5/10/2012 Stephen Mikochik | Washington Times |
| This week President Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan all expressed publicly their support for homosexual marriage. [Mikochik is] altogether certain that the American people will see through this re-election tactic as an artless attempt to light the candle at both ends.[more] |
5/9/2012 Edward Ohlbaum | The Citizens Voice |
| The FBI charged Holy Redeemer High School varsity football Coach Joseph J. Ostrowski on Tuesday with baiting a minor into sexual conduct so that he could produce and distribute child pornography. The child porn charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. The extortion charge carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. Edward Ohlbaum, a law professor at Temple University, said the federal penalties for child porn charges are extremely tough. "It's brutal," Ohlbaum said. "Folks are getting more years for this than for most violent crimes. It is off the charts."[more] |
5/7/2012 Susan L. DeJarnatt | Allentown Morning Call |
| The Chester Upland School District has brought a complaint over school funding against the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Governor Tom Corbett. "The lawsuit claims the state has 'failed to maintain a thorough and efficient school system' by not properly funding the Delaware County school district and mismanaging it while the district was under state control between 1994 and 2010...Susan L. DeJarnatt, a Temple University law professor, said the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez has set the overriding federal school funding precedent in the nation...The court said it could not force a standardized funding formula on states and local districts as long as students were receiving some form of classroom education. But if Chester Upland is forced to close under the current financial picture, DeJarnatt said, the Rodriguez case may not apply because no classroom learning would be occurring. 'The one question is, if Chester goes under, does that change the [legal] picture?' she said."[more] |
5/6/2012 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Law professor David Kairys reviewed the recent title, Rights at Risk, by David K. Shipler. "Shipler's coverage, concreteness, and willingness to candidly take on the range of issues make this a terrific book for anyone interested in our rights and liberties, not just for those already convinced that things have gone awry."[more] |
5/6/2012 N. Jeremi Duru | Yahoo! Sports Radio |
| Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru provided commentary on Yahoo! Sports Radio regarding the Roger Clemens perjury trial and the New Orleans Saints bounty program suspensions. |
5/3/2012 Susan L. DeJarnatt | Philadelphia City Paper |
| A City Paper investigation of the Philadelphia public education system cited work by professor Susan DeJarnatt. "Philadelphia charters spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on undefined legal and accounting work, 'purchases,' 'services' or just plain 'other,' according to data uncovered by Temple Law professor Susan DeJarnatt in a forthcoming article in the journal Urban Lawyer."[more] |
4/30/2012 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting takes a close look at the issues in the Arizona v. U.S. oral arguments before the Supreme Court. "At the root of the national debate over immigration is the unwillingness of Washington officials of both parties, including President Obama, to decide whether the United States should have open borders, with no limit on immigration, or should enforce the annual numerical limit on immigration enacted by Congress. It's a simple question: limits or no limits?"[more] |
4/27/2012 Peter J. Spiro | Slate.com |
| Temple Law professor Peter Spiro's New York Times op-ed on Arizona's immigration law was mentioned on The Political Gabfest podcast. Commentators were taken by his idea of the Supreme Court letting the law stand, leaving Arizona to deal with its political and economic consequences.[more] |
4/26/2012 William M. Carter, Jr. | Targeted News Service |
| "Legal scholar William M. Carter Jr.--widely respected for his scholarship in constitutional law, international human rights law, and issues of social justice--has been named dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law...Carter, who is currently professor of law at the Temple University Beasley School of Law and also has served on the faculty of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, will become the Pitt law school's dean on July 1, 2012." |
4/25/2012 Peter J. Spiro | Seattle Times |
| After the Supreme Court's consideration of Arizona's S.B. 1070, "Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor who specializes in immigration law, predicted the court would uphold the police check of immigration status in Arizona's law, but said he wouldn't be surprised if the court threw out a provision making it a crime to be without immigration documents. Such a ruling would let police question people about their immigration status if they have good reason to do so, but police would have to call federal authorities to see if they would want to pick up anyone found to be in the country illegally. If federal agents decline, officers would have to release the people, unless they were suspected of committing crimes, Spiro said. If that happened, the law would be mostly symbolic, but would still carry some significance for immigrants, Spiro said. 'It would make it clear that Arizona is unfriendly to undocumented aliens,' Spiro said."[more] |
4/23/2012 | New York Times |
| "The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on Wednesday in Arizona v. United States, the Obama administration's challenge to Arizona's immigration law, known as S.B. 1070. The law requires local law enforcement to make immigration-status determinations--traditionally the prerogative of the federal government--and to arrest people suspected of being undocumented. S.B. 1070 effectively makes undocumented status a crime under state law and penalizes unauthorized employment...Such laws are misguded at best, mean-spirited and racially tainted at worst."[more] |
4/22/2012 Jan Ting | Lafayette (La.) Advertiser |
| "[C]andidate Mitt Romney has reluctantly disclosed only his 2010 tax return which showed he paid an effective rate that year of only 13.8 percent on income of nearly $22 million, a much lower tax rate than is paid by many middle-income professionals whose income is only a tiny fraction of Romney's...If elected president on Nov. 6, Mitt Romney would be the wealthiest American ever elected to that office. Before we vote, the American people deserve to know how Mitt Romney acquired his wealth, and whether he paid his fair share of taxes along the way."[more] |
4/21/2012 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Joseph Snizavich died of brain cancer and his widow blamed his exposure to chemicals at a Rohm & Haas research facility. But proving a connection between the chemicals and cancer could be difficult, if a judge's ruling this week is any indication. Expert opinions must be delivered with a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, said Edward D. Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "We allow experts to do something that nobody else is able to do, and that is to state an opinion," Ohlbaum said.[more] |
4/13/2012 Jan Ting | WHYY-TV |
| Temple Law Professor Jan Ting appeared on WHYY-TV to discuss 2012 election developments. Mitt Romney visited Delaware shortly after his competition withdrew from the race for the GOP presidential nomination. The Delaware Republicans unveiled their slate for the Governor's race as well.[more] |
4/8/2012 | WPVI-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting joined the "Inside Story" panel to discuss the Republican primary race, the sale of the Inquirer-Daily News, the Foxwoods casino license, city council expenses, a vote to shrink the state legislature, and ideas to privatize the lottery and treat uncashed gift cards like abandoned property to escheat to the state.[more] |
4/7/2012 Scott Burris | Phildelphia Inquirer |
| Pennsylvania's overdose fatality rate is among the top 10 in the country. A program to reverse overdoses is part of a controversial public-health strategy known as harm reduction. "Most of the patients who use these drugs won't become addicted," said Scott Burris, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, who has become a leading voice for harm-reduction policies. Many will, however, share them with family and friends, and will buy them on the street if they don't have insurance.[more] |
4/5/2012 JoAnne Epps | The Legal Intelligencer |
| Three entities from different corners of the Philadelphia legal community are collaborating on a new scholarship initiative that aims to increase diversity in the legal profession. JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple University's Beasley School of Law, saidthe program "really is unique and has raised the bar."[more] |
4/1/2012 Robert J. Reinstein | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| On Tuesday, when the court considered the constitutionality of a central pillar of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - its requirement that all nonexempt individuals carry insurance - it appeared as if there were a five-vote majority composed of conservative jurists to strike the mandate. All this tea-leaf reading has its risks, as Temple University constitutional-law professor Robert Reinstein pointed out, because the justices might be playing devil's advocate in asking tough questions, or they might change their minds.[more] |
4/1/2012 Peter Liacouras | Philadelphia Lawyer -- Liacouras |
| In 2011, the Philadelphia Bar Association recognized the 40th anniversary of its groundbreaking Liacouras Committee. "The report of the Liacouras Committee was instrumental in reforming and changing the discriminatory administration of the bar exam in Pennsylvania, and in many other jurisdictions. Those changes ensured equal opportunities to blacks in the taking of the bar exam, and led to significant increases in the number of blacks who became members of the bar." |
4/1/2012 Robert J. Reinstein | Philadelphia Lawyer -- Reinstein |
| In 2011, the Philadelphia Bar Association recognized the 40th anniversary of its groundbreaking Liacouras Committee. "The report of the Liacouras Committee was instrumental in reforming and changing the discriminatory administration of the bar exam in Pennsylvania, and in many other jurisdictions. Those changes ensured equal opportunities to blacks in the taking of the bar exam, and led to significant increases in the number of blacks who became members of the bar." "[T]hen Assistant Professor, Robert J. Reinstein of Temple University Law School, who later became its dean, declared that the bar exam was violative of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with respect to black applicants." |
3/27/2012 Peter J. Spiro | U.S. Law Week |
| "The political question doctrine does not bar a federal court from ruling on the constitutionality of a statutory provision that permits a U.S. citizen born in Jerusalem to have Israel listed as his place of birth on his passport, the U.S. Supreme Court held March 26...Peter J. Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, Philadelphia, and an expert on foreign relations law, told BNA March 26 that he believed the case had the potential to be 'a watershed' case. He said the ruling meant that courts would be more likely to get involved in disputes that involved the treaty power or war power, which had traditionally been areas 'where courts have been loathe to get involved.'" |
3/25/2012 Robert J. Reinstein | KYW News Radio |
| It may be too soon for the Supreme Court to decide on the health care law if the penalty is deemed a tax. The Anti-Injunction act says you can’t challenge the payment of a tax ahead of time. “If that was accepted by the Supreme Court, it would kick the can down the road,” says Robert Reinstein, a professor at Temple’s Beasley School of Law. “In other words, they wouldn’t be deciding the merits now. They’d be delaying it for at least two years,” when the mandate is scheduled to take effect in 2014.[more] |
3/25/2012 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| This week's arguments before the Supreme Court on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act "will be wrestling with a question--where to set limits on federal government power--that has fueled fierce political conflict since the founding of the nation...'Whether one agrees or not, this is the most wide-ranging piece of federal legislation in a generation,' said Temple University constitutional law professor Robert Reinstein, former dean of the law school and a former Justice Department attorney. 'Whenever the Supreme Court deals with the scope of federal power, it is a very important legal question.' He added, 'I think it is huge.'"[more] |
3/18/2012 Jan Ting | WPVI-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on "Inside Story" March 18. The panel discussed Ed Rendell, Romney and Santorum, the Temple Neighborhood Improvement District, and "Dogs Against Romney," among other topics.[more] |
3/14/2012 Barbara Ashcroft | Allentown Morning Call |
| "Jerry Sandusky's lawyer said he will file papers to dismiss child sex abuse charges against the former Penn State assistant football coach after a judge said Tuesday it would be futile to order prosecutors to seek more detailed allegations from Sandusky's accusers. Judge John M. Cleland's decision came less than 24 hours after a hearing Monday in Centre County Court, in which Sandusky's lawyer, Joseph Amendola, said the charges are so vague it is unfair to expect Sandusky to defend against them...'The defendant's argument is going to be, 'If they don't have the dates and the don't have the times, then they don't have much of a case,' said Barbara Ashcroft, a former sex crimes prosecutor who teaches at Temple University Law School." |
3/11/2012 David Post | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| When Google instituted its new privacy policy, it reignited debate about personal privacy on the Web. The Inquirer's John Timpane noted that the term "privacy policy" is misleading. It's not about you, he wrote, it's about advertisers. Google makes money selling advertisers information on users and their Web behavior: who does what, who likes what. David Post, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said, "They're monetizing those eyeballs; that's how the business works."[more] |
3/7/2012 Amy Sinden | Greenwire |
| "President Obama told the Interior Department last week to start taking an earlier look at economic effects when considering critical habitat protections...Amy Sinden, a professor at Temple University's law school, said the analyses can be misleading because they convey a certainty about costs that she says is not there. 'The way they insist on doing these things is hugely time- and resource-intensive,' said Sinden, who has published journal articles critiquing the government's use of formal cost-benefit analyses. 'And you open up the process to all kinds of political wrangling once you get into the really sketchy area of trying to say how many dollars a spotted owl is worth.'"[more] |
3/4/2012 Jan Ting | WPVI-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on the "Inside Story" panel Sunday morning to discuss taxes in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, the Republican presidential primary, and the child abuse cover-up under Cardinal Bevilacqua, among other topics.[more] |
3/2/2012 Kristen Murray | Legal Intelligencer |
| Who spends the most time checking e-mail, surfing the Web or using their laptops for additional nonacademic purposes during law school lectures? It's not third-year students, as many law faculty members have long assumed. Actually, second-year law students are the worst offenders, according to research conducted by a doctoral candidate. However, Temple University's Beasley School of Law professor Kristen Murray argued that laptops can enhance a student's classroom experience. Murray surveyed 177 1Ls and found that laptops helped some stay better organized than did handwritten notes, and some used the Internet in class to research answers to questions being posed. |
2/29/2012 Peter J. Spiro | Reuters |
| Two months before the Supreme Court hears arguments over Arizona's controversial new immigration law, another courtroom battle will take center stage, this time over Alabama's immigration crackdown. The Supreme Court's decision in the upcoming Arizona case looms large over the Alabama lawsuit, says Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. Before issuing an opinion on the Alabama law, the 11th Circuit will wait to see what the high court decides on Arizona, he says.[more] |
2/26/2012 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A homicide case from Delaware County involves alleged patricide, mariticide, infidelity and a financial motive. "While the case is circumstantial, that wouldn't preclude conviction, said Temple university Law School professor Eddie Ohlbaum. Circumstantial evidence, he said can be 'equally persuasive, and sometimes even more persuasive than direct evidence.'"[more] |
2/22/2012 | WHYY/NewsWorks |
| Jury selection in a high-profile, high-stakes case like the Philadelphia Archdiocese abuse case is "very, very, very hard," said Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "The law doesn't require that somebody sit on the jury without opinions," Ohlbaum said. "But the law does say that if somebody has an opinion that favors one side or the other, that the opinion cannot be fixed."[more] |
2/18/2012 Jan Ting | Westerly (R.I.) Sun |
| In an opinion piece, professor Jan Ting considered the recent success of the New York Knicks' point guard Jeremy Lin. "Why was his success in the NBA a phenomenon? The world loves stories of people who succeed after overcoming obstacles, the great novelists who overcome stacks of rejection letters, the singers who come out of nowhere to win 'American Idol.' Jeremy Lin has that kind of feel-good story. But why wasn't his talent recognized earlier?" |
2/17/2012 Eleanor Myers | (Charleston) Post and Courier |
| Temple Law professor Eleanor Myers was mentioned in an article describing the commitment and work of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions. Professor Myers has served on the committee since 2009. She also serves as Temple's NCAA Faculty Athletic Representative.[more] |
2/12/2012 Jan Ting | WPVI-TV |
| Professor Jan Ting appeared on 6ABC's "Inside Story" to analyze the week's headlines. He and other panelists covered "renewed interest in Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua's death and Governor Corbett's new budget plan for Pennsylvania."[more] |
2/10/2012 | WHYY-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on WHYY-TV's "First" to discuss the evolving Republican primaries and Delaware's role in the race.[more] |
2/9/2012 Mark Rahdert | Arizona Daily Star |
| Temple University president Ann Weaver Hart will step down at the close of the school year. "Temple University law professor Mark Rahdert, a member of that school's faculty senate, said employees there will be sorry to see Hart go. 'Overall, I would say her leadership here has been largely positive,' he said. 'She will be missed, definitely.' Rahdert said his only criticism of Hart's tenure is related to a building boom on campus, which has persisted despite declining state funding."[more] |
2/6/2012 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Videotaped testimony from a deceased witness is problematic but at issue in two area sex abuse cases. Even if admitted for the jury to view, according to Temple law professor and former public defender Edward Ohlbaum, "there's a difference between having a live witness in the courtroom and a man on tape. Body language and coherence - key signals jurors use to evaluate a witnesses' testimony - do not necessarily translate from the video screen to the courtroom, Ohlbaum said. 'A good-quality videotape is the next best thing to having someone in the courtroom, but it is still on some level like watching a movie,' he said. .'There's a remove there.'"[more] |
2/1/2012 Muriel Morisey | ABA Journal |
| In remarks last year, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts dismissed legal scholarship's utility for practice. Law professor Mureil Morisey "criticized the chief justice as engaging in a 'gross generalization that is also inaccurate. Some legal scholarship has enormous utility for courts and those in practice. Some [is] not intended to have readily identifiable practical utility.' And yet, she says, the competition for academic jobs is tight. 'Some scholars don’t even get interviewed for the teaching job,' Morisey says."[more] |
1/29/2012 Peter J. Spiro | US Official News |
| "The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia to reconsider Hazleton's law, which was struck down in 2007." Since the 2007 decision, the Supreme Court upheld an Arizona law "revoking the business licenses for companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Hazleton's law, which was enacted in 2006 but never took effect because of the court challenge, contains nearly the same employment provisions as Arizona's law...Temple Law School professor Peter Spiro said the Arizona decision removes the Third Circuit's original basis for voiding Hazleton's law. 'I think that there is a good chance that the Hazleton ordinance gets revived in the wake of it,' said Sprio, who specializes in immigration and constitutional law." |
1/27/2012 | ABC News |
| If Mitt Romney's father was born in Mexico, how could he run for president? George Romney was born to American citizens living in a Mormon church colony in Chihuahua, Mexico. "When you're born outside the United States to [U.S.] citizens, you have citizenship at birth," explained Peter J. Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law and an expert on citizenship. "You don't have to do anything to claim your citizenship."[more] |
1/26/2012 Jan Ting | Shreveport Times, Wilmington News Journal, Newsworks.org |
| Tax professor Jan Ting analyzes the inequities brought to light by the disclosure of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's tax return. "How are the Romneys, and other super-rich Americans like them, able to pay taxes at a lower rate than middle and upper-middle income Americans? The main reason is that our current tax system taxes income from capital more favorably and at a lower rate than income earned through labor."[more] |
1/26/2012 Alice G. Abreu | WHYY Radio Times |
| Temple University Beasley School of Law tax professor Alice Abreu appeared on WHYY's "Radio Times" to unpack "what the Romney income tax return tells us about the American tax system and how it benefits the wealthy."[more] |
1/24/2012 Louis Natali | New York Post |
| The passing of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno could streamline criminal prosecutions in the Jerry Sandusky scandal, legal experts said as the campus mourned the legend. Former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary "can testify about what he told Paterno [without the distraction of having Paterno himself on the stand]," said Louis Natali of Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
1/24/2012 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Daily News |
| Media reports of eyewitness accounts of a beating seemed to range widely before suspects were arrested. "Edward Ohlbaum, a Temple law professor who specializes in courtroom evidence and trial advocacy, said that research has shown that eyewitness identification often 'can be the most unreliable evidence there is.' He said reliable identification also is affected by other factors--identifying someone of a different race, witness stress, lighting and the amount of time someone witnesses an incident. 'It's not surprising under these circumstances police got different accounts,' Ohlbaum said. 'Nobody is to be faulted here.'"[more] |
1/24/2012 David Kairys | Phildelphia Inquirer |
| Economic pressures are making clients more mindful about paying for legal services. Temple University law professor David Kairys examined some invoices in dispute. "[The] entries 'raised a serious question of what was done. That long paragraph that's just repeated day after day...it's got the worst aspects of block billing.' Kairys said that block billing was a long-standing practice of many firms but that clients were increasingly protesting and firms were moving away from the practice. 'It is a shift for the legal profession,' he said. 'It's a shift that I think should be made.'"[more] |
1/18/2012 Burton Caine | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Constitutional Law professor Burton Caine commented on the freedom on speech in public broadcasting. "Freedom of speech is the most fundamental freedom, even if it were not proclaimed in the First Amendment. It is time for public radio, which receives free license to broadcast, to practice and protect that right not only for itself but, more importantly, for all. That should motivate the public to stand up and protest censorship. The Occupy movement shows that when government is forced to listen, it will. Doing nothing is death to liberty. As Justice Brandeis proclaimed, 'The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people!'"[more] |
1/18/2012 Jan Ting | Wilmington News Journal |
| In an opinion piece, Temple Law professor Jan Ting took a look at the U.S. economic condition. "Here's why I think we should all be worrying about federal debt and deficits. Having already borrowed $15 trillion, an amount greater than the U.S. gross domestic product, the U.S. government constantly and regularly has to make good on its debt obligations as they become due. That's no problem if the lenders can be persuaded to re-lend the amounts they are due, or if new lenders are willing to loan new capital to the U.S. government to replace the funds being paid out to old lenders...Who's willing to bet the republic that the U.S. will always be the safest place in the world to invest capital, that we'll always be the lowest cost borrower in the world? It's a risk and a bet that I'd prefer not to make."[more] |
1/16/2012 David Kairys | Wisconsin Public Radio |
| Temple Law professor David Kairys was featured on Wisconsin Public Radio in an extended Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday interview and call-in show on the extent to which King's "dream" has and hasn't been realized and frequently heard claims that we are now a "post-racial" society. |
1/15/2012 Jan Ting | WPVI-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on 6ABC's "Inside Story" to analyze timely news stories. Professor Ting and other panelists discussed education issues in Southeastern Pennsylvania, the national GOP primaries, foreign policy concerns and potential controversy over President Obama's recess appointments.[more] |
1/14/2012 | Westerly Sun |
| Professor Jan Ting shared his thoughts on Rick Santorum in an editorial piece. "I've had a few encounters with former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum over the years, in Pennsylvania, in Delaware and in Washington. Now a candidate for president who nearly beat front runner Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses, Santorum has on every occasion impressed as someone with a clear understanding of what he believes, and a readiness, almost a combativeness, in defending those beliefs against all challenges." |
1/13/2012 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Attorneys for the Philadelphia monsignor accused of enabling priests to molest altar boys asked Thursday that the state's highest court review the charges, an unusual legal maneuver that could scuttle or delay the trial...Such a request to the high court before a case is tried by a judge or jury is unusual, said Edward Ohlbaum, a veteran professor of trial advocacy at Temple Law School. Winning one is rarer. 'What you're basically asking the court to do is to say, 'Stop the music. We're going to resolve it here,'' Ohlbaum said. 'Invariably, that's not what Supreme Courts do.'"[more] |
1/13/2012 Jan Ting | WHYY's "First" |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on WHYY-TV's "First" to report on the state of the Republican party and its candidates for state offices in Delaware.[more] |
1/12/2012 David Post | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A panel of technology and law experts explored the balance between social media's power to connect people and information with individuals' privacy in a National Constitutional Center program that asked, "What would the Founding Fathers think of Facebook?" "'It's an astonishingly big question,' says [Temple Law professor David] Post: 'How can you keep people in control of their own destinies within a global communications scale?' James Madison had the brilliance and vision to solve huge issues in the formation of our young government. 'The question for social media is: Do we have a Madison now?' says Post. 'We haven't figured out the best way to maximize the good and minimize the harms. But I'm optimistic we can.'"[more] |
1/9/2012 David Kairys | WHYY/NewsWorks |
| One gun-related measure currently being debated by lawmakers is called the "Florida loophole," which enables Pennsylvanians who are denied a permit to carry a concealed weapon in the state to still do so if another state approves a permit. "Basically the standard for carrying a concealed gun would be the lowest standard in the country," said David Kairys, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "We in Pennsylvania, and particularly in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, would lose the power even on the state level to do anything about this," he said.[more] |
1/4/2012 James Shellenberger | Allentown Morning Call |
| "Why is there a statute of limitations on child sex-abuse crimes?...'It's really a matter of fairness. If there's going to be a prosecution or a lawsuit, it should happen promptly after the events so the person has a fair opportunity to put together a defense,' said James Shellenberger, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. 'The evidence may be stale, memories may have faded.' It's a basic axiom of American law: Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No matter how heinous the accusations against them, Shellenberger said...But if we believe in the presumed innocence of defendants and their right to gather evidence, we need limits, Shellenberger said--even for a crime as abhorrent as child rape. 'The amount of time that passes from the crime to the date of trial could mean an innocent person could be convicted of a crime they didn't commit,' he said."[more] |
1/1/2012 Burton Caine | Harvard Magazine |
| Constitutional Law professor Burton Caine asked for help from his fellow alums in Harvard Magazine. "Who said, 'If the result is absurd, it impeaches the logic upon which it is founded?' He adds, 'I cannot find it in Cardozo. Kingston v. Chicago & N.W. Ry., Wisconsin Supreme Court, is close but substitutes ‘injustice’ for ‘absurd,’ and that makes all the difference.”[more] |
12/29/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Los Angeles Times |
| "Federal judges have blocked strict new immigration laws adopted by conservative legislatures in half a dozen states, including a ruling last week that said South Carolina may not set up a 'street-level dragnet' to stop and arrest illegal immigrants. But immigrant rights advocates who have cheered those rulings may soon find their luck has run out as those rulings head for the Supreme Court. Legal experts believe the high court's conservative majority will take a sharply different approach...Peter Spiro, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, says he expected key parts of the Arizona law would be upheld. 'As usual, Kennedy will be the decider,' he said. 'And I think he'll be accommodating of state interests.'"[more] |
12/28/2011 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Professor Jan Ting shared ideas for fixing a cumbersome tax revenue system. "A functioning tax system has three goals. First, it has to be simple enough to administer. Second, it has to be fair to taxpayers with widely varying incomes. Third, and perhaps most important, it has to collect sufficient revenue for government operations."[more] |
12/23/2011 Peter J. Spiro | New York Times |
| "A federal judge on Thursday blocked the most controversial parts of South Carolina's new immigration law from taking effect next month. The decision, by Judge Richard M. Gergel of Federal District Court in Charleston, S.C., sets the stage for a legal showdown on immigration as the United States Supreme Court prepares to hear a challenge to a similar law in Arizona...'This is all really just a way station on the way to the Supreme Court's ruling in the Arizona case,' said Peter J. Spiro, a law professor at Temple University who specializes in immigration. 'The South Carolina ruling is important in the short term in putting the law on hold. But the Supreme Court will have the final say.'"[more] |
12/18/2011 Jan Ting | WPVI-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on "Inside Story" to discuss the news of the week. Professor Ting and fellow panelists discussed Philadelphia public and parochial schools, Pennsylvania congressional redistricting, Penn State litigation, the GOP presidential race and the federal budget troubles.[more] |
12/16/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | NBC10 |
| Penn State officials Gary Schultz and Tim Curley were charged with perjury and failure to report child abuse in early November. To support the perjury charges, prosecutors must show probable cause the two men lied and that the lies were intentional and material to the case. "Even though you've had some fairly celebrated folks convicted of perjury, it's a very tough charge to prove,"' said Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "You have to have a clear question, an unequivocal answer, and (prove) the defendant knew what he was saying was false."[more] |
12/16/2011 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Two Penn State officials plan to fight perjury charges and allegations they did not respond properly after being told a young boy had been sodomized in the football team's showers as a judge decides if their cases should go to trial...'Even though you've had some fairly celebrated folks convicted of perjury, it's a very tough charge to prove,' said Temple University law professor Edward Ohlbaum. 'You have to have a clear question, an unequivocal answer, and (prove) the defendant knew what he was saying was false.'"[more] |
12/15/2011 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer, Wilmington News Journal |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting offered an analysis of Arizona's immigration statute that is now before the Supreme Court. "The statute makes illegal under Arizona law what is also illegal under federal law, the failure of an alien to carry immigration documents. Similarly, it makes illegal under Arizona law the solicitation for work, transporting, or harboring of a known illegal alien, actions also illegal under federal law. Because S.B. 1070 is consistent with and not in conflict with federal immigration law, Arizona asserts that it must be upheld as constitutional."[more] |
12/14/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Facing multiple charges of sexual abuse, former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky waived a preliminary hearing Tuesday. "By skipping the preliminary hearing, Sandusky can say he spared his purported victims the trauma of having to publicly take the stand, the thinking goes. That might work in his favor in a plea deal, said Edward D. Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple University's law school and a former public defender. 'Otherwise, he's given up...the chance to cross examine those folks and use their testimony to challenge them at trial,' he said."[more] |
12/13/2011 Peter J. Spiro | USA Today |
| The Supreme Court will review a 2010 Arizona law "that requires police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop if they suspect they are here illegally...'This will probably be the most important decision on immigration and federalism in the last half-century,' Temple University law professor Peter Spiro said. 'The justices are all aware of the problems with comprehensive immigration reform' on the federal level."[more] |
12/8/2011 Barbara Ashcroft | Allentown Morning Call |
| Since the initial charges of sexual abuse were filed against Penn State's Jerry Sandusky, more victims have come forward. "Barbara Ashcroft, a former sex crimes prosecutor and associate law professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, said the new charges reinforce her opinion that Sandusky fits the profile of a serial sexual predator. 'You have a very long period of time when Sandusky had the opportunity and access to vulnerable young boys through this organization,' Ashcroft said. She added that it is not surprising that new victims have come forward since the initial charges were filed. 'When one victim comes forward, others come forward because they are no longer alone,' Ashcroft said. 'For victims it is very frightening to be the only one out there.'"[more] |
12/7/2011 Craig Green | NPR |
| Philadelphia's district attorney announced this morning that he will not continue to seek the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal. NPR's news blog "The Two-Way" referred readers to an earlier comment by Craig Green of Temple's Beasley School of Law who says it's a story of two trials: "One is about a very gruesome death and murder of a police officer in the line of duty, Daniel Faulkner, with very compelling and marshaled evidence against Mumia Abu-Jamal. And on the other hand, it's a trial of the system. There are allegations of police coercion and abuse, racial stacking the jury and racial application of the death penalty."[more] |
12/6/2011 Jan Ting | Jersey Journal, Marysville-Yuba City (Calif.) Appeal-Democrat, Fort Madison (Iowa) Daily Democrat |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting fears today's college students' news-gathering habits leave them uninformed. "Newspapers are a filter for the tremendous volume of news available online now. Whether it's the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer or the Boston Globe, newspapers tell us what their editors and reporters think is important and what we need to know. It's fashionable now to say we want our news unfiltered. But too often that means we don't find what we need to know because it's too difficult, like trying to drink from a fire hose."[more] |
12/1/2011 Robert J. Reinstein | Wall Street Journal |
| A law suit and investigations have been initiated in a child abuse case involving a former Penn State football coach. The suit seeks damages from the coach, the charity he founded and Penn State University. "Robert Reinstein, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, said that Penn State doesn't have sovereign immunity from civil lawsuits because it isn't a state agency. 'They're autonomous and operated by their own board of trustees,' he said."[more] |
11/30/2011 William M. Carter, Jr. | WURD900AM |
| Temple Law professor Chip Carter was a guest on a radio program on WURD900AM on the topic of racial profiling. |
11/23/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Centre Daily Times |
| "Legal experts have debated whether District Judge Leslie Dutchcot should have set bail in the Jerry Sandusky case despite having ties to the charity he founded...'Judges should be mindful of whether or not their impartiality might appear to be questioned, or whether there is the appearance of impropriety,' Eddie Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law. He added: 'It's part of the foundation of our system, whether you're sitting on the magistrate level or you're sitting on the Supreme Court. You have to be above and beyond reproach.'"[more] |
11/20/2011 Jan Ting | 6ABC-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on Sunday's "Inside Story" (WPVI) to discuss various issues of the week, including Penn State and the Occupy movement. |
11/16/2011 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| "JoAnne Epps, dean and professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, is set to be the distinguished guest speaker at a naturalization ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the Ceremonial Courtroom of the U.S. Courthouse at Sixth and Market Streets." |
11/16/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Former Pennsylvania State University coach Jerry Sandusky's nationally televised denial that he had sexually abused children drew scathing reviews Tuesday from legal experts...'I understand the desire to do damage control; people are already comparing this guy to a monster,' [Temple Law professor Edward D.] Ohlbaum said. 'But to expose him to that level of questioning when you have absolutely no control over it? Stunning. Absolutely stunning...What a jury or fact-finder will see is the video - not only what he said, but how he said it,' said Ohlbaum. 'They will not only hear what he said, but what he did not say. You can't edit out the voice, the tone, and the pauses, which on some levels could have been devastating.'"[more] |
11/14/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | The Post Game |
| Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru imagines explaining the Penn State scandal to his father, an alum, and considers the implications for all college athletics programs. "Now we've got this horrific child abuse scandal at Penn State. What in the world gives us comfort that this is anomalous? What makes us think the same thing isn't happening elsewhere? Can we really believe that Jerry Sandusky is a complete outlier--that there aren't other coaches at other big time football schools with similar access and entitlement and lack of accountability who may be doing or be on the precipice of doing what Sandusky has done? It is a chilling and sickening thought, but we have to engage it."[more] |
11/10/2011 Eleanor Myers | WHYY /NewsWorks |
| Facebook friendship calls DUI case into questionLast week, Philadelphia judge Charles Hayden dismissed evidence in state Rep. Cherelle Parker's DUI case that included results from a Breathalyzer test that measured Parker's blood alcohol content at .16. Hayden and Parker are friends on Facebook. "The rules are quite general that the judge should avoid situations where his impartiality might reasonably be questioned," said Eleanor Myers, associate professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "It's not only what's in your mind, but what people will perceive."[more] |
11/6/2011 Burton Caine | New York Times |
| Constitutional law professor Burton Caine responded to a New York Times review of The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-45 in the Letters section. "Why did Germans, with defeat staring them in the face, continue to obey Hitler? As Ian Kershaw notes, though the predicament of the German population in the war's final months was dreadful, 'the fate of Nazism's prime ideological target, the Jews, was infinitely worse'...That the destruction of Jews was as important as military conquest explains Germany's 'defiance and destruction' in the Third Reich's last days." |
11/3/2011 Louis Natali | Bucks County Courier Times |
| According to defense attorneys, prison authorities searched the cell of a man awaiting trial, seized trial notes and submitted them to police detectives. "Temple Law Professor Louis M. Natali Jr. said that defendants don't have much of a right to privacy in a prison cell and that attorneys and their clients need to protect their privilege. He said anything kept in a cell should be in a envelope clearly marked, 'attorney-client work product,' or 'attorney-client communications.' Natali said it will be up to a judge to determine the facts of the case."[more] |
10/27/2011 Burton Caine | Jewish Exponent |
| In a letter to the editor, Temple Law professor Burton Caine remembers a Temple Law alumna who fell victim to Middle East unrest.[more] |
10/23/2011 Jan Ting | Jersey Journal |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting addresses immigration's impact on the country's environmental and economic concerns in a recent editorial. "The demographic challenges affecting Social Security and Medicare should not be addressed by further increasing the current historically high level of legal immigration to the U.S., which would only increase the eventual demands on those programs and aggravate other social problems. Instead our legal immigration program should be more narrowly focused on admitting immigrants who are most likely to make contributions to solving our challenges."[more] |
10/20/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Daily News |
| When Temple Law dean JoAnne Epps was on staff at the U.S. Attorney's Office, public defender Maureen Rowley asked her to talk with a criminal defendant "out of a belief that the charge against him was unfair...[Epps] said: 'I tell that story to my law students. It illustrates Maureen's view of what justice requires.' Maureen Rowley, whose life was dedicated to the pursuit of justice and who, as a federal defender, won freedom for an untold number of clients - even some on death row - a teacher and mentor, a charming and witty friend and devoted mother, died Monday of breast cancer...'She understood the qualities of the components of the justice system and knew what it took to produce good results for her clients. Her honesty and integrity were unquestioned.'"[more] |
10/17/2011 David Kairys | Associated Press |
| At Sunday's dedication ceremony for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, President Barack Obama carved out his own version of black leadership with a message of racial unity. David Kairys, a civil rights attorney and professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, wished Obama had provided a clear reckoning of remaining racial problems. "We eliminated the worst forms of explicit racism and it became taboo to be racist, but the results of segregation and Jim Crow were basically left in place and just continued over the last 40 or 50 years," he said. |
10/17/2011 Jan Ting | New York Times |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting contributed to a New York Times online debate on population growth. "The demographic challenges affecting Social Security and Medicare should not be addressed by further increasing the current historically high level of legal immigration to the U.S., which would only increase the eventual demands on those programs and aggravate other social problems. Instead our legal immigration program should be more narrowly focused on admitting immigrants who are most likely to make contributions to solving our challenges."[more] |
10/12/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | BBC Radio |
| Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru appeared on BBC Radio to discuss his book, Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL and the potential for a Rooney Rule anaolog in the soccer community in the United Kingdom. The NFL's Rooney Rule mandates that at least one person of color be interviewed during a search for a head coach. |
10/11/2011 David Post | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A chat on Facebook has resulted in charges of solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy for a local pair. "'As people communicate more this way, as Facebook or email or text messaging become primary means of communicating, you would suspect that police are there watching what people are saying,' said Temple University law professor David Post...To win a conviction, the prosecution will have to prove intent by presenting to a jury more evidence than the defendants' Facebook exchanges, predicted Post, the Temple law professor. 'Their state of mind matters a great deal,' he said. 'I could believe that [the defendant] was serious; I could believe that he was not. If I was a juror, I would want to see more evidence than just his [Facebook] response.'"[more] |
10/10/2011 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Following a usual course of events, a man convicted of bank robbery filed a motion for a new trial. What was unusual was filing the motion under seal. "Historically, court documents in America are presumed to be public. 'There is a strong constitutional presumption that all court proceedings should be open,' said David Kairys, a professor of law at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. 'It goes back to the founding of the country.'"[more] |
10/10/2011 David Post | Times of Trenton |
| The David Library of the American Revolution will host Temple Law professor David Post as part of its lecture series. Professor Post will deliver, "The Continuing Saga of Thomas Jefferson and the Internet," examining Jefferson’s views on the First Amendment and the Copyright Clause of Article One, along with their implications for our modern-day use of the Internet.[more] |
10/10/2011 Henry Richardson | Washington Daybook |
| Temple Law professor Henry Richardson will participate in the George Mason University School of Public Policy's upcoming National Race and Public Policy Conference. He will appear on a panel, "International Race and Public Policy."[more] |
10/7/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Targeted News Service |
| Peter Spiro, the Charles Weiner professor of law at Temple Law School will deliver a lecture at Wayne State University Law School's Program for International Legal Studies. The talk is titled, "The Libya Intervention and Executive War Powers." |
10/4/2011 | New York Times |
| Alabama's new law requires schools to ascertain the immigration status of their pupils. Beasley School of Law professor Peter Spiro foresees some unintended consequences. "Alabama might come to understand the value of immigrants, even undocumented ones, as they flee the state. Undocumented aliens are members of the community, their immigration status notwithstanding. That's why Alabama church leaders brought an unprecedented suit to quash the law. Undocumented aliens also contribute to the economy. Across the state line in Georgia, farmers are bleeding money as they find themselves with no one to bring in the harvest. As Alabama faces a similar dislocation, it may come to appreciate undocumented aliens, too."[more] |
10/4/2011 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In an op-ed, Professor Jan Ting of Temple's Beasley School of Law argues against efforts to change the electoral college, the system that U.S. founders created for presidential elections. "I would prefer to see both political parties abandon their efforts to change how the electoral college votes," Ting wrote. "The traditional constitutional role of states in the election of presidents should be preserved. This can best be done by maintaining the practice in all states but two of allocating all of each state's electoral votes for the candidate who wins the popular vote in that state."[more] |
10/3/2011 | Jersey Journal |
| Temple Law tax professor Jan Ting thinks letting the Bush tax cuts expire is a better idea than complicating the tax code with an alternative minimum tax. "If we're going to raise taxes, that's a pretty good and simple way to do it. Just increase the tax rates. An even better way to raise taxes is to eliminate or reduce tax subsidies in the form of deductions, like that allowed for interest paid on home mortgages. Eliminating deductions both simplifies the tax code and raises revenue at the same time." |
9/30/2011 Frank McClellan | Legal Intelligencer |
| "Attorneys and doctors have teamed up in Philadelphia to improve health care for low-income families and their children through PhilaKids medical-legal partnership (MLP) between St. Christopher's Children's Hospital and the Legal Clinic for the Disabled (LCD)...Frank McClellan, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law and co-director of the Center for Health Law Policy and Practice, said: 'We've learned...working with community organizations that many times people don't get the health care they need because they run into legal barriers that can be resolved...So if you have someone who's a part of the htealth care team who can idenfity an issue early, you can get health care on a more timely basis.'" |
9/29/2011 Muriel Morisey | CNN Wire |
| A Christianity Today article correlated faith and patriotism. "Flying the flag is among the easiest ways to display patriotism. Is it also an expression of religion? In an article titled 'Flag Desecration, Religion and Patriotism,' Temple University associate law professor Muriel Morisey suggested that for proponents of a constitutional amendment, 'the American flag is the equivalent of a sacred religious icon, comparable to Christianity's crucifix, Judaism's Torah and the Quran of Islam. No court has designated patriotism as a religion for Establishment Clause purposes, but in every other significant respect it operates as a religion in American culture. Regardless of the religious beliefs we profess, we simultaneously practice patriotism.'"[more] |
9/29/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Guardian (U.K), Los Angeles Times |
| Civil rights and immigrant support groups have filed an appeal against a federal judge's refusal to block key parts of Alabama's tough new immigration law, regarded as the most draconian in the country. "The bottom line is it [the ruling] effectively criminalizes undocumented illegal persons in the U.S.," said Peter Spiro, an immigration law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "If they start enforcing this, the consequences would be dramatic; there would be a mass exodus in Alabama of undocumented aliens. The question mark is, there's a lot of discretion to enforce laws."[more] |
9/29/2011 | New York Times, Los Angeles Times |
| A federal judge on Wednesday upheld most of the sections of Alabama's far-reaching immigration law that had been challenged by the Obama administration, including portions that had been blocked in other states. The decision, by Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn of Federal District Court in Birmingham, makes it much more likely that the fate of the recent flurry of state laws against illegal immigration will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court. It also means that Alabama now has by far the strictest such law of any state...Peter J. Spiro, a law professor at Temple University, said: 'This decision really gives the anti-immigration folks more of a victory than they’ve been getting in other courts. There's a lot for them to be happy about.' Still, Professor Spiro added, 'This is not the last word on the constitutionality of this statute.'"[more] |
9/28/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Pennsylvania's Supreme Court today ordered a Philadelphia judge to do fact-finding on a death penalty defense group's claim that Philadelphia's pay-rate for lawyers appointed to represent the poor in capital cases is so low it violates the client's constitutional right to an effective defense." Blocked in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, the petition has gained support from groups and Temple University Law School dean JoAnne Epps.[more] |
9/28/2011 David Post | thelegalblitz.com |
| Temple Law IP professor David Post analyzed O’Bannon v. NCAA on thelegalblitz.com. This lawsuit challenges an NCAA provision that restricts players from licensing their likeness in perpetuity.[more] |
9/25/2011 Jan Ting | 6ABC-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appears on "Inside Story" on 6ABC (WPVI) to discuss various issues including the School Reform Commission, Dwight Evans and the Mosaica-Martin Luther King High School scandal. |
9/25/2011 | It's Your Call |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared in an episode of "It's YourCall." Professor Ting was part of a panel that searched for causes of and solutions for the country's current challenges.[more] |
9/24/2011 Mark Rahdert | York Daily Record |
| A case contesting the constitutionality of the individual health care mandate is rising from federal district court in Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs and attorney have their eyes on the Supreme Court. "If the Supreme Court rules the mandate as constitutional, it wouldn't be the first time people are forced to buy a type of insurance, [Temple Law professor Mark] Rahdert said. People who live in low-lying areas buy flood insurance and anyone who wants to drive on the highway gets auto insurance. 'The argument a lot of people have is that (the health care mandate) is fundamentally unfair,' Rahdert said. 'Many people don't want to be told how to spend their money.'"[more] |
9/23/2011 Scott Burris | WHYY/NewsWorks |
| A new study funded by Temple's Public Health Law Research Program has found that Philadelphia's lead court, established in 2002 to speed the cleanup of lead hazards in apartments, has been effective at reducing lead exposure. Before the court, landlords fixed problems within the first year about 7 percent of the time. After the court was in operation, that rate rose to about 77 percent. "We're in the business of getting people to understand that law matters to health, and this is a great example of how," said Scott Burris, director of the Public Health Law Research Program. |
9/22/2011 Alice G. Abreu | Tax Notes Today |
| A Treasury report finds the accuracy of tax returns prepared at IRS volunteer preparation sites in 2011 fell sharply. "Alice G. Abreu, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, agreed that some findings in the report were troubling but also that the scenarios presented by auditors did not fit with the majority of cases seen at volunteer taxpayer clinics. Abreu said she was encouraged that in nearly every case, volunteers accurately accounted for the earned income tax credit, exemptions, and the taxpayer's filing status...'I take great comfort in the fact that for what I think are the bread-and-butter issues for most VITA sites...that the accuracy rate is so high,' Abreu said. Abreu has served as both a return preparer and reviewer at volunteer sites." |
9/15/2011 David Post | Risk & Insurance |
| Professor David Post had Risk and Insurance Magazine's quote of the month in September. "The potential copyright liability that could attach to redistribution of these recordings is so large--and more importantly, so uncertain--that there may never be a public distribution of the recordings." |
9/14/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Waco Tribune |
| "Several Big 12 schools, including Baylor University, have stalled longtime conference rival Texas A&M's bid to join the SEC...Several lawyers familiar with the Big 12 situation said Baylor has avenues it might pursue against Texas A&M, the SEC or its TV networks, but it could be tough sledding...'I still think that there's an argument that there was tortious interference with a business relationship,' said Jeremi Duru, a sports law expert at Temple University in Philadelphia. 'For there to be tortious interference, the SEC's got to have been active in inducing (the Aggies) to leave,' Duru said...A tortious interference lawsuit targeting the SEC, he said, would lead to a discovery process in which lawyers would pore over communications between A&M leaders and officials at the SEC and its member schools. 'Discovery is never fun and often very costly,' Duru said." |
