Faculty News
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Law360 Quotes Prof. Cotter on Upcoming FTC v. Qualcomm Oral Argument
February 12, 2020On February 13, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear oral argument in Qualcomm’s appeal from a district court ruling last year finding Qualcomm’s patent licensing practices to violate federal antitrust law. A February 11 Law360 article, titled “FTC Goes Toe-To-Toe-To-Toe With Qualcomm, DOJ,” highlights the upcoming argument and quotes Professor Tom Cotter as stating that, if the panel disagrees with the lower court’s finding that Qualcomm had an antitrust duty to deal, it will have to decide if that portion of the ruling “can be separated from the rest of Judge Koh’s opinion or if it dooms her findings in their entirety.”
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Prof. Smith Quoted in Tax Notes Today on Tax Court Use of Designated Orders
February 11, 2020Professor Smith was quoted in a Tax Notes Today article (subscription required) about the use of “designated orders” issued by the United States Tax Court. Professor Smith detailed lessons that practitioners can learn from reading the Tax Court’s designated orders, and how they frequently identify emerging issues in tax practice before precedential decisions come forth. The quote came from a presentation at an ABA Tax Section meeting, where Prof. Smith was a panelist alongside Deputy Associate Chief Counsel for the IRS, United States Tax Court Special Trial Judge Diana Leyden, and clinical professors from Notre Dame and Harvard.
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Prof. McGeveran Speaks to Privacy Leaders in Brussels
February 11, 2020Professor William McGeveran, an expert in privacy and data protection law, appeared at the international Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference in Brussels on a panel alongside Helen Dixon, the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland; Julie Brill, the chief privacy officer of Microsoft and a former member of the Federal Trade Commission; Bruno Gencarelli, head of the international data flows and protection unit at the European Commission; and Professors Woodrow Hartzog of Northeastern University and Neil Richards of Washington University. Professor McGeveran discussed the influence of European law on proposals for new privacy regulation in the United States for an audience of regulators, scholars, and privacy professionals.
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Prof. Kitrosser Quoted by USA Today, Associated Press on Pelosi Speech-Shredding
February 10, 2020Professor Kitrosser is quoted in an article in USA Today on GOP claims that Nancy Pelosi broke the law by tearing up her copy of President Trump’s State of the Union address. Kitrosser called the claim “crazy,” and elaborated that the laws cited by Trump and others were “designed to prevent the president and his advisers from shielding documentary information from public view,” and do not apply to “printouts or widely circulated documents“ like copies of the State of the Union.
Professor Kitrosser is quoted to similar effect by the Associated Press. In the Associated Press story, she also notes that acts of expressive disagreement with Trump’s speech are protected by the First Amendment “and in Pelosi’s case, under the speech and debate clause of the Constitution.”
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Prof. Klass Quoted in Star Tribune Discussing Recent Environmental Law Court Decisions in Minnesota
February 10, 2020Professor Klass was quoted in a Star Tribune article discussing recent decisions by the Minnesota courts invalidating state agency permits for controversial copper-nickel mining and feedlot projects for failure to follow environmental protection laws.
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Prof. Hill Co-Hosts Regulating Bank Culture Conference at UCD Sutherland School of Law
February 6, 2020Professor Claire Hill and UCD Sutherland School of Law Professor Joe McGrath—who’s also a Visiting Professor at the Law School—co-hosted a conference on “Regulating Bank Culture” at UCD on February 6, 2020. The conference featured panels of regulators, bank CEOs, and legal and other academics. The participants discussed the causes of bad banking cultures and how to change such cultures for the better. In addition, Professor McGrath authored an article published in the Irish Independent on the topic, delineating the changes still needed to tackle banks’ bad managament cultures.
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Prof. Moriearty Testifies at Minnesota House Hearing on Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System
February 5, 2020On January 29, 2020, Professor Perry Moriearty testified at a Joint Informational Hearing of the Minnesota House of Representatives Judiciary and Public Safety Committees entitled, “Race and the Law: How We Can Improve Equity in the Criminal Justice System.” Her testimony focused on racial disparities at the pretrial stage of the criminal justice process. In addition to Professor Moriearty, presenters included Artika Roller of MNCASA; Dr. Tracie Keesee of the Center for Policing Equity; Judge Tanya Bransford of the Hennepin County District Court; and Robert Stewart of the Minnesota Justice Research Center. The hearing took place at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
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Prof. Kitrosser Quoted in PolitiFact
February 5, 2020Professor Kitrosser is among the experts quoted in a PolitiFact column evaluating Charlie Kirk’s claim that Nancy Pelosi broke the law by ripping up her copy of the State of the Union address. Kitrosser explained, “I take it that this is a printout of the Trump speech, in which case it is absurd to suggest that Pelosi can be prosecuted for doing with it whatever she pleases.”
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Client of the Law School’s Clemency Project—Headed by Prof. Murray—Profiled in the Washington Post
February 3, 2020The Washington Post published a lengthy piece profiling several federal inmates awaiting decisions on their clemency petitions to President Trump. One of those is Mary Anne Locke, whose clemency petition before President Trump was filed by the Law School’s Clemency Project, headed by Professor JaneAnne Murray. Locke is serving a 20-year sentence for her low-level, non-violent role in a methamphetamine distribution scheme. The article notes that her long sentence stunned her family because she had cooperated with law enforcement.
“I’m extremely happy for each and every person that gets any kind of relief, but I wish there were more opportunities for those of us without those connections,” Locke, who is 41, said in a telephone interview with the Post. “If a connection is what it takes, then I pray for the right person to come along for me.”
The Post also interviewed Ms. Locke’s father, John Owen, who had written an open letter in the Des Moines Register in July 2018 to Trump, describing his daughter’s struggle to overcome her drug addiction. “I’m frustrated that the entire system is so slow moving,” said Owen.
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Fifth Circuit Cites Prof. Cotter’s Article on Statutory Damages in Copyright
February 3, 2020In a January 15, 2020 opinion, Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. v. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit cited Professor Thomas Cotter’s article (co-authored with Roger Blair), An Economic Analysis of Damages Rules in Intellectual Property Law, 39 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1585, 1653–72 (1998), in a footnote directing the reader to “further discussion and scholarly criticism of the statutory damages provisions of the 1976” Copyright Act.