Professor Abner Greene provided his opinion to Catholic News Service on a Supreme Court decision that ruled in favor of preserving a cross-shaped World War I memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland. In a 7-2 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of preserving a historic cross-shaped memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland saying the cross did not endorse religion. The June 20 ruling reversed a lower court decision last year. “Although the cross has long been a preeminent Christian symbol, its use in the Bladensburg memorial has a special significance,” said the court’s ruling in an opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito.…
Author: Newsroom
Professor Matthew Gold appeared on Bloomberg TV’s Daybreak Asia to discuss, “calls for Hong Kong Executive Carrie Lam’s resignation, the protests over the extradition bill, U.S.-China trade negotiations and the potential for a currency war.” I do think China … needs to be less concerned at this point with exporting its type of civil restriction to Hong Kong, and I think China needs to be more concerned at this point with Hong Kong exporting its type of civil protest to China. Watch full interview.
Professor Jed Shugerman provided comment for a Politico piece on a Supreme Court ruling that upholds the legal principle known as dual sovereignty and will preserve states’ power to limit the impact of future pardons by President Donald Trump or his successors. Lawyers for an Alabama man facing a gun charge in federal court after pleading guilty to the same offense in state court — resulting in a nearly three-year extension of his prison sentence — failed in their effort to persuade the justices to hold that the Constitution’s prohibition on double jeopardy prevents such follow-on prosecutions. The federal government…
A policy paper written by Associate Professor Janet Freilich and Lisa Larrimore Ouellette and published in the journal Science has become a topic of discussion in the science community. The paper, featured in PHYS.ORG unpacks the practice of applying for patents on inventions that have not yet been demonstrated or products that are still in the experimentation phase. As Freilich and Larrimore Ouellette note, it is perfectly legal to apply for a patent for what they describe as “predicted experimental methods and results.” They further note that it is a common practice in biology and chemistry research, especially when researchers are…
Professor Abner Greene provided input on a recent ruling by the Supreme Court detailed in The National Law Journal. The ruling redefines when private companies can be treated like government entities under the First Amendment and may lessen restraints on how tech companies handle free speech issues. Ruling in Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, the high court decided that in most instances, private companies cannot be regarded as “state actors” that can be penalized for violating free speech rights. … Kavanaugh said that the way to determine whether a private company takes on the attributes of a “state actor” is…
Professor Matt Gold joined Audie Cornish and Jim Zarroli on NPR’s, All Things Considered, to discuss the impact of the latest tariff’s imposed on Mexico by the Trump administration. ZARROLI: Yeah, I was wondering that, too. And I put the question to Matt Gold, who was a trade official in the Obama administration. And he said Trump probably does have the authority to do this. Congress has delegated to the president the power to impose certain temporary tariffs, but Gold says this is almost certainly a violation of international law. MATT GOLD: We’re definitely violating both the World Trade Organization…
Professor Matt Gold appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” to discuss growing trade tensions between the U.S. and Mexico and Peter Navarro’s advisement to the President on international trade issues. The fact is that this move, if the President takes it, will very severely violate NAFTA, it will basically invalidate the entire agreement because we will be failing to fulfill our most fundamental obligation in the entire 300-page agreement. It also severely violates the World Trade Organization agreements, which comprise a huge portion of all international law and are critical for global stability. These are the types of consequences you’re looking…
Professor Susan Scafidi, founder and academic director of Fordham Law School’s Fashion Law Institute, provided legal background for a Billboard article on the rights to the famous pop culture smiley face logo. In January, Justin Bieber launched his fashion label, Drew House, with a round of unisex hoodies, baggy shorts and tees emblazoned with a modified version of the smiley: two dots, a yellow circle and a mouth constructed from the word “Drew.” At Alexander Wang’s fall 2019 show, which celebrated the American hustle, there were topcoats with smileys by contemporary graffiti artist KATSU. During menswear week in Paris, diamond-encrusted smiley…
Professor Howard Erichson provides his expert opinion in a New York Times article that lays out the innovative and comprehensive approach being considered for a national opioids settlement with the pharmaceutical industry. The benefit for municipal plaintiffs is straightforward. There is no certainty that they could recover anything on their own. Here, the funds to abate the deadly crisis would be guaranteed and delivered more swiftly than if the municipalities pursued their own cases. To determine what each municipality would receive, the lead plaintiffs’ lawyers have created an interactive map that will immediately show each participant their expected share of…
Adjunct Professor James Keyte was interviewed for a German publication called Handelsblatt about the challenges of splitting the big tech companies like Google and Facebook. If the government investigates these platforms and finds a problem under current US law, then it still can not act against them, as in the EU. In the US, the government has to convince a judge to act against it. Under what circumstances would the government have opportunities in court? With the help of the Sherman Monopoly Law, it is first necessary to prove that a company has a monopoly power in a well-defined market.…