Weekend Round-Up

Weekend Round-Up Mar 24th 2012, 04:30 Around the Colloquia: Malick Ghachem, Maine Law, presented "The Legal History of Prisoner Voting: A View from the Northeastern United States" to his faculty's workshop.  Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, USC, presented "Sailors Before the Law and the Making of Republican Cosmopolitanism" to the USC Law, History and Culture Workshop. Catherine Macmillan, Queen Mary School of Law, presented her paper  The Confederate's Last Battle: Judah Benjamin's Legal Defence of Confederate Assets in England to the London Legal History Seminar on March 23.   (Hat tip: Edinburgh Legal History Blog.)  And, although we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, William R. Casto, Texas Tech University School of Law, will be on a panel on the Background and Purpose of the Alien Tort Statute at a conference on act at the Georgetown University Law Center on March 27. In case you missed it on H-Law, Joel Fishman, the Assistant Director for Lawyer Services at the Duquesne University Center for Legal Information, has compiled an excellent index to the Journal of Supreme Court History, which is available on the website of the Supreme Court Historical Society. The Yale Law Library Rare Books Blog has been spotlighting treasures from the Library's "Monuments of Imperial Russian Law" exhibition. Check out the posts here.  Over at Balkinization, Mark Tushnet (Harvard Law School) compares the Roberts Court's recent decision on effective representation in plea bargaining to the Warren Court's decision in Terry v. Ohio. He asks which court is more "constitutionally ambitious."  The bloggers at In Custodia Legis compiled a nice post this week celebrating the bicentennial of the Spanish Constitution of 1812. In a post to the Jackson List, mostly devoted to the letter he and Brad Snyder located that sheds light on  Justice Rehnquist's view of Brown while clerking for Justice Jackson, John Q. Barret added this link to a recording to Barrett Prettyman's recollection of his selection as Justice Jackson's clerk to follow Rehnquist (and another clerk). The Weekend Round-Up is a weekly feature compiled by all the Legal History bloggers.

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CFP: ASLH-sponsored Panel @ Israeli Legal History Assn Annual Conference

CFP: ASLH-sponsored Panel @ Israeli Legal History Assn Annual Conference Mar 23rd 2012, 19:00 Via H-Law, we have the following CFP: Proposals are invited from members of the American Society for Legal History interested in joining an ASLH-sponsored panel at the Israeli Legal History Association's annual conference to be held 15 October 2012 in Jerusalem. As part of its policy of international outreach, the ASLH has entered into an agreement with the Israeli Legal History Association by which each scholarly society will sponsor a panel to take part in the other society's annual meeting.  In 2012 the ILHA annual conference will meet on Monday October 15 at the Yad Ben Zvi Institute in Jerusalem.  The main theme of the conference this year is The Craft of Legal History: Archival Research, Oral History and Additional Sources.  The organizers elaborate on the conference theme as follows: (1) "This year we intend to focus on the variegated ways in which research in legal history is conducted and the challenges presented by different sources used by scholars in general and researchers of the history of local law in particular. Those presenting papers that do not directly address this theme, will be requested to devote part of their presentation to the sources they use in their research. (2) "We intend to devote a plenary panel to debate archival research and its challenges. (3) "We are also interested in proposals concerning the history of foreign legal systems from all periods and areas. We will also be happy to receive proposals addressing additional methodological and historiographical questions. We invite proposal from scholars from various areas such as Law, Humanities and Social Sciences. The Association seeks to include presentations by advanced graduate students." Participants on the ASLH panel will be selected with the following criteria in mind: appropriateness to the conference theme; historiographical/substantive originality; thematic unity for a single panel; and capacity to engage with an Israeli scholarly audience.  The conference language will be Hebrew; the ASLH panel will be conducted in English. Paper proposals submitted for the ASLH panel but not selected will be forwarded to the conference organizers for their consideration. Participants in the ASLH panel will be expected to seek funding support from their home institutions to meet the costs of conference attendance.  Some limited "top-up" support (maximum $5000 for the panel as a whole) will be available for those participants whose home institution will not meet their full expenses. Proposals should consist of (a) a 250 word synopsis of the proposed paper, and (b) a US$ estimate of the prospective participant's expenses accompanied by a reliable estimate of the amount of US$ funds available to the prospective participant to meet those expenses. Proposals should be sent by email attachment to ctomlins@law.uci.edu. Deadline for receipt of proposals is 30 April 2012.

