Media Mentions

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Do undocumented mothers and children who are caught just after they’ve entered the country illegally deserve judicial review after immigration officials have decided they don’t qualify for asylum? If you’re a foreigner denied access to the U.S., you have no right to a court hearing. If you’ve been in the country for a while, even illegally, you’re entitled to face a federal judge before being deported. But there's a constitutional gray area that applies to undocumented immigrants who are caught within two weeks of entering the country or within 100 miles of the border.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Ma Bell came back from the grave Monday, saving AT&T from the supervision of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC had sued the company for intentionally “throttling” the mobile internet for its unlimited data customers when they passed a certain usage. A federal appeals court rejected the suit on the ground that as a common carrier, AT&T is exempt from FTC regulation. The outcome is wrong, the product of a literalist reading of the laws that produces terrible real-world consequences. It should be reversed, by the courts or by Congress.

For the first time in the publication’s nearly 130-year history, the Harvard Law Review inducted a group of editors this year whose demographics reflect those of their wider Law School class—including the highest-ever percentages of women and students of color. The demographic composition of the new editors—who were selected over the summer—reflects the broader makeup of the Law School’s class of 2018, according to numbers provided by Harvard Law Review President Michael L. Zuckerman ’10. Forty-six percent of the incoming editors are women, an increase of about 10 percentage points from an average of the past three years. Forty-one percent are students of color, compared to the same three-year average of 28 percent on the Law Review...“The descriptive stats of the Review haven’t historically been inclusive and so that may signal to some people that it’s not an inclusive place, because it didn’t have an inclusive membership,” said Imelme Umana, a second-year Law student and new Law Review editor...Law Review Vice President Kaitlin J. Beach, who said she has felt frustrated in the past as a female editor, added she thinks the new class’s diversity is already shifting discussions and priorities at the Law Review.

An op-ed by Jeannie Suk Gersen. A poster for Nate Parker’s new film, “The Birth of a Nation,” to be released in October, shows a photo of Parker’s head hoisted in a noose fashioned out of a twisted-up American flag. Parker stars in, wrote, produced, and directed the film, which tells the story of Nat Turner’s life and the slave rebellion he led in 1831. The title is appropriated from the famous 1915 silent film of the same name, which is set during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and in which black men (often played by white actors in blackface) are portrayed as wanting to sexually coerce white women. Parker counters this fantasy by showing an act of sexual violence against a black woman by white men. In his film, the revolt is partly inspired by a gang rape of Turner’s wife. It is hard to avoid the sense that, in creating his film, Parker was reflecting on the rape accusation for which he was tried fifteen years ago.An op-ed by Jeannie Suk Gersen. A poster for Nate Parker’s new film, “The Birth of a Nation,” to be released in October, shows a photo of Parker’s head hoisted in a noose fashioned out of a twisted-up American flag. Parker stars in, wrote, produced, and directed the film, which tells the story of Nat Turner’s life and the slave rebellion he led in 1831. The title is appropriated from the famous 1915 silent film of the same name, which is set during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and in which black men (often played by white actors in blackface) are portrayed as wanting to sexually coerce white women. Parker counters this fantasy by showing an act of sexual violence against a black woman by white men. In his film, the revolt is partly inspired by a gang rape of Turner’s wife. It is hard to avoid the sense that, in creating his film, Parker was reflecting on the rape accusation for which he was tried fifteen years ago.

Many of the most successful immigrants and kids of immigrants in the country know each other and hang out. They belong to a community created by Paul and Daisy Soros, who have funded the graduate educations of 550 first gens — including Pardis Sabeti, a geneticist called a "genius" by Time [and Jeannie Suk Gersen].

It took Pedro Spivakovsky-Gonzalez several years and nearly 10,000 miles, on a journey that included several cities around the world, to find his calling in his hometown. The son of political refugees from the former Soviet Union and Spain, Spivakovsky-Gonzalez, J.D. ’17, was born in Boston but grew up in Spain and Canada. He studied economics at the University of California at Berkeley, completed a master’s in development studies at the University of Cambridge in England, and went to work as a research economist in Washington, D.C. It was after his stints in Cambridge and Washington that he experienced “the dissonance” of studying poverty and inequality in wealthy institutions, and the limits to making a direct impact on people’s lives as a researcher...But the real epiphany came while working at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, one of the School’s clinical programs and the oldest student-run organization in the United States.

