Faculty in the News

Columbia Law School Clip Report, March 1–31, 2018

Scarlateen—February 28, 2018
Teen Access to Abortion: An Interview with Carol Sanger
“As a Family Law teacher, I began to notice pretty early on that one particular category of family members — teenagers — seemed to get the short end of the stick in terms of their rights and their position within our legal system.”

The Nation—March 1, 2018
The Cruel and Unusual Punishment of Doyle Lee Hamm
According to Hamm’s attorney, Bernard Harcourt, the two-person execution team stuck needles in Hamm’s legs half a dozen times, but were unable to locate a surface-level vein. They then moved on to Hamm’s groin, which they stabbed another half-dozen times.

Newsweek—March 1, 2018
HUD Accused of Systematically Removing LGBT People From Homeless and Housing Decisions: Lawsuit
“The LGBT training information removal is happening in this larger context,” Maria Foscarinis, the founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, told Newsweek. “We have to see what, if any rationale there is to this. That's what the FOIA requests were trying to get at.”
[Note: Foscarinis is a lecturer-in-law and alumna.]

Vox—March 1, 2018
Trump has done nothing to stop Russia from meddling in the 2018 midterms
“Neither President Obama nor the congressional leadership did enough to combat this threat before the 2016 election, but that doesn’t absolve President Trump now,” Matthew Waxman, a former senior official in the George W. Bush administration, told me. “The measures taken to date fall far short of what’s needed to deal with this threat.”                    

Climate Liability News—March 1, 2018
San Francisco, Oakland Climate Cases to Stay in Federal Court, Judge Rules
According to Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, this is a notable decision. “This decision holds that there is a federal common law public nuisance claim that applies to these lawsuits, and that that claim has not been displaced by the Clean Air Act, or by the Supreme Court’s earlier climate change decisions,” he said.

The Hill—March 2, 2018
Stock market gyrations a reminder Wall Street banks need regulation
By Jeffrey Gordon
“The recent stock market gyrations should remind us that when seemingly placid markets correct, the downdraft can be powerful, and that placidity can rapidly transform into turbulence. This reminder is an important corrective to the rush to weaken the reforms that protect financial stability not yet 10 years after the financial crisis.”

The Hill—March 2, 2018
Senate's banking regulation reform bill needs just one small tweak=
By Kathryn Judge
“The OFR paper reveals that there is ongoing disagreement about how best to assess a bank’s systemic significance and, apart from the biggest banks, it can be hard to determine which banks pose the greatest systemic threat.”

WCNY—March 2, 2018
Percoco’s Defense Rests (Video)
Jennifer Rodgers, Executive Director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Advancement of Public Integrity, is here with an explanation of the trial’s next steps and a deep analysis of Albany’s sub-culture.

The Globe and Mail—March 2, 2018
The danger of using data to prevent crimes before they occur
By Tim Wu
“When we have so much data about everything and everyone, if we can predict Tuesday's traffic and next week's hurricane, surely we should be able to prevent far more violence. Shouldn't we be using all technological means possible to stop crime before it occurs?”

Law 360—March 2, 2018
NFL, Class Attys Hash Out Concussion Deal's Pros And Cons
Speaking at a conference on class action jurisprudence at Columbia Law School, National Football League attorney Brad Karp of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP said that Judge Brody’s handling of the case, which started as a consolidated mass tort, was crucial to achieving the settlement.

The Intercept—March 3, 2018
Another Failed Execution: the Torture of Doyle Lee Hamm
Bernard Harcourt, Doyle Hamm’s longtime attorney and a Columbia University law professor, knew better than to be optimistic. Still, “there were moments when I thought that the courts would actually stop the execution,” he said.

BBC—March 3, 2018
Five reasons why trade wars aren't easy to win
Moreover, WTO judges may be hesitant to second-guess the rarely used “national security” rationale the US has used to justify the tariffs, says Columbia Law professor Petros Mavroidis. Those factors make unilateral retaliatory tariffs more likely, he says.

