Media Mentions

For Spotify, the last month has seen a cascade of controversies around its exclusive podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. Is it time for the streaming service to rethink its role as a podcast publisher? And is it even possible to moderate podcast misinformation? Guest: Evelyn Douek, lecturer at Harvard Law School, and affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

At a recent online event hosted by Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation, social psychologist Dolly Chugh said the key to being a better person is to stop trying too hard and shoot for being ‘goodish’ instead.

Cheryl Straughter spends at least 12 hours each weekday in the kitchen at her Roxbury restaurant, Soleil, cooking southern classics like shrimp po-boy sandwiches, ribs and fried chicken. When Straughter, who’s Black, set about opening the restaurant three years ago, she did what a lot of businesspeople do to get off the ground: apply for a loan. But banks refused her requests, saying she didn’t own enough assets that could serve as security for the loan. Ultimately, she cobbled together enough funding through grants from the city of Boston, money from relatives and $50,000 of her own savings. Straughter said she felt like a salmon swimming upstream. ... “There are many borrowers who don’t fit the metric that makes them an obvious candidate for a loan from a commercial bank,” [Christine] Desan said. “Those borrowers tend to be shut out even though they would contribute enormously to our economic development as a commonwealth.”

In the 1940s and 50s, when Constance Baker Motley walked into a courtroom in the Deep South to try a case, people stared. And then they stared some more. For one thing, women lawyers were pretty rare at that time. For another, it was a safe bet that no one—regardless of race—had ever seen a Negro woman lawyer, let alone one with such imposing height and regal carriage. Add to that the fact that Motley was always impeccably turned out in a well-cut dress, high heels and a matching handbag, and often draped in her signature pearl necklace. She was, quite simply, a unicorn—one battling (genteely, but insistently) for civil rights. The arc of Motley's life—as a lawyer, as a politician and eventually as the first Black woman to be appointed to the Federal bench – is outlined in a new biography, Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality. The author, Tomiko Brown-Nagin, is a history professor at Harvard University and dean of Radcliffe's School of Advanced Study. She also teaches at Harvard Law School. Motley, she says, is a heroine to her – but one whose legacy often gets overlooked in the broader world.

It doesn’t matter how many Americans are mowed down by the guns in which this country is awash. There will never be enough bodies piled up, no matter how young or old or beloved or extraordinary, to stop Second Amendment absolutists in Congress from doing the gun industry’s bidding. America won’t treat its own gun sickness. But maybe Mexico can. ... Feldman, Hemenway, representatives of the Mexican government, and others will be on a virtual panel discussing the case at Harvard’s Petrie-Flom Center on Feb 17.

Several ‘myths’ about the legal underpinnings for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have influenced the perceived costs, benefits and risks of the so-called blank-check companies and distorted capital markets, according to John Coates, acting director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Corporation Finance Division from February until October 2021.

A proposal aimed at giving news publishers the power to bargain with dominant tech platforms over the distribution of their content is dividing media groups, with some advocates arguing the proposed solution could actually hurt small and local outlets it aims to help. ... Harvard Law School lecturer Daniel Francis, a witness at Wednesday’s hearing, also warned the bill could lead to a national news cartel that he said in itself would become a monopolist.

You have probably read about the controversy surrounding Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign promise to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court. Though it delighted many people at the time, it has a few others upset now that a vacancy on the high court has materialized. ... She was the only female lawyer at the Fund for 15 years. During her employment interview in 1945 with then Legal Defense Fund boss Thurgood Marshall, the future Supreme Court justice asked her to climb a ladder next to a bookshelf. “He wanted to inspect her legs and feminine form,” writes Tomiko Brown-Nagin in her compelling and readable new biography of Motley, “Civil Rights Queen.” When Marshall stepped down to become a judge in 1961, he passed over Motley and picked a less experienced White man as his successor.

Held on Friday 8 April 2022, the Vegan Women Summit in LA is set to be one of THE inspirational vegan events of the year. Focusing on an ambition to shape the future by empowering the next generation of compassionate leaders, VWS is a global event dedicated to building a kinder and more sustainable world. ... Well, as we already know, the VWS is the only summit in the world where you can hear from a multitude of CEOs, celebrities, athletes, investors and activists, all of whom share the collaborative goal of building a kinder and more sustainable future. This year brings us the likes of Deborah Torres, CEO of Atlas Monroe, actress, Emily Deschanel, and award-winning activist, Genesis Butler.  We will also hear from Nirva Patel, Policy Fellow at Harvard Law, actress and activist Sophia Esperanza, and Miyoko Schinner, CEO of Miyoko’s. Finally, Dotsie Bausch, the Olympian and founder of Switch4Good, bestselling Author of The Korean Vegan, Joanne Molinaro, Leilani Gayles, Chief People Officer of Impossible Foods, Actress and founder of Support + Feed, Maggie Baird, and Marissa Bronfman, Chief Brand Officer of Kizmet Capital.