Harvard Law professors rank highest nationwide in the judicial impact of their legal scholarship, according to a new study examining citations of law review articles by U.S. high courts, but no women scholars across the country placed in the top 25. The study ranked the top 25 law professors according to the number of judicial citations their scholarly works receive, and Harvard Law School professors Richard H. Fallon, Cass R. Sunstein ’75, and John F. Manning ’82 claimed the top three spots...Fallon described the challenge law professors face in trying to bridge two groups—“practicing lawyers and judges” and “more theoretically minded professors and students”—whose interests often diverge. “I would like to think that we at Harvard Law School do a good job at keeping a foot successfully in both camps.”...Manning, who wrote in an email that he believes that judicial citations are not the most meaningful measure of scholarly impact, thinks that women should already rank higher. “By any reasonable measure of quality of legal scholarship (which citation counts capture only very imperfectly), there are certainly women who belong in the top 25,” he wrote.

In August, this often-silly presidential campaign became a medical theatre of the absurd. After Donald Trump campaign surrogates raised questions about Hillary Clinton’s physical stamina—and circulated photos of her propped up by pillows—she demonstrated her strength … by opening a pickle jar on late-night TV. Meanwhile, wild speculation about Trump’s mental fitness led New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd to imagine up an entire scenario where Trump is institutionalized post-election...Ethicists point out that a mandatory medical review might not be feasible. While some important jobs—think airline pilot—do require medical approval, it would be harder to make the case for a politician and would raise complicated legal questions. So “let’s assume it is not a government panel,” muses Harvard ethicist I. Glenn Cohen, “but rather something that candidates voluntarily undertake.” He points to how the American Bar Association, for instance, has historically rated the qualifications of Supreme Court nominees. Many lawmakers say they consider the ABA’s assessment as one factor among many when vetting a judicial appointee. Yes, it’s possible for candidates to buck a voluntary expectation—Trump’s doing it right now with his tax returns—but it reframes the focus, Cohen argues.

Jameyanne Fuller [`19] is used to living life with no limits. Blind since birth, Jameyanne has scaled an Andean mountain, earned a perfect 800 on her math SATs (despite her elementary school claiming blind children couldn't learn math), used Braille to graduate Kenyon College with the highest of academic honors and was awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to teach in Italy. Oh, and she's also written two novels.

Facebook set a new land-speed record for situational irony this week, as it fired the people who kept up its “Trending Topics” feature and replaced them with an algorithm on Friday, only to find the algorithm promoting completely fake news on Sunday. Rarely in recent tech history has a downsizing decision come back to bite the company so publicly and so quickly...Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of law and computer science at Harvard University, likened Facebook’s decision to use impersonal aglorithms to “confining things to the roulette wheel.” “Even the casino isn’t supposed to know what number is going to win when it spins. And so, if there’s some issue, at least it isn’t intentional manipulation by Facebook,” he told me. Google claims the same innocence with its search results, he said.

As voters around the country decided the fates of Sens. Marco Rubio and John McCain and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz, at least a few observers focused on the primary for Jacksonville’s elected prosecutor. Ten-time Grammy Awards winner John Legend celebrated State Attorney Angela Corey’s loss. So did “Orange Is The New Black” author Piper Kerman and former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean...Harvard Law School professor Ronald Sullivan said, “Overzealous prosecutors, like Angela Corey, who have resorted to pursuing draconian sentences regardless of the circumstances will soon see themselves being replaced with leaders who have rejected these failed policies of the 1980s and ’90s, and are truly committed to reforming the justice system with proven, evidence-based, equitable solutions that increase public safety.”...David Harris, managing director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute at Harvard Law School, said the election results show that “voters have spoken in no uncertain terms about the kind of change they want to see and it speaks well beyond any single prosecutor to changes across the justice system.”

...Despite the lengthy road ahead, John T. Trumpbour, research director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, said he believes the students can win their battle. “The Harvard graduate students right now are in a much better position to achieve victory for unions than was the case then,” Trumpbour said. “People right now are so much more organized and energized.” In the same turn of events that happened in the early 2000s, the upcoming presidential election could impact the Board’s decision. Trumpbour said a Donald Trump administration would be in the University’s best interest, with the idea that he would pack the NLRB with Republican appointees who would reverse the decision. “They’re kind of in a tough position because they are very afraid of Trump getting elected for a variety of reasons, but on this particular issue they would much more be in need of a Republican president to get the Board’s composition to change,” Trumpbour said.

An op-ed by Susan Crawford. America, we have a problem, and it is tall, ubiquitous, and on the side of the road. It is poles. Not the polls that do or do not track the progress of Donald Trump. Not people of Polish extraction. Utility poles. Poles are the key to our future, because poles are critical components of high-speed fiber optic internet access. The lucky towns that have dominion over them have been transformed—take, for example, Chattanooga.

An op-ed by Charles Fried. It was urgent that Hillary Clinton in her Reno speech indict Donald Trump for his regular, unremitting embrace of the slogans, causes and emblems of the far right (not conservative, please!) hate-mongering fringe of our public discourse.This is not just an accidental association. It is his chosen signature. Remember, he was an enthusiastic birther and has gone on to embrace every sinister paranoid fantasy since.These are not ghosts you can raise just when it seems convenient or because a particular crowd might thrill to them and then when the time comes to govern you can waive aside and pretend you never summoned them. You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. And these fleas carry the disease of virulent hatred and discord.

