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The Work Of Pioneering Amish Studies Scholar Walter Kollmorgen: Annontations Of His 1940s Amish Publications, Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Walter Kollmorgen’s two seminal contributions to Amish studies scholarship include the 1942 report “Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community: The Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania” published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and his 1943 article “The Agricultural Stability of the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania” published in the American Journal of Sociology. His 1942 report was one of six mixed-methods studies that analyzed the relative in/stability of rural American communities during the Great Depression. The six-part series concluded that the Amish of Lancaster County, PA, weathered the …

The Life Of Pioneering Amish Studies Scholar Walter Kollmorgen: Transcript Of The Reschly-Jellison Interviews, Steven Reschly, Katherine Jellison

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

On March 20, 1994, we interviewed Walter Kollmorgen. Reschly also conducted a follow-up interview March 8, 1995. Herein, we provide the transcripts of these interviews, which are of particular historical value since Kollmorgen was one of Amish studies’ first researchers. Kollmorgen was a native speaker of German from having grown up in a Lutheran family in rural Nebraska. He and his younger sister, Johanna, both contracted polio at a very young age. The combination of German and physical limitations enabled both to establish rapport in a short time with the Amish community in Lancaster County for his rural community study. …

The 1955 Diener Beschluss: Text, Interpretation, Reception History, And Historiography, Christopher Petrovich

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The contemporary diversity of the Amish is well attested by recent literature in the field of Amish studies. However, beyond Leroy Beachy’s Unser Leit, insufficient attention has been given to the question of how this state of affairs came about. The most consequential date in the twentieth century is September 1955, when a Bescluß (statement) that was issued at a churchwide ministers’ meeting ultimately divided the Old Order Amish into two separate, non-communing fellowships. Three important historical details about the meeting merit consideration: the document issued on the last day of the churchwide ministers’ meeting circulates among the Amish in …

A Short History Of The Holmes County, Ohio, Amish Directory And Genetics Research, Harold Cross

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

In this first-hand account, Harold “Hal” Cross, a researcher instrumental in the dawning of Amish genetic/demographic studies, recounts his memories of early projects and the development of the first Amish directories. Interest in Amish genetics emerged in the 1960s, as Cross, then a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, informed Victor A McKusick, Professor of Medicine, about the potential for studying genetic disease among the Amish. Cross, working under McKusick’s direction, then collaborated with Amishman Ervin Gingerich of Holmes County, OH, in completing the first full-size household-level Amish directory in 1965. The effort was financed in part …

In 1967: An Ethnography Of The Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Old Order Mennonites, John Caughey

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This study is an overview of the culture of the Pennsylvania Old Order Mennonites of the Groffdale Conference. It is based on the six months of anthropological field work I carried out in Lancaster County in the spring and summer of 1967. Oriented by ethnographic emphasis on the world view, conceptual system, key concepts, and basic practices that characterized the community during that period, it explores Old Order Mennonite religion, farming, family, community, and relations with outsiders. Based on conversations and interviews with a variety of Old Order Mennonite farmers, particularly intensive interviews with one key participant and his family, …

Subjectivity In The Lancaster Amish Community Study Of 1940-42: 'Economic Conquest' In Loomis’S Diary And Rosinow’S Photographs, Elizabeth Bennett

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The American Farm Community Study (1940), funded by the USDA’s Bureau of Agricultural Economics, was a social investigation that sought to determine why some rural communities thrive while others fail. To conduct the Study, the Bureau sent social scientists to six rural communities across the country to investigate and document the most and least “stable” American communities. Geographer Walter Kollmorgen, sociologist Charles Loomis, and photographer Irving Rusinow documented the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, PA, as the “most stable” community in the Study. In Lancaster, the men found a people thriving in the midst of english neighbors still economically …

The Plain Anabaptist People At Mid-Century (1930-1969) / In Memoriam, Cory Anderson, Steven Reschly

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

With volume 11, JAPAS now enters its second decade of publication. For those keeping count, Volume 10 included only one issue, for this editor needed a short sabbatical after a decade of leadership. In this issue, we focus on a recent past—the plain people at mid-century (roughly 1930-70)—that is slowly becoming a more distant past. Those experiencing this era are largely aged or have passed on, and in this issue, we spend time reviewing the historical documents, research and data, and autobiographies they have left. [First paragraph.]

