Rachel Holliday Smith at THE CITY reported, “In a typical New York City election year, the mayoral race is effectively over by the June primary — when the Democratic nominee is chosen, essentially anointing the mayor-elect in this deep blue city. But 2025 is hardly a typical political season.” Fordham Law Adjunct Professor Jerry H. Goldfeder, director of Fordham Law School’s Voting Rights and Democracy Project, explains to THE CITY what it means to run as an independent as well as the “obscure” Wilson-Pakula rule that authorizes a candidate to run with a party different from their own. Read “Cuomo…
Author: Newsroom
Fordham Law Professor Cheryl Bader is quoted in The Washington Post in an article detailing how and why President-elect Donald Trump received no penalty Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, for his conviction in his hush money trial. The sentencing came just 10 days before Trump is set to be sworn in as the country’s 47th president. Former federal prosecutor Cheryl Bader, a professor at Fordham Law School, said Merchan had been in a challenging position presiding over the case because he had to balance the norms of a criminal proceeding with Trump’s unusual status. “The judge noted his disapproval of Trump’s conduct,” Bader said, “but felt that his hands were…
Susan Scafidi, founder and director of Fordham Law’s Fashion Law Institute, spoke to Women’s Wear Daily about how the fashion industry could be affected by a TikTok ban. Susan Scafidi, academic director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University, said, “The loss of TikTok, even on a temporary basis, would upend the influencer economy in the U.S. and eliminate a key marketing channel for many fashion brands, especially those with Millennial and younger audiences. Social media adapts quickly, and much of the activity on TikTok could migrate to other platforms, but business as usual in the form of product…
Donald Trump, the first former U.S. president convicted of a felony, was sentenced by New York Justice Juan Merchan to no jail time in his “hush money” case, though he will still return to the White House this month with a criminal record. Fordham Law Professor Cheryl Bader comments on the President-elect’s sentencing, in this article for Bloomberg. Fordham Law Professor Cheryl Bader, a former federal prosecutor, said the judge and the district attorney’s office both indicated that Trump’s behavior during and after the trial would have weighed against him in a typical case. “The prosecution raised Trump’s complete lack of remorse and…
Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has received more public support than is typical for a man charged with first-degree murder. As positive public opinion for Mangione increases, Fordham Law Professor Cheryl Bader explains the gray area of American law, jury nullification, and what it means for the defense of Mangione. “It’s not a legal defense sanctioned under the law,” said Cheryl Bader, associate professor of law at Fordham School of Law. “It’s a reaction by the jury to a legal result that they feel would be so unjust or morally wrong that they refuse to impose…
The Supreme Court of the United States, which hears arguments on Friday, Jan. 10, in a challenge to a law banning TikTok, has issued varying rulings when issues of national security and free speech have previously clashed. A supporting brief from the Knight First Amendment Institute said the law banning TikTok is aggressive, but Fordham Law Professor Zephyr Teachout explains why that was the wrong analysis, in The New York Times. Indeed, a supporting brief from the Knight First Amendment Institute said, the law banning TikTok is far more aggressive than the one limiting access to communist propaganda. “While the law in…
In TikTok v. Garland, the Supreme Court will determine whether TikTok—the social media platform used by an estimated 170 million Americans—can continue to operate in the United States under the ownership of a Chinese holding company. Columbia Law Professor Jameel Jaffer and Fordham Law Professor Zephyr Teachout join Jeffrey Rosen—host of We the People podcast and president and CEO of National Constitution Center—to debate whether the law that forces TikTok to be sold or banned violates the First Amendment. Excerpt from Interview: Zephyr Teachout argues that the law requiring TikTok’s divestiture aligns with U.S. tradition of regulating foreign ownership to protect sovereignty…
Professor Catherine Powell, Eunice Hunton Carter Distinguished Research Scholar at Fordham Law, co-authored a post for the Council on Foreign Relations’s Women and Foreign Policy Program blog, looking back at one of her 2024 highlights—meeting Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, at the American Society of International Law Gala. Powell is an adjunct senior fellow for women and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. A highlight of 2024 was commemorating Malala Yousafzai on Human Rights Day. As we move into 2025, we are taking one last peak in the rearview mirror at 2024 to draw inspiration for the…
Fordham Law alumnus Jerry Dickinson ’13 has been appointed dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, effective January 15, following a comprehensive national search. Born into the Allegheny County foster care system and raised in a large, multiracial foster home of 11 at-risk children, Dickinson has earned a national and international reputation as a constitutional law scholar and civil rights lawyer. His teaching and scholarship have focused on issues around judicial federalism, property law, democracy, and race and the law. His work has been published in leading law reviews and has influenced U.S. Courts of Appeals decisions, amicus…
In the wake of Republican Party officials wanting to punish GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their work on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, Fordham Law Professor Bruce Green, director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, published an op-ed in The Hill explaining why the accusations of professional misconduct against Cheney are “frankly ludicrous.” In recent years, public officials of both parties have accused law enforcement authorities of “weaponizing” criminal law, particularly against political opponents. Now, Republicans in the House of Representatives have shown that it is not only the criminal law that…