Media Mentions

An op-ed by Jonathan Zittrain. There are two big problems with America’s news and information landscape: concentration of media, and new ways for the powerful to game it. First, we increasingly turn to only a few aggregators like Facebook and Twitter to find out what’s going on the world, which makes their decisions about what to show us impossibly fraught. Those aggregators draw—opaquely while consistently—from largely undifferentiated sources to figure out what to show us. They are, they often remind regulators, only aggregators rather than content originators or editors. Second, the opacity by which these platforms offer us news and set our information agendas means that we don’t have cues about whether what we see is representative of sentiment at large, or for that matter of anything, including expert consensus.

An op-ed by Delcianna Winders. The Kora Shrine Circus’ recent stint at Androscoggin Bank Colisee serves as a stark reminder of the importance of LD 396 — a bill being considered by the Maine Legislature that would ban the use of elephants in traveling acts. The Hamid Circus — the notorious company that puts on the Kora Shrine Circus — exemplifies the need for this kind of legislation. Hamid has partnered with an elephant exhibitor who racked up hundreds of animal welfare violations, including repeatedly chaining an elephant so tightly she could barely move. According to a whistleblower’s report to the federal government, this trainer also “turned off the lights and beat” his elephant while she “was staked down by all four legs” and “directed others to take part in that by using other objects such as [a] sledge hammer and shovel handles.”

Can historians make their work count in the courts without compromising on their academic principles? It’s a question more scholars now have reason to grapple with. Historians say they feel that they are being asked to write or sign amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases more frequently...Ms. [Tomiko] Brown-Nagin is a strong proponent of historians’ playing an active role in court. She says worrying about whether a position in one case will hurt an argument in another "assumes a consistency and coherence in law that is just not there." Furthermore, there’s a growing need for people with a firm grasp of the facts to weigh in on consequential cases, she said. "We’re in an era where there’s skepticism of expertise," Ms. Brown-Nagin said. "It’s important for historians and others to assert their authority and push back."

An op-ed by Ronald Sullivan. Alabama recently took a small but important step forward in reforming its criminal justice system when the legislature voted to eliminate judicial override in capital cases last month, but all of that progress could come to a screeching halt if the “Fair Justice Act” is allowed to pass. The deceitfully named bill (it is neither fair nor just) would shorten the time for appeals and reduce already inadequate resources that death row prisoners have when appealing their convictions. Alabama has clearly put its head in the sand and is ignoring its own disgraceful experience with wrongful convictions and the death penalty, as well as current recommendations from other states.

Beginning this fall, juniors in college can apply to Harvard Law School through a deferred-admissions program intended to encourage students to pursue another experience for a couple of years before starting their legal education. School officials particularly hope to lure students interested in science, technology, engineering and math fields to consider the law, since advanced technical knowledge and skills are in demand. “It’s incredibly valuable to have your attorney understand the underlying biology or the underlying coding systems or the underlying physics that are driving the legal questions,” said Jessica Soban, associate dean for admissions and strategic initiatives.

Harvard Law School, expanding a pilot program for Harvard undergraduates, said Wednesday that it would allow juniors accepted from any college to defer admission as long as they finish college and spend at least two years working, studying or pursuing research or fellowships...Harvard Law’s latest step allows college graduates to broaden their experience while knowing they have a secure law school berth, said Jessica L. Soban, the school’s associate dean for admissions and strategic initiatives. “This allows students to go and do something they love, and not to feel they have to build their résumé,” Ms. Soban said...“By offering admission to the most promising college juniors, we can encourage them to pursue important and fulfilling experiences without concerns about effects on a later application to law school,” Martha Minow, the law school’s dean, said in a statement.