Alan A. Stone, an iconoclastic scholar who used his dual tenured appointments at Harvard’s law and medical schools to exert a powerful influence on the evolution of psychiatric ethics over the last half-century, died on Jan. 23 at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 92. His son Douglas said the cause was laryngeal cancer. Dr. Stone trained as a psychiatrist and as a psychoanalyst and began teaching at Harvard Law School in the late 1960s, just as the foundations of both fields were coming under scrutiny.

During a recent talk convened by the Harvard Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, Harvard Law Professor Jody Freeman LL.M ’91 S.J.D. ’95 discussed the legal landscape for addressing climate change in the U.S.

It's Black History Month, which is likely to bring boundless stories of Black Excellence and Black Firsts. So today on the show, we're talking about Constance Baker Motley — a trailblazing civil rights judge who ruled in some landmark cases and helped pave the way for many to come after her (including, perhaps, the next Supreme Court justice?) But, as we learned, Motley's life was full of contradictions, and her many achievements also came with many costs. On this episode, we spoke to Tomiko Brown-Nagin, author of Civil Rights Queen, the new biography about Constance Baker Motley. Motley was the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge and the first Black woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court.

Joe Biden said during his presidential campaign that he would reduce student debt for millions of Americans, but his allies remain divided on the issue, and some of his supporters are losing hope he will deliver. ... “Administrative agencies have more latitude” with courts when they go through the regulatory process, said Howell Jackson, a Harvard law professor.

Following Donald Trump’s rally in Texas in which he defended the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, the former president issued a statement repeating the claim that his vice president, Mike Pence, had the authority to overturn the 2020 election results. ... Laurence Tribe, professor of constitutional law emeritus at Harvard Law School, said via email that efforts to re-emphasize the limited role of the vice president “in no way demonstrate that the vice president has more than a largely ceremonial role to play in that capacity.”

Justice Stephen G. Breyer has a mild temperament, and he writes cautious opinions. But his questions from the bench can be wild flights of fancy, enlivening the proceedings with musings about marshmallow guns, aspirin fingers, tomato children and the Pussycat Burglar. In an affectionate tribute issued soon after Justice Breyer announced last week that he planned to retire, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. noted this striking aspect of his colleague’s work. ... “Breyer’s unique signature at oral argument — which challenged and often befuddled lawyers appearing before the bench — was the sheer length of his questions,” Richard J. Lazarus, a law professor at Harvard, wrote in an essay published on Friday.

Washington Post Live today announced the “Race in America: History Matters” series will spotlight the contributions of Black women throughout American history this February. The upcoming conversations marking Black History Month will highlight Ida B. Wells, Mamie Till-Mobley and Judge Constance Baker Motley, among others. ... The series will feature Michelle Duster, historian and great granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, Deborah Watts, co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, and Tomiko Brown-Nagin, author of the new book “Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality.” Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, will also share her reflections connecting the past and the present.

"Civil Rights Queen," the new book by Radcliffe Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, explores the life of social justice pioneer, lawyer, politician, and judge Constance Baker Motley.

The Harvard Law Review has named a California-born daughter of Mexican immigrants as its newest president, elevating a Latina to the top of one of the most prestigious U.S. law journals for the first time in its 135-year history. Harvard Law School student Priscila Coronado, 24, said in an email Sunday that her experiences growing up as a Mexican American have informed her perspectives and that she wanted to "work hard to show how being a Latina is an important part of who I am."

Biden administration officials are kicking off a crackdown on power plant pollution, aiming to shift the nation’s electricity supply to cleaner energy in the face of congressional resistance and a Supreme Court that could limit the federal government’s ability to tighten public health standards. ... “Normally the court would wait until they have a new rule to review,” said Carrie Jenks, executive director of Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program, adding that EPA officials “obviously have to see what the Supreme Court says. And the Supreme Court could say things that would change their timing.”

In her new book, “Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality,” Radcliffe Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin shines a light on a lesser-known, yet central player in the Civil Rights Movement and women’s rights pioneer. The daughter of working-class immigrants, Motley attended Columbia Law School, argued several cases before the Supreme Court, became the first woman of color in the New York State Senate, the first woman to serve as Manhattan borough president, and the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary. Brown-Nagin, who is also the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of History, spoke with the Gazette about her new book and Motley’s lasting impact. This interview was edited for clarity and length.

Though confidential informants are often utilized by law enforcement agencies to produce more arrests, the lack of transparency around the process has long had experts concerned. In most cases, confidential informants are suspects that have been arrested or convicted for crimes of their own, but cut a deal with police and prosecutors to reduce their sentence in exchange for information that leads to a more valuable arrest. ... “Criminal law is highly tolerant of the secrecy and the confidentiality, and therefore the lack of transparency and accountability that goes with that in the use of informants,” said Harvard law professor and criminal justice expert Alexandra Natapoff. In some ways, Natapoff said, Texas has set an example on the issue.