Law Commons^™

Transition Administration, Michael Herz, Katherine A. Shaw

Articles

The period from November 3, 2020 to January 20, 2021, was unlike any presidential transition in our history. President Donald Trump refused to accept his ballot-box defeat, instead battling to overturn the election’s outcome. This dramatic public campaign was waged in state and federal courts, state legislatures, the offices of state and local election officials, the Department of Justice, and finally the halls of Congress, where on January 6, 2021, a mob incited by the President stormed the Capitol with the explicit goal of preventing the final counting of electoral votes for Joe Biden. These efforts had more mundane and …

Innocence Project, Innocence Project

Flyers 2021-2022

No abstract provided.

Amici Curiae Observations On Sexual- And Gender-Based Crimes, Particularly Sexual Slavery, And On Cumulative Convictions Pursuant To Rule 103 Of The Rules Of Procedure And Evidence, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Amicus Briefs

Sexual slavery is not a “form” of enslavement; rather, all acts of a sexual nature, including control over sexuality, sexual integrity and sexual and reproductive autonomy, constitute indicia of the exercise of powers of ownership of enslavement in all its forms. Consequently, enslavement as a crime against humanity is not “in the abstract entirely encompassed within sexual slavery.” To avoid entering cumulative convictions for separately enumerated crimes that do not each have a distinct element from the other, and to avoid a continuation of a discriminatory application of the law, amici suggest that, in the interests of justice, the …

Mass Comments’ Opportunity Costs, Michael Herz

Online Publications

Agencies, courts, and academics agree that notice-and-comment rulemaking is not a referendum. But that conceptualization presents a challenge when an agency is confronted with mass comments. If agencies are not counting but reading comments, and if mass comments are duplicative and often devoid of content beyond a strong expression of values or preference, then what do they add?

Cardozo Law News Brief: December 16, 2021, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Brief 2021

Featured Faculty:

• Jessica Roth
• Kathryn Miller
• Deborah Pearlstein

Campus News:

• Cocktails & Conversation Event Raises Funds for Scholarships

“Pandemic Brain,” Burnout, And 2022, Olivia R. Smith Schlinck

Library Staff Online Publications

In my first post, I wrote about the big feelings our students might be grappling with and how to approach the semester carefully, with kindness and grace. Lately I’ve been asking myself: how do we do the same for ourselves? Something about this moment – this month, this semester, this year, you pick – feels. . . off. People are stressed, depressed, or entirely burnt out. People are quitting their jobs at higher-than-average rates and having trouble focusing on their work, feeling overwhelmed and distracted. It’s almost 2022 and people are still struggling with processing 2020.

Cardozo Law News Brief: December 9, 2021, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Brief 2021

Featured Faculty:

• Jessica Roth
• Kate Shaw
• Alexander A. Reinert
• Kate Levine
• Deborah Pearlstein
• Michel Rosenfeld
• Edward Zelinsky

Campus News:

• Punishment Without Trial: Burns Center Hosts Virtual Book Talk on the Implications of Plea Bargaining

Cardozo Law News Brief: December 2, 2021, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Brief 2021

Featured Faculty:

• Myriam Gilles
• Pamela Foohey
• Jessica Roth
• Ekow N. Yankah
• Kate Shaw
• Gabor Rona
• Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum
• Ngozi Okidegbe
• Deborah Pearlstein
• Alexander A. Reinert
• Edward Zelinsky

Campus News:

• Innocence Project Wins Historic Victory, Overturning Conviction of Two Men in Malcolm X Killing

Events:

• Follow the Law, Break the Mold: An Interview with Sarah Feingold, Etsy’s First General Counsel

December 2021 Events, Cardozo Fame Center

Event Invitations 2021

Featured Events:

Follow the Law, Break the Mold: An Interview with Sarah Feingold, Etsy's First General Counsel

Thursday, December 2 at 6:30 p.m.

Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is A Bad Deal, Jacob Burns Center For Ethics In The Practice Of Law

Event Invitations 2021

When Americans think of the criminal justice system, they picture a trial. The right to a trial by jury is supposed to undergird our entire justice system – but that bedrock constitutional right has all but disappeared thanks to plea bargaining. In 2018, more than 97 percent of defendants pleaded guilty.

In Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is A Bad Deal, Carissa Byrne Hessick makes the case against plea bargaining and illustrates why we need to fix it if we ever hope to achieve lasting criminal justice reform.

