Indiana Law Annotated for Aug. 31, 2020

NOTE: Unless otherwise indicated, all events listed will be held via Zoom. Check listings for reservation requirements and links. All times Eastern Daylight Time.

Callout Meetings This Week

Several student organizations are holding callout meetings this week. Choose the ones that interest you, and consult Canvas for Zoom login information.

One School | One Book: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

You can access the e-book here.

Quote of the week

In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don’t. Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color 'criminals' and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal. As a criminal, you are afforded scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” p. 2n

Summary of Introduction

In the introduction to the book, Prof. Alexander establishes her essential point — that the incarceration and post-incarceration legalized discrimination experienced today by the vast number of people with felony records, many of whom are Black, is akin to the discrimination against African Americans during the Jim Crow era. This discrimination includes being excluded from voting, jury service, jobs, publicly-supported housing, food stamps and other support for the poor, and student loans. Mass incarceration and the ensuing discrimination is a new way to impose a racial caste system.

Alexander highlights the War on Drugs, declared by President Reagan in 1982, and points to it as the cause of mass incarceration. Due to racism in both enforcement and sentencing, African Americans make up a disproportionate number of those convicted of and imprisoned for drug crimes. Although Alexander seems to say that mass incarceration and the resulting stigmatization are rooted in racism and are a purposeful recreation of a racialized caste system, she also insists that this new caste system does not require racial hostility or overt bigotry, but only racial indifference.

Questions to think about

“Criminals, it turns out, are the one social group in America we have permission to hate” (p. 141).

• Do you agree with the author on this point?
• If she is right, do you think it is just to discriminate against someone because they have a criminal history?
• How does it impact reentry into the world outside prison?
• How can we justify having post-incarceration effects that outlast sentences?

For next week: First half of Chapter 1, pp. 25-50.

Monday

Connect with Director Beck

Do you have questions for Director Beck or just want to chat for a moment? Feel free to schedule an appointment with her (www.calendly.com/katbeck) or stop by her Zoom Drop-In Hours (iu.zoom.iu/my/katiebeck).

Practice Group Advisor Session

Join this year’s Practice Group Advisors for a series of upcoming sessions focused on outlining for exams and thriving while working from home. These sessions are geared toward 1Ls but are open to all students. Topic: Approaches to outlining for exams, with Robyn Zoccola and Preston Michelson. 5:30-6:30 p.m. Please register in advance. 

Tuesday

Practice Group Advisor Session

Join this year’s Practice Group Advisors for a series of upcoming sessions focused on outlining for exams and thriving while working from home. These sessions are geared toward 1Ls but are open to all students. Topic: Approaches to outlining for exams, with Justin Snyder and Mandy Hibbler. 7:00-8:00 p.m. Please register in advance.

Big 10 Law School Series on Race, Law, and Equality

Dean Kevin Washburn (University of Iowa College of Law) and Prof. Matthew Fletcher (Michigan State University College of Law) will kick-off the Big 10 Law School Speaker Series with “Up Next: Erasure (Native Americans in the 21st Century).” 6:00-7:00 p.m. Visit the Law School calendar to register on Zoom. 

Wednesday

Connect with Director Beck

Do you have questions for Director Beck or just want to chat for a moment? Feel free to schedule an appointment with her (www.calendly.com/katbeck) or stop by her Zoom Drop-In Hours (iu.zoom.iu/my/katiebeck). 11:00 a.m. - noon.

Practice Group Advisor Session

Join this year’s Practice Group Advisors for a series of upcoming sessions focused on outlining for exams and thriving while working from home. These sessions are geared toward 1Ls but are open to all students. Topic: Approaches to outlining for exams, with Matt Triplett and Anthony Alcivar. 6:00-7:00 p.m. Please register in advance.

Thursday

IP Colloquium: Marketa Trimble

Marketa Trimble (UNLV Boyd School of Law), will present “Conflicts of Laws, Geoblocking, and Intellectual Property.” Visit the Law School calendar for more information. Two hours of Indiana CLE credit has been approved for this talk. To RSVP or for more information, please email cipr@indiana.edu. 1:05-3:05 p.m.

Friday

IP Alumni Panel

Join the IP Association and the Center for IP Research as we welcome back several of our IP alumni, virtually, to share their experiences transitioning from the classroom to the law firm. Panelists include:

• Chris Cassella '17, Locke Lord
• Sarah Eddy '19, Norton, Fulbright, Rose
• Evan Glass '18, Foley & Lardner
• LaShaila Spivey '19, Frost Brown Todd

Participants will be able to meet with our panelists in small groups via breakout rooms following the panel discussion.

A Zoom link for this event will be emailed to those who RSVP via CareerNet. RSVP by 9/1. Email cipr@indiana.edu with any questions. 12:30-2:00 p.m.

Virtual Game Night with LLSA, ILS, and MELSA

Join the Latinx Law Student Association, International Law Society, and Middle Eastern Law Student Association as we host a game night mixer for our members to kick off the semester. We will play Jackbox games and other fine selections. The mixer will take place over Discord. Signing up for an account is quick and easy! Once your account is created, you may join our Discord server here.

Should you have any questions about signing up for Discord, please Contact Erica Cioc at ecioc@iu.edu or Hussein Mohamed at hymohame@iu.edu.

Announcements

Seeking Feedback on JD Orientation

If you are a 1L and haven’t yet completed the orientation survey, please let us know what you thought and how we can improve! The survey will be available until Friday, September 4 and is available at https://go.iu.edu/3amJ.

Announcing New Dean’s Writing Fellows

The legal writing faculty are pleased to announce this year’s Dean’s Writing Fellows: 3Ls Brian Hudson, Madison Lee, and Robert Silman, and 2Ls Raeanna Carrell, Heather Heck, Allison Henry, Abigail McGowan, and Brian Ward. The Dean’s Writing Fellow position connects outstanding upper-class students with a legal writing professor and one section of the first-year Legal Research and Writing course. The writing faculty look forward to working with this year’s Fellows and the Class of 2023!

Wednesday Walkers is Back!

If you remember our wonderful walking club from last fall, you’ll be pleased to hear that we’re back! Wednesday Walkers is a casual walking club that asks members of the Law School community to take a break from their desks and get outside to explore the outdoors near them every — you guessed it! — Wednesday. This year, Wednesday Walkers will be completely virtual, which means you can participate from wherever you happen to be at whatever time of day works for you. Just snap a photo of yourself or a view of your walk and share it to your favorite social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) with the hashtag #WednesdayWalkers and tag the law school (@IUMaurerLaw on Instagram and Twitter, @IUMaurerSchoolofLaw on Facebook). Each week in September and October a participant will be chosen at random for a special prize.

Calling All Student Reps

If you are a student representative for a bar preparation company (Barbri, Kaplan, Themis, etc.) or another legal academic company (Westlaw, etc.), please get in touch with Director Beck (katbeck@indiana.edu  ) so she can work with you to make a plan for sharing resources and information with students while tabling and in-person events are not an option.

Faculty and Staff News

Jayanth Krishnan, Milt and Judi Stewart Professor of Law and Director of the Milt and Judi Stewart Center on the Global Legal Profession, and Lauren Robel, Val Nolan Professor of Law and IU Bloomington Provost, have received lifetime appointments as distinguished fellows and eminent jurists at the Jindal Global Law School of O.P. Jindal Global Law School. Prof. Krishnan has been closely associated with JGLS for many years and has been instrumental in developing degree and partnership programs with the school. Provost Robel was instrumental in building relationships with Jindal during her years as dean of the Law School.

Indiana Law in the Media

Follow faculty in the media via our website.

About ILA

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