On your outrages to personal dignity

I've been reading lately about the proposed legislation related to the Geneva Convention, and an interesting parallel occurs to me as I've also been reading stories like this one in the Bristol paper about the suspension of the football coach for talking rough to the kids.

It sounds like the moms are upset that their boys have suffered "outrages to their personal dignity" of a kind.

My old football coach I liked very much, even though he swore at me a lot and spit when he talked. He's the fellow in this picture. Evidently, he's just separated himself his most recent coaching job, for reasons unrelated to yelling and spitting.

On the new law school at Greensboro

This press release details Justice O'Connor's appearance at the dedication of the new law school in Greensboro, NC, at Elon University.

Judge Kiser finds subject-matter jurisdiction for pastor's employment dispute

In the state and federal courts, there is an exception to subject-matter jurisdiction for intra-church disputes, the cases noting that for the courts to take sides in a matter of religious dispute would violate the First Amendment.

In Vann v. Guildfield Missionary Baptist Church, however, Judge Kiser denied the defendant's motion to dismiss, concluding that he had at least jurisdiction to decide whether the church had acted to dismiss the plaintiff, where the by-laws required some kind of majority vote and the plaintiff claimed there was no vote at all.

Oh Captain, my Captain

I read earlier today an article about a law dean called "the Colonel," because some thought he looked like Colonel Sanders, and so I wonder why the law dean when I was a student was not called "the Captain."

Although it appears that both Dean/President Sullivan and Captain Kangaroo enjoyed lounging in their special red outfits, this does not make them Red Staters.

Update on the judicial nominations

ACSblog has this update on the appeals court nominees. Evidently, opposition has emerged to D.C. Circuit nominee Peter Kiesler, as well as Haynes and Boyle, Wallace, Myers and Smith.

Where do closed federal court files go?

I always tell people they go to that warehouse where they stored the ark in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Actually, I think they go to the regional archive center at Philadelphia.

What do senior-status federal judges do?

The answer, as shown in this article from the Federal Judicial Center website, is just about everything.

The article says in part: "In fiscal year 2005, 322 senior district judges — 32 percent of all sitting federal district judges — terminated 16.5 percent of all civil and criminal cases and conducted 17.2 percent of all trials. In the appeals courts, 91 senior judges — 33 percent of all circuit judges — handled 18 percent of all participations in oral hearings and submissions of briefs."

Need for affirmative action won't be achieved in 25 years

This interesting article from Inside Higher Ed says that the 25 years (from 2003) that Justice O'Connor speculated would be sufficient to achieve the goal of integration in higher education, won't be.

Jim Webb and George Allen both chew tobacco

I had to watch all the way to the end of today's Meet the Press debate to find this out. Allen I knew about, Webb I didn't but it doesn't surprise.

They got this close

This blurred photo from my Treo shows how close the Cavaliers got to catching Western Michigan yesterday.

The observant reader of Chad's blog will note that my seats are at the other end of the stadium from where Chad sits.

On travels to Southwest Virginia

Here are the travel notes of Chicago Sun-Times reporter Sandra Guy on her return to visit back to Southwest Virginia.

Here, a New Yorker at Penn State reports on her summer in Roanoke.

The two guys I wished they'd picked for the Ryder Cup

Former PGA Champion Shaun Micheel and former British Open Chamption Ben Curtis have both enjoyed a return to form this summer, with Curtis winning the Booz Allen, Micheel the runner-up at Medinah, and both are poised for victory this weekend, with Micheel in the match play finals and Curtis leading the 84 Lumber Classic.

After reading this about the death of his friend Spencer, I wonder whether Micheel has some supernatural backing out on the course this week. (It doesn't look like he'll win this week, but it was memorable nonetheless, as he beat Tiger Woods in the first round.)

For Curtis, this week was to be the last his wife was going to be with him on tour before their first child is due later this month. Instead, she's at home, and he says if he gets the call that the baby is coming, he'll hit the road back to Ohio.