Slices & Lumps: Division and Aggregation in Law and Life

Lee Anne Fennell, Slices and Lumps: Division and Aggregation in Law and Life (University of Chicago Press, 2019).

How things are divided up or pieced together matters. Half a bridge is of no use at all. Conversely, many things would do more good if they could be divided up differently: Perhaps you would prefer a job that involves a third fewer hours and a third less pay or a car that materializes only when needed and is priced accordingly? Difficulties in "slicing" and "lumping" shape nearly every facet of how we live and work -- and a great deal of law and policy as well.

Lee Anne Fennell explores how both types of challenges -- carving out useful slices and assembling useful lumps -- surface in myriad contexts, from hot-button issues like conservation and eminent domain to developments in the sharing economy to personal struggles over work, money, time, diet and exercise. Yet the significance of configuration is often overlooked, leading to missed opportunities for improving our lives. With a technology-fueled entrepreneurial explosion under way that is dividing goods, services, and jobs in novel ways, and as urbanization and environmental threats raise the stakes for assembling resources and cooperation, this is an especially exciting and crucial time to confront questions of slicing and lumping. The future of the city, the workplace, the marketplace, and the environment all turn on matters of configuration, as do the prospects for more effective legal doctrines, for better management of finances and health, and more. This book reveals configuration's power and potential -- as a unifying concept and as a focus of public and private innovation.

-Publisher's Description

The Federal Impeachment Process: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis

Michael J. Gerhardt, The Federal Impeachment Process: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis (University of Chicago Press, 2019).

For more than twenty years, The Federal Impeachment Process has served as the most complete analysis of the constitutional and legal issues raised in every impeachment proceeding in American history. Impeachment, Michael J. Gerhardt shows, is an inherently political process designed to expose and remedy political crimes -- serious breaches of duty, abuse of power, or injuries to the Republic. Subject neither to judicial review nor to presidential veto, impeachment is a unique congressional power that requires members of Congress to consider the political and constitutional ramifications, the gravity of the offense charged, the harm to the constitutional order, and the link between an official's misconduct and duties.

For this third edition, Gerhardt updates the book to cover questions relating to impeachment since President Clinton's acquittal, as well as recent scholarly debates. He discusses issues arising from President Trump's possible impeachment, including whether a sitting president may be investigated, prosecuted, and convicted for criminal misconduct or whether impeachment and conviction in Congress is the only way to sanction a sitting president; what the "emoluments clause" means and whether it might provide the basis for presidential removal; whether incompetence may serve as the basis for impeachment; and the extent to which the past conduct of public officials may serve as a basis for their impeachment and removal from office.

-Publisher's Description

The Little Book on Oral Argument

Alan L. Dworsky, The Little Book on Oral Argument (2d ed. 2019)

The Little Book on Oral Argument, Second Edition by Alan Dworsky is a reader-friendly guide to oral argument for law students and new lawyers, designed to introduce and cover its subject in a simple and entertaining, yet comprehensive, way. It focuses on how to argue a case before an appellate court. Additionally, it contains chapters on such topics as style, substance, structure, questions, and rebuttal to explain effective approaches to this peculiar form of conversation. More profoundly, it delves into the core theme of oral argument—how one interacts with one’s audience. Judges can interrupt with questions, cut a person off, or force a lawyer to move on.

Each oral argument is different, requiring one to make moment-to-moment adjustments to fit the situation and the judges. To make these adjustments intelligently, there is a need for more than mechanical rules. There is also a need to understand the psychology of persuasion.

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Troublemakers: Students' Rights and Racial Justice in the Long 1960s

Kathryn Schumaker, Troublemakers: Students' Rights and Racial Justice in the Long 1960s (NYU Press, 2019)

In the late 1960s, protests led by students roiled high schools across the country. As school desegregation finally took place on a wide scale, students of color were particularly vocal in contesting the racial discrimination they saw in school policies and practices. And yet, these young people had no legal right to express dissent at school. It was not until 1969 that the Supreme Court would recognize the First Amendment rights of students in the landmark Tinker v. Des Moines case.

A series of students’ rights lawsuits in the desegregation era challenged everything from school curricula to disciplinary policies. But in casting students as “troublemakers” or as “culturally deficient,” school authorities and other experts persuaded the courts to set limits on rights protections that made students of color disproportionately vulnerable to suspension and expulsion.

Troublemakers traces the history of black and Chicano student protests from small-town Mississippi to metropolitan Denver and beyond, showcasing the stories of individual protesters and demonstrating how their actions contributed to the eventual recognition of the constitutional rights of all students. Offering a fresh interpretation of this pivotal era, Troublemakers shows that when black and Chicano teenagers challenged racial discrimination in American public schools, they helped remake American constitutional law and establish protections of free speech, due process, equal protection, and privacy for students.

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do (Penguin Random House, 2019).

You don’t have to be racist to be biased. Unconscious bias can be at work without our realizing it, and even when we genuinely wish to treat all people equally, ingrained stereotypes can infect our visual perception, attention, memory, and behavior. This has an impact on education, employment, housing, and criminal justice. In Biased, with a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Jennifer Eberhardt offers us insights into the dilemma and a path forward.

Eberhardt works extensively as a consultant to law enforcement and as a psychologist at the forefront of this new field. Her research takes place in courtrooms and boardrooms, in prisons, on the street, and in classrooms and coffee shops. She shows us the subtle–and sometimes dramatic–daily repercussions of implicit bias in how teachers grade students, or managers deal with customers. It has an enormous impact on the conduct of criminal justice, from the rapid decisions police officers have to make to sentencing practices in court. Eberhardt’s work and her book are both influenced by her own life, and the personal stories she shares emphasize the need for change. She has helped companies that include Airbnb and Nextdoor address bias in their business practices and has led anti-bias initiatives for police departments across the country. Here, she offers practical suggestions for reform and new practices that are useful for organizations as well as individuals.

Unblinking about the tragic consequences of prejudice, Eberhardt addresses how racial bias is not the fault of nor restricted to a few “bad apples” but is present at all levels of society in media, education, and business. The good news is that we are not hopelessly doomed by our innate prejudices. In Biased, Eberhardt reminds us that racial bias is a human problem–one all people can play a role in solving.

-Publisher's description