News Scrapbook 1986

Los Angeles, CA) (LOS Angeles co. LOS Angeles Dally Jowur~~I 267) (C\r. Slt · '

San Diego, CA (San Diego c~.) san Diego union {Cir D. 217,069) (Cir·. S. 341,640) FE.B 3

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Law School News i ') i; > GordonT. Ownby Panel Urges Changes in Appellate Courses

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I ,r 1888 We the people

/;zq5~ In 1976, millions of Americans participated in a joyous nation- wide celebration marking the 200th anniversary of the Declara- tion of Independence. Today at the University of San Diego a group of distinguished Ameri- cans, including :USU Law School Professor Bernard Siegan, is meeting to plan another s1gmfi- cant American bicentennial com- memoration. The 23-member U.S. Constitu- tion Bicentennial Commission and its chairman, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, want the 200th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution to be, in Mr. Burger's words, "a history and civics lesson for all of us." In other words, this anniversary will focus on education as much

Constitution has secured for Americans the revolutionary promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Amer- ican Revolutionary Bicentennial in 1976 was a celebration of inde- pendence. The bicentennial of the Constitution will focus on how the Founding Fathers built a nation with a revolutionary form of gov- ernment controlled by the gov- erned.

as celebration. What more appropriate way to commemorate the anniversary of the magnificent document pro- duced by the Founding Fathers than for the American people to dedicate themselves to its study? The three-year celebration envi- sioned by commission members would be highlighted by a one- time national holiday on Sept. 17, 1987 - the 200th anniversary of the Constitution's signing. The commission is encourag- ing the creation of similar com- missions at the state and local level. Both California and San Diego County already have estab- lished their own bicentennial commissions. For nearly two centuries, the

programs, manage fundralslng, and oversee public relations. The law center's goal Is to Improve legal services In the San Diego area, Including de- veloping ways to expand the availability and quality of legal services, providing continu- ing education to area lawyers, and Initialing demonstration projects on the administra- tion of justice. The center wlll be the subject of an Ameri- can Bar Association panel this week at the ABA's mid-year meeting In Baltimore. ••• A DINNER DANCE TO establish a schol- arship fund honoring Southwestern Univer- sity School of Law Professor Max Goodman Is scheduled for6:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb.15, at the Variety Arts Center. Goodman Is a longtime family law practi- tioner tn Los Angeles and a Southwestern faculty member for 19 years. Proceeds from the first annual dinner dance will go to scholarship awards for Southwestern students. A reception, black tie optional, begins at 6 30 p.m., with dinner at 7:30 p.m. The Vari- ety Arts Center ls at 940 S. Figueroa In Los Angeles. ••• LAW SCHOOL BRIEFS: But Neabonle, legal director for the ACLU In New York, has resigned to return to bis poeitlon on the !acuity at New York University School of Law. He will serve as director on a volun- tary basis until a replacement Is ap- pointed. . . . A bequest of more than $3.5 million to the Columbia University School of Law has helped establish the Isidor and Sev- ille Sulbacher Professorship of Law. The gift from the estate of the late Maj. Gen. Melvin L. and Hellen S. Krulewitch was the largest ever received by Columbia, and also will provide for the continuation of the school's Sulzbacher lectures.... W. Colquitt Caner, a senior partner In the Atlanta law firm or Carter, Ansley, Smith & McLendon, has en- dowed a chair at the University of Georgia School of Law. The tnltlal gift of $300,000 (to- ward a $1 mllllon goal) will establish the Marlon and W. Colquitt Carter Chair tn tort and insurance law.

