Analysis and Commentary Posted in 2015-07
The Prospects for Presidential Election Reform as the 2016 Campaign Season Gets Underway
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Law professor and dean designate of the University of Illinois College of Law Vikram David Amar provides an update on the so-called National Popular Vote (NPV) interstate compact plan in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Arizona Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.

Blaming the Victims in Greece: Part Two of a Two-Part Series of Columns
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In this second of a two-part series of columns, George Washington law professor and economist Neil Buchanan explains how the German-led policy regime is likely to hurt not just Greece’s people but also people elsewhere in the world. Buchanan also describes how the arguments from German policymakers amounts to blaming the victims of the very policies they imposed upon the Greeks.

Were Planned Parenthood Officials Defamed by Misleading Videos?
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Cornell University law professor Michael Dorf considers to what extent defamation law provides a remedy for people who appear in deliberately misleading audiovisual recordings, as in the recently released videos ostensibly showing senior officials of Planned Parenthood stating prices for selling fetal body parts.

Who Is to Blame for the Greek Crisis, the Greeks or Europe’s Leaders? Part One of a Two-Part Series of Columns
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In this first of a two-part series of columns, George Washington law professor and economist Neil Buchanan explains why the situation in Greece is economically simple but politically nasty.

Based on Sex: The EEOC Rules That Sexual Orientation Discrimination Is Sex Discrimination
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Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman comments on a recent ruling by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that sexual orientation discrimination constitutes sex discrimination for the purposes of Title VII.

The Celgard Decision and Lawyer Disqualification
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Chapman University law professor Ronald Rotunda discusses a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit with respect to the disqualification of a lawyer from representing a client due to a conflict of interest. Rotunda cautions that the decision, if read broadly, could signal major risks for patent firms, but he argues that the decision need not be read so broadly.

Some Brief Thoughts About How Much Conservatives Lost in the Recently Concluded Supreme Court Term
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Law professor and dean designate of the University of Illinois College of Law Vikram David Amar offers a few thoughts about how much conservatives lost in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014–15 term.

Delayed Trials for Fairer Outcomes?
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Cornell University law professor Sherry Colb discusses a proposal by Adam Benforado, author of Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Justice, that one way to improve the criminal justice system would be to conduct and record trials outside of the jury’s presence, then to show edited versions of the recordings to juries after all of the evidence has been presented. Colb explains how this proposal could potentially improve the system and addresses some potential obstacles to its implementation.

The Story Behind the Cosby Story: Sexual Assault and Secrets
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Cardozo law professor Marci Hamilton comments on the latest revelations about Bill Cosby arising out of a deposition from a civil lawsuit from ten years ago. Hamilton explains why there are so many secrets about sexual assault, including short statutes of limitations and sealed admissions in civil cases, and calls for greater transparency and publicity.

What the Supreme Court’s Arizona Redistricting Ruling Means for Presidential (Not Just Congressional) Election Reform
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UC Davis law professor Vikram David Amar comments on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision holding that “legislature”—as used in the Elections Clause of Article I, Section 4, of the Constitution—includes within its definition the people of a state undertaking direct democracy.

Is Three Still a Crowd? Polygamy and the Law After Obergefell v. Hodges
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Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman and Stanford University law professor Lawrence Friedman comment on a recent legal challenge—based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision in Obergefell v. Hodges—to state anti-polygamy laws.

What City of Los Angeles v. Patel Might Tell Us About Abortion
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Cornell University law professor Sherry Colb discusses the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in City of Los Angeles v. Patel, in which the Court held facially unconstitutional a statute requiring hotel operators to record, keep, and disclose upon demand by law enforcement certain information about their guests. Colb argues that the Court’s reliance on Planned Parenthood v. Casey to find the statute unconstitutional reinforces the link between substantive and procedural privacy.

Meet our Columnists
Vikram David Amar

Vikram David Amar is a Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law and a Professor of Law and Former Dean at the University of Illinois College of Law on the Urbana-Champaign campus.... more

Neil H. Buchanan

Neil H. Buchanan, an economist and legal scholar, is a visiting professor at both Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Toronto Law school. He also holds the James J. Freeland Eminent... more

John Dean

John Dean served as Counsel to the President of the United States from July 1970 to April 1973. Before becoming White House counsel at age thirty-one, he was the chief minority counsel to the... more

Michael C. Dorf

Michael C. Dorf is the Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell University Law School. He has written hundreds of popular essays, dozens of scholarly articles, and six books on constitutional... more

Samuel Estreicher

Samuel Estreicher is the Dwight D. Opperman Professor, Director, Center for Labor and Employment Law and Co-Director, Institute of Judicial Administration, NYU School of Law.

Leslie C. Griffin

Dr. Leslie C. Griffin is the William S. Boyd Professor of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Boyd School of Law. Prof. Griffin, who teaches constitutional law and bioethics, is known for... more

Joanna L. Grossman

Joanna L. Grossman is the Ellen K. Solender Endowed Chair in Women and Law at SMU Dedman School of Law and is currently serving as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School. ... more

Marci A. Hamilton

Professor Marci A. Hamilton is a Professor of Practice in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the founder, CEO, and Academic Director of CHILD USA, a 501(c)(3)... more

Joseph Margulies

Mr. Margulies is a Professor of Government at Cornell University. He was Counsel of Record in Rasul v. Bush (2004), involving detentions at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station, and in Geren v. Omar... more

Austin Sarat

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College.Professor Sarat founded both Amherst College’s Department of Law,... more

Laurence H. Tribe

Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School, where he has taught since 1968. Born in... more

Lesley Wexler

Lesley Wexler is a Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Immediately prior to taking the position at Illinois, Wexler was a Professor of Law at Florida State University,... more