Faculty in the News

CyberInsecurity News—December 2018
A CYBERSECURITY CLASS GETS REAL
Simulated cyberattacks present them with opportunities to test both their incident response plans and the preparation and coordination of their response teams. But Matthew Waxman and Daniel Charles Richman arranged to have an expert conduct one of these scenarios for a different purpose. They are professors who teach a class on cybersecurity at Columbia Law School.
 

The New York Times—December 1, 2018
Immigrants Are Entitled to Jury Trial for Deportable Offenses, New York Court Rules
Mark W. Zeno, a Columbia Law School professor who represented Mr. Suazo on appeal, said immigrants convicted of crimes are under increasing scrutiny from federal authorities “and ensuring that they’re fairly convicted is more important now than ever.”
[Note: Zeno is a lecturer at the Law School who co-leads the Criminal Appeals externship.]

The Washington Post—December 1, 2018
Trump pulls punches at global summit, making nice with foes and avoiding feuds
Michael Gerrard, a professor at Columbia Law School who also directs the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, said the paragraph is “sticking out like a sore thumb, or maybe a finger in the eye.”
[Note: This article appeared in numerous major publications nationwide.]

Salon—December 1, 2018
“The Once and Future Worker” is Romney loyalist, Oren Cass’s labor theory of value
Quoting the Indian economist Jagdish Bhagwati, Cass’s position is forthright: “It is time to shift the burden of proof from those who oppose to those who favor liberated capital.”
 

Barron’s—December 1, 2018
Facebook Is Under Fire Again. Here’s What Could Come Next.
In a new book, The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age, Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, details how Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram demonstrates its overweening market power.
[Note: Amid the release of Prof. Tim Wu's new book The Curse of Bigness—combined with related news concerning companies like Facebook, AT&T, and Time Warner—he was cited and quoted extensively during this period in publications including Axios, Barron’s, Bloomberg (News), Bloomberg (Opinion), BRINK, City & State NY, Impact Alpha, Longreads, Maclean’s, Reason Magazine, The Verge, The New York Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Washington Post, WNYC’s Money Talking, and Yahoo! Finance.]
 

Lawfare—December 2, 2018
The Anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine
By Matthew Waxman
Monroe’s proclamation is a momentous example of the president’s vast constitutional power to set and communicate U.S. foreign policy. This was not just any kind of diplomatic policy, however. This was drawing a red line—with an implicit war threat—even though the United States at the time lacked the military power to back it up.
 

Mint—December 2, 2018
Opinion | ‘America First’ hastens the demise of US hegemony
As long ago as the 1990s, economist Jagdish Bhagwati coined the concept of the “diminished giant syndrome” to explain the US tilt away from multilateralism toward preferential trade agreements which could be stacked in favour of the US.

CNN—December 3, 2018
Trump's pick for EPA already rolling back climate change protections (article and video)
Michael Gerrard, faculty director of Columbia Law School's Climate Deregulation Tracker, which follows government deregulation, believes Wheeler will be more successful at reversing environmental protections, "because he understands the administrative and legal process better and he does not have all the craziness of Pruitt's personal proclivities that got in the way of his effectiveness."
[Note: This article appeared in numerous major publications nationwide.]

The Los Angeles Review of Books—December 3, 2018
The Mystification of Impeachment
Black’s book has now been reissued for the Trump era with a new preface and four supplemental chapters by Philip Bobbitt. It would be accurate, if superficial, to describe the result as a valuable update.

Business Insurance—December 3, 2018
Insurers face potential rise in climate-related litigation, claims: Clyde & Co
More than 1,100 climate change lawsuits have been filed to date in the United States, according to a database tracking such court actions maintained by the Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law in New York and law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP based in Washington, D.C.
 

SCOTUSblog—December 4, 2018
Argument analysis: Justices debate revised language in patent-priority statute
By Ronald Mann
Most of the justices who spoke at any length seemed to take the view that it is long-settled that an inventor triggers the on-sale bar by any type of sale, whether public or private, and that Congress’ slight revision of the statute in 2011 could hardly be thought sufficient to overturn that understanding.
 