College juniors around the globe will soon have the chance to snag a seat at Harvard Law School—with a catch. They must first graduate and work for two years before showing up on the law campus. The school announced Wednesday that it is expanding a three-year-old pilot program that allows juniors at Harvard College to apply and gain early admission with the agreement that they work, study, complete a fellowship or conduct research for at least two years after finishing their undergraduate degrees and before starting their legal studies. Beginning in the fall, juniors from any college or university, as well as their international equivalents, are eligible for the school’s Junior Deferral Program. It’s believed to be the first program of its kind at a U.S. law school, said Jessica Soban, associate dean for admissions and strategic initiatives...Legal employers are increasingly looking to hire law students with some work experience, Soban said, and those experiences make for richer classroom discourse. “Having someone who can draw on their real-world experiences or who can draw on a difficult client situation, that’s something that’s really valuable and makes the classroom discussion much more robust,” she said.

In the 1990s, before scientists had the tools to understand the teenage brain, judges around the country sentenced thousands of adolescents to life in prison without the chance for parole. Many of these teens, who are now in their 30s and 40s, committed serious crimes like murder and were punished as adults. At the time, policy makers thought “if you’re old enough to do the crime, you’re old enough to do the time,” said Robert Kinscherff, a senior fellow in law and neuroscience at Harvard University. But advances in brain science since the early 2000s have proved that adolescents’ minds are fundamentally different from those of adults.

Last Wednesday President Trump signed yet another executive order, this one aimed at decreasing the role the federal government plays in education, handing states, local school districts, and parents more power. The same day this order was signed I found myself at the Harvard School of Education attending a conference titled “Under the Trump Administration, What Is Next for Education?” wondering what was next...Sandra Cortesi, Director of Youth and Media at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, was a moderator at the event I attended...I asked Cortesi if she thought schools were providing kids the support and scaffolding they need to formalize informal learning. “We have not reached that point yet,” she said.

Harvard professor Cass Sunstein returns to discuss his new book #Republic, which looks at polarization in the digital age. While America isn’t more polarized than ever, Sunstein says it’s important to focus on how today’s problems are different and new. “You find yourself in a cocoon, even if you didn’t choose it,” says Sunstein. But he sees hope in sites that are actively trying to sell their readers on content from outside their normal media diet. “In the fullness of time, the non–echo chamber model is going to be producing a lot of revenue.” In the Spiel, we discover what it would have been like if President Trump had been commander in chief during our time of greatest national strife.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. As U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to meet Wednesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, it appears the two-state solution isn’t dead after all. Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, in a modestly surprising move has said it would accept a Palestinian state in pre-1967 borders. The motives for the announcement, which also came with the group’s distancing from the Muslim Brotherhood, are complex. But the key fact is that the statement is an early win for the Trump administration’s nascent attempt a Middle East peace solution. It’s a sign that Hamas, at least, is taking that potential initiative seriously.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. President Donald Trump has arrived at his new slogan: “Blame Canada.” But not because anything is actually Canada’s fault. Rather, process of elimination has led Trump to favor symbolic sanctions against America’s closest and best ally. As it turns out, trade is one of the only areas where a president can take significant action unilaterally without violating the Constitution. Trump’s most dramatic executive orders have been struck down by the courts. Congress won’t pass any important legislation. That leaves trade by default -- and since it would be too risky to take on trade with China, the best Trump can do is to make headlines by blaming Canada for trade unfairness on such unexciting products as softwood lumber and dairy.

It’s hard to think of a worse example of the “swamp” that needs draining than a president hiring his unqualified, inexperienced 30-something daughter and son-in-law with a myriad of conflicts (some involving foreign countries) who refuse to fully divest while given broad, undefined duties ranging over the entire government. The nepotism all by itself is regrettable and arguably violates at least the spirit of the anti-nepotism law...An ad from 2012 recently surfaced featuring Ivanka Trump promoting the Trump hotel in the Philippines, a property Trump still owns. In the wake of his bizarre, widely criticized invitation for strongman Rodrigo Duterte to visit, one has to ask whose interests the Trump gang represents. “Despite its age, the Ivanka [ad] serves to remind anyone who’d forgotten that the Trumps have a major Trump-branded property in Duterte-land,” says legal maven Laurence Tribe.

