Verdict

In anticipation of the heads of state meeting tomorrow and Friday, Illinois Law professor Lesley Wexler discusses the immigration issues that threaten to break apart the European migration system. Wexler describes the nature of the issues facing the European Union and the various perspective different nations are bringing to the table.

Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf condemns the Supreme Court’s 5–4 decision upholding President Trump’s travel ban but describes a few silver linings that the ruling contains. Specifically, Dorf points out that the majority left open the possibility of future litigation challenging allegedly unlawful border policies, explicitly overruled its decision in Korematsu v. United States (which upheld the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II), denounced President Trump’s anti-Muslim statements, and served as a clear reminder that We The People can and should hold our elected official accountable for enacting or supporting abominable policies.

SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman gives a brief overview of the #MeToo movement and describes the great strides our society has made, yet also the challenges it still faces. Specifically, Grossman points out that it is now time for businesses and lawmakers to figure out how best to prevent sexual harassment while protecting women’s career opportunities.

Illinois Law professor Lesley Wexler explains why the open air burn pits as used in recent conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan are being called the “new Agent Orange.” Wexler describes the challenges combatants, their children, contractors, and civilians have had in obtaining care for long-term injuries as a result of the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and expresses concern that the same may occur for burn pits.

UNLV Boyd School of Law professor Leslie C. Griffin comments on the US Supreme Court’s 5–4 decision in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, in which the Court upheld the legality of Ohio’s voter list maintenance procedure. Griffin explains some of the key points made in each of the four opinions and shares a deeply personal story about how she came to understand how seemingly innocuous list-maintenance laws like the one in this case disproportionately affect minorities, low-income people, the disabled, the homeless, and veterans—just as Justice Sotomayor described in her separate dissent.

In light of US immigration policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the borders, Marci A. Hamilton, a Fox Distinguished Scholar in the Fox Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania, calls on the United States Senate to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Hamilton points out that the United States is the only country in the world not to ratify it, and that its failure to do so is entirely indefensible.

Cornell law professor Sherry F. Colb comments on the recent decision by the US Supreme Court in Byrd v. United States, in which the Court unanimously held that a lawful but contractually unauthorized driver of a rental car has a reasonable expectation of privacy against police searches of the car. Colb explains that the Court’s ruling is significant for more than its face value; it signals a rejection of property-linked formalism and bolsters the ability of the Fourth Amendment to keep certain types of police in check.

Illinois Law professor Lesley Wexler considers the significance of various countries’ responses to the rescue of 629 migrants on the Aquarius, a humanitarian rescue ship on the Mediterranean Sea. Wexler considers first whether the responses of Italy and Malta were lawful, and then turns to the question of what their conduct means for immigration policy, not only within the European Union, but worldwide.

In this second part series of columns about the legal duties of broker-dealers, Tamar Frankel, the Robert B. Kent Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law, considers the significance of specific words in the context of broker-dealers and their clients and discusses the legal consequences of using certain words over others. Specifically, Frankel clarifies that financial securities are not “products” and the servicers are not an “industry”; rather, brokers are agents providing services, and explains why broker-dealers should owe a fiduciary duty to their clients, who entrust their money—and sometimes their life’s savings—to them.

Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar and UC Davis Law emeritus professor Alan E. Brownstein discuss two doctrinal issues raised in the Supreme Court’s majority and concurring opinions in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Amar and Brownstein explain how Colorado could have reached the results it reached without disfavoring religion or religious liberty/equality at all, and they point out that the Court’s focus on the motives of the commissioners is unusual given the Court’s prior decisions on the role of invidious motives.

GW Law professor and economist Neil H. Buchanan explains why Social Security is so important, and why Republicans’ claim that it is “going to go broke” is so dishonest. Buchanan briefly describes how Social Security was designed and why, because of that design, it is performing exactly as expected and intended when it was set up.

Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf argues that the form of originalism typically espoused by scholars—in which constitutional interpretation aims to recover the original public meaning of the text—often ends up being abused in practice. Judges and justices borrow the respectability of public meaning originalism to justify a generally discredited form of originalism that seeks answers in the framers’ and ratifiers’ intentions and expectations. To illustrate this point, Dorf points to Justice Gorsuch’s recent dissent in Sveen v. Melin, which looks not to the text of the Contracts Clause but to what Justice Gorsuch inferred the framers and ratifiers intended and expected.

Marci A. Hamilton, a Fox Distinguished Scholar in the Fox Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania, decries the policy of the Trump administration of separating children from their parents at US borders. Hamilton explains the trauma such a policy causes and calls upon individuals and organizations to shine a spotlight on its deeply negative consequences.

Cornell University law professor Joseph Margulies relates the story of one young man whose early life experiences and mistakes landed him in prison but who, after excelling in the Cornell Prison Education Program—a program in which Cornell professors teach university classes to prisoners—was released on parole after his first parole hearing and now attends Cornell University as a student. Margulies explains that this young man—Darnell Epps—may be exceptional, but he is not unique in being a person incarcerated at an early age who can redeem himself and contribute great things to our society.

Marci A. Hamilton— one of the country’s leading church-state scholars and the Fox Professor of Practice and Fox Family Pavilion Resident Senior Fellow in the Program for Research on Religion in the Fox Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania—comments on the recent decision by the US Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Hamilton explains the scope and limitations of the Court’s decision and notes the significance of its narrow holding in that case.

Cornell University law professor Sherry F. Colb comments on the outcome of a recent vote in Ireland repealing that country’s ban on nearly all abortions and explains why empathy for opposing perspectives is important on abortion and other issues, such as animal rights. An ethical vegan, Colb shares her own experience of learning to be empathic when people make untenable arguments in favor of violence toward nonhuman animals.

SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman comments on the New Jersey legislature’s recent passage of a bill to legalize gestation surrogacy. Grossman describes the long battle over surrogacy in that state, from the nationally influential decision by its supreme court, In the Matter of Baby M, to two surrogacy bills passed by the legislature but vetoed by then-Governor Chris Christie, to the present bill signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy.

Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar comments on the lawsuit filed by the Trump administration against California over its so-called sanctuary policies. Amar explains why the federal government is likely to prevail on one claim, to lose on another claim, and to lose in part on the third claim. Amar laments that both sides seem to assert extreme positions that are not entirely tenable.

Illinois law professor Lesley Wexler comments on the ongoing national strikes by truckers and oil workers in Brazil in protest of the recent steep increase in diesel prices due to international market-based pricing. Wexler expresses specific concerns over calls for a return to a military dictatorship to replace the democracy, despite the prior military government’s corruption and engagement in serious human rights violations including torture, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings.

Cornell University law professor Michael C. Dorf comments on the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Upper Skagit Indian Tribe v. Lundgren, but more specifically the implications of Chief Justice Roberts’s concurrence in that case. Dorf argues that the Chief Justice’s concurrence, taken to its logical conclusion, broadly undermines the basis for much of the Court’s case law involving the sovereign immunity of US states.