I am thrilled to be spending the spring semester at Pepperdine University School of Law as the D & L Straus Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law. I got a taste of this special law school last March, teaching a one-week short course during my spring break from Cincinnati, and I am looking forward to getting to know the school, its faculty, and its students even better this semester. Pepperdine has a wonderfully distinctive mission in American legal education, particularly the integration of the Christian faith in all aspects of life at the school.  I have fallen in love with Southern California during my seven summers teaching at the University of San Diego School of Law, and I am looking forward to the warm sunshine after an unusually harsh midwestern December. With both of our children now off to college, my wife and I feel blessed to be able to spend part of our first empty nest year in beautiful Malibu, California among our new neighbors.