9/11/2011 Jan Ting | 6ABC-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on 6ABC-TV's "Inside Story" to comment on a variety of local and national news topics. The roundtable considered Philadelphia City Council redistricting, Philadelphia public and parochial school crises, lessons on the anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks and the U.S. Postal Service's labor and budget issues.[more] |
9/8/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Sporting News, Wall Street Journal Law Blog |
| Big 12 schools feel the departure of Texas A&M will diminish the value of conference television rights, so these institutions are unwilling to waive their legal claims. Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru thinks they've done the right thing. "'It obviously upsets a lot of people, to the extent that they think we're an overly litigious society and this is one more example. But if you're their lawyer, recognizing what the stakes are and having not been able to fully examine what the claims might be, you have to be able to maintain your ability to bring them.' Duru said it's unclear whether a lawsuit could be prosecuted successfully until it's known what claim the plaintiffs would make. He said a suit potentially could take several forms: tortious interference with business relations, breach of contract, or detrimental alliance."[more] |
9/6/2011 David Kairys | Temple News |
| Temple Law professor David Kairys has earned the National Lawyers' Guild 2011 Law for the People Award for his work as a civil rights lawyer. "I'm really proud to have been part of the civil rights struggles over the years and to have it recognized," Kairys said. "It's very gratifying."[more] |
9/1/2011 Salil Mehra | CNNmoney.com |
| The U.S. Department of Justice wants to roadblock AT&T's merger with T-Mobile. But does that mean the deal is off? Welcome to uncharted territory. The kind of lawsuit that the Justice Department filed against AT&T is an extreme rarity. But before we start writing requiems for the deal, it's important to note that companies have coin-flip odds of successfully challenging the Justice Department in court. The DOJ has won just under 50% of its court cases, according to Salil Mehra, an antitrust law professor at Temple University and former U.S. Attorney for the antitrust division of the DOJ.[more] |
9/1/2011 JoAnne Epps | York Daily Record |
| Two law experts do not believe it's a problem that York County court officials secretly selected a jury in a high-profile murder case of a couple accused of killing their 7-year-old adopted Russian son. However, an attorney with the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association questions why the court deviated from its usual practice and believes anyone who feels it was inappropriate could appeal the issue to a higher court. Trials, by their nature, need to be public, Temple University law professor JoAnne Epps said. If the doors to the courtroom were locked, that would be bad. In general, proceedings are open to the public, but notification isn't necessarily required, she said.[more] |
8/31/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | NBC-10 News |
| Temple Law Trial Advocacy director Edward Ohlbaum appeared in an NBC-10 Investigators episode. Professor Ohlbaum explained the limits of police procedure in cases of arrest when identity theft is involved.[more] |
8/29/2011 Jan Ting | Jersey Journal |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting's views on the Obama administration's eased immigration policies appear in the Jersey Journal. "President Obama's new, generous, and numerically unlimited immigration policy may turn out to be a net winner for him in his 2012 reelection campaign--unless a Republican challenger appears who can articulate an alternative immigration policy of strict enforcement of immigration law in order to deter illegal immigration and protect American workers from low-wage immigrant competition."[more] |
8/29/2011 Alice G. Abreu | Tax Notes Today |
| Alice Abreu, a tax professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, has a letter appearing in Tax Notes Today. Professor Abreu expresses her dismay that Miriam Fisher's (Morgan Lewis & Bockius) efforts and contributions as a tax lawyer weren't recognized in a book review of Innocent Spouse. "The picture of Fisher that emerges from the book is that of the consummate professional woman, junior to the former IRS commissioner she works with but an accomplished lawyer who becomes the point-person for her firm's client and who has front line responsibility for her defense...It is too bad that Fisher's prominent role in the book and the tax matter that it describes did not make it into the review designed for an audience of tax lawyers, many of whom are women and all of whom would benefit from reading the portrayal of a tax lawyer as competent, compassionate, able able to see the merits of the IRS's position while still representing her client zealously and bringing the matter to a satisfactory resolution for both sides." |
8/24/2011 Eleanor Myers | Tennessean |
| Temple Law professor Eleanor Myers served on the committee reviewing rule violations by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville men's basketball program. The Division I Committee on Infractions is an independent group comprised of reporesentatives across NCAA membership and the public. The long-time NCAA Faculty Athletic Representative for Temple University, Professor Myers was appointed to the Committee on Infractions in 2009.[more] |
8/17/2011 Hosea Harvey | New Public Health |
| Temple Law professor Hosea Harvey and Public Health Law Network attorney Kerri Lowrey were interviewed by the national health law blog, New Public Health, regarding legal and legislative approaches to concussions in youth sports.[more] |
8/14/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Senator Charles Grassley wants the ABA to sort out law school employment data. "Grassley focuses on student-loan default rates and their impact on taxpayers, who finance the loans...Temple Law School dean JoAnne A. Epps said she welcomed the additional scrutiny but added that much of the criticism was a result of inadvertent imprecision...'I think it is perfectly appropriate for people to ask law schools to make sense of the statistics they report. That is a completely fair question,' Epps said."[more] |
8/11/2011 Eleanor Myers | Columbus Dispatch |
| Temple Law professor Eleanor Myers will be part of the ten-member NCAA Committee on Infractions adjudicating alleged violations by The Ohio State football program. |
8/9/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | The Post Game |
| Jeremi Duru, associate professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, offered reforms to address heat-related deaths at school football practices. "Law exists to maintain order when the community at large is unable to police itself. And with respect to football--which leads to far more heat-related deaths than any other sport played in American high schools--we have proven unable to police ourselves...That is why the norms have to change. Detailed national high school football practice standards should be established to guide coaches with respect to everything from minimum water intake to maximum mileage run based on the prevailing heat index. If a death occurs during a non-conforming practice, prosecution should be a presumption."[more] |
8/5/2011 Duncan Hollis | CNN |
| Duncan Hollis, an international law and foreign affairs expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law, joined CNN's "American Morning" to discuss a massive cyber-espionage scheme targeting U.S. corporations, non-profits, government agencies and defense contractors. Some speculate the attack had roots in China. "Dozens of governments" have set up their own "cyber-commands," Hollis explained, "making the environment much more complicated in terms of the various actors that are now out there--not just cyber-criminals any more, but actual military operations in cyberspace."[more] |
8/5/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Business Journal |
| JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law, has been a federal prosecutor, taught in China and Japan, worked for justice for the victims of genocide in Africa and received numerous prestigious awards. But when asked to name her greatest source of pride as a professional, Epps--honored by the Philadelphia Business Journal as a 2011 Minority Business Leader Award winner--recalls her childhood. "I remember not being able to use public restrooms...when we went to visit my grandparents in Virginia. I remember not being able to buy a Brownie uniform because we didn't have the money. So to be doing these things is amazing. I guess I am most proud of being a symbol of what you can do when you set your mind to it."[more] |
8/4/2011 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting sees fraudlent asylum claims as a weakness in U.S. immigration policy. His remedy: restore adjudication of asylum claims to the State Department. "Adjudication of asylum claims was taken away from the State Department because during the Reagan administration, that department was thought to favor asylum claims from countries whose governments the administration opposed, such as Nicaragua, and to reject asylum claims from countries whose governments the administration supported, such as El Salvador and Guatemala. But there will always be political pressures on these decisions, and there are strong political pressures today on the adjudicators at the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice."[more] |
8/4/2011 Stephen Mikochik | Washington Times |
| In an op-ed piece, Temple Law professor Stephen Mikochik takes issue with recent health care legislation mandating coverage of all forms of FDA approved contraception. "The decision provides no exemption for individuals who consider such services immoral. Thus, Americans will have little choice but to participate in health plans that offer such services and to subsidize the provision through the premiums they are required to pay...Americans are a religious people who respect the conscientious scruples of their fellow citizens. From Colonial times, those who believed the Bible forbade them from taking oaths were permitted to affirm instead, a practice the Constitution itself confirms...Although the president may have no scruples about pressuring people to violate their consciences, I have faith that Americans will vote to restore our long tradition of religious freedom when they visit the polls next fall."[more] |
8/2/2011 James Strazzella | Philadelphia Inquirer, CBS Radio |
| "In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled victim-impact statements are acceptable at sentencing as long as they do not prejudice a defendant's rights. It set the stage for legal debate over where to draw the line...Jim Strazzella, a criminal-law professor at Temple Law School, said some legal experts believe it's therapeutic to let victims and their families air their sorrow in court through the use of videos. 'Judges may well understand that victims need to get it out of their system' and may allow a video to be played before deciding whether it is relevant, he said. Afterward, a judge may choose not to consider it when determining the appropriate sentence, he said."[more] |
8/1/2011 Peter J. Spiro | ABA Journal |
| In Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, the U.S. Surpeme Court upheld an Arizona state law that can punish employers who hire illegal immigrants. A decision in U.S. v. Arizona, challenging the state's "immigration law that allows police to stop and question people they suspect of entering the state illegally" is still forthcoming. "Experts doubt the justices will accept it because it rests on shakier constitutional ground. 'I think they were very careful not to send any cue beyond Whiting,' says Temple University law professor Peter J. Spiro. Nevertheless, lawyers and experts on both sides agree the court spoke clearly just by deciding Whiting in the first place. 'The argument that this is exclusively a federal power is off the table,' Spiro says."[more] |
8/1/2011 Robert J. Reinstein | CBN News |
| An American citizen who was born in Jerusalem in 2002 is taking legal action in an effort to change the State Department's policy of recording Israel as the place of birth on passports of American children born in Jerusalem. "The Obama administration failed to convince the High Court not to hear the case. Additionally, the justices will force all sides to face the question of whether the contentious law 'impermissibly infringes the president’s power to recognize foreign sovereigns.' In the past, the courts have said that the president's authority to 'receive ambassadors and other public ministers' also means that he has the power to recognize foreign governments. Robert J. Reinstein, a law professor at Temple University, disagrees with this sentiment and claims that the president does not have the authority to recognize foreign states and governments."[more] |
8/1/2011 Amy Sinden | CQ Today |
| The Center for Progressive Reform criticized "the Obama administration for negotiations with automakers on a deal to increase vehicle fuel economy standards...'These are decisions for the experts running the agencies, not political compromises doled out by the White House,' said center scholar Amy Sinden, an associate law professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law." |
7/28/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Business Journal |
| The Philadelphia Business Journal named Temple Law Dean JoAnne Epps as a Minority Business Leaders Award winner. "The award recognizes professionals, community organizers and entrepreneurs of color for the example they set in business and in the community." |
7/26/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Allentown Morning Call |
| Grand juries are powerful tools for investigators to develop evidence and obtain testimony from reluctant witnesses that can help solve difficult crimes, both old and new. Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law says prosecutors sometimes use a grand jury to gauge public sentiment before filing charges in cases that are likely to be controversial, like shootings by police officers. He added that the grand jury process is also subject to criticism that it is one-sided, in that defense lawyers don't have the opportunity to present evidence or cross-examine witnesses.[more] |
7/26/2011 Robert J. Reinstein | New York Times |
| At issue in the Supreme Court case MBZ v. Clinton is whether a 2002 law directing the State Department to record the place of birth for American children born in Jerusalem as Israel has Congress stepping too far into Executive branch territory. The justices "directed the two sides to address the broad question of whether the law 'impermissibly infringes the president's power to recognize foreign sovereigns.' That power is rooted in the constitutional text, but not in an especially obvious way. The courts have said the president's authority to 'receive ambassadors and other public ministers' implies the power to recognize foreign governments. A recent article in the University of Richmond Law Review argued that the original understanding of the clause concerning ambassadors did not support that leap. 'The Constitution, by its terms, does not give the president the power to recognize foreign states or governments,' wrote Robert J. Reinstein, a law professor at Temple University."[more] |
7/20/2011 Peter J. Spiro | AP Planner |
| Temple Law professor Peter Spiro appeared on a panel at the National Press Club to discuss state immigration laws. The event and panel, "SB1070, ICE and E-Verify: The Founding Fathers' View" was produced by Immigration Works USA and the New America Foundation.[more] |
7/20/2011 Nancy Knauer | Slate Magazine |
| Presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann's views on homosexuality are coming under scrutiny. Past statements imply that a gay lifestyle is a choice or contagion. "The belief that homosexuality is highly contagious is at the heart of the perspective...shared by the Bachmanns and many other conservative Christians, but it is not new. As Nancy Knauer, a Temple University law professor, has written, the notion of homosexuality as a contagion has been a staple of American culture for almost 100 years, if not longer. Among the tenets of the contagion model Knauer describes are the ideas that homosexuality is a choice, that homosexuals target children, and that 'everyone in society is potentially at risk because homosexuality is very seductive and, apparently, has universal appeal.'"[more] |
7/18/2011 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Despite the nationwide hiring of more than 40 additional judges in the past year, the number of deportation cases, asylum claims, and green-card fraud prosecutions in America's 59 immigration courts is at an all-time high: 275,000, and climbing...There is money for 'night vision goggles for border patrols,' said Temple University law professor Jaya Ramji-Nogales, coauthor of the book Refugee Roulette, but 'next to nothing to fix the problems of the courts.'"[more] |
7/15/2011 JoAnne Epps | States News Service |
| Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps attended a summit in Beijing between deans from leading law schools in the United States and China. Followng the summit, the deans issued a joint statement outlining their shared principles, including recognition of and support for the rule of law and the objective of establishing ongoing two-way collaboration between top U.S. and Chinese law schools. |
7/14/2011 Eleanor Myers | Targeted News Service |
| Temple Law professor Eleanor Myers' service on the NCAA Committee on Infractions continues. Professor Myers recently heard a case involving the Georgia Institute of Technology. The school was found to have committed violations in its football and men's basketball programs. |
7/10/2011 Jan Ting | 6ABC-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on 6ABC-TV's "Inside Story." The roundtable considered Philadelphia Council redistricting, teacher ratings, Phillystat and the federal debt ceiling.[more] |
7/9/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "The parents of an 11-year-old girl who died after falling off a Ferris wheel in Wildwood last month have sued the amusement park...The filing of the suit in Philadelphia likely represents a strategic move on the part of the plaintiffs. The [parents'] attorneys have argued that Pennsylvania is the appropriate jurisdiction because the amusement park does business and markets itself there. Philadelphia is widely considered a favorable venue for plaintiffs' suits. 'The jury verdicts are substantially larger and more frequently returned in Philadelphia than they are, for example, in the counties,' said Edward D. Ohlbaum, a Temple University law professor. 'That's not inconsistent with most major urban areas.'"[more] |
7/8/2011 Eleanor Myers | Targeted News Service |
| West Virginia University committed major violations involving failure to monitor by two former head football coaches and by the institution, according to findings by the Division I Committee on Infractions. Penalites, including probation and reduced scholarships were assessed. As a member of this NCAA committee, Temple Law professor Eleanor Myers reviewed this case. |
7/7/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple Law's Director of Trial Advocacy, Professor Edward Ohlbaum participated in the 3d Cozen O'Connor Trial Academy. The week-long academy helped 23 lawyers from across the country practice and develop their trial skills. |
7/4/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Law School graduate Kevin Harden, Jr. is among Philadelphia's newest city prosecutors. "Harden is a rarity among city prosecutors--someone who lived both sides of the law, went straight, and now prosecutes people for doing the kinds of things he once did...[Temple Law Dean JoAnne] Epps, who recommended Harden for an internship with Common Pleas Court Judge Leon Tucker, calls Harden a 'real special guy...engaging, smart, and thoughtful.'"[more] |
6/29/2011 Jane Baron | Slate Magazine |
| Temple Law professor Jane Baron helped Slate Magazine make sense of gift-giving in the eyes of the law. At issue is whether Charlie Sheen can demand an ex-girlfriend return a car he purchased for her.[more] |
6/29/2011 | Slate.com |
| In response to the news that Charlie Sheen had asked his ex-girlfriend to return an expensive car after the couple broke up, Slate's "Explainer" explored whether recipients must respond when people demand the return of gifts. Jane Baron of Temple's Beasley School of Law helped provide the answer: Giving a gift represents a relinquishment of property rights, so a true gift never has to be returned. There are three elements in gift-giving: intent, delivery and acceptance. Without all three, the original owner can demand his property back.[more] |
6/28/2011 David Kairys | Allentown Morning Call |
| When Sands Casino sold land to Bethlehem development partners, the deeds banned union organizing and activities that "a reasonable casino operator" would consider "offensive"..."David Kairys, a constitutional law professor at Temple University, said case law dating to the 1940s shows that covenants such as deed restrictions have constitutional limitations. For example, covenants can't be used for racial discrimination, even on private property. After reviewing the Sands' restrictions, Kairys said he expected courts would extend that reasoning to the First Amendment as well. He said free speech, with some restrictions, is guaranteed on public sidewalks, streets and parks. 'It's un-American and so clearly wrong,' Kairys said, referring to the restrictions. 'Justices--liberal or conservative--would invalidate these restrictions.'"[more] |
6/28/2011 Peter J. Spiro | C-SPAN |
| Peter Spiro of Temple's Beasley School of Law testified before the Senate foreign relations committee on the issue of military action in Libya and the War Powers Resolution. "In my view U.S. participation in the Libya operation has been lawful. The president had constitutional authority to initiate U.S. participation without advance Congressional authorization. That participation continues to be lawful," Spiro said.[more] |
6/27/2011 | AP Planner |
| Temple Law professor Peter Spiro will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a hearing on the conflict in Libya. "The U.S. House of Representatives voted June 24 to deny President Barack Obama the opportunity to wage war against Libya--rejecting a measure to authorize the mission for a year while prohibiting U.S. ground forces in the North Africannation--but fell short in an effort to cut off funds for the operation. Vote came amid debate over the legality of U.S.involvement with President Barack Obama saying he is not required to seek permission from Congress because the U.S.is in a supporting role in the NATO-led bombing mission and American forces are not facing 'hostilities.'" |
6/27/2011 | CQ Congressional Testimony, C-SPAN |
| The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Senator John Kerry recognized Temple Law professor Peter Spiro as a witness in a hearing on the President's deployment of U.S. forces in Libya. "The rule of law is a central feature of our system for addressing questions relating to the use of force. There are important respects in which congressional participation is constitutionally demanded. However, I do not believe that the War Powers Resolution affects the constitutional balance of powers with respect to the use of force. WPR-related disputes such as the one you are considering today distract from key decisions on which the collective judgment of the executive and legislative branches remains essential. Congress and the President should leave aside their differences on the War Powers Resolution and work towards mutually acceptable terms for continued U.S. participation in NATO operations in Libya."[more] |
6/24/2011 | Washington Post |
| The House voted to reject President Obama's introduction of U.S. forces into the conflict in Libya. But the House then voted down an even more aggressive rebuke of Obama: a proposal to strip away part of the funding for the Libyan campaign. The House's surprising mixed decision could ease congressional pressure on Obama, at least for now. "It shows Congress's tendency towards indecision on these kinds of questions," said Peter Spiro of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "The White House will look at this as business as usual."[more] |
6/22/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe |
| "One of Philadelphia's most controversial crime-fighting tactics--stop-and-frisk searches of pedestrians--will soon be under court supervision after a settlement between the city and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU sued the city last year over allegations that police officers used racial profiling to determine whom to stop, and that the stops were conducted with little or no justification...Officials Tuesday described a multi-tiered system of oversight that will be in effect by next year. The Police Department will create an electronic database into which stop-and-frisk reports will be entered...JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple University's Beasley School of Law, will serve as an independent monitor and make recommendations based on regular reviews of the data."[more] |
6/15/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Baltimore Sun |
| A bipartisan group of lawmakers filed a lawsuit against President Obama over U.S. involvement in Libya, alleging that the White House overstepped its constitutional authority when it launched the military effort in March. Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said courts have dismissed such suits on jurisdictional grounds rather than dealing with the merits of the case. "That's probably as it should be," he said. "The political branches have adequate tools for protecting their...interests."[more] |
6/13/2011 Amy Sinden | Huffington Post |
| In a profile of regulation czar Cass Sunstein, a Temple Law professor criticized the administration's reforms. "'The problem is that they're wasting time trying to make the political move to the center to placate industry--talking about the 'terrible cost of regulation' and the 'burdens of regulation'--and in the meantime they've got important regulations waiting to go out, and they're pulling back on them,' says Amy Sinden, a Temple University law professor and member of the Center for Progressive Reform, a network of pro-regulation academics that is funded by reform-minded foundations."[more] |
6/13/2011 James Shellenberger | Reading Eagle |
| Like other recent law school graduates, Brian Grubb spends his days cramming for the bar exam. But there was a time when the 29-year-old Wernersville man's future seemed in jeopardy, hampered by a debilitating injury. Grubb was not one to make excuses in classes, but simply worked as independently as he could, said James A. Shellenberger, a Temple law professor. That tenacity will serve Grubb well in his future, Shellenberger said. "I think he is going to be a terrific lawyer," he said.[more] |
6/10/2011 Jan Ting | News Journal |
| "Ever since the 2000 presidential election, when Al Gore won the popular vote but George Bush won the presidency by winning the majority of votes in the Electoral College, a predictable but misguided effort has been under way to try to make the popular vote determine presidential elections instead of relying on the Electoral College, as provided in the Constitution and as traditionally counted," writes Professor Jan C. Ting.[more] |
6/9/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A petition before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court challenges Philadelphia's flat-fee system to pay appointed lawyers in death penalty cases. "The petition--filed on behalf of three Philadelphians charged with first-degree murder and facing the death penalty if convicted--contends that the flat rate used to reimburse appointed capital lawyers is so low it violates their clients' constitutional right to 'effectiveness of counsel.'...JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple University's law school, acknowledged the financial problems the courts and other governmental entities faced. 'Nevertheless, our commitment to justice requires that capital cases, the most serious in our criminal justice system, be conducted with fairness and adequate resources--on both sides,' Epps said."[more] |
6/9/2011 Scott Burris | US Fed News |
| "A new study led by Temple University and published in this month's American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds a widening gap between the evidence on distracted driving and the laws being passed to address the problem...The researchers, including Scott Burris and Evan Anderson of the Beasley School of Law, analyzed distracted driving laws passed between January 1992 and November 2010, and found that laws varied from state to state based on type of mobile communication device (cell phones, laptops, tablet computers), categories of drivers (by age or by driving permit type), and types or locations of MCD use. Enforcement and penalties also varied from state to state." |
6/7/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Hazleton Standard Speaker |
| The city of Hazleton is getting a second chance to argue the constitutionality of its ordinance that discourages hiring of illegal immigrants and renting housing to illegal immigrants. Since it was struck down in the Third Circuit in 2007, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a similar Arizona law. "Temple Law School Professor Peter Spiro said the Arizona decision removes the Third Circuit's original basis for voiding Hazleton's law. 'I think that there is a good chance that the Hazleton ordinance gets revived in the wake of it,' said Spiro, who specializes in immigration and constitutional law. There might be alternative arguments for ruling against Hazleton, but Spiro thinks those arguments are weaker. He said he does't think there's 'much of a distinction' between the housing and employment provisions of the law. 'There may be more of a material distinction because Hazleton is a locality and Arizona a state,' Spiro said."[more] |
6/7/2011 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday gave the Northeastern Pennsylvania city of Hazleton another chance to resurrect its 2006 ordinance cracking down on illegal immigrants. The closely watched local law would penalize landlords who rented to illegal immigrants, and employers who hired them...Peter Spiro, professor of immigration and constitutional law at Temple University Law School, said the Hazleton case can be a national bellwether. 'If the Hazleton ordinance is revived, that is telling the cities and other localities that if they are unhappy about the undocumented population, they can do something about it,' he said."[more] |
6/2/2011 Amy Sinden | BNA Occupational Safety & Health Reporter |
| Under a White House push to reform regulations, OSHA and the Department of Labor recently announced regulatory improvement plans. "Amy Sinden, a professor at Temple University Law School, said May 26 she had hoped to hear more discussion about the possible expansion of government regulations, which were contemplated under the executive order. 'The executive order seemed agnostic as to whether regulation was good or bad,' said Sinden, who is also a member scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform think tank. 'But the language today [at a press announcement] seemed to be that regulation is bad, very one-sided.'" |
6/2/2011 | BNA Occupational Safety and Health Reporter -- House |
| House leadership presented a policy document and legislation seeking to curtail government regulations' burden on business. "Amy Sinden, a law professor at Temple University, rejected the notion that government rules and economic growth are linked. 'This language about regulatory burdens is very familiar,' she said. 'It's the song that they've been singingfor decades: We have to get rid of regulations in order to stimulate the economy.' So far, she said, that idea has not proven true...Sinden said the REINS bill 'proposes real problems,' and 'would end up delaying a lot of regulations. This is always the response of industry and to their allies in the Republican party, to say, 'The sky is falling, and oh my god, if we put scrubbers on smokestacks, the economy will collapse,'' Sinden said." |
5/30/2011 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Confirmation hearings for New Jersey Supreme Court nominee Anne M. Patterson begin Tuesday. Temple Law professor David Kairys speculated that Patterson's history as an attorney for Colt's Manufacturing may be explored. "At the Judiciary Committee hearing, senators should go through every state gun law and ask if Patterson plans to invalidate them, said David Kairys, the Temple law professor who began the [1990s] effort against gun companies. 'You can't ascribe clients' actions to their lawyers,' he said. But it is 'fair game to ask, 'Do you support the position in those cases that the manufacturers took: that the Second Amendment forbids almost all regulation?'' Because New Jersey has some of the country's strongest gun laws, 'I wouldn't accept a dodge on that,' Kairys said. 'A lot of those lawyers, not all of them, are rather ideologically extreme.'"[more] |
5/29/2011 Amy Sinden | Washington Post |
| Late May, the administration announced plans to reform regulations "in a government-wide effort to ease burdens on businesses. Overall, the drive would save hundreds of millions of dollars annually for companies, governments and individuals and eliminate millions of hours of paperwork while maintaining health and safety protections for Americans, White House officials said...'This is the sort of 'Government is bad, industry is good' rhetoric you'd expect to see out of industry lobbyists or right-wing think tanks,' said Amy Sinden, a scholar with the liberal Center for Progressive Reform [and Temple Law Professor]. 'It's obviously a political move to the center' for Obama, she said."[more] |
5/27/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Legal Intelligencer, Associated Press |
| The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an Arizona law that penalizes businesses for hiring workers in the country illegally, buoying the hopes of supporters of state crackdowns on illegal immigration. "It's a very careful and narrowly reasoned opinion, so it doesn't really tip the court's hand one way or the other with respect to SB1070," said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor who specializes in immigration law. "That being said, the court here is validating a state measure that implicates immigration enforcement. The court today has rejected an argument that the states have no business in immigration enforcement. That's off the table."[more] |
5/27/2011 Amy Sinden | New York Times |
| The Obama administration said on Thursday that it would rewrite hundreds of regulations to save businesses and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars a year, the first fruits of a review process announced in January. Amy Sinden, a law professor at Temple University, said the administration seemed interested in appealing to people who viewed regulation as burdensome. “The rhetoric is right out of the playbook that government is bad and industry is good,” said Professor Sinden, who is also a scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform, which advocates for regulators to impose 'sensible safeguards.' “At the same time that they’re crowing about saving industry millions of dollars by repealing regulations, they’re bowing to industry pressure to hold off on new regulations that could be saving thousands of lives each year,” she said.[more] |
5/26/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Washington Post |
| "Is President Obama breaking the law in Libya? Both the White House and congressional leaders appear eager to avoid that question--five days after Obama missed a legal deadline for obtaining Congress's permission for military operations there. But during a House hearing on Wednesday, legislators from both parties blasted Obama for appearing to disregard the 1973 War Powers Resolution. Their criticism was the latest sign that Obama may not be able to avert a debate over the Nixon-era law--a key rule that spells out how America should go to war--simply by ignoring it...'President Obama has clearly violated the letter of the law. And nobody's really jumping up and down that much,' said Peter Spiro, a law professor at Temple University. Obama's lack of response, Spiro said, 'does take this final step of not even bothering to go through the motions.'"[more] |
5/23/2011 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| While it has become increasingly common for schoolhouse fights to be recorded and posted on the Internet, the case raises the issue of whether a teacher has the right to make a video recording of students without their permission and what privacy rights a student has in a school. "It's really somewhat new and a little complicated," said David Kairys, a constitutional-law professor at Temple University. "It's fairly common to use video for in-class kinds of things, and it doesn't seem to raise a problem."[more] |
5/20/2011 JoAnne Epps | Daily News |
| Beasley School of Law student Tony Foltz was one of two students who received the Crossen Award, given to students who overcome adversity and persevere in getting their law degree. Foltz, who was critically injured more than a year ago after being struck by a hit-and-run driver, received his award from Dean JoAnne Epps at Temple Law commencement in Mitten Hall. "It's been tough," he said. "I've just been working really hard to get back on my feet." A Crossen Award also went to graduate Brian Grubb. As an undergrad at Temple, Grubb fell off his loft bed onto a hardwood floor, leaving him paralyzed. After Grubb underwent surgeries and rehab, he returned to Temple to earn a bachelor's degree. One of his doctors nudged him to try law school.[more] |
5/17/2011 Duncan Hollis | CNN |
| International Monetary Fund (IMF) chairman Dominique Strauss-Kahn faces numerous criminal charges surrounding his alleged attack on a hotel maid, but some experts say that the charges are moot because of diplomatic immunity. Could it be applied in this case? "Here's the critical point to remember: It's not his immunity," said Duncan Hollis, associate professor and associate dean at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "He receives the benefit of that immunity because the IMF wishes him to be able to function as the head of this organization engaged in delicate negotiations over currency and other financial matters, but ultimately it's the IMF's decision whether they want to maintain it or not."[more] |
5/17/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| For the second time in three weeks, a Philadelphia judge has dismissed on technical grounds a petition contending that court-appointed attorneys cannot effectively defend the poor in death-penalty cases because of the small amount they get reimbursed.The petition asks the court to ban Philadelphia prosecutors from seeking the death penalty unless court-appointed defenders are given enough compensation to properly do their job. Backing the petition are Center City civil rights lawyer Paul Messing and JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple University's law school.[more] |
5/16/2011 Jan Ting | CN8 |
| LaSalle University's Ed Turzanski and Temple Law professor Jan Ting debated the fallout from bin Laden's demise on "It's Your Call with Lynn Doyle."[more] |
5/16/2011 David Kairys | Kashmir Monitor |
| Immediately after president Obama surprised everyone by releasing his long-form birth certificate on April 28, a quickly fielded poll by Survey USA showed that 28 per cent of respondents said they either "still have doubts where the president was born", or they were "sure the document was forged". Blacks are routinely regarded with suspicion, and treated unfairly as a result - usually without whites even realising it. Such is the nature of unconscious racism in the US today. In a forthcoming Temple Law Review article, "Unconscious Racism", professor and civil rights attorney David Kairys begins with an example of unconscious racism.[more] |
5/10/2011 Scott Burris | Legal Intelligencer -- Burris |
| Scott Burris, a professor with Temple law school, and a delegation of faculty and administration recently traveled to Beijing where they participated in the celebration of Tsinghua University's 100th anniversary. Burris, who directs Temple's Center for Health Law, Policy and Practice and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Law Research program, spoke on the use of empirical research in demonstrating the impact of law on society. |
5/10/2011 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer -- Epps |
| Temple University's Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps and a delegation of faculty and administration recently traveled to Beijing where they participated in the celebration of Tsinghua University's 100th anniversary. Epps discussed the importance of globalizing legal education. |
5/5/2011 Jan Ting | Allentown Morning Call |
| U.S. Representative Lou Barletta "said he was in the process of crafting a bill that would withhold all federal funding from so-called 'sanctuary cities,' those that do not fully enforce federal immigration laws." Temple Law professor Jan Ting "finds it hypocritical that self-designated 'sanctuary cites' defy the federal government, yet localities and states wanting to enact stricter immigration laws are told they're not allowed."[more] |
5/5/2011 | WHYY First |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on WHYY's First news program. Professor Ting and former New Castle County President Stephanie Hanson discussed public schools and politics.[more] |
5/1/2011 David Post | ABA Journal |
| The swing era lasted barely a decade—roughly the mid-1930s until the end of World War II—but it was a golden age for jazz.The potential copyright liability that could attach to redistribution of these recordings is so large—and, more importantly, so uncertain—that there may never be a public distribution of the recordings,” wrote David G. Post, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, on the Volokh Conspiracy blog. “Tracking down all the parties who may have a copyright interest in these performances, and therefore an entitlement to royalty payments (or to enjoining their distribution), is a monumental—and quite possibly an impossible—task.”[more] |
5/1/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Ebony |
| Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru's book, Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL is featured in the May Ebony Magazine Culture section. |
5/1/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Tribune Magazine |
| Philadelphia Tribune Magazine features an extensive profile of JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law, in its May cover story. The article traces her trajectory from working class roots to Temple Law dean. "It's great to work at an institution like Temple University because of its important role in this city," Epps said. "It's a blessing to work somewhere that I know I am making a difference." |
5/1/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Public Opinion News |
| A 10-year-old girl charged with murder this week in Franklin County presents a highly unusual legal situation, according to experts. Professor Edward Ohlbaum of Temple Law School said that young children charged with murder are "almost invariably" decertified to enter the juvenile court system. "It's obviously an extremely unusual situation where a child that age is going to be charged with murder and tried as an adult," he said.[more] |
4/28/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A week after a Philadelphia judge dismissed it on technical grounds, a petition that could change the way death-penalty lawyers who represent the city's poorest are paid is back in court. This time its proponents hope it is reviewed on its merits. In a statement released to coincide with the refiling, the dean of Temple University's law school said public funding to prosecute death-penalty cases and defend indigent people "has fallen into a state of imbalance." "For both practical and moral reasons, we should seek to eliminate resource disparities in our justice system," said JoAnne Epps. "If we don't pay court-appointed counsel a reasonable rate in death-penalty cases, we risk being a catalyst for the ultimate injustice."[more] |
4/27/2011 Jan Ting | Newsworks.org |
| There are two major reasons for Delaware's dominance of the corporate incorporation business. One reason is the bi-partisan political consensus in Delaware to keep the Delaware corporation statute modern and up-to-date, and to rely on Delaware's corporate law specialists for advice in how to do this. As a result, law students at every law school in the United States study the Delaware corporation statute and the decisions of Delaware courts interpreting that law.[more] |
4/26/2011 Peter J. Spiro | New York Times |
| Anyone surfing the Internet this week is free to read leaked documents about the prisoners held by the American military at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to print them out or e-mail them to friends. Except, that is, for the lawyers who represent the prisoners. Peter J. Spiro, who teaches international law at Temple University, said the government’s dilemma was real. The law is clear: only a document that is properly declassified loses its protections. And if the government ruled that classified documents disclosed to the public were automatically declassified, that would simply create a more powerful incentive for disgruntled government employees to leak.[more] |
4/26/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Philly.Com Sports |
| U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson issued an injunction Monday against the NFL lockout, effectively ordering the league to resume business, but it was not clear how quickly that might happen - if at all. Nelson's ruling in Minneapolis handed a victory to the players. It isn't the final word, but the initial decision will carry weight before the appeals court, said Jeremi Duru, a Temple sports law professor. The appeals process is likely to take one to two months to play out and deliver a more definitive decision. Whoever wins would gain significant leverage in negotiations.[more] |
4/25/2011 Nancy Knauer | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Nancy J. Knauer, a Temple law school professor and author of Gay and Lesbian Elders: History, Law and Identity Politics in the United States (Ashgate Publishing, 2010)" will participate in a National Seniors Panel at the 19th annual Equality Forum "Women earn less in general (76 cents to a man's dollar), and older lesbians are 12 times more likely to live below the poverty line, Knauer says."[more] |
4/25/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Philly.Com Sports |
| It's been about 17 hours since Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered the NFL to lift its lockout, but so far business remains closed -- and it sounds like that will be the case until at least Wednesday. Two people I spoke with Monday – Temple sports law professor Jeremi Duru and New York labor lawyer Seth Borden – said they’d be shocked in Nelson issues a stay, since she just ordered the league to resume business. But the Eighth Circuit is a different story. These are just two opinions given shortly after the ruling, but the fact that they were so similar gives them some weight.[more] |
4/24/2011 Jan Ting | NJN's Due Process |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on "Due Process" to discuss the failed DREAM Act, which would have provided a process for children of illegal immigrants to gain citizenship status. |
4/14/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Los Angeles Times |
| "Following Arizona's lead, the Georgia Legislature on Thursday passed a strict measure that would empower police to check the immigration status of 'criminal' suspects and force many businesses to do the same with potential employees...On Monday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge's order striking down parts of the controversial Arizona law, known as SB 1070, which was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer last year...If Georgia's bill becomes law, it too is likely to wind up in court. But Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor, said its fate may hinge on whether Arizona's laws pass constitutional muster."[more] |
4/13/2011 Edward Ellers | KYW Radio |
| "[M]inority partners in the Sugarhouse Casino are suing the Chicago-based developer who runs the Delaware Avenue gambling house...The suit claims that Neil Bluhm, the majority owner of Sugarhouse, and his partners want to scale back expansion plans and borrow less money in the process. The suit claims the local partners are being bypassed in that decision-making process. Ed Ellers is a Temple University law professor with a specialty in gaming law. 'The decision to refinance in a lesser amount or limit the amount of financing to a certain amount is one of those decisions that looks to be the crux of the matter,' he tells KYW Newsradio. Ellers says it also appears to come down to corporate governance and voting rights of the minority partners on those decisions."[more] |
4/12/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times |
| "A federal appeals court Monday upheld a freeze on key provisions of an Arizona immigration law being challenged by the Obama administration and several immigrant-rights groups. The Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeal refused to lift a preliminary injunction on a provision of the Arizona law that required police to check the immigration status of people stopped for such routine infractions as traffic violations if they are suspected of being in the country illegally...Monday's decision stated that the Arizona law likely violates the Constitution's supremacy clause, suggesting the federal government could win its case against the state. 'The decision squarely sides with the Obama administration's challenge of' the law, said Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law who specializes in immigration."[more] |
4/8/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| The NFL continues to grapple with a labor dispute between team owners and players. The very nature of talks is a point of contention: are they mediating to a legal settlement or negotiating a labor deal? "[O]wners likely want to avoid any settlement that might infer that the [players'] antitrust claim is valid, said Jeremi Duru, a Temple sports law professor."[more] |
4/6/2011 | Philadelphia Inquirer, Sporting News |
| "Courts rarely grant the kind of injunction NFL players are seeking Wednesday in St. Paul, but the outcome of the case is difficult to predict because the circumstances surrounding it are unprecedented, according to two sports law professors. 'The players are claiming that if there is no injunction they'll suffer irreparable harm, and it takes a lot to show that you'll suffer irreparable harm,' said Jeremi Duru, a sports law professor at Temple Law School. Players, for example, have probably suffered little so far in the lockout since game checks won't be missed for months yet. 'Courts don't run around granting injunctions willy-nilly,' Duru said."[more] |
4/4/2011 Edward Ellers | KYW Radio |
| "One of the world's largest online poker websites is teaming up with a Las Vegas casino in hopes of legalizing online gambling in the United States...Professor Ed Ellers teaches gaming law at Temple University Law School and says it's unlikely that the Delaware Valley will legalize online gambling any time soon. 'In New Jersey, a bill to do exactly that was passed, but that bill was recently vetoed by Governor Christie. No proposals similar to that have been made in either Delaware or Pennsylvania.'"[more] |
4/3/2011 Frank McClellan | Eastern Express-Times |
| "St. Luke's Hospital took legal action last week against attorneys, their clients and a legal expert who had previously sued the hospital. The hospital's claim: The lawsuit was frivolous, the people behind the suit knew it, and now, they should pay for it...'The law sets stringent standards to discourage people from suing based on a claim that they should never have been sued,' said Frank McClellan, a law professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. Our legal system rests on a policy preference of encouraging the resolution of conflicts in court or through a judgment rendered by a neutral third party,' McClellan said. 'To allow suits by disgruntled litigators encourages never-ending litigation and has a chilling effect on a citizen's exercise of his right of access to court.'"[more] |
4/3/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Yahoo Sports |
| In a guest piece, Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru observed, "Gordon Taylor, the head of England's Professional Footballers' Association decried the lack of diversity among managers of professional soccer clubs in England. Starting with the Premier League and going down through England's lower soccer divisions, black managers are astoundingly scarce. Only one of the 92 clubs has a black manager, and in the history of English soccer there have only been a handful of black managers. Taylor says this is a huge problem, and he believes the Rooney Rule may be the answer: 'We have got to learn from other sports and other countries, and we saw how many top quality black gridiron players there were and how few black coaches...but they came in with that rule and it’s made a difference, and now it's become assimilated into the culture of the NFL.'"[more] |
4/1/2011 Burton Caine | Jewish Review of Books |
| In an op-ed letter, Temple Law professor Burton Caine decried the implication that Professor Sari Nusseibeh, President of Al Quds University, in Jerusalem, intends to undermine the State of Israel by peace proposals designed to encourage Arab citizens to destroy Israel from within. Professor Caine served as Director of the Temple Law School program in Israel.[more] |
3/29/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Federal News Service |
| Professor Jeremi Duru appeared at Georgetown University's African Studies program to discuss his latest book Advancing the Ball.[more] |
3/29/2011 David Post | Talkadelphia Radio |
| Talkadelphia Radio featured an interview with Beasley Law professor David Post. He spoke on anthropology, history, his Supreme Court clerkship and his most recent book, In Search of Jefferson's Moose.[more] |
3/27/2011 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| By 2050, the number of immigrants in the U.S. is expected to surge past 142 million. Given the implications, Jan C. Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, wonders why politicians have reached a stalemate in the immigration debate. "Too many of our politicians of both political parties don't really want to enforce an immigration cap, but they're equally unwilling to abolish one," he wrote in an opinion piece. "The failure to enforce our existing immigration limit encourages more violators, aggravating the problem and generating high costs of services to illegal entrants for public health, education and law enforcement."[more] |
3/24/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
| "Arizona legislation that would require proof of U.S. birth from presidential candidates is intersecting with the question of whether U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants are entitled to automatic citizenship...Temple University law professor Peter Spiro said there's an emerging thread in bills on presidential candidates' qualifications 'that somebody who is a dual citizen at birth is ineligible for the presidency.' But "there's no evidence that an individual has to be born to U.S. citizens to be eligible for the presidency,' he said." |
3/23/2011 | St. Petersburg Times |
| Temple University law professor Peter J. Spiro said the administration could argue that the threat of a widespread humanitarian disaster in a sensitive region would be tantamount to "an imminent threat to the nation," thus justifying Obama’s actions under his 2007 principle. Indeed, that seems to be the argument Obama made when he said that "left unaddressed, the growing instability in Libya could ignite wider instability in the Middle East, with dangerous consequences to the national security interests of the United States."[more] |
3/23/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Voice of America |
| The NFL's Rooney Rule " mandates that at least one person of color must be interviewed for any head coaching vacancy...Law professor Jeremi Duru...is also a major supporter of the Rooney Rule. Duru recently released a book called Advancing the Ball. 'Everybody watches sports,' Duru said. 'If people see equal opportunity initiative working to the benefit of the institutions involved, the businesses involved and the candidates, I think they will begin to emulate that in other realms of our society.'"[more] |
3/22/2011 Nancy Knauer | Legal Intelligencer |
| "Nancy J. Knauer, a Temple University Beasley School of Law professor, was selected as one of 25 law professors from the United States to be featured in a study titled 'What the Best Law Teachers Do.'"[more] |
3/21/2011 Kristen Murray | National Law Journal, Legal Intelligencer, ABA Journal |
| "A paper written by Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law professor Kristen Murray concluded that laptops actually can enhance the educational experience--and suggests educators think twice about banning them. 'Laptops should be a welcome addition to law school classrooms because they can provide substantial educational benefits to today's law students,' Murray wrote in Let Them Use Laptops: Debunking the Assumptions Underlying the Debate Over Laptops in the Classroom [forthcoming, Okla. City U. L. Rev.]. 'They might not benefit all learners, or be appropriate at all times, but to ban them completely from a lecture hall is to deny students a powerful learning tool--one that many students already use to enhance their learning,' Murray wrote."[more] |
3/14/2011 Amy Sinden | Water Policy Report, Environmental Policy Alert |
| Environmentalists are concerned that EPA's upcoming cooling water rule will provide existing power plants andsome manufacturing facilities with too much flexibility, allowing standards to be developed on a case-by-case basisinstead of more consistent national requirements that apply to plants that will be subject to the rule. Amy Sinden, a scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) and an associate professor of law at Temple University Beasley School of Law, warned in a recent blog on the group's website that statements hint at a "relatively toothless case-by-case permitting regime rather than simply mandating the more environmentally protective close-cycle cooling technology that some plants already use." |
3/14/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Yahoo! Sports |
| Last week, Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara checked the Canadiens' Max Pacioretty into a metal stanchion, sparking a criminal investigation. NFL players would be advised to take note, wrote N. Jeremi Duru, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, in an opinion piece. "If the NFL stages games this fall and a player who endures a devastating hit walks off the field, you can expect a fine or a suspension. In this new world of heightened attention to devastating hits, however, if the player who is hit is seriously injured or worse, don’t be shocked if the law gets involved."[more] |
