Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Selected Previous Posts on Grading

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Selected previous posts on grading:

Posted in Law School | Comments Off on Selected Previous Posts on Grading

Grading Today

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

No blogging today: I'm grading.

Posted in Discourse.net | 6 Comments

Dangerous People

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Certified Domestic TerroristIt's true that the “common law court” movement includes a lot of nutty people and probably some dangerous ones. And it's true that some of the things they do overlap with legal activities (although they often take it waaay too far). So I have a little sympathy for the bureaucrats who produced the boneheaded leaflet and training materials being mercilessly skewered by Homeland Stupidity at You are the homegrown terrorist threat. But only a little.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Phoenix, Ariz., distributed a brochure (Images: 1, 2) to local law enforcement agencies a few years ago which defines terrorism as individuals or groups within the U.S. who engage in criminal activity to promote political or social changes. This is correct, as far as it goes, but the brochure then gives a listing of “suspicious” activities, telling law enforcement officers: “If you encounter any of the following, call the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

Some of the things for which you should be reported as a suspected terrorist include the usual things, like weapons of mass destruction, and hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis, but also includes people who “Make numerous references to US Constitution,” “Claim driving is a right, not a privilege” and “Attempt to ‘police the police.’”

As regular readers know, I make frequent references to the US Constitution, and believe that there is constitutional right to travel — although its application to cars is a bit of a mess. And I'm all for policing the police although other than going to traffic court I've not done much of that myself.

Please don't report me.

Posted in National Security | 5 Comments

Gone-zales? Not yet.

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Stuart Taylor Jr. isn't pulling his punches. OPENING ARGUMENT: Another Gonzales Horror Story :

Every day that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is allowed to remain in office is corrosive to constitutional governance and an invitation to further politicization of the Justice Department.

And “X-Judge” H. Lee Sarokin asks What Do Alberto Gonzalez And A Chicago Divorce Lawyer Have In Common?, and answers as follows:

They both have demeaned the legal profession. A huge billboard in Chicago's nightclub district proclaims: “Life's short. Get a divorce” It features photographs of “a sexy, scantily clad woman on one side and a buff, bare-chested man on the other”. (NYTimes 5/13/07) No matter what the message or the motive of the messenger, no one can dispute the right of the lawyer to offer her wares in this fashion. It has met with considerable success. As with the Attorney General, apparently all things are to be judged by whether or not they are working, not whether they are right or wrong. Illegal wiretapping, secret prisons, torture, unlawful detentions, political firings of U.S. attorneys, suspension of habeas corpus, rejection of the Geneva Convention, and undoubtedly a host of other conduct yet to be revealed (such as a coercive hospital visit to the previous Attorney General seeking approval of an illegal wiretapping scheme) are all justified on the basis that no further attacks have occured since 9/11. Ergo, these tactics, like the billboard poster, are working, The only difference being that encouraging divorce is not illegal or unconstitutional, although in this administration it might be one day.

As to the firings of the U.S. attorneys, nothing infuriates me more than the party line that these are political appointments, and the President, as did President Clinton, can replace them all. Yes, these appointments are political as are those to the courts, but once appointed, U.S. Attorneys, Judges and Justices cease to be political agents. To do otherwise violates their oath of office. Prosecutors should not be dismissed for pursuing criminal conduct by members of the party in power or failing to pursue actions for the sole purpose of embarrassing the opposition and affecting the outcome of elections. Justice is not meant to be used as a political weapon.

So look for a billboard with that infamous picture of the hooded prisoner at Abu Ghraib on one side and a smiling picture of the Attorney General on the other saying: “Stop Terror. Torture Works”, because there is little that the current Attorney General does not have in common with the sleazy divorce lawyer.

But, GWB “stands by” Gonzales. And you can see why Bush stands by his man: it will be hard to find anyone to take the job, and the confirmation hearing for any but a top-drawer replacement will be … searching.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on Gone-zales? Not yet.

Measuring How Much Schools Challenge Students

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

The Washington Post and Newsweek have a crude but interesting methodology that aims to capture whether high schools challenge their students.

The metric has a lot of limitations, but it also has its attractions. They start by excluding all magnet schools, more or less on the grounds that they'd win if they were included. They rank the remaining schools on how many advanced tests the students take:

We take the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school in May, and divide by the number of seniors graduating in May or June. All public schools that Newsweek researchers Dan Brillman, Halley Bondy and Becca Kaufman found that achieved a ratio of at least 1.000, meaning they had as many tests in 2006 as they had graduates, are put on the list on the Newsweek website, and the 100 schools with the highest ratios are named in the magazine.

… I think 1.000 is a modest standard. A school can reach that level if only half of its students take one AP, IB or Cambridge test in their junior year and one in their senior year. But this year only about five percent of all U.S. public high schools managed to reach that standard ….

This is indeed a crude measure. It doesn't capture how good the teachers or the students are (the results of the tests don't enter into the calculation). There's no control for demographics of the school's catchment area, although it appears that the correlation isn't that good since rich schools sometimes reserve their APs for the 'best' students which keeps down the numbers.

And it's not exactly a measure of value-added either.

No, at best it measures what it says: whether or not the high schools are challenging their students by exposing them to advanced courses. That may be very basic, but it's still worth knowing.

How would we make a comparable metric for law schools?

Posted in Law School | Comments Off on Measuring How Much Schools Challenge Students

Wireless-less in Italy

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Saturday I'm leaving for a conference in Bologna. I don't know much about what sort of internet access I'll have — but I just read about the frustration of finding a wireless connection in Italy so who knows.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | 5 Comments