The Blogora: The Rhetoric Society of America
legal rhetoric

 

"Don't Poke Scalia!"


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 20, 2009 - 10:40am


My Ph.D. student Ryan Malphurs has an excellent co-authored article on Supreme Court oral argument here at The Jury Expert.

 

Clause-Bound Constitutional Jurisprudence


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 16, 2009 - 2:19pm


The non-Establishment principle trumps student free speech. And I am puzzled, but I haven't read the briefs yet. I can't help but think that a valedictorian's message is not the school district speaking, and that, yet again, we don't really understand how to make the First Amendment *mean* rhetorically in the absence of lawyerly clause-bound readings:

 

Murdering for Jesus in Texas


Submitted by Jim Aune on October 12, 2009 - 1:17pm


Listening to heavy metal music can get you the death penalty in Texas. As I always say to my friends outside the state, it really is worse than you imagine. Surely, even if you support the death penalty under certain circumstances, you can recognize a legal travesty when you see one? It's all about feeding the base with blood.

 

Nino on Symbolism


Submitted by Jim Aune on October 8, 2009 - 3:10pm


Scalia just doesn't get it, does he? From Dahlia Lithwick's article on today's oral arguments:

 

The Polanski Case


Submitted by Jim Aune on October 5, 2009 - 1:27pm


Not being much of one for celebrity culture, I've been trying not to think about Roman Polanski's arrest, but I keep getting drawn back to it (perhaps because it comes on the heels of the 40th anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders). Here's one of the more thoughtful pieces I've read. ThickCulture is a great blog, btw.

 

The 9 Greatest Supreme Court Justices


Submitted by Jim Aune on August 20, 2009 - 3:38pm


Jonathan Turley gives us his list. I think mine is the same, although I'd put in a word for Robert Jackson. Glad to see my all-time hero Hugo Black made the list. And that the egregious Frankfurter did not.

 

Legal Follies


Submitted by Jim Aune on July 17, 2009 - 2:19pm


Watching the Sotomayor hearings this week is painful.

 

Jack Balkin's Questions


Submitted by Jim Aune on June 8, 2009 - 1:14pm


After the last 8 years I didn't think I could be shocked by anything anymore, but the shooting of Dr. Tiller has upset me more than anything in recent memory. If you read the stories of the women who went to his clinic, Dr. Tiller looks more and more like a saint. Jack Balkin asks the following questions about how to deal with Christian terrorism (he uses the questions as an analogy for the right-wing defense of detention and torture, but I'm inclined to take them seriously--the full blog post is here):

 

What Happens When You Don't Take Free Speech Seriously


Submitted by Jim Aune on June 5, 2009 - 11:10pm


You get the stupid-ass British libel laws. (But Pringles ARE snacks.)

 

Your Comprehensive Exam Question: Free Speech


Submitted by Jim Aune on May 31, 2009 - 1:22pm


A Wichita doctor is murdered as he goes into church this morning. Bill O'Reilly has been targeting him for some time. Under the "imminent lawless conduct" standard of Brandenburg v. Ohio, should O'Reilly/Fox News be liable for damages? How do the mass media complicate the Brandenburg standard? If a Muslim cleric in the US had done the same, would he be in jail right now?