Business & Entrepreneurship

The Supreme Court’s decision March 2 that a military funeral protest by Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church is protected by the First Amendment is a free speech victory, but “there is one note of concern for free speech advocates, which is the opinion’s toleration of ‘free speech zone’ theory,” says Neil Richards, JD, constitutional law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “The opinion notes with approval that the funeral protest took place from a free speech zone from behind a protective fence, and notes at the end that even though Phelps’ speech was protected, it would certainly be amenable to possibly aggressive time, place, and manner restriction,” says Richards, a former law clerk for former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. 

Joel Seligman, JD, president of the University of Rochester, will discuss the future of financial institutions at the 2011 Tyrrell Williams Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 3. Seligman, former dean of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, will speak in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall. The lecture will be followed by a reception in the Crowder Courtyard. The event is free and open to the public.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s move to strip or significantly narrow his state’s public-sector workers’ collective bargaining rights has significant implications for all unionized workers, both in the public and private sector, says Marion Crain, JD, the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis and director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Work & Social Capital.

If the titans of finance had only been paying attention, they would have seen that former Washington University in St. Louis economics professor Hyman P. Minsky had predicted the Great Recession decades before it happened.

The Supreme Court should affirm the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, contends Washington University in St. Louis law professor Greg Magarian, JD, because the Act fits comfortably within a proper understanding of the federal-state balance of power. Magarian, a constitutional law expert, says the basic argument against the constitutionality of the health care bill is that some parts of the bill, most notably the requirement that people purchase health insurance, exceeds Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce.

Dan Senor, co-author of Start Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, who was originally scheduled to appear on the Assembly Series on February 2, will give his talk at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 3. The event will be held at Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus of Washington University. The event is free […]

Proposals ranging from sharing electricity savings with lab users to allowing students to bid on how much electricity they can save are among the ideas that students suggested in the Olin Sustainability Case Competition. The winner gets $5,000 cash and a meeting to present her proposal to the chancellor and other top administrators.

Seven finalists were selected Feb. 10 from a field of 45 to compete for $100,000 in grants in April at the 2011 YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition (SEIC) offered by the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

Hillary A. Sale, JD, the Walter D. Coles Professor of Law and Professor of Management at Washington University in St. Louis, organized this year’s DirectWomen Board Institute, an annual national program designed to develop and position an elite group of exceptional senior women lawyers for service as directors of major U.S. corporations. The institute is being held this week, Feb. 9-11, in New York City.

Anyone who cares about the rule of law has to acknowledge that illegal immigration has serious social costs that cannot be casually dismissed, says immigration law expert Stephen Legomsky, JD, DPhil, the John S. Lehmann University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. “When millions of individuals violate any law — whether it’s immigration, taxes or exceeding the posted speed limit — the rule of law takes a hit. But sometimes, mass violations reveal flaws in the law itself. At any rate, the rule of law also means that the penalties should not be disproportionate to the wrongdoing.”