SCOTUSblog—December 4, 2018
Justices call for more briefing in dispute about Oklahoma prosecutions of Native Americans
By Ronald Mann
This afternoon the justices asked for briefing from the parties, the United States as amicus curiae supporting Oklahoma, and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, as amicus curiae supporting Murphy, on two questions that seem to suggest a search for a new way to resolve the controversy.

Yahoo! Finance—December 4, 2018
Kavanaugh's recusal in securities fraud case could be good news for the SEC
“You now have four Democrats and four Republicans on a case that closely divided the Supreme Court in 2011,” John Coffee, securities law expert and professor of law at Columbia Law School, told Yahoo Finance.

KBIA | St. Louis on the Air—December 4, 2018
Scholars highlight impact of early adversity on developing brain, implications for criminal justice (Article and audio)
Elizabeth Scott, law professor and vice dean for curriculum at Columbia Law School, explained why teenagers are more likely to engage in risky ventures. “There are several factors that contribute to this: Adolescents tend to be sensation-seeking or thrill-seeking, they have poor impulse control, they’re less able than adults to regulate strong emotions and they’re very sensitive to social context, particularly to peers,” Scott said, adding that scientists have linked all these traits to brain development.
 

Psychology Today—December 5, 2018
The Invisible Labor of Life Admin
By Elizabeth Emens
Life admin is mostly invisible labor. It’s literally invisible in that much of this work happens in our devices through multitasking—or in our minds as we plan and decide. It’s also invisible in the sense that it’s not typically understood as labor.
 

Reuters—December 5, 2018
Clooney foundation launches global effort to monitor court trials
Working with the Columbia University Law School and the American Bar Association, the TrialWatch initiative will train an international network of court monitors, including non-lawyers, whose reports will be used by legal experts to grade trials according to international standards, several lawyers and academics involved with TrialWatch said. … Amal Clooney, who married the Oscar-winning actor George Clooney in 2014, is an international law and human rights lawyer who has been a visiting professor at Columbia University Law School since 2015. … Sarah Cleveland, faculty director of Columbia University Law School’s Human Rights Institute, said that while many organizations monitor high-profile trials, TrialWatch also will scrutinize lesser-known cases.
[Note: This article appeared in numerous publications worldwide.]

The Guardian—December 5, 2018
Future Politics by Jamie Susskind review – when life-changing decisions are made by machines
He quotes the legal scholar Tim Wu: “Consumers on the whole seem content to bear a little totalitarianism for convenience.”
 

CNBC—December 5, 2018
No matter how bad things get at Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg will be chairman for as long as he wants, experts agree
That means Zuckerberg can fire any director if he so much as gets the feeling that any of them might want to make a motion to vote for a new chairman. … Zuckerberg "has the right to remove them from office tomorrow," said John Coffee, director of the Center on Corporate Governance at Columbia Law School.
 

New York Law Journal—December 5, 2018
Columbia Law Partners With George and Amal Clooney on Human Rights Initiative
The Clooney Foundation for Justice—established by noted human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and her movie star spouse George—is partnering with Columbia Law’s Human Rights Clinic and the American Bar Association to launch an initiative in 2019 dubbed TrialWatch. … “We are honored to partner with the Clooney Foundation on a bold initiative designed to foster fairness and transparency around the world—and ultimately to reform the administration of justice,” said Columbia Law Dean Gillian Lester.
 

Sierra Magazine—December 5, 2018
Sue the Bastards
“The ability of the law to force the carbon majors to change their business models is a big, wide-open question, and the plaintiffs face significant obstacles,” says Michael Burger, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
 

BBC News—December 6, 2018
Trump's environmental rollback rolls on
The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School is tracking the Trump administration's rollback of environmental regulations. Its running list currently has more than 100 entries.
 

