Adjunct Professor Jerry H. Goldfeder co-wrote a column in the New York Law Journal regarding how New York ballot access laws restrict voters’ ability to vote for candidates. “[New York] restrictive ballot access laws often deprive voters an opportunity to have a choice when they vote. [We surveyed] a variety of rulings from 2018 to demonstrate how hyper-technical provisions litter the law, and prevent otherwise eligible candidates from being on the ballot—thus narrowing, and often eliminating, choices for the voters.” Read the full column.
Author: bwieboldt
Youngjae Lee was quoted in Pacific Standard regarding unusual criminal sentences. Many of these wacky punishments are delivered with a smirk from the judge and received with a hearty belly laugh from the press corps. But are they legal? A popular concern is that these strange sanctions are a violation of the Eighth Amendment, the prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.” But to successfully challenge a punishment under the Eighth Amendment, “textually speaking, the punishment would have to be both cruel and unusual,” Fordham’s Lee says. “The Bambi sanction is certainly unusual, but it’s not clear that it’s cruel, especially…
Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, was quoted in the New York Times about the wiretapping of suspected bike path terrorist. Karen J. Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law, said, “The question it raises in my mind is no matter how much surveillance there is, even right up to the eve of an attack, we still have not figured out exactly what it is that we’re looking for as a sign of immediate danger beyond ‘I have a gun in my pocket’ or ‘a bomb strapped…
Jed Shugerman was quoted in Newsweek about Donald Trump’s new real estate deal in the Dominican Republic which could, if completed, violate the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. “What you have here is not a payment in cash, but allegedly a benefit of tremendous business value, from a foreign state. Benefits come in many forms and the founders understood that benefits come in many forms,” Jed Shugerman, a professor at Fordham Law, told Newsweek. “The Founding Fathers weren’t building high-rises, but they did understand the role of foreign states providing benefits to foreign leaders as a corrupt way of doing business,…
Professor John D. Feerick ’61 was interviewed by WNYC about the use of the 25th Amendment to remove a president from office. But what the 25th Amendment’s drafters did not want was for it to be used as a political tool, says John Feerick, a Fordham Law School professor who helped draft the Amendment. Instead, they wanted to clarify gaps left behind by the Founding Fathers. “The framers of the Constitution, back in 1787, didn’t give any explanation to what they meant by ‘inability,'” said Feerick. Listen to the full interview.
Professor Catherine Powell wrote an op-ed in The Hill stating her support for the International Criminal Court following National Security Advisor John Bolton’s stance against the intergovernmental institution. While the ICC is a relatively new institution, it has investigated numerous allegations and prosecuted several cases, leading to a handful of convictions thus far in cases ranging from the use of child soldiers to the war crime of murder. Even so, under the principle of complementarity, the court will not prosecute cases where the relevant country has taken necessary steps to investigate and punish war crimes. Such deference to state sovereignty,…
Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, was interviewed on Bloomberg about the war in Afghanistan and the complexities of achieving U.S. goals. “Over the course of the last seventeen years, the United States has gotten the lesson time and time again that we don’t know who to trust,” said Karen Greenberg, director of The Center on National Security at Fordham Law School. View the interview.
John D. Feerick ’61, current professor, former dean of Fordham Law School, and Feerick Center founder, was quoted in a Washington Post article about the impact that ‘The Caine Mutiny’ had on the creation of the 25th Amendment. [F]or a certain group of lawyers and lawmakers in the 1950s and ’60s it was an unforgettable lesson as they sat down to draft the 25th Amendment, which provided an alternative to impeachment for removing an incapacitated president. They didn’t want a similar situation — an “Article 184″ in the amendment — where a vice president or others could simply usurp the…
Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, was quoted in the New York Post about the slow process to bring September 11 suspects to trial. Seventeen years after they helped murder 2,977 innocents in the worst terrorist attack on US soil, five 9/11 suspects — including self-avowed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — have not faced trial. “The fact that we can’t try these individuals is such an incalculable disservice to the citizens of this country,” said Karen Greenberg, director of The Center on National Security at Fordham Law School. “The system is just flawed in…
The 25th Amendment, which addresses what should happen if a president is unable to govern, was designed in 1967 in part by John D. Feerick ’61, current professor, former dean of Fordham Law School, and Feerick Center founder. The New York Times article discusses the amendment’s history, its relevance today, and Feerick’s perspective on the creators’ intent. The amendment was not a license to easily remove a president who has been elected by the people from the powers and duties of office. The amendment was there as a safety net in dealing with incapacity, and just how it affects one’s…