Rachel Goodman Archives - JURIST - Commentary

Commentaries by Rachel Goodman

Competency and the Remote October Bar Exams

July 27, 2020 04:03:25 pm

The long-offered and frequently invoked justification for the bar exam is that the public must be protected from legal incompetence. That is a legitimate, worthy, and necessary concern. Incompetent attorneys erode society’s trust in our profession. Bad lawyering costs clients their money, their rights, and sometimes even their lives. Yet in their fervor to do [...]

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The Twice-Rescheduled and Newly Reformatted Pennsylvania Bar Exam Presents an Unfair and Unequal Moving Target

Rachel Goodman

July 12, 2020 05:12:08 pm

On Wednesday, July 9, 2020, the Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners (PABOLE) notified me and the other 1,200 applicants preparing for the Pennsylvania Bar Exam that for the second time in just seventy days, they would be altering the test that will dictate whether we are allowed to practice law. These changes are novel and [...]

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Nazis arrest White Rose leaders

On February 18, 1943, the Nazi government of Germany arrested the two leaders of the White Rose movement, brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl. The White Rose was a German group, primarily comprised of students, that advocated non-violent resistance to the Nazi government in Germany. After the Scholls were arrested, the remaining members of the White Rose were captured by the end of 1943. The Scholls were convicted of treason on February 22, 1943, and sentenced to death. Read the pamphlets spread by the members of the White Rose.

Chicago Seven verdicts rendered

On February 18, 1970, a US jury rendered its verdicts in the trial of the Chicago Seven, who were charged in connection with the violence that had erupted at the 1968 Democratic Convention. The jury acquitted all defendants on conspiracy while finding five guilty of intent to incite a riot while crossing state lines. Learn more about the trial of the Chicago Seven from Douglas Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.