Members of the Cornell Law Faculty are frequently consulted by news media across the world. The following are a sampling of some of the faculty's most recent appearances in the press.
May 2008
Host Margot Adler interviewed Valerie Hans on the NPR show "Justice Talking." During the conversation, Professor Hans said that jury members' reluctance to show up is not a new problem. Research shows that people today, as in the past, are reluctant to serve, in part due to nervousness about the court system and fear about the disruption it may have on their lives. However, most people who serve on juries find it a positive experience and less disruptive than they expected. She also talked about the fact that juries do surprisingly well in their fact-finding, contrary to what one might assume from a random selection of people from all walks of life. "A jury trial system in our country educates us about the legal system, providing a reality-based experience and knowledge of the legal system, instead of having the media convey to us what the legal system is all about. It is a highly legitimate way of resolving really contentious disputes in our society."
William A. Jacobson was quoted in an Investment News article discussing the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (Finra) plans to close a major loophole in its disciplinary reporting process, at the same time raising the threshold for reporting customer settlements to $15,000, from $10,000. “The higher reporting threshold has support from both the industry and some plaintiff's attorneys who say that it will make settling smaller claims easier. ‘In smaller cases, [the plaintiff] may be arguing [for] $15,000 and the firm will say they can't pay more than $9,999,’ just under the reportable amount, said William Jacobson, associate clinical professor and director of the Cornell Securities Law Clinic in Ithaca, N.Y., which helps investors who can't afford an attorney. The proposed $15,000 ‘is a more realistic threshold,’ he said.”
The New York Times quoted Michael Heise in an article on a recent ruling regarding President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” law. A federal judge ruled that the State of Connecticut failed to prove its claim that the government was forcing the state to use its own money to comply with the law. “In a ruling issued late Monday, Judge Mark R. Kravitz of Federal District Court in New Haven wrote that although the state had provided estimates of what it would cost to comply with those testing guidelines, ‘nowhere did it state that the federal funding was insufficient to cover those costs.’ Judge Kravitz added, ‘The court wishes to be clear that it has not ruled on the merits of the state’s unfunded mandates provision claim because the argument was never made.’ … Michael Heise, a Cornell University law professor who has studied the lawsuits, said, ‘For my money, these issues will be resolved, not by judges, but by the political process,’ when Congress resumes an effort to rewrite the law that has been stalled since last fall.”
April 2008
John Blume was quoted in The Christian Science Monitor in an article about a case shortly to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. In Patrick Kennedy v. Louisiana the issue is the constitutionality of a Louisiana law authorizing capital punishment for the rape of a child under age 12. “The case is being closely watched because it may offer insight into the future direction of the high court's death-penalty jurisprudence. ‘The trend has been toward restriction [by the Supreme Court] of the number of people who are eligible for capital punishment,’ says John Blume, director of the Death Penalty Project at Cornell University Law School in Ithaca, N.Y. At the same time, the number of death sentences imposed and the number of executions are both down. ‘There seems to be an increased public sentiment not necessarily to get rid of the death penalty, but to restrict its use,’ Professor Blume says. A high court ruling upholding the Louisiana death sentence for child rape would buck that trend.”
The New York Times quoted Stephen Yale-Loehr, and Judge Richard C. Wesley ’74, in an article on lawyers involved in immigration cases. “People involved in immigration appeals, many of whom are seeking asylum, are often poor. But they are not entitled to lawyers provided by the government. ‘A person accused of shoplifting gets an appointed attorney,’ said Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, who teaches immigration law at Cornell. ‘Someone who is fleeing persecution and may be tortured or killed if forced to go back to their home country does not.’ That means asylum applicants may get only the justice they can afford. Judge Richard C. Wesley of the Second Circuit said the combination of three factors made the lot of the asylum applicant ‘a witch’s brew that creates the opportunity for mistakes. A large number of these litigants are poor,’ he said. ‘For many, English is a second language if it is a language. The law is intricate and not easily understood.’ “
Numerous newspapers, including the Post Standard in Syracuse, NY, have published an editorial by William Jacobson on the recent scandal involving former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer. “There is no doubt that, in later years, Eliot's enforcement actions and attempts to intimidate critics were improper, and foretold an obsession with power that manifested itself in Eliot's private and public life. Yet, as a whole, his actions as attorney general succeeded in changing many of Wall Street's corrupt practices, to the betterment of our markets, the securities industry itself and ourselves. Investors are more secure today because of Eliot.”
