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It has become commonplace in American political discourse for Christian evangelicals to assert that the United States was founded as a "Christian nation" and that in recent decades secularists have gained control and distorted our nation's founding traditions and values. In this lecture, Professor Geoffrey Stone examines the beliefs of the Framers on this question. What did they think about Christianity, about the role of Christianity in the American nation, and about the relationship between religion generally and self-governance? The answers to these questions are important not only to constitutional interpretation, but even more fundamentally to an understanding of who we are – and who we are supposed to be – as a nation. Geoffrey Stone is Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Law School. This talk was recorded April 21, 2008 as part of the Chicago's Best Ideas lecture series.

Tom Ginsburg is Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. This talk was recorded on May 6, 2008 and was sponsored by the China Law Society.

Without question, the most distinctive feature of the modern social democratic state is the rise of administrative agencies, which at the federal level function as a shadowy Fourth Branch of government that fits uneasily into our constitutional scheme of separation of powers, and which at the state level oversee vast swaths of economic activity. Defenders of the current administrative setup claim the elaborate procedural safeguards built into today’s administrative law effectively blunt the risk of arbitrary power, whose exercise has always been in tension with the rule of law. In this talk, Professor Epstein will explain why he thinks the massive discretion routinely confided in administrative agencies is in fact inconsistent with the rule of law on a wide range of matters dealing with economic liberties, tort liability, private property, and the institutional autonomy of voluntary associations. Richard Epstein is James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Director of the Law and Economics Program at the University of Chicago Law School. This talk was recorded on January 29, 2008 as part of the Chicago's Best Ideas series.

This talk was presented as the University of Chicago's 2008 Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture. The Ryerson Lectures grew out of a 1972 bequest to the University by Nora and Edward L. Ryerson, a former Chairman of the Board. The University's faculty selects each Ryerson Lecturer based on a consensus that a particular scholar has made research contributions of lasting significance. It was recorded on May 14, 2008. Martha Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago Law School.

This talk was the keynote address of a conference held April 4, 2008, at the University of Chicago Law School, entitled "Contested Commodities: Reframing the Debate on Financial Incentives in the Supply of Genetic Materials." Richard Epstein is James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Director of the Law and Economics Program at the University of Chicago Law School. He was introduced by Michele Goodwin, Visiting Professor of Law and the organizer of the conference.

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Judge Abner Mikva and Jason Huber of the Appellate Advocacy Clinic at the University of Chicago's Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic discuss the work and history of the Appellate Advocacy project. This talk was recorded on April 14, 2008 as part of the Goodwin and Procter Clinics in Action Lunch Series.

Listen to this show if you don't want your ass in a sling...literally. And Craigslist idiots: just because I used the word ass don't flag this. Jeez! The Stuart Bedasso Show gets noticed in a law student's paper. Dave gets some fringe benefits at the new gig. GILF's! Companies are giving their phone rep jobs not to people in other countries, but to people in the ghetto. Seems like a good thing, until you have to call them. And GLB makes an unexpected contribution to the show. Music: Maureen McCormick - Just A Little Singin' Alone King Benny Nawahi - May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii Travis Raab - My Only Friend Mombasa - Lately Cripple Clarence Lofton - Strut That Thing Willie K - North Shore Reggae Blues

At a time when so many different religious fundamentalisms are coming to the fore and demanding legal recognition, this talk will seek to vindicate feminist fundamentalism, defined as an uncompromising commitment to the equality of the sexes as intense and at least as worthy of respect as, for example, a religiously or culturally based commitment to female subordination or fixed sex roles. Both individuals and nation states can have feminist fundamentalist commitments, as the talk will illustrate. Mary Anne Case is Arnold I. Shure Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. This talk was recorded April 9, 2008 as part of the Chicago's Best Ideas lecture series.

Why have we taken so few precautions in the face of threatening climate change? This CBI talk focuses, first, on the difficulty of dealing with a long-off threat in our political system. The question is how voters and their politicians can be encouraged to care about problems that can be deferred for consideration by a different electorate or set of taxpayers – but at much higher cost. We know that we should solve most long term problems sooner rather than later, but there are pressures that put off painful solutions. Professor Levmore draws on what we know about “median voters” and median citizens, for that matter, in order to hazard guesses about the coming battle among generations. In this “battle,” young voters will grow increasingly concerned about what is likely to occur as they age – but these voters do not yet have sufficient political power. In turn, arrangements among countries will be seen to depend in part on the disparate age profiles of countries. The topic, in other words, is global warming and the public choice problem of intergenerational bargaining. Saul Levmore is Dean of the Law School and William B. Graham Professor of Law. This talk was recorded February 12. 2008, as part of the Chicago's Best Ideas series.

Greenhouse gas reductions would cost some nations much more than others, and benefit some nations far less than others. Significant reductions would impose especially large costs on the United States, and recent projections suggest that the U.S. has relatively less to lose from climate change. In these circumstances, what does justice require the U.S. to do? This talk by Eric Posner and Cass Sunstein on April 1, 2008 was presented by the University of Chicago Environmental Law Society and the International Law Society.