Not too long ago, a statement like this spoken in the hushed, hallowed hallways of the Harvard Law School library would have been considered heresy: "I think for court decisions, law books are becoming obsolete and even to some some degree a hindrance." That's Adam Ziegler, and he's no heretic. He's the managing director of the Library Innovation Lab at Harvard. Ziegler is leading a team of legal scholars and digital data workers in the lab's Caselaw Access Project. "We want the law, as expressed in court decisions, to be as widely distributed and as available as possible online to promote access to justice by means of access to legal information," Ziegler said. "But also to spur innovation, to drive new insights from the law that we've never been able to do when the law was relegated to paper."

An op-ed by Steve Ansolabahere and Jacob E. Gersen. In late July, President Obama signed a bill requiring some form of labeling of foods containing genetically engineered materials. The measure preempts state laws, like Vermont’s, that require different labels than those mandated by the federal measure. The law requires companies to disclose any genetically engineered materials, but does not require them to disclose that fact on the label or product itself. Rather, if companies choose, they can simply put a bar code or QR code that consumers could scan with a smartphone to retrieve the relevant information. Smaller companies would be allowed to include only a phone number that consumers could call to learn whether their food is genetically engineered. The call-me-later approach to food labeling is more than a bit unusual.

A letter by Fellow Delcianna Winders. Will Coggin of the Center for Consumer Freedom — a lobbying group that shamelessly defends tobacco companies, agribusiness and other corporations — suggests that S63, state Sen. Ray Lesniak’s bill to protect consumers, cats, and dogs, is “a bad bill” Nothing could be further from the truth. Lesniak’s bill, which the Senate overwhelmingly passed and is now pending before the Assembly as A2338, is an important measure to protect against the many problems created by large-scale commercial breeders, which, like many of the businesses Coggin represents, put profits above the interests of consumers and animals.

An op-ed by Lecturer David Hoffman. After 31 years as a courtroom lawyer, I have decided to walk away from litigation. I have been mulling this decision for many years, primarily because of my disgruntlement — and my clients’ disgruntlement — over the costs, delays, and the sheer unpredictability of courtroom battle. Trial lawyers often comment ruefully: “I have lost cases I should have won, and just as often won cases I should have lost.” It was not an easy decision. To be completely blunt, litigation is lucrative, even if it is sometimes ruinously expensive for clients. Litigation can also be immensely satisfying, when you win.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman: Major media outlets in France have recently decided not to publish the names and faces of terrorists so as not to glorify them and encourage copycats. On the surface, this might seem like reasonable self-imposed discretion in the interests of national security. But it’s actually self-censorship -- and it’s dangerous. It reflects a subtly mistaken conception of why jihadis are prepared to die for their cause, and it risks dehumanizing an enemy that is dangerous precisely because its adherents are humans with identifiable motives. The French daily Le Monde, the Catholic newspaper La Croix and a French affiliate of CNN called BFM-TV expressly connected their decisions to the recent spate of attacks in France. Le Monde said the goal was to prevent “posthumous glorification” of the terrorists.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman: Religious liberty and transgender rights are two of the signature civil-rights issues of our era. So it was only a matter of time before these competing ideals of freedom and equality came into direct conflict -- and now a federal district court has held that religious-liberty laws can trump the laws that prohibit sex-based discrimination. The decision is an indication that the courts need to recognize bias against transgender people as a form of sex discrimination. The case involves an employee of a Michigan funeral home who began transitioning from male to female. The funeral home has a gendered dress code that requires male funeral directors to wear suits with trousers and female directors to wear skirt suits. The employer refused to allow the transitioning employee to wear a skirt suit on the job, firing her when she refused to wear the men’s attire.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman: In a victory for teachers’ unions, the California Supreme Court on Monday refused to strike down the state’s generous tenure laws -- which a lower court had said violated students’ rights to an adequate education. Significantly, the court’s 4-3 ruling didn’t break down on purely partisan lines. Two prominent liberals, each of whom could be contenders for the U.S. Supreme Court in a Hillary Clinton administration, dissented. That’s evidence of a growing divide among liberals about whether favoring teachers might actually be a bad thing for students. In 2014, a California lower court judge struck down teacher tenure provisions as violating the state constitution. As I noted the time, California’s laws seem poorly designed, allowing tenure after just two years and even when the teacher may not be fully credentialed. Aside from the badness of the law, I criticized the judicial decision harshly for its lack of well-developed constitutional reasoning. Among other things, the court simply asserted in a single paragraph that poor schools tend to get worse teachers, and that this counts as a violation of the equal protection of the laws.