MMU: 01/12/26-01/18/26

This Week @ NDLS Mass Times Commons Daily Menu Saint of the Week General Announcement

January Journals

Thursday, January 15, 2026 | 7:00 PM | Duncan Student Center, Room W134 Ring in the year with the MSPS Senior Fellows! Grab a free journal, explore guided prompts, and enjoy an evening with friends as we set the tone for a meaningful semester! Sponsor: Multicultural Student Programs and Services Senior Fellowshttps://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndls_posters/2219/thumbnail.jp

Notre Dame [Lawyer] Judge - 2026

Cover 25 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett 31 The Rise of Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick 39 Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and the Pursuit of Justice 05 News 71 Alumni 81 Faculty Judicial Profiles 35 Judge Ann Claire Williams ’75 J.D. 37 Q&A: Judge John Blakey ’88, ’92 J.D. 38 Judge Martha Vázquez ’75, ’78 J.D. ’43 43 Q&A: Judge Edward S. Kiel ’91 J.D. 45 Four Alumni: Their Roles as Federal Magistrate Judges 47 Judge Jerry Pappert ’88 J.D. 49 Justice Mary Yu ’93 J.D. 51 Judge Charles R. Wilson ’76, ’79 J.D. 53 The Specialists: Article I Federal Court Judges 56 Q&A: Judge Thomas Schroeder ’84 J.D. 57 Judge Bernard M. Jones ’04 J.D. 59 Judge Paul Niemeyer ’66 J.D. 62 Judge Cristal Brisco ’06 J.D. 63 Senior Judge Nora Barry Fischer ’76 J.D. 44 Benchmark Judicial Briefs, Meet Nineteen Notre Dame Law Judges Features 69 From Notre Dame to the White House: Rachel Palermo’s Path to Public Service 79 Fifty Years After the Karen Ann Quinlan Decisionhttps://scholarship.law.nd.edu/nd_lawyer/1040/thumbnail.jp

California Alumni Events

Tuesday, January 27, 2026 - Thursday, January 29, 2026 | Time To Be Determined | Location To Be Determined Please save the date for a series of Notre Dame Law alumni receptions taking place across California in late January. We look forward to gathering with alumni, friends, and members of the Law School community for an evening of connection and conversation in each city. Additional details and registration links will be shared soon. Los Angeles Law Alumni Reception - Tuesday, January 27th San Diego Law Alumni Reception - Wednesday, January 28th San Francisco Law Alumni Reception - Thursday, January 29th Sponsor: Notre Dame Law Schoolhttps://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndls_posters/2221/thumbnail.jp

Evening with Notre Dame Law School Dean G. Marcus Cole

Thursday, January 22, 2026 | 5:30 PM | Paradise Valley Country Club, Camelview Room Please join us for an Evening with Notre Dame Law School Dean G. Marcus Cole in Phoenix, Arizona. All are invited to attend a lovely reception at the Paradise Valley Country Club on January 22, 2026. The Paradise Valley Country Club is located at 7101 N Tatum Blvd, Paradise Valley, AZ 85253. Sponsor: Notre Dame Law Schoolhttps://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndls_posters/2220/thumbnail.jp

American Constitution Society General Body Meeting

Wednesday, January 14, 2026 | 12:30 PM | Eck Hall of Law, Room 3130 ACS welcomes everyone back from the winter break and invites you to attend our spring general body meeting. We will preview the semester\u27s events and will discuss the summer stipend and election processes that will take place later in the spring. Sponsor: American Constitution Societyhttps://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndls_posters/2218/thumbnail.jp

Get to Know Your Legal Writing Professors

Wednesday, October 1, 2025 | 12:30 PM | Eck Hall of Law, Room 1130 Join WLF on October 1st (10/1) in Eck 1130 from 12:30-1:30 for a Get to Know You lunch event with three of NDLS\u27 female Legal Writing professors! Profs. Gallagher, Liedl, and Venter will be in attendance and lunch will be served. We hope to see you there! Sponsor: Women\u27s Legal Forumhttps://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndls_posters/2153/thumbnail.jp

Lifting Club

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Fall 2025 | 6:30 AM | Smith Center The NDLS Lifting Club has officially started! Whether you\u27re an experienced lifter or never stepped foot into a gym, you\u27ve got a spotter in the Lifting Club. Feel free to join the club even if you only want to see the new workouts that will be posted ~daily. Yeah buddy! Sponsor: Student Bar Association Athletics Committeehttps://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndls_posters/2140/thumbnail.jp

The Solicitor General, Consistency, and Credibility

This Article offers the first comprehensive look at cases in which the Solicitor General (SG) rejects a legal argument offered on behalf of the United States in prior litigation. Such reversals have received considerable attention in recent years, as shifts in presidential administrations have produced multiple high-profile “flip-flops”—as the Justices sometimes call them—by the SG. Even those observers who defend the SG, including veterans of the office, caution that inconsistency in legal argument poses a threat to the SG’s credibility with the Court. Our goal is to better understand the circumstances that lead the SG to change its position on the meaning of the law, and to unpack the connections between consistency and credibility. To assess these questions, we build an original dataset of 131 cases, dating from 1892 to the close of the Court’s 2022 Term, that include such reversals. A close reading of the cases and associated briefing and oral argument transcripts confirms that changes in the government’s litigating position have become more common in recent decades—but it also reveals significant blind spots in the prevailing picture, which depicts positional changes as a function of political polarization and shifts in presidential administrations. Reversals happen for a variety of (often overlapping) reasons, many of which stem from the SG’s unique role in coordinating litigation across a vast and constantly changing federal government. Indeed, our study calls into question the idea that ideological swings associated with changes of presidential administrations can be isolated, either in theory or in practice, from other sorts of legal, social, and technological changes that shape the government’s understanding of the law. It also shows that the connection between consistency and credibility, while intuitive at first blush, rests on a formalist understanding of law and an unpersuasive equation of the judiciary and the executive. These insights are particularly important today, given the Justices’ willingness to jettison their own longstanding precedents while simultaneously hamstringing administrative agencies’ ability to update or modify policies. The Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overruling Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., endorsed an understanding of the law and legal interpretation in which even the hardest questions have single “best” answers—and, once ascertained, the meaning of the law is fixed. As we show, the Justices’ reactions to litigation reversals by the government rest on similar premises. Given that the SG has powerful incentives to offer arguments that appeal to the Justices, the Court’s skepticism of litigation reversals risks freezing legal interpretation by the government actors who often are best situated—by virtue of democratic accountability and on-the-ground experience—to consider the tradeoffs between stability and change

What Not to Wear

Monday, February 24, 2025 | 12:30 PM | Eck Hall of Law, Room 3130 Women\u27s Legal Forum will be hosting a panel event on professional attire and workplace etiquette during client meetings. The panel will be moderated by Christine Venter and will feature an incredible lineup of professionals and professors. Additionally, Patti McLaughlin will be giving a special presentation on best practices for conducting yourself in professional settings and meetings. We will be catering lunch from O’Rourke’s—so come hungry! Sponsors: American Constitution Society Federalist Society Student Bar Association Women\u27s Legal Forumhttps://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndls_posters/2011/thumbnail.jp