My Lecture Notes

Answers to refer to the material from the class. Behavior of Judge Skinner for example against material relating to the code of judicial conduct.

Coping with political theology – essay by Mark Lilla

“contemporary American debates over religion and politics are astonishingly provincial. Whether our arguments take place in the press, in seminar rooms, or on the stump, we keep coming back to the same basic themes: toleration, church-state separation, freedom of assembly, conscience, values, community, and a few others.”

On differences between Europe and U.S

“there were no religious shrines to fight over, no holy cities, no temples, no sacred burial grounds (except those of the Native Americans, which were shamefully ignored). There also was a complete absence of what we would today call diversity”

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For October 22, 2007 class.

In conjunction with the reading in Being Good, look quickly at this article, featured in this weekend’s Chronicle of Higher Education’s aldaily, at
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/10/08/mark-lilla/coping-with-political-theology/
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Cato Unbound
Coping with Political Theology
Lead Essay by Mark Lilla
October 8th, 2007
Among the many paradoxes in America’s international relations today, one stands out. It has to do with America’s self-conception, and therefore with religion. On the one hand, America is clearly the most religious nation in the modern West and the most powerful. On the other, American policy has been unable to understand, let alone cope with, the religious passions dominating contemporary world politics. Given Americans’ collective recognition of religion’s legitimacy in a modern political order, one would think that we would be better able to adapt ourselves to the current situation than other, far more secular Western nations. This is not the case, and we need to understand why.
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Chronicle of Higher Education Friday, October 19, 2007
One of the Nation’s Largest Colleges Is Re-Examining Its Entire Curriculum
by Elyse Ashburn
Miami Dade College offers about 2,000 courses in programs as disparate as drama and veterinary technology. And over the next two years, the college plans to examine every single one of those courses to determine what key skills they are and are not teaching students.
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SAMPLE OF EXAM INSTRUCTIONS.
[You will print out the actual exam email, and attach it, as the cover sheet of your mid-term examination.]
Harvard Extension School 2007-08
Mid-Term Examination. Law and Ethics. First letter of LAST name________

PRINT last name____________________________ first name________________
CIRCLE credit status: Undergraduate Graduate
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Here are some sample examination-type essay questions.
[Suggestions: Outline possible responses; perhaps write out an answer or more; talk them over with informers; see to what extent your approach is similar to approaches discussed in the next class meeting.]

1. Using the three perspectives discussed in class– the clinical (or business or tactical or strategic or organizational or religious or….), the legal, and the ethical– evaluate [consider each letter below as a separate possible question]:

a. the defense lawyers in A Civil Action
b. the plaintiff lawyers in A Civil Action
c. the predatory priests in the Roman Catholic Church
d. the hierarchy in the R.C. Church
e. the appellate lawyers in Gideon v. Wainwright

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Boston Globe Editorial: Disease Cluster Mystery

FOR MORE than 20 years, health officials have known about a puzzling concentration of the neurodegenerative illness known as Lou Gehrig’s disease in the southeastern Massachusetts town of Middleborough.

In the coming months, a study financed by the federal government and conducted by state environmental health scientists might answer the riddle of whether toxic waste from two Superfund sites in the town has caused the rare and usually fatal disease.

Middleborough was home to a metal plating plant and a chemical plant. Their industrial waste became Superfund sites that still have not been entirely cleaned up.

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These materials deal with legal and business ethics and are related to the reading in A Civil Action.

For Monday October 14, read this.

OBSERVER The Chronicle of Higher Education May 12, 2006
The Lessons of Legal Ethics by Leonard M. Niehoff
I teach ethics to law students. That always draws a laugh, or a sarcastic remark like, “Must be a short course.” My favorite response, though, came from a fellow who works at the local feed store and asked what I did for a living. When I told him, he shook his head and said, “Wow, and I thought dairy farmers had a tough job.” (more…)

On Exam Questions:

Potential ingredients for response to the questions to include only material covered in class and NOT any outside sources.

Legal, ethical and religious factors in the Catholic church crisis: Some factors such as the confidentiality between priest and penitent could be considered legal, ethical and religious.

Use of the word ‘morality‘ in Anthony Lewis’ book Gideon’s Trumpet: Reference the Supreme Court’s legal decision to argue how Anthony Lewis uses the word ‘morality‘, even though the Supreme Court’s decision didn’t use that word.

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Reminder that the reading for Monday is the first 290 pages of A Civil Action.
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Sample examination questions:

What legal, ethical, and religious factors enabled some in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church to neglect the needs of children and others?

What did Anthony Lewis’ use of “morality” add to the U.S. Supreme Court’s legal decision in the Gideon case?

To what extent were the “borking” of Robert Bork and of Clarence Thomas similar and to what extent different?

What is the dispute between original intent and evolving standards as methods of interpreting the U.S. Constitution, and is one approach more ethical?

In both Gideon v. Wainwright and Betts v. Brady, the Supreme Court was interpreting the 14th amendment but came to directly opposing conclusions. What does the opposing ruling say about Stare Decisis?

Recent books on the Supreme Court:

• The Nine
• The Brethren

First ammendment, Congress shall make ‘no law’ against interpretive meaning of the constitution.

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