Hiatus

This blog is on hiatus. Occasional postings may appear. Please peruse the blogroll.

Hiatus

This blog is on hiatus. Occasional postings may appear. Please peruse the blogroll.

Reduced posting

This blog will see reduced posting for a short while because I am busy with actual lawyer things. As a small consolation, I leave you with this off-topic but mildly amusing snippet from a recent environmental decision in the Ninth Circuit:

We begin with the cross-appeal, which contests the dismissal of the [claims against the] Water District on Eleventh Amendment immunity grounds. The parties disagree mightily about this issue and had gotten so wrapped up in the arguments about it that none of them had stepped back to ask why it matters. We asked that question of the attorneys at oral argument, and once they got past the deer-in-the-headlights moment they could offer no good reason why we, or they, should care if the Water District is in or out of this lawsuit. We believe that it does not matter at all.

I like to imagine the lawyers getting postcards of deer from their friends for months.

Me on the SG nomination, the courts, and health care

Though not directly related to the usual topics of this blog, I can't resist announcing two things I've coauthored, both appearing today:

• A commentary for the National Law Journal: The Solicitor General's Office: Course Correction Needed
  
• An Issue Brief for the American Constitution Society: The Supreme Court’s Two-Front War on the Safety Net: A Cautionary Tale for Health Care Reformers

Since both of these were written on the clock, it's probably worth reiterating here that this blog does not express the views of any organization.

OT: I'm on the cover of The Nation!

Usually I don't use this space to plug my work-related publications, but this is one is particularly exciting, not only for the above-stated reason but because of being in the distinguished company of five law professors whose work I admire. The Nation's forum on the courts and the election includes the following contributions (some of which are only available to subscribers):

"The Supreme Court and the Election: What's at Stake," by Herman Schwartz

"Safety Last," by David C. Vladeck

"Health Cares," by Sara Rosenbaum

"Senior Rights & Wrongs," by Harper Jean Tobin

"Debtor Nation," by Robert M. Lawless

"Hard Knocks in the Workplace," by Eric Schnapper

OT: New look and trouble with jumps

Yes, I decided to change the site layout; hope you like it.

Also, I've been trying to incorporate jumps to give the blog a more streamlined look, but have been having trouble with it because the advice on Blogger's help page doen't seem match the code I'm seeing in my template. I readily admit it: I'm a doctor, not a programmer; any advice is appreciated.

Volunteering and non-legal writing

Those are the things that have been occupying a lot of my time lately. I've been volunteering a few nights a week for Equality Maryland, which (as I've previously discussed) is developing the record for a lawsuit to keep an anti-transgender measure off the ballot in Montgomery County.

I've also been working on an essay about why feminists so often talk past one another on the subject of pornography. I've no idea where this essay will appear, but it caught my fancy recently and has sucked up a good deal of intellectual energy. I'll continue to update here, though, as time permits.

A return to blogging!

This blog has been on hiatus for some months due to:

-- Studying for the Maryland Bar
-- Moving to Maryland
-- Starting my job at the National Senior Citizens Law Center

I now hope to return to posting occasionally to this blog, with a few posts on the way at present.

On a more personal note....

It seems worth mentioning that two weeks back I graduated from Case Western, receiving my degrees in law (cum laude) and social work (they don't do that Latin stuff). Between that, and starting to study full-time for the Bar, I haven't been blogging. As indicated by today's earlier post, however, I have every intention of getting back in the swing of things, and have an idea or three percolating.

Why "Polymorphous Perversity"?

The term was originally coined by Sigmund Freud in describing his theory of psychosexual development. Specifically, he used the term to describe the unfocused nature of pleasure-seeking in infancy, in contrast to the genital-focused (heterosexual) sexuality of the typical adult.

Over time, however, this colorful term has been lifted out of Freud's often silly, sexist psychoanalysis and acquired broader, colloquial meaning. Herbert Marcuse appears to have started this trend when, in Eros and Civilization, he employed the term to illustrate the goal of "sexual liberation": that is, a liberation of sexual intimacy and pleasure from the bounds of marriage, reproduction, gender, or other normative boundaries. Early gay radical activists took Marcuse's message, and the phrase, and ran with them.

As the sexual revolution faded and the queer rights movement got bigger and more moderate, the term became increasingly the property of cultural conservatives, who deployed it against harbingers of cultural decay from Jerry Springer to the Clintons. (See, e.g, here and here.) It is, of course, a particular favorite of Ann Coulter. It's irresistible, really, conflating as it does sex education, premarital sex, homosexuality, nonmonogamy, sadomasochism, pornography, and everything else that makes them feel nauseated and strangely aroused into one alliterative phrase.

In light of all this, I need hardly explain why this was the perfect name for this blog, which primarily will discuss the full range of human sexual variation as it plays out in the law. But please, don't confuse this blog with another, similarly named one on Blogger (<--not a work-safe link).

Inaugural post

Welcome to Polymorphous Perversity, a place for all my law-related musings. While I have previously done such informal legal writing in a school publication and in my personal blog, it seemed useful to have a dedicated space for it. (For one thing, it will, I hope, motivate me to do more of it.) While I make no promises regarding the frequency or quality of posts, I intend to make regular posts here which will range from half-organized passing thoughts to annotated links to polished short essays. This blog does focus on a specific area of law per se, but will generally reflect my personal interests in issues related to gender, sexuality, and human rights.

About me: As I write this, I am one semester away from graduating with law and social work degrees from Case Western Reserve University. I hope to dedicate my career primarily to civil rights-related work, and am particularly interested in work on behalf of sexual and gender minorities.