Title Page And Table Of Contents 11(1), Japas Editors

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

No abstract provided.

Response: The Constitution Has Never Recognized Us As Full Persons: Or To What Politics Are Our "Protections" Returning?, Marlon M. Bailey

ConLawNOW

This response engages with Marc Spindelman’s article, The New Intersectional and Anti-Racist LGBTQIA+ Politics: Some Thoughts on the Path Ahead, which offers a rethinking of critical precision about what is on the horizon for LGBTQ rights. The response calls for a reframing of the conversation by starting from the understanding that the Constitution, and by extension the law, is a political document and thus no realm of the Constitution or the law is impervious to politics. It then argues that instead of seeking recognition as full persons in the law and looking to a political document—the Constitution—for refuge from …

How Confusing! Resolving The Three-Way Circuit Split On The Nominative Fair Use Doctrine, Eric W. Walker

Akron Law Review

Trademark defenses such as descriptive fair use have been codified in the Lanham Act for decades. Despite the practical necessity of nominative fair use, it has yet to be codified into the Lanham Act. While the Supreme Court has offered guidance on descriptive fair use, there is currently no such guidance with respect to nominative fair use. Currently, our best guidance is a confusing three-way Circuit Split on how to approach nominative fair use. Other circuits have largely remained uncertain in how to approach the doctrine or have outright avoided using the doctrine. In analyzing the intricacies of nominative fair …

The Scrivener's Error: How Bankruptcy Judges Overrule Health Experts On Medicare Decisions, Nicolas C. Oehler

Akron Law Review

There is a circuit split over the interpretation of 42 U.S.C. § 405(h), which requires providers to exhaust their remedies with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) before proceeding to court. This split originates from a recodification that omitted several jurisdictional grants from § 405(h), leaving courts to decide whether to continue interpreting the statute as Congress intended or begin interpreting the statute’s plain language. Complicating this split, a backlog of claims in HHS’s appeal systems prevents speedy adjudication. This delay leaves providers searching for other adjudicatory options for their Medicare claims, such as bankruptcy courts.

As initially …

Keeping The Faith: How The Fourteenth Amendment Should Protect Against Faithless Electors, Jennifer A. Cranmer

Akron Law Review

Every four years, citizens across the United States vote for a presidential candidate. However, those citizens are actually voting for electors who then vote for the president in the Electoral College on the citizens’ behalf. Electors become faithless when they do not vote for the candidate that they were pledged to vote for. In Chiafalo v. Washington, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of states enacting strict faithless elector laws that require electors to vote for the candidates they were pledged to vote for and impose penalties on electors who fail to do so. Yet many states have failed …

A Contractual Approach To Choice Of Law Rules For Forum Selection Clauses, Shahar Avraham-Giller

Akron Law Review

A common practice in commercial agreements is to include a clause setting out where litigation will take place in case of a dispute between the contracting parties (a “forum selection clause”). The natural expectation of parties using such clauses is that in the event of litigation between them, this stipulation will be treated the same way as other contractual stipulations, including in the context of conflict of laws. According to the general principles of choice of law rules for contracts, the law of the contract should govern the validity and interpretation of forum selection clauses. In the case of a …

An Essay On Drafting Evidence Legislation And Rules: Challenging The Conventional Wisdom, Edward J. Imwinkelried

