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Virginia Law Weekly Virginia Law Weekly VIRGINIA LAW WEEKLY 2017, 2018, & 2019 ABA Law Student Division Best Newspaper Award-Winner A Look Fighting Through Isolation as a 1L......................................................2 Criminal Law, a Banjo, and Soccer? Meet Professor Frampton.........3 Inside: Nothing Puzzling About this Fun Activity on Valentine's Day............5 Wednesday, 17 February 2021 The Newspaper of the University of Virginia School of Law Since 1948 Volume 73, Number 16 Originalism around north in the Twenty- Panel Discusses Practicing grounds First Century Law in the "Age of Thumbs up to Jacob Smith ’23 the Journal Try- Staff Editor out being split Colorblindness" over two week- “Originalism’s critics ends. ANG has a monopoly have failed to convince on looking like a shell of a America that originalism is person after staying up for a bad idea.” Suggesting that seventy-two hours straight, originalism had in a sense and is glad no 1Ls will steal never left, Professor Kurt ANG’s thunder. Lash presented evidence from contexts as diverse Thumbs down as McCulloch v. Maryland to FedSoc for and the recent debate over failing to include former President Trump’s their name on advertise- impeachment that it has al- ments for events they host. ways been popular to claim ANG has attended these the “moral high ground” events for free Chick-Fil-A, of adhering to the original but trying to trick ANG into meaning of the Constitu- logging onto another Zoom tion. Professor Lash attrib- meeting solely with pretty uted originalism’s survival wordart is a new low. to the persistence of the idea of popular sovereign- Thumbs side- ty—that the people’s will, ways to students as embodied in our Consti- who feel obligated tution, should be respected. to respond to ev- But Professor Lash’s ery question a professor words also reflected two asks. While ANG appreci- major threads that pervad- ates never having to speak ed Friday’s symposium. On in class, ANG doesn’t pay Pictured: Professor Thomas Frampton (Bottom Right) moderated the panel on gathering Black perspectives on the practice of criminal law, featuring Judge Angel Harris (Top Left), Mike Herring (Top Right), and Alanah Odoms (Bottom one hand, commentators Left). Photos Courtesy of Anna Bninski '23 and law.virginia.edu a hefty tuition bill to hear recognized that original- fellow students talk more ism has achieved a histori- Anna Bninski ’23 the “caste system” created by the traditional roles of prosecution than the professor. cal position of influence in Staff Editor disenfranchisement of people and defense, a shift from the the legal academy and ju- “Anything I’ve said about who have been convicted of a conviction-oriented training he Thumbs down diciary. But they were also this is online already, so why crime. received as a young prosecutor. to having class on keenly aware of the chal- change?” asked Judge Angel The inevitable Zoom problems He also described the difference President’s Day. lenges that originalism fac- Harris, before speaking in very that plague every contemporary between reactions to the last two What’s the point es as they discussed topics plain terms about the racial dis- talk left listeners briefly in sus- drug epidemics: crack and opi- of blindly exalting and em- related to the subject of the parities that she sees in the crim- pense as to whether they would oids. While appreciating the shift phasizing the University’s Third Annual Originalism inal legal system. get to hear from Odoms, but to a treatment-based response, connection to Jefferson if Symposium, “Originalism On Tuesday, February 9, the after some brief wrangling she which can be seen in the opioid there’s no real perks? Under Fire.” Law School’s Diversity, Equity, was able to share that she keeps epidemic, Herring noted that As in prior years, UVA’s and Belonging Committee host- a pocket copy of the Constitution this reaction was sorely missing Thumbs side- Federalist Society chapter ed a formidable panel of speak- on her desk. “I like to remind in response to crack-related drug ways to COVID hosted last Friday’s sym- ers in conjunction with SBA’s Di- students that slavery and invol- infractions. “I hope that the dif- testing happening posium, but of course this versity Week and in recognition untary servitude are ingrained ference in approach is a product in the rain. If stu- year’s event was held via of Black History Month. The ac- from the beginning,” she said, of cultural evolution and not dis- dents get pneumonia, that Zoom. “I’m proud that our complished trio of Black crimi- reminding listeners that the parity, but time will tell.” means there will be more Federalist Society chapter nal law practitioners—Judge Thirteenth Amendment allows Odoms recounted see- of Student Affairs’ cake pop has, despite the