Society, Law & Politics

The University of Colorado Boulder will celebrate Constitution Day with campus events including a student journalism panel and the launch of a new program at the University of Colorado Law School that will send CU law students to high school classrooms throughout the state to discuss the First Amendment.

Longtime University of Colorado Law School Dean David Getches, who had stepped down on June 30 in order to return to the school's faculty, died today. He was 68.

The University of Colorado Boulder today announced the appointment of Philip J. Weiser, senior adviser for technology and innovation to the National Economic Council at the White House, as dean of the University of Colorado Law School. CU-Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore said Weiser will begin his duties as dean on July 1, 2011.

Graduate programs at the University of Colorado Boulder continue to earn national prominence based on the latest annual rankings from U.S. News & World Report. CU-Boulder schools and programs garnered 25 mentions in the 2012 edition of Best Graduate Schools, including five ranked in the top 10 of their fields.

The University of Colorado Law School's Juvenile and Family Law Program will take a group of 15 students to India for a hands-on clinical application of the family law curriculum.

Four finalists have been named for the position of dean at the University of Colorado Boulder Law School, according to Jim Williams, dean of the University Libraries and chair of the search committee.

NEWS TIP SHEET CU Sources on Earmarks, Health Care Law, Wal-Mart Lawsuit and Other Issues

University of Colorado at Boulder law professors Scott Moss and Paul Campos can comment on President Obama's nomination of U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan as the nation's 112th U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Jeff Mitton, professor and chair of CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department, is available to talk about the repercussions of oil spills. Mitton was on sabbatical in 1979-1980 at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., where he studied a 1969 oil spill that seeped into the Sippewissett Marsh.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter will deliver the keynote commencement address for the University of Colorado Law School on Friday, May 11, at_11:30 a.m. to 165 law school graduates. The class of 2007 is the first to graduate since the opening of the new Wolf Law Building. Commencement ceremonies will be held in Macky Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus. Doors to Macky will open at 10:45 a.m. for family and friends. Gov. Ritter is a 1981 graduate of the law school. This is the governor's first commencement address since taking office in January.