CNN Money quoted Robert Hockett in an article about rumors on Wall Street. “For their part, a number of companies have gone on the offensive in order to quell what they say are unsubstantiated or false rumors by short sellers hoping to drive down their stock. … Robert C. Hockett, a professor at Cornell University Law School in Ithaca, N.Y., said it can be particularly difficult to track down the source of such rumors in today's uncertain markets. The rumor mill is much larger with everything in turmoil, he said. ‘In a sense, it makes the haystack all the larger to find the needle,’ Hockett said.”
March 2008
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted Stephen Yale-Loehr in an article about how the owners of the Pabst Brewing Co. complex in Milwaukee are reaching out for redevelopment funding from China to help revitalize the most conspicuous symbol of Milwaukee's urban decay. “Qualified investors from almost any part of the world can apply for residency under an EB-5 Immigrant Investment Zone, so named because it hinges on a class of visa called the EB-5. But much of Milwaukee's efforts currently are centered on luring well-heeled Chinese. If any or all five applicants are approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - approval could come within weeks - each will get a temporary green card, and metro Milwaukee will have won its first EB-5 Zone investment. ‘This is one way to revitalize the greater Milwaukee area,’ said Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, who teaches immigration law at Cornell University and is an authority on the sort of foreign-investment zone that metro Milwaukee has created.”
The New York Times also quoted Stephen Yale-Loehr in an article on foreign investors and a new program, known as EB-5 that grants foreigners legal residency in the United States if they invest in job-creating businesses. “Under the program, known as EB-5, a foreigner receives a green card for investing $500,000 in a business in a rural or high-unemployment area. … ‘It's win-win-win,’ said Steve Yale-Loehr, an EB-5 expert who teaches immigration law at Cornell University: the business gets capital, residents get jobs and the investor gets a green card.”
Jeffrey Rachlinski was interviewed by Patt Morrison, KPCC public radio in California, discussing unconscious race and gender bias in the Democratic nomination process. Prof. Rachlinski and Gregory Park '08, both with PhDs in psychology, have written an article on unconscious associations, how people are unaware that they react differently and are influenced by another person's race and gender. During the Democratic nomination process both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are trying to portray themselves in such a way as to counter implicit unconscious negative associations by voters. This is to counter what Prof. Rachlinski calls the "flinch factor.” The flinch factor occurs at the very last moment, when voters pick one candidate over the other. The action is based on an implicit unconscious decision instead of using deductive reasoning, resulting in the people voting with their heart instead of their head.
Stephen Garvey was quoted in a Poughkeepsie Journal article about Governor Spitzer’s alleged involvement with a prostitute in Washington, D.C. Stephen Garvey, a professor at the Cornell University Law School, pointed out that the four people charged by the federal government were hit with using the mail, telephones or other means of communicating across state lines to support a "racketeering enterprise.'' The stature specifically mentioned prostitution as fitting into that category. The people running the ring "are clearly vulnerable'' to prosecution under that federal law, Garvey said. "It's not clear if he (Spitzer) is.” Experts also said Spitzer, by trying to conceal the reason he was transferring large sums of money from one account to another (to pay for a call girl) could have violated an anti-money-laundering federal statute known as "structuring.” “If you know there is a reporting requirement for transfers of cash and you structure transactions to avoid triggering that requirement, that could be a violation as well,'' Garvey said. Is Spitzer in serious legal jeopardy? “I would say so,'' Garvey said.
US Today, NY Journal News, and various other newspapers, also quoted Stephen Garvey on the allegations against the NY Governor: One legal analyst said Spitzer might encounter more problems with federal laws designed to fight the spread of money transfers used for criminal activities. Stephen Garvey, a professor at the Cornell University Law School, noted that the four people charged by the federal government were accused of using the mail, telephones or other means of communicating across state lines to support a "racketeering enterprise." The people running the ring "are clearly vulnerable" to prosecution under federal law, Garvey said. "It's not clear if he (Spitzer) is."