3/10/2011 | WDTN-TV, KUT-FM |
| Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru has appeared in various media outlets, speaking on his new book, Advancing the Ball : Race, reformation, and the quest for equal coaching opportunity in the NFL and other timely sports issues. Most recently he was interviewed on WDTN Dayton, Ohio and KUT Austin's "In Black America." |
3/9/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Atlanta Journal Constitution |
| Last Wednesday, 93 state House members signed the so-called "birther" bill, which would make presidential and vice presidential candidates prove their citizenship to make the state's ballot. The next day, more than 20 had crossed their names off the list. The bill required presidential candidates to sign an affidavit saying they have never held dual citizenship. "If that [bill] passes in Georgia's Statehouse, it will be challenged and it will be struck down as unconstitutional. I am 100 percent confident," said Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
3/8/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Sporting News |
| Mediated talks between the league and the NFL Players Association resumed Monday afternoon, with the new deadline to make a deal moved to Friday. There is more optimism that a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached, after both sides agreed last week to a seven-day negotiating extension, but Friday looms as another ominous day for the NFL's future. "By no means are we in the clear," said N. Jeremi Duru, a sports labor expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "There still may be a labor war. At best, I'd be cautiously optimistic."[more] |
3/7/2011 Duncan Hollis | Christian Science Monitor |
| Duncan Hollis, an associate law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, calls for an "e-SOS for cyberspace." It would require nations to help states under assault that call for help, similar to what happens when a ship is in trouble, which he believes would help deter cyberconflicts.[more] |
3/1/2011 Peter J. Spiro | Christian Science Monitor |
| A CIA agent who killed two men in Lahore is asserting diplomatic immunity. "'This is a context in which the US is very aggressively asserting international law, which is not the usual posture the US finds itself in,' says Peter Spiro, professor of international law at Temple Law School in Philadelphia. And, he adds, 'it's pretty clear the US is on the right side of the international law.' Pakistan sees the case as anything but clear. Popular anger centers on a perception that [the agent] used excessive force in warding off two thieves, shooting them in their backs in January. There's good reason for the rule, says Spiro. 'One of the premises of diplomatic immunity is that there will be cases where diplomats won't get a fair trial and they will become political footballs. And this case clearly fits this trend.'"[more] |
3/1/2011 James Strazzella | CLEO Edge |
| Temple Law professor Jim Strazzella's efforts in support of educational opportunity were spotlighted in the spring issue of the magazine of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity. |
3/1/2011 David Sonenshein | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams' campaign promise was to make the criminal justice system efficient and effective. As changes are planned and implemented, Temple Law professor David Sonenshein is charing a volunteer state Senate panel to offer guidance.[more] |
2/27/2011 Jan Ting | 6ABC-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on 6ABC-TV's "Inside Story." The roundtable debated hot topics, including state buget battles, early presidential predictions and local education controversies.[more] |
2/27/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | NPR, Comcast Network, WORL |
| Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru has appeared in various media outlets, speaking on his new book, Advancing the Ball : Race, reformation, and the quest for equal coaching opportunity in the NFL and other timely sports issues.[more] |
2/27/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Public Opinion |
| The Franklin County District Attorney's actions in a manslaughter case going to trial this week are intriguing. "'The circumstances are disquieting to be sure,' said Edward D. Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. 'I can certainly understand the questions. You've got a situation that can be read as a premeditated killing based upon motive. Why would the prosecution limit itself, tie its own hand by charging him only with voluntary manslaughter?' he asked...Ohlbaum said he was not being critical of the district attorney or 'second guessing' his decision, but that the publicly available set of facts in the case raised a number of legitimate questions. 'Prosecutors have and should have the ability to exercise discretion when they're charging someone,' he said. 'But when they do that, they need to be prepared to justify it. I'd like to see their justification in this case.'"[more] |
2/25/2011 Eleanor Myers | Targeted News Service |
| Temple Law professor and faculty athletic representative Eleanor Myers continues her service onthe Division I Committee on Infractions with the NCAA. The committee recently examined the Cal Berkeley men's basketball program for recruiting violations. |
2/22/2011 | Targeted News Service |
| The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has penalized the University of Connecticut for violations in its men's basketball program. The members of the committee who reviewed this case include Eleanor Myers, faculty athletics representative and law professor at Temple University. |
2/22/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | WUMS Radio |
| Temple Law Professor Jeremi Duru discussed his The Post Game column on professional football players' financial savvy with Sports Talk host Richard Cross. (Professor Duru's segment begins at the 11:00 in this clip.)[more] |
2/21/2011 Jan Ting | Newsworks |
| In an op-ed, Beasley School of Law Professor Jan Ting, a first-generation American, makes a case for numerical limits on immigration and against President Obama's immigration reforms, especially amnesty and a pathway to citizenship for aliens who are present in violation of American laws. "Amnesty is the single greatest reward for illegal immigration to the U.S., and is sure to set off a stampede of illegal immigration as followed the first big amnesty back in 1986," Ting wrote.[more] |
2/21/2011 Henry Richardson | Targeted News Service |
| Henry Richardson from Temple University School of Law will speak on the topic, "African-Americans, International Law and African International Business Issues" at North Carolina Central University School of Law as part of the RJ Reynolds Professors In Residence Lecture Series. |
2/20/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Washington Post |
| The season has ended but coaching changes keep the NFL's Rooney Rule in the spotlight. "The rule, in place since 2003 for head coaches and expanded in 2009 to include general manager jobs and equivalent front-office positions, mandates that NFL teams interview at least one minority candidate for job openings...Critics of the rule unfairly label it as the NFL's affirmative action program. But there is 'no hiring requirement...there is no quota,' [Temple Law professor Jeremi] Duru said. 'There's no restriction on the number of people who can be interviewed. The only benefit that the interviewee who is of color gets is an opportunity to show that that person can do the job...It is a process-oriented rule,' Duru said in a phone interview Thursday. 'But of course, we can't get into the states of mind of the various decision-makers.'"[more] |
2/20/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | York Daily Record |
| Inconsistent charges in toddler deaths blur the line beween accident and recklessness. "A father moved a gun to a lower shelf in a bedroom closet, and his 2-year-old son found it and mortally wounded himself last year. He wasn't charged. A father was giving his 17-month-old son a bath when he walked away and the boy drowned. He was charged...Temple University law professor Edward Ohlbaum, however, questions why the district attorney chose to prosecute [the father of the drowned boy] when, to him, the situations seem similar. So this father got preoccupied with the uncle, he said. 'What's the difference? The affidavit does not state how much beer -- if any -- [he] drank that night.' It appears that the father was sober enough to be read his Miranda rights soon after [the son's] death, then waive them and give police a statement, Ohlbaum said. 'I've got some questions,' Ohlbaum said."[more] |
2/19/2011 David Kairys | Baltimore Sun |
| The Maryland Senate is considering a bill that would require rail companies bidding for state transit contracts to disclose any ties to the Holocaust. Among the likely bidders, the bill would have an impact on only one company. "David Kairys, one of the nation's handful of experts on bill-of-attainder law, reviewed the Maryland bill and said it raises serious issues. 'It certainly shares a lot in common with other bills of attainder that have been invalidated,' said Kairys, a constitutional law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. 'Bill of attainder is really kind of a mob scene in a legislature. That is what they're supposed to avoid.'"[more] |
2/19/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | The Post Game |
| Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru sees a learning opportunity in the looming NFL lockout. "Under league rules, the minimally paid NFL rookie makes $325,000 per year, a tidy sum by any reasonable standard. Everybody else makes more, and most make exponentially more. Still, according to a 2009 Sports Illustrated study, an astonishing 78 percent of former NFL players are bankrupt or otherwise financially distressed within two years of retirement...I don't wish unemployment on anyone, but if there is a work stoppage, I do hope it hurts players just enough that they start to think about what will be required to save themselves from substantially greater pain several years down the line."[more] |
2/16/2011 Duncan Hollis | New York Times |
| "Armed with a $9 billion ruling against Chevron in Ecuador but little chance of collecting it there, representatives for Ecuadorean villagers said Tuesday that they were looking at waging legal battles against the company in more than a dozen countries where it operates, hoping to force Chevron to pay...Duncan Hollis, associate dean of the Temple University law school, said it was logical for the plaintiffs to take their battle to other countries in the region because 'there is some commonality in Latin American legal systems.' But, Mr. Hollis added, 'there is no international law about how one court is supposed to enforce the judgments from another nation’s court.'"[more] |
2/9/2011 Frank McClellan | Baltimore Sun |
| Temple Law professor Frank McClellan presented the talk, "Health Disparities and the Affordable Health Care Act" at the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Law. The talk was part of the law school's Health Care Reform Speaker Series. |
2/9/2011 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Graduate school rankings based on self-reported data are due out next month. "'I think that those of us in legal education understand the implications of data that is entirely self-reported,' said JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple University Law School. 'Everyone wants the outside evaluation to be as favorable as it can be.' But Epps said she doubted there was widespread cheating, and did not believe the ranking system had a built-in incentive to fudge the numbers. Still, she criticized rankings such as U.S. News for focusing on metrics that tell little about the real value of the educational experience at a given law school."[more] |
2/6/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | KAZI Book Review |
| KAZI's Book Review featured Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru and his new book, Advancing the Ball.[more] |
2/6/2011 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| The NFL's Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coach positions. According to Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru, "expanding the pool of candidates to fill vacancies was a nonthreatening approach to diversity. 'There's no quota system in it,' he explained. 'It's just that one person gets an interview. There's no hiring mandate. Indeed, among interviewees, there's no requirement that there be only four candidates, one of whom must be of color. You can interview as many as you want. Therefore, there's no individual that's being excluded because this person of color is being included. There's nothing unfair about it.' Such an approach, he said, fosters a fairer workplace."[more] |
2/6/2011 Mark Rahdert | Philadelphia Tribune |
| One of the great myths of American civics is that the U.S. Supreme Court is above the fray of partisan politics--but the fate of healthcare reform seems likely to be decided by a conservative court. "The court is quite conservative [and] when you get into unsettled territory, political leanings tend to be strong predictors of individual justices," said Mark Rahdert, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "That's been established extensively by political science studies over generations of court decision making."[more] |
2/6/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
| In his book, Advancing the Ball, professor Jeremi Duru "provides a straightforward account of the campaign started by attorneys Johnny Cochran of O.J. Simpson fame, and lesser-known Cyrus Mehri, an Iranian-American...He also reminds us that the Rooney Rule didn't emerge overnight; the Black Coaches Visitation Program endorsed by former Commissioner Pete Rozelle exposed African-American coaches at black colleges to NFL pre-season camps and Bill Walsh, one-time San Francisco 49'er coach sponsored an internship program for black coaching prospects. The Rooney Rule is the latest in the football league's efforts to diversify the management of its teams whose rosters are filled with black players."[more] |
2/4/2011 | Edge of Sports |
| The satellite radio show, Edge of Sports with Dave Zirin featured an interview with professor Jeremi Duru. They discussed professor Duru's recent book, Advancing the Ball, the Fritz Pollard Alliance and the Rooney Rule in the NFL.[more] |
2/4/2011 | The Tennessean |
| In an opinion piece, Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru discusses how the Rooney Rule has changed the NFL. "Diversity did not increase because teams were required to hire a person of color; after all, the Rooney Rule requires only a meaningful interview, nothing more. Diversity increased because team decision-makers who took the rule seriously opened their minds to candidates who had previously been overlooked, and with open minds, they saw talent that had theretofore gone unrecognized."[more] |
2/4/2011 David Kairys | WHYY-FM |
| Philadelphia's latest attempt at gun control--an ordinance to close the so-called "Florida loophole"--is likely to get the thumbs up from Philadelphia City Council members within the next few weeks. The "Florida loophole" allows Pennsylvania residents to obtain concealed weapon permits in Florida and use them legally in Pennsylvania. David Kairys, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, says council has been down this road before: "They haven't given up. They keep trying, and I think it is possible that this one could survive." But, says Kairys, the law still must contend with state legislators who are supportive of gun rights.[more] |
2/3/2011 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple Law Dean JoAnne Epps participated in a Philadelphia Bar Association panel which examined the legal industry and its future. "Epps, addressing the criticism that law schools are graduating too many students, said that she expects some law schools will go out of business in the country, but she wouldn't expect any of the Philadelphia-area schools to close their doors. But Epps said law schools are not likely to get much smaller because it's not in the history of educational institutions to reduce their student bodies." |
2/1/2011 David Post | Legal Intelligencer |
| David Post, a law professor with Temple, will be a co-presenter of "Beyond Fair Information Practices: Assessing Progress, Exploring New Directions" at a Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review symposium this weekend. |
2/1/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | WYPR (Baltimore) |
| Professor Jeremi Duru was interviewed about his new book, Advancing the Ball, on WYPR Radio in Baltimore. "Duru tells the story of the campaign to enact the 'Rooney Rule,' which stipulates that every team must interview at least one minority candidate when searching for a new head coach. The rule spurred a movement that would substantially impact the NFL and, potentially, the nation." |
1/31/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Legal Intelligencer |
| With money tight, clients are requesting detailed bills to be sure they know where their money's going. But too much detail on an attorney's bill might give away too much information. "Temple University's Beasley School of Law Professor Eddie Ohlbaum, an expert on evidence issues, said bills that include the name of an attorney or an amount of the transaction would not be protected by privilege. What specifically was done during that time, however, could potentially fall under the work product doctrine. 'You're not entitled to learn how I spent my time,' Ohlbaum said." |
1/28/2011 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple Law Dean JoAnne A. Epps will serve on a panel hosted by the Philadelphia Bar Association. The program, "Law and Reorder: Legal Industry Trends and the Future of the Profession," will be held February 1. |
1/20/2011 Jan Ting | Wilmington News Journal |
| "Chinese-Americans and Chinese citizens living in Delaware are greeting this week's visit to Washington by Chinese President Hu Jintao with a mixture of reactions...Delaware resident and Temple Law professor Jan Ting, however, said to shut out China is to ignore economic and political reality. 'We have this interesting relationship with China where we give our dollars to China in exchange for Chinese-made goods and they loan us the dollars back so we buy more Chinese goods,' he said. 'It is mutually beneficial as long as it lasts, but the big question is, how long it will last?' Ting, who has relatives in China and visits regularly, said China has long needed the U.S. as a market for its goods, but that is changing. 'The Chinese domestic market is growing by leaps and bounds.' He said the United States would be well served to preserve the status quo with China. 'Nobody benefits in a world economic crisis,' Ting said, which is what could happen if China severs ties with the U.S. 'The Chinese also have a stake in the world economy as it is,' he said."[more] |
1/15/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | WDIS (Boston) |
| Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru was interviewed about his book, Advancing the Ball, on WDIS Radio in Boston. |
1/12/2011 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Weekly |
| Almost three months into the hunt for the serial rapist and murderer dubbed the Kensington Strangler, the portrait of the primary suspect burns bright in the minds of the victims’ family, frightened residents and police. Amid the mounting pressure to catch the Strangler, stories of young men on the street who fit the description being stopped by police and forced to submit to random DNA swabs whirl through the neighborhood. “A number of people would say of course that the ends justifies the means,” says attorney Edward Ohlbaum, professor at Temple University School of Law. “That if we can get this guy of the street, who cares? If by chance you got the right guy, because of your unconstitutional seizure of that evidence, which is now going to be suppressed … Because of that unconstitutional violation, we’ve allowed a criminal to go free,” says Ohlbaum.[more] |
1/7/2011 Duncan Hollis | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| At issue in a contentious U.S. District Court hearing in Philadelphia: Does a local lawyer have to disclose his most private communications in a lawsuit, filed in Ecuador, against energy giant Chevron? "There is no international law requirement that a court in one country has to enforce a judgment from a court in [another] country," said Duncan Hollis, an international law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law and a former State Department lawyer.[more] |
1/6/2011 Eleanor Myers | Targeted News Service |
| Eleanor Myers, faculty athletics representative and professor of law at Temple University served on the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions that reviewed alleged violations by Hobart College's lacrosse program. |
1/3/2011 Harwell Wells | Financial Times |
| New caps on European bankers' bonuses were ushered in with the new year. Outcry over executive compensation is nothing new. The Financial Times highlighted a study by Temple Law professor Harwell Wells. "Mr. Wells makes the point that in all this, 1930s America had more radical ambitions than anything now contemplated. But the only substantial outcome was compulsory pay disclosure, enacted along with the setting up of the SEC in 1934. That apart, there were pay caps set on Depression-hit railroad companies, which were receiving public subsidy, and on carriers of public mail." |
1/3/2011 N. Jeremi Duru | Gelf Magazine |
| Gelf Magazine interviewed Temple Law professor Jeremi Duru on his recent book, Advancing the Ball, and other issues of sport and the law. "There are gender-equity questions in sport, and we have Title IX that's working toward eradicating those. There are class issues and economic issues in sport, as in anything else...And there are questions with respect to disability--Oscar Pistorius, the runner from South Africa who attempted to qualify for the Olympics with two prosthetic legs, there were questions about whether he should be relegated out of the Olympics into the Paralympics...And there's a transgender issue--the question is, are transgender athletes excluded from what competitions? There are a lot of issues, and I don't hold myself as an expert on all of them. I focus primarily on the racial side of things, but there are equity issues all over sport, as there are equity issues all over society."[more] |
1/1/2011 David Post | Inside Counsel |
| Pending legislation to combat online piracy "would authorize the Justice Department to use civil forfeiture laws to seize the domain names of rogue websites and to block U.S. residents from accessing foreign rogue sites with domain names that are beyond the reach of U.S. authorities...Some experts question whether the civil forfeiture law properly reaches domain names. 'Civil forfeiture laws were not written with domain names in mind,' says Prof. David Post of Temple Law School." |
12/26/2010 Edward Ohlbaum | Bucks County Courier Times |
| Legal scholars say the Bucks County District Attorney's Office's decision not to file criminal charges against a former Montgomery County district attorney in connection with a manslaughter case against the ex-top prosecutor's nephew appears to be correct by the letter of the law. "The fact that Mr. Marino did not volunteer information and left the scene without reporting what he knew is neither obstruction of justice nor making false reports to police," said Edward D. Ohlbaum, a trial advocacy and criminal law expert who teaches at Temple University's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
12/17/2010 Alice G. Abreu | CNBC |
| President Barack Obama's $858 billion tax package is a grab bag of goodies for investors, the affluent and workers, but the richer you are the more you get. To be sure, the low and middle income groups do benefit. They will see a cash boost from cuts in the payroll tax, with the rate trimmed from the current 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. The wealthy also get that benefit, but the payroll tax is not imposed on income above $107,000. "That is actually good not only as a policy matter but also in how it's done, because it will put money in people's pockets at beginning of January," said Alice Abreu, a tax law professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
12/15/2010 Scott Burris | Targeted News Service |
| A research team at St. Louis University has been awarded a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF's) Public Health Law Research Program (PHLR) to study community benefit activities conducted by non-profit hospitals. The venture is one of 13 new funded research projects that address the public health impacts of laws and regulations. "We now have a significant number of studies that will help policy-makers make informed decisions in dealing with major public health challenges, such as HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, obesity, immunization, drug overdoses and flu epidemics, " said Scott Burris, J.D., director of PHLR and a professor of law at Temple University in Philadelphia. |
12/15/2010 Eleanor Myers | Targeted News Service |
| "The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has penalized Arizona State University for major and secondary violations in its baseball program...The members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Eleanor Myers, faculty athletics representative and law professor at Temple University." |
12/15/2010 Jan Ting | WHYY-FM |
| Under a bill put forth by Councilman Goode, anyone who leases from a business getting a Philadelphia subsidy would also have to pay a higher wage. But Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, says those higher wages may drive businesses out of town. "There is a tradeoff," Ting said. "You can improve the lives of some people incrementally, but at a cost of reducing the number of new jobs that are created, and so which way does council want to go?"[more] |
12/13/2010 Brishen Rogers | Jotwell |
| Temple Law professor Brishen Rogers' article, Toward Third-Party Liability for Wage Theft, was discussed on Jotwell. The article unpacks the meanings of "to employ" under constitutional, statutory and common law. "Rogers astutely critiques the relentless judicial quest for a transcendent meaning of 'employment' that exists outside of and prior to law, despite the fact that the understandings that invariably emerge are very much a product of the law of an earlier era--the 'con,' perhaps, in the all too frequently forgotten constitutive role of law in American work."[more] |
12/13/2010 Leonore F. Carpenter | WHYY-FM |
| The small borough of Hatboro is making headlines after the mayor vetoed a measure that would have created a town commission on human relations, saying it will cost the borough money to enforce penalties as a result of bias claims based on race, gender and sexual orientation. There are now 17 such commissions throughout the state. Lee Carpenter, an assistant professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said, "I do think that the mayor makes a point, that in order to give these ordinances any teeth at all, there have to be significant resources directed to them."[more] |
12/10/2010 Alice G. Abreu | WTXF Philadelphia |
| What happens if the tax cut bill is not passed by Jan. 1? According to Alice Abreu of Temple's Beasley School of Law, the worst possible scenario is for Congress to do nothing. "If Congress does nothing, the clock turns back to 2001. The Alternative Minimum Tax, if nothing is done, will hit over 21 million households. The Alternative Minimum Tax is a tax that is in addition to the regular tax--you lose a lot of your deductions, you lose deductions for all of your dependents and for state and local taxes."[more] |
12/7/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Fox News Latino |
| An Arizona law that punishes employers who knowingly hire immigrants without documents will be put to the test Wednesday. The outcome also could signal how the court would handle the controversial Arizona immigration enforcement law, SB1070, key components of which were blocked by a federal judge this summer. "If the Arizona statute is struck down on pre-emption grounds, it's very hard to imagine SB1070 surviving," said Peter Spiro, an immigration law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
12/7/2010 Marina Angel | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
| Women at Pittsburgh's second-largest law firm are paid less than men for the same work, rarely get promoted and work in an environment in which the sexual interest of male bosses affects their advancement prospects, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court. A study released in October by researchers at Temple and the University of Texas found a double-whammy for women at 200 large law firms. The study, directed by Marina Angel, professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, found women were less likely to be promoted from associate to partner and earned less once they got there.[more] |
12/4/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Washington Post |
| The impassioned debate over the nation's immigration policy takes center stage at the Supreme Court Wednesday in a dispute over an Arizona law that punishes employers who knowingly hire workers illegally in the U.S. The outcome in this case also could signal how the court would handle the controversial and more expansive Arizona immigration enforcement law, known as SB1070. "It could take this less visible case and do something that impacts substantially on the SB1070 litigation by making some broader observations," said Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
12/1/2010 Marina Angel | Philadelphia Buisness Law Insider |
| "A new and startling report entitled Statistical Evidence on the Gender Gap in Law Firm Partner Compensation has recently been published by Temple University Law Professor Marina Angel and her colleagues Eun-Young Whang (University of Texas Pan-American), Rajiv D. Banker (Temple University - Fox School of Business) and Joseph Lopez (James E. Beasley School of Law) in which they find empirical evidence of gender discrimination in the compensation of women attorneys."[more] |
12/1/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Wall Street Journal |
| Trying to bring WikiLeaks editor in chief Julian Assange to justice in the U.S. may be difficult. Assange is rumored to be in London but the Australian citizen has proved adept at moving between countries. Even a country with which the U.S. has warmer relations and an extradition treaty might argue that the prosecution is political, not criminal, and refuse to hand him over. Because of this, "getting him to the U.S., even from a friendly nation, isn't necessarily going to be easy," says Peter Spiro, an international law expert and professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
12/1/2010 Edward Ohlbaum | WHYY-FM |
| The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia says a doctor submitted false claims to trust funds that were put into place for people harmed by Fen-Phen, a prescription weight-loss drug. The doctor has been charged with signing forms certifying patients who took the drug suffered from heart damage when they didn't. Mail fraud charges are "darlings of the prosecutors' arsenal," said Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "Virtually any use of the mail...satisfies the statute's mailing requirements with regard to almost any type of fraud."[more] |
12/1/2010 Peter J. Spiro | WRTI-FM |
| Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, could be facing prosecution in the US. According to Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, the Espionage Act of 1917 gives the government all it needs to bring charges against Assange. However, questions over possible First Amendment issues will likely deter the Justice Department from charging Assange and Wikileaks. "If this material had been given directly to the New York Times, and the Times had published it, a clear, established media outlet--a mainstream, traditional media outlet--I doubt we'd be talking about the espionage act." |
11/30/2010 Duncan Hollis | Bloomberg |
| In Mexico, delegates from more than 190 countries are gathered for U.N.-led talks on setting rules to limit global warming. A year ago in Copenhagen, delegates failed to draft a treaty, leaving in limbo the 1997 Kyoto accord that mandated cuts in carbon-dioxide emissions until the end of 2012. "We've been at it for 18 years on climate change but that's not unique," said Duncan Hollis, an associate professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "Breaking this up into smaller pieces and trying to knock off one piece at a time is certainly worth trying."[more] |
11/24/2010 David Kairys | Legal Intelligencer |
| A review of Temple Law professor David Kairys' memoir, Philadelphia Freedom, appeared in the Legal Intelligencer. "Like many that would follow in Kairys' career, that first case showed just how, by slipping the knots of conventional wisdom, a determined, resourceful lawyer can extract justice from the legal system, even when its joints seem much too rusted and stiff to bend to the claims of a righteous cause. If you have forgotten or never known the struggles for civil liberties waged over the past 50 years, the career of Temple law professor David Kairys will be a revelation and inspiration."[more] |
11/23/2010 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In an opinion piece, Jan Ting, professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, writes of concerns he shares with Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, who specializes in the rise and fall of empires. Fergusons's thesis is that current the world economic crisis presages the end of the 500-year rise of Western civilization and its replacement by China. Ting urges readers to call on the government to move toward deficit reduction by acting on proposals for cuts in Social Security benefits, in Medicare and Medicaid expenditures, and in both defense and non-defense spending.[more] |
11/22/2010 Duncan Hollis | Bloomberg |
| It took decades for negotiators to write treaties that curb nuclear warheads. By that measure, efforts to limit global warming may just be getting started. United Nations climate talks starting in Mexico next week are expected to be an ongoing process. "We've been at it for 18 years on climate change, but that's not unique," Duncan Hollis, associate professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law and editor of the forthcoming Oxford Guide to Treaties. "Breaking this up into smaller pieces and trying to knock off one piece at a time is certainly worth trying."[more] |
11/18/2010 Burton Caine | New York Times |
| Temple Law professor Burton Caine raises the issue of the president's role in striking down the military's antigay policy. "Under Article II of the Constitution, the president is bound by oath to 'preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.' In addition, the president is commander in chief of the military forces. Certainly, the combination of the two provisions requires the president to halt a practice that indisputably violates the First Amendment as well as the due process clause and the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment.'"[more] |
11/13/2010 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Constitutional Law professor Burton Caine's op-ed letter on the military's antigay policy ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Since the Obama administration persuaded the court of appeals in San Francisco to postpone the abolition of the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy to give the military time to cure its antigay prejudice, it ought to pay the vicitms the full amount of their financial loss for their unconstitutional expulsion from the service plus punitive damages for the shame of degradation. The same should apply to gays rejected for military service." |
11/10/2010 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple Law Dean JoAnne A. Epps' participation on a panel for the Women in the Profession Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association was mentioned in the Legal Intelligencer's "People in the News" section. |
11/4/2010 Eleanor Myers | Detroit Free Press |
| Temple Law professor Eleanor Myers continues her service on the NCAA's Committee on Infractions. The Committee is considering the sufficiency of the University of Michigan's self-imposed sanctions as a response to allegations of five infractions. Additional penalties may be imposed. |
11/4/2010 Amy Sinden | Frontrunner |
| Beasley School of Law professor Amy Sinden will appear on a panel hosted by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. The discussion will explore issues in the upcoming book, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental Law and the Search for Objectivity.[more] |
11/1/2010 Scott Burris | AIDS Alert |
| Led by law professor Scott Burris, "researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, have developed a novel approach to assessing the potential social risks to participants in a research study before the study commences. The approach, called rapid policy assessment and response (RPAR), also has been used for non-research health interventions in dealing with groups such as drug users and sex workers. It pulls together analysis of existing laws in the study population with a rapid collection of data about how those laws are implemented on the ground, potentially affecting patients or subjects...'I never did this as a way of saying this should be the new norm,' [Burris] says. 'If it did become the norm, we would be adding yet another layer of burden on our research system via the IRB. I did it to say that there may be situations in which the social risk question is more than usually piquant, in which there may be a real reason to be concerned. And then we don't have to speculate -- on a major project that has sufficient resources, it can sometimes be possible to investigate further.'" |
11/1/2010 David Kairys | Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations Newsletter |
| The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law turned the spotlight on Temple Law professor David Kairys in its newsletter's "7 Questions" feature. "[Race] matters in law, politics, culture and the daily lives of people who live in the U.S. It is particularly important to teach about race in a time when denial of its significance is common, although the legacy and current reality of racial, ethnic and religious oppression are still obvious all around us and need our attention," Kairys notes.[more] |
11/1/2010 Marina Angel | Law Firm Management, Partner's Report |
| "New research disproves that women partners are less productive than their male counterparts." Researchers, including Temple Law professor Marina Angel, "say it just isn't so and they have the data to prove it. Their study, a statistical analysis of law firm compensation at the 200 U.S. firms reporting the largest revenue between 2002 and 2007, concludes that women lawyers are just as productive as men, even though they consistenly earn less. 'Our data show that women partners outperform their men counterparts,' they wrote. 'If these women are underpaid and undervalued in terms of rank despite their conformity to a lockstep pattern, the inequalities could be due to intentional discrimination.'" |
10/30/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Forbes |
| The central issue of Arizon's tough and controversial new immigration law is the role state and local authorities can play in confronting those who cross the border illegally. The fate of the law hinges on whether federal law trumps state law. "If I were betting, I think the (Supreme Court) will strike down SB0170 at the same time that it allows some room for discretion at the state level," said Peter Spiro, who teaches immigration law at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
10/29/2010 Duncan Hollis | New York Times |
| A state court has agreed with a court system in another country to provide each other with legal guidance. That was the announcement by New York's chief judge and the chief justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Australia. Duncan B. Hollis, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said that the legality of this pact remains an open question. A provision in the federal constitution says that states may enter into an agreement with a foreign government only if approved by Congress. But states and foreign countries have entered hundreds of agreements without first going to Congress, Hollis said.[more] |
10/29/2010 Jan Ting | Wilmington News Journal |
| Anger at presidents isn't anything new, but the tone has changed. Jan Ting of the Beasley School of Law tells his first-year students that they're getting a glimpse of the animosity the country experienced after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. "Now, we don't just disagree with people," said Ting. "It's that they're bad people." Ting believes that this election cycle also has shown that it's wishful thinking to believe the country has become a "a post-racial society."[more] |
10/28/2010 David Post | WHYY-FM -- Post |
| Two prominent scholars at Temple's Beasley School of Law, David Post and Peter Spiro, visited the "Radio Times" studio to discuss the U.S. Constitution, its relevance and how it's being interpreted--especially during this election season. Some candidates have been questioning the separation of church and state, the definition of citizenship (the 14th Amendment) the government's right to tax (the 16th Amendment) and how senators are elected (the 17th Amendment).[more] |
10/28/2010 Peter J. Spiro | WHYY-FM -- Spiro |
| Two prominent scholars at Temple's Beasley School of Law, David Post and Peter Spiro, visited the "Radio Times" studio to discuss the U.S. Constitution, its relevance and how it's being interpreted--especially during this election season. Some candidates have been questioning the separation of church and state, the definition of citizenship (the 14th Amendment) the government's right to tax (the 16th Amendment) and how senators are elected (the 17th Amendment).[more] |
10/22/2010 Jan Ting | Wilmington News Journal |
| "As the state awaits official word from Washington about who will be nominated to fill a vacancy on the U.S. District Court, some members of Delaware's legal community are expressing concern that one nominee has no courtroom experience. The White House has not formally selected a nominee, yet a number of legal insiders claim a background check already is under way for Linda L. Ammons, dean of the Widener University School of Law...Temple University Law Professor Jan Ting, who praised Ammons, was surprised that someone with a short history in the state would be nominated."[more] |
10/21/2010 Marina Angel | Philadelphia Business Journal |
| It has long been argued that the main reason women partners are paid less than their male counterparts at law firms is because they are less productive due to family commitments. But that's not true, according to a study conducted by law and business professors from Temple and the University of Texas-Pan American. "It has been sold for such a long time that women aren't as productive as men," said Marina Angel, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, who led the study.[more] |
10/19/2010 Laura Little | Legal Intelligencer |
| "An article by Laura E. Little, a professor with Temple University's Beasley School of Law, will be included in the 2010-11 edition of the First Amendment Law Handbook, published by West/ Thomson Reuters. The article, 'Regulating Funny: Humor and the Law,' originally published in the Cornell Law Review, explores how the law regulates humor in three doctrinal areas: contract, trademark and employment discrimination. The patterns that Little has identified in humor regulation are useful for courts, academics, and practitioners seeking to predict which type of humor is most likely to avoid liability." |
10/15/2010 Robert J. Reinstein | Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple Law School's former dean, Professor Robert J. Reinstein paid tribute to Alan Lerner, a civil rights lawyer and Penn professor. "'Alan was one of the world's good guys...He really represented what was best about the legal profession...When you spent time with him, you wanted to be a better person,' Reinstein said. As a teacher, according to Reinstein, Lerner was also a role model to his students, inspiring them to share his passion for civil rights causes." |
10/13/2010 Jan Ting | Wilmington News Journal |
| Temple Law Immigration Law and Tax professor Jan Ting shares insights on the Delaware Republican Party in an opinion piece in the Wilmington News Journal.[more] |
10/9/2010 David Kairys | Harrisburg Patriot-News |
| A Supreme Court case pitting the father of a dead Marine from York against members of a Kansas church who picketed his funeral is touching on complicated and competing rights to free speech and privacy. Did church members have a First Amendment right to use the funeral as an occasion to deliver a "religious viewpoint" that the deaths of soldiers are divine punishment for the nation's acceptance of homosexuality? "We don't limit free speech because it's outrageous or insulting," says David Kairys, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "That's the price you pay--it's real--in order (to) get ideas out there and make people free to say and free to hear them."[more] |
10/6/2010 | Wisconsin Public Radio |
| Temple Law professor David Kairys was interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio regarding the Snyder v. Phelps Supreme Court case argued this week. At issue is a religious group's demonstration at a funeral for a dead soldier.[more] |
10/5/2010 David Post | Beach Reporter (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) |
| Temple Law professor David Post, as a member of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, filed a "friend of the court" brief siding with Fred Phelps, a pastor who leads protests at military funerals. The case "between a father and provocative pastor has turned into a major test of speech rights vs. safeguards for the sanctity of military funerals." |
10/2/2010 Stephen Mikochik | Bismark Tribune |
| The Bismark Tribune noted that Temple Law professor Stephen Mikochik will be a featured speaker at the North Dakota Annual Health Care Providers Conference. His talk is titled, Human Life in the Balance: Health Care Rationing and Disabled People.[more] |
10/1/2010 David Post | Inside Counsel |
| In two cases headed for appeal, individuals are facing six- and seven-figure statory damages claims for unauthorized music downloading. "Actual damages arising from copyright infringement are often hard to calculate or prove. That's why Congress created statutory damages and why so many copyright owners rely on them. 'People hardly ever bring copyright actions based on actual damages because those damages are so difficult to prove and are often very low,' [Temple Law professor David] Post says."[more] |
9/30/2010 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | New York Times |
| A legal deadline requiring immigrants to file their asylum claims within one year after coming here went into effect in 1998. Since then about 21,000 refugees who would very likely have won asylum in this country were rejected because they did not meet it, according to a study published Thursday on the Social Science Research Network by law professors from Georgetown and Jaya Ramji-Nogales, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. The study also found "enormous disparities" among asylum-seekers who were rejected because they missed the deadline, based on the country they came from. While only 17 percent of Iraqis who filed late were finally rejected by immigration officers, about 75 percent of Guatemalans who filed late were rejected, the study found.[more] |
9/28/2010 Leonore F. Carpenter | Philadelphia Weekly |
| "As of Aug. 25, PennDOT no longer requires sexual reassignment surgery for a gender change to one's license...'Think of the number of times you have to present a driver's license just in daily life,' says Lee Carpenter, a professor at Temple Law School and former lawyer for EqualityPA. 'It can be while you're stopped by police, but it could be getting carded in a bar. For most people a driver's license is the only ID anyone ever has and [they have] to present that picture ID over and over again. This gender marker often caused trouble.'"[more] |
9/27/2010 David Sonenshein | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "A highly diverse panel of competing players in the Philadelphia criminal-justice system--defense lawyers, prosecutors, police, and others--on Friday began the difficult job of finding a consensus on how to reform the city's troubled courts...Temple University law professor David Sonenshein agreed to serve as its chairman...[T]he group must answer this question: 'What is it about the system that's delaying or denying justice both to the victims and the defendants?'"[more] |
9/26/2010 Jan Ting | 6ABC-TV |
| Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, joined the panelists of "Inside Story" to review political and news stories of the week. The panel tackled a casino opening in Philadelphia, the government's balance of surveillance and privacy, the proposed Pennsylvania budget, and the report of the commission investigating racially motivated school violence.[more] |
9/25/2010 Henry Richardson | US Fed News |
| "Henry Richardson III, an international law scholar with a special interest in Africa, will deliver this year's Mitchell Lecture at the University of Buffalo Law School...'I'm going to reflect on some of the lessons, insights and implications we can draw from the historical development of African-Americans' interest in international law,' Richardson says. 'With respect to their welfare, how international law in certain cases is interpreted can make a difference.' Historically, for example, the capture and sale of Africans as slaves was condoned by international law. 'The slave trade was a grand, ugly, international enterprise as it fed into the North American corner of the British Empire,' he says, 'and you can only fully understand it through its international connections. In this context, African-Americans' international interests have their roots in the history of Africa and slavery well before the formal organizaton of the United States.'" |
9/25/2010 Frank McClellan | US Fed News |
| Frank McClellan, J.D., will present 'Health Disparities, Race, and Health Reform: Where are We and Where Do We Want to Go?' He is the Garwin Visiting Distinguished Professor of Law and Medicine at SIU School of Law and professor of law emeritus of the Beasley School of Law at Temple University and serves as the Phyllis W. Beck Chair Professor of Law. McClellan also is co-director of TU's Center for Health Law Policy and Practice." |
9/24/2010 Marina Angel | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| As the PHA executive director is ousted over accusations of sexual harassment, questions persist as to what the board, human resources managers and legal staff knew and what actions, if any, were taken. "Marina Angel, a Temple University law professor and expert on employment issues, said the first Supreme Court decision on sexual harassment, in 1986, found that an organization has to have an adequate system for reporting harassment. 'You've got to be able to make an appeal beyond the harasser,' Angel said. Ultimately, board members should be held accountable, she said, for the mess at PHA. 'They're trying to absolve themselves of responsibility by blaming everyone else,' she said. 'But they're the only group with direct supervisory power.'"[more] |
9/22/2010 Peter J. Spiro | National Law Journal |
| The Supreme Court has a number of pre-emption cases before it on this term's docket. The upcoming, U.S. Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting "could be the vehicle for the Court to make a broader statement about the appropriate role of states in immigration, said Peter Spiro of Temple University School of Law. 'The Court is aware there are all these others cases percolating--not just SB 1070, but the Hazleton, Pa. ordinance (prohibiting the hiring of and rental of housing to illegal immigrants),' said Spiro. 'It's possible the Court feels that bigger question is ripe enough for them to take a swipe at it. The last major case was in 1936 and a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then.'"[more] |
9/19/2010 Robert J. Reinstein | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "For law firms, the devastation that swept through the legal marketplace in 2008 and 2009 has come to an end...'What the firms did when the recession hit is they laid off a lot of associates, and they found ways to terminate a number of partners who they thought were not productive enough,' said Robert Reinstein, former dean of Temple Law School and a constitutional law professor there." The Philadelphia Inquirer reports layoff rates have decreased, law firm hiring and retention rates are rebounding and first-year associate starting salaries remain healthy.[more] |
9/16/2010 Louis Thompson | Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple University's Beasley School of Law Assistant Dean Louis Thompson will be the distinguished guest speaker at a special Citizenship Day naturalization ceremony to be held at the National Constitution Center this week. |
9/16/2010 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer, Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Temple University's Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps was recently elected to the Committee of Seventy's board of directors. The committee is a nonpartisan organization fighting for clean and effective government in Philadelphia and the region."[more] |
9/15/2010 Marina Angel | National Law Journal |
| "Lower productivity is one theory as to why women partners at law firms earn less on average than their male counterparts." But recent research by Temple Law professor Marina Angel and others refute that theory. "Our data show that women partners outperform their men counterparts," they wrote. "If these women are underpaid and undervalued in terms of rank despite their conformity to a lockstep pattern, the inequalities could be due to intentional discrimination." |
9/14/2010 | Wall Street Journal Law Blog and others |
| "Statistical Evidence on the Gender Gap in Law Firm Partner Compensation," a study undertaken by Temple Law professor Marina Angel and others has earned much attention in the blogosphere. A dozen outlets have highlighted the paper, including "Above the Law," "The Careerist," "Law and Economics" at the University of Athens and the "Wall Street Journal Law Blog." "The researchers' study indicated that firm productivity--measured by revenue per lawyer--remained largely the same at firms with a high percentage of women attorneys compared to firms with a lower percentage. So, they concluded, if women at these firms are not compensated like men, intentional discrimination could serve as a possible explanation."[more] |
9/10/2010 James Strazzella | New York Law Journal |
| Temple Law professor James Strazzella's 2009 testimony before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee is revisited in a recent New York Law Journal article. The hearing tackled "Over-Criminalization of Conduct/Over-Federalization of Criminal Law." Professor Strazzella "suggested that the federalization of criminal law has occurred because Congress felt pressured by the American public to 'do something' in response to an increase in violent crime. He noted, however, that merely legislating crime does not mean it will be effectively enforced and actually may impair the American criminal justice system in the sense that it expends limited resources on issues that are not truly of a national or federal concern." |
9/9/2010 Peter J. Spiro | New York Times |
| "A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower-court ruling striking down ordinances adopted by the City of Hazleton, Pa., that banned illegal immigrants from renting housing or being employed there...Peter J. Spiro, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, said: 'The court is saying that immigration is something the federal government has given careful consideration, and the result is a very intricate federal regime. The local measures interfered with that regime, and that's not O.K..'"[more] |
9/2/2010 Amy Sinden | Legal Intelligencer |
| A national panel of law professors and environmental scholars has named an article co-authored by professor Amy Sinden of Temple University's Beasley School of Law as one of the top five environmental law articles of 2009. "The Missing Instrument: Dirty Input Limits," which Sinden co-wrote with professor David M. Driesen of Syracuse University, will be reprinted in the 2009-10 edition of The Land Use and Environmental Law Review, an anthology representing the most insightful thinking on a wide range of current and emerging land use and development issues. The article originally appeared in the Harvard Environmental Law Review. |
9/1/2010 JoAnne Epps | ABA Journal |
| The ABA's Commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs has published, The Value Proposition of Attending Law School, "a four-page document that discusses legal education costs and job prospects for recent law school graduates...Commission member JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple University's law school, notes, 'People five years ago expected to have to fight for a job that was exactly the one they wanted. Now they're fighting for a job.'"[more] |
8/25/2010 Hosea Harvey | Legal Intelligencer |
| The Legal Intelligencer noted Professor Hosea Harvey has joined the Temple Law faculty. "Harvey will teach courses on contracts and banking, and a seminar on race and gender issues in corporate law, markets and business organizations." |
8/25/2010 Brishen Rogers | Legal Intelligencer |
| The Legal Intelligencer noted Professor Brishen Rogers has joined the Temple Law faculty. "Rogers will be teaching torts and a seminar titled 'Emerging Issues in Labor Law.'" |
8/24/2010 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer, Wilmington News-Journal, Sacramento Bee |
| In an opinion piece, Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, questions the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which says that all children born in this country, whether to illegal aliens or temporary tourists, are granted automatic U.S. citizenship. "So if we want to encourage more of those considering illegal immigration to the United States, all we have to do is lower the costs and increase the benefits. Conversely, if we want to discourage them, we have to increase the costs and decrease the benefits. So we cannot expect illegal immigration to diminish if we lower the costs through nonenforcement and increase the benefits through amnesty or a liberal interpretation of the 14th Amendment," Ting wrote.[more] |
8/24/2010 Eleanor Myers | Scranton Times-Tribune |
| "Scranton City Council solicitor Boyd Hughes' representation of a client that is suing the city raises questions about whether he is in violation of a state code of ethics designed to help lawyers avoid conflicts of interest...Eleanor Myers, a Temple University associate professor of law, said an attorney's qualification can be challenged in court or before a state disciplinary board. 'Under the rules, you can't sue a current client and you can't take an adverse position to a current client unless you get consent,' Ms. Myers said."[more] |