For as long as she can remember, Annette Gordon-Reed wanted to write. As a child, she loved words and books, especially biographies, and was all of 7 when she became an author herself. More than four decades later, “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family” brought a Pulitzer Prize and recognition as a major historian of U.S. slavery. Gordon-Reed’s path to Harvard — she is the Law School’s Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History and a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences — is every bit as interesting as her pioneering scholarship.

...Nearly three months ago, the the USDA removed its database of animal abuse records from its public website, with no explanation. National Geographic wanted to know why. We filed a Freedom of Information Act request in February for records relating to the decision to take the database offline. In bold disregard for transparency, the department’s response Friday consisted of 1,771 pages of completely blacked-out documents....Ongoing litigation is a common reason for redactions in FOIA responses, but Doug Haddix, executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, says these full-page blackouts seem “excessive."...Delcianna Winders, of Harvard’s Animal Law & Policy Program, agrees. “While these bases may be legitimate for deleting portions of the records at issue, they absolutely cannot be used to withhold 1,771 entire pages,” Winders said in an email. She is part of the lawsuit against the USDA.

Scott Westfahl, a professor at Harvard Law School and the director of its executive education program, will be busy the next few weeks. On April 30, doors opened for his school's one-week, $15,000 price-tagged program offering lawyers the chance to study law firm management at Harvard. In mid-May the doors will open again for a program targeting in-house lawyers. Westfahl answered ALM's questions about the students, goals and results of the programs, Leadership in Law Firms and Leadership in Corporate Counsel, which are now in their tenth year.

Harvard Law School’s Junior Deferral Program will expand to accept applications from undergraduate juniors at colleges and universities nationwide in the fall of 2017, the Law School announced Wednesday...Jessica L. Soban ’02, the Law School’s chief admissions officer, said she felt the program had been sufficiently tested and was suited to expand. “We have been talking for the past several years about this being a pilot and collecting information from students who move through the program to understand what success it has really had for them,” Soban said. “This is the point where we feel like we have moved through an entire cycle with one cohort of participants in the program.”

School Resource Officers (SROs) have an immense job. They are not only tasked with maintaining the safety and security of the school and grounds, but often also play the role of mentor. Working within the academic environment provides challenges to law enforcement but also offers an immense opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children, who will one day be the adults making up our communities. An important key to embracing this role effectively is recognizing how trauma affects children and embracing programs that bring trauma-informed care into our schools...“We can overcome the silos of our different fields to provide schools with the support they need to help all children learn,” Susan Cole, Director Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative: Massachusetts Advocates for Children and Harvard Law School Lead author of Helping Traumatized Children Learn explains in the preface.

Harvard Law professor Susan Crawford believes the United States must offer ubiquitous, affordable, high-speed Internet to all Americans to secure its economic future. She has spent her career—which includes teaching, writing, and advising President Obama on science, technology, and innovation policy—formulating practical, detailed proposals to make this possible. She talked to MIT Technology Review business editor Elizabeth Woyke about the reasons why the U.S. lags other developed countries in Internet price and speed and how locally managed fiber networks could close this digital divide.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. What if the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark abortion rights ruling -- and nothing changed? Case in point: Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the decision from last June that established a new and improved constitutional rule for when a law unduly burdens a woman’s right to choose. Legally, the ruling struck down a Texas law that forced abortion clinics to close unless they qualified as ambulatory care centers. But now, almost a year later, only two of the clinics closed by the law have reopened. Roughly two dozen others closed during the three years the law was in effect, and many or most of those are unlikely to be revived.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Is the Constitution archaic, as President Donald Trump implied recently in an interview with Fox News? The answer is a resounding yes -- if you’re an originalist, as Trump claims to be. The president unwittingly hit on the best possible justification for a living Constitution, which evolves to meet changing times. That evolution, of course, needs to take account of the fundamental elements necessary for life -- such as the separation of powers. And it would be a disastrous idea to amend the First Amendment, as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus hinted in another recent interview. But broadly speaking, the way to avoid archaism is to recognize that the Constitution is alive, and like every living thing, must adapt to changing circumstances.