Faculty News
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Prof. Ní Aoláin Speaks at Several International Events on Global Security and Peace, Counterterrorism, and Humanitarian Action
November 19, 2020Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin—U.N. Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism—has recently been a featured speaker at and participated in several events, forums, and panels on various topics related to global security and peace, counterterrorism, and humanitarian action.
On November 13, Ní Aoláin chaired a panel at the Paris Peace Forum on exploring cooperative solutions to global challenges such as climate change, terrorism, migration, and cybersecurity. The panel included Patrick Gaspard (president of Open Society Foundations), Claudia Lopez (mayor of Bogota), and Sirian Charoensiri (Thai Lawyer and Human Rights Activist).
On November 17, Ní Aoláin presented as a panelist examining the role of women in national security at the Global Security Forum—an annual international gathering on global security challenges—with Kimberly Dozier (TIME contributor and CNN global affairs analyst) and Rebecca Weiner (assistant commissioner of the NYPD Intelligence Bureau).
Today, Ní Aoláin was a featured speaker at “Rebalancing Counterterrorism Policy and Humanitarian Action,” a virtual event hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Ní Aoláin presented on the balance between counterterrorism efforts and humanitarian action. She also presented her latest findings within her 2020 report to the U.N. General Assembly.
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Prof. Turoski’s Legal Treatise Guides Practitioners at the Intersection of Business and Intellectual Property Law
November 1, 2020Professor Christopher Turoski’s legal treatise, Assets & Finance: Intellectual Property in Mergers and Acquisitions, was published this week by Thomson Reuters. Along with chronicling recent legal developments, this desk reference offers examples and practice tips to guide the practitioner in drafting documents and working through intellectual property issues in business. Prof. Turoski is the Director of Patent Law Programs at the University of Minnesota Law School.
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Prof. Shen’s Research on Inequality in Wartime Casualties Cited in New York Times
October 27, 2020Professor Francis Shen’s research on the relationship between wartime casualties and the 2016 election was cited in a New York Times article exploring President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. The article noted that Shen’s research, conducted with Cornell political scientist Douglas Kriner, “concluded that if three states narrowly carried by Mr. Trump—Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin—‘had suffered even a modestly lower casualty rate, all three could have flipped from red to blue and sent Hillary Clinton to the White House.’”
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Prof. Orfield Quoted in The New Yorker About his Upcoming Book
October 25, 2020Professor Myron Orfield, the director of the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School, is writing a book about the Fair Housing Act in the nineteen-sixties. “Civil disorder in 1968 helped Richard Nixon a lot, especially when there was violence,” Orfield said, “but it feels like the polling is different now. A lot of white people see this differently than they did in the sixties.” His data suggest that people now are much more ambivalent, more likely to see both sides, and, although they might be fearful of violence, they may also agree with black grievances and believe in a need for reform. “I don’t think the violence ever helps, I think it hurts the Democrats,” Orfield said. “In those really white suburbs of Milwaukee, I wouldn’t be surprised if people are scared,” he noted, “but I think they’re already kind of built into Trump’s base.”
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Prof. Hickman Quoted by Bloomberg About Challenges to Old Tax Regulations
October 22, 2020Professor Kristin Hickman was quoted in an Oct. 20 Bloomberg article, “Easement Deal Appeal Offers Early Test for Old Treasury Rules,” discussing the susceptibility of some longstanding Treasury Department regulations interpreting the Internal Revenue Code for noncompliance with Administrative Procedure Act procedural requirements. Prof. Hickman expressed sympathy for “court wariness to overturn longstanding regulations that predate today’s understandings of administrative law requirements.” She also noted, however, that the Treasury Department was made aware of its exposure prior to a key Supreme Court decision in 2011. For that reason, Prof. Hickman suggested that perhaps courts should not “give Treasury a blanket pass prior to 2011 just because the Supreme Court hadn’t put its foot down yet that tax isn’t exceptional.”
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Prof. Frase Is Quoted in The New York Times Regarding the Dismissal of Third-Degree Murder Charges in George Floyd Killing
October 22, 2020Professor Richard Frase is quoted in The New York Times in an article regarding a judge’s dismissal of the third-degree murder charge against Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd. A more serious second-degree murder charge was upheld, as well as a second-degree manslaughter charge. Frase stated that, “in order to hold Chauvin liable for second-degree felony murder, the prosecution has to prove that death occurred in the course of committing a felony assault.” He went on to explain, “All we have to show is [Chauvin] intended some bodily harm, it escalated into substantial bodily harm and that’s felony assault. And then the victim died, so it’s felony murder.”
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Prof. Vaaler Quoted in New York Times Profile of Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google’s Defense Against Antitrust Claims by the U.S. DOJ
October 21, 2020In a New York Times profile piece of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Professor Paul Vaaler is quoted on how Pichai should conduct himself in formal court proceedings and in the media to bolster Google’s defense against antitrust monopolization claims made by the U.S. Justice Department and 11 state attorneys general.
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Prof. Kitrosser Writes in The Atlantic About President Trump’s Use of Non-Disclosure Agreements
October 16, 2020Professor Heidi Kitrosser has published an article in The Atlantic discussing the First Amendment problems posed by the Trump family’s reliance on non-disclosure agreements to silence White House staffers. She focuses in particular on a new lawsuit brought by the Justice Department to enforce an agreement signed by a former unpaid assistant to the First Lady. The Trumps, Kitrosser explains, “simply cannot have it both ways. They cannot serve as America’ss first family, with all the fame, power, and resources that entails, and still control their image with the domineering tactics that they employed as private citizens.”
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Prof. Kitrosser Quoted in New York Times About DOJ’s Lawsuit Over Melania Trump Book
October 14, 2020Professor Heidi Kitrosser is quoted in a New York Times article about a new lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice against ex-Melania Trump aide Stephanie Wolcott. The Department alleges that Wolcott violated an agreement not to publish anything about her time in the White House without first receiving written approval. As the Times reported, courts have never upheld “pre-publication review” agreements with government employees outside of the national security context. More so, as Kitrosser explains in the article, some of the Justice Department’s arguments—such as their argument that the First Lady requires absolute secrecy to ensure candor from her advisors—echo points “traditionally made about keeping secrets between the presidents and his advisers, not first ladies. … Even in the presidential context, courts have found that the president does not have an unlimited right to keep secrets.”
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Prof. Hickman Quoted In MarketWatch About SCOTUS and The Chevron Doctrine
October 12, 2020Professor Kristin Hickman was quoted in a MarketWatch article about the ramifications for regulatory litigation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the United States Supreme Court. As an expert on the Chevron doctrine, which counsels judicial deference to government agency interpretations of statutes, Prof. Hickman was quoted as recognizing that “gridlock in Congress has exacerbated the Chevron doctrine’s significance” and also that at least four Justices of the Supreme Court had signaled a willingness to reconsider judicial deference to agencies.