Media Mentions

Coercion versus a wink and a nudge. What the Supreme Court did in deciding “Obamacare” and why the results are not as surprising as one might think.

Introducing a “foreign language shield” into a decision-making process is a proven way of making better decisions, according to Cass Sunstein...at Harvard Law School. Sunstein, a former administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), told the Fiduciary Investors Symposium (FIS) at Harvard University that the Obama administration had introduced a rigorous cost/benefit analysis of any and all proposed regulatory changes, and this had acted as an effective “foreign-language shield” that improved the impact of new regulations. “If you’re an adviser, get the cost/benefit figures, the risk/return figures, the algorithms, up and running. It’s a great safeguard,” he said.

Peter Keisler might be the only lawyer who's argued five cases before the Supreme Court and has appeared in a TV soap commercial....Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus said Keisler is successful because of his ability to read the mood of the court both in his briefs and during oral arguments. Keisler, he said, delivers the argument that the justices will find most attractive. "He knows how to go for a win," Lazarus said. "He has an instinct for the pragmatic, not the jugular. He pitches things to make them look reasonable. "He's not a true believer. He's not a flamethrower. He wants to win the case."

The inspiration and aspiration for Uncertain Justice and the rewards of working with Joshua Matz, a co-author fifty years his junior....In this six-part interview, Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, discusses his background, from his birth in Shanghai, China during World War Two and his early interest in mathematics to teaching presidents and Supreme Court Justices and arguing cases before the Supreme Court; the inspiration and purpose of his latest book, Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution , written with former student Joshua Matz; and understanding essential, accessible points of the Supreme Court, principles in constitutional law and leading issues of the day — “Obamacare,” racial equality, gay rights, campaign finance, and the relation of privacy and technology.

Two important cases — Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (public access to trials) and Larkin v. Grendel’s Den, Inc. (the First Amendment Establishment Clause and a church’s power to control a liquor license) — in a long career and assessing the problem and real impact of the Supreme Court taking on Bush v. Gore...In this six-part interview, Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, discusses his background, from his birth in Shanghai, China during World War Two and his early interest in mathematics to teaching presidents and Supreme Court Justices and arguing cases before the Supreme Court; the inspiration and purpose of his latest book, Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution , written with former student Joshua Matz; and understanding essential, accessible points of the Supreme Court, principles in constitutional law and leading issues of the day — “Obamacare,” racial equality, gay rights, campaign finance, and the relation of privacy and technology.

An oped by Noah Feldman. The American diplomat Edward Djerejian once famously remarked that if Islamists were democratically elected to office, the result might be “one man, one vote, one time.” Preliminary results from Tunisia's second democratic election show that this concern was unwarranted, at least in Tunisia. The Islamic democrats of Ennahda, who won a plurality in Tunisia's first democratic vote in 2011, appear to have finished second to the secular alternative, Nidaa Tounes. Far from clinging to power, Ennahda conceded defeat even before the results were final. “We have accepted this result, and congratulate the winner Nidaa Tounes,” a party official told Reuters.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation will make paying state tolls easier by 2016 in order to reduce road congestion and cut costs, but it could come at a price greater than the $2.50 toll charge...“There are privacy concerns used to be an anonymous transaction now produces a data record,” said security technologist Bruce Schiener. Data could be shared with fusion centers, information sharing centers, or pieced together to reveal peoples’ daily routines. Privacy concerns around E-ZPass transponders aren’t new, but with the state’s new system, there will be a data trail around all cars at toll plazas, E-ZPass or no. “Removing the choice of privacy gives us fewer options to have privacy. It’s like making envelopes illegal and making us use postcards, or banning window shades,” said Schneier, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society..

Alex Whiting, quoted in Brazilian newspaper. This article is in Portuguese.

Alex Whiting, quoted in Ukrainian newspaper. This article is in Ukranian.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Want to see the first successful Arab democracy in action? Tune in Sunday, when tiny Tunisia will hold its first legislative elections since the ratification of its liberal-democratic constitution in January. Tunisia is where the Arab Spring began in 2011, and it’s just about the only place where that movement for freedom and democracy hasn't failed. The complex politics of these elections will tell us a lot about whether Tunisia is going to mature into a functioning democracy -- or revert to dictatorship like Egypt.

...The proposed takeover is being studied by regulators, who are expected to decide whether to approve it by early next year. If the deal goes ahead, it will create the world’s biggest provider of broadband and cable television services, reshaping the media landscape in the process. The prospect of an enlarged Comcast – which will leapfrog Walt Disney as the world’s largest media company – has sparked anxiety among content companies...“If it is permitted to merge with TWC, for two-thirds of American households the only choice for high-capacity internet will be Comcast,” says Susan Crawford, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age. She equates Comcast’s power in high-speed internet provision with the great monopolies of the past, such as the railroad barons of the late 19th century.

Whether it’s called ISIS or ISIL, few people a year ago had even heard of the radical Sunni Islamist group that had splintered from al-Qaida. But as the Iraq-based terrorist organization rapidly swarmed and took control of cities and towns in Iraq and Syria, it suddenly became a front-burner issue in American foreign policy...“I think that the name is instructive; it tells you what their goals are: They aim to create an Islamic state,” said Deborah Amos, an award-winning Middle East reporter for National Public Radio...Amos joined Noah Feldman, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (HLS), and Professor Kristen Stilt, co-director of the Islamic Legal Studies Program at HLS, for a wide-ranging discussion about ISIS before a standing-room crowd at Austin Hall Thursday afternoon.