Investment News quoted Professor William Jacobson in an article on the firing of a “high-net-worth” client by Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., a discount-brokerage firm. “Legal experts agree that there is little a client can actually do if their brokerage firm decides to stop doing business with him or her. ‘Brokerage firms have no legal obligation to retain a client,’ William Jacobson, an associate clinical professor at Cornell Law School and director of the Cornell Securities Law Clinic in Ithaca, N.Y. ‘They do have the right to fire a client, so to speak,' as long as the account termination is done in a way that does not jeopardize a client's securities positions, he said.”
February 2008
The Dallas Morning News quoted Stephen Yale-Loehr in an article on increasing penalties for businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. “The Bush administration has announced higher monetary penalties against businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants, the first increase in such fines in nearly a decade. … Stephen Yale-Loehr, an expert on immigration law at Cornell University Law School, said the fines don't look like onerous increases. But combined with the rising number of criminal prosecutions for those violating immigration laws, they could make a difference, he said. ‘The combination of the two could be a deterrent for employers,’ said Mr. Yale-Loehr, who also warned that higher fines could scare employers away from any foreign employees.”
The LA Daily Journal also quoted Stephen Yale-Loehr discussing a case where two immigrants sued the US Department of Homeland Security. The two have reached a settlement in their claim that they were forcibly drugged during failed attempts to deport them. “Legal observers said the settlement was a partial win for both sides. ‘On the one hand, the fact that the ACLU got this national policy implemented is very important and should not be downplayed,’ said Stephen Yale-Loehr, who teaches immigration law at Cornell Law School. ‘On the other hand, it's unfortunate that, because of the facts of one of the two plaintiffs, the ACLU had to settle the case before they could achieve everything they wanted to from the litigation,’ Yale-Loehr said.”
January 2008
Valerie P. Hans, along with her co-author Neil Vidmar, were interviewed by KHSU public radio in California [click to download the MP3 interview]. The interview was about their recently published book, American Juries: The Verdict. The conversation discussed the book and its look at the social science perspective of the American judicial system, particularly the origins of the jury and how it has evolved into today's contemporary jury system. "Having lay people involved helps keep legal decisions consistent with a community's idea of what is fair and just," said Valerie Hans. "When people leave jury duty, they really have a sense that they made an important contribution to their community. And they have!"
The Ithaca Journal recently quoted John H. Blume in an article about a local murder case in which the judge sealed the files and closed the court to the public. “The judge may be concerned about tainting the jury pool with the premature public exposure of evidence, speculated Cornell University Law Professor John Blume. ‘Generally judges are reluctant to do that, because there is a constitutional right of the public to witness proceedings,’ Blume said.”
The Macau Daily Times quoted visiting professor Cui Zhiyuan in an article about universal suffrage and Macau citizens having the right to vote. “Professor Cui said ‘universal suffrage means to have a great deal of enlargement of suffrage and the ultimate goal is to have a direct election of the chief executive and the legislative council. I don't think it's too early for Macau to have universal suffrage in 2019 and it's within the basic law of Macau,’ he added. According to the professor, democracy is not only about the form. ‘More important is the content [of democracy] and the emphasis on primary distribution which involves the ability of the government to improve the majority of common people's livelihood,’ he said.”
December 2007
The Washington Post published an article by Eduardo Peñalver on “The End of Sprawl?” which discussed how rising gas prices might affect housing development in the future. “We may discover that it's not so bad living closer to work, in transit- and pedestrian-friendly, diverse neighborhoods where we run into friends and neighbors as we walk to the store, school or the office. We may even find that we don't miss our cars and commutes, and the culture they created, nearly as much as we feared we would.” Professor Peñalver's article was also published by the Hartford Courant and various California newspapers.
