Monthly Archives: May 2007

Gone-zales? Not yet.

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Stuart Taylor Jr. isn't pulling his punches. OPENING ARGUMENT: Another Gonzales Horror Story :

Every day that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is allowed to remain in office is corrosive to constitutional governance and an invitation to further politicization of the Justice Department.

And “X-Judge” H. Lee Sarokin asks What Do Alberto Gonzalez And A Chicago Divorce Lawyer Have In Common?, and answers as follows:

They both have demeaned the legal profession. A huge billboard in Chicago's nightclub district proclaims: “Life's short. Get a divorce” It features photographs of “a sexy, scantily clad woman on one side and a buff, bare-chested man on the other”. (NYTimes 5/13/07) No matter what the message or the motive of the messenger, no one can dispute the right of the lawyer to offer her wares in this fashion. It has met with considerable success. As with the Attorney General, apparently all things are to be judged by whether or not they are working, not whether they are right or wrong. Illegal wiretapping, secret prisons, torture, unlawful detentions, political firings of U.S. attorneys, suspension of habeas corpus, rejection of the Geneva Convention, and undoubtedly a host of other conduct yet to be revealed (such as a coercive hospital visit to the previous Attorney General seeking approval of an illegal wiretapping scheme) are all justified on the basis that no further attacks have occured since 9/11. Ergo, these tactics, like the billboard poster, are working, The only difference being that encouraging divorce is not illegal or unconstitutional, although in this administration it might be one day.

As to the firings of the U.S. attorneys, nothing infuriates me more than the party line that these are political appointments, and the President, as did President Clinton, can replace them all. Yes, these appointments are political as are those to the courts, but once appointed, U.S. Attorneys, Judges and Justices cease to be political agents. To do otherwise violates their oath of office. Prosecutors should not be dismissed for pursuing criminal conduct by members of the party in power or failing to pursue actions for the sole purpose of embarrassing the opposition and affecting the outcome of elections. Justice is not meant to be used as a political weapon.

So look for a billboard with that infamous picture of the hooded prisoner at Abu Ghraib on one side and a smiling picture of the Attorney General on the other saying: “Stop Terror. Torture Works”, because there is little that the current Attorney General does not have in common with the sleazy divorce lawyer.

But, GWB “stands by” Gonzales. And you can see why Bush stands by his man: it will be hard to find anyone to take the job, and the confirmation hearing for any but a top-drawer replacement will be … searching.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on Gone-zales? Not yet.

Measuring How Much Schools Challenge Students

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

The Washington Post and Newsweek have a crude but interesting methodology that aims to capture whether high schools challenge their students.

The metric has a lot of limitations, but it also has its attractions. They start by excluding all magnet schools, more or less on the grounds that they'd win if they were included. They rank the remaining schools on how many advanced tests the students take:

We take the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school in May, and divide by the number of seniors graduating in May or June. All public schools that Newsweek researchers Dan Brillman, Halley Bondy and Becca Kaufman found that achieved a ratio of at least 1.000, meaning they had as many tests in 2006 as they had graduates, are put on the list on the Newsweek website, and the 100 schools with the highest ratios are named in the magazine.

… I think 1.000 is a modest standard. A school can reach that level if only half of its students take one AP, IB or Cambridge test in their junior year and one in their senior year. But this year only about five percent of all U.S. public high schools managed to reach that standard ….

This is indeed a crude measure. It doesn't capture how good the teachers or the students are (the results of the tests don't enter into the calculation). There's no control for demographics of the school's catchment area, although it appears that the correlation isn't that good since rich schools sometimes reserve their APs for the 'best' students which keeps down the numbers.

And it's not exactly a measure of value-added either.

No, at best it measures what it says: whether or not the high schools are challenging their students by exposing them to advanced courses. That may be very basic, but it's still worth knowing.

How would we make a comparable metric for law schools?

Posted in Law School | Comments Off on Measuring How Much Schools Challenge Students

Wireless-less in Italy

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Saturday I'm leaving for a conference in Bologna. I don't know much about what sort of internet access I'll have — but I just read about the frustration of finding a wireless connection in Italy so who knows.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | 5 Comments

The Case for Pyjamas

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

As of today, the police have a right to make you jump out of bed naked if they have a valid warrant — even if it's pretty clearly for someone else, and even if the someone else sold you the house you are living in three months earlier.

Meet Los Angeles County v. Rettele:

Deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department obtained a valid warrant to search a house, but they were unaware that the suspects being sought had moved out three months earlier. When the deputies searched the house, they found in a bedroom two residents who were of a different race than the suspects. The deputies ordered these innocent residents, who had been sleeping unclothed, out of bed. The deputies required them to stand for a few minutes before allowing them to dress.

The residents brought suit under Rev. Stat. §1979, 42 U. S. C. §1983, naming the deputies and other parties and accusing them of violating the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The District Court granted summary judgment to all named defendants. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed, concluding both that the deputies violated the Fourth Amendment and that they were not entitled to qualified immunity because a reasonable deputy would have stopped the search upon discovering that respondents were of a different race than the suspects and because a reasonable deputy would not have ordered respondents from their bed. We grant the petition for certiorari and reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals by this summary disposition.

Incidentally, Justice Stevens's concurrence takes a much more sensible position, avoiding the constitutional question, although one that non-lawyers may find a bit technical.

Posted in Law: Constitutional Law | Comments Off on The Case for Pyjamas

Cheap Laughs

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

This is sort of a cheap laugh, but the last line is really funny. YouTube – Godfather IV

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on Cheap Laughs

ImpeachGonzales.org

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

See the video by ImpeachGonzales.org.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on ImpeachGonzales.org