Faculty in the News

Wellesley Review of Books—February 1, 2018
Property or Spouse?
By Katherine Franke                      
“Historian Tera Hunter’s new book, Bound in Wedlock, shows how the dehumanization of enslaved people in the United States was normalized through the institution of marriage. Bound in Wedlock is a detailed, careful, and comprehensive mapping of the role of marriage in the enslavement and emancipation of black people in the US in the nineteenth century.”

U.S. News & World Report—February 7, 2018
Democrat Conference Features No Women Keynotes
“Keynoting is symbolically important as well as substantively important,” says Kimberlé Crenshaw, a professor of law at Columbia University and UCLA and the co-founder of the African American Policy Forum. “Not taking them for granted means we can't be satisfied with just a tweet. It means it's going to trickle down to the rest of the party structure.”

Wall Street Journal—February 10, 2018
Wynn Resorts Board Cancels Outside Investigation of Steve Wynn’s Conduct
John C. Coffee Jr., a Columbia Law School professor and the director of its Center on Corporate Governance, said the board’s decision to cut ties with the outside counsel is “a strong signal that not much has changed in the culture of the board.”

Los Angeles Times—February 14, 2018
Frustrated judge demands O.C. find shelter for homeless being evicted from camps
‘Taking away the only shelter homeless people have is not only cruel, it's ineffective in solving homelessness,’ said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, one of the advocacy groups that filed friend of the court briefs in the case.
Note: Foscarnis ’81 is an adjunct faculty member who teaches Law and Policy of Homeless. She was also quoted about this case in Newsweek on Feb. 26.

The Daily Pennsylvanian—February 15, 2018
Jeb Bush at Penn's Silfen Forum: D.C. lawmakers are ‘complicating immigration policy’
Other panelists include professor and Director of Columbia University’s Global Policy Initiative Michael Doyle, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration.

iPolitics—February 15, 2018
‘Time has come’ to enshrine net neutrality in law, Tim Wu tells MPs
Columbia University law professor Tim Wu told the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics that he believes “the time has come” to establish net neutrality provisions in legislation, in part because of what’s happening south of the border.
Note: This is a committee of the House of Commons of Canada.

The Weekly Standard—February 15, 2018
What Was the Point of the 5Pointz Millions?
Intellectual property lawyer and Columbia law professor Philippa Loengard wouldn’t weigh on the lost spontaneity of corporate-sponsored street art. But she did say the decision would direct landlords toward extra-cautious dealings with these artists. “You would need to get them to sign away [their VARA rights], and that's a shame,” she said.
Note: Loengard is a lecturer-in-law. We asked for a correction.

The New York Times—February 16, 2018
The Tyranny of Convenience
By Tim Wu
“We must never forget the joy of doing something slow and something difficult, the satisfaction of not doing what is easiest.”

The New York Times—February 16, 2018
Awaken, Poland, Before It’s Too Late
“We are witnessing a slow but insistent and intentional process of undermining the courts so that they will not enforce the Constitution against the executive and the legislature,” Sarah Cleveland, the American member of the Venice Commission and a law professor at Columbia University, told me.

Axios—February 16, 2018
Trump's courtroom battles over global warming
A newly published paper from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law looks carefully at the 82 legal battles over climate change that got underway during President Trump's first year.

The Irish Times—February 19, 2018
In Trump’s America, abortion is as contentious as ever
“Abortion remains a live political issue in the United States,” says Suzanne Goldberg, clinical professor of law at Columbia Law School and director of the Centre for Gender and Sexuality Law.

Law and Disorder Radio—February 19, 2018
Bearing Faith: The Limits of Catholic Health Care for Women of Color (Audio)
A just released report titled Bearing Faith: The Limits of Catholic Health Care for Women of Color by the Columbia Law School’s Public Rights/Private Conscience Project in partnership with Public Health Solutions shows that in many states women of color are far more likely than white women to give birth at Catholic hospitals.

The Verge—February 20, 2018
If climate change wrecks your city, can it sue Exxon?
The new lawsuits from Santa Cruz, New York, and elsewhere may fare better, according to Michael Burger, the executive director of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. They’re being brought under state law, not federal, which gives them a better chance of surviving similar motions to dismiss.

