Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Thought for the Day

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

I imagine that in the run-up to World War I, many sensible people in the mobilizing countries fully expected that rationality would prevail and there would not be actual shooting.

Posted in Econ & Money | 1 Comment

Some Facts (!) About the Debt — Where it Comes From, Where It Went

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Here’s a great infographic on the debt.

I also recommend the Cumulative Debt in % of GDP chart for recent administrations. Bush beats Obama and Reagan, although I think Obama would probably be larger if one were to normalize for the length of his term. Clinton is a negative number as he was retiring debt — things would be so much better right now if GW hadn’t gone and squandered our money. And started a war of choice. And tortured people. (None of which excuses Obama’s Hooveristic tendency on the economy, the extension of the wars plus the start of a new one, the drone-murder of US citizens abroad, and the rather muted end of torture.)

Source: Econbrowser: Graphic of the Day: Who Borrowed? Who Loaned? via Coral Gables Watch, US Govt Borrowing–Guess Who Borrowed The Most??

Posted in Econ & Money | 3 Comments

The Search for Sanity in the House GOP Spreads

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Steve Benen is hunting for sanity in the House GOP. So is Kevin Drum.

(Earlier post: How Many Sane GOP House Members Exist? And Does It Matter?)

Unfortunately, they think that for the search to have meaning it has to be run, or at least approved, by Speaker Boehner. What a thin reed to have to rely on.

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on The Search for Sanity in the House GOP Spreads

ABA to Require Expanded Employment Reports by Law Schools

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Coming to — or, rather, from — a law school near you: more detailed reporting of graduates’ employment outcomes, under new ABA rules:

As to job data, the 2011 Annual Questionnaire will request from law schools information on their graduates’ employment status, employment types and employment locations. It will also request additional and new information on whether a graduate’s employment is long-term or short-term. Finally, it will ask how many, if any, positions held by their graduates are funded by the law school or university.

New data will also be collected in the spring of 2012 (soon after February 15, 2012, the traditional nine-month-after-graduation date), for the graduating class of 2011, including whether the graduate’s job is part-time or full-time; whether the job requires bar passage; whether a J.D. is preferred for the job; whether the job is in another profession; and whether the job is a non- professional one. Definitions for these categories will be developed this coming fall. However, rather than wait until August 2012 to collect these new data, our plan is to collect those data from the schools soon after February 15, 2012 and display the data on our website in the late spring/early summer.

Overall I think this is good even though I suspect it will hurt UM, at least in the short run, since all the Legal Corps jobs, which I think provide much more valuable training and experience than most law-school-funded work, will probably show up as both short-term and law-school-funded.

Previously: Do Our Graduates Have Jobs? What Are They Making? (12/2/10) and Meet the UM Law Legal Corps Fellowship Program (10/14/10)

Posted in Law School | 1 Comment

Love, ha-ha, cute, omg, yay, hahaha, happy, girl, hair, lol, hubby, and chocolate!

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Twitter now thinks I’m female?

Spotted via Slashdot.

There are two serious sides to this, of course: one is that as more and more things leave digital fingerprints, true anonymity online just gets harder and harder.

The second is that so much of the list of terms seems about as crudely stereotypically sexist as can be. Something not ha-ha about that.

Posted in Completely Different | 3 Comments

May 5: President Obama Announces Intent to Nominate Stephen Higginson to Serve on 5th Circuit

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

I don’t know how I missed this, but back on May 5th, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Stephen Higginson to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

“Stephen Higginson is a distinguished candidate for the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,” President Obama said. “Both his legal and academic credentials are impressive and his commitment to judicial integrity is unwavering. I am confident he will serve the American people with distinction.”

Stephen Higginson was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard College, where he received his A.B., summa cum laude, in 1983. After graduating from Harvard, Higginson attended Cambridge University in England, where he was a Harvard Scholar, earning a Masters in Philosophy in 1984. He then attended Yale Law School and obtained his J.D. in 1987. While in law school, Higginson was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal.

After graduating from Yale Law School, Higginson served as a law clerk to the Honorable Patricia M. Wald of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The following year, from 1988 to 1989, Higginson served as a law clerk to the Honorable Byron R. White of the Supreme Court of the United States. He has been an Assistant United States Attorney since 1989, when he joined the Criminal Division in the District of Massachusetts. Since 1993, Higginson has served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Louisiana, where he became the chief of appeals in 1995. As chief of appeals, Higginson has personally handled or supervised all criminal and civil appeals in the District, editing or writing more than 100 appellate briefs, and presenting numerous oral arguments before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Higginson has received the Department of Justice’s awards for superior and outstanding performance as a federal prosecutor. From 1997 to 1998, he served a six-month detail with the Department of State, working as deputy director of special projects for the Presidential Rule of Law Initiative.

Since 2004, Higginson has worked part-time in the United States Attorney’s Office, continuing to supervise the appellate section. That same year, he joined the full-time faculty at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, becoming an Associate Professor of Law. Higginson teaches subjects including constitutional law, evidence, and criminal law.

I’ve known Steve since law school, where many people would have guessed he’d end up as a judge. He’ll be great — if the Senate ever confirms him.

Posted in Law: Everything Else | Comments Off on May 5: President Obama Announces Intent to Nominate Stephen Higginson to Serve on 5th Circuit