Join the Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice …

Consequences Of Seeking Environmental Justice: The Lawyer Who Took On Chevron And Paid The Price, Simran Kaur

ERSJ Blog

In February 2011, the environmental and human rights lawyer, Steven Donziger, won a landmark judgment against Chevron Corporation, on behalf of 30,000 Indigenous people residing in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Chevron was found liable for causing toxic oil pollution that destroyed Indigenous lands and rivers. The said pollution destroyed rivers and streams used by the Indigenous people of Lago Agrio to drink water. The water contamination by Chevron contained illegal levels of metals that are known to damage the immune and reproductive systems in humans, thereby leaving some of the world’s poorest people with generations of birth defects and …

Will Other States Adopt California’S Ab 51 After Its Validation By The Ninth Circuit?, Henry Gluck

CJCR Blog

Roughly sixty million Americans have relinquished their right to litigate any work-related claims against their employers. This is due to employers including arbitration clauses in employment contracts—a condition of employment that has led to a mass waiver of this constitutionally granted right. The pretext for this phenomenon is that arbitration is cheaper and more efficient than litigation. But in fact, arbitration works to limit employers’ legal exposure and litigation costs, and helps keep incidents of workplace abuse unexposed. Employees are less likely to be awarded damages in arbitration, and the awards are usually smaller. Employees who are governed by forced …

Comment Of Proposed Department Of Labor Regulations On Esg Investing, Prudence And Loyalty, Edward A. Zelinsky

Testimony

DOL’s proposed regulations about ERISA’s fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty weaken the protection of America’s workers and retirees. Accordingly, these proposed regulations should be amended to delete the imprudent, unproven and ambiguous term “ESG,” to add more balanced examples which reduce misperceptions of ERISA’s fiduciary duties, and to expunge altogether the concept of tie-breaking which violates the duty of loyalty by encouraging the pursuit of collateral benefits.

The fundamental claims of ESG advocates are economically implausible. Such advocates assert that they consistently outperform and manipulate competitive markets. This claim is unpersuasive.

ESG proponents assert that a person making an …

Week Of November 29, 2021 - December 3, 2021, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Today at Cardozo 2021

Events occurring this week have been sponsored by:

• Cardozo FAME Center
• Cardozo Women Alumni Group

Travis Scott: Is He Responsible For A Disaster “Butterfly Effect”?, Eliane Aini

AELJ Blog

On November 5, a tragedy occurred at a Travis Scott concert in Houston. Due to a crowd surge during Astroworld, a concert founded and held annually by Travis Scott, at least nine people died, resulting in one of the deadliest concert incidents in years. In response, many are wondering what went wrong and who, if anyone, is responsible.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on November 24, 2021. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.

What Is The Value Of Art? Mschf Creating Value By Destruction, Kelsey Clifford

AELJ Blog

What is the value of art? Is it how it looks? Is it the artist who created it? Or is it how much it will appreciate in the future? MSCHF (pronounced “mischief”), the Brooklyn-based art collector, is challenging the “capital-A Art” world’s focus on authenticity instead of aesthetics. How? By “simultaneously spit[ting] in the art world’s face” while doing “what they’re trying to do – which is use art as an investment vehicle – but better.”

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on November 24, 2021. The original post can be accessed …

Abolishing The Corporal Punishment Exception To Child Abuse In New York, Julia Patz

ERSJ Blog

Do you condone child abuse? Upon hearing the question, the presumably immediate answer is an unequivocal “no.” This presumption would further flow into the expected answers of the general public. This is a firm notion that we expect most people to hold: Child abuse is bad. Yet, according to a 2021 American Family Survey, fort seven percent of the United States population supports child abuse in some circumstances. While it is true that the child abuse described in the survey had a different name, it is nonetheless child abuse. This “other name” is corporal punishment, which consists of using physical …

Week Of November 22, 2021 - November 26, 2021, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Today at Cardozo 2021

Events occurring this week have been sponsored by:

• Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA)
• Cardozo Public Service Scholars Program
• Jewish Graduate Student Initiative
• Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA)
• Latin American Law Student Association (LALSA)

The Use Of Solitary Confinement As A Form Of Covid-19 Quarantine In Prisons, Danielle Bluth

ERSJ Blog

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven deadly and extremely challenging to control, making the need for rigid guidelines vital in maintaining a healthy community. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has implemented specific guidelines which prisons and detention centers must follow in attempting to combat the COVID-19 virus. While it is essential to stop the spread, the differences between an individual quarantining at home and those doing so behind bars is palpable. The CDC requires that an incarcerated individual who has been exposed to the virus and or has tested positive must quarantine for fourteen days, keeping that “individual’s movement outside …

Rap Lyrics And Evidence Of Guilt: The Racial Impact Of The Weaponization Of Evidence Rules, Brooke Hodgins

ERSJ Blog

Many who study the Unites States criminal justice system are quick to note that racial discrimination in the specific contexts of policing and incarceration leads to disproportionate outcomes for Black and Hispanic Americans. As these aspects of our justice system are riddled with racially disproportionate impacts, their prominence in the advocacy for criminal justice reform and legislative attention is undeniably warranted. However, there is also an area less prominent in the public conversation that has shown to play a substantial role in contributing to the racial disparity we see within our system today: state and federal rules of evidence. Specifically, …

Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity In International Human Rights Law: Existing Between The Lines, Mika D'Angelo

CICLR Online

There is no international treaty that directly acknowledges the rights of LGBTIQ+ persons or the right to protection from discrimination or violence on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The International Bill of Rights concerns itself with the protection of persons on the basis of “race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” This same language is found in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights …

Cardozo Law News Brief: November 18, 2021, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Brief 2021