The New York Times quoted a study published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies by Theodore Eisenberg, John H. Blume, and Martin T. Wells. The article was about the relatively high rate of prisoner executions in Texas (of the 42 executions in the U.S. last year, 26 were in Texas). “Texas prosecutors and juries are no more apt to seek and impose death sentences than those in the rest of the country. ‘Texas’ reputation as a death-prone state should rest on its many murders and on its willingness to execute death-sentenced inmates,” the authors of the study, Theodore Eisenberg, John H. Blume and Martin T. Wells, wrote. ‘It should not rest on the false belief that Texas has a high rate of sentencing convicted murderers to death.’ “
The New York Times also quoted David Wippman in an article questioning collaborations between scholars and the military. “Questions about collaboration between soldiers and scholars have been around at least since World War II, but they have arisen with particular urgency in recent months at professional meetings, in journals, on campuses and on the Internet over programs related to Afghanistan and Iraq. … These sorts of controversies have appeared ‘in various permutations at different times,’ said David Wippman, a professor at Cornell Law School who worked on humanitarian affairs for the Clinton administration, mentioning similar debates over participation in humanitarian assistance, the Iraqi war crimes tribunal and the proceedings at Guantanamo's detention camp.”
The New York State Jury Pool News mentioned Valerie Hans in an article on new jury systems in China. “Lay judges called ‘people’s jurors’ can now decide certain civil and criminal cases jointly with professionally trained judges in the People’s Republic of China, with new jury trial systems on the horizon in South Korea and Japan. Whether or not these systems genuinely promote democracy remains to be seen, though their emergence suggests that reformers see political benefits to incorporating citizens into the legal decision-making apparatus, observes Cornell Law School Professor Valerie Hans, a leading jury expert and organizer of the school’s recent conference on the introduction of lay judges into the legal systems of Japan, Korea and other east Asian nations. ‘Likewise, the appearance of these jury-like systems indicates that reformers perceive political hazards in limiting legal decision-making to a narrow, elite, professionally trained slice of the public,’ adds Professor Hans.”
R-News, Rochester’s all news cable channel, quoted Dana Campbell, Cornell Animal Law Adjunct Professor, in a piece on NFL player Michael Vick being sentenced to serve two years in prison for his involvement in a dog fighting ring. “Dog fighting is illegal, both at the state and the federal level,” said Dana Campbell, animal law expert. “There are real legal consequences for it. They can go to jail for it. They're going to have to pay significant fines. And that there's true suffering that occurs to the dogs that are involved in dog fighting. Not just the dogs that are used in the fights, but the dogs that are used as bait for it as well. I think this has raised the whole national consciousness."
A Bloomburg News columnist, Susan Antilla, mentioned Theodore Eisenberg in an article about the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007. “When Theodore Eisenberg of Cornell Law School and Geoffrey Miller of New York University School of Law studied the arbitration policies of 2,800 public companies during 2002, they found that companies were using arbitration for 37 percent of their employment contracts, but weren't so keen on arbitration when it came to business-against-business fights between 'sophisticated actors.' In all, 11 percent used binding arbitration for some contracts.”
Eduardo Peñalver was quoted in a Chicago Tribune article on Colorado's adverse possession law (i.e.: squatters’ rights). The article explains how, for more than 20 years, a retired judge and his lawyer wife trespassed on a vacant lot next door to their home before, in 2006, claiming ownership under Colorado’s law. In October, a district judge awarded them one-third of the lot. The original owners, claiming that the lost property was valued at $1 million, "had paid their property taxes and homeowner fees. They sprayed for noxious weeds and repaired fences. What else did an owner have to do?" That attitude speaks to misconceptions about property ownership, said Eduardo Penalver, a law professor at Cornell University. "'There's a mythology of land ownership—that if you own land, you can do anything you want,' he said. Property rights are limited, he said. 'This is one of those limitations: If you're not vigilant, it could be taken.' "
CQ Weekly published a story on immigration that quoted Stephen Yale-Loehr. “The Illinois law that bans businesses from using federal employee verification databases is likely to also be found unconstitutional, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell Law School. The supremacy clause isn’t limited to punitive laws, he said. ‘What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.’ ”
In a National Public Radio story describing the latest enemy combatant case to reach the Supreme Court, Boumediene v. Bush, Trevor W. Morrison commented on the very limited nature of the judicial review of enemy combatant decision under legislation passed by Congress in 2005 and 2006. The legislation prohibits judicial review via a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and provides instead that only the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit may review the detention decisions made at Guantanamo Bay, and then only on very limited terms. As Professor Morrison explained, the most significant limitation on that review (according to the government's own account) is that if the D.C. Circuit determines that an individual is being held illegally, the court "does not have the authority to do the thing that a habeas court would do in that circumstance, and that's to order the detainee's release."