From The Massachusetts School of Law. Is the US a great country, or is it in fact 51 great countries? Assistant Professor Andrej Starkis explains how the government of the United States gets its power, how the electoral college works, and the true meaning of the word "state" on this episode of The Massachusetts School of Law's A Point of Law. The Massachusetts School of Law, located in Andover, Massachusetts, makes high quality, affordable legal education available to less privileged persons who are traditionally excluded from the legal profession. As part of its mission of providing high quality education and information for both law students and the general public, the Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public via television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit www.mslaw.edu.Full length versions of MSLAW podcasts are available by free subscription from iTunes or as direct downloads.

From The Massachusetts School of Law. Animals are considered to be personal property by the law. Assistant Professor Holly Vietzke explains how that effects both animal and pet owner rights on this episode of The Massachusetts School of Law's A Point of Law. The Massachusetts School of Law, located in Andover, Massachusetts, makes high quality, affordable legal education available to less privileged persons who are traditionally excluded from the legal profession. As part of its mission of providing high quality education and information for both law students and the general public, the Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public via television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit www.mslaw.edu.Full length versions of MSLAW podcasts are available by free subscription from iTunes or as direct downloads.

From The Massachusetts School of Law. How should you behave when you are pulled over by the police? What are your rights, and if you receive a ticket what can you expect? Professor Michael L. Coyne tells you everything you need to know on this episode of The Massachusetts School of Law's A Point of Law. The Massachusetts School of Law, located in Andover, Massachusetts, makes high quality, affordable legal education available to less privileged persons who are traditionally excluded from the legal profession. As part of its mission of providing high quality education and information for both law students and the general public, the Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public via television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit www.mslaw.edu.Full length versions of MSLAW podcasts are available by free subscription from iTunes or as direct downloads.

On February 19, Professor of Law Lee Fennell presented the 2008 Coase Lecture on Law and Economics. Problems involving the aggregation and division of entitlements, she noted, are ubiquitous in law and in everyday life. Fragments held by multiple parties—such as parcels of land, effort, or segments of a bridge—often must be assembled together to be worth much. Conversely, a presently unified entitlement may be more valuable if it can be split into separate pieces held by different parties. The lecture examined these "lumping" and "slicing" problems (which turn out to be two sides of the same coin), showed how they turn up in both interpersonal and intrapersonal contexts, and offered some tools for addressing them.

Richard Posner is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School and ajudge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. David Lat is the author of two popular legal blogs, "Above the Law" and "Underneath Their Robes." This Federalist Society discussion was recorded February 21, 2008, and was moderated by Professor of Law and Walter Mander Teaching Scholar Lior Strahilevitz.

Richard Epstein is James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. This talk, which discusses Riegel v. Medtronic and Rowe v. New Hampshire, was recorded February 21, 2008 at the request of the Federalist Society.

Kenneth Starr is Dean of Pepperdine University Law School and Former Solicitor General of the United States. This talk was recorded January 31, 2008 by the Federalist Society, and was sponsored by Goldberg Kohn.

Robert E. Goodin is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and of Social & Political Theory in the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University. This talk was recorded January 16, 2008 as the 2007-2008 John Dewey Lecture on Jurisprudence. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, or so we are told. But why on earth not? The statute books run to hundreds of volumes. How can an ordinary citizen know what all is in them? The best way might be for law (at least in its wide-scope duty-conferring aspects) to track broad moral principles that ordinary citizens can know and apply for themselves. In contrast to more high-minded and deeply principled arguments, this epistemic argument for legal moralism is purely pragmatic – but importantly so. For law to do what law is supposed to do, which is to be action-guiding, people need to be able to intuit without detailed investigation what the law is for most common and most important cases of their conduct, and to intuit when their intuitions are likely to be unreliable and hence that they need to investigate further what the law actually is.

Anup Malani is Professor of Law and Aaron Director Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School. This talk was recorded January 16, 2008 as part of the Chicago's Best Ideas Lecture Series. Much of current scholarship views corporate philanthropy managerial waste or profiteering. In this talk, Professor Malani argues that both views are correct, and incomplete. Corporate philanthropy is the corporation’s entry into the market for private financing of public goods, also called the production of “warm glow.” This market was previously dominated by non-profit charities and the government. The feature that distinguishes corporate production of warm glow from other goods is that the corporation’s shareholders and workers are also its consumers. (Would you rather own or work for Google or Altria?) The key choices for the consumers of warm glow are whether to purchase from corporations or their competitors, and whether to do this via ownership, employment or product purchase. The talk will discuss the competitive advantage of corporations over charities and the government, and the importance of tax law in determining how consumers purchase warm glow from corporations. © 2008 The University of Chicago.

