President's Call for a 2-Year Law Degree

President Barack Obama’s comments last week that law school should be limited to two years is drawing reaction from both sides of the issue. A number of law professors praised discussion on the idea, but most of those blogging about the concept found fault with it. Berkeley Law professor Dan Farber warned that a two-year program would not leave time for specialized courses, such as environmental law, that are not tested on bar exams. Albany Law School professor Mary Lynch suggested the president is confusing unpaid interning with a true clinical experience, and that he does not understand that clients no longer want to pay for on-the-job training of new attorneys. And Matt Bodie with the Saint Louis University School of Law argued the idea would not automatically lower tuition as schools could just increase the cost per credit hour. Read a wrap up of reactions at TaxProf Blog.

The source of this is the TBA Today by the Tennessee Bar Association.

The Defense of Marriage Act Breaking News

Today, the United States issued a ruling in the case of United States v. Windsor that could have similar historical significance as cases like Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board of Education.  The Supreme Court held that The Defense of Marriage Act’s (DOMA) definition of “marriage”  which is defined as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” to be unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.  This is an obvious victory for the Gay and Lesbian Community; however, it is also a huge win for supporters of the Tenth Amendment.  The Supreme Court, in a dramatic deviation from recent precedent, found same sex marriage to be a state issue, rather than a federal one.  The Windsor case, in essence, has upheld the individual States’ right to define marriage as it and its residents see fit, without the overbearing eye of the federal government to intervene.  The Supreme Court’s opinion provides a detailed history of the State’s authority over domestic relations and how the DOMA violates the due process rights of same sex couples.  Regardless of what side you are on, this case will have lasting historical significance for future generations.  The full opinion can be found here, http://www.kingplc.com/United%20States%20v.%20Windsor.pdf