Vice—February 21, 2018
Dying on death row: Alabama may execute a man who is dying of cancer
“What they’re doing is a delicate balance of keeping him alive just long enough that they can be the ones who execute him, and that he doesn’t die of natural causes,” Bernard E. Harcourt, a Columbia Law School professor who has been representing Hamm pro-bono since the early '90s, told VICE News.
Note: See special section* on additional Doyle Lee Hamm coverage following the main report.

Chicago Tribune—February 21, 2018
Under pressure by judges, prosecutors to offer plea deals in controversial drug stash house cases
National policing expert Jeffrey Fagan testified for the defendants that when he analyzed 94 defendants in 24 separate stings conducted between 2006 and 2013, he found that 74 of the defendants were black and only a handful were white — a disparity so large that there was “a zero percent likelihood” it happened by chance.

Governing—February 22, 2018
Public Corruption Cases Are Harder to Prove Than Ever
“What we're going to see over the next few years is the extent to which it's going to remain after McDonnell,” says Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor. “Whether it does or not will make a big difference in how we assess McDonnell's effects.”

CNN—February 22, 2018
The fight for Sharpie and Yankee Candle
Franklin and two other former Jarden executives are now teaming up with Starboard Value, an activist hedge fund that owns 4% of Newell. They want to overthrow the board. “This is a man-bites-dog story,” said John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School who studies corporate governance.

Mashable—February 25, 2018
On Standby: When you leave the Marshall Islands, you buy a one-way ticket
“They did virtually nothing to contribute to the greenhouse gas problem,” says Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, “but they are on the frontlines of suffering as a result of it.”

Business Insider—February 25, 2018
New York is quietly working to prevent a major cyber attack that could bring down the financial system
“Banks are especially vulnerable,” Matthew Waxman, a professor and the co-chair at Columbia University's Cybersecurity Center, told Business Insider. “Disruption to the information systems on which banks rely could have shockwaves throughout the financial system, undermining public confidence in banking or knocking off line the ability to engage in commercial transactions.”

ThinkProgress.org—February 26, 2018
Fossil fuel industry is working to mislead the public about climate lawsuits
Michael Burger, executive director of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, says that, legally speaking, Exxon’s claims of a conspiracy or violation of its First Amendment rights are “nonsense.”

CNBC—February 26, 2017
Big ‘loss’ for Martin Shkreli: Judge's ruling means ‘pharma bro’ could get decade or more in prison
John Coffee, director of the Center on Corporate Governance at Columbia University Law School, told CNBC, “Under the Sentencing Guidelines, the gain or loss from the offense is a principal factor in determining the sentence.”     

Forbes–February 27, 2018
Law Of Copyright Reinterpretation Project Steers American Law Institute Further Off Course
In another comment to the ALI Council, Columbia Law Professor (and ALI copyright-project adviser) Jane Ginsburg and four other advisers provided specific examples of the Restatement draft's paraphrased “black letter” materially departing from the Copyright Act.

New York Law Journal—February 27, 2018
Columbia Law School Alumni Honored
Columbia Law School Dean Gillian Lester presents the Medal for Excellence award to two distinguished alumni, Judge Gerard E. Lunch, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; and Stephen Friedman, chairman of Stone Point Capital, at a Feb. 23 luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street.

Mother Jones—February 27, 2018
How Does Chicago Make $200 Million A Year On Parking Tickets? By Bankrupting Thousands of Drivers.
Edward Morrison, a law professor and economist at Columbia Law School who has studied the ties between ticket debt and bankruptcy in Chicago, said low-income, African American households are more affected by ticket debt because they have less money to pay tickets even before debt mounts.

The Nation—February 28, 2018
The Counterrevolution: Governing Our New Internal Enemies
By Bernard Harcourt
“Increasingly, our government is turning its own citizens and residents into an internal enemy. A new way of thinking is taking hold. A new way of governing.”

SCOTUS Blog–February 28, 2018
Opinion analysis: Sharply divided court narrowly approves Congress’ power to resolve pending litigation
By Ronald Mann
“Patchak v. Zinke did not get a lot of attention before the oral argument, and it probably won’t be splashed across the national media after the decision Tuesday morning. Yet it may have more staying power than many of the court’s more publicized decisions.”

# # #

This report shares mentions of Law School faculty cited in print, broadcast, and online news outlets. It is not intended to be inclusive of every media mention.