8/19/2010 Nancy Knauer | Philadelphia Gay News |
| For the LGBT population, aging can be a process filled with questions and fears. Nancy Knauer, a faculty member at Temple's Beasley School of Law, recently won two national prizes for her article that examined issues facing LGBT elders, and she's now preparing for the release of a book on the topic. Knauer was inspired by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who became San Francisco's first married same-sex couple two years ago after 50 years together. "These were people who'd lived through McCarthyism and through the diagnosis of homosexuality as a mental illness and came out on the other side," Knauer said.[more] |
8/16/2010 Brishen Rogers | WHYY |
| Temple Law professor Brishen Rogers spoke with WHYY-FM about recent union organizing efforts in south Philadelphia. |
8/15/2010 Jan Ting | 6ABC |
| Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, joined the panelists of "Inside Story" to review political and news stories of the week. Professor Ting weighed in on gubernatorial races, 2012 presidential running mates and other hot topics.[more] |
8/12/2010 Edward Ohlbaum | Intelligencer (Bucks Co.), Bucks County Courier Times |
| A decade ago, Stacey Strauss changed her story about being shot in the leg and sued the Philadelphia Police Department. Strauss is now accused in the death of an autistic man. Can her changed stories from 10 years ago be used to illustrate her character or credibility in the new case? "The fact that she lied or there is evidence of her lying in an action that is completely unrelated to the present one is irrelevant," said Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "The law is clear."[more] |
8/6/2010 David Kairys | Allentown Morning Call |
| The controversy over a carnival game in which players shot darts at an image resembling President Obama has left many people wondering: When does free speech become a threat? Free speech, according to a legal standard, ends when there is a clear and present danger to someone. Otherwise, people can say or express what they want, so long as they don't break any other laws. "The fact that it's disrespectful is not enough to shut somebody up," said David Kairys, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "We should address why people thought it was fun to throw darts at Barack Obama. But I don't think it's good for us to be using the law to stop people from doing such things."[more] |
8/6/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Bradenton Herald, Fresno Vida en el Valle |
| A U.S. District Judge held that local police in Arizona, while enforcing other laws, cannot demand immigration papers from people they suspect are in the country illegally. "I fear that the unintended consequence of this ruling is that it will redouble restrictionists' efforts at the national level, which will be to the detriment of immigrants," Temple University law professor Peter Spiro said. "They are hitting a brick wall at the state level, so they will step up their efforts in Washington."[more] |
8/6/2010 Henry Richardson | Targeted News Service |
| Professor Henry J. Richardson from Temple University School of Law will lecture on the topic "African-Americans and International Business in Africa" on February 23, 2011 as part of the R.J. Reynolds Professors in Residence Speakers Series hosted by North Carolina Central University. This lecture series brings legal scholars to NCCU who have expert knowledge in areas of international law. |
8/6/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Ventura County Star |
| Ire over illegal immigration is moving lawmakers to curb birthright citizenship through legislation. "Congress could pass a law declaring that illegal immigrants are not 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the United States because they entered the country illegally, thus making their children ineligible for citizenship. That, however, would be a stretch and would almost certainly result in a prolonged battle in court, said Peter Spiro, a professor and citizenship scholar at Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia. 'If I were handicapping it,' Spiro said, 'I would be willing to bet some serious money on the court finding the (citizenship) rule to be a constitutional one.'"[more] |
8/3/2010 William M. Carter, Jr. | Philadelphia Daily News |
| An increasingly tense relationship between residents and a handful of police contributed to chaos that erupted on Franklin Street on June 19. The incident has prompted questions about whether policies like stop-and-frisk do more harm to neighborhood relations than they're worth. William Carter, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said that accusations of "overly aggressive policing of minority communities" are usually discussed in terms of civil rights or racial issues. "It's simply bad policing to police a community in a way that the community feels that it's constantly under suspicion," he said. "If the community distrusts you, then the everyday situations, like [on Franklin Street], can spiral out of control."[more] |
8/3/2010 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | WURD-900 AM |
| Temple Law professor Jaya Ramji-Nogales appeared on WURD's "Mid-Day Cafe" to discuss the Arizona immigration law (S.B. 1070), the preliminary injunction against it, and the implications of both on citizens and undocumented workers throughout the country. |
8/1/2010 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Bruce Jackson suffered years of neglect and starvation at the hand of his adoptive mother. "An unusual order to seal his court records has placed the 25-year-old in such a protective cocoon that almost nothing can be known about his care under state guardianship, monitored by the same department that failed him in the first place...Several advocates for the disabled said they were deeply troubled by the lack of transparency, even in the absence of allegations of mistreatment...David Kairys, a Temple University constitutional law expert, said the question of whether the state was providing "all the services that this young man needs and deserves doesn't seem to be a legitimate area of privacy."[more] |
7/29/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Associated Press, Bloomberg |
| Arizona is preparing to ask an appeals court to lift a judge's ruling that put most of the state's immigration law on hold in a key first-round victory for the federal government in a fight that may go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Opponents of the law said the ruling sends a strong message to other states hoping to replicate the law. "This is clearly a significant victory for the Justice Department and a defeat for the sponsors of this law," said Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law who has studied immigration law extensively. "They will not win on this round of appeals. They'll get a shot after a trial and a final ruling by Judge Bolton."[more] |
7/29/2010 Jan Ting | Fox29 |
| A judge on Wednesday blocked key parts of Arizona's tough new immigration law hours before it was to take effect. Now, a YouTube video shows a man--who is not an Immigration official--approaching foreign workers at a local construction site and asking if they are here legally. Is this the tip of the iceberg of the behavior we can expect? "The issue of immigration in these hard times is always going to have traction, because people know there are 11 to 12 million illegal persons in the United States who aren't supposed to be here who are working jobs that American workers would like to have for themselves," said Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. |
7/29/2010 Eleanor Myers | Targeted News Service |
| Temple Law professor Eleanor Myers was called to service as a member of the NCAA Committee on Infractions. The committee found the University of Arizona voilated NCAA rules involving fundraising and recruitment practices. |
7/28/2010 Peter J. Spiro | New York Times |
| In an opinion piece for the Times' "Room for Debate" column, Temple Law professor Peter Spiro responded to the question: Now that a federal judge has blocked key aspects of Arizona's new immigration law, what will be the fallout? "This is a significant legal victory for the Justice Department, one that will probably stick on appeal. Whether it will end up being a significant victory for immigrants is another question," wrote Spiro. "Congress has dropped the ball on immigration reform and now we have the courts telling the states that they can't pick it up. Anti-immigrant activists will redouble their efforts to mandate more effective enforcement at the federal level and to block anything that smacks of amnesty. What comes out of this new mix may not serve immigrant interests."[more] |
7/28/2010 | Reuters |
| A judge on Wednesday blocked key parts of Arizona's tough new immigration law hours before it was to take effect, handing a victory to the Obama administration as it tries to take control over the issue. Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law and a former attorney in the State Department, said he was not surprised the more controversial provisions were stopped from being put into effect. "I expect those provisions will never go into effect, though this is only a preliminary order," Spiro said. "I also think this will take the wind out of the sails of anti-immigration efforts on the state level, though it will probably intensify such efforts at the federal level."[more] |
7/23/2010 Amy Sinden | Economics Week |
| Economics Week reports that a new article by Temple environmental law professor Amy Sinden examines international negotiations among countries responsible for greenhouse-gas emissions. The article analyzes approaches to the who-should-pay issue under various models of justice and finds a per-capita approach is best. "'A rough calculation reveals that, if a per capita approach is indeed the most just, then the recent proposals by developing countries that the developed countries each contribute 1% of their gross domestic product to adaptation and mitigation efforts in the developing world is quite reasonable, perhaps even a bargain,' wrote A. Sinden and colleagues, Temple University."[more] |
7/21/2010 Jan Ting | New York Times |
| According to a recent Supreme Court ruling "legal residents with minor drug convictions are eligible to have an immigration judge weigh their offenses against other factors in their lives and decide whether to let them stay. But deportees who were denied such a hearing have no means to get one now...Jan Ting, a Temple University Law School professor and a former assistant immigration commissioner, called the idea of letting deportees return for hearings 'far-fetched,' adding, 'The federal government has already incurred significant costs in executing the removals of these individuals in a procedure that was certainly legal at the time.'"[more] |
7/21/2010 David Post | The Economist |
| After becoming Britain's prime minister, David Cameron wanted a few tips from somebody who could tell him how it felt to be responsible for, and accountable to, many millions of people. He turned to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and boss of Facebook. Was this just a political leader seeking help from the private sector--or was it more like diplomacy, a comparison of notes between the masters of two great nations? Many web-watchers do detect country-like features in Facebook. "[It] is a device that allows people to get together and control their own destiny, much like a nation-state," says David Post, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
7/19/2010 Burton Caine | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Constitutional law professor Burton Caine added critical historical perpective to a book review in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Law professor Charles Ogletree's book about the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates and Race, Class and Crime in America, which you reviewed July 11, is valuable for reminding the public that there is no duty to speak kindly to the police, especially when protesting arrest...Few of these cases reach the Supreme Court, where no "fighting words" conviction has been upheld since 1942."[more] |
7/19/2010 David Post | York Daily Record |
| Temple Law professor David Post joined the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in filing a brief supporting the speech rights of citizens who protest military funerals. "If tort liability can be awarded because of 'allegedly outrageous and severely distressing speech, even when it relates to matters of public concern, then public universities would be equally able to discipline their students for allegedly outrageous commentary.' Student speech could be restricted based on content in a way the court has prohibited until now, and universities likely would enact much tougher speech bans fearing lawsuits from offended students, staff and faculty."[more] |
7/18/2010 Jan Ting | 6ABC |
| Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, joined the panelists of "Inside Story" to review political and news stories of the week.[more] |
7/18/2010 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | NBC10-TV |
| Temple Law professor Jaya Ramji-Nogales appeared on NBC10's @Issue to discuss the Arizona bill and other aspects of current immigration law and policy. |
7/18/2010 Sara E. Jacobson | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) for any charge other than homicide, citing the country's 'evolving standards of decency' and the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment." This has prompted post-conviction relief petitions on behalf of prisoners who were sentenced as juveniles. "'The challenge we're raising isn't letting them all out on the streets,' says Temple law professor Sara Jacobson. 'We are just asking for the possibility of parole and redemption, that what an inmate has done in prison for years and years should count. That you've been good, and understand what you've done.'"[more] |
7/14/2010 Amy Sinden | Greenwire |
| "There's 'no chance' that President Obama will rework the executive policies carried over from his predecessor that tell agencies how to write regulations and outline a White House oversight role, academics and activists say." Critics hoped such revision may have weakened the influence of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affiars and its chief, Cass Sunstein. "The appointment of Sunstein, a longtime proponent of cost-benefit analysis, told environmentalists that OIRA would likely remain 'a place where industry groups can come and get an ear for all the reasons they think environmental and public health regulations should be weakened,' said Amy Sinden, an environmental law professor at Temple University and a member of the Center for Progressive Reform."[more] |
7/14/2010 | New York Times |
| Environmental law professor Amy Sinden of Temple's Beasley School of Law is one of the academics and activists who say there is "no chance" that President Obama will rework the executive policies carried over from his predecessor that tell agencies how to write regulations and outline a White House oversight role. Obama had raised expectations for major changes in his first weeks in office, when he requested recommendations for new executive orders on issues such as scientific integrity, public disclosure and regulatory review, touting them as part of a plan to make his administration "the most open and transparent in history."[more] |
7/11/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Arizona's law giving local police immigration enforcement powers is likely to be struck down, most legal experts predict, now that the Obama administration has gone to court asserting it conflicts with federal law...Some legal experts think the Supreme Court may be ready to reconsider the issue. 'This is an unsettled area of constitutional jurisprudence. The last major pronouncement on the question was against a completely different landscape,' said Temple University law professor Peter Spiro. The justices 'may be willing to cut [states] some slack in the face of Washington's now persistent failure to deal with immigration reform.'"[more] |
7/7/2010 | Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Minneapolis StarTribune, Denver Post, Kansas City Star, Yahoo! News, Forbes, Business Week, many more |
| A federal lawsuit against Arizona's tough new immigration law focuses heavily on a question that dates to the Founding Fathers: the right of the government to keep states from enacting laws that usurp federal authority. "Immigration has traditionally and constitutionally been the historic preserve of the federal government, and there are cases going back to the late 19th century that say as much," said Peter Spiro, an immigration law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "So the Obama Administration has a lot to work with in filing this claim, and the fact that the claim is filed by the administration adds credibility...and increases the chances that law will be struck down on pre-emption grounds."[more] |
7/1/2010 Amy Sinden | Huffington Post |
| Temple environmental law professor Amy Sinden's response to a Wall Street Journal editorial was cited in a Huffington Post piece. "The [WSJ] editorial proceeds to belittle and, according to writers such as Amy Sinden of the Center for Progressive Reform, utterly misrepresent the [precautionary principle] concept, which is the regulatory foundation of the EPA and integral to many international environmental treaties. It's also basic common sense."[more] |
6/30/2010 David Kairys | American Constitution Society |
| The American Constitution Society selected Temple Civil Rights professor David Kairys to provide coverage and analysis of the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Elena Kagan. His dispatches appear on the ACSblog.[more] |
6/29/2010 Alice G. Abreu | KYW Radio |
| KYW Radio spoke with Temple Law tax professor Alice Abreu about Elena Kagan, whose Supreme Court confirmation hearings are underway. Professor Abreu worked with Kagan while a visiting professor at Harvard Law School.[more] |
6/29/2010 David Kairys | Philly.com, Associated Press |
| State or local gun laws that prohibit people from carrying firearms outside the home and onerous registration requirements are the most likely to be struck down by judges following the Supreme Court's latest decision supporting the right to keep and bear arms. Local officials around the country professed confidence that their regulations would hold up under legal scrutiny, but many scholars were not so sure. "I think a lot of these will fall," said David Kairys of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "Can you limit people's ability to carry concealed weapons, or open weapons? That's noticeably absent from the majority's list of what you can do."[more] |
6/27/2010 Jan Ting | 6ABC-TV |
| Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, joined the set of "Inside Story" to discuss a wide variety of subjects, including the performance of Arlene Ackerman, the superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia. Critics say Ackerman has mishandled attacks on Asian-American students at South Philadelphia High School. "I think a lot of people, and not just the Asian-American community, think that the [racial strife at South Philadelphia] was not managed well and was a blemish on an otherwise challenging record of accomplishment." |
6/23/2010 Sara E. Jacobson | Philadelphia Daily News |
| A man accused of a 2008 murder is pursuing a controversial "gay-panic" defense in a Philadelphia court. Sara Jacobson, director of trial advocacy at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said there were no specific provisions for the gay-panic defense under the state criminal code unless it's used in conjunction with insanity or self-defense. In her 10 years as a city public defender, Jacobson said, she never saw it employed. "It strikes me as a defense theory that gets substituted for self-defense when self-defense isn't a good defense theory," she said.[more] |
6/21/2010 Amy Sinden | Alternet.org |
| A "Wall Street Journal" editorial argued against the precautionary approach to environmental policy and in favor of cost-benefit analysis. Professor Amy Sinden's response appeared in Alternet.org. "Cost-benefit analysis sounds nice in the abstract, but it assumes a world in which technology can reverse all harms and science gives us all the data we need to run our calculations. The precautionary principle may not give us a neat and tidy formula, but it offers practical guidance in real-world conditions of scientific uncertainty. It says, when you're not sure, and when the result of your action may be serious and irreversible, err on the side of caution."[more] |
6/18/2010 David Kairys | Philadelphia Daily News |
| Mike DiBerardinis knows how to make a splash. When the commissioner of the newly combined Parks and Recreation Department started work last year, the city was taking heat for opening only 46 outdoor pools due to budget cuts. Not anymore. This year, 70 outdoor pools will be open thanks to an aggressive fundraising effort by DiBerardinis that collected $600,000 from community groups and private donors. Longtime friend David Kairys, a Temple Law professor, said of DiBerardinis: "He doesn't have the usual limits. People who have never talked [to one another] before may find themselves sitting in a meeting. When he has a staff, he gets them excited or re-excited."[more] |
6/18/2010 James Strazzella | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A jury acquitted William J. Barnes on the charge that he murdered former Philadelphia police officer Walter Barclay in 1966. Despite the notorious facts in the case, the jury chose to hold prosecutors in check and uphold important principles of law. "I thought it was a tough sell on the basis of 40 years and the things that can happen in 40 years," said James Strazzella, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "It wouldn't surprise me that it would be awfully difficult to pin down a cause of death."[more] |
6/17/2010 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Daily News |
| It seems like a good idea: Fine people who intimidate witnesses, then use the money to help others avoid similar threats. But as City Council today takes up a bill that would impose a fine of up to $2,000 on those who bully witnesses, some legal analysts say that the new law probably would not affect this growing problem. "We have statutes on the book that make [witness intimidation] a felony," said Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "I can't believe they're going to be deterred -- 'Well, I don't have any problem going to jail, but if they're going to fine me, I'm not going to intimidate the witness.'"[more] |
6/15/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Los Angeles Times |
| "The Supreme Court on Monday blocked the government from routinely deporting legal immigrants for minor drug possession convictions, a decision that immigrant rights lawyers said would spare tens of thousands of otherwise law-abiding residents from being sent out of the U.S...Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor and former clerk at the high court, said the justices acted after waiting in vain for Congress to fix the 1996 law. 'This is another in a long line of cases in which the court is pushing back,' he said. 'They are giving very clear cues they want this law defined more narrowly.'"[more] |
6/10/2010 Eleanor Myers | NCAA News Release |
| The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has penalized the University of Southern California for violations in its football, men's basketball and women's tennis programs. The violations span almost four years, primarily involving agent and amateurism issues for a former football student-athlete and a former men's basketball student-athlete. The committee noted that the violations in this case strike at the heart of the NCAA amateurism principle, which states that intercollegiate athletics should be motivated primarily by education and its benefits. The members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Eleanor Myers, faculty athletics representative and law professor at Temple University.[more] |
6/9/2010 Peter J. Spiro | St. Petersburg Times |
| Is it true, as a recent chain e-mail suggested, that the U.S. government's signing of a U.N. treaty on conventional arms will make U.S. citizens subject to gun laws created by foreign governments? No, says the Times' "PolitiFact" blog. However, it is possible that the Supreme Court might one day use an international gun control standard as a piece of evidence when writing a majority opinion on the Second Amendment. "Over the really long term, do (gun-rights advocates) have something to worry about? The answer is absolutely yes," said Peter Spiro of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "It's smart for the NRA to be mobilized on an international level."[more] |
6/8/2010 | Fox29 |
| The Pennsylvania House approved a crackdown on illegal immigrants through two bills that would require contractors to verify citizenship. "I think it's a mistake as a matter of policy," said Peter Spiro of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "I think that immigrants are good for state economies and anything that pulls out the welcome mat from immigrants turns out being bad for state economies. This is sort of a more mild version of the Arizona phenomenon (that is) looking to undertake enforcement at the state level." |
6/8/2010 Sara E. Jacobson | Upon Further Review |
| The Philadelphia Bar Association's Upon Further Review ran an article by Beasely School of Law Trial Advocacy Director Sara Jacobson. The piece covered the Supreme Court decisions in Graham and Sullivan, two cases involving teen offenders.[more] |
6/7/2010 | WHYY-FM's "Radio Times with Mary Moss-Coane" |
| About 20 percent of teens have sent nude photos of themselves over their cell phones. It's called "sexting" and courts, schools, parents and legislators are all trying to figure out what to do about it. Under a new bill, juveniles caught sending or receiving a sext message would be charged with a misdemeanor. Sara Jacobson of Temple's Beasley School of Law says that even misdemeanors matter for juveniles in Pennsylvania. "Even with a misdemeanor charge, kids lose opportunities. And, expungements are not automatic in Pennsylvania," she said.[more] |
6/5/2010 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Police use the Miranda warning to notify suspects of their rights. "Previously, police had the responsibility to obtain a waiver from suspects, acknowledging that they were forgoing their rights before questioning. [In a recent decision, the Supreme Court] now says police don't have to get that waiver, leaving suspects to take the initiative if they want to exercise their rights...David Kairys, a constitutional law professor at Temple University, said he feared the ruling could encourage detectives eager for a confession to ignore suspects' rights. 'We had this history, and we still do, of relying on confessions more than traditional proof,' he said. 'This will embolden whatever tendencies there already are for wrongdoing or laziness.' By putting more burden on suspects, the ruling also 'makes it harder for the defendant who is improperly questioned and coerced to prove it,' he said."[more] |
6/2/2010 William Woodward | Metropolitan Corporate Counsel |
| On Wednesday, July 21 the Pennsylvania Bar Institute presents Understanding Damages & Indemnities in Commercial Contracts. The faculty will take an interesting approach to document drafting by taking a backward look at negotiating a deal - it will examine the damages and indemnities that come into play after a breach of contract and will offer document crafting guidance to ultimately avoid a breach. The speakers include William C. Clark, Jr. and Daniel W. Krane of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP; Michael D. Homans, Flaster Greenberg, P.C. and Professor William J. Woodward, Temple University School of Law.[more] |
5/30/2010 Jan Ting | Comcast TV |
| Temple Law School immigration and tax professor Jan Ting participated in a panel discussion on illegal immigration for the program It's Your Call on the Comcast Network, which aired May 30 - June 1, 2010. |
5/25/2010 Salil Mehra | Corporate Counsel |
| "The Supreme Court on Monday dashed the hopes of the National Football League for baseball-style immunity from antitrust laws, with justices ruling unanimously against the league in a dispute over NFL-licensed apparel...Salil Mehra, a Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law professor and former Justice Department antitrust lawyer, said the ruling today was the 'first private plaintiff victory since 1992 in an antitrust case in front of the Supreme Court.' Mehra agreed that under the decision the dispute 'may still be winnable for the NFL.' While they don't get an immunity, they get a chance to argue that anti-competitive benefits of joint licensing outweigh anti-competitive harms."[more] |
5/25/2010 Stephen Mikochik | Fort Myers News-Press |
| In a guest opinion piece, Temple Law professor Stephen Mikochik commented on Elena Kagan's nomination to become a Supreme Court justice. "She is an accomplished lawyer, the first woman dean of the Harvard Law School and the first woman Solicitor General of the United States. She lacks judicial experience, however, a qualification considered crucial ever since Stevens' appointment in 1976. Undoubtedly, an issue bound to preoccupy senators during the confirmation hearings is Kagan's advocacy of homosexual rights and how that advocacy may impact her suitability for the Court. For me, Kagan's view of homosexual conduct is relevant only to the extent it may affect her judicial decisions. With no written opinions and a thin record of scholarship, there is scant evidence to make that determination. There is one episode, however, that is as enlightening as it is troubling. It concerns Kagan's court challenge to the Solomon Amendment."[more] |
5/24/2010 Salil Mehra | Christian Science Monitor, Forbes |
| The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the National Football League was not exempt from antitrust laws and could be sued by a former apparel supplier who claims the league engaged in illegal restraint of trade by granting an exclusive licensing agreement to a single supplier for the league's 32 teams. The 9-0 decision sends the case back to the lower courts. According to Salil Mehra, an antitrust law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law, the league's legal challenge is to show that the benefits outweigh any harm to consumers: "The court was trying to draw a line in the sand, basically saying they're not going to erode the core antitrust law."[more] |
5/24/2010 Burton Caine | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Law professor Burton Caine responded to coverage of the 25th anniversary of the MOVE incident in West Philadelphia with a letter to the editor. "When government commits a crime, the people should protest. Philadelphia should erect a monument in memory of these tragedies. Unless something is done, time will wash out the memory and the catastrophe will be forgotten."[more] |
5/24/2010 Duncan Hollis | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| For nearly a year, Iran has held three American hikers on accusations of spying. "Last week, Iran allowed the prisoners' mothers to visit them. The women had hoped to secure their release, but they returned Saturday without them. As a political maneuver, the act was 'pretty reminiscent of the Cold War,' Temple University law professor Duncan B. Hollis said Sunday night. 'Iran is aware that its image in the West is not all that great,' said Hollis, who specializes in international and foreign-affairs law. 'Letting the mothers come shows that they're not entirely heartless, and lets Iranian officials claim that they're doing right by the detained folks.'"[more] |
5/23/2010 Jan Ting | 6ABC-TV |
| Immigration and tax law professor Jan Ting appeared as a panelist on 6ABC's Inside Story. The panel tackled Pennsylvania's Senate primary race, Philadelphia's budget revisions, and other news items of the week.[more] |
5/23/2010 | Sacramento Bee |
| In an op-ed column, Temple Law professor Jan Ting explored possibilities for immigration reform. "We need to decide as a country whether we want open borders or an enforced numerical limit on immigration. The only third choice is continuing by default to leave immigration policy to states and localities as they try to fashion mutually inconsistent laws which they deem appropriate to their particular communities. I come out for enforced numerical limits, though I respect those honest immigrant advocates who argue for open borders. There is a respectable economic, philosophic and moral case to be made for allowing unlimited immigration. Those advocates of open borders could be right that the world would be better off with unlimited immigration, but I'm not ready to bet the republic that they are. I see no case to be made for another serving of the incoherent, inconsistent and illogical political sausage of so-called comprehensive immigration reform by which we would spend more for enforcement but get less of it and invite even more illegal immigration."[more] |
5/22/2010 David Kairys | Philadelphia Daily News |
| A police officer's accusation of loitering escalated into a melee that caused a 36 year-old man's death. "'Not belonging' somewhere is one of many vague interpretations authority figures have applied to loitering laws for centuries, said David Kairys, a constitutional law professor at Temple University. 'It's one of the oldest common laws we have and it's always been problematic,' Kairys said. 'It's always been criticized for being used against powerless, feared, and disliked people. It gives police the vehicle to use a law against individuals they have a problem with."[more] |
5/21/2010 Jan Ting | PBS NewsHour |
| Immigration law expert and Beasley School of Law faculty member Jan Ting, a former assistant commissioner at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, joined "News Hour" host Roy Suarez for a discussion about immigration reform -- a subject brought to the fore by Mexican President Felipe Calderón's visit to Washington. "Public opinion in the United States is sharply divided as to what the nature of the immigration problem is," said Ting. "One side thinks the problem is 12 million people who have to live without documents. The other side thinks the problem is that our existing laws are simply not being enforced by the federal government."[more] |
5/20/2010 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| "It's graduation week for most of the region's law schools and as hundreds of graduates enter a changed legal profession, their former educators are contemplating how their business models might have to adapt...Temple University Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps said the recent Carnegie Foundation report, 'Educating Lawyers,' and the changing economic climate have encouraged law schools to take a look at their curriculums in an effort to improve the marketability of their students. The focus has been on experiential learning and how to impose a better understanding of the general business climate in which students will practice. 'The model of legal education as purely graduate education is giving way to a recognition that students need professional skills and an understanding of the arenas in which law is practiced,' Epps said." |
5/18/2010 Mark Rahdert | Allentown Morning Call |
| "When the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said juveniles can't be sentenced to life in prison without parole for crimes other than homicide, it left open a key question for Pennsylvania. Is it cruel and unusual punishment to give that same sentence to a youth who is a murderer?... Mark Rahdert, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, said Monday's ruling does suggest the court views homicide as distinct. In keeping it separate, he said, the court 'suggests strongly' that in murder cases, a life sentence could pass muster for juveniles."[more] |
5/18/2010 Jan Ting | Fox29 |
| In the Garden State, one agency in Trenton already issues locally-recognized identification cards to illegal immigrants. Later this week, that agency will do the same for Princeton. The program has both critics and supporters. According to Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, "The reason Trenton is issuing this ID card is because they want to be immigrant friendly regardless of whether people have legal papers or not. That is their goal. And they're going to achieve that goal in that they're going to attract more people to come to the United States even if they don't have documentation." Professor Ting commented on this issue three times during the week as the story developed.[more] |
5/13/2010 Craig Green | Comcast TV |
| Temple Law School professor Craig Green appeared on Larry Kane, Voice of Reason about Elena Kagan and Supreme Court confirmations on Comcast television May 13-26, 2010. |
5/13/2010 Nancy Knauer | www.law.temple.edu |
| "Professor Nancy J. Knauer has received a Dukeminier Award from the Williams Institute for her article LGBT Elderlaw: Toward Equity in Aging, published in the Harvard Journal of Gender and Law in 2009...The Dukeminier Awards are awarded by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law to recognize and distribute the best articles published each year on sexual orientation and gender identity law."[more] |
5/12/2010 Jan Ting | China Radio International |
| "As the Obama administration struggles to get support for immigration reform, the US state of Arizona has passed tough new legislation targeting illegal immigrants. The Arizona laws have been met with widespread criticism from liberal groups, but are apparently popular with much of the general public." Temple Law professor Jan Ting was on a panel of experts debating US immigration reform.[more] |
5/12/2010 Salil Mehra | Corporate Counsel, Legal Intelligencer |
| In terms of antitrust issues, the recent merger announcement of United Airlines and Continental Airlines is causing consternation. "Salil Mehra, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, called the proposed deal 'one of the more benign-looking airline mergers in recent years from an antitrust perspective.' There isn't a great deal of direct competition between the two carriers, he pointed out. But there are potential wild cards that could introduce complications. 'Antitrust policy is in a bit of flux,' said Mehra, who worked at the antitrust division during the Clinton administration. There's a new administration, a new antitrust chief who has said her division needs to be active. And the merger guidelines are being revised, Mehra said. It's hard to guess how these factors, along with [a Congressional Representative's objections], will influence the process, he observed. But it's also hard to reconcile the Justice Department's shooting down this merger after waving through the one two years ago, he added."[more] |
5/11/2010 Peter J. Spiro | St. Petersburg Times |
| A Terrorist Expatriation Act was proposed in Congress, which would allow the United States to revoke the citizenship of an American citizen who affiliates with an officially designated foreign terrorist organization. "'It's pretty clear that if you have an American citizen on a traditional battlefield shooting Howitzers at American forces, you can take the guy out,' said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor. 'On the other hand, you have the 1957 Supreme Court decision Reid vs. Covert, which ruled that American citizens take their constitutional rights wherever they go. So in the case of someone like al-Awlaki, do you consider Pakistan to be part of the battlefield? If you do, it looks like a pretty comfortable call. If you don't, you could object that you're depriving a citizen of their life without due process.'"[more] |
5/10/2010 Jan Ting | FOX29 |
| In April of 2009, long before the whole immigration debate exploded in Arizona, House bill 1868 was introduced. It seeks to change the 14th amendment to be more specific about who becomes a U.S. citizen at birth. The idea is to remove what some experts say is one of the biggest draws for immigrants. "If they can produce a child on American soil, under the current interpretation of the 14th amendment, that child is considered an American citizen at birth, and therefore when the child reaches age 21, that U.S. citizen child can actually sponsor the parents to immigrate legally, and so there was thought to be this incentive to establish an anchor baby born in the U.S. that can later on pull the whole family into the United States," said Jan Ting, professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. Now, according to Ting, those introducing this bill are saying we need a more nuanced interpretation of the 14th amendment.[more] |
5/10/2010 Mark Rahdert | WRTI-FM |
| President Barack Obama's choice of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court is at odds with the recent tradition of selecting Supreme Court nominees from the lower courts. Mark Rahdert of Temple's Beasley School of Law says choosing Supreme Court justices from the ranks of the lower federal courts is a relatively new wrinkle. He says the trend was started 30 years ago by then President Richard Nixon. "It's not required by the Constitution. Over most of the court's history most of the individuals appointed have served in other capacities, not as lower court judges, before being named to the court," Rahdert said. |
5/9/2010 | Allentown Morning Call |
| Jo Ann Fonzone of Allentown has filed nearly two dozen lawsuits, complaints and appeals in federal and county courts since 1997. Those suits have claimed countless hours from judges, lawyers, clerks and defendants. And because Fonzone doesn't have much money, some have been filed at the expense of counties and the federal government. While some may see those filings as burdensome, they reflect a basic principle of the American justice system, said Mark Rahdert, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "There is a recognized right of access to courts and it's recognized as one of the basic rights of U.S. citizens," said Rahdert. "I think our system of justice is messy in many ways, but I think we have one of the greatest systems in the world and part of the reason for that is the accessibility."[more] |
5/7/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Politico, Allentown Morning Call |
| U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent teamed with U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman behind a proposal to revoke citizenship of Americans engaged in terrorist activities. Under the proposed bill, citizens who go abroad to work with terrorist groups could not come back into the country with a U.S. passport. But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said that argument is flawed. If federal authorities know enough about a person to revoke citizenship, then that person would also be on no-fly lists and under surveillance. "The idea that it is going to disarm the terrorist operative is unfounded," Spiro said. "The bottom line here is that it's constitutional but ultimately meaningless."[more] |
5/7/2010 James Strazzella | WHYY-FM |
| The trial of William Barnes gets underway Monday. Barnes, now 74, is accused of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Walter Barclay. Barnes shot Barclay in 1966, but Barclay didn't die until more than four decades had passed. Barnes has already served 26 years in prison for attempted murder in the shooting. A host of expert witnesses are expected to take the stand, debating whether or not Barclay's death was caused by the gunshot wound that left him wheelchair bound for 41 years. Jim Strazella, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, says it's a tough sell: "That will be totally one way or another by how clearly the evidence goes in. I'd want to see how that goes in before I'd even make an attempt at a guess at how it should come out."[more] |
5/5/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Law professor Peter Spiro penned an op-ed piece urging immigration advocates not to rely on Washington for immigration reform, but rather to "explore other avenues for protecting immigrant rights...Arizona's law amounts to a self-inflicted wound, scaring away productive, taxpaying immigrants, legal or not. Other jurisdictions--Philadelphia included--can make Arizona's loss their gain by working to advance immigrant interests in their own back yards."[more] |
5/4/2010 Jan Ting | Politico |
| While President Barack Obama and his aides expressed outrage over the recent immigration bill signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, the administration has been in no hurry to take a stand on the tough-on-immigration legislation approved by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2007, a Democrat, who now is the president's point person on immigration. "I just think the Obama administration is kind of floundering here, trying to figure out what to do," said Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, who held a senior immigration post under President George H.W. Bush. "They've just got to be in agony."[more] |
5/3/2010 David Adamany | Crain's Detroit Business |
| A piece in Crain's Detroit Business traces Temple Law professor David Adamany's career from university president to education administrator to law and political science professor.[more] |
5/3/2010 Jan Ting | New York Times |
| New York "Governor David A. Paterson announced on Monday that the state would accelerate consideration and granting of pardons to legal immigrants for old or minor criminal convictions, in an effort to prevent them from being deported...[W]hile immigrant advocates were quick to embrace Mr. Paterson's initiative, supporters of tougher immigration enforcement sounded a different note. 'There are people out there, maybe the governor included, who don't want to deport anybody, even people who have committed crimes,' said Jan Ting, a professor at Temple University Law School, and a former assistant immigration commissioner. 'I understand the impulse, but it's an impulse that leads to open borders.'"[more] |
5/1/2010 Kristen Murray | Reference & Research Book News |
| The writing handbook, Scholarly Writing, Ideas, Examples, and Execution (Carolina Academic Press 2010) was reviewed in the May issue of Reference & Research Book News. The book was co-authored by Temple Law writing professor Kristen Murray and Jessica L. Clark. |
4/29/2010 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer, Broward Daily Business Review |
| A gathering of women in-house counsel on the eve of the American Bar Association's Women in Law Leadership (WILL) Academy was set up to foster discussions on how female inhouse counsel can, and need to, help promote women in law firms and the profession as a whole...Wednesday's summit, which was held at Temple University Center City, was opened by Temple University Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps. She likened the plight of female lawyers to minority attorneys, and said they are inching forward and then falling back in the recession." |
4/29/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Politics and Government Week |
| Politics and Government Week reported on Temple Law professor Peter Spiro's recent article in the International Journal of Constitutional Law, "Dual Citizenship as a Human Right." According to recent research from the United States, "dual citizenship has become an unexceptional status in the wake of globalization yet remains at the sufferance of the states. This essay advances the novel claim that dual citizenship should be protectable as a human right." |
4/29/2010 | St. Petersburg Times |
| Under Arizona's strict immigration law, police procedure can make all the difference. "Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor, said that law enforcement officers can use profiling rather than suspicions of a specific crime being committed...Spiro said the challenge is drawing up a defensible profile for spotting illegal immigrants. 'You can't stop someone just because they look Hispanic,' Spiro said, because the law specifically says that officers 'may not solely consider race, color or national origin.' As a result, Spiro said, 'there has to be some other factor or factors, not all of which are race-based, as well as some empirical explanation of why that profile establishes a reasonable suspicion. You have to come up with something beside race that sounds plausible as correlating with undocumented status, and it's hard to say what that would be.'"[more] |
4/29/2010 | WHYY's Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane -- Spiro |
| Arizona's new immigration law will require law enforcement officials to check the residency status of those thought to be in the country illegally. The questions arising from this state law have prompted another call for immigration reform on the national level. Joining host Marty Moss-Coane to debate and discuss the issue are Peter Spiro and Jan Ting, professors of law at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "The question is how the law will be enforced on the ground. Are police in Arizona going to stop individuals on the basis of suspicion of unauthorized presence?" said Spiro.[more] |
4/29/2010 Jan Ting | WHYY's Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane -- Ting |
| Arizona's new immigration law will require law enforcement officials to check the residency status of those thought to be in the country illegally. The questions arising from this state law have prompted another call for immigration reform on the national level. Joining host Marty Moss-Coane to debate and discuss the issue are Peter Spiro and Jan Ting, professors of law at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "There's a growing consensus that carrying registration documents or some form of identification is important. It's an idea that is gaining support in this post 9/11 age," said Ting.[more] |
4/26/2010 David Post | Estrategia |
| At the invitation of the University of Talca's Center for Studies in Criminal Law, David Post, Temple Law professor of intellectual property and cyberlaw, analyzed Chile's new intellectual property law. Post explained that in the case of withdrawing infringing content from the internet, the intervention of tribunals can make the system slower but also more just.[more] |
4/26/2010 Duncan Hollis | National Law Journal -- Hollis |
| In an opinion piece, Duncan Hollis, associate professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law and David Post, the I. Herman Stern Professor of Law at Temple, make the case for an "SOS for the internet," arguing that nations should agree to a "duty to assist" other entities whenever they are under cyberattack. "International law requires anyone receiving an SOS signal to 'proceed with all possible speed' to render assistance. Today, similar legal duties abound--what we might call 'duties to assist'--whether in response to a pilot's mayday call, distress signals or emergency numbers. As yet, however, there is no 'duty to assist' in cyberspace. That needs to change," the authors wrote.[more] |
4/26/2010 David Post | National Law Journal -- Post |
| In an opinion piece, Duncan Hollis, associate professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law and David Post, the I. Herman Stern Professor of Law at Temple, make the case for an "SOS for the internet," arguing that nations should agree to a "duty to assist" other entities whenever they are under cyberattack. "International law requires anyone receiving an SOS signal to 'proceed with all possible speed' to render assistance. Today, similar legal duties abound--what we might call 'duties to assist'--whether in response to a pilot's mayday call, distress signals or emergency numbers. As yet, however, there is no 'duty to assist' in cyberspace. That needs to change," the authors wrote.[more] |
4/26/2010 Craig Green | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In an opinion piece, Craig Green, associate professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, asserts that while Obama's short list for his upcoming Supreme Court appointment includes several highly qualified and moderate potential nominees, the best choice may be Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland, one of the most respected appellate judges in America. "Furthermore, Garland's 15-year record on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has shown his ability to ask the hard questions and work with an ideologically diverse group of colleagues," Green wrote.[more] |
4/26/2010 JoAnne Epps | Pocono Record |
| Michael Parrish wants to plead guilty and be executed for the fatal shootings of his girlfriend and their son. He doesn't even want to present mitigating circumstances that could justify life in prison instead of the death penalty. Pleading guilty to murder isn't unusual, but waiving challenges to execution is rare, as is declining presentation of mitigating evidence, said Joanne Epps, dean at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "It is, or should be, common for a lawyer to want to ensure the judge has a complete understanding of the matter before him or her...It seems the defendant may be competent to enter a plea, but may be overcome with remorse and hence be unwilling to pursue the legal options available to him."[more] |
4/23/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Associated Press, Fox29, Toronto Star |
| Arizona enacted America's toughest legislation against illegal immigration. "The legislation...makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. It also requires local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants; allows lawsuits against government agencies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws; and makes it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for day labour or knowingly transport them. The law sends 'a clear message that Arizona is unfriendly to undocumented aliens,' said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor and author of the book 'Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization.'"[more] |
4/23/2010 Jan Ting | WFMZ-TV (Lehigh Valley) |
| Congressman Charlie Dent who represents the Lehigh Valley and part of Berks County introduced a legislative resolution urging the Obama administration to strip Anwar al-Awlaki of his American citizenship because he's a known terrorist. Published reports cite unnamed intelligence and counter-terrorism sources that the Obama administration has added al-Awlaki to a CIA capture or kill list. Jan Ting, a 33-year law professor at Temple University, said Dent doesn't have a solid case. Ting said the Supreme Court has made stripping someone of citizenship very difficult. "You can't divest American citizen of citizenship, particularly in the case of someone who's not been convicted of any crime."[more] |
4/22/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Allentown Morning Call, Hartford Courant |
| "Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dent plans to introduce a resolution today calling on the Obama administration to strip radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki of his American citizenship...Legal experts were skeptical of success. Temple University law professor and international law expert Peter Spiro said the Supreme Court has ruled the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from terminating an individual's citizenship against his will. 'There have also been proposals with respect to other Taliban or other al Qaeda-associated Americans that their citizenship be revoked and those proposals have gone nowhere, and I expect the same thing to happen here,' Spiro said."[more] |
4/22/2010 Scott Burris | States News Service |
| Beasley School of Law professor Scott Burris was among the presenters at the 2010 Keeneland Conference in Lexington, Kentucky. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, "the PHSSR conference is the premier meeting for PHSSR practitioners, researchers and policy-makers, who are meeting to discuss the latest issues in this developing field of research, including public health system accreditation, practice-based research networks, public health law and the link between public health financing and health outcomes."[more] |
4/13/2010 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| Debates about the proper aspirations of the law school curriculum generally, and the upper level curriculum in particular, are nearly as old as formalized legal education. However, the recent financial crisis (and its profound effect on both the structure and organization of legal practice, as well as on the market for lawyers and law school graduates) has placed a new premium on preparing law students to become effective lawyers upon graduation. At Temple, the conversation actually began before anyone knew that the legal profession was about to enter a period of such profound change. One of my first acts as dean in July 2008 was to form the Upper Level Curriculum Initiative (ULCI), which I tasked with addressing one simple question: Is our upper-level curriculum the best that it can be, in light of both recent developments in thinking about legal education and recent changes in the legal marketplace?[more] |
4/12/2010 Craig Green | National Law Journal |
| Whether a critic or an admirer, there is little debate that Justice John Paul Stevens' terrorism-related opinions and influence have checked a broad and bold assertion of executive power, established baselines of fairness in the detention of war detainees, and reminded Congress and the nation of the importance and function of habeas corpus. The Rutledge clerkship is one of two factors that contributed to Stevens' importance in the war on terror cases, said Craig Green of Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law. 'Rutledge was one of the crucial justices in the last round of really important war-power decisions in World War II,' Green said. 'He was very strong on civil liberties. Those issues had a lot more prominence for Stevens than they might have had for another person.'[more] |
4/12/2010 JoAnne Epps | Philly.Com |
| The Pennsylvania Prison Society, a nonprofit criminal justice reform organization created in 1787, has formed an advisory council including Dean Epps. JoAnne A. Epps is Dean of the Beasley School of Law at Temple University and a former instructor in law in China, Japan and Rwanda and in a special program for Sudanese lawyers working for victims of the Darfur crisis.[more] |
4/10/2010 Salil Mehra | Wall Street Journal |
| The Justice Department is stepping up its investigation into hiring practices at some of America's biggest companies, including Google Inc., Intel Corp., and Apple Inc. The inquiry is focused on whether companies, particularly in the technology sector, have agreed not to recruit each others' employees in ways that violate antitrust law. "In the long run, this is going to distort and depress the incentives for people to actually develop the talents and skills that are useful in this market," said Salil Mehra, a Temple University law professor who formerly worked in the Justice Department's antitrust division.[more] |
4/9/2010 David Kairys | WHYY-FM |