challenges Angel Harris, former criminal for the involuntary servitude ing change follow President goodie bags for ANG. posed by the COVID-19 defense attorney and current of people convicted of a crime. Obama’s appointment of Eric pandemic, continued our Orleans Parish Criminal District Odoms also highlighted the “in- Holder as U.S. Attorney General, Thumbs down tradition of bringing top Court Judge; Mike Herring ’90, sidious operation” of legal finan- particularly in the guidance he to the never- legal minds to UVA for dis- Commonwealth’s Attorney for cial obligations, given that most gave to prosecutors about mari- ending cycle of cussion and debate,” said the City of Richmond for over people in jail are not formally juana infractions. She also noted snow, melted the symposium’s chairman, a decade and current partner charged with a crime, but rather, the educational work done by snow, and then mud. ANG Connor Kurtz ’22. The sym- at McGuireWoods; and Alanah unable to make bail and sim- Black Lives Matter and other already works hard not to posium featured profes- Odoms, Executive Director of ply stuck there, thereby being groups, which has led to a more be a brown-noser, unlike sors, judges, and a handful the ACLU of Louisiana—shared denied a speedy trial. Expand- diverse group of people running most 1Ls, but this weather of other commentators— their perspectives on issues ing on Judge Harris’s point, she for prosecutor positions. “If you is making ANG blend into including David Lat, the raised in Professor Michelle Al- noted that disenfranchisement take folks committed to justice the crowd too well. founding editor of the in- exander’s book, The New Jim of Black voters has been particu- and fairness and put them in famous blog website Above Crow as well as advice for cur- larly systematic in the South. these positions, you’ll see a dif- Thumbs side- the Law. rent law students. Herring recalled reading Slav- ference.” She also emphasized ways to the big One external challenge The first question posed by ery By Another Name—which is that the legal system should seek demolition going to originalism comes from Professor Thomas Frampton, about the racist system of forced wholeness for the individuals on next to the Law the Right. Some readers who moderated the panel, fo- labor that persisted from the and communities who have been School. ANG appreciates may not know that there cused on The New Jim Crow. Civil War into the twentieth cen- harmed, rather than trying to seeing the destruction of is a Republican school of The premise of Professor Alex- tury—while serving as a prosecu- “exact as much retribution and any part of civilized society. thought that has an atti- ander’s book is that the criminal tor. “I was so troubled. I could trauma as possible on people.” But all the noise is disrupt- tude of hostility, or at least legal system, in its current “col- not force policy in such a way as Judge Harris cited Virginia’s ing ANG’s afternoon naps wariness, toward original- orblind” iteration, accomplishes to cripple my office . I was torn current moves toward abolish- in the crevices of Slaughter ism. As originalism and the the same work of subordination by the reality of the genesis of ing the death penalty as a posi- Hall. Supreme Court have come and exclusion that overtly racist our criminal justice system with tive development “that I wasn’t under increasing scrutiny, prior regimes sought to enforce. what we as modern practitioners expecting to hear when I heard Thumbs up to those voices have grown Judge Harris agreed with thought we were doing for the it.” More broadly, Judge Harris T-Swift re-re- louder. Last year Harvard the premise, pointing particu- greater good.” observed that she’s seen people leasing some old Professor Adrian Vermeule larly to the effect of mandatory Speaking to changes that he become better informed, and songs. ANG feels proposed an alternative to minimum sentences on com- has seen over the course of his less afraid to push issues and to like a sixteen-year-old filled munities of color, disparate op- career, Herring said that he sees with hope and wonder ORIGINALISM page 2 PERSPECTIVES page 2 portunities to plead down, and law students today rejecting the again. Take that, UVA Law. 2 Columns VIRGINIA LAW WEEKLY Wednesday, 17 February 2021 PERSPECTIVES ORIGINALISM Gorsuch failed to acknowl- ed, perhaps the easiest way Court as we know it. edge that the Court’s prece- to advocate for originalism continued from page 1 continued from page 1 dents were inconsistent with is to point out cases where --- textualism. “Textualism is it has not favored Repubican question previous models. “Part originalism: common-good apolitical in that it looks to outcomes, like Bostock and [email protected] of it is beginning to change the constitutionalism.
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