Nancy Gertner

An op-ed by Nancy Gertner and Dean Strang: A young man in Wisconsin, Kyle Rittenhouse, is on trial for shooting three men, killing two and injuring one, during protests in Kenosha following the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake. Shortly before the trial began, the trial judge entered a conditional ruling that should concern everyone. It flouts common sense, is legally tenuous, and worse, conveys a troubling message: the defense may be allowed to refer to the three men who were shot as “rioters,” “arsonists” or “looters,” but the prosecution may not refer to the men as “victims” because that is a “loaded word.” True, juries decide who is, or is not, a victim in a legal sense. But American judges routinely allow prosecutors to describe people injured or killed as “victims” in jury arguments. Imagine a domestic violence trial in which the judge would allow the husband’s defense to refer to the wife as a “brawler” but not allow the prosecutor to describe her as a “victim.” We can’t.

Watch: The Supreme Court heard two challenges to Texas’ restrictive abortion law Monday. This was just the start to a contentious week for the justices, with arguments over New York’s gun rights law slated for Wednesday. Nancy Gertner, senior lecturer at Harvard Law and a member of President Biden's Supreme Court Commission and Renée Landers, Suffolk University constitutional law expert, joined Jim Braude on Greater Boston to discuss. ... Gertner looked ahead to the upcoming Mississippi case, a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, which she called “dire” for abortion rights. “It’s unimaginable that their purpose was anything other than to carve up Roe v. Wade or to reverse it,” she said.

The fatal shooting incident involving Alec Baldwin has shocked Hollywood and sparked a series of questions about where the actor stands legally. ... The tragic accident has led to questions over whether Baldwin stands to face any criminal charges. Legal experts believe this is unlikely—though not impossible. "In order for there to be criminal charges, one would really have to show that he intentionally killed this woman, which seems unlikely on the facts as we know them," the Honorable Nancy Gertner, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Law School, told Newsweek.

The fate of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev is now in the hands of the Supreme Court, which must decide whether his death sentence will be reinstated. Jim Braude was joined on Greater Boston by Nancy Gertner, retired federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, to discuss. Gertner commented on the tricky spot that the Biden administration and the Department of Justice are in, given that Biden is personally opposed to the death penalty. “You see this a lot in the Merrick Garland administration of the Attorney General’s office — they see themselves as not the final word. They’ve only put a moratorium on the death penalty,” she said.

The January 6 Select Committee subpoenaed Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. A January 6th defendant who insisted he will defend himself on the court wound up admitting to two more felonies that he started out with. Today, President Biden gave a speech addressing the supply chain issue but also touting the fact that part of his Build Back Better agenda is an investment in ports, investment in infrastructure, investment in domestic manufacturing. Cheerleaders demand NFL release the full workplace inquiry. ...Nancy Gertner: ... The problem with judges chastising the Department of Justice is the Department of Justice is in a little bit of a pickle. There are what, so many hundreds of people that have been arrested. They really have to determine -- they have to allocate their resources.

On April 5, 2020, Christopher Charles Perez posted a message on Facebook about an H-E-B grocery store in San Antonio, federal prosecutors said. “My homeboys cousin has covid19 and has licked everything for past two days cause we paid him too,” Mr. Perez wrote. “YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.” The claim was not true, and the post came down after 16 minutes, according to court documents. ... This past June, Mr. Perez, 40, of San Antonio, was found guilty of disseminating false information and hoaxes related to biological weapons. On Monday, a federal judge sentenced him to 15 months in federal prison. ... Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge in Boston, said that since federal sentencing guidelines went into effect in 1987, judges have sentenced defendants to prison time on charges that once led to probation. “I’m sure the judge was intending to send a message to people who would be involved in like hoaxes, which is important,” said Ms. Gertner, now a lecturer at Harvard Law School. “The question is whether he needed to impose a sentence of this length to send that message.”

The Supreme Court is back on the bench this week for a new term. And it could be a momentous one — as the court is set to take up cases related to abortion, gun rights, and affirmative action. We speak with our legal analyst, retired federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School Nancy Gertner.