NPR Morning Edition—December 6, 2018
This Supreme Court Case Could Impact The Mueller Probe And Boost Trump's Pardon Power (Article and audio)
But Columbia Law School professor Daniel Richman, who previously headed the appeals section at the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, is not very worried about the Manafort case, or others like it. Manafort, he said, is "sort of a one-man offense generator."
 

POLITICO—December 6, 2018
Trump picks State Department spokeswoman for top U.N. post
Having the U.N. ambassador in the Cabinet “creates an odd configuration,” said Matthew Waxman, who held several senior national security jobs in the George W. Bush administration. It makes the position-holder an “independent adviser on foreign policy to the president,” he added, which has advantages but can generate challenges.
 

The Verge—December 6, 2018
THE LONG, TORTURED QUEST TO MAKE GOOGLE UNBIASED
And in 2015, former FTC advisor Tim Wu — who had previously defended Google from search bias complaints — changed his mind, saying Google was actually offering “degraded and intentionally worse” service by favoring its results.
 

Above the Law—December 6, 2018
Top Law School Enters Into Partnership With Amal Clooney
Columbia Law School, fresh off an expansion of their public interest programs, has announced a partnership with the Clooney Foundation for Justice, a non-profit established by famed human rights attorney Amal Clooney and her husband. … And the law school’s dean, Gillian Lester, also expressed support for the new project: “We are honored to partner with the Clooney Foundation on a bold initiative designed to foster fairness and transparency around the world—and ultimately to reform the administration of justice.”
 

Above the Law—December 6, 2018
Does A Private Sale Trigger The ‘On-Sale Bar’ For Patents?
From oral arguments in this case, it’s not clear how the Court will ultimately decide. As Ronald Mann points out at SCOTUSblog, several justices were relatively quiet during arguments in Helsinn.
 

JURIST—December 6, 2018
ABA announces initiative to monitor global human rights violations
The American Bar Association (ABA) announced Wednesday that it will join the Clooney Foundation for Justice and Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute and Human Rights Clinic to establish the TrialWatch initiative, which will help to monitor and prevent human rights violations around the world.
 

Psychology Today—December 7, 2018
The Time We Lose to Santa Claus (and Hanukkah Harry)
By Elizabeth Emens
What if we really started to see the admin of giving gifts? Paying thoughtful attention to gift admin can help us to save time, give better gifts, or both.
 

New York Post—December 7, 2018
NYSE is ‘freaking out’ looking for leakers after Post exposé
“If this has occurred recurrently, it is a BIG story because it suggests systematic favoritism,” said John C. Coffee Jr., a Columbia law school professor and former member of NYSE’s legal advisory board.
 

ABA Journal—December 7, 2018
In case that could affect Mueller defendants, Supreme Court considers 'separate sovereigns doctrine'
Columbia law professor Daniel Richman told NPR that a defendant such as Paul Manafort is “sort of a one-man offense generator,” meaning state prosecutors in such a case could likely find crimes that haven’t already been charged.


National Review—December 7, 2018
How the Founders Protected the Natural Right of Religious Liberty
A number of originalists have challenged McConnell’s reading, perhaps most notably Philip Hamburger, arguing that exemptions are permitted but not required by the First Amendment.

The New York Times—December 9, 2018
Michael Cohen Wanted to Cooperate in His Own Way. Prosecutors Had Other Ideas.
“In order to successfully cooperate with this office,” the prosecutors said, “witnesses must undergo full debriefings that encompass their entire criminal history, as well as any and all information they possess about crimes committed by both themselves and others.” … “It’s an all or nothing affair,” added Berit Berger, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity, at Columbia Law School.
 

Law360—December 9, 2018
New Trial Watchdog Aims To Expose Courtroom Abuses
The American Bar Association is combining forces with Columbia Law School and the Clooney Foundation for Justice to monitor trials that pose a high risk of human rights violations, part of an effort to promote greater transparency in courtrooms around the world. … The law school's dean Gillian Lester in a statement called TrialWatch a "bold initiative" that is designed to "reform the administration of justice."