New York Law Journal—March 4, 2018
Weinstein Co. Asset Sale Averts Bankruptcy, but Clouds Remain Over Its Future
“The last thing they wanted were buyers getting scared off and leaving town,” said Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School who specializes in corporate governance and finance.

NBC—March 5, 2018
Critics tap decades-old law to stall Trump bid to undo Obama regulations
“One reason that advocates turn to the Administrative Procedure Act is that when the violations are clear, it seems like a pretty easy way to overturn actions, without having to involve policy,” said Gillian Metzger, a law professor at Columbia University.

Salon—March 5, 2018
Should the president have sole authority to launch a nuclear attack?
A few days after Corker’s hearing, Columbia University professors Richard K. Betts and Matthew Waxman published a proposal to constrain the president’s sole authority. They suggest a protocol requiring the secretary of defense and the attorney general to certify the validity and legality of a presidential first-use order.

NBC—March 5, 2018
Doyle Lee Hamm wished for death during botched execution, report says
Hamm's attorney, Bernard Harcourt, said the procedure amounted to torture, with an intravenous team repeatedly puncturing his legs before another medical worker tried to put a central line in through his groin. 

Vox—March 6, 2018
Trump may finally punish Russia for meddling in the election
But none of that appears to matter to Trump. “Trump is more concerned with deflecting the issue politically,” Matthew Waxman, a former senior official in the George W. Bush administration, told me on March 1.

SCOTUSblog—March 6, 2018
Opinion analysis: Justices approve deferential review of bankruptcy-court determinations on “insider” status
By Ronald Mann
“In all likelihood, this morning’s decision in U.S. Bank N.A. v. Village at Lakeridge will turn out to make the smallest change in the law of any opinion the Supreme Court hands down this year.”

Los Angeles Times—March 6, 2018
Joshua Tree couple are released from jail but still face child abuse charges
Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in Washington, D.C., said she read about the case and found it similar to many others. “Of course children should not be living in a shack and they should not be living in these conditions,” she said. “The question is what is the solution? Taking the children away is often not the best solution.”

McClatchy DC Bureau—March 7, 2018
Federal court will hold first-ever hearing on climate change science
“This will be the closest that we have seen to a trial on climate science in the United States, to date,” said Michael Burger, a lawyer who heads the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

Law.com—March 8, 2018
Columbia Ranks No. 1 as Go-To Law Schools Enjoyed Strong Recruiting Cycle
Columbia Law School has proven—yet again—that it’s a fertile ground for large firms looking to hire their next generation of legal talent. More than two-thirds of the Manhattan school’s 2017 graduates, 68 percent, are now working as associates at the country’s biggest law firms…“The firms’ hiring teams know that our students will arrive with superb legal and leadership skills, ready to take on the most challenging assignments,” said Columbia law dean Gillian Lester.

Bloomberg—March 8, 2018
Haley Buffeted by Russian Headwinds at UN on Middle East
So while the Cold War is over, it’s increasingly clear that the two countries will cooperate only minimally on issues including sanctions against North Korea and some peacekeeping operations in Africa, said Michael Doyle, a professor at Columbia University and a former UN assistant secretary-general.

The Wall Street Journal—March 8, 2018
The Raid on AIG’s Equity Was Illegal
By Philip Hamburger
“The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to take up an important property-rights case, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.”

Knowledge at Wharton, SiriusXM Business Radio—March 8, 2018
Kathryn Judge on Congressional moves to weaken Dodd Frank (Audio)
“I think part of what’s key is understanding not only what is happening in this bill, but all of the other things that we would have thought would be on the table if we had Republicans controlling both houses and the White House that are not in this bill.”

New York Law Journal—March 8, 2018
Patterns of Climate Change Litigation During Trump Era
By Michael B. Gerrard and Edward McTiernan
“Under Barack Obama, climate litigation was mostly industry and red states seeking to block regulations. And now under Donald Trump, it is largely about environmental groups and blue states trying to preserve the rules adopted under President Obama, and to seek novel remedies to get around federal hostility to action on climate change.”

National Constitution Center—March 8, 2018
Podcast: Workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation (Audio)
Joining us on this podcast are two experts with different takes on this question. Suzanne Goldberg is Herbert and Doris Wechsler Clinical Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where she also directs the Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law and its Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic. 

ABA Journal—March 9, 2018
Columbia again tops list of go-to law schools
Columbia remains at the top of a list of go-to law school for the fifth year in a row. Columbia’s BigLaw placement rate for 2017 graduates was eight percentage points higher than the University of Chicago Law School, which ranked second, Law.com reports.
[Note: there were a number of other articles about the National Law Journal’s 2018 “Go-To Law Schools” report.]

The Guardian—March 9, 2018
Martin Shkreli pays price for arrogance – and ‘egregious multitude of lies’
John Coffee of Columbia law school said Shkreli’s crimes were similar to insider trading, and the longest sentence handed out in such a case is the 11 years given to the hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. Rajaratnam was convicted of trading on illegal tips in the biggest such case brought in decades. That case was “longer-term, more egregious and absolutely predatory”, said Coffee.

CBS—March 9, 2018
I was Martin Shkreli’s prison pen pal
Before the sentencing, Columbia Law Professor John Coffee told CBS News that Shkreli's “arrogance” could “cost him dearly.” However, “I don't think she (the judge) would ever consider a 20-year sentence to a first offender.”

Bloomberg—March 9, 2018
Big Law Still Loves Columbia Grads
Columbia Law School remains a darling of Big Law. According to the American Lawyer’s “Go-To Law Schools Report,” the school sent 68 percent of its 2017 graduating class to first-year associate jobs at the 100 largest firms in the United States, more than any of its competitors.

The Irish Times—March 9, 2018
Attempts to misrepresent disabled in abortion debate, expert says
“People may change their mind in 20 years, but it is really wonderful that the issue is going to be decided by way of referendum in Ireland,” Prof Carol Sanger of Columbia University told a seminar hosted by the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway (NUIG) on Friday.

CBS—March 10, 2018
CBS Weekend News
Jamal Greene is a constitutional law professor at Columbia University. “The states and the federal government distinguish between 21-year-olds and 20-year-olds for drinking, for example. This is not out of the ordinary.”

CNN—March 12, 2018
What is the WTO, and how does it work? Here's what you should know
Petros Mavroidis, who specializes in WTO law at Columbia Law School, said he believes it would be difficult for a panel of judges to question how a country interprets its own national security interests. “My view is that they will have a very hard time second guessing the US,” he said.

Washington Examiner—March 12, 2018
Democratic PAC urges FEC to investigate Stormy Daniels payment in complaint
Richard Briffault, professor of election law at Columbia University, said the Democratic group’s complaint is “legitimate.” If it can be shown that Cohen intended to aid Trump’s election by “removing a possible election issue” then it would be a violation of federal law, said Briffault.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education—March 13, 2018
Columbia Law Students Ready for Public Service Fellowships
Two Columbia Law School students focusing on distinct areas of public service will soon embark on legal careers serving their local and international communities. After graduating this May, Yasmin Dagne and José Miranda will participate in the Leonard H. Sandler Fellowship at the Humans Rights Watch (HRW) and the Immigrant Justice Corps Fellowship at Catholic Migration Services, respectively. Both students are among a group of seven Columbia law students selected for prestigious public law fellowships.

Los Angeles Times—March 13, 2018
Insurers are backing fossil fuel companies and then charging you for climate change risks
Michael Gerrard, of Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, points out that these companies have yet to pay a penny arising from litigation claiming climate change damage, but eight new lawsuits⁠ filed recently could change that.

CNN—March 13, 2018
Lawsuit claims Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ was ‘manipulated’
John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia University, predicts an uphill battle for the plaintiffs. He said it’s “almost impossible” to prove intentional market manipulation in private lawsuits under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Bloomberg—March 13, 2018
PA Special Election Previews November Midterms (Audio)
Plus, Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School, discusses the special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional district, which pits Republican Rick Saccone against up-and-coming Democrat Conor Lamb, who has the chance to retake what was once a solidly republican district.

Bloomberg—March 14, 2018
NFL Class Action As Model for Future Mass Torts
“It has proven itself as a viable mechanism for the settlement itself and it has served to legitimize a renewed look at the class action for other major resolutions of mass cases.” The attorneys spoke March 2 at a class action conference at Columbia University Law School in New York.

The Portland Mercury—March 14, 2018
City Commissioners Now Directly Control Portland's Election Finance System
Richard Briffault, a campaign finance expert and law professor at Columbia University, echoed Saltzman's concerns about a possible conflict of interest. He says the system would be improved if Portland created a citizen commission to run the program–as opposed to one that offers advice.           

New York Law Journal—March 14, 2018
What’s Really Happening in Securities Litigation? A Tale of Two Bars
By John C. Coffee Jr.
“Once upon a time, courts might wink and nod at ‘merger objection’ cases and cooperate in their settlement. But with these cases now approaching 50 percent of all securities class actions, this ‘business-as-usual’ approach cannot (and should not) continue.”

The New York Times—March 15, 2018
One Thing Donald Trump Would Like Is Freedom From the Press
In “Asymmetric Constitutional Hardball,” Joseph Fishkin and David E. Pozen, law professors at the University of Texas and Columbia, write: “For a quarter of a century, Republican officials have been more willing than Democratic officials to play constitutional hardball — not only or primarily on judicial nominations but across a range of spheres.”

The New York Review of Books—March 15, 2018
Disarming the Weapons of Mass Distraction
Even those spare moments of time in our day—waiting for a bus, standing in a queue at the supermarket—can now be “harvested,” says the writer Tim Wu in his book The Attention Merchants. In this quest to pursue “those slivers of our unharvested awareness,” digital technology has provided consumer capitalism with its most powerful tools yet.

CNN Wire—March 16, 2018
10 years after the financial crisis, have we learned anything?
In combination with weaker tools to address financial failures when they occur, Columbia Law professor Kathryn Judge worries that these industry-friendly regulators again won’t take action when they need to. “There’s been a shift from safety to growth,” Judge says.

The Washington Post—March 16,2018
When counterinsurgency tactics move from the battlefield to the home front
What does Pokémon Go have in common with CIA waterboarding, police abuses in Ferguson, Mo., NSA surveillance or President Trump’s proposed border wall? If you’re tempted to say, “Nothing,” consider reading Bernard Harcourt’s new book, “The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens.”

Illinois Public Media’s “The 21st”—March 16, 2018
How Parking Ticket Debt Punishes Black Drivers In Chicago (Audio)
ProPublica's Melissa Sanchez joined us to talk about her findings. We also spoke with University law professor & economist Edward R. Morrison, who has studied the ties between ticket debt and bankruptcy in Chicago, along with Laqueanda Reneau.
[Note: Professor Morrison’s article on ties between ticket debt and bankruptcy in Chicago was featured in a Feb. 27 ProPublica story.] 

MSNBC—March 16, 2018
Stormy Daniels’ attorney: Daniels was physically threatened (Video)
White House Communications Director For President Obama Jennifer Palmieri, Republican Strategist Noelle Nikpour, and Executive Director [sic] at Columbia Law School Jennifer Rodgers react to the developments.

The Washington Post—March 16, 2018
H&M’s battle with the artist Revok shows how street art is being taken seriously
The debate over street artists’ copyright privileges has entered courtrooms quite a bit over the past few years, according to Philippa Loengard, deputy director of Columbia Law School’s Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts.

Financial Advisor IQ—March 16, 2018
Appeals Court Throws Out the DOL's Fiduciary Rule
Jeffrey Gordon, a professor at Columbia Law School in New York, who writes extensively about the regulation of financial institutions, forecasts no objections to the Fifth Circuit panel’s majority ruling by the Trump Administration. “I think the Trump administration will not appeal this ruling,” Gordon tells FA-IQ.

Daily Times—March 16, 2018
The evolution and regression of a state
Philip Bobbitt’s outstanding work The Shield of Achilles sees the state as primarily a military construct (I did not say ‘militarily ruled’, please note). Bobbitt’s work describes the interplay, over the last six centuries, of war, jurisprudence and the reshaping of states.

Barron’s—March 17, 2018
The SEC’s Warning to Unicorns
To protect investors, Theranos’ board should have been watching more closely, contends Columbia Law School professor John Coffee Jr. “Too many celebrities, and not enough workaholics,” he says.

Financial Advisor IQ—March 19, 2018
With the DOL Pushed Back, Spotlight Shifts to an Uncertain SEC
Jeff Gordon, a professor at Columbia Law School, says that in the face of increasingly sophisticated and cost-conscious clients, “many firms have already adopted a fiduciary standard in part because they think that a fee-for-advice model may work better than extracting commissions or loads on the sale of products.”

San Francisco Chronicle—March 19, 2018
Big oil faces big test in climate-change court showdown with SF, Oakland
“We haven’t yet had a situation where the fossil-fuel companies have been hauled into court and put on the record in the way this is happening,” said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. “This could be historically significant.”

SCOTUSblog—March 19, 2018
Argument preview: Justices to consider yet another twist on tolling statutes of limitation for class-action filers
By Ronald Mann
“As the melting snow reveals the first buds of spring, the justices turn again to a subject perhaps all too familiar to them – statutes of limitation in class actions.”

The Washington Post—March 19, 2018
The Health 202: Trump will propose executing drug dealers. But only in some already legal cases.
Columbia University law professor Jeffrey Fagan also said he sees no scientific evidence that executing drug dealers deters dealing or drug use. “It’s not a smart policy, even if it has some emotional appeal,” Fagan told me.

The Washington Post—March 20, 2018
The Health 202: Trump talked tough on drugs. But applying the death penalty to traffickers is even tougher.
For example, DOJ could try to reinterpret the statute to include distributing drugs with the intent to kill the user or argue that major drug dealers are liable for any deaths that occur when someone uses a drug sold by them, Columbia law professor Jeffrey Fagan told me.

New York Daily News—March 20, 2018
Why should we keep murderers in prison until they die? Parole makes moral sense, even for cop-killers
By Bernard E. Harcourt and Bruce Western
“By following its rules in this most difficult of cases, the parole board has taken one step towards an important new principle of justice and has chosen a vision of re-integration and inclusion over lifelong exclusion and incarceration.”

ABA Journal—March 21, 2018
Prosecutors can seek death penalty for drug kingpins, Sessions says in directive
But Columbia University law professor Jeffrey Fagan notes that nearly all of the statutes in Sessions’ memo refer to murders by drug kingpins in the course of pursuing their criminal enterprise. “If you follow the trail of statutes in that memo, they still all lead back to death penalty eligibility only for an underlying murder,” he tells the ABA Journal in an email.

PBS Newshour—March 21, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg promises change, but Facebook has failed to follow through in the past (Video)
Tim Wu of Columbia Law School joins us for reaction now. He writes extensively about the Web, privacy, data collection. He’s the author of “The Attention Merchants.”

CNN—March 22, 2018
The peril lurking in Trump’s deepening legal mire

“As a civil matter, who cares, he can sue and be sued, he has gone through it a million times before,” Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin on Wednesday. “But when it turns over into a potential criminal matter like when he testifies, that is of course when he and his presidency get into great trouble.”

The New York Times—March 22, 2018
Shkreli vs. Holmes: 2 Frauds, 2 Divergent Outcomes. Were They Fair?
John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School who teaches classes on white-collar crime, agreed that “it appears a lot of people were defrauded.” But he said he would not be surprised to see a plea bargain or even a deferred prosecution agreement, in which Ms. Holmes could avoid a prison term, especially if she cooperates with prosecutors.

The New York Times—March 22, 2018
If You Love High TV Bills, This Is the Merger for You
By Tim Wu
“Their planned merger would create a union of pipes (AT&T) and content (Time Warner) that would be the largest such company in the world.”

Lawfare—March 23, 2018
The John Bolton I Knew
By Matthew Waxman
“Most of the commentary about John Bolton's appointment as national security adviser has focused on his extreme policy views, especially with regard to military strikes against North Korea and Iran. I want instead to offer here a few firsthand thoughts about his formidable skills—which are what make him so dangerous.”
Note: This article was quoted in The Atlantic and Vox.

CBS—March 23, 2018
Asia reacts to Trump’s pick of hard-liner John Bolton
“Many commentators have been focused on the likely Bolton-Mattis tension, but keep your eye on the Bolton-Haley relationship, since he once held that ambassadorship to the U.N.,” Matthew Waxman, Liviu Librescu Professor at Columbia Law School, who worked with Bolton on George W. Bush's National Security Council staff, told CBS News.

NPR—March 23, 2018
How Incoming National Security Adviser John Bolton's Style Aligns President Trump's (Audio)
Matthew Waxman knows about that firsthand as a former official in the Bush administration. “I did see that in action. I mean, he's known as being not only a very crafty bureaucratic operator but a very aggressive one.”

BBC—March 23, 2018
Is John Bolton a threat to global security? (Audio)
Matthew Waxman, a professor of law at Columbia University in New York, knows Mr Bolton, and explains why many regard him as a dangerous man.

The Times of India—March 23, 2018
Convenience vs freedom: Facebook-Cambridge Analytica debacle shows how social media companies imperil democracy
By Eben Moglen and Mishi Choudhary
“This convenience ensures that a form of inhuman social control, antithetical to the ideals of individual human rights and democratic social self-governance gets established.”

The New York Times—March 25, 2018
In Gun Control Marches, Students Led but Adults Provided Key Resources
In New York, a Facebook group, envisioned to coordinate the efforts of about 30 friends and classmates to attend a march, swelled into the planning apparatus for the city’s major event. The group’s creator, Alex Clavering, a Columbia Law School student, was quickly regarded as the official organizer.
[Note: Alex Clavering ’20,  Ankit Jain ’19, Olivia Shihn-Au Li ’19, and Julia Ghahramani ’20 played a central role in organizing the NYC March for Our Lives and they were interviewed and cited in a number of media outlets, including NY1.]

Law.com—March 26, 2018
Want a Job in Big Law? Go to School in New York
The state had three schools in the top 10: Columbia Law School ranked first, New York University School of Law third and Cornell Law School ninth… “I’m proud that Columbia Law School graduates continue to be sought after by the nation’s most prestigious law firms,” Dean Gillian Lester said. “The firms’ hiring teams know that our students will arrive with superb legal and leadership skills, ready to take on the most challenging assignments.”

American Libraries—March 26, 2018
A Free and Public-Serving Internet
Author, policy advocate, opinion writer, and inventor of the term net neutrality Tim Wu said his “love affair with public libraries” started in childhood.

Jezebel—March 26, 2018
The New York Human Rights Commision is Investigating The Wing
“Public accommodation laws were designed to prevent places of business from excluding people based on race and other aspects of identity,” said Suzanne Goldberg, a professor of law at Columbia University.

Law.com—March 27, 2018
Are the Top Go-To Law Schools Preparing Tomorrow’s General Counsel?
Corporate Counsel asked the top five schools on this year's list how they are getting students prepped to be in-house counsel … But Columbia Law isn’t just firm focused. In addition to bringing legal department speakers to campus, the school offers several courses and seminars directly aimed at cultivating in-house skills that are taught by big name GCs … Marta Ricardo, assistant dean and dean of career services at Columbia, says the school seeks to show students there isn’t necessarily a “linear path” in the profession anymore and that in-house practice is a real option, even early on in careers, especially when it comes to startups.

The Washington Post—March 27, 2018
State Department braces for Bolton’s return
“He’ll work to put loyalists in key vantage points and marginalize those he distrusts,” Matthew Waxman, a former colleague of Bolton’s in the George W. Bush administration, wrote in a recent Lawfare column.

NPR—March 27, 2018
Facebook Previously Failed To Keep Privacy Promises, Ex-FTC Adviser Says (Audio)
Noel King talks to Tim Wu, who was a senior advisor at the Federal Trade Commission in 2011, when the agency settled with Facebook for failing to protect user privacy.