| School officials from the Lower Merion School District have denied allegations that race was a factor in choosing where to assign students. The controversial plan calls for dozens of students from a predominantly African American neighborhood to be bused five miles to Harriton High School, even though they live within a mile of Lower Merion High. The district says the plan will equalize enrollments at both schools. Temple law professor David Kairys says schools are legally allowed to consider race, if used properly. "If they created what are called race quotas or any number of other possibilities, it could lead to it being invalidated but it's not invalid simply because race was considered."[more] |
4/7/2010 Duncan Hollis | San Francisco Chronicle, Networkworld, Computerworld |
| The U.S. may be vulnerable to cyberattacks. Some experts advocate both new international agreements aimed at preventing cyberwar and world cooperation to trace back attacks. "We're really at the beginning of the conversation," says Duncan Hollis of Temple's Beasley School of Law, a former State Department attorney working on treaty negotiations. It's "not a legal black hole--no one's saying there are no rules--but how do these existing rules apply in this context?" The rules of war depend in large part on knowing who attacked you, Hollis says, and that can be hard to figure out when it comes to cyberattacks.[more] |
4/2/2010 Robert J. Reinstein | US Fed News |
| Temple Law professor and formder dean Robert Reinstein will be honored at "A Celebration of Globalization at Temple" program in May. The award recognizes Professor Reinstein's contributions to the globalization of the university, serving as Vice President for International Programs. |
4/1/2010 Henry Richardson | American Journal of International Law |
| Temple Law professor Henry J. Richardson's book, The Origins of African-American Interests in International Law (Carolina Press 2008) was reviewed in the American Journal of International Law (April 2010). |
4/1/2010 Burton Caine | Philadelphia Lawyer |
| In the current issue of The Philadelphia Lawyer published by the Philadelphia Bar Association is an article written by Temple professor of constitutional law, Burton Caine. He wrote re the Pope's Platform Case when he was General Counsel for the Philadelphia ACLU. Caine's readers' forum piece is in response to an article on the same case in the prior issue which "made incorrect claims and many mistakes."[more] |
3/26/2010 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader |
| The Temple Law School Republicans will sponsor "War in Hazleton: A Forum on U.S. Immigration Policy and its Effect on a Small Town in Pennsylvania." Temple Law professor Jan Ting will appear with Hazleton's mayor Lou Barletta and Temple professor Lori Zett. Hazleton proposed laws "that targeted landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that employ them." City leaders "thought the federal government wasn't doing enough to combat illegal immigration."[more] |
3/26/2010 Amy Sinden | Targeted News Service |
| Amy Sinden, a professor in the Beasley School of Law, discussed the regulation of hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act at the summit, "Marcellus Natural Gas Stewardship: Understanding the Environmental Impact," which brought environmental researchers, engineers, geologists, scientists, environmental activists, legal experts, governmental officials and industry representatives together in Walk Auditorium to discuss the geological, environmental and economical impact that drilling in the Marcellus Shale might have on Pennsylvania. |
3/25/2010 Louis Natali | Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple Law professor Louis Natali will be part of a panel presenting the ethics CLE program, "Dead Man Talking: Should There be a Wrongful Conviction/Execution Exception to the Attorney-Client Privilege?" The program is presented by the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. |
3/24/2010 JoAnne Epps | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania Law Weekly |
| Temple Law School dean JoAnne Epps will be the presiding judge at the 27th annual Pennsylvania Bar Association high school mock trial championship competition.[more] |
3/22/2010 | Legal Intelligencer |
| Dean JoAnne Epps's offer to house the Pennsylvania Innocence Project at Temple's Beasley School of Law proved a turning point in its inception. "The Pennsylvania Innocence Project is the only statewide organization in Pennsylvania dedicated to exonerating the convicted innocent by identifying, investigating, and litigating cases where the wrong person was convicted of a crime he did not commit." |
3/22/2010 Louis Natali | Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple Law professor Louis Natali was one of the founding forces behind the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. He continues to be involved as a Board Director. "The Pennsylvania Innocence Project is the only statewide organization in Pennsylvania dedicated to exonerating the convicted innocent by identifying, investigating, and litigating cases where the wrong person was convicted of a crime he did not commit." |
3/22/2010 Edward Ohlbaum | NBC10 |
| These days bouncing one check, even accidentally, might bring the police after you. That's what happened to one local woman who was arrested and charged with writing bad checks and theft by deception. Temple Law Professor Edward D. Ohlbaum says it makes no sense to prosecute this woman. "Unbelievable," he said. "When all we needed was a prosecutor or a police officer with a rational decision-making process working to say there really is no crime here." |
3/22/2010 Jan Ting | PBS Newshour |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting appeared on a PBS Newshour panel to discuss prospects for immigration reform now that health care is passed.[more] |
3/20/2010 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A death penalty trial before Common Pleas Court Judge Steven R. Geroff was declared a mistrial when the judge learned "several jurors had begun deliberating and commenting on evidence before the trial's end...'I think Judge Geroff did exactly what he should have done,' said Edward D. Ohlbaum, a professor and director of trial advocacy at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. 'This strikes me as pretty fundamental...I would have been shocked had he done otherwise...' Still, Ohlbaum said, it is rare when such juror misconduct forces a mistrial and rarer still for a judge to punish an errant juror with a fine or jail time. 'You want to encourage candor,' Ohlbaum said of the judge's relationship with jurors. 'To me, [punishing the jurors] sends a message that the reward for candidly admitting you broke the rules is punishment.'"[more] |
3/19/2010 Burton Caine | Main Line Times |
| Temple Law professor Burton Caine letter in the The Main Line Times denounced "the loud voices chastising plaintiffs-victims in the Harriton High School in Lower Merion Township webcam case instead of the violators and their accomplices including the police. [Caine] pointed out that many civil rights cases are brought on behalf of bad people, even criminals, and if those cases were thrown out on those grounds, there would be little left to teach in Constitutional Law."[more] |
3/19/2010 David Sonenshein | McGeorge News Archives |
| "Professor David Sonenshein of the Temple Law School delivered the 39th annual Lou Ashe Symposium Lecture on March 17, 2010, to a standing-room-only crowd in the Pacific McGeorge courtroom. Sonenshein, who has earned a reputation as one of the preeminent American legal scholars on the subject of Evidence, spoke on how 'The Misuse of Other-Acts Evidence Obliterates The Rule Against Convicting on Propensity.'"[more] |
3/14/2010 Jan Ting | 6ABC |
| Immigration and tax law professor Jan Ting appeared as a panelist on 6ABC's Inside Story. The panel tackled Philadelphia's financial woes, local terrorist activity and other news items of the week.[more] |
3/11/2010 JoAnne Epps | Jewish Exponent |
| Temple Law dean JoAnne Epps and professor Edward Ohlbaum were featured in a piece recognizing the Law School's community service efforts. At the Law School's "Serving Neighbors, Connecting Communities" day of service, students, faculty and staff prepared St. Boniface Church in Kensington for renovation.[more] |
3/6/2010 David Kairys | Wilmington News Journal |
| The National Rifle Association is threatening Delaware public housing authorities with a lawsuit over a restriction banning guns in residents' homes. "David Kairys, a professor of law at Temple University and a force behind city lawsuits against handgun manufacturers, noted that the Supreme Court's Heller ruling doesn't mean all gun laws are invalid. If he were representing the housing authorities, 'I would ask them, 'Has there been any particular problem that led to this particular ban?'' Kairys said. 'I don't know if this evidence exists or what it would be, but that would be a possible avenue: to show there's a particular handgun problem in some of this state-supported housing that makes it very important for handguns to be completely banned from the building,' Kairys said."[more] |
3/2/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Christian Science Monitor |
| A January decision by a US court to grant German homeschoolers political asylum has encouraged other Germans engaged in a decade-long losing battle against their government to take the same action and move their families to the United States. "Homeschoolers are a movement of sorts," says Peter Spiro, an expert on international immigration law at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. "The immigration judge looking at this claim said there is a coherence to this group...and that denying the rights of this group [to homeschool] is persecution."[more] |
3/1/2010 Scott Burris | IRB Advisor |
| "Researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, have developed a novel approach to assessing the potential social risks to participants in a research study before the study commences. The approach, called rapid policy assessment and response (RPAR), also has been used for non-research health interventions in dealing with groups such as drug users and sex workers. It pulls together analysis of existing laws in the study population with a rapid collection of data about how those laws are implemented on the ground, potentially affecting patients or subjects. In a recent article in The American Journal of Bioethics, author Scott Burris describes its use as an assessment tool prior to an HIV prevention drug trial. Burris, JD, a professor of law at Temple, says he was hired by the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) to conduct an assessment of the social risks that might be faced by drug users in Thailand and China who were recruited to participate in a trial of the opiate addiction treatment suboxone. The assessment confirmed what many researchers knew anecdotally--that drug users in both countries faced serious social risks...But the assessment also concluded that if researchers implemented thoughtful protections and coordinated with authorities, those risks might be minimized and in fact, participation in a study could actually protect participants." |
2/25/2010 Rafael Porrata-Doria | Law360.com |
| Goldman Sachs Group is under investigation for currency swaps that disguised Greece's debt. "Goldman has acknowledged in a public statement that the deals did help to reduce the debt, if only slightly, and were made when the country was attempting to meet financial standards for joining the European Monetary Union..Rafael Porrata-Doria, a law professor at Temple University who specializes in the European Union, said he warned his classes that the standards might be unrealistic for a number of countries such as Greece. 'What I predicted to classes back then, is that these are almost impossible to meet honestly,' he said, adding that he thought it was likely that the standards would either be relaxed or ignored, or that countries would find ways to 'fudge' their numbers. 'I'm wondering who else has done it,' he said." |
2/23/2010 Michael Libonati | pabar.org |
| Temple Law professor Michael Libonati was named to the newly formed Pennsylvania Bar Association Constitutional Review Commission. The Commission is charged with "conducting a thorough review of the state's Constitution and making recommendations to improve the structure and operation of government in the commonwealth."[more] |
2/22/2010 Burton Caine | Fox 29 |
| Temple Law professor Burton Caine spoke on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union about accusations that the Lower Merion School District used webcams to spy on students.[more] |
2/22/2010 David Post | FOX29 |
| There are new developments in the case of alleged spying in Lower Merion School District. The district denies it engaged in general spying or that it used a web cam photo to discipline a student, but freely admits, and says it regrets, not warning students or their parents that district issued laptops could be used essentially as undercover cameras. Temple University Law Professor David Post, who specializes in internet issues, calls the district's failure to notify a colossal mistake. But, Post says, the early and public admission was a good strategy by the district. "It will come out anyway. It is not like when it comes to trial we could somehow make it magically go away," he said. |
2/22/2010 Burton Caine | Main Line Times |
| Constitutional law professor Burton Caine explains the Lower Merion School District spy case and if the school district was within its rights to monitor school property.[more] |
2/22/2010 JoAnne Epps | PSLawNet |
| Dean JoAnne Epps' legal career began with public service, as a prosecuting attorney on both the local and federal levels. A natural teacher, she moved into the academic world and ultimately into academic administration. Epps became the Temple Law dean in 2008, after over two dozen years of distinguished work as a professor and an associate dean. Here are five questions with Dean Epps.[more] |
2/20/2010 David Kairys | Philadelphia Daily News |
| A lawsuit in Montgomery County alleges that the Lower Merion School District "used webcams on school-issued laptops to 'spy' on students in their homes...David Kairys, a Temple University law professor who specializes in civil rights and constitutional law, described the policy as Orwellian. He said it appears to be a 'very clear civil-rights violation. 'It's pretty outrageous,' Kairys said. 'It's sort of beyond belief that they wouldn't say, 'This is going too far.'"[more] |
2/18/2010 Burton Caine | Main Line Times |
| Temple Law professor Burton Caine recounts a troubling interaction with the Lower Merion Township administration. "As professor of constitutional law, I teach students that 'we, the people' are the boss and government is the servant, and whenever the servant abuses his station, the remedy is at the ballot box where 'the people' exercise their right to remove that person. But I learned that that isn't always the way it is."[more] |
2/13/2010 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| The question of whether or not federal law enforcement agents may access cell phone records to establish the location of a person under investigation is before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. "'The way the Constitution was framed, when it came down to information as basic and personal as where you are, at what time, who you visit, and where, the framers thought the government should only have access to that if there is probable cause to think a crime was committed,' said David Kairys, professor of constitutional law at Temple University Law School. 'There is no question that [the government] should be able to get [cell records] in some circumstances. It's the most basic sort of question raised by our current technology.'"[more] |
2/11/2010 Peter J. Spiro | Jerusalem Post |
| Temple Law professor Peter Spiro's article, Perfecting Political Diaspora, 81 NYU L. Rev. 207 (2006), was mentioned in a Jerusalem Post op-ed.[more] |
2/8/2010 David Kairys | USA Today |
| As the Supreme Court term reaches the half-way point, analysts are taking stock. In January's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case the Court reversed past decisions and now allows corporate funds to be used in political campaigns. "Temple University law professor David Kairys expects the Citizens United to distinguish the Roberts Court for years. 'I think it will actually define more than this particular term,' he says. 'It might define the Roberts Court'...Kairys sees the current majority as the most conservative in decades. 'It really is their time. They seem to have this undercurrent of, 'Let's do the things we want to do while we're in control.''"[more] |
1/29/2010 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | Targeted News Service |
| Temple Law professor Jaya Ramji-Nogales will serve as a panelist at a Penn State University Dickinson School of Law symposium, "Immigration Adjudications: Court Reform and Beyond." The day-long event "will examine the state of immigration adjudications and debate proposed administrative and legislative solutions, including the creation of an independent immigration court." |
1/27/2010 Edward Ohlbaum | NBC10 |
| Alleged corruption continues to rock the Camden police department. Five more criminals are walking free after courts suddenly overturned their sentences. They're just part of a growing number of drug convictions now thrown out of court in the wake of an FBI investigation targeting four Camden officers. Temple Law Professor Edward Ohlbaum said it's a case that can shatter public trust. "On the one hand you may have innocent people who are in jail as a result of the corruption. Secondly, you may have guilty people who deserve to be in jail who go free," Ohlbaum said.[more] |
1/22/2010 David Kairys | Slate |
| Temple Law professor David Kairys' comment on the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC decision quickly became the most commented upon and most emailed piece on Slate.com. "The majority's ruling unleashes a new wave of campaign cash and adds to the already considerable power of corporations. The court's main rationale is that limits on using corporate treasuries for campaigns are a 'classic example of censorship,' as Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority...Wealthy people and corporate managers shouldn't dominate politics or have more and better speech rights than the rest of us. That seems like an obvious truth. And yet the Supreme Court's recent decisions move us away from it."[more] |
1/22/2010 Scott Burris | WHYY-FM |
| The use of unsterile needles by injectable drug users is a major source of HIV and hepatitis C infection. Needle exchange programs in which drug users turn in their dirty needles for clean ones, have been shown to be effective in reducing disease transmission. Currently there are only two needle exchange programs in Pennsylvania. But recent changes may increase access to clean needles. Last month the ban on federal funding for needle exchange has been lifted. Also, prescriptions are no longer required at pharmacies to purchase a syringe. "Needle exchange programs have been attacked as being soft on drugs or even encouraging drug use, and of course there is no evidence to support that," said Scott Burris, a law professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "But meanwhile for every state that doesn't have a needle exchange program but does have injection drug users at risk for HIV, you're talking abut hundreds or thousands of lives that are lost." |
1/21/2010 Craig Green | NPR: Tell Me More |
| Temple Law Professor Craig Green appeared on "Tell Me More" to provide insight into the ongoing Mumia Abu-Jamal trial. In 1983, Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. This week, the Supreme Court threw out an appeals court ruling ordering a new sentencing hearing. Green said, "the only thing I can predict is more legal fights. That's very predictable, and I think that this case will remain in the public eye because it is such a compelling story about police death and also about criminal justice system irregularities and procedural violations."[more] |
1/20/2010 Mark Rahdert | City Paper |
| It was, in the end, much ado about nothing. City Councilman Jack Kelly filed a defamation lawsuit against one of his constituents in 2008 and he lost. For a public official to win a defamation suit, he or she not only has to prove that the allegedly defamatory statement was inaccurate, and that the person making the statement knew it was inaccurate, but that it was done with malice -- an intentional effort to inflict harm. "There's no bar to a politician suing for defamation," says Mark Rahdert, a constitutional law professor at Temple University. "Just like any other individual, he or she can do so. The standard, however, is a pretty steep one."[more] |
1/14/2010 Spencer Rand | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In his 25-year career, Temple Legal Aid's supervising attorney, Spencer Rand has seen little change in welfare support. In a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed Rand notes, "The amount a man on welfare gets to support himself has not increased. I don't mean it hasn't increased in real dollars, adjusted for inflation; I mean it hasn't increased at all."[more] |
1/9/2010 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Area colleges made news recently by instituting an all-campus smoking ban or a fitness requirement for graduation. "With the best of intentions, [these] and other schools are taking greater steps in deciding what's in the best interests of their students, who, despite behavior to the contrary, are legally adults...'College is the first opportunity for most students to be responsible for what they do 24/7. They're going to make mistakes like we all do,' says Temple constitutional law professor David Kairys. 'We are in this period where we should be aware and worried that more kinds of government and institutions are compelling conformity that is being thrust on us...With the more conservative Supreme Court, we may see much more leeway for regulation, many more limitations on free speech, privacy and discrimination,' Kairys says. 'Schools may become more involved in regulating student behavior though you think of universities as bastions of freedom promoting the whole marketplace of ideas.'"[more] |
1/6/2010 Jeffrey Dunoff | Foreign Affairs |
| The journal Foreign Affairs features a review of Ruling the World? Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance (Cambridge 2009). Temple Law professor and director of the Institute for International Law & Public Policy, Jeffery L. Dunoff co-edited the book. The review concludes, "the volume succeeds in showcasing the evolving connections among rights, democracy, legitimacy, and international cooperation."[more] |
1/5/2010 Mark Rahdert | Metropolitan Corporate Counsel |
| Charles Klein professor of law and government, Mark C. Rahdert will be a panelist at a Pennsylvania Bar Institute program examining President Obama's first year in office.[more] |
1/4/2010 Rafael Porrata-Doria | Law360 |
| Law360 took a look back at trends in securities litigation in 2009. "Rafael Porrata-Doria, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law who has served on arbitration panels for securities cases for more than 20 years, said that he's seen a huge spike over the past year in the number of cases brought before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. 'I think any investment banking firm out there, or any firm that is selling securities, the industry standard is you put an arbitration clause in there because the firms feel a lot more comfortable with arbitration,' he said. 'It's cheaper and they feel they get a better deal...It is extremely hard, especially for a sophisticated investor, to get out of an arbitration clause,' he said." |
1/1/2010 David Post | Green Bag |
| The law journal Green Bag named Temple Law professor David G. Post an Exemplary Legal Writing 2009 Honoree for his book, In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace (Oxford 2009).[more] |
12/27/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Incoming Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has plans to reform the office, including creating planning and policy administrators, collecting data to measure performance and streamlining preliminary hearings and police cases. JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple University's Law School has been co-chairing Williams' transition committee. "'These are very interesting issues he'll have to confront,' Epps said. 'There is a lot of tradition in the city. Judges will have to change their expectations.' Epps also applauded Williams' effort to collect empirical data, but said he would have to do so 'in ways that prove useful. I do think he has a challenge of what to count, and how to count it,' she said."[more] |
12/23/2009 Scott Burris | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| After years of fighting, AIDS prevention advocates have won two major but little-noticed victories - one in Harrisburg, the other in Washington - that experts say should reduce the transmission of diseases spread by drug addicts. "The typical drug user is employed, is more likely to live in suburbs [than] in the city, and is as likely to be white as black," said Scott Burris, a Temple University law professor and an authority on syringe regulation and HIV.[more] |
12/21/2009 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| As Seth Williams prepares to take office Jan. 4 as Philadelphia's next district attorney, he wanted to meet with every Philadelphia staffer before he is sworn in. Mark A. Aronchick, co-chair of Williams' transition advisory group with JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple University's Beasley School of Law, said the advisory team volunteers are optimistic, looking forward and not contrasting "the existing regime and the outgoing regime" in a blame game.[more] |
12/18/2009 Henry Richardson | NBA News Bulletin |
| In an op-ed piece, Temple Law professor Henry J. Richardson discusses how President Obama's receiving the Nobel Peace Prize recognizes another African American contribution to international affairs. |
12/18/2009 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| As the 2009-10 school year has unfolded, immigrant students have been attacked at Fels, Furness, and South Philadelphia High Schools. Jan Ting, of Temple's Beasley School of Law, who studies immigration, said newcomers often suffer. "You can't do anything about your race. And you really can't do anything about your accent. It's bad enough you look different than anybody else, but you sound different, too," Ting said.[more] |
12/14/2009 JoAnne Epps | National Law Journal |
| The rising cost of legal education and a dearth of entry-level jobs is prompting more people to urge prospective law students to think twice. The backlash is fiercest on the Internet, where blogs focus on what they characterize as the oversupply of lawyers in the United States, high law school tuition and student debt, and the unrealistic expectations many people have about lawyers' salaries and lifestyles. JoAnne Epps, dean of the Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law, said she understands that people are frustrated. "But I don't think it's fair at this stage of our history to blame law schools for the fact that a graduate's job prospects in 2009 are different than they may have been when that graduate was contemplating law school four or five years ago," Epps said.[more] |
12/13/2009 David Hoffman | New York Times |
| An article co-authored by Temple Law professor David Hoffman earned a spot on the New York Times Magazine's "Year in Ideas" list. The article concerned the Supreme Court case, Scott v. Harris. "The law professors argued that the justices in the majority were in the grip of a common psychological fallacy: that other people's perceptions might be shaped by socioeconomic position or political commitment, but they themselves perceived the objective truth."[more] |
12/11/2009 Duncan Hollis | USA Today |
| As delegates at the United Nations climate summit set goals for trimming pollution emissions, experts at home see the challenges in creating effective measurement and enforcement procedures. "One possibility would be 'border adjustments,' a provision that would allow countries to impose tariffs or other penalties on trading partners who fail to meet their environmental promises, says Duncan Hollis, a Temple University law professor and former attorney for treaty affairs at the State Department."[more] |
12/10/2009 Scott Burris | US Fed News |
| A Public Health Law Research grant was awarded to the University of Virginia School of Law to study recent changes to state mental health law. "The changes were recommended by a commission formed in the wake of the 2007 Virginia Tech tragedy...'This project will provide the evidence needed to ensure that changes in the Health Care Decisions Act will be as effective as possible,' said Scott Burris, a law professor and director of the Temple University Center for Health, Law, Policy and Practice, where Public Health Law Research is based. 'The findings will also be useful to policymakers and mental health advocates in other states who are contemplating the use of similar advance directive laws to help meet the public health challenge of reducing the huge social costs of untreated severe mental illness in their communities.'" |
12/7/2009 | States News Service |
| "The Public Health Law Research Program (PHLR) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation today announced 15 new research grants that will help policy-makers and researchers understand how laws can affect public health. PHLR is based at Temple University's Center for Health, Law, Policy and Practice. The program funds legal analysis and research to learn about the health impacts of specific laws and regulations. PHLR Director Scott Burris, J.D., said, 'We know that clean indoor air laws protect people from second-hand smoke and that laws prohibiting lead-based paint reduce lead poisoning. Research that shows what works helps policymakers choose the most effective strategies for promoting public health.'" |
12/7/2009 Burton Caine | The Jerusalem Report |
| Says Burton Caine in response to a story on the Rivlin family, "Justice Rivlin was a student of mine in American Constitutional Law and was one of the brightest students I have taught, American or foreign."[more] |
11/30/2009 David Kairys | CNN |
| Students at Lincoln University with a body mass index of 30 or above, reflective of obesity, must take a fitness course that meets three hours per week. Those who are assigned to the class but do not complete it cannot graduate. From a legal perspective, the school's requirement seems "paternalistic" and "intrusive," said David Kairys, professor of law at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "The part that seems excessive is forcing them to take this course, or to exercise three hours a week, which isn't a bad idea for them, but should be their choice," he said.[more] |
11/23/2009 Burton Caine | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In a letter to the editor, Temple Law professor Burton Caine expressed skepticism that the trial of a September 11 attack-leader can seat a fair jury.[more] |
11/19/2009 Craig Green | Targeted News Service -- Green |
| A team of Temple Law School students, led by professors David Sonenshein and Craig Green, will post Third Circuit case summaries on the ABA's new Media Alerts on Federal Courts of Appeals website. The project is an "effort to broadly disseminate timely, accurate and unbiased information about noteworthy and legally significant cases in the federal courts of appeals" thereby fostering greater public understanding of the courts' work.[more] |
11/19/2009 David Sonenshein | Targeted News Service -- Sonenshein |
| A team of Temple Law School students, led by professors David Sonenshein and Craig Green, will post Third Circuit case summaries on the ABA's new Media Alerts on Federal Courts of Appeals website. The project is an "effort to broadly disseminate timely, accurate and unbiased information about noteworthy and legally significant cases in the federal courts of appeals" thereby fostering greater public understanding of the courts' work.[more] |
11/18/2009 Gregory N. Mandel | Time Magazine |
| The patent office originally rejected the application at issue in the Supreme Court case, Bilski v. Kappos, calling it "'an abstract idea that simply solves a mathematical problem.'...The biggest fear for technology companies is that the court might impose a block on an entire class of patents — in this case patents dealing with business methods. 'I see no basis for that happening,' says Temple University's Gregory Mandel. Writing in their judgment, the Justices might call for greater scrutiny of the real-world practical applications of new patents by patent examiners and judges, says Mandel."[more] |
11/14/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | It's Our Money blog |
| If Pennsylvania state politicians charged with using taxpayer money for political purposes are found guilty, restitution may be ordered. "In the sentencing phase, the trial judge would probably 'ask for...paperwork and documentary evidence so that he can calculate or determine what the loss was to taxpayers,'" according to Temple Law professor Edward Ohlbaum. "'You can't get blood from a rock,' Ohlbaum says, though he adds that the court could order the sale of defendants' property or order that they turn over a portion of their future earnings."[more] |
11/14/2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| After surrendering to police, state representative John Perzel faced a media gaunlet on the way to arraignment on charges of misusing tax dollars. "Temple University law professor Edward Ohlbaum said the Perzel 'perp walk' seemed to meet court requirements. But he said such pretrial publicity can make it more difficult for defense lawyers to find unbiased jurors when a case comes to trial. It didn't help, Ohlbaum said, that Corbett gave his version of the grand jury's findings in a televised news conference on Thursday. 'I suppose one could make the argument that in certain circumstances, it advantages the prosecution, because it begins to taint or pollute a potential jury pool,' he said."[more] |
11/12/2009 Rafael Porrata-Doria | Law360 |
| "[A] federal jury in New York handed down a verdict of not guilty for two former Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. hedge fund managers who were accused of defrauding investors. The Bear Stearns hedge fund case was the first criminal prosecution to be filed over the financial system's near total collapse in 2008, and was seen as a bellwether for future prosecutions. After losing in their first outing, the government will take a long look at their strategy moving forward...Rafael Porrata-Doria, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, said prosecutors needed to take it slow. 'The main lesson here is you've got to do a full investigation and resist the pressure to make a quick investigation and then move,' Porrata-Doria said." |
11/12/2009 Frank McClellan | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In an opinion piece, Temple Law professor and Center for Health Law, Policy and Practice co-director Frank McClellan takes on critics of the public health insurance option. "So far, most opponents of a government option rely on abstract arguments that the market is more efficient than the government, and that it is offensive to require private companies to be less profitable because they must compete with the government. But such arguments are sustainable only if one is willing to ignore or tolerate the individual catastrophes and group disparities that the private market has produced...The current reform debate has let the moral question of equity out of the bottle. Doing nothing reveals a willingness to accept the financial insecurity, emotional suffering, and physical pain that 44 million uninsured people - who are disproportionately African American and Latino - continue to suffer in a market system. The disproportionate harm of the current system should be made widely known, and the decision to reform or maintain the status quo should be made with our eyes wide open."[more] |
11/9/2009 Gregory N. Mandel | National Law Journal |
| The Supreme Court heard Bilski v. Kappos, a case reviewing the patentability of business methods. As innovations shift from mechanical and tangible inventions to processes -- including software and medical diagnostics -- the law must adapt. "Many analysts, including Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law patent law expert Gregory Mandel, think the high court will uphold the Federal Circuit's rejection of the Bilski-Warsaw patent, even as it loosens the circuit's standard. 'It's inconceivable that the Court will ultimately issue an opinion that will restrict biotechnology patenting and most likely will not restrict software patenting, either,' Mandel said." |
11/7/2009 Jan Ting | WWDB AM 860 |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting was a guest on WWDB radio's "Senator Bob Rovner Talks with the Stars." Professor Ting commented on Temple Law School's China programs and recent U.S. election results. |
11/6/2009 Harwell Wells | Fortune |
| Outrage over exorbitant executive compensation is nothing new. "In an article soon to be published in the University of Richmond Law Review, Harwell Wells, an assistant professor of law at Temple University, says the [1930s] exposed 'deep tensions' about the issue...The public's war cry in the 1930s, says Wells, was 'No man can be worth $1 million a year.'" |
11/6/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Philadelphia District Attorney-Elect Seth Williams takes office January 5, 2010. Temple Law School Dean JoAnne Epps will co-chair Williams' transition committee, a team that will give advice on revising systems and recommend innovations.[more] |
11/5/2009 Jan Ting | ABC News |
| Ninety-nine bills are pending in the current Congress, hoping to become private laws, "pieces of stand-alone legislation that apply only to specific individuals, families or corporations." "Jan Ting, a Temple University law professor and former assistant commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service...is among those critical of private legislation, as he says it circumvents established bureaucratic procedures, clutters the legislative process, and feeds a 'bad habit' of allowing members of Congress to serve their constituents' interests without addressing the systemic or societal causes of a problem. Some also say private bills are rife with corruption and favoritism. 'Private bills can actually help highlight a problem that needs to be fixed in the system,' Ting said. 'On the other hand, you can't really run a country on a case by case system, in immigration, in tax or in anything else.'"[more] |
11/4/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Newly elected Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams named Temple Law School Dean JoAnne Epps to his transition team.[more] |
11/3/2009 | Global Times (China) |
| A ceremony marking 10 years of scholarly exchange and cooperation between the Temple's Beasley School of Law and Tsinghua University's law school was held Sunday in Beijing. More than 900 Chinese legal professionals and government officials have participated in the program. Temple announced that it will join with Qinghai University for Nationalities to help train legal professionals. "Besides the law program, we provide several other tracks of study including non-degree educational programs for judges and prosecutors, available in the Qinghai program, AIDS and public health law training and workshops, as well as law drafting and implementation projects for Chinese lawmakers," said JoAnne A. Epps, Temple Law dean.[more] |
11/1/2009 Leonore F. Carpenter | Curve Magazine |
| Temple Law professor Leonore Carpenter was intereviewed in an article about same-sex domestic violence that appeared in the November 2009 issue of Curve Magazine. |
11/1/2009 JoAnne Epps | Metropolitan Corporate Counsel |
| In a Q&A in Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, ABA president Carol Lamm cited Temple Law dean JoAnne Epps' appointment to the American Bar Association Commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs. The commission is charged with exploring "how lawyers can reorganize themselves to cope with the transforming economy in the short run, and how the profession can position itself to better withstand financial downturns over the long term."[more] |
10/31/2009 Peter J. Spiro | National Journal |
| The State Department joined Islamic nations in adopting a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution forwarding the criminalization of hate speech under international law. As expressed in a 2003 article, Treaties, International Law and Constitutional Rights, Temple Law professor Peter Spiro sees a conflict. "An international norm against hate speech would supply a basis for prohibiting it, the First Amendment notwithstanding...In the long run, it may point to the Constitution's more complete subordination."[more] |
10/29/2009 N. Jeremi Duru | Human Resource Executive |
| A study conducted on a large retail chain's personnel data "appears to confirm that the race or ethnicity of those making the hiring decisions has a clear impact on the racial makeup of a company's workforce" -- that managers hire employees of their own race or ethnic group. "Jeremi Duru, an employment law professor at Temple University's law school in Philadelphia, says the results of the study indicate the need for 'diverse-candidate slates' to offset other factors in the hiring process that may lead to discriminatory hiring. 'Ever since 2002, the NFL has mandated the use of diverse-candidate slates for the hiring of head coaches,' he says. 'The idea is not to require managers to hire women or minorities, but to ensure that they're at least being exposed to a more diverse set of candidates than they might ordinarily be exposed to. They may end up spotting talent where they otherwise wouldn't have looked.'"[more] |
10/26/2009 JoAnne Epps | Business Wire |
| "This month, Temple University Beasley School of Law celebrates the 10th anniversary of its groundbreaking Rule of Law Program in China, created with the Chinese government's endorsement to advance the development of the country's legal system and leadership in the international marketplace...'China's emergence as a global economic and political power has brought international attention to the country's developing legal system,' said JoAnne A. Epps, dean of the law school. 'Legal reform, from the creation of transparent laws to their consistent application, has become a priority for the Chinese government. Through our Rule of Law Program, Temple is proud to play a vital role in educating the lawyers who may be called on to help shape the country's legal system.'"[more] |
10/22/2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A Temple forum, "The Balancing Act: Combining Responsibilities for Work and Family," considered the situations of women employees and leaders at the university. Participating in the panel discussion, "JoAnne A. Epps, dean of the law school, said she was blazing a path that few black women had taken before her. She had little confidence. Epps, a Yale-trained lawyer, joined the Temple faculty in 1985 and became dean on July 1, 2008. Before joining the university, she had an illustrious career as a trial lawyer and prosecutor in Los Angeles and then as a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia. 'Even for all the things that have happened in my life, I think it's really only recently, and I mean really only recently, maybe this job, that I thought, maybe I can do this,' she said."[more] |
10/22/2009 Diane Maleson | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Law professor Diane C. Maleson participated in the panel discussion, "The Balancing Act: Combining Responsibilities for Work and Family" alongside Law Dean JoAnne Epps, President Ann Weaver Hart and Provost Lisa Staiano-Coico. The forum was sponsored by the Faculty Senate's Committee on the Status of Women.[more] |
10/21/2009 David Kairys | WHYY-FM |
| A Chester firefighter was recently suspended without pay for refusing to take an American flag sticker off his locker. Now the Fire Commissioner says the American flag will be allowed as an exception to the ban on locker decorations. This debate drew national media attention. Many backers of the firefighter said because of the flag's significance as a national symbol, it should be allowed. Temple University constitutional law professor David Kairys says allowing the American flag but banning other items on lockers, sets a dangerous precedent. "The fact that it occurs here in the context of an exception for a message that most people like, shouldn't really give comfort to it. We should really insist that government stay out of the business of deciding which messages are allowable and which aren't."[more] |
10/20/2009 David Post | US Fed News |
| Author and Temple Law professor, David Post spoke at the University of Virginia on copyright law in the digital age. "The ideal copyright law, he said, would incentivize people to create works they wouldn't otherwise have made while permitting the widest possible distribution, dissemination and reuse of works already created...'Reasonable people will disagree, of course, about what kind of copyright law will be best in this thought experiment,' Post said. 'That's the conversation we should be having, it seems to me. What kind of law makes sense in this environment? If it's not the law we have right now, then how do we transition from here to there?'" |
10/19/2009 Craig Green | WHYY-FM |
| In the first week of its new term the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a landmark free speech case, the United States v. Stephens. It involves a law that forbids the buying or selling of illegal images depicting cruelty to animals. The case has pitted civil libertarians and news organizations against animal welfare agencies. According to Craig Green, associate professor of law at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, the idea of harm justifying suppression of speech is an old issue. "The first amendment is committed to the idea that speech can be used for good purposes or bad purposes. You can't say it is okay for one side and not the other."[more] |
10/18/2009 Jan Ting | 6ABC - "Inside Story" |
| Beasley School of Law professor Jan Ting was a panelist on the news and commentary television program, "Inside Story." The panel analyzed national and local news of the week, including the controversy over elementary students singing a song about President Obama in a school presentation.[more] |
10/17/2009 David Kairys | WHYY-FM |
| A Chester City firefighter has been suspended without pay after refusing to take an American flag sticker off his locker this week. The fire commissioner says the decision to ban all decorations from the outside of lockers was intended to provide a clearer rule that could be easily understood. As long as the ban on decorating lockers is uniformly applied, Temple University constitutional law professor David Kairys says the firefighter has a weak case. "What he really seems to be claiming is that he thinks that his speech is of the highest order because it's the flag and therefore should be exempt, but they've decided that no speech, whether it's favored by everybody, is going to be put on those lockers anymore, and as along as they administer that even handedly, it seems to me he's not going to get anywhere."[more] |
10/16/2009 Mark Rahdert | Allentown Morning Call |
| Austin Scott has filed a federal lawsuit against Penn State University police, prosecutors and his accuser, claiming they conspired against him following a rape charge. The criminal case against Scott was withdrawn last year. Mark Rahdert, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, said it might be hard to win claims against many defendants in the case. "'It's an uphill battle,"' he said. Prosecutors, for instance, typically enjoy broad immunity from lawsuits based on how they pursue charges, Rahdert said.[more] |
10/12/2009 Jan Ting | Wilmington News Journal |
| The race for the Senate seat for Delaware vacated by Vice President Biden will be a key contest as the GPO tries to gain a majority in Congress. Temple Law professor Jan Ting, a Senate contender in 2006, knows well Delaware's political sphere and the importance of this race. "The campaign, Ting predicted, is likely to be a 'battle of the titans,' with stakes high for both sides. 'The reality is, our proximity to Washington, D.C., makes it easier for the national media to focus on what's going on in our state,' Ting said. 'But I think it would be, frankly, a tremendous embarrassment to the administration if they were to lose Biden's seat.' Hunger for a win is likely to push both campaigns into new territory, he said...Surprises also are in store for voters involving other media, Ting said."[more] |
10/9/2009 Craig Green | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In an opinion piece, Craig Green, associate professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, commented on what could be a landmark free-speech case, United States v. Stevens, heard this week by the Supreme Court. Like most free-speech cases, Stevens involves expression that is easy to dislike, but deserving of First Amendment protection despite its content. "Under the First Amendment, Americans are free to disagree about the value of dogfight videos, and we are also free to disagree about how our disagreements should be expressed. The core of that freedom rests on a simple difference between illegal dogfights on the one hand and constitutionally protected speech about dogfights on the other," Green wrote.[more] |
9/25/2009 Jan Ting | Charlotte Observer, Sacramento Bee, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The State (S.C.), Idaho Statesman, more |
| People seeking to get around U.S. immigration laws have found a friend in California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Judiciary Committee who often uses "private bills" as a way to keep people in the country who otherwise would have been forced to leave. The practice of introducing private bills has always raised questions of special treatment, said Jan Ting, who teaches immigration law at Temple's Beasley School of Law and who served as assistant commissioner at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the 1990s. But whenever a member of Congress took an interest in a case, he said, it prompted an immediate internal review. "That was enough to put a sticker on the file...Our sense was that, well gosh, we owe it to Congress, who controls our funding, to at least see how the private bill plays out," Ting said.[more] |
9/24/2009 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| "A group of 20 former judges and legal scholars have written an amicus curiae brief in the class action suit against two former Luzerne County judges and others, supporting arguments that [the judges] should not be able to invoke the doctrine of judicial immunity. They say the doctrine cannot cover judges who have admitted to criminal conduct because of public policy concerns." Dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law, JoAnne Epps is among the brief's authors. "'This issue, about the relationship of judicial immunity in the wake of criminal charges, is a modest example of something that can impugn judicial integrity.'" |
9/24/2009 | Professional Services Close-up |
| Temple Law Dean JoAnne Epps is serving as co-chair of a high-level summit on lawyer professional education and development in October. The invitational conference, Equipping Our Lawyers: Law School Education, Continuing Legal Education, and Legal Practice in the 21st Century, will call together leaders in legal education and is sponsored by the American Law Institute-American Bar Association Continuing Professional Education (ALI-ABA) and the Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA).[more] |
9/18/2009 Jan Ting | CNN "Lou Dobbs Tonight" |
| President Obama has said that he believes the health care reform debate underscores the need for passing comprehensive immigration reform but that illegal immigrants will not be covered under his health care plan. Critics believe illegal immigrants could still get health care coverage. "We're struggling to find a way to pay for health care reform without raising taxes and it's a balancing act," said Jan Ting of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "If you weigh in legalizing 12 million or more illegal immigrants that tilts the balance." |
9/18/2009 Scott Burris | Lancaster Intelligencer Journal |
| "Pennsylvanians can now buy hypodermic needles without a prescription, a change that research shows reduces the spread of AIDS and other viruses among users of illegal drugs...'I think we're going to be saving lives all around Pennsylvania' now that needles are being sold over the counter, said Scott Burris, a specialist in health law at Temple University School of Law. 'Pharmacists can now enlist in the fight against AIDS.'"[more] |
9/18/2009 | WHYY-FM |
| Pa. residents can now buy syringes over the counter. Activists say the new rule will curtail hepatitis C and HIV, which can spread when infected drug users share needles, but some people question whether addicts will go into a pharmacy to purchase clean needles. Temple law professor Scott Burris thinks they will. "The evidence is overwhelming that addicts will change their behavior to save their own lives," he said. "What Pennsylvania has done today is get the law out of the way."[more] |
9/8/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Business Journal |
| Temple Law alums Steven E. Angstreich and Carolyn C. Lindheim, partners at bankruptcy boutique Weir & Partners, successfully petitioned to have $1.3 million of unclaimed funds following a class-action lawsuit donated to Temple's Beasley School of Law, arguing that a consumer law program would be an appropriate recipient. "Carolyn and Steve's vision for the use of these funds will enhance opportunities for our students and faculty. It will also pay tribute to the work done by trial lawyers in representing individuals who have suffered from predatory lending practices," Temple Law Dean JoAnne A. Epps said.[more] |
9/6/2009 Burton Caine | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In a letter to the editor, Temple Law professor Burton Caine criticized the state's efforts to censor messages on customized license plates.[more] |
9/2/2009 Peter J. Spiro | New York Times |
| On Wednesday, the court confirmed that Justice John Paul Stevens has hired only one clerk, igniting speculation that he plans to step down. It used to be commonplace for justices to hire clerks far in advance and later dash their hopes with news of retirement. Peter J. Spiro, now a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, recalled hearing that Justice William J. Brennan Jr. was stepping down for medical reasons just a week before Spiro's clerkship was to have begun in 1990. "Twenty years later, I recognize it as a rich kid's problem in the grand scheme of things," Spiro said, adding that Justice Brennan was quite gracious. "At the time, it was extremely disappointing."[more] |
9/1/2009 David Kairys | The Humanist |
| Temple Law professor David Kairys' recent book, Philadelphia Freedom: Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer (2008) was reviewed in The Humanist. "Kairys recalls the extraordinary plights of his ill-fated clients along with the uncommonly bold and energetic legal services he delivered to them."[more] |
8/31/2009 Burton Caine | Philadelphia Daily News |
| Temple Law professor Burton Caine remembers Larry Frankel, a prominent figure with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, who died last week. Professor Caine serves on the state ACLU board and remembers when Frankel was named executive director of the group in 2001. "'He didn't want to prepare budgets - he wanted to be in the field fighting,' Caine said. 'He had a great effect there because people knew him, they trusted him and he could stop something before it festered into a sore.'"[more] |
8/13/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | WHYY-FM |
| Federal prosecutors have filed an appeal of former state Senator Vince Fumo's four and a half year sentence. If the Solicitor General signs off on the decision, it will re-open the possibility that Fumo could appeal his conviction. Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, says Fumo's chances of a successful appeal are slim: "He could file an appeal of the conviction and I could put in my name for the next archbishop of Philadelphia and we would both have the same chance of success."[more] |
8/11/2009 Jan Ting | The News Journal |
| According to civil libertarians, police have been given troubling new powers to stop and frisk people with little or no reason under a recent ruling by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Federal prosecutors, Wilmington officials, and others say the ruling is a victory and vindication for aggressive patrol tactics by city police in high-crime areas. Jan Ting, of Temple's Beasley School of Law, said it should encourage Wilmington as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office to pursue gun prosecutions. "When society is increasingly concerned about violent crime and, in particular, gun violence, courts try to find ways to uphold police powers and practices," Ting said.[more] |
8/10/2009 Craig Green | WHYY-FM |
| Fumo's four and a half year sentence surprised the legal community, but it's unclear how the decision will impact sentencing of white collar criminals convicted of similar crimes. Craig Green, of Temple University's Beasley school of Law, says judges are unlikely to be influenced either way. "If judges are relatively new to the bench, sometimes they're a little sensitive to political factors. But judges after a short time realize they're going to make controversial decisions and people are not always going to agree with what they're doing and are not likely to be affected by the outcry at Buckwalter and Fumo I would think."[more] |
8/8/2009 JoAnne Epps | FOX News |
| Sonya Sotomayor, who replaced retired Justice David Souter, is not expected to change the ideological split on the high court. Justice Anthony Kennedy will still be the wild card on a bench with four conservatives and four liberals. Yet some legal analysts say Sotomayor's decisions may offer surprises. "I'm not sure people are right in assuming that she's going to replace Justice Souter in terms of the perspective and the opinions she writes," said Joanne Epps, dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "I think she will surprise some of her critics and not be quite as unwelcome as they might suspect."[more] |
8/7/2009 Sara E. Jacobson | Philadelphia Daily News |
| "The D.A.'s office announced yesterday that a grand jury found that a group of police officers did not commit a crime while trying to subdue three shooting suspects last year. Now, some, including attorney Paul Messing, who specializes in civil riths litigation including cases related to police misconduct, are asking whether the grand jury was unduly influenced by the D.A....Sara Jacobson, an associate professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law and the school's director of trial advocacy, said: 'I would hope that it wouldn't be [influenced], but the real concern is how the public views it. If the public doesn't see it as fair, it makes the police's job much tougher,' Jacobson said." |