The New York Times—December 10, 2018
Don’t Fall for Facebook’s ‘China Argument’
By Tim Wu
What Facebook is really asking for is to be embraced and protected as America’s very own social media monopolist, bravely doing battle overseas. But both history and basic economics suggest we do much better trusting that fierce competition at home yields stronger industries overall.
[Note: A Spanish version of this opinion article also appeared in El Comercio.]
 

The Washington Post—December 11, 2018
Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan want to weaken incoming Democratic governors. Here’s what’s the usual partisan politics — and what isn’t.
Law professors Joseph Fishkin and David Pozen have identified a pattern they’re calling asymmetric hardball: The Republican Party has increasingly resorted to hardball tactics to maintain power, more than the Democratic Party has.
 

The Washington Post—December 11, 2018
America now has a party of authoritarianism — it’s the GOP
Law professors Joseph Fishkin and David Pozen document this disparity in a law review article noting previous GOP assaults on democratic norms, which include the Supreme Court ruling that handed George W. Bush the presidency, repeated government shutdowns to push their agenda and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) refusal to schedule a vote for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

NY1—December 11, 2018
Fake News Gets Criminal: Experts Say Prosecuting Creators of Phony Facebook Pages May Be the New Normal
Former U.S. Prosecutor and Columbia Law Professor Berit Berger told NY1, "This is not somebody who sets up a fake profile on a dating site because they're interested in making themselves sound cooler. That's not what this is. This is trying to sway people's votes by false means. And that's something that, in my mind, should be criminal."

Financial Post—December 11, 2018
Why Canada is playing catch-up when it comes to protecting your privacy
Nevertheless, global compliance with GDPR — considered the gold standard of privacy protection — may be inevitable, said Anu Bradford, a law professor at Columbia University and director of the Center for European Legal Studies.
 

Lawfare—December 11, 2018
Does Trump’s Involvement in the Cohen Payments Constitute an Impeachable Offense?
In his recently published supplement to Black’s “Handbook,” Philip Bobbitt affirms the view that “as a matter of constitutional law, a conspiracy to pervert the course of a presidential election … is an impeachable offense.
 

The Root—December 11, 2018
12 Days of Gifting, Day 9: For Folk Who Stay Woke
When it comes to issues of intersectionality, The African American Policy Forum, founded by Kimberle Crenshaw is doing the work—even with their merch.

de Volkskrant—December 11, 2018
Dit zouden de Chinezen eens met Tim Cook moeten proberen (Dutch)
According to Jagdish Bhagwati, a professor at Columbia University and fervent advocate of international free trade, Samuelson’s conclusion was beyond the ridiculous. Not because the theoretical model of Samuelson was wrong, but because it would be practically impossible for China to close the innovation gap with the US.
 

The New York Review of Books—December 12, 2018
The Pro-Israel Push to Purge US Campus Critics
By Katherine Franke
The capacity to critically evaluate the way in which state power is exercised—in the US, in Israel, and in other places around the world where human rights are under threat—is vital to responsible citizenship and is central to our mission as educators.

The Washington Post—December 12, 2018
Trump just predicted ‘revolt’ if he’s impeached. At what point would impeachment be justified?
Are we at the point yet where considering impeachment is really justified? For help in answering this question, I spoke to Philip Bobbitt, the constitutional scholar at Columbia University who is the co-author of “Impeachment: A Handbook.”
[Note: This article appeared in numerous publications worldwide.]

NY1—December 12, 2018
What Michael Cohen's Sentencing Means for Trump Himself (Video)
As Michael Cohen gets sentenced to three years behind bars, Errol Louis discussed what comes next for the president's former attorney and what it means for Donald Trump himself, with former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole Argentieri and Berit Berger.
[Note: Berger is the executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity.]

