The Supreme Court and Amicus Curiae Briefs

Today the Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases dealing with important questions under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. At issue are questions such as whether the use of drug detection dogs in traffic stops or merely walking up to the front porch of a house constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment, and, if the dog detects the presence of drugs, does that constitute probable cause sufficient for a search warrant. The cases are Florida v. Jardines, No. 11-564 and Florida v. Harris, No. 11-817.

New Faculty Publications on SSRN

The latest issue of the College of Law’s SSRN Research Paper Series came out today. All our faculty publications on SSRN are available through our SSRN page, and the link at the top of the page lets you subscribe to the College of Law’s RPS. But today issue is also available below, as a PDF copy of the today’s RPS issue:

Loyola University New Orleans College of Law Research Paper Series 2012-04

Law Library Catalog Video

For 1Ls working on RE3, and for anyone else interested in how to efficiently and accurately use the library catalog, the law library has produced this brief, six-and-a-half minute video:

Explaining Improbable Cases of Judicial Independence: The Example of Uganda

A new blog post from our Prof. Johanna Kalb we wanted to share with all of our readers: Explaining Improbable Cases of Judicial Independence: The Example of Uganda

New Chief Judge of the U.S. Fifth Circuit is Loyola Alumni

As many news sources noted last week, the new Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is the first African-American to hold that position. Particularly notable to us here at the College of Law is the fact that Judge Carl E. Stewart is an alumni of ours, from 1974.

As the official press release [PDF] from the Court states, Judge Stewart served with the Army Judge Advocate General Corps for several years after graduating from Loyola, then worked in both the US Attorney’s and the Louisiana Attorney General’s offices, and was a city attorney and in private practice for several years. He also served as a state judge at both the district and appellate court levels before being appointed to the Fifth Circuit by President Clinton in 1994.

In 1997, he was the inaugural speaker in our Louis Westerfield Legal Society Lecture series and spoke “Contemporary Challenges to Judicial Independence”. His speech was published at 43 Loy. L. Rev. 293 (1997), and you can read it through Hein Online.

Fifth Circuit's Reversal on Katrina Litigation Leaves Flood Victims Gasping for Air - LINK

A new blog post from our Prof. Verchick we wanted to share with all of our readers:  
Fifth Circuit's Reversal on Katrina Litigation Leaves Flood Victims Gasping for Air