A new report by a committee appointed by ppeal court judges says that law schools should revamp the way they train students In appellate advocacy. The report, Is ued by the Committee on Appellate Skills Training, says that even moot court and appellate advocacy courses In law schools do not teach students the material needed to make them effective ap- pellate lawyers, since moot court and appel- late course teach primarily legal reasoning and analysis kills. Instead, the committee said, more Instruc- tion Is needed on appellate courts as an Insti- tution, th ubstantlve and procedural law governing the appellate process, and the peclallzed skills of appellate litigators. A prerequslte to appellate courses, the committee said, should be a basic course In appellate procedure, slmllar to current law school courses In civil procedure for the trial level. tudents ould then gel training In brief writing and oral argument skills under the supervision or experienced lnslructors. The report particularly criticizes the use of In- structors who are them Ives fresh out of law sc ool to le ch appellate courses. The report also stresses the Importance of u Ing ctual c recordi; In the appellate exer • and urges development of new tea- ct • g materials. 'l'h chairman of the committee, com• posed of appellate judges, practicing law- yers, and law professors, was John P. Frank or Phoenix, Ariz. Unlvenilty of Cincinnati Colle e of Law Professor Robert J. Marti• neau was the reporter for the committee. Coples of the report are avallable from Mary Elle Donaghy, staff director of the Ap- pellate Judges' Conference, 750 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Ill. 606ll . ••• TIIE DIEGO LAW CENTER, oper- ated jointly by the the Unlvers~an Diego School of Law and the county bar a!r soclatlon, has hired David Lauth, a retired U.S. Coast Guard admiral, as the center's new administrator. Lauth, who also served as an executive with a cruise hip company and executive vice president of a regional chamber of com- merce, will coordinate the center's various

We welcome the distinguished U.S. Constitution Bicentennial Commission to San Diego. We wholeheartedly support its ef- forts to remind Americans that, after two centuries, the Constitu- tion abides as the guarantor of the freedoms that are often chal- lenged and taken for granted. ~--~------~ ----------------------•~~---,(_

San Diego, CA (San Diego C~-) San Diego union lCir. D. 217 ,069) (Cir. S. 341 ,640)

FEB 3 1986

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C~f justice here t 2 plan birthday for Constitution By Joe Cantlupe Staff Writer

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shaped the Constitution, and sure enough, when the commission was formed last spring in anticipation of a big birthday bash - set for Sept. 17, 1987 - it found itself fighting in court. A public-interest group argued that the commission should not be allowed to meet in closed sessions, but a federal judge upheld the panel's actions. Burger has said re- peatedly that it would be too time- consuming for all the commission's meetings to be held in public. "We're following the precedent of the origi- nal meeting of the Constitutional Convention in 1787," Burger said late last year. ·'They even boarded up the windows m the hall to discourage eavesdroppers." Commission members yesterday declined to elaborate on their discus- sions, but said the meeting focused on proposed media events. "We're not trying to hide anything from the public," Siegan said during a break in yesterday's session. "In fact, we're trying to encourage the greatest cel- ebration possible of the Constitution - we want to make the public know as much as possible about it." Hughes, the USO president, said he would ask the commission today to support a group of educators work- ing to promote student involvement in the community. Hughes said educators are con- cerned about "the lack of student concern for the community - the family, school, corporation, city, state or nation - and increasing self- concern and self-interest reflected in their preoccupation with power, ma- terial wealth, prestige and personal gratification." Students' interests have "yielded to careerism," Hughes says in testi- mony to be submitted to the commis- sion. "We are clearly aware that the number of young people with interest in social work, environmental stud- ies, teaching and working with the handicapped or aged has noticeably declined." The Constitu ion celebration will

USD.lfilL£rofessor Bernard Siegan hosted a breakfast yesterday at the La Jolla Country Club for one of his friends, an overworked and dignified man with whom he doesn't always agree - the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Warren E. Burger. Ask Siegan what he thinks about Burger and his court, and the lawyer responds judiciously. ''The chief is a very friendly man," Siegan said. "I talk to people I don't agree with." After breakfast, Siegan drove Burger to the University of San Diego law school, where both men began planning ways to celebrate the 200th birthday of the very thing that sparks their disagreements: the U.S. Constitution. Burger, a white-haired, 78-year-old jurist who has presided over the Su- preme Court for the past 16 years, heads the federal panel empowered by Congress to celebrate the signing of the Constitution. At the request of Siegan, a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Con- stitution, the panel arrived here this weekend to conduct bearings. Burger and other panel members briefly posed for photographs yester- day morning and then conducted a daylong closed session behind the thick wooden doors of the law school's Grace Courtroom. Today, the commission will con- duct a public hearing in USD's Cami- no Theatre from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. · Among those scheduled to testify today are USO President Author Hughes, San Diego County Supervi• sor Susan Golding, and Joan Bowes, chairwoman of the San Diego County Commission on the Bicentennial. Others expected to appear are repre- sentatives of television and broad- casting industry, the Defense Depart- ment, the Interior Department and the American Civii Liberties Union. It's been said that quarrels helped