The Globe and Mail—December 12, 2018
Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen sentenced to three years in prison
Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said it is significant that prosecutors have explicitly said Mr. Trump ordered the payoffs and publicized AMI’s admission that they were to influence the election. It could indicate they intend to charge Mr. Trump when he leaves office. “It’s a big deal, as they think there is evidence that puts him in the middle of it,” said Ms. Rodgers, who now teaches at Columbia University’s law school.
 

The Jewish Voice—December 12, 2018
NYP’s Morgan Stanley Bombshell Roils Wall St; Frantic Search For Leaker Ongoing
“If this has occurred recurrently, it is a BIG (emphasis originally added by The Post) story because it suggests systematic favoritism,” John C. Coffee Jr., a Columbia law school professor and former member of NYSE’s legal advisory board, said to The New York Post in an interview.
 

HuffPost—December 13, 2018
Study Hopes To Help Lead-Exposed Children Before Learning Disparities Emerge
This is an important component, said health justice scholar Emily Benfer, who pointed out that the 2015 CDC report on educational interventions for lead-exposed children found that researchers had yet to study the effect that early intervention and educational supports have on lead-exposed children. … there are positive indications that early intervention will likewise make a difference for lead-exposed children, said Benfer, who is a visiting associate clinical professor of law at Columbia University Law School where she directs the health justice advocacy clinic.
 

Reason Magazine—December 13, 2018
Have Republicans Been Engaging in "Asymmetric Constitutional Hardball"?
In this essay in the Columbia Law Review, Professors Joseph Fishin and David Pozen argue that while "constitutional hardball" has generally increased, for the most part Republicans have been the aggressors and the Democrats quiescent.
 

Knowledge@Wharton—December 14, 2018

Will the Poland Climate Talks Lead to Action — or More Words? (Audio and story)
Wharton's Eric Orts, Columbia Law School's Michael Gerrard and Felix Mormann from Texas A&M University discuss the likely outcome of the COP24.
 

Harper’s Magazine—December 14, 2018
Machine Politics
As Columbia law professor Tim Wu has argued, social-media companies are enabling a new form of censorship by allowing human and robotic users to flood the inboxes of their enemies in an effort to keep them quiet, and there are little-used provisions of the First Amendment that could radically slow these processes.

Business Insider—December 14, 2018
Trump reportedly fears the prospect of impeachment, but experts aren't convinced his legal troubles have reached a 'tipping point' yet
Columbia University Law School professor and impeachment expert Philip Bobbitt told the Washington Post on Wednesday that impeachment would be justified not just by one individual offense, but "some sort of systematic campaign of disinformation on a large scale ... those things would call the election into question."
 

Prospect Magazine—December 14, 2018
Why it’s not as simple as “breaking up big tech”
In the past year, interest has grown in the idea that the giants of Silicon Valley have morphed into monopolies. Tim Wu of Columbia Law School argues they should be broken up. … More recently, however, Lina M Khan, an expert in competition law, has argued that the big tech companies have created conflicts of interest by using their dominant platforms to promote their own services.
[Note: Lina Khan is an academic fellow at the Law School.]

NBC News—December 15, 2018
Author of Ohio's strict abortion bill believes Supreme Court will welcome it 'with open arms'
Carol Sanger, a law professor at Columbia University and the author of "About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy in 21st Century America," said states have tried repeatedly to pass legislation that they see as having a chance at overturning Roe v. Wade. "It's like a badge of honor," she said. "They're passing legislation that is clearly unconstitutional."
[Note: This article appeared in numerous outlets nationwide.]
 

New Hampshire Union Leader—December 15, 2018
Sununu, inner circle received thousands from lobbyist-funded nonprofit “On the tax side, it seems a little questionable in that the purpose of the 501c(4) — a charitable organization that’s supposed to be performing a social welfare function — is not supposed to be channeling funds to the people who run it,” said Richard Briffault, a government ethics and corruption expert at Columbia Law School.

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