Akron Law Review

There have been numerous major efforts to reform and codify American Evidence law. The efforts include the Model Code, the Uniform Rules, the California Evidence Code, and, of course, the Federal Rules of Evidence. The various reform initiatives have attempted to create “an evidence bible for busy trial judges and attorneys.” Of course, to resolve the many common-law splits of authority, the reformers faced substantive evidentiary questions: Should the opponent be permitted to impeach by cross-examining about a bad act that has not resulted in a conviction? Should there be a learned treatise hearsay exception? And should a presumption disappear …

The New Intersectional And Anti-Racist Lgbtqia + Politics: Some Thoughts On The Path Ahead, Marc Spindelman

ConLawNOW

This article examines the changes to LGBTQIA+ consciousness and the politics they are producing. One result of these consciousness shifts is the increasing number of LGBTQIA+-identified people and organizations reconstituting themselves, their identities, and their politics around pro-Black, anti-racist positions, and doing so as foundational elements of their LGBTQIA+ liberation work. At the same time as these developments are unfolding, however, they are on a collision course with emergent social conservative positions and obstacles. These obstacles include developments at a Supreme Court that is increasingly deciding based on constitutional originalism. This article begins to show how the Court’s conservative originalism …

Faculty Senate Chronicle May 4 2023, Heather M. Loughney

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes for the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on May 4 2023

Note: Conflicting Common Law: Application Of The Self-Incrimination Clause As Applied To Smartphone Technology, Andrew Meena

ConLawNOW

This essay discusses the murkiness in the law regarding the application of the Self-Incrimination Clause as it relates to modern technology of smartphones. It evaluates the pros and cons of a judicial solution to the existing conflict against a legislative solution. Rather than through regulation or statutory reform, the focus will be on the need for a contemporary judicial interpretation of the Self-Incrimination Clause in furtherance of the common law tradition that spawned the first understandings of the Fifth Amendment. Ultimately, this examination will call upon the Supreme Court to craft a modern application of the Self-Incrimination Clause by holding …

Faculty Senate Chronicle April 6, 2023, Heather Loughney

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes for the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on April 6, 2023

Electronic Resources Updates - 2023 Q1, Melanie Mcgurr, Gregg Harris

Electronic Resources Quarterly Updates

No abstract provided.

Public School Teachers Who Refuse To Use Preferred Names And Pronouns: A Brief Exploration Of The First Amendment Limitations In K-12 Classrooms, Suzanne Eckes

ConLawNOW

This article focuses on whether a teacher has a First Amendment right under both the free speech and free exercise clauses of the U.S. Constitution when refusing to use a student’s preferred name or pronoun in a public school classroom. The article begins by briefly summarizing a recent case from Kansas and then examines prior precedent involving teachers’ classroom speech and teachers’ rights to freely exercise their religious rights in public schools. It then briefly highlights how these issues have been addressed in previous pronoun cases and concludes with a discussion of related constitutional issues.

Abortion Rights And Federalism: Some Lessons From The Nineteenth Century United States, Kate Masur

ConLawNOW

The Dobbs decision, which gives states complete control over abortion laws, has unleashed conflicts that resemble the battles that arose when enslaved people fled slave states for free states, and enslavers, in turn, mobilized state and federal power to get them back. The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has prompted frequent allusions to slavery and the antebellum United States. The history of those struggles reminds us of the corrosive impact of interstate conflict and of the importance of federal protections for freedom and individual rights. The history of the United States in the nineteenth century …

Symposium: The Future Of Reproductive Rights: Reevaluating Regional Law Reform Strategies After Dobbs, Jamie R. Abrams

ConLawNOW

This article studies the triad of 2016 social media campaigns known as “#AskDr.Kasich,” “#askbevinaboutmyvag,” and “#PeriodsforPence” to garner insights to inform the vital work of regional law reform in a post-Dobbs America. While these campaigns, each located in the regional mid-South, were motivated by restrictive state abortion bills, they uniquely positioned menstruation and women’s bodies at the center of their activism—not abortion alone. They leveraged, as a political fault line, the contradiction of these states’ governors’ perceived disgust relating to basic women’s reproductive health, relative to their patriarchal assuredness in regulating and controlling women’s bodies. In so doing, they …