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Friday LinkFest

Friday LinkFest Mar 23rd 2012, 18:30 A veritable smorgasbord of interesting items: ■ First up, The Feds are starting to roll out new ObamneyCare© regulations in the hopes of answering lingering questions about implementation of this train-wreck. Methinks they will generate more questions than answers. ■ FoIB Holly R sends us a pair of relevant stories. From The Atlantic, FoIB Avik Roy opines that ObamneyCare© proponents have it all wrong: the free market can provide the necessary answers to our health care financing and delivery woes. ■ She also tips us to the non-news that PresBo is still misrepresenting his own mother's health insurance "crisis;" apparently the man is incapable of differentiating between health insurance (which did, in fact, pay her mom's health care bills) and disability insurance. PresBo, lying? That's just crazy talk! ■ Bob D tips us to this little factoid: "Computer Access to Patient Test Results Does Not Decrease Cost or Curtail Test Ordering" So the digital age doesn't automatically cut costs? Hunh. ■ CareSource runs the Dayton (OH) Medicaid program; it's recently partnered up with Humana to "more effectively serve Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, particularly people who qualify for both programs." It's easy to see why Humana wants a piece of that action: they're a major player in the Cincinnati market, but not so much up the road here in Dayton. ■ And finally, loyal reader Patrick P points us to yet another Avik Roy piece, this one explaining the highly negative impact ObamneyCare© is already having on younger folks. That's a wrap - Have a GREAT weekend! Original content copyright © InsureBlog

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Sharfstein wins the Lukas Book Prize

Sharfstein wins the Lukas Book Prize Mar 23rd 2012, 18:19 Congratulations to legal historian Dan Sharfstein!  Here's the news from Columbia University: Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism have named the 2012 winners of the Lukas Prize Project Awards. A Vanderbilt University professor has won the 2012 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for his sensitive account of the fine line people of mixed race have tread in the United States since the nation's beginning. The Mark Lynton History Prize will go to a University of Virginia professor for her unusual and groundbreaking work on the history of common sense. The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award was won by a former A.P. reporter and editor who is completing a book on the world's inability to help Haiti. The judges said of The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White (Viking Press) by Daniel J. Sharfstein, an associate professor of law at Vanderbilt University: "The book makes real the fact that, not so long ago, American citizens were forced into hiding their lineage and identity just to live free in this democracy, the perils and sense of loss, no matter which road they chose, and the price being paid even to this day by their descendents, and by extension, all of us." The winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize receives $10,000. One finalist was named: the late Manning Marable for Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (Viking Press). Sophia Rosenfeld's Common Sense: A Political History (Harvard University Press) is an "…extraordinary, wide-ranging, and original work that takes on the unexpected topic of common sense (what everyone knows), gives it a history, and shows how central it is for the evolution of our modern understanding of politics," the judges said. Rosenfeld is a professor of history at the University of Virginia. The winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize receives $10,000. The judges named two finalists: Michael Willrich, for Pox: An American History, (Penguin Press), and Craig Harline for Conversions: Two Family Stories from the Reformation and Modern America (Yale University Press). About the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards Established in 1998, the prizes recognize excellence in nonfiction that exemplify the literary grace and commitment to serious research and social concern that characterized the work of the awards' Pulitzer Prize-winning namesake, J. Anthony Lukas, who died in 1997. One of the three Lukas Prize Project Awards, The Mark Lynton History Prize, is named for the late Mark Lynton, a business executive and author of Accidental Journey: A Cambridge Internee's Memoir of World War II. Lynton was an avid proponent of the writing of history and the Lynton family has sponsored the Lukas Prize Project since its inception.

