Media Mentions

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Tennessee State Representative Martin Daniel stirred up some outrage when he said this week that the First Amendment should give Islamic State the right to recruit on state campuses. He's wrong about the First Amendment, which doesn't prevent bans on coordinated recruitment. But the bill he was defending, which would create designated zones for free speech at state-funded Tennessee universities, isn't such a bad idea. The law governing free speech on campuses is much more restrictive than the law that applies on a street corner or in a park. We may be approaching a time where there would be a benefit to designating safe spaces for free speech, protected from the regulatory requirements of the Department of Education and the norms of campus life.

An op-ed by Jack Goldsmith. One unmistakable sign of the stellar reputation of Merrick Garland, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, is the praise he received from the President’s most conservative critics. Ed Whelan, an influential opponent of President Obama’s judicial nominees, expressed “very high regard” for Garland, whose “intellect and decency” he admires. His National Review colleague Andrew McCarthy, another sharp critic of the President’s judicial choices, thinks “very highly” of Garland and says “there is no doubting Garland’s intellect and integrity.” Both men, however, oppose Garland and urge the Senate not to consider the nomination. And Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell announced that Garland would not in fact receive a hearing.

Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, has achieved a rare distinction in a polarized era. He has sat on a prominent appeals court for almost two decades, participated in thousands of cases, and yet earned praise from across the political spectrum...Laurence H. Tribe, a law professor at Harvard, said Judge Garland’s dissenting opinion was “particularly admirable.” “That dissent is a fine example of an opinion that combines impeccable legal analysis with a deep sense of humanity,” he said.

From municipalities to the White House, governments are launching open data projects—but the judicial branch is falling behind. Such was the opening, frustrated message of “Public Service Legal Technology in the Data.Gov Era,” a Thursday-morning panel at ABA Techshow. Adam Ziegler of Harvard Law School’s Library Innovation Lab hammered home the message with a quick tour of government data projects. The federal government has data.gov, a website that offers publicly available data on many topics related to executive branch agencies; 18F: a series of projects from the General Services Administration; and the U.S. Digital Service, a White House project seeking to streamline government services. The White House even has a page on GitHub, a website that allows programmers to post and collaborate on their work. “We are in an era of amazing progress in access to government data,” said Ziegler, a programmer and former attorney. But “where are we with the law? Almost nowhere, unfortunately.” The nonprofit U.S. Open Data assessed publicly accessible legal information in every state—and found poor accessibility almost everywhere. Ziegler’s lab is doing its best to change that with its ambitious “Free the Law” project with Ravel Law, which will scan Harvard’s entire 40,000-volume collection of U.S. case law.

The successful fight to retire Harvard Law School’s controversial shield emblem, which has ties to a slaveholding benefactor, has ignited a new battle over equality and racism on the Cambridge campus...Now, the school has several more changes on the way, including bringing a visiting critical race theory professor to the school, hiring more faculty of color, revamping school orientations to make them more inclusive and making plans to hire a director for community engagement and equity to focuses on diversity inclusion issues, according to Marcia Sells, the law school’s associate dean and dean of students. “I really do want to have some quality things come out of this,” Sells said...A.J. Clayborne, a spokesman for Royall Must Fall, said taking the shield down was only the first step. “We’re quite pleased with that decision, although we do believe there’s much more work to be done to address systemic racism in the law school,” Clayborne said.

At intensely competitive Harvard Law School, Merrick Garland was known for explaining complex topics to classmates. Later, as a member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers, he led an initiative to improve the quality of life in the college’s residential houses...“It was evident he was enormously intelligent, but he is also a very decent person, a very generous, kind, thoughtful person,” said Bill Alford, a Harvard Law School professor who attended the school with Garland. Both graduated in 1977.Garland still calls Alford when he wants to know about students who have applied to clerk for him, Alford said. Garland takes time to ask about students’ personalities, in addition to their analytical skills, he said....Charles Ogletree, a Harvard Law School professor, also knew Garland in law school. He recalled the two sharing meals in the dining hall and at each other’s homes and discussing Supreme Court decisions — but never the idea that Garland might one day sit on that bench. Ogletree said Garland likes to fish and draw, and although he loves his family, was never afraid to work tirelessly. “Even though people hate nominees by President Obama, I think that Merrick Garland is the kind of person who has all the qualifications one needs,” Ogletree said.

Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland is a graduate of both Harvard University and Harvard Law School. Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman spoke with WGBH All Things Considered host Barbara Howard about Garland's reputation at Harvard and the chances of his nomination to the nation's highest court being confirmed.

President Obama announced his nomination to the high court is Merrick Garland, currently the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals...Judge Nancy Gertner, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School and former Massachusetts federal judge.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. In the current era, it’s probably impossible to find a nonpartisan choice for the Supreme Court. But if you did a national search for one, hoping to find a judge’s judge, known above all for caution and humility, there’s a good chance that you’d settle on Merrick Garland...No one should doubt that in terms of the future arc of the law, replacing Antonin Scalia with Garland would greatly matter. But it’s important to see exactly why. Above all, he would be a stabilizing force on the court, promoting continuity rather than large-scale change.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Can a judicial decision be both tragic and correct? Yes, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit showed yesterday when it upheld the dismissal of claims by underage girls who were victims of sex trafficking facilitated by the website Backpage.com. The court acknowledged that the young women had made “a persuasive case” that the company “tailored its website to make sex trafficking easier.” Yet it applied the federal Communications Decency Act that essentially shields apps or websites from liability for third-party material published using their platforms. The court concluded that the suit against Backpage couldn’t continue.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Merrick Garland is the safest possible pick for President Barack Obama. Extraordinarily well-qualified, moderate and often pro-prosecution, Garland has been considered a potential Supreme Court nominee almost since Bill Clinton put him on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in 1997. But if he isn’t confirmed, it isn’t a permanent loss for Democrats. Sri Srinivasan, his much younger near-clone, will still be waiting in the wings as a confirmable moderate Democratic back-up.

President Obama has put a face on the epic election-year Supreme Court battle: Merrick Garland...."Garland has earned a well-deserved reputation as a jurist who is a complete straight-shooter, who comes to his cases, including environmental law cases, without a preconception of preferred outcome," said Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus. "He has proven repeatedly that he is open to giving all claims a meaningful hearing," Lazarus said. "Given that the justice he would be replacing, Antonin Scalia, was known for his heightened skepticism of environmental protection laws and their citizen suit enforcement, a Justice Garland would clearly make a difference for environmental law cases before the Supreme Court."

An op-ed by Mark Tushnet. Several weeks have passed, and with the President having nominated Merrick Garland as Justice Scalia’s replacement, it might be easier to offer a somewhat more detached view of Justice Scalia’s likely place in Supreme Court history than was possible immediately after his unexpected death. Comments from his colleagues make it clear that, on the level of personal interaction, Justice Scalia was a genial man, easy to get along with (although the documentary record does show that he and retired Justice O’Connor set each other’s teeth on edge on a regular basis). From the point of view of those of us outside the Court (I should mention that I met Justice Scalia only once, so far as I can recall, and even then had quite limited contact with him), this raises questions about how we should think about the relation between personal qualities and contributions to the law and to the institution of the Supreme Court. Those questions are pertinent because, in my view, along several dimensions Justice Scalia’s contributions were negative, so to speak. That is, overall, his work as a Justice over an extended period made the nation worse off than it might have been.

Harvard Law School is acting swiftly in the wake of its decision Monday to retire the school’s official symbol, adopted in 1936, because of its ties to a slave-owning benefactor...“It was very important that the committee showed a substantial will to deepen our engagement with the Isaac Royall legacy and contemporary issues of racial justice,” Janet Halley, the Royall Professor of Law, told The Daily Beast. Halley stressed that while the symbol will be expunged, the Royall family legacy will not.

