Weekend Roundup

• Two items of interest from John Fabian Witt (Yale Law School): (1) He and other torts scholars (Mark Gergen, Paul Hoffman) have submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the current Section 1981 case Comcast v. National Association of African American-Owned Media. The brief challenges Comcast's characterization of a number of 19th-century torts cases and in doing so offers insights about the history of "but-for" causation as an element of negligence. (2) The latest issue of the New Republic includes his thoughts on "the shrinking legacy" of former Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes, "first celebrity justice of the U.S. Supreme Court": why is Holmes veneration "in decline"?

• The 12th Annual Court History and Continuing Legal Education Symposium of the Historical Society of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana will be devoted to the history of judicial confirmation.  The symposium includes the presentation, “Paths to the Bench: Southern District of Indiana Appointments from William E. Steckler to Gene E. Brooks,” by Doria Lynch and “a brief synopsis of the Chief Justice Robert B. Taney mural alternation project, which is part of the national trend to remove inappropriate historical symbols from public spaces.”  It will be held from 1 to 4:30 p.m. on November 1 in the Sarah Evans Barker Courtroom of the Birch Bayh Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Indianapolis.   (The Indiana Lawyer.)

• John W. Kluge Center has announced the arrival of several scholars-in-residence at the Library of Congress.  The holder of the Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance is Andrea Campbell, the Arthur and Ruth Sloan professor of political science at MIT, who is working on a book project titled “How Americans Think About Taxes.” 

• Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is on exhibit at the National Museum of American Jewish History, 5th and Market Streets, Philadelphia, through January 12, 2020.

• Here at LHB we usually try to keep things nonpartisan, but we still feel obliged to note, in case you somehow missed it, the recent interview ASLH past-president Bruce Mann gave to CNN.  And, while we're on the subject of legal historian spouses to presidential candidates, thank you John Bessler for that shout out at the 2019 Hall of Fame Celebration of the Dubuque County Democratic Party.  DRE 

• Over at Jotwell: Binyamin Blum (UC Hastings) reviews Orna Alyagon Darr's Plausible Crime Stories: The Legal History of Sexual Offences in Mandate Palestine (CUP, 2018)

• ICYMI:  How Did Magna Carta Influence the U.S. Constitution? (History).  Frank Bowman on the history of impeachment in Rolling Stone.

• From the Washington Post's "Made by History" section: many historically informed observations about impeachment and President Donald Trump, including by Sidney Milkis (University of Virginia, Miller Center) and Daniel Tichenor (University of Oregon) (here); Thomas Balcerski (Eastern Connecticut State University) (here); and Doug Rossinow (University of Oslo) (here). Also Jessica Wang (University of British Columbia) on "How New York defeated rabies" and why "the city’s history with the disease offers a blueprint for eliminating deaths around the world." More.

Weekend Roundup is a weekly feature compiled by all the Legal History bloggers.