An op-ed by Melanie Sinche [Senior research associate in the Labor and Worklife Program]. While the subject of Ph.D. career outcomes has appeared in numerous articles and studies over the past few decades, an even greater sense of urgency seems to have emerged in recent years, based in part on the downturn of the economy, the recommendations made by the National Institutes of Health Biomedical Workforce Task Force, recent works like the American Historical Association’s Mellon Career Diversity Project, the Ph.D. Placement Project, and myriad others. The National Science Foundation is launching its full-scale data collection phase this fall for the agency’s newly developed instrument, the Early Career Doctorates Survey, and the National Association of Colleges and Employers has assembled a First-Destination Survey Task Force to explore collecting career outcomes data from advanced degree graduates for the first time, having done this previously for undergraduates alone. Yet in spite of significant time, energy, and resources expended on these efforts and others, there is still no comprehensive, standardized, systematic, affordable method to collect the data that all of these groups seek.

An op-ed by Cass R. Sunstein. Imagine that whenever you planned to do volunteer work, the government told you that you must also pay a small tax. Or suppose that whenever you gave money to charity, you were charged a levy. Or that every time you gave blood, you had to start by writing a check to the Internal Revenue Service. Fortunately, most countries don't tax people for good works. But private and public institutions do -- by taking up too much of people’s time.

Twenty-five years after the former Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko visited Harvard amidst protests, eight-time NBA all-star and philanthropist Dikembe Mutombo spoke about development projects in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo—formerly known as Zaire—on Thursday at the Law School. Towering over the podium, the seven-foot two-inch 18-year NBA veteran discussed the hospital he founded in the DRC’s capital Kinshasa, as well as efforts to improve education and prevent Congolese brain drain...Law School professor William P. Alford, who serves on the board of Special Olympics International with Mutombo, invited the former NBA player to campus and moderated a question and answer session. Following his address, Motumbo stopped by the Harvard men’s basketball team’s practice.

An op-ed by Martha Minow. Neglected in today’s headlines, blogs, and talk radio is a silent, shameful crisis that inflicts suffering and costs the nation money, legitimacy, and decency. Our justice system has become inaccessible to millions of poor people and so every day, we violate the “equal justice under law” motto engraved on the front of the grand United States Supreme Court. Americans who cannot afford legal help routinely forfeit basic rights as a result. Because the law does not enforce itself, veterans seeking benefits the nation has guaranteed, victims of domestic violence needing legal protection, and tenants and homeowners pursuing their rights since the financial disaster all need advisors and guides through the law and its agencies and courts.

Eldo Kim, the then-College undergraduate who was charged last week for allegedly sending emailed bomb threats that temporarily shut down campus last December, reached an “unusual” yet “fair” arrangement in avoiding a trial, law experts said this week...Alex Whiting, professor of the practice of criminal prosecution at the Law School, applauded the U.S. Attorney’s Office for being willing to negotiate this deal, adding that attorneys usually feel pressure to prosecute aggressively in cases like Kim’s. “I think it is a great outcome,” Whiting said. “There are consequences for him that are very real, but at the same time it takes account of the fact that he’s a young man obviously under a lot of pressure who made a bad decision and [should] have an opportunity to remake his life without a felony conviction on his record.”

...Dr. Elizabeth Bartholet, Harvard Law Professor, was one of the non-Evangelicals who spoke at Together for Adoption. She is another fierce woman who has been a great proponent of international children's rights and has presented and promoted the idea that it is a basic human (and legal) right of all children, everywhere, to have a family. She is one of CHIFF's strongest proponents and allies. She proposes that we deal with illegal and unethical infractions individually, while moving forward with giving children from all countries families.

A letter by Students for Inclusion, Student Mental Health Association, Women’s Law Association. We want to thank Lindsay Church [`16] and the Harvard Law Record for addressing an important topic: the implementation at Harvard Law School of the University’s new sexual harassment policy that incorporates federal Title IX requirements. Among the important issues raised by this article and the robust debate on campus about the policy’s implementation, there is one that stands out for immediate action: We are very concerned about the lack of clarity on who at the law school is currently mandated to report disclosures of sexual and gender-based harassment and assault.

...In this six-part interview, Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, discusses his background, from his birth in Shanghai, China during World War Two and his early interest in mathematics to teaching presidents and Supreme Court Justices and arguing cases before the Supreme Court; the inspiration and purpose of his latest book, Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution , written with former student Joshua Matz; and understanding essential, accessible points of the Supreme Court, principles in constitutional law and leading issues of the day — “Obamacare,” racial equality, gay rights, campaign finance, and the relation of privacy and technology.

On Friday evening, October 17, Crimson Madness—a kickoff event to celebrate the start of the Harvard men’s basketball team’s fall practices—began in normal enough fashion. Shortly after 6 p.m., head coach Tommy Amaker walked onto the court at Lavietes Pavilion and welcomed the crowd...More subtle evidence of the program’s transformation came from a conversation that occurred before the event in the glass-encased lounge overlooking the court. Just after 5:30 p.m., Amaker was chatting with Randall Kennedy, Klein professor of law, and Jared Sullinger, a power forward for the Celtics. Harvard’s coach had tabbed both men to serve as judges in the slam-dunk contest. Kennedy, who also serves as the team’s faculty adviser but identifies tennis as his main sport, wanted guidance from Sullinger about what qualified as a good dunk. (The key factor? Degree of difficulty.) In what may have been a first, an esteemed Harvard law professor was seeking adjudicatory advice from a 22-year-old professional basketball player.