Perhaps no one in the Boston area was watching as President Obama announced his Supreme Court nominee with more anticipation than the people at Harvard Law School...Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School, remembers him in his days in private practice in Washington and says Garland has served as her informal advisor. Minow joined WBUR’s All Things Considered to discuss the nomination.

President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, is expected to meet with several U.S. senators on Capitol Hill Thursday, where Republicans have promised to block any confirmation hearing. Garland, who is currently chief justice of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, has maintained a strong bond with Harvard — where he attended both undergrad and law school. If confirmed, Merrick Garland would be the 20th Harvard Law School graduate on the nation’s highest court. That number is twice as many as Yale, which has had 10 graduates on the court. Professor Richard Lazarus was in his office at Harvard Law School watching on his computer as the president of the United States nominated his friend, Garland, for a seat on the Supreme Court...“He was also a leader when he was here as a student,” said Lazarus...Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law, said Garland “makes even hard conversations better.” “He is someone who cuts to the heart of the matter, but listens very hard to all points of view,” she continued. “And in addition, he has a great sense of humor.”

President Obama has selected moderate federal appellate judge Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by last month’s sudden passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, the White House has confirmed, setting up an epic battle with Republicans who have vowed not to hold a vote on any nominee. ..."Judge Garland is a brilliant jurist whom I've admired ever since he was my constitutional law student," Harvard Law professor Laurence H. Tribe, a foremost scholar on constitutional law who had Garland as a student, told the Herald in an email this morning. "His modesty, humility, and moderation make him a particularly suitable choice for these divided times."

An op-ed by Susan Crawford. Every once in a while, President Obama removes his Law Professor in Chief hat and puts on his I Get Terrifying Briefings Every Day hat. Last week at SXSW, as he delivered general remarks about the encryption debate, he tried to sound reasonable and professorial: “We recognize that just like our other rights — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, et cetera — that there are going to be some constraints that we impose in order to make sure that we are safe, secure, and, uh, living in a civilized society,” he said, repeatedly making an embracing gesture with his palms. Symbolically keeping us safe, encircling us with his hands, the father of Malia and Sasha blinked a bit rapidly as he said this. The president must have known that the FBI was on shaky legal ground when he spoke in Austin this past week. But he had clearly decided well before getting on stage that he would side with the people telling him that the world is an increasingly terrifying place. Law would have to give way.

Gearing up for what will likely be a major political battle, on Wednesday President Obama, J.D. ’91, nominated Merrick B. Garland ’74, J.D. ’77, to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of influential Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, L.L.B. ’60, last month....Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law at HLS, discussed the nomination with the Gazette via email, along with the upcoming clash between the Obama administration and the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee, many of whose members want the next president to fill the court seat...TRIBE: Merrick Garland is a brilliant jurist whom I’ve known well and admired greatly ever since he was my student in advanced constitutional law in 1975-76.

An article by Jody Freeman (registration required): In February 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court made an extraordinary decision. It temporarily suspended the implementation of President Barack Obama’s signature climate change initiative—the Clean Power Plan—which requires coal- and gas-fired power plants, the largest source of U.S. carbon pollution, to cut their emissions for the first time. At the Paris climate talks just two months prior, nearly 200 nations pledged to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions using a variety of domestic policies. Obama’s plan had become a crucial part of the United States’ strategy for meeting its own commitment in Paris: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28 percent by 2025, compared to 2005 levels.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Russian President Vladimir Putin had his “mission accomplished” moment Monday, announcing that Russia would withdraw its main forces from Syria after they turned the tide in President Bashar al-Assad’s struggle against Syrian rebels. The announcement partly explains why Putin has been supporting a cease-fire and truce talks over the last month: His goal is to consolidate the gains he and Assad made together. From a purely cynical perspective, the operation has been a fairly impressive success for Putin: Bomb intensely to create a humanitarian crisis while your troops advance, then negotiate peace to look like a good guy while assuring that the other side can’t fight back without violating the truce. And accomplish all this while strengthening your bargaining position vis-à-vis the U.S. and Europe.