Saturday, December 3, 2016

Weekend Roundup

  • Chicago-Kent notes Christopher Schmidt's receipt of the ASLH's Surrency Prize in this press release
  • Belatedly, we note that Newton Minow was one of the recent recipients of  the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  In 1961, John F. Kennedy chose Minow, age 34, to chair the Federal Communications Commission as one of a series of meritocratic appointments that included Philip Elman to the Federal Trade Commission and Manuel F. Cohen to the Securities and Exchange Commission.  
  • The Beijinger notes the opening earlier this year of the China Court Museum.  Exhibits treat famous legal cases from around the world, including the OJ Simpson trial. 
Cuthbert W. Pound (wiki)
  • Recently, the American Historical Association’s listserv circulated a query from a person seeking a home for “documents from my husband's family that include a former New York Appellate Court Judge (Cuthbert Pound), journals covering 20+ years during the mid-1800's to 1900, and numerous letters."  We suggested she contact the Historical Society of the New York Courts and the Charles B. Sears Law Library of the University at Buffalo School of Law.
  • The December issue of the newsletter of the Historical Society of the DC Circuit, available soon here, reports that the Society “is sponsoring the writing of a biography of Chief Judge William B. Bryant by award-winning author Tonya Bolden,” written for young adults. And on February 14, 2017, it will sponsor “The Reporter’s Privilege and National Security: The Case of In Re: Grand Jury Subpoena, Judith Miller.”  "The program will explore the common-law basis for a reporter’s privilege and how best to strike the balance between the public’s right to know and the Government’s need to secure information in the national interest." Two members of the original panel, David S. Tatel and David B. Sentelle, will preside over a re-enactment of the arguments in Miller's case.
  • Matthew Dallek, George Washington University, will discuss Defenseless under the Night, his history of the WW2-era Office of Civilian Defense, at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum at 7:00 PM on Pearl Harbor Day.  More.
  • ICYMI: The University of Chicago's Geoffrey Stone likens the Republican Senators' refusal to give Judge Merrick Garland a hearing to FDR's Court-Packing Plan.  That was the last time, he writes, that "politicians tried in so blatant a manner to manipulate the makeup of the Supreme Court in violation of long-standing norms."  Also, Seth Barrett Tillman notes that the Congressional Research Service has revised its guidance on the Foreign Emoluments Clause.  And, over at the Faculty Lounge: North Carolina Law's Eric Muller on Locking Away Korematsu's Loaded Weapon, and Al Brophy on the report of Yale University’s Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming, chaired by YLS professor John Witt.
Weekend Roundup is a weekly feature compiled by all the Legal History Bloggers.