What do Starbucks gift cards and law school final outlines have in common? Well, if you submit the most outlines to editor@eagleionline.com by noon on July 20th, you will win a $50 starbucks gift card. Any ties will be decided by a random selection from a hat as there is one and only one gift card available. Don’t you all remember how BC Law is called the Disney of law schools? Show how much you love helping out your fellow classmates by sharing that great civ pro 2 pager or behemoth of a property outline. This is not just for 1L classes. We know that you all put a lot of time into these outlines and really appreciate your submissions.

In late June, the Supreme Court handed down what may be regarded as one of the most controversial decisions this decade when it ruled that the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms was an individual right in District of Columbia v. Heller.

Surprisingly, there is little controversy as to the opinions expressed by BC Law’s two constitutional law groups, the American Constitutional Society (ACS) and the Federalist Society, which often hold diametrically opposite views.

In fact, both of the organization’s leaders offered praise for Justice Scalia’s majority (5-4) opinion.  ACS President Austin Evers ‘09 noted “Justice Scalia’s opinion is a fine, plausible exercise in constitutional interpretation,” while Federalist Society President Guillaume Buell ‘09 was a bit more effusive in his praise, calling the opinion “brilliantly written, brilliantly reasoned.”

Both leaders also expressed a need for gun control, with Buell applauding “the Court’s recognition of the need for reasonable restrictions on gun ownership - such as keeping them out of the hands of felons.” Evers agreed, noting that “it will be a challenge to craft laws that are able to limit gun ownership to its newly minted constitutional bounds, but it is incumbent upon us to find a way.”

To read the Court’s opinion, click here.  To hear the oral arguments, including Justice Scalia’s invocation of Blackstone, click here. 

In a recent edition of the Massachusetts Lawyer Weekly, Brian Cook (BC Law ‘85) criticizes the lack of preference given to military veterans in the admissions process at BC.

This year, I was asked by a student whom I did not know well to write a letter of recommendation to BC. I met him and heard his story and could not wait to help him. He was not the son of an alumnus or a politician or a wealthy business leader. He was a veteran who had served his country and luckily returned, albeit disabled, with a renewed sense of place and interest in studying law after being in a world where there was no rule of law.

This experience changed him. He improved his grades, took the LSATs and applied to law schools. He was accepted at nearly every school he applied to except BC. In fact, BC Law, the school that spoke comfortably from Chestnut Hill about public service and lawyers who made a difference, did not even wait-list him.

When I inquired about his application, I was told that BC does not “track” veterans or even know how many of its class are veterans. The school certainly doesn’t know how many of its applicants or admits are disabled veterans.

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This great photo was taken by Sean Roche at newtonstreets.blogspot.com:  

 

During the 2004 presidential election, University of Wisconsin Law School Professor Ann Althouse inquired about Senator John Kerry’s intelligence based on the fact that he attended Boston College Law School.

I’ve been wondering why Kerry went to Boston College Law School. Since he was rich, it can’t have been the lure of a free ride. You would think, with his anti-war activism, he would have been a very attractive candidate for admission to Harvard (or another top-ranked law school) if only his LSAT and GPA were at all within range. No offense to Boston College, of course. I think it’s similar to attending my school, the University of Wisconsin Law School. And the point is, he had an extremely admirable personal story and record of activism, as well as the ability to pay his way, so he could have gotten into Boston College with numbers well below those of the average students.

Now, Thomas Lipscomb at the Huffington Post takes his shot at BC Law four years late in an attempt to offer meaningful commentary on the current presidential election.

Why had a Boston snob like John Kerry gone to a subway law school like Boston College? A source who had been on the Harvard Law School admissions board revealed that with Kerry’s bad military record he was turned down for admission though clearly qualified because they didn’t want to admit someone who they thought would be unable to pass the bar.

Specifically, Lipscomb infers that there were concerns that Kerry would be unable to pass the character and fitness requirement of the bar. 

[A] former Secretary of the Navy told me that Kerry had asked him to expunge the disciplinary action the Navy had taken against him for what the Navy regarded as treasonous activities supporting the enemy in a time of war so he could be admitted to a law school and get on with his career. The Secretary refused. So it appears that Kerry went to Father Drinan, the former dean of the Boston College Law School. Kerry had decided not to run against Drinan for an open Congressional seat Drinan then occupied. Kerry asked him for help. The disciplinary action disappeared from Kerry’s official records with the general Jimmy Carter amnesty for Vietnam veterans with bad service records, the first bill Carter initiated after his inauguration.

Justin Pope, an education writer at the Associate Press, wrote an article this week that never ceases to get law students’ attention at Boston College Law School: the legal job market. With the ABA’s recent accreditation of the Charlotte School of Law and Elon University as the 199th and 200th accredited law schools in the United States (technically they have provisional accreditation), Pope reminds readers that only a few law school graduates actually earn those nose-bleed salaries.

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Cross-posted at the Huffington Post.

Don’t ask Attorney General Michael Mukasey to speak at a graduation ceremony if you want a milquetoast speech extolling the virtues of community service, sun screen, or calls to your mother. He came to Boston College Law School, where I teach, last Friday and offered a substantive, and deeply troubling, message to our graduates.

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Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey spoke to Boston College Law School’s Class of 2008 yesterday. Here are his remarks:

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Updated on Friday, May 23, 2008 at 11:35AM by Eagleionline

A “Graduation Handout” is being passed around by a few faculty and students at the graduation events today. The handout refers to past articles on the issue of waterboarding by Professors from BC and other law schools.

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By Jesse Stellato, May 21, 2008 

The BLT: The Blog of LegalTimes, reported today that Attorney General Mukasey will speak about ethics at Friday’s commencement. Referencing an unamed offical at the Justice Department, author Pedro Ruz Gutierrez wrote that Mukasey “will discuss the ethical responsibilities of being a lawyer, especially in the complex area of national security.”

BCLS is invited to attend a reception this Thursday honoring Representative Jamie Eldridge ‘00, candidate for State Senate, Middlesex & Worcester District. 

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By Jesse Stellato, May 18, 2008

Eagleionline has obtained a draft of Professor Daniel Kanstroom’s upcoming article: “On ‘Waterboarding’: Legal Interpretation and the Continuing Struggle for Human Rights.” The abstract appears below.

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In a post on his blog earlier this week, USNWR Law School Rankings Czar Robert Morse hinted at what could be the next major change in the formula used to rank the nation’s top law schools.

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Washingtonian magazine has printed a series of articles speculating on who might fill the top appointed positions in the next administration. BC Law is well-represented on the list with two possible picks for Senator John McCain (R-AZ).

If former Law & Order DA Fred Thompson doesn’t head the real-life Justice Department, Debra Wong Yang [BCLS ‘85] might become attorney general. A former state judge now at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, she was the first Asian-American woman to serve as a US Attorney and led the largest US Attorney’s office outside of Washington as head of the Central District of California, which includes LA.

Also mentioned as a potential pick is former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman (BCLS ‘60), who has been one of McCain’s economic advisors during the campaign and could reportedly end up as Secretary of Treasury or as a member of the National Economic Council.