8/6/2009 Burton Caine | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In a letter to the editor, Temple Law professor Burton Caine praised Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for speaking out about his conflict with a Cambridge policeman.[more] |
8/6/2009 David Post | States News Service |
| "With the designation of ten distinguished academics, the Center for Democracy & Technology today announced the creation of a non-resident Fellows Program, designed to bring fresh insight and the latest in academic research to CDT's work." Among the inaugural fellows is Temple Law professor David Post. "The program provides an opportunity for leading scholars to collaborate with CDT staff in addressing the complex legal and policy issues facing the Internet."[more] |
8/5/2009 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer, ACSBlog |
| Temple Law professor David Kairys explores racial perceptions kindled by the recent arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in Cambridge.[more] |
8/4/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | Lancaster Intelligencer Journal |
| "Despite judge's warnings, two jurors in [a Lancaster murder trial] wrote entries about the case on their Facebook pages. The incident underscores the perils of social networking tools to the judicial process. 'The judge says don't discuss the case, and these guys go on Facebook, which they expect will elicit a response even if they didn't intend it to. Did they violate the judge's order? Probably,' said Edward Ohlbaum, a Temple University law professor. 'But the question is not so much did they overstep the line. Assuming they did overstep the line, was there any damage or injury?' he said."[more] |
8/3/2009 Peter J. Spiro | WPHT-AM 1210 (CBS) |
| Host Michael Smerconish discussed the laws that pertain to eligibility for the presidency and the origins of the "natural born citizen" requirement with Professor Peter Spiro of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "At the time of the founding, place of birth had some significance. Literally in the natural order of things, it was thought that you owed perpetual allegiance to the sovereign of where you were born. And that loyalty was thought to be deemed by god and indissoluble," Spiro said. |
8/1/2009 Henry Richardson | Journal of African American History |
| Temple Law professor Henry J. Richardson's book,The Origins of African-American Interests in International Law (Carolina Press 2008) was reviewed favorably in the Journal of African American History (Spring 2009). |
7/30/2009 Peter J. Spiro | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Law professor Peter Spiro comments on the stir challenging President Obama's status as a "natural born citizen" in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed. "The Obama citizenship (non)controversy should be used not to better define arcane constitutional language, much less to impose filing requirements for the presidency. Rather, it's an opportunity to get rid of the birth requirement altogether."[more] |
7/30/2009 | Wall Street Journal Law Blog |
| Has the "natural born citizen" requirement for president outlived its usefulness? Should it be repealed? Temple law professor Peter Spiro argued in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday that the answer should be yes. For starters, writes Spiro, the requirement is outdated: The natural-born provision is an artifact of a time when one's birthplace was fraught with consequences. In the feudal conception of natural law, one was born into the protection of a territory's sovereign, for which one was thought to owe an indissoluble duty of allegiance. Today, birthplace is hardly so meaningful. Many more individuals are being born outside the United States to U.S. citizen parents (often with dual citizenship), and others are naturalizing at an early age and maturing as Americans in every sense. Notions of perpetual allegiance dissipated long ago.[more] |
7/27/2009 David Kairys | CSPAN-2 |
| David Kairys of Temple's Beasley School of Law appeared on a distinguished panel of legal professors and scholars to discuss the book, We Dissent: Talking Back to the Rehnquist Court, Eight Cases That Subverted Civil Liberties and Civil Rights. Also discussed was the issue of judicial selection under the new administration. |
7/27/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | Wall Street Journal Law Blog |
| In early 2005, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in United States v. Booker, which ruled unconstitutional the federal sentencing guidelines. Shortly thereafter, folks in the criminal law world voiced alarm. But their worry was mitigated fairly quickly by a sense that while the judges weren't required to follow the guidelines, they'd still adhere to them fairly closely. An article from the Philadelphia Inquirer over the weekend throws a dash of water on this assumption, however, especially when it comes to corruption in the cases of Vincent Fumo and Wayne Bryant. "We're certainly back to much more subjective and idiosyncratic and discretionary sentencing," Temple Law Professor Edward Ohlbaum told the Philadelphia Inquirer.[more] |
7/26/2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling federal sentencing guidelines advisory rather than mandatory is playing a part in recent public officials' fraud convictions. "'We're certainly back to much more subjective and idiosyncratic and discretionary sentencing,' said Edward Ohlbaum, a law professor at Temple University who said the prosecutors' expected appeal of Fumo's sentence may well open the next chapter in the debate about how to punish corrupt politicians...The question has turned, Ohlbaum said, to 'how much discretion a judge has, and how severely a judge may depart from those guidelines, and what, if anything, a judge will need to explain.'"[more] |
7/22/2009 James Strazzella | FNS Daybook |
| Temple Law professor James Strazzella testified before the House Judiciary Committee's Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on the "Over-criminalization of Conduct/Over-Federalization of Criminal Law."[more] |
7/22/2009 Burton Caine | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In a letter to the editor, Temple Law professor Burton Caine writes that questions at the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor did not fully explore her views on abortion and women's rights.[more] |
7/21/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | WHYY-FM |
| The sentencing of former Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Fumo's aide and co-defendent takes place Tuesday at the federal courthouse in downtown Philadelphia. Temple University Law professor Edward Ohlbaum says he hesitates to guess what the judge will do. "On the one hand the judge might be thinking, despite the fact that she was blinded by the Fumo Majesty, or cast under his spell, the work she did benefited a substantial number of people and because Fumo got credit for that, she gets credit for that as well."[more] |
7/20/2009 JoAnne Epps | National Law Journal, Legal Intelligencer |
| In an opinion piece, JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law, suggested that it is time to reassess how lawyers are taught. "As firms conduct mass layoffs for the first time in history and client frustration over billing structures hits new peaks, we may have reached a tipping point. It goes without saying that the fates of law schools and law firms go hand in hand, so perhaps this is an ideal time for academia and practitioners to come together to question, evaluate and reassess the way lawyers are trained," she wrote.[more] |
7/17/2009 William M. Carter, Jr. | CNN -- The Situation Room |
| There are disturbing claims being made against the fourth largest police department in the country. It involves white and African American police officers, a website and claims of racist rants. The website is run by individuals but a suit filed this week in federal court is holding Philadelphia's police department responsible. According to William Carter of Temple's Beasley School of Law, "The question under the law, then, is what did the city know, at what point did it know it, and were the actions, if any, taken in response adequate?"[more] |
7/17/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer, ABA Journal, C-SPAN, KYW Newsradio |
| JoAnne A. Epps, dean of the Temple's Beasley School of Law, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Epps, who spoke on behalf of the National Association of Women Lawyers, urged senators to "send a strong message" by confirming Sotomayor. Epps said female lawyers still face barriers to advancement, and cited figures to support her statement. If Sotomayor is confirmed, she said, that "will clearly demonstrate that highly qualified women have a rightful place" at the top of the legal profession.[more] |
7/16/2009 | WHYY-FM -- Epps |
| Representing the National Association of Women Lawyers, Temple Law dean, JoAnne Epps will testify at the confirmation hearing of Sonia Sotomayor. "What NAWL believes is that people are a product of their experiences, and that a range of experiences is important to be represented on the Supreme Court, so her experience as a Latina and as a female will allow her to bring a valuable perspective."[more] |
7/16/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | WHYY-FM -- Ohlbaum |
| Former state Senator Vincent Fumo was sentenced to serve 55 months on 137 counts of fraud and obstruction of justice. "Temple University Law professor Edward Ohlbaum says his jaw dropped when he learned of the sentence. 'I'm in awe of the defense lawyers who apparently sang the right notes and hit the right chords, with this particular judge. They did a phenomenal job presenting a dedicated and hard working senator.' Ohlbaum says the message some politicians might take away is, its ok to steal, just make sure you work hard for constituents."[more] |
7/15/2009 David Kairys | WHYY-FM |
| "A controversy over swimming at The Valley Club that has attracted national attention may be headed into court. Days after some Northeast Philadelphia campers said they heard members of the Montgomery County club make racial comments, the Club terminated the contract that let campers swim at the Club's pool...Even though the kids have been invited back, Temple University constitutional law professor David Kairys says there are still plenty of legal actions that could be taken. 'You could bring a case under the civil rights act of 1964. there also is the possibility of other civil constitutional claims. The civil rights act would be a statutory claim, and then the also possibility of claims under state law.'"[more] |
7/14/2009 JoAnne Epps | 6ABC |
| At the second day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Joanne Epps, dean of Temple University's law school, will testify in support of Obama's high court nominee. According to Epps, the federal appeals judge will not play favorites if she is confirmed. "From an extensive review of her opinions, it is really clear she doesn't side with any particular interest group, that she really comes to the decision that the law requires," Epps said. |
7/14/2009 Craig Green | WHYY-FM |
| Convicted former state Senator Vincent Fumo will be in court today trying to convince a federal judge to give him as light a sentence as possible. Current guidelines put Fumo's time at between 11 and 14 years. But Fumo's attorneys will be arguing for less than the guidelines, citing his 250 letters of support and poor health. Temple University law professor Craig Green says sentencing in these cases has changed since the Supreme Court ruled that guidelines are not mandatory. "I think now you see more sentencing attention, and legitimate attention, to these character and societal impact factors that would not have been that decisive under a guidelines framework." |
7/13/2009 JoAnne Epps | KYW News Radio |
| Sonia Sotomayor enters confirmation hearings for her historic nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court with reason to be confident about the outcome: Democrats have the votes in the US Senate to make her the court's first Hispanic and third woman justice. JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple University's Beasley School of Law, who will be testifying in favor of Sotomayor's confirmation, explained how she got involved, "I am a member of the National Association of Women Lawyers, and I was appointed to serve as co-chair of the Supreme Court review committee if and when we would ever be called upon to testify about a Supreme Court nominee."[more] |
7/13/2009 Burton Caine | New York Times |
| In a New York Times letter to the editor, Temple Law professor Burton Caine forwarded a novel plan to keep the Supreme Court current. "One solution would be for Congress to enact legislation giving the president the right to appoint one new Supreme Court justice each time the president is elected or re-elected. That would bring fresh ideas to the court and give the people an added incentive to vote."[more] |
7/11/2009 David Hoffman | New York TImes |
| An article comparing judges to baseball umpires cited the findings of Whose Eyes are You Going to Believe? Scott v. Harris and the Perils of Cognitive Illiberalism, a Harvard Law Review article co-authored by Temple Law professor David Hoffman.[more] |
7/10/2009 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| As the co-chairwoman of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), Temple University's Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps will be testifying at the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor for her confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. Epps has never testified before Congress and the ability to do so, she said, is exciting and an honor. "It's really an honor to represent an organization in such an important matter," she said. "I feel like its part of service to the country."[more] |
7/9/2009 | New York Times |
| The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday issued a list of the witnesses lined up to testify at the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, which begin on Monday. Among the witnesses for the Democratic majority in support of Judge Sotomayor's confirmation is JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law, on behalf of the National Association of Women Lawyers.[more] |
7/7/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | WHYY-FM |
| Federal prosecutors say the conviction of former Pennsylvania state Senator Vincent Fumo should stand and no new trial is warranted. Last week Fumo asked the judge for a new trial based on a claim that the jury was tainted. "From a prosecution standpoint, this is a nightmare. You really don't want to have the deliberative process of the jury invaded. And the law is really clear, you can't interrogate the jurors with respect to what factors motivated them to come down in a particular way," said Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
7/6/2009 Andrea Monroe | Tax Notes Today |
| In a letter to the editor, Temple Law professor Andrea Monroe argues that tax shelters aren't the sole cause of the deadly Washington Metro crash, saying the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's failure to repair or retrofit its equipment and the federal government's failure to shut down tax-advantaged leases are also to blame. |
7/3/2009 Amy Sinden | New York Times |
| The Supreme Court heard five environmental law cases in the term that ended Monday, and environmental groups lost every time. Last term's environmental decisions are consistent with larger trends at the Supreme Court, which has leaned to the right recently and seems poised to make significant moves in a conservative direction in important areas of the law. Justice O'Connor's departure had a powerful impact and played a part in last term's 5-to-0 rout, said Amy Sinden, who teaches environmental law at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "These could all have come out very differently if we still had O'Connor on the court," she said.[more] |
7/2/2009 William M. Carter, Jr. | Philadelphia Tribune |
| The Supreme Court ruled Monday, in a 5-4 decision, against New Haven, Conn., saying that it discriminated against a group of white firefighters when it threw out a promotional test after all of the black firefighters who took the exam failed to qualify for promotion. William Carter, a law professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said the decision essentially prohibits employers from considering race as a factor in hiring, promoting or other actions. It also makes taking action to correct a perceived wrong considerably more difficult, he said.[more] |
7/1/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Bar Reporter |
| "The packed room and standing ovations were a testament to the impact that JoAnne Epps, dean of the TempleUniversity Beasley School of Law, has had on the Philadelphia legal community. Dean Epps was the recipient of theSandra Day O'Connor Award and also delivered the Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Memorial Public Interest Lecture at the Philadelphia Bar Association's Summer Quarterly Meeting."[more] |
6/29/2009 David Hoffman | Los Angeles Times |
| This term, U.S. Supreme Court justices reversed, at least partially, 94 percent of the West's powerful U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' rulings. Part of the reason, experts say, is the court is perceived as liberal and partial to the underdog. But experts argue that one shouldn't read too much into the reversal rate. "Because the circuit is large, it produces a lot of cutting-edge law, due to industries concentrated in the circuit and the large variation of underlying states and state criminal laws," said David Hoffman, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
6/29/2009 Amy Sinden | National Law Journal |
| Environmentalists suffered a stunning 0-for-5 outcome in the U.S. Supreme Court this term, their "worst term ever," according to advocates and scholars. The defeats left the environmental community, and even its traditional antagonist in these cases - the business community - wondering where the Court is heading in this increasingly important area of the law. But pro-government is also pro-business because the government's positions in the cases were formed by the Bush administration, countered Amy Sinden of Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law. "You have Bush administration positions trying to protect corporate interests by weakening environmental protections put in place by Congress," she said. "The Court's conservative majority is becoming known for supporting an expansive view of executive power and you see it playing out here."[more] |
6/28/2009 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A collection of essays, Against the Wall: Poor, Young, Black and Male, explores the most misunderstood population in America: young African-American men. An essay by David Kairys, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, addresses the question: "Why Are Handguns so Accessible on Urban Streets?" He notes that "large cities facing declining job opportunities, losses in population and tax revenues and rising levels of deprivation are being forced to accommodate virtually unregulated handgun markets."[more] |
6/14/2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| David Kairys, a professor of constitutional law at Temple University, said cases challenging local gun ordinances could have far-reaching implications for home rule in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He said the state Supreme Court had "gutted home rule" in Philadelphia with decisions such as the 1996 overturning of a ban on assault weapons. But Kairys said communities recognized that crime and safety were local issues and they wanted to make their own decisions about how to protect residents. "They're doing their duty, saying in order to have law and order we have to get guns off the street and restore local authority," Kairys said.[more] |
6/12/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Tribune |
| Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps, a leading scholar in the areas of trial advocacy and criminal procedure, was honored by her legal peers on Tuesday when she received the Philadelphia Bar Association's Sandra Day O'Connor Award at its quarterly meeting. The Sandra Day O'Connor Award is conferred annually on a female attorney who has demonstrated superior legal talent, achieved significant legal accomplishments, and has furthered the advancement of women both professionally and in the community.[more] |
6/11/2009 Charles Rogovin | The Patriot-News |
| Some argue that pursuing the charges against Veon and his associates, and no others for similar actions, means that prosecutors are engaged in selective prosecution. They say all the counts against Veon should be dismissed. It is a bold, albeit rarely successful, argument, several criminal law experts said last week. "You have to show a kind of deliberate discrimination...where any number of persons could be prosecuted for an incident but one was selected for an improper motive," said Charles Rogovin, a retired law professor at Temple University. "It's a tough case to make."[more] |
6/10/2009 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| JoAnne A. Epps says ambition isn't an inborn drive for her. But because of mentoring from her mother and teachers, Epps has accomplished so much during her 33-year career that she was named dean of one of the top 50 law schools in the country, Temple University's Beasley School of Law, last year and was this year's recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Association's premier award given to women lawyers -- the Sandra Day O'Connor Award.[more] |
6/9/2009 Jan Ting | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette |
| Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder voided a ruling by his predecessor, Michael Mukasey, in the Matter of Compean, Bangalay & J-E-C. In that case, Mukasey overturned a process used by the Justice Department Board of Immigration Appeals. The board had depended on a process, spelled out in the previous Matter of Lozada, that defined a defendant's rights to reopen removal proceedings on the basis of the claim of ineffective counsel. Jan Ting, a law professor at Temple University, said some members of the legislative and executive branches have decided "it might be a good thing for this hot potato to be decided by judges."[more] |
6/9/2009 Salil Mehra | Sports Illustrated |
| The U.S. Bankruptcy Court fight over who will own the Phoenix Coyotes and where the team will play is reaching a critical stage. Jerry Moyes filed for Chapter 11 protection on May 5, much to the surprise of the NHL. A case cited by both sides is the NFL fight over Raiders owner Al Davis' attempt to move the franchise from Oakland to Los Angeles. Salil Mehra, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said that ownership could be an important issue in considering whether the Raiders case is relevant. "[The case of the Raiders] was just about a movement of the franchise, it was not about approving another ownership. Al Davis owned the team," Mehra said in a widely distributed AP story.[more] |
6/9/2009 David Kairys | WHYY-FM |
| People use text messages to coordinate meetings and parties. Some people also use them for criminal purposes. In a case stemming from 2007 arrests, a Pennsylvania appeals court has ruled that police need a warrant if they want to intercept texts. "Whenever you protect the privacy of regular people doing regular things -- which I think is now fair to say includes texting on cell phones -- once in a while that is going to result in someone get off on some charge," said David Kairys of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "But I think overall that privacy protection is better for all of us."[more] |
6/8/2009 JoAnne Epps | PR Newswire |
| JoAnne Epps, Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law, will receive the Philadelphia Bar Association's Sandra Day O'Connor Award at its Quarterly Meeting and Luncheon, June 9 at the Bellevue, Broad and Walnut streets. Established in 1993, the Sandra Day O'Connor Award is conferred annually on a female attorney who has demonstrated superior legal talent, achieved significant legal accomplishments and has furthered the advancement of women both professionally and in the community. Epps will also deliver the Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Memorial Public Interest Lecture at the event.[more] |
6/4/2009 Muriel Morisey | The Chronicle of Philanthropy |
| Ms. Kaminer argues that her work is a cautionary tale for other nonprofit organizations. If "groupthink" can infect aboard that is as disputatious as the ACLU's, she says, such problems are even more likely to crop up in the averagecharity. Muriel Morisey, a law professor at Temple University who served on the board for four years until 2004, says board members who raised questions about Mr. Romero's leadership were marginalized or became so disgusted that they quit. "It was a terrible failure of a board," Ms. Morisey says. "In all of my tenure on boards, I've never seen anything like it."[more] |
6/1/2009 David Post | Inside Counsel |
| Section 504 of the Copyright Act allows a copyright owner to obtain statutory damages ranging from $750 to $150,000 for each copyrighted work that is willfully infringed. Some experts believe, however, that Congress set statutory damages far too high. "Congress went way overboard in the statutory damage provisions of the Copyright Act," says David Post, who teaches copyright and cyberspace law at Temple University in Philadelphia. "The damages are intentionally set to be way out of line compared to what the actual damages are in most copyright [infringement] cases."[more] |
6/1/2009 Jan Ting | PR Newswire |
| The plenary power doctrine has been affirmed by the courts countless times since the 19th century. Nonetheless, there is a movement underway among law professors and other activists to restrict political-branch control over immigration in favor of a judge-administered system based on the implicit idea that foreigners have a "right" to immigrate. To explore this issue, the Center for Immigration Studies will host a panel discussion on Monday, June 8. Speakers include Jan Ting, former Assistant Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and current Professor of Law at the Temple University's Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia.[more] |
6/1/2009 David Hoffman | Washington Post |
| Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor has heard thousands of cases and has issued as many rulings, but the early debate over her judicial philosophy in her confirmation battle comes down to one decision that may be overturned by the Supreme Court soon. Half of Sotomayor's six cases reviewed by the Court have been reversed. "Aggregate reversal rates tell you nothing," said Temple Law Professor David A. Hoffman in a page A1 story in the Post. He notes the court customarily reverses three-quarters of the cases it decides to review. "The way to judge a judge is to read the opinions," Hoffman said.[more] |
5/27/2009 Amy Sinden | Federal News Service |
| Temple Law professor Amy Sinden will kick-off the Center for Progressive Reform's symposium, Reforming the Office of Information and Regulatory Policy: The Future of Regulatory Review. |
5/26/2009 David Hoffman | Fox Business |
| President Obama's nomination of federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court will meet perfunctory resistance from some critics who are poised to portray her as anti-business. But her personal narrative is simply too alluring. Legal analysts believe she will almost certainly fly through the confirmation process. "I think there's very little that someone who would want to oppose her could use as a hook to latch on to," said David Hoffman, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "Ultimately, it's a safe and savvy choice by the President."[more] |
5/26/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer -- Epps |
| Government at all levels has turned to law schools in Philadelphia and beyond for experts to provide ideas and intellectual energy. Recently, Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps' name was tossed around as a potential nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter.[more] |
5/26/2009 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer -- Ting |
| Government at all levels has turned to law schools in Philadelphia and beyond for experts to provide ideas and intellectual energy. Temple Law has supplied government agencies with faculty experts. Jan Ting had been an assistant commissioner with the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington.[more] |
5/19/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| On Sunday's Weekend Edition, National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg tossed out a few names as possible dark-horse Supreme Court nominees. Among them was Temple Law School dean JoAnne Epps, who says she was "stunned and amazed to be on the list." But when asked if she would accept an offer, she said she would decline. "I feel like I have the better job here," said Epps.[more] |
5/17/2009 | NPR's "Weekend Edition" |
| In response to hints from the White House, NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg offered a list of potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees, focusing on "people who are not often mentioned in the media." JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law, was one of eight prospective nominees on the list. Totenberg said that Epps "has won plaudits as a scholar after serving many years as a prosecutor in the state and federal courts."[more] |
5/12/2009 Amy Sinden | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In an op-ed on the confirmation of Cass Sunstein, President Obama's nominee to serve as the federal government's "regulatory czar," co-author and environmental law expert Amy Sinden, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, explores the increasingly controversial use of "cost-benefit analysis" to evaluate proposed regulations. The authors argue that such analyses serve only to water down health, safety, and environmental regulations.[more] |
5/11/2009 David Hoffman | WSJ Law Blog |
| WSJ's "Law Blog" reported on an unusual debate that has emerged on the periphery of a discussion about Supreme Court nominees. The subject: the Socratic method. The opening salvo was fired by Professor David Hoffman of Temple's Beasley School of Law, who blamed the Socratic method for creating a warped standard for measuring the quality of lawyer and judges. "We don't want the smartest justice. We want the wisest. Or at least someone who understands that smartness correlates with wisdom about as well as law does to justice," wrote Hoffman.[more] |
5/6/2009 Jan Ting | CNN |
| A Supreme Court ruling finds that illegal immigrants aren't guilty of identity theft if they don't know they're stealing a real person's social security number. This may lead to a reprieve for hundreds of illegal immigrants busted for identity theft in Iowa. Jan Ting of Temple's Beasley School of Law said that in the U.S., we have millions of illegal aliens who are working on illegal documents, as well as a burgeoning counterfeit document industry that has been growing ever since the first amnesty was enacted in 1986. |
5/6/2009 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| Law schools across the country may soon feel the push toward making their curricula more real-world oriented, according to one panel of law school deans. And to that end, teamwork and management skills are much more important today than they were even 10 years ago. JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law, agreed, saying law students today need to learn to be strategic thinkers, to understand organizations and to understand management--skills that were, up until now, taught almost exclusively in business school. |
5/1/2009 | Philadelphia Bar Reporter |
| June 9 will be a day of dual honors for Temple University Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps. She will receive the Association's Sandra Day O'Connor Award and present the Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Memorial Public Interest Lecture at the Association's Quarterly Meeting and Luncheon. "As an educator, I am deeply honored by an award that suggests that I have helped others," said Epps. "I am also flattered to join a group of such remarkable women who together remind us of how much women can achieve if given a chance. By her appointment and through her work, Sandra Day O'Connor changed the landscape for women all over the world. To have my name associated with hers is truly humbling," she said.[more] |
5/1/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | Pottsville Republican & Herald |
| The trial of two Shenandoah teens charged with beating a Mexican immigrant to death took a startling turn as defense lawyers rested their cases after just two hours of testimony. "[Temple Law professor Edward] Ohlbaum said the defense's strategy of creating confusion about who started the fights can benefit their case in two ways--by raising the self-defense issue, or by 'trying the victim.' 'Self-defense, if believed, is a complete defense to the charges,' Ohlbaum said. 'In order to be acquitted, based on a self-defense theory, a jury is going to have to find that the amount of force used by the defendant, or defendants, was both reasonable and proportional to fend off the aggression of the deceased.' Even if the jury does not acquit the defendants on a self-defense theory, Ohlbaum said, 'putting the victim on trial' by painting him or her as an aggressor can lead the jurors not to convict on some charges. 'The more active, the more aggressive, the more dangerous, the more violent the victim, the less inclined some jurors will be to convict of the more serious charge, and may end up compromising,' Ohlbaum said."[more] |
4/29/2009 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| The 2009 Judge Clifford Scott Green Lecture and portriat unveiling was noted in the Legal Intelligencer's People in the News Section. Family, friends and colleagues at the April 2 event celebrated Judge Green's life, accomplishments and contributions to the legal profession. |
4/28/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | WHYY-FM |
| Sentences for the "Fort Dix Five," the five men found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers, will be handed down this week at the federal courthouse in Camden, New Jersey. Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law says the case is significant. "It was a major federal prosecution of Muslim Americans for conspiring to kill United States soldiers," he said. "One would like to think the fact that there is a heightened scrutiny on all of our parts really did not contribute to the way in which the jury evaluated the evidence."[more] |
4/27/2009 Mark Rahdert | Allentown Morning Call |
| Judges' decisions are coming under scrutiny when handling cases involving contributors to their election campaigns. "A donation doesn't necessarily present a conflict, said Mark Rahdert of Temple's Beasley School of Law. But it could, depending on the timing and the size of it, he said. Rahdert said states should enact standards for recusal due to contributions, especially since the cost of judicial campaigns has grown significantly. 'The states have been unwilling to treat this issue,' Rahdert said. 'There are issues of potential recusal that have to be addressed.'"[more] |
4/27/2009 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| A gala celebration at the National Constitution Center marked the launch of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. The project will be based at Temple's Beasley School of Law and provide research, training and advocacy opportunities for area law students. |
4/27/2009 Duncan Hollis | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In an op-ed, international law expert Duncan Hollis, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, argues for the confirmation of Harold Koh as the State Department's chief lawyer. As a "transnationalist," Koh is opposed by isolationists who believe that international law threatens American sovereignty and the Constitution's supremacy. Hollis believes that adherence to international law actually makes the country more secure.[more] |
4/26/2009 Jane Baron | Philadelphia Inquirer -- Baron |
| The economic crisis has put nonprofits and charitable trusts in the news. The corporate merger of Dow Chemical and Rohm & Haas and changing family prorities might alter the Haas charitable trusts' operations. "One distinguishing factor of the Haas charitable trusts is how long they have lasted. They won't terminate until after [the founders'] grandchildren die. Otto Haas 'went right to the max' in seeking to delay the distribution of the trust assets, said Jane Baron, a Temple law professor."[more] |
4/26/2009 Kathy Mandelbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer -- Mandelbaum |
| The economic crisis has put nonprofits and charitable trusts in the news. The corporate merger of Dow Chemical and Rohm & Haas and changing family prorities might alter the Haas charitable trusts' operations. "Kathy C. Mandelbaum, a law professor at Temple University, said rules on charitable trusts were tightened in 1969, requiring creators to be more specific about charitable payouts so the trusts were not managed to benefit families and restrict the flow of funds to charities. 'The government didn't want people to starve the charity,' she said."[more] |
4/21/2009 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | Chicago Daily Law Bulletin |
| Temple Law professor Jaya Ramji-Nogales co-authored an asylum adjudication study presented at a Chicago Bar Association event. Refugee Roulette: Disparities in Asylum Adjudication will be published by the NYU Press in the fall. |
4/21/2009 Louis Natali | Wall Street Journal |
| The District Attorney in Wyoming County considered charging sexting teens with child pornography. "'The whole tawdry episode seems to call for a little parental guidance and a pop-gun approach, not a Howitzer approach with a felony prosecution,' said Louis Natali, a law professor at Temple University."[more] |
4/19/2009 Kathy Mandelbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| BNY Mellon administers the trust of the estate of Elizabeth R. England and is seeking to change its fee agreement -- to the dismay of the trust's beneficiaries. "Kathy Mandelbaum, a professor of trust law at Temple University's law school, said Pennsylvania courts already had held that fee agreements could be modified in some circumstances. She said the legislature's decision to ratify that approach could encourage more trustees to seek to boost their fees. 'The bank can go to court and say, 'We think we got a bad deal, and we'd like to change it,'' Mandelbaum said. 'It changes how the negotiation happens in a way that favors the bank a little more.'"[more] |
4/19/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | Pottsville Republican & Herald |
| Jury selection will begin in the trial of two teens charged with beating a Mexican immigrant to death. "'Prosecutors...look for folks whose sympathies are more likely to fall on the side of the government rather than the individual,' and who favor law and order over civil liberties, [Temple Law professor Edward] Ohlbaum said...Defense lawyers, naturally, have a different perspective, Ohlbaum said. 'The defendant invariably is looking for people who are inclined to question authority,' he said. 'They're as concerned with individual liberty as they are with law and order.'"[more] |
4/17/2009 Peter J. Spiro | National Public Radio |
| This weekend a group of lawyers volunteered in Philadelphia, Allentown and Carlisle, Pa. to provide free legal assistance to low income immigrants eligible for naturalization. Peter Spiro, an immigration law professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, says becoming a citizen not only grants immigrants the right to vote, but can also provide a kind of insurance against deportation.[more] |
4/16/2009 JoAnne Epps | Diverse: Issues in Higher Education -- Epps |
| In a special issue on law education, Diverse interviewed the five African-American women deans of U.S. law schools, including Dean JoAnne Epps of Temple's Beasley School of Law. Epps was asked how Temple's location in Philadelphia informs her role. "Being in Philadelphia...has given me a readily available platform from which to serve as an institutional representative to our diverse and important constituency, our local community," she replied. "Philadelphia is a vibrant, urban center, which clearly helps the law school in that it allows us to benefit from the proximity of lawyers and judges who are working on cutting-edge legal issues."[more] |
4/15/2009 David Kairys | WHYY-FM |
| To raise revenues, many states let drivers buy specialty plates that recognize everything from military units and colleges to sports teams and nonprofit groups. But, that raises unresolved questions about whether license plates -- or even portions of them -- convey government or private speech. David Kairys, a constitutional law professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, discussed free speech issues with regard to a case recently argued before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court in Philadelphia. |
4/7/2009 Robert J. Reinstein | Philadelphia Tribune |
| Temple Law professor Robert Reinstein delivered a talk on "Presidential Power" at the Beasley School of Law. The talk was the 2009 Judge Clifford Scott Green Lecture, a series honoring Green's service to the university and profession. "Everyone who spoke about Judge Green reminded us of his tremendous intellect, integrity and kindness. 'His commitment to the values of this country and his practice of the golden rules are what I am most left with,' professor Reinstein said."[more] |
4/6/2009 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer, CBS3, US Fed News, USA Today, WHYY-FM, NBC10, Fox29, more |
| "The Pennsylvania Innocence Project, based at Temple University's law school, opens its doors Monday. It will review petitions submitted from around the state by inmates who say they are serving time for crimes they did not commit." "'Temple Law has always been a leader in public service, so our association with this legal innocence project is a natural fit,' said JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple Law."[more] |
4/2/2009 Rafael Porrata-Doria | Law360 |
| The Financial Accounting Standards Board was working with an initial impairment that the securities were not properly valued to begin with, according to Temple University law professor Rafael Porrata-Doria. "I think FASB did what it had to do because the rule was not doing what it was supposed to do," he said, adding that the rule was meant to provide a more realistic valuation on complex securities.[more] |
4/1/2009 Amy Sinden | Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Washington Post, Wilmington News Journal, many more |
| The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the government can weigh costs against benefits in deciding whether to order power plants to undertake environmental upgrades that would protect fish. Among the problems environmental groups have with cost-benefit calculations is the difficulty of valuing the benefits. "Trying to put a dollar figure on fish and aquatic systems gets very difficult and contentious," said Amy Sinden, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law who wrote a brief in the case on the side of the environmental groups. "It is inevitably understated," she said in a widely distributed Associated Press report.[more] |
4/1/2009 Peter J. Spiro | Michigan Law Review |
| Professor Peter Spiro's book, Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization (Oxford 2008) was reviewed in the April issue of Michigan Law Review. |
4/1/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | Wilmington News Journal |
| The Delaware Attorney General's Office has refused to disclose the employment status of one of its prosecutors. The agency declined to comment when asked if a deputy attorney general is employed there even though it provided that information in December when he was charged with breaking into a home. Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, called the refusal "bizarre," saying it would only create more speculation. "I'm not suggesting that there's any cover-up...But in situations where there have been cover-ups, the perception is that the cover-up is worse than the act."[more] |
3/31/2009 David Post | Federal Information and News Dispatch |
| In an address at the 2009 National Cable and Telecommunications Association convention, Senator John Kerry closed his remarks referring to Professor David Post's new book, In Search of Jefferson's Moose. "The title comes from the fact that in 1787, when he was serving as minister to France, Thomas Jefferson had the 'complete skeleton, skin and horns' of an American moose shipped to him in Paris. He displayed the moose in the lobby of his official residence. To Jefferson, the moose was a symbol of the vast possibilities of the strange and largely unexplored New World. To Post, one of the nation's leading Internet scholars, Jefferson's moose symbolizes pretty much the same thing about cyberspace...We need pathfinders and pioneers to settle this New World."[more] |
3/28/2009 | Hanover Evening Sun |
| Administrators in two Pennsylvania schools have caught students sexting -- sending naked pictures of themselves or classmates via cell phone. Such behavior could be prosecuted as child pornography, a felony offense. However, the district attorney's office is establishing a policy to handle the teens, seizing phones and referring them to a Youth Aid Panel. "Ultimately, that's how the law is supposed to work, said David Post, a professor of cyberlaw at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. 'The law tries to draw a sensible but difficult line,' Post said. Child pornography statutes are designed to punish people who prey on and profit off children, Post said, not teens acting recklessly. Even though sexting reportedly is on the rise, Post does not expect laws to be rewritten for something so specific. Instead, he said, prosecutors will have to intelligently use their discretion as technologies continue to adapt.[more] |
3/27/2009 Peter J. Spiro | UDaily |
| Temple Law professor Peter Spiro will deliver the keynote address, "Unintended Stimulus: Bush and International Law," at the University of Delaware Political Science and International Relations conference, United States in the Global System.[more] |
3/25/2009 David Post | CN8 |
| It seems people say anything they want over the internet. How can we control the flow of information? According to David Post, the Herman Stern professor of law at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University, you can't control it. "Now we know what it's like when people can say anything they want. It's the price we pay for freedom...for wikepedia...for the internet." |
3/23/2009 | US Fed News |
| Professor David Post will be the keynote speaker and intellectual property panel moderator at the University of Idaho Law Review Symposium, Internet Law: Challenges and Opportunities.[more] |
3/18/2009 JoAnne Epps | ABA Journal |
| At its midyear meeting the ABA amended its Model Rule of Professional Conduct to shield a firm from being disqualified from a case if it pre-screens lateral hires for conflicts of interest. "But opponents maintained that [the rule change] puts the economic interests of lawyers ahead of the confidentiality interests of clients. 'Don't make the reasoning for this change that we're in tough economic times,' said JoAnne A. Epps, the dean of Temple University law school and a delegate representing the Litigation Section, 'because what that tells my students is that when things get tough, lawyers look out for themselves.'"[more] |
3/17/2009 David Hoffman | Conde Nast Portfolio.com |
| Cyber-bullying has reached a new low--at the highest levels of the professional world. When anonymous attackers went after two Yale law students, they struck back and filed suit. Their case may help change the rules in the view of Dave Hoffman, a professor at Temple University Law School who has blogged about AutoAdmit. The site offered its patrons a peculiar, vicarious kick: it allowed people who were straight-laced and risk-averse enough to want to be lawyers in the first place to become briefly, crazily irresponsible. They could spout outrageous lies, or, in the manner of Sacha Baron Cohen, invent entirely new personalities for themselves, invariably as homophobes, racists, or misogynists.[more] |
3/17/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | KYW News Radio |
| A juror in the recently completed Vincent Fumo corruption trial apparently posted some messages on Facebook and Twitter about his jury deliberations. It caused a dust-up and led to momentary fears that the nearly five-month-long trial might have to be declared a mistrial. Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law believes that additional instructions will be given to jurors in the future: "Well, we now have the 11th Commandment: 'Thou shalt not Twitter!' My expectation is that judges will now be instructing jurors that communication means nothing on Facebook -- or e-mail."[more] |
3/17/2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Thou shalt not Twitter."That's what Edward Ohlbaum, a Temple University law professor, suggested should be the 11th Commandment of proposed jury instructions for the courts in the Internet Age.That was Ohlbaum's reaction yesterday to the blogging juror, Eric Wuest, 35, of Collegeville, who had posted status updates on Facebook and Twitter social networking Web sites about the federal corruption trial of former state Sen. Vincent Fumo since last September.While prominent attorneys agreed new jury instructions are necessary, they were split about whether issues raised by the blogging juror were appealable.[more] |
3/17/2009 | WHYY-FM |
| Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, joined host Marty Moss-Coane to discuss the corruption trial of powerful former state senator Vincent Fumo, who was convicted of 137 counts of conspiracy, fraud, tax offenses and obstruction of justice. "I was struck by the defense's theme that the government and the prosecutors were consumed by 'venom and vitriol,' and that this was a prosecution of 'guilt by accumulation,'" Ohlbaum said. "Well, the jury was able to...study this accumulation of evidence and ultimately found that venom and vitriol were called for."[more] |
3/16/2009 | WHYY It's Our City |
| A new angle has been added to the corruption trial of State Senator Vince Fumo-blogging.I found an expert on criminal trials to see if he could give me any insight into whether live blogging could be any more problematic than, say, cameras in a courtroom. I spoke to Temple University Law Professor Edward Ohlbaum who said that judge's concerns with television coverage is in the theatrics that it invites from the attorneys."Oh my god, here comes O.J. Simpson, revisited,"said Ohlbaum.When it comes to blogs, however, he indicated that it would be up to a judge to keep track of the content on such a platform. I asked what he thought about the judge's reaction to the defense s mentioning of the blog."It sounds to me like the judge has actually done his homework," said Professor Edward Ohlbaum, "It sounds like he has found the blog to be more descriptive than evaluative and in his view, this is probably more current and more descriptive commentary about what's going on in the trial."[more] |
3/15/2009 Jan Ting | 6ABC-TV Inside Story |
| Jan Ting, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, joined 6ABC's Inside Story to share recent positive developments emerging from Temple University and Temple Law. "In the midst of the economic crisis, Philadelphia's universities remain islands of economic development and job growth," he said. "Temple Law School has received a $19 million grant for a new Public Health Law Research program to be headed by my colleague, Professor Scott Burris." |
3/15/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Five days of deliberations have not yet led to a verdict in Fumo's federal corruption trial, and the jury of 10 women and two men will be back at the U.S. Courthouse tomorrow for another round of discussions.Experienced lawyers say that waiting for the jury is a time of great uneasiness for all the participants - especially in a hard-fought criminal trial. It can be tough to sleep or eat, and there's often a gnawing feeling in the pit of the stomach."It's like waiting for root-canal surgery, only probably worse," said Edward D. Ohlbaum, a law professor at Temple University. "It really is high anxiety."Legal experts say deliberations can be a tough time for jurors, too, as they try to reach life-altering verdicts in cases as hard-fought as the Fumo trial.Although Temple's Ohlbaum said it's "not at all" an easy time for jurors as they deliberate, the vast majority of jurors who have spoken later about their jury service have recalled it as a positive experience."For a lot of people who sit on juries, it's an enduringly positive experience," said Ohlbaum. "People come away from it with an incredibly healthy regard for the system and how it functions."The jurors in the Fumo trial have spent nearly five months listening to testimony and summations, Ohlbaum said, so it's reasonable to expect that they won't rush to a verdict.And so, Ohlbaum said, it might take a bit more time before everyone hears the magic words. "I'm waiting like everybody else," he said. Ohlbaum said that when jury deliberations span a number of weeks, the tendency is to try to get your life back on track, but "you're thinking, 'When is this going to happen?' "[more] |
3/13/2009 | Valley News Dispatch |
| A 26-year-old Buffalo Township woman likely will serve eight to 20 years in a state prison instead of the 40 years she could have faced if convicted of killing her newborn daughter in 2007.Other than speak in court, Defense attorney Joseph M. Kecskemethy and Assistant District Attorney B.T. Fullertonthan declined to comment about the case because of a revised gag order implemented in August by county Judge Timothy F. McCune. The defense attorney and prosecutor who were involved in the Lauren Elizabeth Jones case now should be free to speak about it, according to a media attorney who challenged the judge's gag order.Because Jones entered into a plea bargain Thursday, Trib Total Media attorney David Strassburger says there's no longer a reason for Butler County Judge Timothy McCune to ban the lawyers involved from commenting on the case.Temple University Law School professor Edward Ohlbaum said it's "somewhat unusual to have a gag order at a time following a jury verdict or a plea bargain."[more] |
3/12/2009 JoAnne Epps | Government Technology |
| Using DNA testing or other irrefutable evidence, the project, housed at Temple University Beasley School of Law, will work to identify, and then exonerate, Pennsylvania inmates who have been wrongfully convicted despite their actual innocence. Armed with the evidence of flawed practices revealed by wrongful convictions, it will also advocate for reforms of the criminal justice system and the adoption of best practices statewide. Through Temple Law's innocence clinic, specially-trained students will screen, investigate and pursue in the courts claims of actual innocence under the supervision of the project's legal director and volunteer lawyers.With the launch of this project, Pennsylvania joins more than 50 other innocence projects nationwide dedicated to securing freedom for persons imprisoned for crimes they did not commit and eliminating the causes of wrongful convictions."Temple Law has always been a leader in public service, so our association with this legal innocence project is a natural fit," said JoAnne A. Epps, dean of the law school. "It provides exciting opportunities not only for Temple and the faculty, but most of all for the students who will learn valuable legal skills as participants in this vital endeavor that seeks to strengthen the quality of justice."[more] |
3/11/2009 | Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania Newsletter |
| The 23rd annual Take The Lead ceremony and celebration will be honoring four outstanding women leaders from the Philadelphia area and they will be joining the Take The Lead Hall of Fame; among them are JoAnne Epps, Esq., Dean of the Temple University Beasley School of Law.[more] |
3/11/2009 Scott Burris | Press Release |
| Temple University's Beasley School of Law has been selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to manage a new $19 million national program that will fund interdisciplinary research exploring legal and regulatory solutions to pressing health challenges such as chronic diseases, and health emergencies including floods, bioterrorism and epidemics.The Public Health Law Research program will operate under the direction of Temple Law professor Scott Burris, an internationally recognized authority on how law influences public health."The Public Health Law Research program brings long-needed funding and attention to the crucial role of law in public health," said Burris, who also co-directs Temple Law's new Center for Health Policy, Law and Practice. "Law can be a powerful tool for changing dangerous behavior; it can help reduce smoking and promote food safety." But, he explained, laws and law enforcement practices can also endanger health."RWJF's investment is important because only good research can tell us what laws work and what laws don't work for public health," he added. "This is a golden opportunity to give policy makers and health advocates the information they need to pursue healthy policies and our job at Temple will be to do everything we can to make sure the evidence our researchers produce gets to the people who need it."[more] |
3/11/2009 JoAnne Epps | Press Release |
| Temple University's Beasley School of Law has been selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to manage a new $19 million national program that will fund interdisciplinary research exploring legal and regulatory solutions to pressing health challenges such as chronic diseases, and health emergencies including floods, bioterrorism and epidemics."Under the leadership of someone as accomplished as Scott Burris, this program will bring national recognition to the school's newly created Center for Health Policy, Law and Practice, "said JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple Law.[more] |
3/9/2009 David Hoffman | Fox Business.com |
| Ask anyone what's needed to turn around the worst stock market selloff in decades and the answer is invariably "confidence".Yet it's hard to be confident when CEO's such as John Thain, Steve Jobs and Jeffery Immelt make assurances that turn out to be untrue. David Hoffman, an associate professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law who specializes in corporate and securities law, says these three incidents may cause investorsto pay more attention to a company's fundamentals rather than a CEO's comments.[more] |
3/8/2009 JoAnne Epps | York Daily Record |