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On the LHB Facebook Page: Welcome Winston Bowman and Colin Wilder

On the LHB Facebook Page: Welcome Winston Bowman and Colin Wilder Mar 23rd 2012, 15:38 I am pleased to announce the LegalHistory Blog's new Facebook administrators, Winston Bowman and Colin Wilder.  Winston and Colin will behelping with the daily administration of the blog's Facebook page.      Winston Bowman is a fourth year PhD candidate in the HistoryDepartment at Brandeis where he studies American legal history.  Winston's dissertation is a history offederal jurisdiction since the Civil War. He has a JD from Boston University and experience as a litigator.  This semester Winston is teaching a course atBrandeis on "The Warren Court and Social Justice." Colin Wilder is a legal historian of early modern Europe andis currently working on a book manuscript on "Property and the German Idea ofFreedom, 1648-1806."  He recently received his PhD from the University ofChicago and is a Solmsen Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison'sInstitute for Research in the Humanities. Thanks and welcome to Colin and Winston!

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Medicare Part D - What You Need to Know

Medicare Part D - What You Need to Know Mar 23rd 2012, 08:58 Medicare Part D can be a snake pit if you don't understand how it works. Medicare Part D can be a blessing for some but a nightmare for others. Seniors age 65 and older are not required to buy a Medicare Part D plan, but if you don't and then later change your mind, you will be subject to a Late Enrollment Penalty (LEP) of 1% per month. If you were eligible to buy a Medicare Part D plan when you turned 65 but waited 3 years to buy one, you would pay a LIFETIME PENALTY in 36% additional premiums. Medicare Part D Traps and Penalties In 2003, Congress enacted the Medicare Modernization Act that would forever change benefits, especially as it impacts the cost of prescription drugs. Did you know . . . Outpatient prescription drugs are not part of Medicare, but rather a private insurance product marketed and administered by health insurance carriers. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBM) negotiate pricing tiers for prescription drugs but the insurance carriers decide which drugs to include in their plan Insurance carriers also assign tiers and copays for the Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) as well as setting the premium you pay Medicare Part D is a voluntary plan but you will pay a penalty if you fail to enroll on a timely basis Once enrolled, you must remain in the plan until the next enrollment period BUT your plan can add or drop drugs during the year as they see fit Non-formulary drugs do not count toward your deductible or Rx out of pocket maximum How do you enroll in Medicare Part D? You should start by making a list of all your current medications by name. Include the dosage and how often you fill your prescription. Next, use the Medicare Prescription Drug Formulary Plan Finder to determine which plan is best for you. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE and ask for assistance. If you have a regular pharmacy, such as CVS or Walgreens, you can take your list of prescription drugs to your pharmacy and ask them for assistance in selecting a Medicare Part D plan. Original content copyright © InsureBlog

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Law and Literature at John Jay: Sen, Anastaplo, Satire and More

Next week the John Jay College of Criminal Justice will be holding its Third Biennial Literature and Law Conference.  The conference runs from a keynote on the evening of Thursday, March 29--Amartya Sen’s lecture, "Law and Ideas of Justice"–and continues throughout the day on Friday, March 30.  Several session will be devoted to Sen’s work; another featured speaker is George Anastaplo, Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, whose lecture is "Justice and Community, Ancient and Modern.”  A session will take up Anastaplo’s landmark civil liberties case; participants will include Roger Newman, Hugo Black’s biographer and the editor of the Yale Biographical Dictionary of American law, and Judge Jed Rakoff.  Many legal historians would find papers of interest in the other sessions; I’ll note several devoted to satire, with speakers drawn from academia and from the media, including writers for The Onion and the Daily Show.  The complete program is here.

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