Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: More on Other Bad Acts Evidence
The Seventh Circuit had only one new opinion in a criminal case this week, and it is not one in which the court broke new legal ground.  In United States v. Harris (No. 07-4017) (Williams, J.), the court affirmed the defendant’s convictions for drug trafficking and unlawful gun possession.  The defendant raised variou

Open Quantity Contracts: Beyond Good Faith
Business concerns sometimes enter into sales agreements that do not specify a particular quantity to be sold.  This might be helpful, for instance, if a manufacturer would like to secure a commitment from a supplier to meet the manufacturer’s needs, but it is not certain what the needs will be.  These business relationships do not always work out over the long term, however, and litigation often results.  In these cases, courts have struggled to establish clear, consistent standards with respect to the validity and terms of open quantity contracts.  Many of these cases turn on the application of amorphous “good faith” standards, raising concerns about unpredict

Federalism and Criminal Law
This is the fourth in a series of posts reviewing last term’s criminal cases in the United States Supreme Court and previewing the new term. Habeas corpus presents the classic federalism problem in criminal law: how can federal courts overturn flawed state-court judgments while maintaining due respect for state sovereignty and the autonomy of state criminal-justice systems?  But federalism issues can also appear in criminal cases that originate i

Horace Scurry: Our First African-American Law Student
Horace S. Scurry was one of many fascinating individuals who passed through the Milwaukee Law School between the time of its founding in the early 1890’s and its merger with Marquette University in 1908.  He appears to have been the first African-American to join the ranks of that institution’s students. Details of Scurry’s life are meager.  He was born in 1865 in Delaware, Ohio, and first arrived in Milwaukee in 1882 at age 17.  He attended school in Milwaukee and then returned to Ohio, where he enrolled in Ohio Wesleyan College (which was in his hometown of Delaware).  The college catalog listed him as a Milwaukee resident, and he apparently entered college with the in

Marking the Tenth International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
As I wrote about a year ago today, November 25th has been designated by the United Nations as “International Day for