Featured Faculty:

• Leslie Salzman
• Anthony Sebok
• Myriam Gilles
• Pamela Foohey

Campus News:

• Immigration Justice Clinic Files FOIA Suit to Highlight Inhumane and Discriminatory Treatment of Black Immigrants in Detention

Events:

• Book Talk with Professor Carissa Byrne Hessick on “Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is a Bad Deal”
• Follow the Law, Break the Mold: An Interview with Sarah Feingold, Etsy’s First General Counsel

The Hypocrisy Of Facebook: Facebook’S Failure To Comply With Their Own Proposal, Caitlin Muraca

AELJ Blog

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”) immunizes social media platforms, like Facebook, from liability of third party content. In other words, Facebook can’t be held liable for defamatory or offensive content posted by its users. In many ways, this is dangerous to the public, as Facebook has been accused of directly contributing to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot by relaxing its security safeguards too soon after the 2020 presidential election. Evidence indicates that “numerous Facebook groups and accounts, public and private, were used to help organize the protest.”

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts …

Tom Brady Just Threw His 600th Touchdown Pass: What’S The Catch?, Courtney Leon

AELJ Blog

While the theory of economics can be studied in its raw form, there are applications of it that prevail beyond the fundamental notion of “economics.” A principal theory in economic models is that firms maximize profits in competitive markets. Similarly, in the sports world, such maximization may be accomplished through a coach maximizing his team’s probability of winning through sports trades. “A trade in sports is most commonly an exchange of ‘goods’ between two teams.” An example of a trade in sports is during the NFL Draft, where it is typical for teams to conduct trades with one another in …

New York’S No-Fault Automobile Liability Insurance Dispute Process, Brandon Hamroff

CJCR Blog

No-fault automobile liability insurance coverage, also known as personal injury protection insurance (“PIP Insurance”), provides coverage for personal injuries arising from accidents involving the insured driver. PIP Insurance provides coverage to the insured driver, passenger, or pedestrians injured in the accident, regardless of whether the insured driver is at fault. As required under New York State’s motor vehicle insurance law, New York Insurance Law Article 51, the required coverage provides payments for the basic economic loss for each person injured. Basic economic loss is defined as up to $50,000 for medical bills, lost earnings, and related expenses, as a result …

Disney And Nintendo Make The "Ultimate" Team In Bringing Sora To Super Smash Bros., Marc Siegel

CICLR Online

For years, fans of the video-game franchise “Super Smash Bros.” have begged Japanese developing-company Nintendo to include their favorite characters in the record-breaking fighting game. The franchise’s most recent iteration, “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” (“SSBU”), has become the largest crossover event in video game history. The popularity of the franchise, as well as the impeccable attention to detail given to each character, has convinced several third-party developers to grant Nintendo licensing rights to include their own mascots as playable characters in SSBU. Nintendo icons such as Mario, Pikachu, and Link, can now face off against characters such as Sega’s Sonic …

November / December 2021 Events, Cardozo Fame Center

Event Invitations 2021

Featured Events:

Exploring NFTs: Opportunities and Intellectual Property Issues

Tuesday, November 16 at 6:00 p.m.

The Future of the Box Office

Wednesday, November 17 at 6:30 p.m.

Follow the Law, Break the Mold: An Interview with Sarah Feingold, Etsy's First General Counsel

Thursday, December 2 at 6:30 p.m.

Dare To Dream: How Would You Teach 1ls Legal Research With No Restrictions?, Olivia R. Smith Schlinck

Library Staff Online Publications

When I started in my current role as an instructional librarian, I was given space to make the changes I thought necessary to improve an already-changing legal research program. I’ve made changes – some small, some more major – in both the 1L and upper-level research curriculum, but there is more to do. In particular, I’m not entirely satisfied with how we teach legal research to 1Ls.

Week Of November 15, 2021 - November 19, 2021, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Today at Cardozo 2021

Events occurring this week have been sponsored by:

• Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA)
• Cardozo Criminal Law Society (CCLS)
• Cardozo Entertainment Law Society
• Cardozo FAME Center
• Cardozo Fashion Law Society
• Cardozo Federalist Society
• Cardozo Health Law Society
• Cardozo Labor and Employment Law Society
• Cardozo National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
• Cardozo on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (CIPC)
• Cardozo Public Service Scholars Program
• Cardozo Startup Society
• Cardozo Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF)
• Cardozo Students for Sensible Drug Policy
• Cardozo Women's Law Initiative (WLI)
• Intellectual Property Law Society (IPLS)
• Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA)
• Latin American Law Student Association (LALSA)
• Women in Tech …

Nyc’S Immunocompromised Children Forgotten As City’S Children Return To School, Hannah Kramer

ERSJ Blog

New York City’s public schools reopened their doors in mid-September 2021, welcoming back many students to in-person learning for the first time since March 2020. For many teachers, students, and their families, the return to school signaled the return to pre-pandemic life. But some families were forced to choose between their children’s health and their education.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice website on November 15, 2021. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.