| When York County Common Pleas Judge Thomas H. Kelly viewed cruiser-cam video evidence of an arrest he commented before the jury,"The first thing the police officer responding does was swing a metal rod at that citizen," he said. "And that's deadly force."Hanover Police Chief Randy Whitson took exception with Kelley's comments. He released the video to the York Daily Record/Sunday News and said he fully supported his officers' actions.Whitson took the additional step of having his department's solicitor review the trial transcript to determine if there are grounds to request a judicial review. Whitson said Friday no decision has been reached in the issue.Did Kelley overstep or abuse his authority during the trial? The simple answer, according to the law professors, is "No." Abuse of judicial discretion "is a standard of review, rather than an absolute," JoAnne A. Epps, dean of the Temple University Beasley School of Law, said.[more] |
3/5/2009 | Forbes.com |
| Temple University Beasley School of Law,will house the Pennsylvania Innocence Project,a program dedicated to securing freedom for persons imprisoned for crimes they did not commit and eliminating the causes of wrongful convictions."Temple Law has always been a leader in public service, so our association with this legal innocence project is a natural fit," said JoAnne A. Epps, dean of the law school. "It provides exciting opportunities not only for Temple and the faculty, but most of all for the students who will learn valuable legal skills as participants in this vital endeavor that seeks to strengthen the quality of justice."[more] |
3/4/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | WHYY-FM |
| The defense attorney of Vincent Fumo threw doubt on a key part of the government's case in the corruption trial of the former state senator. A note was produced that may convince the jury that Fumo believed that he could purge incriminating e-mails. The note, says Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law, is "a pillar of the defense case, if not the cornerstone."[more] |
3/3/2009 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | MSNBC, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, FoxNews.com, National Law Journal, many more |
| The Supreme Court has refused to ban refugees who are forced to persecute others from being granted asylum in the United States, sending back to immigration officials the case of an Eritrean guard who prevented prisoners from getting fresh air and made them stand in the hot sun. The decision not to say that all persecutors are automatically barred from getting asylum recognizes the reality on the ground, said Jaya Ramji-Nogales of Temple's Beasley School of Law, who helped create a refugee law clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa. "The idea that there's no duress exception doesn't recognize the nuance of these situations," she said in a widely distributed AP report.[more] |
3/3/2009 | The Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
| The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to ban refugees who are forced to persecute others from being granted asylum in the United States, sending back to immigration officials the case of an Eritrean guard who prevented prisoners from getting fresh air and made them stand in the hot sun.The decision not to say that all persecutors, including former Eritrean prison guard Daniel Girmai Negusie, are automatically barred from getting asylum recognizes the reality on the ground, said Jaya Ramji-Nogales, a Temple University law professor.[more] |
3/2/2009 David Hoffman | New York Times |
| When an internet video link showed up as the first citation in a petition filed with the Supreme Court last month, the court entered the YouTube era. Adam Liptak's "Sidebar" column describes a new study in the Harvard Law Review co-authored by Professor David Hoffman of Temple's Beasley School of Law. The study's authors explored the effects of internet video evidence on more than 1,300 people.[more] |
3/2/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | WHYY-FM |
| The corruption trial of former state Senator Vincent Fumo is expected to continue tomorrow with closing arguments by Fumo's defense lawyer. Fumo's attorney likely will question the prosecution's motives when it comes to bringing up personal information. "I think the defense's response, at least in part to that is: 'What does it tell you about a government that goes into somebody's personal life?'" said Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law. |
2/24/2009 David Post | Temple News Communications |
| Professor David Post's new book, In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace (Oxford 2009) is gaining attention. The book relates the internet's growth and governance to Thomas Jefferson's ideas on the construction of the emerging government and nation. "'This is a globe-spanning network that no one saw coming,' said Post. 'At one time, the United Nations, the European governments, the International Telecommunications Union, IBM, AT&T, Xerox...all had their own networking schemes, but they all failed. Jefferson would have understood why--and why one of them succeeded.'"[more] |
2/23/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | WHYY-FM |
| Closing arguments get underway today in the corruption trial of former state Sen. Vince Fumo. Prosecutors called Fumo's former attorneys to the stand to discuss whether they advised Fumo to destroy e-mail evidence. "When people get rid of evidence or when they threaten witnesses or when they change their appearance, all of that evidence is admissible to show what the law calls a 'consciousness of guilt'--it's almost an admission by conduct," said Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law. |
2/23/2009 | WHYY-FM |
| The jury in the corruption trial Vince Fumo is hearing closing arguments. If prosecutors convince the jury that Fumo is arrogant and views himself as above the law, then Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law says their case is in good shape. But if Fumo "comes across as this workaholic who had no life other than the government and put in much more than he received, and he admits to some of his mistakes," said Ohlbaum, "then possibly the jury would be willing to overlook" some of his misdeeds.[more] |
2/20/2009 JoAnne Epps | Chronicle of Higher Education |
| The LL.M. program offered by Temple University Beasley School of Law and Tsinghua University (Beijing) has introduced Chinese legal professionals to American law for ten years. "Temple teaches them American principles of legal reasoning and a new way to think about law. 'When you change how people think, you can't go back,' says JoAnne A. Epps, a law professor at Temple who taught trial advocacy in the program before becoming the Beasley School's dean last summer. It's good 'to feel that your school is part of the forward momentum' of China...Chinese government officials support the program because 'this is one of the areas they can demonstrate their commitment to intellectual freedom,' says Ms. Epps, the dean."[more] |
2/20/2009 Robert J. Reinstein | Chronicle of Higher Education |
| The LL.M. program offered by Temple University Beasley School of Law and Tsinghua University (Beijing) has introduced Chinese legal professionals to American law for ten years. The program, established under former dean Robert Reinstein, is profiled in The Chronicle of Higher Education.[more] |
2/20/2009 John Smagula | Chronicle of Higher Education |
| The LL.M. program offered by Temple University Beasley School of Law and Tsinghua University (Beijing) has introduced Chinese legal professionals to American law for ten years. The program has earned financial support from government, philanthropic, and corporate sources. "The American companies like the idea of supporting students who work in fields that relate to their business dealings in China, says John W. Smagula, director of Asian programs for the law school. 'They want their name brand on the program.'"[more] |
2/20/2009 Mo Zhang | Chronicle of Higher Education |
| The LL.M. program offered by Temple University Beasley School of Law and Tsinghua University (Beijing) has introduced Chinese legal professionals to American law for ten years. Zhang Mo, "[t]he lawyer who directs the program, a Chinese native educated in China and the United States and now based in Beijing, received tenure from Temple this year...He is realistic about the slow pace of legal reform in China...But Mr. Zhang is idealistic, too. The training in the LL.M. program focuses on applying legal reasoning. 'We want them,' he says, 'to push the envelope.'"[more] |
2/19/2009 JoAnne Epps | Lawyers USA |
| "[T]he American Bar Association voted to amend its Model Rule of Professional Conduct concerning lateral hiring and potential conflicts of interest...The recommendation [109] calls for the hiring firm to notify--in writing--the incoming lawyer's former client of the firm's screening procedures...Joanne Epps, a law professor at Temple University, said during the meeting that the rule was a reaction to the currently high turnover of lawyers in law firms. 'We are talking about the model rules...a rule as broad as 109 ought to be defeated...if you think 109 is a better rule, vote for it. But don't make the reason that we're in tough economic times.'"[more] |
2/18/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia City Paper |
| "Last week's death of officer John Pawlowski has cued finger-pointing at the criminal justice system for failing to spot a dangerous man like Scrugs. But it's hard to pinpoint where the system failed. 'The temptation is to look back and say, 'Oh my god, the system must have screwed up,'' says Edward Ohlbaum, professor of law at Temple University. 'And I think we need to put the brakes on when something like that happens and take a hard look'...But the Philadelphia prison system is already overcrowded, says Ohlbaum, and 'anyone who thinks otherwise must be drinking Kool-Aid.' Judges have to make sure they aren't putting undue burden on the system with frivolous cases, he says.[more] |
2/12/2009 Mark Rahdert | Allentown Morning Call |
| Despite receiving campaign donations from the company's president, a Northampton County judge chose not to recuse himself from a case involving the Chrin Brothers Sanitary Landfill. "The American Bar Association recommends judges disclose information that might be considered grounds for a recusal, even if a judge believes there is no basis. The group also suggests setting a maximum of campaign money judges can receive from an interested party before disqualifying themselves. Neither of those provisions has been adopted as part of the Pennsylvania judicial code, said Mark Rahdert, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law."[more] |
2/10/2009 JoAnne Epps | Bucks County Courier Times |
| JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law, will be enshrined in the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania's Take the Lead Hall of Fame for serving as a role model. Her advice for future leaders: "You have to dream big and work hard. You don't achieve much without either. You have to allow your mind to soar, but it doesn't come without hard work and sacrifice."[more] |
2/10/2009 Peter J. Spiro | Temple News Communications |
| In his first week in office, President Obama signed an executive order calling for the review and disposition of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Temple Law professor Peter Spiro "sees Obama's decision as a good news/bad news proposition. The good news, he said, is that with one stroke of the presidential pen the United States has improved its standing with the international community. The bad news is that clearing out Guantanamo comes with its own set of complications."[more] |
2/9/2009 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| A parent criticizing her child's charter school founder in an online forum has become a defendant in a suit alleging defamation, slander, libel and civil conspiracy. "A suit aimed at quashing public debate or stopping criticism of officials is known as a 'strategic lawsuit against public participation' (SLAPP). First Amendment experts and some legal scholars say such suits have a chilling effect on free speech. 'They are often going after people who have no money to pay damages or anything,' said David Kairys, a professor of constitutional law at Temple University. 'They have nothing to gain but to shut them up. It's the classic chilling effect.'"[more] |
2/4/2009 Rafael Porrata-Doria | Law360 |
| Executives of companies receiving TARP funds can make no more than $500,000 according to the President's plan. "Rafael Porrata-Doria, a law professor at Temple University, said that overall, Obama's plan was taking advantage of a 'unique moment in history' to try to overhaul the way that compensation is structured at major financial firms. 'I think government is an appropriate [party] to regulate that market and to regulate excesses and, I think, the issue of CEO compensation...which has been excessive,' Porrata-Doria said." |
2/2/2009 David Hoffman | Palm Beach Post |
| Florida leadership has launched an investigation into allegations of gasoline price-gouging after Hurrican Ike. "'In an emergency, it's not necessarily true the high price will lead to an increase for supply," [associate professor of law at Temple University David] Hoffman said. 'People don't reduce their demand for water, for example. I think price-gouging laws will always be with us. It is definitely true state attorney general offices have gotten more activist. They filled the space of relatively little prosecution at the federal level by the Bush administration.'"[more] |
2/1/2009 Peter J. Spiro | San Diego Union-Tribune |
| Columnist Michael Stetz writes that many Americans are becoming citizens of other nations. The numbers are "exploding," says Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law who specializes in international and immigration law. "There's really no down side," he said, noting that, in most all cases, people aren't obligated to pay taxes or do military duty.[more] |
1/26/2009 Craig Green | Allentown Morning Call |
| Looming retirements for judges in the Third Circuit may open a federal district seat in Easton, Pennsylvania. "'If [Allentown's Federal District Judge Thomas] Golden is promoted [to the Third Circuit] the idea of finding someone from Reading or Easton would certainly be a possibility,' said Craig Green, an associate professor at Temple Law School...U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.,will have a lot of clout in the process, Green said. 'He'll have a real voice in the selection of those judges,' Green said, citing Casey's connections to the Obama campaign and the fact the Democrats control the Senate. 'I think if there is an Easton candidate who has good favor with him, that very well will be a name brought to the table,' Green said."[more] |
1/21/2009 | CBS Radio Network |
| Assistant Professor Craig Green of Temple's Beasley School of Law, an expert on wartime detention and the federal court system's role in overseeing the executive branch, offered his analysis of President Obama's decision to close the detention center at Guantanomo Bay. |
1/19/2009 JoAnne Epps | National Law Journal, Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple Law School Dean Joanne Epps braced for funding cuts brought on by the economic downturn. "'We looked at the things we considered most discretionary,' Epps said...the academic experience of Temple Law students hasn't suffered because of the cuts, but she worries that the effects could be compounded by more reductions down the road. 'Over time, the continued loss of support staff and counselors will be felt deeply,' Epps said." |
1/18/2009 Sophie E. Smyth | Omaha World-Herald |
| The Omaha World-Herald picked up Temple Law professor Sophie Smyth's Nonprofit Law Blog post discussing the impact of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Critics of the Foundation question its strategies and bureaucracy.[more] |
1/11/2009 Jan Ting | NPR Weekend Edition |
| The Bush administration is challenging the right of immigrants facing the threat of deportation to ask for a new trial due to their counsels' incompetence. "'That's a can of worms,' says [Temple Law professor and former immigration official Jan] Ting. 'If you allow that argument, everyone who hires a lawyer is going to be able to argue that their lawyer didn't do a good enough job for them and they need to start all over again.' Ting says there is a public interest in making the nation's increasingly overburdened immigration courts more efficient and that any measure that will limit the number of immigration appeals is a good thing. 'We have to deal with a very large number of immigration cases, it takes up an enormous amount of the government's resources, and we can't protract the litigation that these cases generate,' Ting says."[more] |
1/10/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Daily News |
| Authorities are trying to piece together events leading up to a New Jersey man's drowning in Cooper River. Although Jose Mata had a violent disagreement with Jose Nunez-Rodriguez two days before his body was found, Camden County prosecutors currently are not pursuing a case against Nunez-Rodriguez. "Although prosecutors may have looked into whether Nunez-Rodriguez recklessly caused Mata's death, they may not have had the facts or evidence to prove it, said Edward D. Ohlbaum, a professor at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. 'It was certainly a reckless act, but did it directly result in this man's death?' Ohlbaum asked. 'What if the victim didn't know he was being chased? At any point, the causal relationship could have been interrupted.'"[more] |
1/10/2009 Anthony Bocchino | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| From telecommunications to the turnpike, testimony at former Senator Vincent Fumo's corruption trial paints a picture of widespread influence and abuse of power. "'How is this different from anything that happened in Godfather I?' asks Temple law professor Edward Ohlbaum...'Philadelphia,' [Temple Law professor Anthony Bocchino] says, is 'an old city with old-city mores.' Almost monthly, a former student phones him with a problem concerning the murky overlap of law and politics...'The breadth and reach of Vince Fumo's influence is unprecedented. I'm unaware,' says former Temple Law dean Carl Singley, 'of anyone who has more influence and power in so many quarters.'"[more] |
1/7/2009 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Testimony at former State Sen. Vincent Fumo's corruption trial portrayed two local attorneys as turning a blind eye to information that the Senator was extorting a Verizon CEO. "Neither lawyer was representing...Verizon at the time, a key issue to consider, according to legal experts...Under those conditions, 'it doesn't sound like they were in any ethical quicksand,' said Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple University School of Law...Concerns about possible conflicts with other clients could have been one reason, he said."[more] |
1/4/2009 Peter J. Spiro | Japan Times |
| "As of 2000, around 90 countries and territories permitted dual citizenship either fully or with exceptional permission, according to the 'Backgrounder,' published by the Center for Immigration Studies in the United States, and 'Citizenship Laws of the World' by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Since the reports came out, several countries have lifted bans on dual nationality. As a consequence, there are more than 90 countries backing dual nationality by default today. 'The trend is dramatic and nearly unidirectional. A clear majority of countries now accepts dual citizenship,' said Peter Spiro, an expert on multi-nationality issues at Temple University Beasley School of Law. 'Plural citizenship has quietly become a defining feature of globalization.'"[more] |
12/23/2008 Edward Ohlbaum | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Jurors in Camden convicted five foreign-born Muslim men, all raised in Cherry Hill, yesterday of plotting to launch an armed attack on Fort Dix. Though the jurors found the defendants guilty of conspiracy to kill U.S. soldiers, they acquitted them of attempted-murder charges...Edward Ohlbaum, a professor of law at Temple University, called 'conspiracy' an amorphous charge. 'It's the darling of the prosecutors' arsenal,' he said. 'It's far easier to convict someone for agreeing to do something than for actually doing it.'"[more] |
12/15/2008 | WHYY Morning Ediition |
| Jurors hear closing statements today in the trial of five men charged with plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix. The volume of evidence presented to the jury may present a problem for the government. "This has been a long trial," said Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law on "Morning Edition." "[The jury has] been given everything that they have--hours and hours and hours of [recorded] conversation [by the defendants] -- and some jurors may ask, 'Why aren't we hearing anything specific about Fort Dix.'"[more] |
12/11/2008 Mark Rahdert | CBS3 |
| A freedom of speech case involving a high school student who created a MySpace page mocking his principal is heading to federal court. "It's still a pretty murky area of the law," said Professor Mark Rahdert, a constitutional law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "The problem here is the activity is occurring outside the school, off premises and after hours...It's going to be a difficult call how far the school's authority can extend outside school property."[more] |
12/9/2008 John Smagula | El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico) |
| For 104 days, four Puerto Rican men have been held without charges in a Shanghai detention center for foreigners. "Chinese officials do not have the human resources, the economic, nor the conscience to respect the process. And if the dictatorial government states you cannot release anyone, then no one is released," said John Smagula, an expert in the Chinese judicial system at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
12/8/2008 Amy Sinden | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| In a dozen cases since 2001, federal judges in Washington have used increasingly caustic language to throw out EPA regulations, chastising the Bush administration for illegally changing U.S. environmental rules. The resul: The EPA's most significant new air-pollution initiatives lie in tatters. Environmental law expert Amy Sinden of Temple's Beasley School of Law said that the EPA has become "transparently political" under Bush. "That's why EPA has had the kind of record it's had in the courts."[more] |
12/4/2008 Duncan Hollis | Economist |
| Grass roots efforts to paralyze government websites with bogus server requests in Estonia and Georgia are examples of a growing area of international law and warfare--cyberattack. "All sorts of 'translation problems' arise when trying to apply existing international rules relating to terrorism and warfare to online attacks, says Duncan Hollis, a professor of law at Temple University in Pennsylvania...Mr Hollis points out that the debate about how best to classify cyberattacks has much in common with the debate about terrorism. Should terrorism be treated as a crime, as an act of war, as both at once, or as something entirely different that requires new laws? He favours this last approach for cyberattacks because it avoids the translation problems that arise when applying existing rules to such attacks, and because those rules are themselves somewhat outdated, given that attacks (in the real world and online) may come from non-state actors such as terrorist groups. Mr Hollis proposes a new 'international law for information operations' to alleviate the uncertainty."[more] |
12/1/2008 N. Jeremi Duru | Adweek |
| Madison Avenue is looking to diversify its ranks. "For more than four decades, civil rights groups have accused the ad business of violating equal-opportunity hiring laws." It would do well to find a solution like the NFL's Rooney Rule, "requiring team owners to conduct a face-to-face interview with at least one minority candidate when hiring [a coach]...'What is done in the NFL is really transferable to the business world, because at base the process ensures that those who are making decisions sit down with candidates and have a conversation about the position,' says Jeremi Duru, a law professor at Temple University's James E. Beasley School of Law...'If you sit down face to face and talk about issues of shared concern, racial biases tend to be diminished.'" |
12/1/2008 JoAnne Epps | Metropolitan Corporate Counsel |
| Joanne A. Epps, Dean of Temple University School of Law was interviewed by Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. "As an institution, we are part of the internationalization of the law. This is an era of very great change, and we wish to be thought of as an institution at the forefront of innovation in legal education and in the interdisciplinary discussions that are going to shape substantive knowledge."[more] |
12/1/2008 Marina Angel | Pennsylvania Law Weekly |
| The battle in the Pennsylvania General Assembly over whether to appoint or elect judges continues. "Marina Angel, a law professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, gave a blistering attack of the proposed appointive system, saying it would acutally take away the power of minority and women voters and place the power in a few hands on the committee. She noted that the appellate courts have steadily gained female judges over the years. She said the demographics of voters in Pennsylvania should continue that trend and begin to elect more minorities to the courts. She fears that concentrating the selection process into a small group of politically connected individuals would have the opposite effect." |
12/1/2008 Duncan Hollis | San Francisco Chronicle |
| President-elect Obama's growing to do list includes taking another run at getting treaties ratified in order to improve the United States' international reputation. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, governing coastlines and commercial practices in international waters, is among the treaties on the short list for action. "'This is the one that may be the highest priority,' said Duncan Hollis, a Temple University law professor and former State Department treaty lawyer. 'It's not often that industry and environmental groups are in favor' of the same treaty."[more] |
11/26/2008 Peter J. Spiro | Christian Science Monitor |
| In advance of the meeting of the Electoral College, the body that elects the president, a group is lobbying Democratic electors to examine whether Barack Obama is a natural-born U.S. citizen, a notion that has been repeatedly debunked. "It's true that, if it's not a totally impossible twist on actual facts that he'd been born in Kenya, [the Electoral vote] actually would have been quite tricky because of the statutory regime," says Peter Spiro, an immigration law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "But it's really a nonstarter because Obama was born in Hawaii."[more] |
11/24/2008 Marina Angel | Pennsylvania Law Weekl, Legal Intelligencer |
| In a Murphy's Law column, Pennsylvania Law Weekly's William Murphy advocated judicial elections. He cited Professor Angel's testimony at a recent Senate hearing. "Temple Law School Professor Marina Angel added her own strong concern about the proposed take-away of traditional voting rights and the possible infiltration of politics into the proposed appointment process." |
11/17/2008 David Kairys | WHYY |
| Renowned civil rights lawyer and Beasley School of Law Professor David Kairys--the man who has taken on the federal government, the Philadelphia Police Department, the CIA and the FBI--joined Radio Times to discuss his new book, Philadelphia Freedom: Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer.[more] |
11/14/2008 Edward Ohlbaum | NPR Day to Day |
| "The trial of five men accused of plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey may hinge on the testimony of a government informant: Mahmoud Omar." While the defense is skeptical of Omar's testimony, prosecutors work to defend his credibility, "saying the FBI needed an informant whom the defendants would trust. Temple University law professor Edward Ohlbaum says it's an argument that's familiar from mob prosecutions. 'There was a prosecutor in Philadelphia many years ago who used to say, 'If the defendants had conspired with the bishop of Boston, I would've brought you the bishop of Boston. But this is the kind of individual with whom the defendants are conspiring. And therefore, we brought him,'' Ohlbaum said."[more] |
11/13/2008 JoAnne Epps | Diverse: Issues in Higher Education |
| It's challenging for African-American women in higher education to find mentors. JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law, offered advice. "What you're looking for is somebody who understands how the academy works. And you're not limited to just one mentor," said Epps, one of a handful of African-American women holding deanships at American law schools. "But as you pick the primary person, what you're looking for is someone who wants you to succeed and who will give you some suggestions about how to avoid pitfalls."[more] |
11/11/2008 Edward Ohlbaum | Delaware News Journal |
| A veteran Delaware prosecutor is facing a drunken driving charge after veering his state car off a road and striking two mailboxes. He is the second veteran prosecutor to be charged with drinking and driving in four months. "It's embarrassing at best and worst," said Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple"s Beasley School of Law. "On the one hand, you have folks who are charged with responsibly enforcing the law, some of whom are violating the law. But on the other hand, you have to say that it certainly looks as if everybody is doing their job. People are getting arrested, not withstanding the fact that they are prosecutors."[more] |
11/10/2008 Donald Harris | Philadelphia Daily News |
| In the wake of last week's historic election, what is the state of race in America? During the campaign, "many claimed that Obama's election would prove that racism is no longer a problem in our country," wrote Donald P. Harris, an associate professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, in an op-ed. "But while his election is a racial milestone, it is simplistic to believe that this election alone can solve this complex issue, or that it has done so."[more] |
11/3/2008 Jan Ting | CNN |
| Reports have emerged that Barack Obama's aunt, an illegal immigrant from Kenya, is living in public housing in Massachusetts. Jan Ting of Temple's Beasley School of Law says that "it sounds like a pretty open-and-shut case and that she should be removed from the country." The leak of the information is a violation of policy. Ting said that there are hundreds of thousands of people who share Obama's aunt's status. |
11/1/2008 Duncan Hollis | Foreign Policy |
| When does a cyberattack become an act of war, rather than just a nuisance? In a world increasingly circumscribed by international law, there is scant legal infrastructure. Few countries have legislation, and there is only one major international treaty. This legal vacuum could lead to trouble, worries Duncan Hollis of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "If [a country] considers [cyber attacks] acts of war, they have a right under international law to respond with self-defense, and it doesn't just have to be via computer," Hollis says. "[We] need to get together and at least try and figure out what the rules of the game are."[more] |
11/1/2008 JoAnne Epps | National Jurist |
| This month's issue of The National Jurist profiles JoAnne Epps, who took over as dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law in July. "This is an exciting time in the history of Temple's Beasley School of Law," said Epps. "The credentials of its students, the quality of its faculty and achievements of its programs are at the highest levels ever." Epps described her plans to expand the faculty, enhance the curriculum with more interdisciplinary courses, add more skills training and increase Temple Law's programs abroad. "For me, what I love most about Temple is its authenticity as a place of opportunity for people with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences," she added.[more] |
11/1/2008 Stephen Mikochik | National Right to Life News |
| Beasley School of Law Professor Stephen Mikochik's article, A Will for Living, is included in the 2008 Respect Life campaign materials. "Temple University law professor Stephen L. Mikochik, Esq., who is himself blind, addresses the risks inherent in some kinds of 'living wills' with respect to persons with disabilities. He recommends how such vulnerable persons can help ensure that their care reflects their belief in the sanctity of human life."[more] |
10/31/2008 Peter J. Spiro | Legal Intelligencer |
| A lawyer for Hazleton, Pa., urged a federal appeals court to revive a controversial city ordinance that would have barred employers and landlords from renting to or hiring illegal aliens. Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said that immigration law scholars are watching the Hazleton case closely. "As immigration reform has foundered in Washington, state and local governments have moved to fill the vacuum with immigration-related measures of their own," said Spiro. "This activity at the state and local level has been unprecedented. It's also of questionable constitutional validity." |
10/31/2008 | SoundPrint |
| Temple Law Professor Peter Spiro was interviewed on an episode of Soudprint focusing on becoming a United States citizen.[more] |
10/28/2008 Jan Ting | The Intelligencer |
| Ukrainian immigrant Marina Kats, an alumna of Temple's Beasley School of Law, is running for Congress in Pennsylvania's 13th District (parts of Northeast Philadelphia and Montgomery County). Jan Ting, one of Kats' law professors and a former GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate from Delaware, said Kats always sat in the front row, ready to learn. "I remember her as being one of the smartest and best students I ever had," Ting said. "I certainly had a sense that she was interested in doing things and helping people. She's one of our biggest success stories among our alums."[more] |
10/22/2008 Sharon Wilson | Oregonian |
| Court records show that an Oregon tax activist illegally tapped a tax-exempt foundation over a two-year period for tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses. "Personal living expenses out of the organization's funds are almost never payments for furthering the mission," says Sharon Wilson, director of the Center for Community Nonprofit Organizations at Temple's Beasley School of Law. "The IRS considers that a no-no."[more] |
10/20/2008 Edward Ohlbaum | Allentown Morning Call |
| Lawyers will start picking jurors in the homicide trial of Mary Jane Fonder, a task complicated by extensive news coverage. Lawyers will ask prospective jurors what they know about the case and whether they believe the Bucks County woman is guilty or innocent. '"That's sort of the $64,000 question,'" said Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law. '"Most people are asked and quite honestly say they don't have an opinion. When you ask somebody, can they be fair? 'Of course,' they say, 'of course.'"[more] |
10/20/2008 Amy Sinden | National Law Journal |
| Five cases involving environmental issues are on the Supreme Court's docket this term, including Entergy v. EPA where "electric utilities argue that the Clean Water Act authorizes the use of cost-benefit analysis in regulating water-cooling intake structures...'In the '70s, when the vast majority of environmental statutes were enacted, there was a lot of skepticism about cost-benefit analysis,' said Amy Sinden of Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law...But there has been a shift to more acceptance of cost-benefit analysis, she said. 'To me, the case does have larger ramifications about how we look at environmental policy and policy generally. It's part of a big struggle.'" |
10/20/2008 Edward Ohlbaum | NPR's Morning Edition |
| Five young Philadelphia-area Muslims accused of plotting a terrorist attack on soldiers at Fort Dix go on trial today. Key pieces of evidence include a video of the defendants firing weapons and subsequent recordings of their conversations by an FBI informant. Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law says that the defense will likely focus on whether the defendants were "puffing and exaggerating and trying to show how cool they were, or were they actually expressing their intention to do all the ugly things the government says they were planning to do."[more] |
10/13/2008 JoAnne Epps | WHYY-FM |
| JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law and renowned trial advocacy expert, is part of a small group of American Bar Association Litigation Section lawyers from across the nation who are in London to train Sudanese attorneys. Epps says the team's work is timely because it comes in the wake of the filing of charges by the International Criminal Court against Omar al-Bashir, president of Sudan, for genocide in Darfur. |
10/11/2008 Alice G. Abreu | Harrisburg Patriot-News |
| Economic issues such as tax policy have become central issues in the presidential election. Alice Abreu, a tax law expert at Temple's Beasley School of law, said tax systems have "always been about redistribution of wealth." She noted that Social Security is taking money from wage earners and distributing it to those who are retired. "The ethic of sharing your wealth is something that is fundamental to organized human existence," she said.[more] |
10/3/2008 Burton Caine | American Journalism Review |
| When the New York Times covered Jesse Jackson's crude remarks about Barack Obama this summer, a debate was ignited--not about politics, but about course language, which many media outlets didn't print. Burton Caine of Temple's Beasley School of Law believes the Times should loosen up. Caine says it's hypocritical to praise the late comedian George Carlin for reducing the shock value of the seven "dirty" words, as Times columnist William Safire did, and yet refuse to publish them. "It is wrong to praise expression and refuse to print the words," Caine said.[more] |
10/3/2008 Rafael Porrata-Doria | Law360 |
| The economic crisis has media, politicians, and citizens looking for those responsible for the collapse and ways to hold them accountable for the meltdown. "There my be dangers in focusing too much on criminal prosecution and civil complaints over increased regulation, according to Rafael Porrata-Doria, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia...[T]he Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has been a proponent of deregulation. 'If that's where you're coming from, you don't have to do much to the system,' Porrata-Doria said. 'All you have to do is purge the bad apples.' Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic nominee, has made regulation a far bigger issue. 'If the point of view is that the poblem was systemic, simply indicting a few folks and convicting them certainly isn't going to solve the problem,' Porrata-Doria said."[more] |
9/27/2008 Susan L. DeJarnatt | Philadelpha Inquirer |
| "A dispute is brewing within Temple University's faculty as its union pushes for largely across-the-board raises while nonunion members advocate merit pay...In Temple's law school, all faculty raises are doled out by merit. Those faculty are under a different union. 'It works fine in the law school, given our size and how cohesive the community is, but I would understand why people would be concerned about it in another environment,' said Susan DeJarnatt, an associate law professor."[more] |
9/22/2008 Amy Sinden | National Law Journal, Legal Intelligencer |
| The docket for the Supreme Court's upcoming term includes the case, Entergy Corp. v. EPA, "raising the issue of whether the Clean Water Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to weigh costs and benefits of systems to be used at water cooling structures rather than using the most advanced technology available...Environmental scholar Amy Sinden of Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law [noted], 'It's really about an economic framework in which we monetize all values in environmental policy. Industry from the beginning has argued for cost-benefit analysis because environmental values tend to get undervalued.'" |
9/20/2008 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "An off-duty SEPTA police officer who killed his unarmed Perkiomen neighbor will not face murder charges, Montgomery County prosecutors said, but some legal experts questioned whether the decision was premature...David Kairys, a Temple University law professor and civil-rights attorney, said it seemed 'way too early' to rule out a murder charge in investigating McNair's death...'What you don't want to see,' Kairys said, 'is just assuming that he was an officer, it was justified, and it's not murder. That may turn out to be true, but you don't want them prematurely assuming that. It just seems awful quick to rule that off the table.'"[more] |
9/18/2008 Marina Angel | Legal Intelligencer, Pennsylvania Law Weekly |
| The upcoming session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly may see legislation proposed to replace judicial elections with merit selection, an appointment and confirmation process. "Marina Angel, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law and a vocal critic of the 'merit selection' effort, said that an appointive system for judges would turn back efforts to expand democracy in the United States that took decades to get the right to vote for minorities and women. With the country's demographics trending toward a majority of nonwhites, Angel wondered why there's an interest in reverting to an appointed system to select judges. 'This is a split between people who believe in the franchise and those that don't,' Angel said...Angel also criticized the proposal for its plan to exempt the names of judicial applicants, the names of applicants ultimately selected to be sent to the governor for nomination and all proceedings of the commission from the Right-to-Know Law." |
9/18/2008 Mark Rahdert | New York Times |
| A New York Times article reports that fewer foreign courts look to the U.S. Supreme Court decisions for guidance. That disfavor is a two-way street. "American popular attitudes toward the citation of foreign law,...[Temple Law professor] Mark C. Rahdert wrote in the American University Law Review last year, 'tap into a longstanding tradition of exceptionalism.'"[more] |
9/12/2008 David Post | WIRED Blog Network |
| United Airlines stock crashed this week after a six-year-old news story about a United bankruptcy filing was recirculated accidentally by Bloomberg News Service. A class-action suit might be next, but David Post of Temple's Beasley School of Law says that Bloomberg may be protected by the Communications Decency Act. "[The Act] has been interpreted...to provide a near-blanket immunity for online information redistributors (like Bloomberg) from all liability arising out of that redistribution," wrote Post.[more] |
9/3/2008 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | Concurring Opinions |
| I'm delighted to welcome my colleague Jaya Ramji-Nogales back as a returning guest blogger. Jaya is an Assistant Professor of Law at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, where she teaches Civil Procedure, Evidence, Refugee Law and Policy, and Transitional Justice. She received her BA with highest honors and distinction from the University of California at Berkeley; her JD from the Yale Law School; and her LLM with distinction from the Georgetown University Law Center.[more] |
9/3/2008 Peter J. Spiro | New York Law Journal |
| Peter J. Spiro, a professor at Temple Law School and former State Department lawyer, in his book "Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization" examines one of the less-tangible yet more interesting effects of globalization's effect on our society, specifically, its impact on American identity.[more] |
9/2/2008 Jan Ting | Temple News |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting, a registered Republican, favors Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's political beliefs dispite the party difference. As a result, Ting has parted ways with the Delaware Republican Committee of which he was a long-time member. "'They told me that I should put party interests above individual interests,' Ting said. 'That sounds like something the Communist Party would say.'"[more] |
8/31/2008 Edward Ohlbaum | Pottsville Republican and Herald |
| Law professor and trial advocacy director, Edward Ohlbaum commented on strategy in the Shenandoah homicide case in which the two defendants are juveniles. "Ohlbaum said adult and juvenile courts have benefits and risks. 'One of the advantages of having the case tried in juvenile court is that you are not subject to the adult system of punishments,' Ohlbaum said...However, juvenile cases in Pennsylvania do not include the right to a jury trial, which could be what [defendants] Piekarsky and Walsh want, Ohlbaum said. 'If you think you have a winnable case,' that could be a good move, Ohlbaum said. 'It's hard to speculate about what's going on.'...Whether as adults of juveniles, the teenagers almost certainly will be tried together, Ohlbaum said. 'It seems somewhat unlikely' that severance of the trials would be granted, Ohlbaum said. Courts allow severance of trials if the defendants offer antagonistic defenses or if evidence admissible against one would not be admissible against the other, Ohlbaum said."[more] |
8/27/2008 David Hoffman | ABA Journal |
| Lawyers arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court are introducing more photos, tapes and DVDs when arguing their cases, leading some to believe the justices are becoming more like jurors. "Indeed, says one expert, the practice seems to feed into the Supreme Court's increasing preference to take over the jury function. 'You certainly get the feeling over the past five years that the court has been influenced by the idea that juries are unpredictable and often erratic,' says David Hoffman, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law."[more] |
8/18/2008 Scott Burris | Pediatrics Week |
| Pediatrics Week highlighted Temple Law Professor Scott Burris's recent commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Burris's article looks at how criminal laws have been used to deter and punish transmission of the HIV virus. |
8/17/2008 Burton Caine | New York Times |
| Professor Burton Caine related his editorial contribution to the Oxford English Dictionary in a letter appearing in the Book Section of the New York Times. |
8/15/2008 David Kairys | Kirkus Reviews |
| David Kairys has sifted through hefty files of documents to reconstruct events in and out of court and to re-create conversations with clients, witnesses, judges and other lawyers. The result is a fully fleshed-out memoir of life on the front lines of the civil-rights movement.[more] |
8/7/2008 Scott Burris | International Herald Tribune |
| Criminalization is a misguided substitute for measures that really protect those at risk of contracting HIV: effective prevention, protection against discrimination, efforts to reduce the stigma associated with AIDS, greater access to testing, and, most important, treatment for those who are dying of the disease.[more] |
8/6/2008 Jan Ting | Delaware News Journal |
| A recent U.S. District Court ruling makes it clear that aggressive police tactics will not past legal muster. "Jan Ting, a professor at Temple University School of Law, said he respected the court's decision and didn't dispute it, but added that similar stop-and-frisk approaches by police 'have a positive impact on reducing the amount of crime and in particular gun violence' and have been upheld by other courts. Ting acknowledged such policies are controversial but said police 'ought to be given some leeway in high-crime districts.' "[more] |
8/6/2008 Scott Burris | Journal of the American Medical Association |
| Temple law Professor Scott Burris is co-author of an article that looks at how criminal laws have been used to deter and punish transmission of the HIV virus. "Society's obligation is not to condemn, but to create conditions in which safe behavioral choices become rational and desirable. The blunt use of HIV-specific criminal statutes and prosecutions does the opposite," writes Burris and co-author Edwin Cameron.[more] |
8/4/2008 | PR Newswire |
| Criminal punishment for exposure to or transmission of HIV does nothing to reduce the spread of the virus. Instead, it increases stigma and drives people away from accessing care, while disproportionately burdening women and other vulnerable groups who are unable to disclose their HIV status to partners for fear of violence, according to a commentary in the August issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The commentary is authored by Scott Burris, a Temple University Beasley School of Law professor and associate director of the Center for Law and the Public's Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.[more] |
8/2/2008 Peter J. Spiro | National Journal |
| The book is the subject of a high-powered, expert discussion and well-argued critiques of Wittes's proposals this week on Opinio Juris, a blog run by law professors. Some of them challenge the implication of the book's title that we are in a "war" at all. "Al Qaeda looks a lot less scary seven years out from 9/11," wrote professor Peter Spiro of Temple Law School. "We could safely let all but the top leaders [at Guantanamo] go without having much to fear."[more] |
8/1/2008 JoAnne Epps | preLaw magazine |
| preLaw magazine profiles JoAnne Epps, Temple's new dean at the Beasley School of Law. "The school is a premier educator of trial lawyers and has a long-standing public interest tradition," Epps told reporter Dave Thomas. "I envision an expansion of the faculty to enhance the curriculum with more interdisciplinary courses, and I anticipate that the third-year curriculum will be revised to provide additional opportunities for skills training."[more] |
7/31/2008 Gregory N. Mandel | Albany Times Union |
| Gregory N. Mandel, a prominent intellectual property specialist who was cited in U.S. Supreme Court briefs last year, has left Albany Law School for Temple Law School. In Albany, he had been a professor and associate dean for research and scholarship.[more] |
7/31/2008 Duncan Hollis | Christian Science Monitor |
| The arrest, detainment and trial of Jose Medellin has put Texas, the President, Congress, and the International Court of Justice at odds. The convicted killer and rapist's execution, set for August 5, gives a new urgency to the appeals. "'There is no doubt that the US has an international obligation here, and it sure looks like it won't comply with it,' says Duncan Hollis, a professor and international law expert at Temple University's Beasley School of Law...'On the one hand this is a story of international law and treaty obligations that bind the United States of America,' says Professor Hollis. 'On the other hand this is the story of a gangbanger in Texas who raped and killed two teenaged girls.' Hollis adds, 'Somebody in Congress may see the value of protecting the treaty obligations and the national interests of the United States and also be concerned about the political fallout for voting for a statute that might be used against them [in an election campaign] because you are perceived as soft on crime.'"[more] |
7/30/2008 Salil Mehra | New York Times |
| While teaching at the University of Chicago School of Law, Barack Obama made an impression on students and colleagues. "A favorite theme, said Salil Mehra, now a law professor at Temple University, were the values and cultural touchstones that Americans share. Mr. Obama's case in point: his wife, Michelle, a black woman, loved 'The Brady Bunch' so much that she could identify every episode by its opening shots."[more] |
7/28/2008 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| The Philadelphia Police Department's expanded Web site makes it easy to track incidents and review mug shots at www.ppdonline.org. JoAnne A. Epps, law school dean and an expert in criminal law and procedure at Temple University, said although she would like to see even more information that would allow people to identify crime patterns more easily, she thought the department was going in the right direction. "I generally think that more information is better than less," Epps said. "The information is useful, but the question is: Is it adequate?"[more] |
7/27/2008 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| As the FBI celebrates its 100th anniversary, the praise for its Philadelphia office is high. "It was the first organization to really embrace the notion of smart, educated investigators, and as such, I think the breadth and depth of their investigations was really a landmark leap in the way investigations were conducted," said JoAnne A. Epps, a former federal prosecutor in Philadelphia who is now dean of Temple University's law school.[more] |
7/22/2008 | Philadelphia Daily News |
| "When Sprint-Nextel turned over detailed cell-phone records of prosecutors and police investigators to a defense attorney last month, a spokesman said the company was following the law...Temple Law School Dean JoAnne Epps, who specializes in criminal procedure, said a cell-phone company could require a specific court or warrant before releasing information. 'No law prevents them from having that policy,' Epps said. 'And some other company could have a policy that a subpoena is sufficient.'"[more] |
7/13/2008 Burton Caine | New York Times |
| Readers are questioning the rules newspapers use in printing nasty language, says Times public editor Clark Hoyt in his weekly column. "Burton Caine, a law professor at Temple University, wrote to protest what he saw as hypocrisy in the newspaper's coverage of the death of George Carlin, the comedian who railed against censorship in such routines as 'Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.' William Safire, for example, said last Sunday in his On Language column in the newspaper's magazine that Carlin had performed 'a perverse kind of linguistic service' by reducing the shock value of the seven words. Safire went nowhere near naming or describing those words. Caine said, 'It is wrong to praise expression and refuse to print the words.' "[more] |
7/11/2008 Peter J. Spiro | New York Times |
| Is John McCain eligible to be president? Recent research into the history of citizenship laws impacting children of Americans born in Panama's Canal Zone -- where McCain was born in 1936 -- suggests that McCain may not meet the citizenship requirement. Although legal experts acknowledged that the research was sound, most believe nothing was likely to follow from it. "No court will get close to it, and everyone else is on board, so there's a constitutional consensus, the merits of arguments such as this one aside," said Peter J. Spiro, an authority on citizenship law at Temple's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
7/11/2008 | The Swamp, Concurring Opinions |
| Legal blogs are discussing Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's citizenship status and picking up Professor Peter Spiro's comments as reported in the New York Times. |
7/10/2008 Jan Ting | CNN |
| Jan Ting of Temple's Beasley School of Law joined "Lou Dobbs Tonight" to discuss how the Bush administration is trying to win over Hispanic voters. The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing changes that would help migrant workers -- changes that may negatively impact legal immigrants, says Ting[more] |
7/10/2008 Robert J. Reinstein | Jewish Exponent |
| The legacy of Robert Reinstein, who recently returned to the faculty of Temple's Beasley School of Law after 19 years as dean, is celebrated. "In his role as dean, Reinstein has been credited with helping revamp nearly every facet of the James E. Beasley School of Law," wrote Bryan Schwartzman. "During his tenure, the school increased its endowment from $4 million to $57 million...expanded its faculty by 20 percent [and] applications more than doubled."[more] |
7/10/2008 David Hoffman | The Recorder |
| Over at the Concurring Opinions blog, Temple University law professor David Hoffman wrote that he was 'fairly shocked' by the footnote, which he called a 'deep shot' against Sunstein and others who have done jury research.[more] |
7/9/2008 | Legal Intelligencer |
| Over at the 'Concurring Opinions' blog, Temple University law professor David Hoffman wrote that he was 'fairly shocked' by the footnote, which he called a 'deep shot' against Sunstein and others who have done jury research.[more] |
7/8/2008 JoAnne Epps | Allentown Morning Call |
| "Federal prosecutor in southeastern Pennsylvania for nearly seven years, Patrick L. Meehan...announced Monday he's resigning as U.S. attorney...JoAnne Epps, the new dean of Temple Univresity law school in Philadelphia, called Meehan a courageous and effective prosecutor. 'He was undeterred by the political winds,' she said. 'He was an effective prosecutor for this region, and he will be missed.'"[more] |
7/8/2008 | Erie Times-News |
| U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan, chief prosecutor for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for nearly seven years and a graduate of Temple's Beasley School of Law, announced his resignation on Monday. JoAnne Epps, new dean of Temple Law, called Meehan a courageous and effective prosecutor. "He was undeterred by the political winds," she said. "He was an effective prosecutor for this region and he will be missed."[more] |
7/7/2008 David Hoffman | National Law Journal |
| Supreme Court Justice David Souter, "author of the opinion that struck down a $2.5 billion punitive damage award in the Exxon Valdez case, wrote [a] footnote to point to 'a body of literature' that documented the unpredictability of punitive damages. The footnote went on to mention studies written by the likes of Cass Sunstein at the University of Chicago. Then on page 28 came the money quote: 'Because this research was funded in part by Exxon, we decline to rely on it.' ... Over at the Concurring Opinions blog, Temple University law professor David Hoffman wrote that he was 'fairly shocked' by the footnote, which he called a 'deep shot' against Sunstein and others who have done jury research." |
7/4/2008 Peter J. Spiro | The Take Away |
| Professor Peter Spiro was a guest on The Take Away, discussing the growing number of Americans seeking dual citizenship based on their European ancestry.[more] |
7/1/2008 Gregory N. Mandel | Chief Executive |
| "The normally staid patent world has been roiling of late with Supreme Court decisions, attempts to significantly alter the way patents are processed and evaluated, and even major proposed legislative changes to the entire patent system," writes Erik Sherman. "There's been rising concern among lots of folks that patents have become too easy to get, available in too many areas, and that the increase in the availability of patents may actually be retarding technological innovation and growth, and actually hurting industries," says Gregory Mandel, professor of technology and intellectual property law at Temple University's Beasley School of Law.[more] |
6/30/2008 Jan Ting | Wilmington News Journal |
| After being deported four times, a Dominican man was back in court in Delaware after having been arrested for shoplifting. Professor Jan Ting of Temple's Beasley School of Law said the case is "all too common" and "shows how much still needs to be done to secure our borders against illegal and unauthorized entrants."[more] |
6/29/2008 David Kairys | NPR Weekend Edition |
