Faculty News
for February, 2012
February 13, 2012
Professor Dale Carpenter wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, entitled "Prop. 8 Simply Can't Justify Itself." Carpenter states, "What potentially dooms Proposition 8 as it nears the Supreme Court is not necessarily the distinct whiff of prejudice but a lingering impression of incoherence."
Read Dale Carpenter's Faculty Profile
February 10, 2012
Professor Prentiss Cox was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article concerning the settlement between five major banks and various state attorneys general along with federal authorities. Cox stated that the settlement was a positive because it returned substantial money to the public rather than requiring taxpayer-funded incentives; but, he criticized the purported $25 billion in credits to homeowners, because those credits would be controlled by the mortgage lenders, which is the same problem that has plagued prior government loan modification efforts. Cox was also quoted in the Daily Beast regarding the settlement.
Read Prentiss Cox's Faculty Profile
February 10, 2012
Professor Richard Painter was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article on the settlement of a SEC case against two Bear Sterns hedge-fund managers who had previously been criminally charged and acquitted for securities fraud in the 2008 mortgage securities debacle. Painter observed that the failure of a criminal case should not preclude SEC enforcement and that "civil enforcement action can be an important tool to get money back for investors and bar people from the industry, in cases where the alleged fraud falls short of criminal misconduct."
Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile
February 10, 2012
February 9, 2012
Professor Richard Painter was quoted in a Star Tribune article on Congress's passage of the Stop Insider Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which bans insider trading on government information by Members of Congress and their staff. The article discusses Painter's role trying to prevent hedge funds and others from gaining confidential information when he was the chief White House ethics lawyer under President Bush. Painter observed that the STOCK Act, while helpful, does not do enough to prevent leaks of confidential government information to persons who will trade on it.
Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile
February 9, 2012
Professor Richard Painter was interviewed for a Minnesota Public Radio story on the Stop Insider Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act which has passed the U.S. Senate and will be voted on by the House this week. Painter was supportive of the Act but critical of a provision that would require registration of firms that seek to acquire nonpublic information from government officials. This provision, he said, raises civil liberties concerns and does not address the problem of leaks by government officials. "This particular provision is a feel-good measure, it will help for Election Day, perhaps, and make government look more ethical," Painter said. "But if we really want to solve the problem, we are going to have to regulate the selective disclosure by government officials of nonpublic information."
Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile
February 7, 2012
Professor Dale Carpenter was quoted in a Los Angeles Times story about whether or not the U.S. Supreme Court would hear the appeal of Proposition 8. The article stated that the narrow California-only approach put forth by the 9th Circuit means that the Supreme Court might shy away from the dispute. If so, a national ruling on same-sex marriage maybe several years into the future. Carpenter said, "The opinion holds that Prop. 8 was unconstitutional only in a case where the state had already granted full legal rights to same-sex couples."
Read Dale Carpenter's Faculty Profile
February 5, 2012
Professor Jane Kirtley was quoted in a Pioneer Press article about "Busted," a weekly tabloid that routinely publishes mug shots from several county jails in the Twin Cities metro area.
Kirtley cautioned that "wholesale publication" of these photos poses a risk to continued public access to them as legislators become concerned about privacy issues. "I would never want anyone to say these are not public records," she said.
Read Jane Kirtley's Faculty Profile
February 3, 2012
Professor Michele Goodwin is the featured closing plenary speaker at the international conference, "Intersecting Family Lives, Locales, and Labours," in London. Goodwin will present a talk building from her forthcoming book, Policing The Womb, which examines how the regulation of women's reproduction has shifted from an exclusive focus on abortion, to now encompass women's behavior and conduct, during pregnancy. Goodwin's research exposes how this type of attention to women's reproduction primarily focuses on the poor and she draws a contrast between maternal conduct laws that investigate poor women's conduct versus that of wealthier women who utilize assisted reproductive technologies.
Read Michele Goodwin's Faculty Profile
February 3, 2012
Professor Richard Painter was quoted in an article in the New York Times reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission is avoiding tough sanctions for large banks in securities fraud cases. Many of the cases involve banks that allegedly misled investors in securities they underwrote for clients, and the banks were allowed to escape SEC restrictions ordinarily imposed on issuers that enter into consent decrees in fraud cases. Painter told the New York Times that he did not agree with the argument that a bank accused of misleading investors in a securities transaction for a client is not also likely to mislead investors about its own securities.
Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile
February 3, 2012
Professor Bernard Levinson will present his paper, "The King James Bible: Scripture, Statecraft, and the American Founding," at the Manifold Greatness Colloquium on Feb. 3. The colloquium is part of a series celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible with a special exhibits and events. Reception with music to follow.
Read Bernard M. Levinson's Faculty Profile
February 2, 2012
A study co-authored by Professor Prentiss Cox and Professor Amy Widman of Northern Illinois University was discussed in a testimony before the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. The study, recently published in the Cardozo Law Review, evaluated the use by state attorneys general of concurrent enforcement authority over federal consumer protection laws. The study concluded that such use was relatively modest and cooperative with federal agencies. Widman testified before the committee about the study, and others testifying before the committee also referred to the study.
Read Prentiss Cox's Faculty Profile
February 1, 2012
Professor Michele Goodwin, an expert on health care law and international human rights, was quoted in the Star Tribune about the recent murder of a 22-year-old mother from Afghanistan. Goodwin noted that the punishment of women for failing to birth boys is not uncommon, nor are feticide and infanticide of girls unusual in communities that value males above females. She commented that in Afghanistan, as well as other parts of the world, girls are considered an economic burden. Parents do not see the value in educating girls. Such perceptions are reinforced by social traditions and stigmas, but the problem is cyclical as well, as uneducated girls are unlikely to achieve meaningful employment, and those without meaningful employment are unable to establish independence and care for themselves and others.
Read Michele Goodwin's Faculty Profile