An op-ed by Nancy Gertner: Supreme Court justices have sounded a similar theme in recent speeches around the country — but one that bears little resemblance to the court they sit on. At the University of Notre Dame, Justice Clarence Thomas insisted judges were not supposed to base decisions on personal feelings or religious beliefs. At the University of Louisville, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wanted to convince students “that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks”; “competing judicial philosophies,” not politics, control their decisions. Justice Stephen Breyer agreed: You “gradually pick up the mores of the institution . . . you’re a judge, and you better be there for everybody.” True, this is a court with diverging “judicial philosophies.” But these philosophies map closely onto partisan differences — about civil rights, economic regulation, religious rights, voting rights. According to Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley Law School, “Time and again, the court’s Republican majority has handed down decisions strongly favoring Republicans in the political process.”

Small businesses in Massachusetts employ more than 1.5 million people here. Some of those employers will now have to require their employees to be vaccinated, or test negative for COVID once a week, under new rules issued last week by President Joe Biden. Governor Baker has also mandated that more than 40,000 public sector employees in the commonwealth be vaccinated, with no testing option. In the face of more mandates, some are turning to religious exemptions: citing faith as a way to skip the shots...We turn to Nancy Gertner, retired federal judge, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, and WBUR's Legal Analyst.

Elizabeth Holmes and the US government are set to face off in a San Jose federal courtroom in the long-awaited criminal trial of the founder and former CEO of Theranos. ... The defense has more of a tightrope to walk with jurors with its opening statement, according to legal experts. Holmes' camp will seek to "balance their desire to surprise the government ... and their desire to let the jury know that there is another side to the government's story," according to Nancy Gertner, a former US federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School.

You've come to know retired federal judge Nancy Gertner here on the show over the years. We turn to her to help us comb out all things legal, and to be our guide through the morass that can sometimes be the criminal justice system. Well it turns out, she's been struggling with some legal demons herself, and she wound up turning to people she'd sentenced to help her sort them out. She tells that story in her upcoming book, Incomplete Sentences.

It’s the stuff Hollywood movies are made of: In 2003, Elizabeth Holmes created a startup with audacious claims that through a simple blood test, she could revolutionize medicine. The only problem? The technology did not work, and Holmes now faces trial for fraud. Here & Now‘s Tonya Mosley talks with retired Judge and current Harvard Law School professor Nancy Gertner about Holmes’ legal defense.

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder and former CEO of Theranos, is set to go to trial this week, more than three years after being indicted on multiple federal fraud and conspiracy charges over allegations she knowingly misrepresented the capabilities of her company's proprietary blood testing technology. ... Legal experts say central to the trial will be questions about what Holmes knew, when she knew it, and whether she intended to deceive. "Either she had a device that could never work, or that couldn't work yet. The latter is a more murky situation," said Nancy Gertner, a former US federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School.

Police Commissioner Dennis White, fighting for his job on the eve of a termination hearing, released a sworn statement Tuesday in which he recounted telling former mayor Martin J. Walsh that he had been the subject of a restraining order when he was accused in the late 1990s of threatening to shoot his former wife...The sworn statement was released in the form of an hourlong video of White being interviewed by his attorney, the latest part of an effort to dissuade Acting Mayor Kim Janey from ousting White at an administrative hearing scheduled for Wednesday...Employment experts described White’s series of video affidavits as a public relations campaign designed to pressure City Hall. But ultimately, experts said, Janey must decide if she wants White as her police commissioner, not whether he was guilty of domestic violence in the 1990s. “How could he possibly assume the position, so tainted by the controversy?” said Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, in an e-mail. “For sure, he had every right to want to clear his name, and a legal right to do so, but ... having done all of this, how confident would Janey or any other mayor be in his taking a position of such responsibility?”

On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge refused to block the city of Boston from firing its police commissioner, Dennis White, over decades-old domestic violence allegations. The next day, the same judge also ordered a stay on her own ruling, and on the city's termination process, while White appeals the decision. WBUR's Ally Jarmanning brings us the latest on this still developing story. We also break down the legal arguments with Nancy Gertner, retired federal judge, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, and WBUR Legal Analyst.