Symposium: The Future Of Reproductive Rights: Dobbs And Unenumerated Parental Custody Rights And Interests, Jeffrey A. Parness

ConLawNOW

This article addresses issues involving custodial parents after Dobbs. It first briefly describes the federal constitutional right to an interest in custodial parentage under pre-Dobbs U.S. Supreme Court precedents. It finds few precedents on defining parents at birth and no precedents on defining parentage arising from post-birth acts. The paper then reviews Dobbs, particularly its varying takes on unenumerated constitutional rights. Finally, it explores how Dobbs should influence future precedents on federal constitutional custodial parentage that arises either at birth or after birth. It urges federal courts to expand custodial parentage in light of societal changes in …

Faculty Senate Chronicle March 2, 2023, Heather M. Loughney

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes for the regular meeting of the University of Akron Faculty Senate on March 2, 2023.

Symposium: The Future Of Reproductive Rights: An Embryo Is Not A Person: Rejecting Prenatal Personhood For A More Complex View Of Prenatal Life, Cynthia Soohoo

ConLawNOW

This essay considers current claims for prenatal personhood after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It first explains how the Dobbs decision unnecessarily adopts a binary view of prenatal life, suggesting that the only option for courts and legislatures is to recognize prenatal personhood or deny protection for prenatal life. This ignores popular understandings that certain laws can and should protect prenatal life, especially where criminal or tortious actions are concerned, but not grant full legal personhood. The Dobbs decision also refused to draw meaningful lines about the value of prenatal life in …

Symposium: The Future Of Reproductive Rights: Big, Bad Roe, B. Jessie Hill

ConLawNOW

After the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, the question of a constitutional right to abortion goes to state courts where there is a potential for resurgence of a Roe-like standard. This Essay thus evaluates whether Roe’s doctrinal framework is worth resurrecting, and concludes that it is good law to retain. It criticizes the work of liberal legal scholar John Hart Ely, who famously attacked Roe’s reasoning in a much-cited essay entitled The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade. Justice Alito’s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization cited …

Symposium: The Future Of Reproductive Rights: Situating Dobbs, Paula Monopoli

ConLawNOW

This Article applies the concept of constitutional memory to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to dispute the dominant view that the case was unique in erasing a constitutional right. It offers three examples—voting, Prohibition, and protective labor legislation—to illustrate how situating Dobbs within an expansive view of feminist legal history teaches us that it is not the only—just the most recent—example of the Court’s eroding or erasing previously recognized legal protections or rights that had a positive impact on women’s lives. It concludes that Congress, the Supreme Court, and the People themselves have been …

Symposium: The Future Of Reproductive Rights: Foreign Law In Dobbs: The Need For A Principled Framework, Sital Kalantry

ConLawNOW

This article critiques the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization for its unprincipled and superficial use of foreign law sources to overturn Roe v. Wade. It explains the surprising use of foreign law by conservative justices who had previously opposed all use of non-US law in decision-making. And it shows how international and foreign law can be used on by either side to both expand and retrench rights. The article thus argues for a more principled framework for when and how to use international law sources including a more contextual analysis of that law.

Faculty Senate Chronicle February 2, 2023, Heather M. Loughney

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes for the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on February 2, 2023

Book Review: Half American, Half Amazing: A Review Of Half American By Matthew F. Delmont And An Exploration Of Executive Action During World War Ii And Its Impact On Black Soldiers, Ainslee Johnson-Brown

ConLawNOW

This essay reviews Matthew F. Delmont’s new book, Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad (2022). The book enriches the ongoing scholarship related to critical race theory and the effects of executive action on the lived experience of Black Americans. Delmont presents a well-woven narrative of the experience of Black American soldiers during World War II. Pieced together from letters, court documents, and articles published during the war, this book sheds light on accounts previously buried beneath a shield of trauma, frustration, and disbelief.