| After the Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia's gun ban, lawyers in other jurisdictions are swinging into action in other jurisdictions where gun laws have been challenged. Gun-control expert Professor David Kairys of Temple's Beasley School of Law, says the ruling doesn't provide guidelines to help judges or lawmakers figure out what's constitutional. Kairys says if he were "thinking as an NRA lawyer" he would conclude that the ruling "throws into question almost every regulation of guns."[more] |
6/29/2008 Muriel Morisey | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| There are two types of flag-burning: one is an act of protest, another is a ritual retirement for aging flags. The former was declared illegal by the federal government in 1968, said Professor Muriel Morisey of Temple's Beasley School of Law. But a 1989 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court restored constitutional protection to flag burning. "This is how the First Amendment is interpreted by the Supreme Court," said Morisey. Flag burning "would be my constitutional right...if I chose to."[more] |
6/27/2008 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that individual Americans have a constitutional right to own guns for personal use, invalidating a District of Columbia ban on handgun possession. Second amendment expert David Kairys of Temple's Beasley School of Law joined other scholars in acknowledging that the ruling does not provide comprehensive guidelines. "This is a big, serious change," said Kairys. "But the opinion lacks any principles or rules so that [other] gun control regulations can be assessed to see if they are constitutional, or not."[more] |
6/27/2008 Jan Ting | Wilmington News Journal |
| "The Second Amendment to the Constitution--the right to keep and bear arms--is an individual right but subject to reasonable limitations, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a 5-4 landmark decision that resounded loudly across both side of the gun debate...'I think the Supreme Court majority tried to strike a reasonable balance, finding an absolute ban on handgun possession in the home for self-defense to be an unconstitutional violation of the Second Amendment, but leaving room for reasonable limits on types and sales of firearms, and also for reasonable licensing requirements,' said Temple University law professor Jan Ting."[more] |
6/23/2008 William M. Carter, Jr. | National Law Journal |
| William Carter Jr., a professor of constitutional law, civil rights and civil procedure at the Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law, writes about the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court case that outlawed housing discrimination. Carter writes that the court's ruling in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer, "is a milestone in judicial attitudes regarding the legacy of slavery and its contemporary effects. Rather than treating the bigotry and stigma that lead to private housing discrimination as abstract 'societal discrimination' invisible to the Constitution, the Jones court recognized the continuity of prejudices about blacks that arose from, and were essential to, maintaining slavery."[more] |
6/15/2008 Peter J. Spiro | Wall Street Journal |
| Americans with a foreign parent or grandparent may want to consider dual citizenship. "The benefits of another citizenship can be significant," said Peter Spiro, an international law and immigration law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law and author of Beyond Citizenship. Among those benefits are the ability to work, retire or vote in other countries. Spiro says one of the most decisive displays of the power of an overseas electorate occurred in Italy in 2006: If not for the votes of Italian citizens living in Canada, Romano Prodi's coalition would not have won the election.[more] |
6/13/2008 Frank McClellan | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
| Mr. King, a disbarred attorney, pleaded guilty in April to theft for taking checks on the estate during a three-year period, depleting money designated for the late bishop's relatives and for Livingstone College, a historically black college in Salisbury, N.C. He admitted he was addicted to cocaine and alcohol at the time of the thefts and expressed remorse to the victims, his friends, family and the community. Fifteen fellow AME Zion pastors, including the bishop for the mid-Atlantic region, and 20 others showed up to support Mr. King, who one called "a pillar of the community." One friend, Temple University law professor Frank McClellan, said when he learned about Mr. King's "breach of fiduciary responsibility," he urged him to come clean with authorities.[more] |
6/7/2008 Peter J. Spiro | Palm Beach Post |
| With the U.S. economy slumping, dual citizenship in European Union countries is attracting more Americans. Temple Law professor Peter Spiro, author of Beyond Citizenship, isn't surprised. He believes that defining one's identity by citizenship is on the decline. "There are really no harms caused by individuals having additional citizenship these days," Spiro said. "It's the wave of the future, because more and more people are going to have it. It's going to multiply on an exponential basis going forward."[more] |
6/2/2008 William M. Carter, Jr. | CN8: Arthur Fennell Reports |
| William Carter, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, appeared on "Art Fennell Reports" to explain the complex constitutional law issues surrounding the Boy Scouts' prohibition of gay members and the City of Philadelphia's recent eviction of the Boy Scouts from their city-subsidized local headquarters.[more] |
6/1/2008 Jan Ting | ABA Journal |
| "Within the last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been sued at least four times--the latest in New Jersey--for allegedly entering homes without a warrant in voilation of the Fourth Amendment." ICE has enjoyed an exclusionary rule exemption where such procedure is concerned. "'The court has said that immigration law is different, and in no area of the law does the federal government have more power than in areas of immigration,' says Jan C. Ting, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia...'It's well-established in immigration law that you can do a lot of stuff you couldn't do if it were concerning American citizens,' he adds. 'If the exclusionary rule does not apply, is there anything wrong about law enforcement going in and getting the people they're looking for?'" |
6/1/2008 | ABA Journal |
| Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations have been a success, say law enforcement agents, but their tactics have also drawn lawsuits. How much power does the government have in this arena? "The court has said that immigration law is different, and in no area of the law does the federal government have more power than in areas of immigration," says Jan C. Ting, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. Previously, Ting was an assistant commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, when it reported to the Justice Department.[more] |
5/29/2008 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Daily News |
| Philadelphia police created a fake statement to get a witness in a homicide case to talk. The tactic is unusual, but not illegal. "JoAnne A. Epps, associate dean at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, who will become dean in July, said yesterday that 'it's definitely legal' for police to use ruse or trickery when interviewing a suspect or a witness. A leading scholar in trial advocacy and criminal procedure, Epps said this was the first time she has heard of a case in which a false statement was created by police and in which police used a ruse to interrogate a witness."[more] |
5/22/2008 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| One of the thousands of Temple graduates celebrating today in the Liacouras Center will be Rasheedah Phillips, a Philadelphia single mother whose beat the odds and earned a law degree. JoAnne Epps, associate dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law commends Phillips. "'I enjoyed having her and her very scrappy, up-from-the-bootstraps practical and yet thoughtful approach to legal issues.'"[more] |
5/21/2008 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| The swift decision by Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to fire four officers for their part in a tape recorded beating of a suspect breaks Philadelphia tradition and sends a clear message. "David Kairys, a Temple University law professor and veteran civil-rights lawyer, said the message to the rank and file was blunt: 'If you use excessive force where it's not justified, you're going to be disciplined, and if it's bad enough, you're going to be fired.'"[more] |
5/15/2008 Louis Natali | Legal Intelligencer |
| "A Philadelphia jury found last week that a family law attorney must return half of the $200,000 bonus a client claimed she was duped into paying after the attorney and his firm helped her secure nearly $5 million in a post-nuptial settlement...Temple University Beasley School of Law professor Louis M. Natali, Jr. testified as an expert witness on [plaintiff] Schubert's behalf. Natali testified that the bonus was never mentioned in the original retainer agreement and that it was excessive compared to the fee that she paid [attorney] Shainberg based on his hourly rate." |
5/2/2008 Alice G. Abreu | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Temple Law professor Alice Abreu outlines how presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama's proposed revisions to the federal tax system would simplify filing for many citizens.[more] |
5/2/2008 | The Hotline |
| Professor Alice Abreu's comments in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Senator Barack Obama's proposals for tax collection procedures were picked up by The Hotline. |
4/27/2008 Mark Rahdert | Bucks County Courier Times |
| Students at School Lane Charter School in Bensalem have been wearing uniforms as one of three local schools trying out the uniform policy. The policy should not run into constitutional issues, said Mark Rahdert, constitutional scholar at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. "As long as the [uniform policy] is neutral with respect to religion and is generally applicable to all students in the school, it is usually upheld," Rahdert said.[more] |
4/24/2008 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "JoAnne A. Epps, incoming dean at Temple Law School, is a seasoned trial lawyer and teacher who will take over at a time of healthy growth in the school's endowment and a powerful upswing in credentials of new classes," writes Chris Mondics in a profile of the law school veteran. Her impact will be great, says Mondics: "What Epps thinks about legal education and career development is important not only in Philadelphia legal circles, but also outside the city. Temple is the largest feeder school for big area law firms, and it increasingly recruits students from across the country."[more] |
4/21/2008 | Diverse Issues in Higher Education |
| Temple's next Law School dean, JoAnne Epps, discussed her plans for the school in an extensive Q&A with reporter Ibram Rogers. Her plans include growth in international arenas, more internships, and building stronger links with other universities. She would also like to take advantage of Temple's location: "I think that since Temple is an urban institution, we should very much take advantage of our presence here in an urban setting."[more] |
4/21/2008 Theresa Glennon | New Jersey Law Journal, Legal Intelligencer |
| "Twenty years after the landmark Baby M case, New Jersey is again the center of a dispute arising from a surrogate-pregnancy arrangement. But this time, it's the lawyers and doctors who face liability...Since Baby M, New Jersey has never enacted a law to govern the relationships of parties to unorthodox reproductive arrangements such as these [involving surrogate mothers]. 'It's probably an area of law New Jersey needs to think through more,' says Theresa Glennon, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law who writes on the subject of reproductive technology." |
4/17/2008 Edward Ohlbaum | Allentown Morning Call |
| A Penn State football player accused of rape is seeking an emergency hearing so he can position himself for the upcoming NFL draft. His lawyer hopes to question his accuser about similar allegations she made against another student. "What they are saying is that her behavior five years ago is so similar to her behavior today, it stands to reason she has invented this scenario,"' said Temple Law professor Edward Ohlbaum.[more] |
4/17/2008 David Kairys | Philadelphia Daily News |
| Professor David Kairys criticizes former President Clinton's record on judicial appointments in an op-ed appearing in the Philadelphia Daily News.[more] |
4/15/2008 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer, Pennsylvania Law Weekly |
| JoAnne A. Epps was named dean of Temple University's James E. Beasley School of Law. "Epps will now focus on continuing the efforts to improve the law school that began with her predecessor, Dean Robert J. Reinstein. Her No. 1 priority is to continue to attract and retain outstanding faculty and students. With increasing competition among law schools, that is a continuing challenge, she said." |
4/15/2008 Craig Green | Wilmington News Journal |
| "A feud between a federal court judge and a prominent criminal defense attorney that had been the talk of Delaware's legal community appears to have ended as quickly as it began...It began with a missed hearing on April Fools' Day and ended with the attorney being barred from the judge's courtroom and vowing never to return to federal court...Many in Delaware's legal community, and legal observers, were surprised that the dispute between [Joe] Hurley and [Chief District Judge Gregory M.] Sleet had escalated so dramatically. Temple University School of Law associate professor Craig Green said he'd never heard of anything like it involving a veteran jurist such as Sleet and an experienced attorney like Hurley. 'This is not the way these things usually work out,' he said."[more] |
4/12/2008 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| JoAnne A. Epps was named dean of Temple University's James E. Beasley School of Law. "Epps succeeds Dean Robert J. Reinstein, who will retire on June 30 after 19 years in the job, making him among the longest-serving deans in an American law school. As dean, Epps said she would like to continue to recruit outstanding faculty and students and expand Temple's connections with the legal community."[more] |
4/11/2008 Craig Green | Delaware News Journal |
| A prominent Wilmington attorney says he will no long represent clients in federal court after run-ins with two federal judges. "Temple University School of Law associate professor Craig Green, who specializes in federal court matters, said the incident was 'amazing' and he'd never heard of anything like it. 'This is not the way these things usually work out,' he said."[more] |
4/11/2008 JoAnne Epps | Lawyers Journal |
| "The ABA's House of Delegates voted on Feb. 11 to support a revision to the Standards for Approval of Law Schools, making numerical bar exam passage rates a factor in the accreditation of law schools by the Council of the ABA's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar...'In general, I think the idea of output measurement is legitimate and defensible. However, I think using bar passage as a measurement is problematic,' said JoAnne Epps, professor of law and associate dean for academic affairs at the Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. 'Bar passage rates are affected by more variables than simply the competency of test-takers, as it is not necessarily accurate to conclude that applicants who don't pass the bar received an inferior education.'" |
4/11/2008 David Kairys | Philadelphia Daily News |
| The decision by Philadelphia City Council and Mayor Nutter to adopt gun control legislation is likely to draw lawsuits, but is understandable. "David Kairys, a Temple University law professor and gun-control advocate, said that ruling left the city in a difficult position and that Nutter had acted responsibly. 'He comes into office and there's an intolerable level of gun violence,' Kairys said. 'He's responding to the violence.'"[more] |
4/7/2008 Duncan Hollis | Legal Intelligencer |
| Temple Law professor Duncan Hollis spoke at the Pennsylvania Bar Association program, "The Rule of Law Today: The War on Terror and Immigration Reform." "He said he believes that international laws should be developed to govern information operations in order to lower the transaction costs of battling terrorism and to define in what circumstances that information operations are a use of force and a matter of war." |
4/7/2008 Marina Angel | Scranton Times-Tribune |
| Writing in an op-ed, Temple law professor Marina Angel said removing judges from the ballot and having their selection made by an appointed committee is wrong. "This issue is not one of rich vs. poor, Republicans vs. Democrats, educated vs. uneducated. It is one pitting those who believe in democracy vs. those who don't. It's the majority vs. the elitists," Angel writes.[more] |
4/5/2008 David Hoffman | Volokh Conspiracy, SCOTUS Blog |
| Professor David Hoffman's forthcoming Harvard Law Review article (written with Dan Kahan and Donald Braman), Whose Eyes are You Going to Believe? Scott v. Harris and the Perils of Cognitive Illiberalism has been highlighted and discussed at such blogs as Volokh Conspiracy and SCOTUS Blog.[ssrn] |
3/31/2008 Jeffrey Dunoff | BNA WTO Reporter |
| "Legal experts are divided on the possible international trade impacts of the March 25 decision by the Supreme Court in Medellin v. Texas which said the state of Texas is not obligated to follow a ruling by the World Court under a treaty signed by the United States...seeing a limited impact for the decision, Jeffrey L. Dunoff, director of the Institute for International Law and Public Policy at Temple University, noted 'Supreme Court opinions addressing the effect of International Court of Justice decisions in Vienna Convention cases do not necessarily foreclose questions concerning the domestic legal effect of other international tribunal interpretations of other international norms.'" |
3/31/2008 Duncan Hollis | Legal Times |
| In its Medellin v. Texas decision, the Supreme Court "ruled that a consular rights treaty ratified by the United States and enforced by the International Court of Justice could not, without further action by Congress, supersede the criminal procedures of Texas...Temple Law School's Duncan Hollis, a former State Department lawyer, says the ruling runs counter to the Constitution, which makes treaties part of the 'supreme law of the land.'" |
3/31/2008 | National Law Journal |
| In a clash of Texas law, executive authority and international law, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Medellin v. Texas that federal does not trump state law in treaty compliance. "In weeks to come, lawyers in the U.S. Department of State and on the relevant U.S. Senate committees should look at current treaties that they had always presumed to be self-executing but which, as a result of the Medellin decision, now may be without the force of U.S. law, said international law scholar Duncan Hollis of Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law. 'They may want to do something to get them that force of law,' he said." |
3/29/2008 Scott Burris | Medical Humanities Blog |
| Temple Law professor Scott Burris' article on the Common Rule, appearing the the March issue of Regulation and Governance, was reviewed as the lead "Article of Interest" in the Medical Humanities Blog.[more] |
3/28/2008 Jan Ting | CNN "Lou Dobbs Tonight" |
| Law professor Jan Ting appeared on Lou Dobbs' show, discussing the deportation of criminal aliens. " Whether we have the resources and the personnel to do it, which is a function of, frankly, political will, I don't hear a whole lot of political candidates in this election cycle talking about the importance of immigration law enforcement right now. I think political candidates don't really like to talk about tough issues, which there isn't a good sound bite available." |
3/26/2008 Duncan Hollis | NPR Morning Edition |
| "The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major opinion on Tuesday that limits the force of many U.S. treaties and rejects President Bush's assertion that he can unilaterally order state governments to comply with treaties...Temple law professor Duncan Hollis, an expert on international law, said...Tuesday's ruling will have practical consequences. Because enforcement of some existing treaties may now be in doubt, negotiations over future treaties could be more difficult, he said, with general assurances of enforcement failing to suffice."[more] |
3/25/2008 | Legal Intelligencer, Legal Times |
| In the case Medellin v. Texas, the Supreme Court "ruled that neither the international court nor a directive by President Bush, both aimed at enforcing a consular rights treaty signed by the United States, amounted to 'enforceable federal law' that could be imposed on Texas...Temple Law School professor Duncan Hollis, a former State Department legal adviser, said the ruling runs counter to the Constitution, which makes treaties the 'supreme law of the land.' The Court's finding that the consular treaty was not self-executing, Hollis said, 'may well have significant repercussions on existing U.S. treaty obligations as well as the views of other nations on the U.S. commitment to international law.'"[more] |
3/25/2008 | NPR All Things Considered |
| "The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major opinion on Tuesday that limits the force of many U.S. treaties and rejects President Bush's assertion that he can unilaterally order state governments to comply with treaties...Temple law professor Duncan Hollis, an expert on international law, said...Tuesday's ruling will have practical consequences. Because enforcement of some existing treaties may now be in doubt, negotiations over future treaties could be more difficult, he said, with general assurances of enforcement failing to suffice."[more] |
3/24/2008 Jan Ting | CNN "Lou Dobbs Tonight" |
| Temple University law professor Jan Ting discussed immigration issues in a story on the use of the federal "no match" rule. |
3/24/2008 Marina Angel | Philadelphia Daily News |
| Writing in an op-ed, Temple law professor Marina Angel said removing judges from the ballot and having their selection made by an appointed committee is wrong. "This issue is not one of rich vs. poor, Republicans vs. Democrats, educated vs. uneducated. It is one pitting those who believe in democracy vs. those who don't. It's the majority vs. the elitists," Angel writes.[more] |
3/18/2008 David Kairys | USA Today |
| The Supreme Court takes its first definitive look Tuesday at the Second Amendment when it hears arguments about the constitutionality of the Washington handgun ban. "A Supreme Court decision has a moral, political and cultural meaning as well as a legal meaning," says Temple University law professor David Kairys, who has long been in the thick of the debate over gun rights and firearms violence as a defender of gun restrictions. "I think it is going to have a huge impact."[more] |
3/14/2008 Peter J. Spiro | Financial Times |
| With the release of Lord Goldsmith's report, "Citizenship: Our Common Bond," defining British citizenship has been in the news. One review cites Temple Law professor Peter Spiro. "The influential U.S. legal scholar Peter Spiro notes in a new book, Beyond Citizenship: American Identity after Globalization, that permanent residents in the U.S. become citizens at a surprisingly low rate. That is probably because there are only negligible incremental benefits to be gained from naturalisation. 'The real prize is legal residency, not citizenship,' writes Mr. Spiro. 'It's all about the green card, not the naturalisation certificate.'" |
3/11/2008 Jan Ting | Washington Square News |
| Temple Law professor Jan Ting stepped in for Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist in an immigration debate held at NYU Monday. "Ting...was happy about the debate and how it brought two opposing views together. 'It reflected both conservative and libertarian views on immigration,' he said." |
3/5/2008 Eleanor Myers | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Food vendor Ian MacFarlane is dismayed that Historic Philadelphia, Inc. isn't honoring an oral agreement to keep his snack cart in Franklin Square park. "'There's nothing old-fashioned about feeling misled,' insists Eleanor Myers, a Temple University law professor of ethics and contracts. 'It does matter.' Legally, Myers says, oral agreements can be just as binding as written ones."[more] |
3/4/2008 Mark Rahdert | Legal Intelligencer, Pennsylvania Law Weekly |
| In a negligence case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is considering applying ALI's Restatement (Third) of Torts in place of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. The defendants "argued that the Restatement (Third) of Torts should be applied in its case in order to focus strict liability claims onto the lack of care by manufacturers, not suppliers...Mark C. Rahdert, a professor of law at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, said the Second Restatement was particularly influential tort law because of the regard that its reporter William Prosser was held in. The verdict is still out in what regard the Third Statement is viewed, he said. If adopted by the Supreme Court, the Third Restatement would jettison Pennsylvania's strict liability law in favor of a strict liability and negligence blend 'that almost always favors negligence at the end of the day,' Rahdert said. Rahdert predicted that it would be harder for plaintiffs attorneys to get get their cases to juries and would give judges more authority to override cases." |
3/1/2008 David Kairys | Essence |
| "With an average that exceeded one homicide a day last year, Philadelphia has been nickanmed Killadelphia by some residents...David Kairys, professor of law at Temple University and a leading expert in gun violence in urban communities, describes what is happening in Philadelphia as a national crisis. 'We have abandoned the inner city for the last three decades,' says Kairys, coauthor of the upcoming Against the Wall: Poor, Young, Black and Male (University of Pennsylvania Press). 'Initiatives to combat poverty and improve schools and health care have been largely ignored. During the same period, we've allowed handguns and assault weapons sales to become, essentially, unregulated...It's simple,' says Kairys, 'You show your driver's license, and if you don't have a criminal record, you can buy as many guns as your credit card will bear, and you can walk right out with them...People talk about an 'illegal gun market,' when in fact, most of what goes on is surprisingly legal.'" |
2/27/2008 | USA Today |
| In a benchmark case that arises against a backdrop of election-year politics, the high court will take its first definitive look at the Second Amendment. "A Supreme Court decision has a moral, political and cultural meaning as well as a legal meaning," says Temple University law professor David Kairys, who has long been in the thick of the debate over gun rights and firearms violence as a defender of gun restrictions. "I think it is going to have a huge impact."[more] |
2/26/2008 Edward Ohlbaum | Connecticut Law Tribune |
| "Crime victims have gained an unprecedented edge in the criminal justice system and are on their way to becoming third parties in court proceedings with privileges they were never intended to have, legal experts are warning...'What they ultimately want is to make the victim a third party...There's no dispute that that would introduce a major change in the current system, and it would disturb the present balance in the courtroom,'" said Edward Ohlbaum. |
2/25/2008 David Kairys | Minneapolis Star-Tribune |
| A new St. Paul police policy for investigating protest groups draws praise from police experts for its sensitivity to dissent, but criticism from those who worry that police will spy on activists leading up to the Republican National Convention. After reading the policy, civil-rights lawyer David Kairys said it signals a police plan to investigate protest groups coming to the convention. "It sounds like they are going to do it, putting in language that would be useful if it is challenged," said Kairys, who is also a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia.[more] |
2/22/2008 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "After two full days of deliberations, the federal jury considering fraud and tax charges against T. Milton Street Sr. announced yesterday that it was deadlocked on seven charges...JoAnne Epps, associate dean at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, said it was hard to determine whether a deadlock would ultimately benefit Street. 'It really depends on why they're deadlocked,' she said. 'They may be deadlocked over an uncertainty about the law or an uncertainty about what the evidence shows.' One possibility is that some jurors have accepted Street's unexpected argument that income taxes are unconstitutional. 'They may be agreed on facts in the law but unwilling to convict,' Epps said. 'That is sort of like jury nullification.' She added: 'Until later, we won't know if it really is a lack of understanding or whether he has actually struck a chord with one or more members of the jury.'"[more] |
2/18/2008 Kathy Mandelbaum | New Jersey Lawyer |
| "A tax qualified disclaimer made under the federal tax code, 26 U.S.C. § 2518, can be an important postmortem planning technique." Temple University's Beasley School of Law Graduate Tax Professor Kathy Mandelbaum commented that a disclaimer with a bypass trust can, in certain circumstances, offer survivors more flexibility than other options. |
2/12/2008 Jan Ting | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| The United States is going to look older and much less white over the next 40 years, according to a new Pew Research Center study. To Temple law professor Jan Ting, that means we need put controls on immigration now. "The most troubling aspects," said Ting a former assistant commissioner with the Immigration and Naturalization Service who teaches a course on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugees, "are the implications . . . on schools, the notion of universal health, our criminal-justice system, our infrastructure, our environment."[more] |
2/11/2008 David Hoffman | Legal Times, Legal Intelligencer |
| Among the filings in the Exxon case before the Supreme Court is a multimedia exhibit. A previous instance of video evidence in a Supreme Court cases was studied by Temple University Law professor David Hoffman. "The researchers assert that the Court was wrong in concluding that the tape 'supported only one reasonable view of the facts.' In opting for its own view of the tape, the Court showed a lack of 'judicial humility' that undermines its legitimacy, the authors state." Link to a draft of the forthcoming article here. |
2/10/2008 William Woodward | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| To combat malpractice costs, doctors are asking patients to waive their right to a jury trial and agree to binding arbitration should a dispute arise. "Agreements to settle future disputes with binding arbitration, in which an appointed individual or small panel decides the case instead of a judge or jury, are now pervasive in contracts involving many other things we buy, including credit cards, cell phones and cars...But Temple University law professor Bill Woodward thinks the growth of a private judicial system 'is a pretty nasty legal development, I think, and it's just crying out for correction from Congress.'"[more] |
2/8/2008 Jan Ting | BusinessWeek |
| Temple law professor Jan Ting argues that enforcing U.S. immigration laws solely in the workplace is "like contending with the consequences of broken levees in New Orleans rather than trying to maintain those levees. We must enforce immigration laws at the work site and also build and maintain a strong border fence if we are ever to succeed in reducing illegal immigration to the U.S."[more] |
2/7/2008 Peter J. Spiro | Courier Post |
| A judge's decision out of Missouri last week means that federal courts are now split on the question of whether cities and towns may take steps to curb illegal immigration. "This is a landscape characterized by significant legal uncertainty and these questions are going to glide their way up through courts," said Peter Spiro, who teaches immigration law at Temple University. "It certainly won't be the last word."[more] |
2/7/2008 JoAnne Epps | Legal Intelligencer |
| The ABA proposed revisions to its accreditation standards for law schools. Bar associations and legal scholars object, citing the revisions my result in fewer minority attorneys entering the profession. "JoAnne Epps, the associate dean for academic affairs and law professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law...thinks that a school's bar examination passage rate should not be the only quantitative measure to assess the quality of a school's academic program...'Law schools that have as their mission the education of lawyers to serve underserved populations are to me engaged in a legitimate mission, and if they educate eight people and only four pass the bar, I'm not sure that makes them a bad law school. Under this proposal they would become unaccredited or in danger of losing their accreditation.'" |
2/7/2008 Jan Ting | NPR "Day to Day" |
| Frank Enwonwu is a drug informant from Nigeria who once helped the U.S. track drug runners. Now, the U.S is planning to deport him, despite his pleas for asylum. "Everyone who makes an asylum claim in the United States is basically saying the same thing. If you return me to my home country, I'm dead. And you know what? Criminal aliens who come here and violate laws are not a priority for us," said Jan Ting, a former immigration official and now a Temple law school professor.[more] |
2/5/2008 Mark Rahdert | Legal Intelligencer |
| A current court case over "text only" obscenity is rare, but not unexpected. "Mark Rahdert, a law professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, said it would be a mistake to think obscenity laws can't be applied to text given that they originated out of cases involving text and later morphed into an area that was really only applied to videotape or photographic images."[more] |
1/27/2008 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| U.S. Court of Appeals judges are weighing whether to reinstate Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence. Was the racial composition of the jury in the original trial fair? Until 1986, proving racial discrimination in jury selection was almost impossible. But in Batson v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court said that prosecutors could be questioned about their reasons for excluding black jurors. If the prosecution failed to offer race-neutral reasons, the remedy should be a new trial. Batson "was an important decision symbolically as well as practically," said JoAnne Epps, a Temple law professor. Prosecutors' "sensitivities are much more finely attuned these days."[more] |
1/25/2008 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Mayor Nutter yesterday said he would enforce new city gun-control laws even without state authorization to do so--setting up a possible legal and political showdown between the state and the new mayor. Temple University law professor David Kairys, a gun-control advocate, said, "that's what our City Council and mayor should be doing--they're dealing with an urgent problem." Kairys said the city's action could set up a test of a new Supreme Court, now under Chief Justice Ronald Castille, the former Philadelphia district attorney who promised to depoliticize the court.[more] |
1/18/2008 Jeffrey Dunoff | KYW Radio |
| Attorneys from a Philadelphia law firm were in front of a federal judge on Friday on behalf of the families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The plaintiffs want to be able to sue the government of Saudi Arabia and key members of that country's royal family. In 2005, a judge said no. And according to Temple University law professor Jeffrey Dunoff, in order for the case to proceed, Saudi Arabia would have to be on the U.S. government's list of "sponsors of terrorism" -- which it isn't: "The threshold question is when a foreign state can be sued for terrorism in a US court. And the answer is, only when that state appears on a U.S. government list as a state sponsor of terrorism."[more] |
1/4/2008 Maureen McCartney | PennLive.com |
| The grand jury that recommended a perjury charge against a Roman Catholic priest linked to casino owner Louis DeNaples is not finished with its work--and prosecutors say the panel may consider charges against other people. The technique of indicting one individual to get others to talk to a grand jury is not uncommon. "Prosecutors do that all the time," said Temple University law professor Maureen McCartney, a former assistant district attorney in Philadelphia who worked on a grand jury investigation into sexual abuse by priests.[more] |
1/3/2008 Barbara Ashcroft | Doylestown Intelligencer |
| "A notorious Bucks County pedophile was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday for raping four children over the last 35 years...Barbara Lynn Ashcroft, who was prosecuting her last case for the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, said after the hearing that the system failed with [the defendant,] Bendig. She said the case sheds light on a loophole in state law regarding sex offenders who've served their sentences and whose crimes predate Pennsylvania's Mega's Law, which is meant to monitor sex offenders." |
12/31/2007 David Kairys | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld Philadelphia's campaign-finance limits, a victory for reform-minded Mayor-elect Michael Nutter just days before his inauguration...David Kairys, a Temple University law professor, said the opinion was notable for acknowledging the importance of cleaning up the city's political process and giving the city the latitude to deal with that problem. 'The whole way it approaches the need for reform is, I think, a welcome change, and a good way for Mayor Nutter to start in his new office,' Kairys said."[more] |
12/29/2007 JoAnne Epps | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Star high school basketball player Tyreke Evans was clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time: He was the driver of an SUV that sped away from a shooting last month that left one man dead. But while plenty of people end up in prison for driving away from a murder scene, criminal law experts say Evans, a 6-foot-6 basketball phenomenon considered one of the nation's top high school players, is likely to be a key prosecution witness rather than an accused accomplice...Temple University law professorJoAnne Epps said Evans helped his own status in the investigation by cooperating with police with the help of an experienced lawyer."[more] |
12/20/2007 David Kairys | WHYY |
| Does the 2nd Amendment give an individual the right to own a gun? In 2008, The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments whether a municipal handgun ban violates the 2nd Amendment. At stake, legal observers say, is whether the Constitutional right to bear arms meant it for the National Guard or for individual citizens. David Kairys, a law professor at Temple University and Sanford Levinson a law professor at the University of Texas-Austin, debated the issue.[more] |
12/15/2007 | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Police in some communities are using -- and some say abusing -- jaywalking and loitering ordinances. Legal experts including Temple University Law School professor David Kairys say the charges could be on shaky ground. "It's the kind of statute that allows police to pick up just about anyone. Which people do you charge with hanging around? 'Loafing or walking about aimlessly,' what is criminal about that? Are they really giving police authority to pick up people they don't like? It's very much like cases that have been struck down."[more] |
12/11/2007 | KYW Radio |
| Beasley School of Law Professor David Kairys discussed the value of shield laws to protect reporters' sources, related to a case involving defense contractor who was convicted of bribing former Congressman Randy Cunningham. The contractor's attorney believes that grand jury leaks affected the outcome of the case, and wants reporters to reveal their sources. |
12/10/2007 David Hoffman | Brand Strategy |
| Temple Law professor David Hoffman has observed first hand the Euro's growth in cultural caché and absolute value. "'It think as a rapper, Jay-Z is using euros in his music videos because he wants to be known as a global product...I was in Italy this summer and noticed that the leather market in Florence, which used to be quite a deal for US shoppers, now costs as much as buying from a high-end clothing store in the States. It's certainly a much more painful time for American buyers abroad.'" |
12/10/2007 Peter J. Spiro | New York Sun |
| Republican presidential hopeful, Michael Huckabee, has introduced a "Secure America Plan" that curtails privileges for dual citizens. "'The political problem with any proposal intended to police dual citizenship is you start getting into constituencies beyond the Mexican-American constituency,' a law professor at Temple University, Peter Spiro, said...Mr. Spiro said talk of a dual citizenship crackdown was likely to be a loser for Mr. Huckabee, at least in the long term...'It's a non-starter. It doesn't make sense for any mainstream candidate to harp on this.'"[more] |
12/10/2007 | New York Times |
| Late last month, a federal judge in Canada ruled that the United States had violated international conventions on torture and the rights of refugees. The decision has caused quite a stir in Canada. The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, said it was "outrageous, and has the whiff of Canadian cultural superiority about it." Peter J. Spiro, a law professor at Temple University and the author of a new book called Beyond Citizenship, said the issues discussed by the judge were "debatable and unstable." But, he added, "there is nothing that is way out on a limb about this opinion."[more] |
12/6/2007 David Kairys | Philadelphia Daily News |
| Upper Darby Township police have a policy of seizing legally owned firearms when responding to incidents. "Mary Welsch...claims in a federal lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sanchez that police illegally took her deceased father's guns from her house, then refused to return them without a court order...If there is a ruling in the case, it could potentially set a precedent that impacts Philadelphia's ability to seize guns in certain situations, said Temple Law School professor David Kairys." |
12/3/2007 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | Daily Dish |
| Andrew Sullivan's blog, The Daily Dish, featured a comment from Professor Ramji-Nogales on a Canadian Federal court refugee rights case.[more] |
11/30/2007 David Kairys | Associated Press |
| A Philadelphia-area developer with ties to the gambling industry has asked the state Supreme Court to strike down Pennsylvania's ban on political campaign contributions by casino owners and executives a ban regarded as the broadest in the nation. "David Kairys, a constitutional law professor at Temple University, said state and federal courts have repeatedly recognized that a government's effort to prevent corruption is an allowable exception to the constitutional protection of campaign contributions."[more] |
11/28/2007 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | Radio Times -- Ramji-Nogales |
| How do we decide who gets deported? Since 1996, Congress made it easier to deport non-citizens if they commit crimes. While it's aimed at getting criminals and potential terrorists out of the country, it also results in the deportation of many families highly regarded in their communities. We'll debate whether the current policy of who stays and who goes is working. We'll hear from JAN TING, a former INS official and now Professor of Law at Temple University, and with JAYA RAMJI-NOGALES co-author of the recent report Roulette: Disparities in Asylum Adjudication, and an Assistant Professor of Law at Temple University.[more] |
11/28/2007 Jan Ting | Radio Times -- Ting |
| How do we decide who gets deported? Since 1996, Congress made it easier to deport non-citizens if they commit crimes. While it's aimed at getting criminals and potential terrorists out of the country, it also results in the deportation of many families highly regarded in their communities. We'll debate whether the current policy of who stays and who goes is working. We'll hear from JAN TING, a former INS official and now Professor of Law at Temple University, and with JAYA RAMJI-NOGALES co-author of the recent report Roulette: Disparities in Asylum Adjudication, and an Assistant Professor of Law at Temple University.[more] |
11/23/2007 | All Things Considered |
| Homeland Security fugitive/absconder teams pursue illegal immigrants nationwide. "The agency says it targets criminals and those who've ignored deportation orders. Rights groups complain that authorities are using unconstitutional tactics to sweep up many undocumented immigrants with no criminal record...Jan Ting of Temple University Law School asks this: What's the alternative when an agent encounters an unauthorized immigrant? 'If the answer is, well, you know, given them a break, let them all stay, then what you really have is open borders...All the government is trying to determine is where htis individual properly belongs.'"[more] |
11/20/2007 | Augusta Chronicle |
| Illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. by crossing the southern border are often released on their own recognizance. Many do not appear at their deportation hearings. "'The failure-to-appear rate at one Texas immigration court is 98 percent,' notes Temple University law profession Jan Ting."[more] |
11/14/2007 | WHYY-TV |
| Temple law professor Jan Ting discussed his role as an advisor to Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. Ting is advising the Giuliani campaign on immigration issues. |
11/13/2007 JoAnne Epps | Cherry Hill Courier-Post |
| "Amid claims of prosecutorial misconduct, the trial of state Sen. Wayne Bryant, D-Camden, and former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Dean R. Michael Gallagher has been postponed until spring...U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has until Feb. 22 to answer claims that he intimidated witnesses and otherwise hampered Bryant and Gallagher's defense...Given federal oversight of UMDNJ in the wake of Medicaid fraud and questions about Bryant's job at Rutgers, it's not surprising that the universities' lawyers would exercise caution, said JoAnne Epps, associate dean of Temple University's Beasley School of Law. 'You want one portal of information,' Epps said. 'You lose that if people are running around giving out information.' Contending that all defendants have the right to ask informed parties to assist in their defense, Epps said defense counsel could subpoena their own witnesses." |
11/13/2007 Edward Ohlbaum | Daily Pennsylvanian |
| "Montgomery County, Pa., prosecutors say the controversial testimony from two mental-health experts in the murder case of University of Pennsylvania Economics professor Rafael Robb should not be subjected to a hearing about its admissibility. But legal experts say a Frye hearing -- which is used to determine if novel scientific evidence is reliable enough to be permitted in court -- can apply to testimony from psychologists and psychiatrists...[E]ven without a Frey hearing, Temple University Law professor Edward Ohlbaum said testimony that depicts a killer's psychological profile is already on shaky legal ground. 'Profiling evidence in and of itself is inadmissible because it tends to tell the jury what to do,' he said."[more] |
11/8/2007 Marina Angel | Legal Intelligencer |
| In the November 6 election, women judges won several seats on Pennsylvania state courts. "Marina Angel, a professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law and chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Report Card Committee on women in the legal profession, argued that women are a growing majority of the electorate and that women's independent voting from men will increase the election of women candidates and political attention to issues that women find important, including equality, assistance to working women and adequate educational funding. While the number of women attorneys in the profession keeps increasing, the electoral political process is better than law firms at moving women into leadership roles, Angel said. 'At the firms there still is a great deal of bias against women, much of it unintentional, but it works to their detriment,' Angel said. 'When you're dealing with the public and an election process, I think we as a society have come to accept women in positions of responsibility. That's what you're seeing with these election results.'" |
10/30/2007 David Kairys | Allentown Morning Call |
| The Bethlehem, Pa., police commissioner wants to require 24-hour video surveillance cameras to be installed outside local businesses. "Videotaping is so commonplace in the community that there is no expectation of privacy when on a sidewalk or in public, said Temple University law professor David Kairys. The question to require businesses to run videos on private parking lots, he said, is more of a regulatory issue. An argument could be made that it is a safety concern and not too onerous for businesses; some businesses are required to install devices like sprinklers, an expensive safety measure," reports Nicole Radzievich.[more] |
10/28/2007 Barbara Ashcroft | Press of Atlantic City |
| "Barbara Ashcroft has joined Temple University Beasley School of Law as an associate professor and director of its LL.M. in Trial Advocacy program...With more than eight years of experience in prosecution, Ashcroft most recently served as assistant district attorney for the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office in Norristown, Pa., where she was captain of is sex crimes unit, prosecuting high-level cases involving sexual assaults of adults, teenagers and children." |
10/26/2007 David Post | Connecticut Law Tribune |
| The Supreme Court's opinion in the case Scott v. Harris was accompanied by a streaming video on the court's website. The ABA reports that as courts become open to such technology, it may change the strategies of communication. "The ABA story quoted David Post, a professor at Temple Law School in Philadelphia, as saying the video clip in Scott clearly opens the door for more innovation, which he believes would be useful in a 'surprising number of cases.' Post said slides, photographs, and audio and video clips could all be very helpful in understanding certain legal issues, although the justices will have to start considering what constitutes their judicious use. Potentially, as part of the decision-writing process, the justices will have to ask themselves whether nonwritten material should be included and why it is or isn't a good idea to put it on its web site, Post predicted." |
10/25/2007 Jan Ting | Wilmington News Journal |
| Temple University law professor Jan Ting has a role on New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani's campaign advisory board on immigration. "Ting said he's 'very satisfied with the mayor's position on immigration. He understands where the American people are, and they want to see our laws enforced and our borders secured, and it's embarrassing that they're not.'"[more] |
10/23/2007 Barbara Ashcroft | Legal Intelligencer |
| "Barbara Ashcroft has joined Temple University Beasley School of Law as an associate professor and director of its LL.M. in Trial Advocacy program. Ashcroft will teach trial advocacy courses, helping students hone their trial skills and strategy, while leading the law school's efforts to market the program and recruit students." |
10/22/2007 Robert J. Reinstein | Daily News, ABC6, WRTI |
| Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riots discussed their experiences during a symposium at Temple's Beasley School of Law. In less than a week, more than 1,000 homes and businesses were destroyed and at least 300 people were killed.[more] |
10/21/2007 Edward Ohlbaum | Allentown Morning Call |
| Questioning a rape vicitim's credibility at trial, while seemingly unsavory, is a widespread and sometimes effective strategy. "The he said-she said nature of date-rape cases invariably leads to the question of who's telling the truth, said Eddie Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple Law School. He boiled down such cases to their common core: Consent is the issue. Did she or didn't she agree to have sex? She says she didn't. He says she did. 'They both can't be telling the truth,' Ohlbaum said. 'The defense has an obligation to challenge the complaintant's credibility. Any lawyer who fails to do that would be professionally negligent.'"[more] |
10/19/2007 | Allentown Morning Call |
| The victim accusing a Penn State football player of rape was involved in a similar case four years ago at another school. "Eddie Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple Law School, said it is unlikely under Pennsylvania law that information from the earlier case would be allowed in court. The earlier not-guilty verdict should not be considered a commen on the woman's credibility, he said. However, he noted, the law does allow the judge to exercise discretion. 'To the extent that the factual situations are very similar, that might concern a judge,' he said."[more] |
10/19/2007 Scott Burris | Associated Press |
| San Francisco health officials took the first tentative steps Thursday toward opening the nation's first legal safe-injection room, where addicts could shoot up heroin, cocaine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses. At a forum to discuss the initiative, Temple University law professor Scott Burris said that a supervised injection room would seem to run afoul of federal drug possession laws and a state statute that makes it illegal to operate a crack house or any place where drugs are used, but only if the police and federal agents enforce them. "The law isn't a barrier," Burris said. "The issue of whether it's legal doesn't come up until somebody is arrested."[more] |
10/14/2007 Jan Ting | New York Times |
| Last week, immigration officials announced that they had made more than 1,300 arrests across the country over the summer when they went looking for gang members. Since the raids were carried out under immigration law, many protections in place under the American criminal codes did not apply. "Immigration law enforcement is all about getting you to where you belong, which is outside the United States," said Jan C. Ting, a law professor at Temple University who is a former assistant commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the precursor to ICE. He pointed out that immigration laws are civil codes, not criminal. "A lot of constitutional protections that one would normally expect in a criminal case do not necessarily apply," he said.[more] |
10/12/2007 | Chronicle of Higher Education |
| It is common for faculty to become advisors for presidential candidates, but does it raise a conflict? Jan C. Ting, a law professor at Temple University who is advising Rudy Giuliani's campaign on immigration policy, has strong personal views about the issue. Ting, who also ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Delaware last year, says he finds it reasonably easy to balance politics and academe: "At law schools, the expectation is that faculty members will have an impact on the system, either through their scholarly writings or by advising people in government."[more] |
10/8/2007 Duncan Hollis | Los Angeles Times |
| International law needs to be updated to govern the growing tide of cyberwarfare, according to an op-ed written by Duncan B. Hollis, an associate professor of law at Temple University. "We need new rules of international law so military commanders can operate with greater certainty in cyberspace, and can use new cybertools in ways that reduce the collateral costs of conflict."[more] |
10/7/2007 Marina Angel | Houston Chronicle |
| On September 28, the Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reprimanded U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent for sexual harassment of one court female employee and mistreatment of others. The harassment complaints against Kent are unprecedented in scope in the federal judiciary and among the most serious faced by any judge disciplined in recent years, according to Marina Angel, a Temple University law professor who authored a national study of sexual harassment among judges in 1991. Angel called the possibility that Kent would return to the bench "horrendous."[more] |
10/4/2007 David Kairys | CNN, "Anderson Cooper 360" |
| The shooting deaths of two armored truck guards have raised questions about gun licensing. David Kairys, a law professor at the Temple's Beasley School of Law, says it is too easy to obtain a gun.[more] |
10/2/2007 Eleanor Myers | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Delivering a blistering rebuke, a federal judge slammed some of the region's top law firms and lawyers, saying they deliberately dragged their feet in producing evidence in a class-action lawsuit. While judges sometimes order sanctions against attorneys in cases, it's rare and noteworthy when it happens, experts say. "It is sufficiently unusual that the cases become notorious throughout the litigation bar," said Eleanor Myers, an assistant professor of law who teaches ethics at Temple University's law school.[more] |
10/2/2007 Robert J. Reinstein | U-Wire -- Reinstein |
| Beasley School of Law dean Robert J. Reinstein announced he will leave his position to return to teaching. "'I've been very lucky to have such great relationships with the faculty and that's been one of the most rewarding things,' Reinstein said. 'I'm going to do the best job I can this year, but I am pretty anxious to go into what I think is the best job in the world as law professor.'" |
10/2/2007 David Sonenshein | U-Wire -- Sonenshein |
| Temple Law professor David Sonenshein commented on Beasley School of Law dean Robert J. Reinstein's legacy. "'Reinstein demonstrated outstanding leadership in building a faculty who balances excellence in both teaching and scholarship,' Sonenshein said. 'He has fostered an atmosphere of support, tolerance, diversity and openness both to a variety of points of view and a variety of teaching and scholarship approaches.'" Reinstein announced he will leave his position to return to teaching. |
10/1/2007 JoAnne Epps | ABA Journal |
| This summer the ABA Section of Litigation hosted a Darfur legal training for Sudanese lawyers preparing to try military criminals before tribunals and the International Criminal Court. After a cautions start the faculty and trainees found common ground as human rights advocates. "'At the end, there were hugs and tears, reflecting the gap we had crossed,' says JoAnne A. Epps, associate dean for academic affairs at Temple University's law school. 'It was one of the most wonderful things I've ever experienced.'"[more] |
10/1/2007 Jaya Ramji-Nogales | Atlantic Monthly |
| According to a recent study co-authored by Temple Law faculty member Jaya Ramji-Nogales, factors like ethnicity, geography and t
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