Meet Bucky (smokey-clean Jew/lawyer to be) and Lara Star (artist), who were stopped and smoothly forced to share their most intimate thoughts on sex laws. They reveal why and how they love each other and the importance of being sexy in New York city. Bucky also shares tips and tricks for women to prevent trouble with the law if they accidentaly rape men on the streets. Lara tells Renato whether he should marry Natalie Portman or not, and the disadvantages of enslaving children.

Drew Days III, former U.S. Solicitor General (under President Clinton) and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (under President Carter), delivers the third address in a series of talks commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Thurgood Marshall's appointment to the Supreme Court. Recorded April 5, 2007.

Dr. Ela Bhatt, recipient of the University of Chicago's 2007 William Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service, presented a public lecture on Novermber 27th in the Weymouth Kirkland Courtroom. Ela R. Bhatt is widely recognized as one of the world’s most remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development. Known as the “gentle revolutionary” she has dedicated her life to improving the lives of India’s poorest and most oppressed women workers, with Gandhian thinking as her source of guidance. In 1972, Dr. Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) – a trade union which now has more than 1,000,000 members. Founder Chair of the Cooperative Bank of SEWA, she is also founder and chair of Sa-Dhan (the All India Association of Micro Finance Institutions in India) and founder-chair of the Indian School of Micro-finance for Women. Dr. Bhatt was a Member of the Indian Parliament from 1986 to 1989, and subsequently a Member of the Indian Planning Commission. She founded and served as chair for Women’s World Banking, the International Alliance of Home-based Workers (HomeNet), and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing, Organizing (WIEGO). She also served as a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation for a decade. Dr. Bhatt has received several awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Right Livelihood Award, the George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, and the Légion d’honneur from France. She has also received honorary doctorates from Harvard, Yale, the University of Natal and other academic institutions. In 2007, Dr. Bhatt was named a member of The Elders, an international group of leaders whose goals include catalyzing peaceful resolutions to long-standing conflicts, articulating new approaches to global issues that are causing or may cause immense human suffering, and sharing wisdom by helping to connect voices all over the world. The Benton Medal The William Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service is given to individuals who have rendered distinguished public service in the field of education. This field includes “not only teachers but also . . . everyone who contributes in a systematic way to shaping minds and disseminating knowledge.” Previous Benton Medal recipients include John Callaway, Katharine Graham, and Senator Paul Simon.

Ted Cruz is currently the Solicitor General of Texas and recently argued Medellin for the State of Texas before the United States Supreme Court. Noel Francisco is a former Associate White House Counsel and Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, and was central in developing the Bush Administration’s strategy for dealing with the legal issues raised by Medellin. This event was recorded for the University of Chicago's chapter of the Federalist Society on October 30th, 2007. © 2007 The University of Chicago.

Mark Heyrman is Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. This talk was recorded on November 6, 2007 as part of the Chicago's Best Ideas Series. © 2007 The University of Chicago Law School. "In the 1970's most states tightened their standards for involuntary commitment. During the past fifteen years the movement has been in the opposite direction--relaxing those standards. This talk will apply ideas developed by former Law School Dean Norval Morris to explore the effects (if any) these changes have had and will have on the number of persons involuntarily confined in psychiatric hospitals and why other institutional arrangements are substantially more important in explaining past and future fluctuations in the number of such commitments."

Episode 075: Recruiting Lawyers and Librarians to Law Librarianship Wednesday, November 7, 2007 Playing time: 50:26 This is a talk I gave at the Libraries Without Borders conference in Toronto, on Thursday, October 18, 2007. I'm concerned that we may be overselling the profession--there is certainly a demand for qualified law librarians, but how much is that demand, and what really constitutes qualified ? With the rising costs of legal education, how long can we continue to expect entry-level academic law librarians to have JD degrees? Theme Music: T. Nile, Get Together. (T. Nile's CD, At My Table, is available from Festival Distribution and CD Baby and through iTunes.) Blog: http://checkthisoutpodcast.com Email: jim.milles@gmail.com Comment line: (716) 989-4422 or Skype jmilles

Takeover, part 2 of 2 In this second of two parts, Books of Our Time host, Lawrence R. Velvel interviews Boston Globe's Pulitzer winning reporter, Charlie Savage, about his new book, Takeover -- The return of the imperial presidency and the subversion of American democracy. Savage details the rise of a stronger and more unitary presidency from the time of Harry Truman to the present. He discusses the Signing Statements for which his work earned him a Pulitzer, and relates that to the ever increasing power of the executive branch of the federal government. The Massachusetts School of Law, located in Andover, Massachusetts, makes high quality, affordable legal education available to less privileged persons who are traditionally excluded from the legal profession. As part of its mission of providing high quality education and information for both law students and the general public, the Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public via television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit www.mslaw.edu. MSLAW podcasts are available from http://mslaw.libsyn.com/rss, for subscriptions, or http://mslaw.libsyn.com, for direct downloads. MSLAW videos are available from Google Video.