Sunday, April 26, 2015

Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies: Community and the Law (Part 2)

I realize that law school deans need to “sell” their product and industry to a variety of groups, including would-be students.  But sometimes, dean-speak is so bizarre you have to wonder if the dean gave even minimal thought before spinning a particular yarn.  To continue with my new field of interdisciplinary study, Community and the Law, let’s begin with our baseline dean: Community’s Craig Pelton, Dean of the fictional Greendale Community College.  Dean Pelton recently bragged that his school is “now ranked fifth . . . on Colorado’s alphabetical listing of community colleges.”  That claim pretty much speaks for itself.  And unfortunately, some real-life law school deans appear to be using Dean Pelton as their role model.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies: Community and the Law (Part 1)

Despite its comic intentions, the television show Community — season 6 now available on Yahoo! Screen — has been surprisingly accurate in its portrayal of higher education and, more specifically, of law school.  For example, the show, set on the campus of Greendale Community College, did a great job of explaining the importance of law school: “Anyone can be a lawyer; you can even represent yourself.”  And through its character Jeff Winger, the show essentially proved that the J.D. degree is really nothing more than a dressed-up associate’s degree.  But in season 6, Community is becoming eerily prescient, and it’s getting harder and harder to differentiate the fictional Greendale Community College from real-life law schools. 

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Podcast: Episode 7: Trial potpourri, flipping the bird, and Dick Cheney

Welcome to episode seven of The Legal Watchdog Podcast.

In today's podcast we discuss a number of trial related issues, ranging from the composition of the jury to your right to have your attorney in the court room during trial. (Spoiler alert: your attorney doesn't always have to be awake, or even present in court, during trial.)  The main cases for our discussion are State v. Robinson and Woods v. Donald.

Our apologies to the southern judiciary.  One of our topics in this podcast was the Batson challenge during jury selection.  And we went off on a tangent to discuss the case of Walker v. Girdich, where the trial judge held that the prosecutor's striking a juror because he was "a black man" was a race-neutral, and therefore acceptable, reason. And our first guess was that this was a case from the southern judiciary, but it was not.  It was a case from the allegedly politically liberal New York judiciary.  (As I've written before, there is no relationship between political affiliation and the respect for individual rights, and this is yet another example.)  In any case, kudos to the Second Circuit -- which covers Connecticut, New York, and Vermont -- for the reversal. 

Our apologies also go out to Dick Cheney.  You were a vice president -- and an especially influential one at that -- so I should have known that your first name was Dick, not Don.  (Though I did accurately peg you as an avid, but not necessarily an accurate, hunter.)  And this leads to my final apology: the former Temple basketball coach was John Chaney, not Don Chaney.  I have no knowledge of whether John Chaney liked to hunt and, if he did, whether he was a more accurate shot than Dick Cheney.

To meet your podcast hosts, click here

Our funky, jazzy theme song ("Cold Hurt") and our cool intermission song ("Murgatroyd") were generously provided by David Pizarro.  To hear more of David's music you can listen to his philosophy-psychology podcast Very Bad Wizards, or go directly to his SoundCloud page.

Finally, here is the podcast: