Faculty in the News

The Washington Times—May 31, 2018
‘Unfairly treated’: Trump delivers own brand of presidential mercy with power of pardon
Jamal Greene, a constitutional scholar at Columbia Law School, said the president’s power to pardon is broad but not absolute. “If a president were to issue pardons corruptly — for example, to help insulate himself from criminal process or to punish his political enemies — I think Congress would be entitled to think of it as an abuse of office,” he said.

Law.com—June 1, 2018
2018 Kathryn A. McDonald Awards
The New York City Bar Association presented this year’s Kathryn A. McDonald Awards for excellence in service to the Family Court during a well attended reception at the City Bar on Wednesday. Pictured above are…Clinical Professor of Law at Columbia Law School Jane Spinak…and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, who presented the awards.

India Today—June 1, 2018
In poor health
Should India invest in social infrastructure to boost productivity and consequently growth? Or should it focus only on growth to yield resources needed for social sector schemes? That fierce debate between two of India's finest economists, Amartya Sen and Jagdish Bhagwati, preceded the coming of the Narendra Modi regime.

Haaretz—June 2, 2018
Tamika Mallory on Israel: You Needed a Place, Cool, but Don’t Throw the Natives Out
The delegation made headlines when two of its members, Katherine Franke and Vincent Warren, were detained at Ben-Gurion International Airport for 14 hours upon arrival. After being questioned, they were refused entry to Israel and flown back to New York the following day.

CNN—June 4, 2018
Facebook faces new regulatory backlash over data privacy
“Facebook's DNA is unchangeable: their basic idea is to amass as much data as possible, and press the limits on sharing it,” Tim Wu, a professor of antitrust law at Columbia Law School and former senior adviser at the FTC, told CNNMoney. “Unless there is a change of leadership, I do not expect them to change.”

The Wall Street Journal—June 4, 2018
Trump Asserts ‘Absolute Right’ to Pardon Himself
“It's an abuse of the pardon power for the president to self-pardon,” said Gillian Metzger, a constitutional-law scholar at Columbia University.

CNBC—June 4, 2018
Here's what 12 experts say about whether President Trump can pardon himself
“The Constitution grants the president power to issue pardons for federal crimes,” [Jamal] Greene told CNBC. “It doesn't say he can't pardon himself, so there's an argument to be made, but I think the better view is that a ban on self-pardons is implicit.”

City & State—June 4, 2018
Can New York circumvent Trump’s pardon power?
However, Jennifer Rodgers, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School, noted to City & State that the state could only prosecute state crimes, not federal crimes. For example, if obstruction of justice charges were filed against Trump for his actions as president, for which he then pardoned himself, those would not apply in state courts.

Lawfare—June 4, 2018
A Proliferation Security Initiative for Cyber Cooperation?
By Matthew Waxman and Duncan B. Hollis
“As the United States and others look to improve international rules for combating global cyber threats—whether through interpretation of existing legal frameworks, cultivation of new norms, or creation of new treaties or international bodies—PSI’s special architecture may be adaptable to some of the more notable challenges.”

The Wall Street Journal—June 4, 2018
Treasury Works to Address Concerns Over Taxes on Overseas Earnings
Because the GILTI provision was layered on top of older tax laws, it operates like “a truck built on a car chassis,” said Michael Graetz, a Columbia Law School professor and former Treasury official who also spoke at the conference.

CGTN—June 4, 2018
Trump seeks to water down key rule of financial regulation bill
Columbia University law professor John Coffee said the changes are not worrisome if banks comply with the new rules and regulators enforce them.  “If there was strong verification. If there really is monitoring of compliance then I don’t think this will be something that opens us up to a new financial crisis,” Coffee said.

The Times of India—June 5, 2018
Trump has not done anything wrong, so no need for pardon: White House
“It's an abuse of the pardon power for the president to self-pardon. It violates constitutional prohibitions on self-dealing, and if you use the pardon power to eviscerate checks on the presidency, that's also an abuse of the pardon power,” Gillian Metzger, a constitutional-law scholar at Columbia University told the daily.

Business Standard—June 5, 2018
Attention for sale
Book review for THE ATTENTION MERCHANTS: The Epic Struggle to Get Inside Our Heads, by Tim Wu, Atlantic Books.

The New York Daily News—June 5, 2018
The promising gay-rights message in the Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling
By Suzanne Goldberg
“The Supreme Court’s decision is not about whether the baker discriminated unlawfully but instead about whether he received a fair hearing when the state’s commission decided this particular case.”

Lawfare—June 5, 2018
Helsinki in Asia: A Response to Philip Bobbitt
“Something of historic importance is happening in North Asia,” Philip Bobbitt writes. “Our present enervation, the sense of inertia in U.S. policy, arises in part because we lack the imaginative ideas commensurate with the radical change in the strategic situation.”

Radio Télévision Suisse—June 5, 2018
Bernard Harcourt explains the issues of “counter-insurgency governance” (Audio, French)
According to Bernard Harcourt, professor of law and political science at Columbia University in New York, the US government would use "counter-insurgency governance" to maintain the status quo.

Scientific American—June 5, 2018
Judge Orders EPA to Produce Science behind Pruitt’s Warming Claims
That’s good news for those fighting the administration’s regulatory rollbacks, because it would demonstrate that the scientific backing of President Obama’s climate policies is solid, said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

The New York Times—June 6, 2018
Days Before Murder Trial, Prosecutors Reveal a Missing Confession
“It’s to ensure fairness,” said Daniel C. Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School and former federal prosecutor, “but in the context of a system that is fundamentally adversarial. And it pushes prosecutors, even within an adversarial model, to realize they have an obligation to do justice.”

Take Care—June 6, 2018
Risk-Risk Tradeoffs in Presidential Impeachment
By David Pozen
“To End a Presidency is neither a user’s guide to the impeachment process nor a polemic against President Trump nor a novel reinterpretation of the Constitution, but is instead something even rarer: an exceptionally balanced, wise, and wide-ranging exploration of the dynamics that shape presidential impeachment.”

Earther—June 6, 2018
Scott Pruitt Has to Justify Lying About Climate Change on National TV
“EPA no doubt rejected this request because a full response—production of the documents supporting Pruitt’s doubts about climate change—would probably unearth little or no legitimate scientific literature, and just some coal industry talking points,” Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia, told Earther in an email.

Daily Times—June 7, 2018
Harvey Weinstein pleads ‘not guilty’
“It is hard to predict the outcome,” said Columbia University law professor Suzanne Goldberg. “Regardless of what’s happening in the #MeToo movement, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Weinstein engaged in these unlawful acts with these particular women.”

The Nation—June 8, 2018
Banned From Israel: A Q&A With Law Professor Katherine Franke
By Patricia J. Williams
“One such banning that sparked particular international concern was the detention and deportation of Columbia Law School professor Katherine Franke. I should disclose that I am also a Columbia Law professor and therefore a colleague of Franke’s. I interviewed her recently; the following is an edited transcript of the conversation.”

Al Jazeera—June 9, 2018
What does Harvey Weinstein's arrest mean for the #MeToo movement?
Suzanne Goldberg, a professor at Columbia Law School and a leading expert on gender and sexuality law, said Weinstein's arrest marks a shift in the pursuit of justice for survivors of sexual violence.

Climate Liability News—June 11, 2018
NYC Climate Case Belongs in Court, Libertarian Think Tank Argues
Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University said the outcome of the motion—like the motion to dismiss in the Oakland and San Francisco suits —will hinge on whether the court accepts or rejects the argument that climate change nuisance claims necessarily implicate emissions—and not production and marketing.

CNBC—June 12, 2018
Court to rule on AT&T and Time Warner merger today (Video)
Ethan Glass, former U.S. Justice Dept. assistant chief, and Tim Wu, Columbia law professor, discuss the possible outcomes for when a court rules on the AT&T and Time Warner merger on Tuesday.

The New York Times—June 13, 2018
AT&T-Time Warner Decision Shows Need to Rethink Antitrust Laws
“When it comes to vertical mergers like AT&T and Time Warner, antitrust law is stuck in the 1980s,” said Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School who has called for more vigorous antitrust enforcement against vertical mergers.

The New York Times Magazine—June 13, 2018
The Wounds of the Drone Warrior
But as a report published last year by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies noted, the government has failed to release basic information about civilian casualties or to explain in detail why its data veers so significantly from that of independent monitors and NGOs.

Reuters—June 13, 2018
New York Top Court Narrows Martin Act in $11B Credit Suisse Case
“This will significantly constrain the NY AG’s reach,” John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia Law School, said in an email. “Yes, the AG can sue on a common law fraud theory and have six years, but then it must prove much more, including an intent to defraud.”

Lawfare—June 13, 2018
The De-Americanization of Internet Freedom
By David Pozen
“Perhaps, however, the internet freedom agenda has faltered not because it was so naïve and unrealistic, but because it was so effective at achieving its realist goals.”

Real Change News—June 13, 2018
Federal financial protections rollback has unexpected benefit for renters
“We have fought for years to have this common-sense renter protection permanently enacted,” said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. “But it’s disappointing that the act comes in a wave of regressive policy that undermines accountability for fair lending practices.”
[Note: Maria Foscarinis is a lecturer-in-law and alumna.]

Law.com—June 13, 2018
What's Next: Amid GDPR Hangover, a New EU Reg to Dread
More than 70 tech and internet advocates—including big names like Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikimedia, Tim Wu of Columbia Law School, and Python programming language creator Guido van Rossum—signed an open letter to the president of the European Parliament urging it to reconsider Article 13.

The Wall Street Journal—June 14, 2018
New York Lawsuit Brings Tough Allegations, but a Silver Lining for Trump
“These sorts of things always settle, and he has settled allegations before,” said Jennifer Rodgers, a lecturer at Columbia Law School and former federal prosecutor.

The New York Times—June 14, 2018
The Dangerous ‘Bigness’ of the AT&T-Time Warner Merger
By Tim Wu
“The direction and structure of the United States economy is far too important a matter to be decided by a technical fight over price effects.”

Firstpost—June 14, 2018
Asserting Control Over Data by Enforcing Data Localisation Policies is Wrong
By Eben Moglen and Mishi Choudhary
“In general, the ostensible need for data localisation has been an excuse for these internal security actors' ambitions. They want unfettered local access to the data gathered about their citizens by the multinational platform companies.”

Bloomberg—June 14, 2018
Trump’s Antitrust Chief Is Committed to Merger Stance After AT&T, Source Says
“Losing a case hurts, but the Justice Department is playing a very long game,” said Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School. “It is obvious to most observers that economic concentration is at historic levels, and that is the antitrust’s job to deal with.”

Bloomberg—June 15, 2018
The EU Is Emerging as the New Sheriff for Global Financial Markets
When the EU introduced its General Data Protection Regulation last month, Facebook Inc.and Microsoft Corp. said they’ll largely adhere to the directive everywhere they operate, not just in Europe. Anu Bradford, a professor at Columbia University’s law school, calls it the “Brussels effect.”

New York Nonprofit Media—June 15, 2018
These six cases precede New York’s lawsuit against the Donald J. Trump Foundation
While Trump lambasted the new lawsuit via Twitter on June 14 as a partisan effort, he may want to reconsider his vow to fight the allegations, according to Columbia Law Professor John Coffee. His advice for a client facing similar allegations would be to settle the case to “avoid embarrassment,” especially since it looks like Underwood will eventually prevail in state court, he said in a telephone interview with NYN Media.

Take Care—June 18, 2018
America’s Monarch? Trump and the Pardon Power
By Gillian Metgzer and Vicki C. Jackson
“A basic principle of the constitutional rule of law is that no person, not even the President, is above the law.”

The Washington Post—June 19, 2018
The Cybersecurity 202: Senate defense bill pushes Trump to get tougher on Russian hacking
“Some Senate Armed Services Committee members have been frustrated by what they see as insufficiently strong deterrence policy in general, and especially with respect to Russian actions in cyberspace,” said Matthew Waxman, a cybersecurity expert at Columbia University and former senior national security official in the George W. Bush administration.

Gothamist—June 19, 2018
NYPD Will Stop Arresting SOME People For Smoking Pot
“It’s Ferguson all over again—issuing citations that young minority kids (and maybe older ones) can’t pay, with the result of an arrest warrant being issued,” echoed Jeffrey Fagan, a law professor at Columbia University, who specializes in police accountability and criminal law. “Second is why not civil summons, to avoid ‘marking’ someone in case of future criminal justice contact with cops or courts?”

Grist—June 19, 2018
Exxon says climate lawsuits violate its right to free speech. Seriously.
Michael Burger, Executive Director of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, doesn’t think Exxon’s free speech argument holds up under scrutiny. Exxon already tried a similar tactic in a New York court.

Lawfare—June 20, 2018
Self-Pardons: The President Can't Pardon Himself, So Why Do People Think He Can?
By Philip Bobbitt
“There appears to be some confusion surrounding the question of whether a president can pardon himself.”

France24—June 20, 2018
Children in cages: What drives Trump's family separation policy? (Video)
We ask our panel about allegations of deliberate cruelty against Hispanics. Our Guests: Bernard Harcourt, Professor of Law, Columbia University.

The New York Times—June 21, 2018
Who Is Dolly Gee? A Look at the Judge Deciding the Fate of Trump’s Executive Order
“We are now at a different point from where we were two years ago, or three years ago,” said Elora Mukherjee, a professor at Columbia Law School and director of the school’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. “Now, well-meaning progressives are supporting the idea that well, maybe, the best we can get is families detained together for an indefinite period.”

New Civil Liberties Alliance—June 21, 2018
New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) Applauds Supreme Court Ruling in Lucia v. SEC
“Our goal was to ensure that there would be a large majority against the SEC, and it is gratifying that that has happened,” said Philip Hamburger, NCLA Board Chairman and President. “Lucia is a powerful affirmation that the administrative state is subject to law and that even as venerable an agency as the SEC will be held accountable.”

ABA Journal—June 21, 2018
Supreme Court overturns process that had been used to appoint SEC administrative law judges
In a SCOTUSblog preview, Columbia law professor Ronald Mann explained the likely reason for the switch in stance. “A broad reading of the appointments clause brings direct control of a larger share of the federal bureaucracy within the hands of the president and his political appointees and makes it harder for Congress to shelter government operations from political influence,” Mann wrote.

Globe Newswire—June 21, 20218
World-Renown Legal Philosopher, Joseph Raz Awarded Tang Prize in Rule of Law
The 2018 Tang Prize in Rule of Law is awarded to Joseph Raz, one of the foremost legal philosophers of our time, for his path-breaking contributions to the rule of law, and for deepening our understanding of the very nature of law, legal reasoning, and the relationship between law, morality and freedom.

SCOTUSblog—June 22, 2018
Symposium: Minimalism with radical potential
By Gillian Metzger
“That trend continued this term, with the court demonstrating admirable judicial agility at ducking or minimally deciding constitutional challenges to the administrative state.”

Detroit Free Press—June 22, 2018
How a down-and-out broker got University of Michigan to invest $95M
“You have to worry more about endowment funds because universities are investing for the long run and should be less interested in risky gambles,” John C. Coffee Jr., a Columbia University law professor and director of its Center on Corporate Governance, said in an interview.

New York Daily News—June 25, 2018
Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the slippery slope of discrimination
The fact that there are only a trio of places does not prohibit discrimination based on an individual’s policy platform or political opinion shows how infrequently this occurs, according to Suzanne B. Goldberg, professor at Columbia Law School and a leading expert in gender and sexuality law.

The New York Times—June 25, 2018
Judge Dismisses Suit Against Oil Companies Over Climate Change Costs
Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said that in deciding the courts were an improper venue for the case, Judge Alsup “focused on the need to balance the benefits of energy production against the harms of climate change, a balancing act carried out not only by the U.S. government but also by governments all around the world.”

The New York Times—June 26, 2018
The Supreme Court Devastates Antitrust Law
By Tim Wu
“On Monday, in Ohio v. American Express, the Supreme Court delivered a big blow to antitrust law and its traditional mission of helping consumers and fostering economic competition.”

The Atlantic—June 26, 2018
The Age of Reverse Censorship
“Today we live in an environment where speech is cheap, where it is abundant, where the fundamental challenge is no longer finding speakers but rather finding attention for speech,” [Tim] Wu said Tuesday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic.

Vox—June 26, 2018
Supreme Court finally condemns 1944 decision that allowed Japanese internment during World War II
Jamal Greene, a law professor at Columbia, concurred: “Here, it is not necessary to the Court’s holding, and so any distancing is ‘dicta’” — opinions that go beyond the current issue before the Court. “Dicta can have important symbolic and persuasive value, but it is not the law and does not bind lower courts.”

Mother Jones—June 26, 2018
Big Oil Won a Battle in Court This Week, But The War Is Far From Over
“This decision is not binding on any other court,” Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, tells Mother Jones. “It may be that individual judges hearing cases are influenced by it, but there’s no way to know whether that’s going to happen or not.”

The Atlantic—June 27, 2018
To Be a Good Citizen, First Pay Attention
As Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia Law School and the author of the book The Attention Merchants, put it at the Aspen Ideas Festival, hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic: “Frankly, citizenship in our time is about how you spend your attention.”

SCOTUSblog—June 27, 2018
A “view” from the courtroom: A river runs through it
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be the guest lecturer in Rome for the summer law program of Loyola University Chicago, along with her daughter Jane Ginsburg.

Rewire—June 27, 2018
Some Plaintiffs Are More Equal Than Others: The Supreme Court’s Redefinition of ‘Discrimination’
By Elizabeth Reiner Platt
“The cases decided this week highlight a disturbing trend of labeling nearly any legal restrictions on religious conservatives (predominantly white Christians) as impermissible discrimination, while ignoring even the most blatant evidence of discrimination against Muslims and people of color.”
[Note: Elizabeth Reiner Platt is director of the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project at Columbia Law School.]

The Washington Post—June 27, 2018
Anthony Kennedy and the four Supreme Court rulings that changed gay life in America
“When we think about these issues at a time when we have marriage equality it may be hard to believe that states criminalized the sexual intimacy of gay people into the 21st century,” said Suzanne B. Goldberg, a professor at Columbia Law School who represented the men involved in the Romer and Lawrence cases.
*[Note: See special section on additional coverage of faculty reaction to news of Justice Kennedy’s retirement following the main report.]

The New York Times—June 28, 2018
The Roberts Court Is a Disaster for American Workers
By Jedediah Purdy
“When it comes to economic inequality, today’s Supreme Court is not only failing to help, it is also aggressively making itself part of the problem in a time when inequality and insecurity are damaging the country and endangering our democracy.”
[Note: Jedediah Purdy will join the Law School faculty in July 2019.]

Windy City Times—June 28, 2018
Illinois 28th on Response to Youth Homelessness
“Young people experiencing homelessness face steep barriers in exiting homelessness — and even simply surviving — when laws prevent them from securing a job, renting an apartment, or accessing health care,” said Maria Foscarinis, founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

Climate Liability News—June 29, 2018
In Liability Cases, Oil Companies Argue Climate Change is Your Fault
The issue of consumers’ role in climate change comes up in climate liability suits because “finding an activity a nuisance requires balancing the benefits of the activity against its harm,” Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, wrote in an email.

The Washington Post—June 29, 2018
Elon Musk's troubled love of a magical unicorn
Jane Ginsburg, a professor of literary and artistic property law at Columbia Law School, said artists defending their ownership of an image often “don’t have an easy time of it,” especially if they didn’t register their work with the copyright office before that work was misused.

Rewire—June 29, 2018
How a Decades-Old Decision Shows the Supreme Court’s Shift Toward White Christian Supremacy
By Kira Shepherd
“In Trump v. Hawaii, the Court willfully overlooked the overtly discriminatory comments Trump made about Muslims in deciding that the travel ban was constitutional.”
[Note: Kira Shepherd is director of the Racial Justice Program with the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project at Columbia Law School.]

Aspen Ideas Festival—June 30, 2018
Tim Wu: Is the First Amendment Obsolete? (Video)
“Is the First Amendment, which was designed to combat the royal censorship still fresh in the minds of the Founders, now obsolete?”

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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.