A Suffolk Superior Court judge on Tuesday rejected Boston Police Commissioner Dennis White’s attempt to block his firing, a decision that clears the way for Acting Mayor Kim Janey to resume her effort to dismiss White following decades-old domestic violence allegations. Judge Heidi Brieger denied White’s motion for a preliminary injunction, in a ruling that had been anxiously awaited by City Hall and by White since a hearing on Thursday...Beyond his lawsuit, White has limited legal options, said Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School. “The ruling today is essentially a prediction by Judge Brieger that he’s not likely to succeed,” she said, noting that the law is also ambiguous about the kind of hearing White could expect before he is removed. Janey “offered a hearing, but he’s saying that’s not enough,” she said. “What he’s really saying is, I want a forum where I can defend myself.” White could also use his suit as leverage for a settlement with the city, Gertner acknowledged. In the interim, Janey could also move forward with another commissioner, though her legal standing to do so might be in question, she added.

Legal battles from the city of Boston to the Supreme Court could affect our future here in the Commonwealth. We'll get caught up on what's happening with retired federal judge and WBUR legal analyst Nancy Gertner.

A man convicted for the 1991 bombing death of a Boston police officer will return to Massachusetts after a federal judge reduced his life sentence. A federal judge granted Alfred Trenkler's request for compassionate release — with some conditions — and allowed him to move from a federal prison in Arizona to the federal prison in Devens...The judge reduced Trenkler's sentence to 41 years with five years of supervision, in part because he found that the sentencing judge did not have the authority to impose a life sentence. His ruling also cites the federal First Step Act, passed in 2018, which gives judges the power to reduce sentences... "I do regard this as a victory," said Trenkler's lead attorney, retired federal judge Nancy Gertner. "Any time a life sentence is set aside, even for a number of years, that means the man has hope." ... Gertner said Trenkler will be eligible for parole in eight years.

The Biden administration’s aggressive timeline for vetting potential judges while seeking nominees who would bring experiential, racial, and gender diversity to the federal bench is proving difficult for several Democratic senators to meet. Senators from at least six states represented by two Democrats, including California, Virginia, and Massachusetts, have missed deadlines set by White House counsel Dana Remus. She had asked senators from states with vacant district court seats to submit recommendations by Jan. 19—the day before President Joe Biden’s inauguration—and within 45 days of the announcement of a new vacancy. “We said we couldn’t do that—that if you want a more diverse pool, and to tell people who never envisioned they could apply that they should apply, we needed more time,” said Nancy Gertner, a former federal district judge and chair of Massachusetts’ vetting commission set up by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. The administration wants to speed the pace of nominations compared to prior Democratic presidents and make sure there’s enough time to fill what’s already grown to 100 district and circuit court vacancies before midterm elections threaten the party’s narrow Senate majority.

Here is the Radio Boston rundown for April 21. Tiziana Dearing is our host. Today we spend the hour discussing police accountability and reform, and how the guilty verdict in the murder trial of former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin, for killing George Floyd is resonating in our community...We touch on the legal implications of the guilty verdict against Derek Chauvin with Kimberly Atkins, senior opinion writer for The Boston Globe, and Nancy Gertner, retired federal judge, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, and WBUR Legal Analyst. Listener callers join Imari Paris Jeffries, Executive Director of King Boston, and Kimberly Atkins, senior opinion writer for The Boston Globe, to discuss how this verdict is resonating around our community, and what it means for police reform locally and nationally.

An op-ed by Dean A. Strang and Nancy Gertner: Caron Nazario had a newly purchased SUV with a temporary plate taped to the back of the vehicle, properly and lawfully, until his new plates arrived. Daunte Wright had an expired license plate and an air freshener hanging from his rear view mirror. Police officers in both situations said that’s why they were stopped. Nazario was held at gun point and pepper sprayed, but survived. Wright, who had an open arrest warrant for missing a court appearance on a misdemeanor charge, was fatally shot by police. Although Nazario’s stop happened last December, in rural Virginia, and Wright’s last Sunday, in suburban Minnesota, the patterns are clear. Both are Black men. Both were stopped for minor traffic offenses, or for no offense at all. Of course, we don’t know the actual intentions of the police officers who stopped both men. We don’t know what racial attitudes or suspicions or anger they harbored, if any. But that is the point: According to the Supreme Court, the real reason for the stop — even if it was blatant racism — doesn’t matter. The court’s 1996 decision in Whren v. United States held that a traffic stop is lawful if police can come up with some traffic infraction to justify it, however trivial. The subjective intentions of the police — which could be the real reasons for the stop — are irrelevant.