Lompoc, CA (Santa Barbara Co.) Lompoc Record (Cir. D. 9,091) FEB 3 1986

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Celebration committee G. f S' moves into San Diego SAN DIEGO (UPI) - A

The commission was established by Congress, and its members were appointed by President Rea- gan last year. The panel's stated goal is: "To stimulate activity by thou- sands of organizations nationwide to heighten awareness and deepen understanding of our Constitution, the freedoms it guarantees and the civic responsibilities necessary to lts preservation and vitality." The commission includes mem- bers of Congress, scholars, attor- eys, journalists and jurists, including such notables as Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. Kennedy and six other commis- sion members were not scheduled to attend the San Diego meeting because of other conflicts. Burger shares the Constitution's birthday. The nation's chief jurist will be 80 years old on S pt.17, 1987, the day the Constitution will mark the 2ooth anniversary of its found- ing.

23-member commission coordinat- ing the national celebration for the 200th birthday of the U.S. Constitu- tion left its normal Washington confines to hold a strategy session at the University~n Diego. The commission, chaired by Supreme Court Chief Justice War- ren Burger, convened Sunday for a closed session and was to meet today in public for the second time since its formation last spring. The first open session was held last year in Washington, whe,e the majority of commission meetings have been conducted. The group is meeting in San Diego at the request of commission member Bernard Siegan, a USD law professor and national expert on constitutional law. While in San Diego, the commis- sion will hear testimony from groups and individuals wishing to sponsor or take part in the celebra- tion, which is being touted by Burger as "a history and civics lesson for all of us." "Basically, Americans for 200 years have been looking forward," Burger said. "The American mind should be looking back and ahead at the same time."

Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, right, and USO law Professor Ber- nard Siegan arrive on campus for a meeting

of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. The commission will hold a public hearing today.

enable the young to have a basic un- derstanding of this country's heri- tage, Hughes said. "It will answer the question 'Why is it we operate as we do?'" The Bicentennial Commission, which Burger has conceded is off to a slow start in its planning, recently won a $12 million appropriation from Congress. Commission members said yesterday that Gene Mater, the com- mission's media specialist and for- mer vice-president of CBS, was only hired three weeks ago. Much organiz- ing still must be done, commission members said. All but four of the panel's 23 mem- bers, including Sen. Ted Stevens, R- Alaska, and columnist Phyllis Schlaf- ly attended the weekend session in

San Diego. University officials said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, and Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., were among those who could not par- ticipate. Siegan, 61, said the Constitution has always fascinated him, but he concedes most citizens take the coun- try's most important legal document for granted. "It's obvious, most peo- ple have an interest in sports, in en- tertainment, than in serious matters. That's part of humanity." The com- mission's goal, he said, is to drive home the day-to-day importance of the Constitution for each citizen. "I want the public to know as much as. possible," Siegan said. "They are going to hear a lot about it - the Constitution.

"Look, it allows us to talk the way we can," Siegan observed during a lunch-time conversation with a re- porter. As framed by the founders, the document allows the "great idea - it protects our liberty from the excesses of government." All too often, the Supreme Court's interpre- tation has been more important than the integrity of the Constitution it- self," Siegan said. "That started from day one." Siegan said he has recently com- pleted a manuscript for a book that focuses on the high court's historic "departure from the original intent" of the Constitution. The tentative book title: "The Supreme Court's Constitution."