Washburn Law Journal Blog

We are currently accepting submissions to the Washburn Law Journal Blog. We are seeking responses to regional and statewide legal issues, rulings, and trends. Though preference will be given to regional topics, pieces with a national or international scope may also be accepted.

Submissions should not exceed 1,500 words and citations should be made in-line with no footnotes. For further guidance on formatting, please reference previous posts. Submissions can be sent to journalblog@washburnlaw.edu. In addition to a Word document with the body of the piece, you are welcome to include a picture of yourself, your place of work, title, and a short biography.

Questions can be sent to journalblog@washburnlaw.edu.

Recent Posts

ChatGPT-4 Understands Academic Attrition's Impact on Bar Passage, but Does Anyone Else? by Rory Bahadur and Kevin Ruth | September 13, 2023

Access Lex recently published an article titled, and purportedly answering the question, “Are Law Schools Cream-Skimming to Bolster Their Bar Exam Pass Rates?” The article, however, does not answer the question asked, but rather answers another question, “Whether the impact of attrition and transfer on bar passage can be accurately detected using broad national level regression analysis?” The answer to the first question is yes, some schools’ bar passage rates are impacted by transfer and/or academic attrition. And the answer to the latter question is no, regression cannot accurately detect the impact of academic attrition and transfer on bar passage. In asking one question but instead answering the other, the article conflates and obfuscates the important difference between causation and correlation. In this short essay, we use artificial intelligence to demonstrate why, even though academic attrition and transfer can impact an individual institution’s bar passage rates, these impacts are not fully discernable using broad, national level, regression analysis. Additionally, conclusions based on regression analysis distract us from addressing the systemic inequities perpetuated by the bar examination.

Original-Intent Originalism: A Reply to Professsor Bruegger by Scott Boykin | February 14, 2023

A response to John A. Bruegger's comments on Original Intent Originalism: A Reformation and Defense, published in Volume 61, Issue 2 of the Washburn Law Journal.

 Ad Astra Per Notarius: 2022 Kansas Notary Law Updates by Steve Johnson | May 12, 2022

Kansas has a new notary law. The COVID-19 pandemic, a once-in-a-century force majeure, was a catalyst for legal change. To protect people from exposure to the COVID-19 respiratory virus, Kansas and other states temporarily waived the notary’s traditional physical presence requirement. The new notary law mostly replaced the old notary law with fresh or expanded definitions and rules, and applied starting January 1, 2022, including to notaries commissioned before 2022. This post explores some highlights of the new law.

Farm Economic Issues and Implications by Professor Roger A. McEowen | May 9, 2022

A firm understanding of the economic context within which the farmers and ranchers operate is necessary for both tax planning and financial planning. The creation and dissolution of legal entities, the restructuring of debt, and the use of various legal devices for the protection of assets from creditors and preserving inheritances cannot successfully be accomplished without knowledge of agriculture that transcends the applicable legal rules. Crop production, energy issues, monetary policy, issues in the meat sector and unanticipated outside shocks have farm-level impacts that professional advisors and counselors need to account for when representing farm and ranch clients.

An Immigrant Contextualizes the George Floyd Verdict by Professor Rory Bahadur | April 25, 2021

The conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd is potentially a distraction from the depth and pervasiveness of systemic racism in this country. That trial resulted in just one conviction in a country where over 10 million arrests occur every year. While it may be important as a symbol of change, it is empirically less significant as an actual metric of racial reform. Examining post-colonial Caribbean politics and the emotional distraction techniques employed by those seeking office to shift the populace’s focus from the reality and magnitude of corrupt governing and the seeming hopelessness of reform attempts, illustrates the danger that putting too much stock in the Chauvin conviction poses to true racial reform.