Today@NDLS

Today, the University of Notre Dame, along with a diverse group of universities and schools, health care providers and social welfare agencies, filed federal lawsuits challenging the Obama administration’s rule that requires many religious employers to provide coverage to their employees for sterilization, contraception and some abortion-causing drugs.

The lawsuits are efforts to “vindicate the country’s constitutional and traditional commitments to religious freedom and pluralism,” according to University of Notre Dame Law Professor Richard W. Garnett, whose teaching and scholarly research focus on constitutional law and religious freedom matters.

Adrienne M. de la Rosa has been awarded the Peter Lardy Memorial Fellowship for the 2012-13 academic year. Dedicated by the Class of 1975 to the memory of Peter A.R. Lardy and “those who exemplify his Courage, Love, and Understanding toward his fellow man,” the fellowship includes a $20,000 tuition remission for the recipient’s third year of law school.

Professor O. Carter Snead has been named a Fellow of the Notre Dame Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values.

John Nagle was interviewed on CBCRadio, The Current show on Green Evangelists on May 9th.

Prof. Jimmy Gurule was interviewed by ilsussidario.net in Italy on the Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial. The interview was published both English and Italian.

Tea Party Activist Concerned About IRS Questions
WLWT.com
“What the IRS is trying to do is figure out how much of their activity is about supporting or opposing candidates,” said Lloyd Hitoski Mayer, associate dean at Notre Dame Law School. “Whether that’s an appropriate question depends on whether the IRS had information that he’s connected to the group that’s applying.”

NDLS student Brian Michel recently argued a Miranda violation case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Brian was selected for the honor after competing for an NDLS Moot Court Board position as part of the NDLS Moot Court program. The Moot Court program, which coordinates intramural and intercollegiate competitions in its appellate, trial, and international divisions, is run by NDLS students and overseen by Legal Writing Program Director Christine Venter.

“My client had been convicted of first-degree murder under the accountability theory, and sentenced to 28 years for his role in a Chicago shooting,” Michel said.

“His argument throughout trial was that the police refused to provide him with access to counsel. On appeal, we took the position that the Illinois Appellate Court had failed to look at the totality of the circumstances surrounding my client’s confession when it refused to believe his claims that he had repeatedly requested counsel during his seventeen-hour interrogation.

“Personally, I saw my involvement in this case as the highlight of my time at Notre Dame. It was rewarding to defend my client’s basic right to an attorney, a right which is so crucial to a fair criminal justice system.”

An audio file of Michel’s oral argument in Lawrence Coleman v. Marcus Hardy is available on the Seventh Circuit’s website. > Read More

See you in the Fall!…

I am delighted to announce the receipt of a reprint of Tricia Bellia’s latest article, on WikiLeaks and national security.

The cite is:

Patricia L. Bellia, WikiLeaks and the Institutional Framework for National Security Disclosures, 121 YALE L.J. 1448 (2012).

It graces the Dean’s Bookshelf.

Thanks and congratulations to Tricia!