U.S. News & World Report—March 27, 2018
Alabama Settles With Inmate After Botched Execution Attempt
Hamm's lawsuit had sought to remove him from death row and said another attempt to execute him would be unlawful. Columbia Law School Professor Bernard Harcourt, a lawyer for Hamm, would not comment on details of the agreement.

NBC—March 27, 2018
Alabama man who survived botched execution will not face another
After that prediction proved true, [Bernard] Harcourt and the state began confidential negotiations. The result is that the state won't set another execution date and Hamm will drop his legal challenges. Alabama now avoids the possibility of a gory replay of the Feb. 22 attempt and Doyle never has to return to the death chamber.

Courthouse News—March 27, 2018
Maryland Gerrymander Case Offers Unique Test to High Court    
Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School, said the single district challenge gives the court a second option for justifying its involvement in partisan gerrymandering cases. “They’re able to actually point to an oddity in the way in which the district lines were drawn and then there are smoking gun statements about why it was done that way.”

The New York Times—March 27, 2018
Former Brooklyn District Attorney Settles Dispute With Conflict Board
In his agreement with the board, which was signed by its chairman, Richard Briffault, Mr. Hynes admitted that he had violated the City Charter by using his official email to ask for endorsements, send campaign documents, prepare for candidate debates and communicate about fund-raising matters.

Politico—March 28, 2018
John Bolton's knife-fighting skills alarm his critics
“This was an issue he owned and really drove U.S. policy on, and not just in a hawkishly blunt way but in a really sophisticated way,” said Matthew Waxman, chairman of the national security law program at Columbia University and a State Department and NSC veteran.

Jalopnik—March 29, 2018
The Devastating Loophole That Sticks Car Buyers With Interest Rates That Would Be Otherwise Illegal
“You’ll tell people you can’t borrow the money, and can’t have a car,” said Ronald Mann, law professor at the Columbia Law School. There’s a more obvious issue, he added.

AP—March 29, 2018
Can a club for women legally exclude men? NYC launches probe
Suzanne Goldberg, a Columbia University law professor and an expert on gender and sexuality law, said anti-discrimination laws protect men and well as women. “Anti-discrimination laws don’t only protect groups that have experienced histories of discrimination,” Goldberg said.

Bloomberg—March 29, 2018
Trump Embraces ‘Constitutional Hardball’
The Trump administration's move is best seen as another example of the Republican party playing “constitutional hardball,” defined by law professors Joseph Fishkin and David Pozen as a "political maneuver" that "violates or strains constitutional conventions for partisan ends."

Publishers Weekly—March 30, 2018
Tim Wu: Net Neutrality 'As Important, If Not More Important, than the First Amendment'                  
At the Public Library Association Conference, which closed last weekend, author and net neutrality pioneer Tim Wu spoke about our fraying media and information ecosystem, including abuses by Facebook and Google, and the repeal of net neutrality.

InsideClimate News—March 30, 2018
California Bans Climate-Warming HFCs in New Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
Michael Gerrard, the director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said the effort to keep HFCs out of new products may spread beyond California, too. "California's adoption of its own HFCs standards may well inspire other states to do the same, especially since there are readily available substitutes," he said.

WDET—March 30, 2018
Second Amendment: A Fundamental Freedom or Time for Repeal? (Audio)
Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson speaks with Jamal Greene, a professor of law at Columbia Law School. Greene clerked for Justice Stevens during his career in the Supreme Court.

NPR—March 30, 2018
‘Times’ Column Is Slammed For Its Portrayal of Central African Republic
Instead, it drew fury on social media this week for its portrayal of CAR and the sources interviewed. Sarah Knuckey, a professor at Columbia University’s law school and the co-director of the university’s Human Rights Institute, called it “shallow” and “reckless” in its reporting.

Vanity Fair—March 30, 2018
“Acerbic, Condescending, Gruff, Demeaning”: Will John Bolton Become Trump’s Warmonger Rasputin, or Just His Next Mooch?
“It probably will be playing a much stronger role than it has under McMaster, who didn’t have great rapport with the president, or [Mike] Flynn, who flamed out immediately,” Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University professor who held various positions in the Bush administration, said.

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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.