us that it is very difficult for any criminal justice system — even one that has as many safeguards as ours does — to deal with evidence that is discovered, or that changes, after a person is convicted and sentenced,” Garnett said. > Read Article Read More

"Most important" religious freedom case
Deseret News
“People think separation of church and state means President Obama can’t say, ‘God bless America’ or ministers can’t talk about politics. But historically that is not what it is all about,” said Richard W. Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School. Read More

The Perfect Constitutional Question for Republican Candidates
American Thinker
“Would you as President propose to Congress appropriate legislation pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment to protect human life in all stages and conditions?”…. Gerard V. Bradley is professor of law at Notre Dame Law School. Read More

Professor Judith Fox presented Indiana judges with an update on mortgage foreclosure law at the Annual Meeting of the Judicial Conference of Indiana in French Lick, Indiana, September 21.

On September 14, she presented “Debt Collection and Mortgage Foreclosure” at the annual Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum law update conference in Indianapolis. Read More

Thirteen NDLS students, spouses, and children broke their Ramadan fast this year with an Iftar dinner provided by Dean Nell Newton. Read More

Fox News Partners With Google After Years Of Attacks
Media Matters for America
Christianity Today reported that “corporations often exclude faith-based groups from their philanthropic programs or restrict who can qualify, said Lloyd Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame Law School” because they want to avoid any potentially polarizing causes. Read More

South Bend plans open bids for sale of Family Dollar
WSBT
“They want anything that comes in there to contribute to the city’s pre-existing vision of economic development,” said John Nagle, Notre Dame law professor. Read More

Obama and the Catholic vote
The Hill
“This will likely drive many important Catholic social service providers to close up shop, inevitably harming the poor communities that they serve,” Notre Dame Law School Professor O. Carter Snead told the Catholic News Agency on Aug. 2. Read More

Prof. Carter Snead was a featured speaker at a conference on the public policy questions concerning experimental research on human embryos that was held this September at Oxford University (Corpus Christi College). Read More

Loyal ND alum Regis Philbin, ‘ 53, singled out the NDLS facilities and the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom for special praise September 19.

Recounting how it felt to return to South Bend for the September 17 Michigan State game, Regis told the “Live! With Regis and Kelly” show audience that “It is so beautiful these days at Notre Dame. The buildings, everything looks great. And this Law School is absolutely sensational. They have courtrooms inside the school — it is just gorgeous. I don’t want to be melodramatic, but: I feel like I’m going into heaven.”

Regis’s NDLS story begins at about 15:45 in this video clip. Read More

Thomas says high court needs geographic diversity
Associated Press
University of Notre Dame Law School professor Richard Garnett told The Associated Press he’s not bothered by the lack of geographic diversity on the Supreme Court because he thinks the justices’ skills are more important than their roots. Read More

President Obama has nominated Judge David Campos Guaderrama to serve on the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. Read More

Ten years on, experts revisit their perspectives from Sept. 12, 2001
WBEZ
Doug Cassel is Worldview human rights commentator and professor of law at the University of Notre Dame. Read More

Church-state separation seen as issue in hospital merger
The Courier-Journal
…Richard W. Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said: “We could have what the court has called ‘excessive entanglement’ between religious and governmental authority.” Read More

Robert George, the McCormick Chair of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, will speak at 5 p.m. September 8 in 1130 Eck Hall of Law. Read More

Court Rejects Challenges to German Euro Bailouts
New York Times, GoUpstate
“The court has defined itself as the guardian of the Constitution, playing a much different role from that of the American Supreme Court,” said Donald P. Kommers, emeritus professor of political science and law at Notre Dame and author of a book on the German court. Read More

Osvaldo Hurtado, former President of Ecuador, will speak at NDLS September 8 on “Independence of the Judiciary, Freedom of the Press and other Constitutional Developments in Ecuador.” Read More

Last spring, Oxford University Press published a five-volume collection of essays by Biolchini Family Professor of Law John M. Finnis and a second edition of Finnis’s masterwork, Natural Law and Natural Rights.

To celebrate this remarkable achievement, Professor Gerard Bradley and Notre Dame Law School hosted an all-day conference at the Law School on September 9, 2011 in Eck Hall of Law – Lecture Hall 1140.

See event schedule. Read More

The Justice Department is suing to prevent AT&T from acquiring T-Mobile USA and displacing Verizon as the nation’s largest wireless carrier, and antitrust expert Joseph Bauer, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, strongly supports the challenge.

“I’m pleasantly surprised, in light of reluctance on the part of the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to go after a number of other highly problematic mergers in the past 5 to 10 years,” Bauer says. “This merger would seriously reduce competition in the wireless market. By eliminating one of only four firms in the market and by creating what would be the largest entity in the industry and in which the two largest firms would have more than 80 percent of the market, the merger has the strong likelihood of diminishing consumer choice and leading to higher prices.” Read More

The Primacy Of The Life Issue
National Right to Life News
I don’t know how long “The Public Discourse” has been in business (I discovered it about just a few months ago), but the site produces wave after way of thought-provoking pro-life material. To take the most recent example, there is “Protect the Weak and Vulnerable: The Primacy of the Life Issue” by O. Carter Snead. Read More

The Ethics of Drones
PBS
Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell:(University of Notre Dame Law School): To accept killing far from the situation of battlefields where there is an understanding of necessity is really ethically troubling for many of us. Read More

Life News
Abortion and embryo-destructive research are profound and lethal violations of this principle of equality to which the law (and the President) must respond….[by] O. Carter Snead is professor of law at University of Notre Dame Law School. > Read Opinion Read More

While church leaders may be startled by Google’s changes, corporations often exclude faith-based groups from their philanthropic programs or restrict who can qualify, said Lloyd Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame Law School. He said Google is “trying to avoid anything that would reflect negatively on them” by avoiding potentially polarizing causes that might alienate customers. > Read Articles Read More

Catholic doctors’ group launches petition against contraception mandate
Catholic News Agency
Notre Dame Law School professor O. Carter Snead told CNA on Aug. 2 that the exemption fails to cover “virtually any” Catholic institution that serves or employs non-Catholics. He said the government mandate could require contraceptive coverage for the health care plans of Catholic universities and Catholic social service agencies. Read More