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Rodger Citron
Rodger Citron

Rodger D. Citron is the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship and Professor of Law at Touro University, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. From 2014 until mid-2018, he served as the Academic Dean at Touro Law. Professor Citron is a graduate of Yale College, Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude, and Yale Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, Professor Citron clerked for the Hon. Thomas N. O'Neill, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Before becoming a law professor, he worked as a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice; a director at FindLaw, Inc.; and an attorney-advisor at the Federal Communications Commission. Professor Citron's articles have been published in a number of law reviews and also on Slate and SCOTUSblog and in The National Law Journal and The Hartford Courant.

Columns by Rodger Citron
Permalink to Seven Ways of Looking at Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum and the Supreme Court Under Chief Justice John RobertsSeven Ways of Looking at Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum and the Supreme Court Under Chief Justice John Roberts
Seven Ways of Looking at Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum and the Supreme Court Under Chief Justice John Roberts

Justia guest columnist and Touro Law Center professor Rodger Citron analyzes the Supreme Court's decision in the Kiobel case, which concerned the scope of the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”), a federal statute relied upon by lawyers asserting claims of human rights violations. In particular, Citron focuses on how Kiobel fully illustrates the judicial philosophy of Chief Justice Roberts. In addition, he offers seven different ways of looking at the decision.

Permalink to The Supreme Court Takes on A Case Regarding “Arising Under” Jurisdiction: A Prediction as to How the Court Will Resolve Gunn v. MintonThe Supreme Court Takes on A Case Regarding “Arising Under” Jurisdiction: A Prediction as to How the Court Will Resolve Gunn v. Minton
The Supreme Court Takes on A Case Regarding “Arising Under” Jurisdiction: A Prediction as to How the Court Will Resolve Gunn v. Minton

Rodger Citron, a professor of Law at Touro Law Center in Central Islip, New York, comments on an upcoming Supreme Court case regarding “arising under” jurisdiction, a phrase that the Constitution and a number of federal statutes employ to authorize a party to assert a claim based upon federal law in federal court—and also, in limited circumstances, when a claim is based upon state law but cannot be decided without determining an issue of federal law. Citron discusses not only the concept of “arising under” jurisdiction, but also the Court's recent oral argument involving that concept.

Permalink to Down the Rabbit Hole: A Review of Errol Morris’s A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonaldDown the Rabbit Hole: A Review of Errol Morris’s A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald
Down the Rabbit Hole: A Review of Errol Morris’s A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald

Justia guest columnist and law professor at Touro Law Center in Central Islip, New York, Rodger Citron reviews Errol Morris’s book on one of the most infamous murders in American history, in which Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted of the 1970 killing of his wife and two daughters. MacDonald, however, has consistently maintained that not he, but four intruders, committed the murders, and has pointed to the stab wound he incurred, which punctured his lung, as evidence of his claim. MacDonald is still in prison, but should he be? Citron considers the evidence.

Permalink to Another Fine Mess: An Assessment of the Most Recent Supreme Court Oral Argument in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch PetroleumAnother Fine Mess: An Assessment of the Most Recent Supreme Court Oral Argument in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum
Another Fine Mess: An Assessment of the Most Recent Supreme Court Oral Argument in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum

Justia guest columnist and Touro Law Center professor Rodger Citron comments on the recent Supreme Court argument in an important case centering on the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). As Citron explains, the ATS, enacted by the first Congress in 1789, authorizes federal courts to hear “any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the laws of nations or a treaty of the United States.” But can the ATS be applied to conduct based outside the U.S.? As Citron explains, that is the issue that the conservative Justices brought up at oral argument. Citron predicts, however, that in the end the Court will not limit the ATS’s reach to conduct that occurs within the United States, but that the Court will affirm the lower court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ case.

Permalink to A Review of Snigda Prakash’s All the Justice Money Can Buy, a Book on the Vioxx Tort LitigationA Review of Snigda Prakash’s All the Justice Money Can Buy, a Book on the Vioxx Tort Litigation
A Review of Snigda Prakash’s All the Justice Money Can Buy, a Book on the Vioxx Tort Litigation

Justia guest columnist and Touro law professor Rodger Citron comments on former NPR reporter Snigda Prakash’s recent book on the Vioxx litigation and, especially, the Vioxx trial. The litigation, as Citron explains, followed manufacturer Merck’s withdrawal of Vioxx from the market in the face of evidence that those who took the drug faced an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. Citron praises Prakash for making good use of her access to the plaintiffs’ legal team, and offering a vivid, compelling portrait of the trial, but notes that when she admittedly takes sides—beginning to root for the plaintiffs—her journalistic objectivity predictably suffers to some extent. In addition, Citron notes that he would have liked to hear more, in Prakash’s book, about the comprehensive settlement that will be the Vioxx dispute’s lasting legacy.

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