Professor Jed Shugerman was quoted in a Washington Post article about the possibility that impeachment proceedings could be brought against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh following the most recently reported accusations of sexual misconduct by the justice. Yet Kavanaugh’s removal is exceedingly unlikely, given the supermajority threshold in the Senate, where there are 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two Independents (who caucus with the Democrats). The “supermajority” threshold for removal is exceedingly high by design: The delegates crafted it to prevent politics from driving the outcome, instead ensuring any misconduct was offensive enough to have bipartisan support for removal. Nineteen…
Author: Newsroom
Professor James Cohen provided his opinion in the New York Daily News about the sentence handed down to actress Felicity Huffman for her part in the college admission scandal. “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman was sentenced to only 14 days in prison Friday for her role in what prosecutors have called the largest college admissions bribery scandal ever prosecuted. The Emmy winner also got 250 hours of community service, a $30,000 fine and one year of probation. But the jail time was less than half the measly month prosecutors wanted after revising their requested jail time down from their original…
Adjunct Professor David Jacoby wrote an article published in Law360 about the trademark infringement case involving the use of the Humvee name and likeness in the highly popular Call of Duty video game series. The defendant Activision Blizzard is the maker of the hugely successful Call of Duty series of video games, which, since 2003, have provided simulated but realistic battlefields on which video warriors fight in settings ranging from World War II to the present and on into the future. The vehicles in some Call of Duty games include Humvees. Activision also granted licenses to use content from the…
An Associated Press article quoted Professor Richard Squire on the likelihood that a bankruptcy filing would block any pending claims against the Slacker Family, the owners of Purdue Pharma. HOW MANY LAWSUITS ARE THE SACKLERS FACING? At this time, more than 20 states have sued family members by name for their role in the crisis. Each suit varies slightly, but many claim the Sacklers knowingly misled the public and medical communities while draining money from the company. If the lawsuits against the families allege criminal activity — such as fraud or actions that would deliberately hurt others — those would…
Fordham Law professors Sean Griffith and Thomas Lee co-authored an article for The FCPA Blog that highlights points from their recently published paper, Toward an Interest Group Theory of Foreign Anti-Corruption Laws, which presents a new theory on how to address anti-bribery laws. Our theory explains observed patterns in foreign anti-corruption laws better than competing accounts. For example, “Rights-Based” theories focus on freedom from bribery and corruption as a basic human right. But these theories fail to wrestle with the public good problem inhibiting the passage of such laws. “Realist” accounts make the opposite error. In explaining anti-bribery and corruption…
The AdExchanger published an article covering highlights from the 46th Annual Fordham Law Conference on International Antitrust Law & Policy and included a quote from adjunct professor James Keyte, the director of the Fordham Competition Law Institute. While there’s no denying that companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and even Netflix “are extremely strong,” their size in the market doesn’t automatically translate into an antitrust concern, said Isabelle de Silva, president of the Autorité de la Concurrence, France’s national competition regulator. “We have heard a lot about the fact that big is bad, that big is a threat in itself,…
On Thursday, September 12, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Antitrust Division delivered the keynote remarks at Fordham Law’s 46th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy. CNBC provided full coverage of his presentation. “Such decisions have the real potential to decrease incentives to invest and to innovate. When a foreign enforcer imposes such a remedy globally, it takes away the Antitrust Division’s ability to reach a different conclusion and risks harming American consumers. It also takes away the ability of every other jurisdiction to reach a different conclusion.” Additional coverage of Assistant Attorney General Delrahim’s remarks: DOJ…
Professor John Pfaff was quoted for an article published by The Appeal about Pennsylvania’s inconsistent history with granting commutations on life sentences. In 1974, there were fewer than 500 people serving life without parole in Pennsylvania. There are now more than 5,400 people doing life in Pennsylvania, one of the highest rates of life without parole sentences in the country. Most of Pennsylvania’s lifers will die behind bars if the Board of Pardons does not recommend a commutation to the governor. And a single vote against commutation is sufficient to prevent a recommendation to the governor. … Since 2003, fewer…
As reported in Law360, Covington & Burling LLP has hired 2003 Fordham Law graduate Amanda Kramer as a partner in their white-collar defense and investigations practice. She said she developed many skills as a prosecutor that prepared her well for the move. “I worked on white collar matters throughout my time there, but also, working on the human trafficking and crimes against children cases gave me a lot of experience dealing with a variety of institutions and individuals [including] law enforcement and internet service providers,” Kramer told Law360 on Wednesday. “I was ready for a new challenge, and this seemed…
Professor Joel Reidenberg’s research was cited in a Washington Post article about the potential weakening of student privacy laws that could increase the use of student data for commercial purposes. A class-action lawsuit was filed in August 2018 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleging that ACT identified student disability status through this information on the score reports sent to colleges and sold this information to colleges and other third parties. In a recent legal filing, ACT informed the court that it will no longer sell student disability status in the data collected voluntarily by students, but refused to…