Thinkers & Doers: December 2017 - UC Law San Francisco (Formerly UC Hastings)

THE FACULTY BUZZ:
“In this case, while people are understandably questioning what happened, it’s what we would call harmless error, because it did not affect the result of the case,” said Professor David Levine for ABC7News while discussing the Judge’s decision not to allow the jury to handle the gun in the Steinle case. http://abc7ne.ws/2CH5nQh
— Professor Levine was interviewed by the Associated Press and explains that by the Supreme Court allowing the travel ban to take effect just days before the appeals court arguments, the justices were signaling their view on the matter. http://bit.ly/2lYoRGc
— Professor Levine was on the Australian radio show PM to discuss the US Supreme Court and allowing Trump’s travel ban to take effect. http://ab.co/2lWswnQ
— Professor Levine appeared on ABC7News to discuss the case of the infamous Ghost Ship warehouse fire.
— Professor Levine contributed commentary to the San Francisco Chronicle in an article on the retirement of Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski amidst allegations of sexual misconduct. http://bit.ly/2E5dp2j

Professor Jodi Short, who was a junior attorney on a team that represented Jeffery Wigand (the biochemist and whistleblower who exposed the tobacco industry practice of adding ammonia to cigarette to enhance the effect of nicotine), says “NDAs have long been used to silence the messenger,” in an article for Wired on how to pierce the secrecy around sexual harassment cases. http://bit.ly/2qocUyt

Listen to Professor Rory Little (@RoryLittle) discuss the verdict in the Kate Steinle case and the continued debate over sanctuary cities on NPR. http://n.pr/2ETHzXs
— “You don’t want to give the President the opportunity to fire you while you are trying to do your job,” said Professor Little in an article for CNN on why the FBI’s new director, Christopher Wray, has not stepped up to publicly defend the President’s attacks on the agency. http://cnn.it/2CGPBEI
— “You can bet that, suddenly, Sessions is asking, ‘Who’s our U.S. attorney in Nevada? And somebody says, ‘Well, we don’t have one.’ And they put it on a fast-track,'” noted Professor Little in an article for the Associated Press on the Cliven Bundy mistrial and the fact that Nevada has been without a top federal prosecutor since March. http://bit.ly/2CTnIHr
— NPR quoted a tweet from Professor Little in their article on key vacancies at the Justice Department not being a recipe for good government. http://n.pr/2lXWrLY

A federal district judge in the case of Intellectual Ventures v. Capital One extensively cited Professor Robin Feldman’s piece Giants Among Us, including four full paragraphs from the article. http://bit.ly/2At9ZUY
— “The judge’s clear and vibrant language, describing patent trolling, sets the stage for future litigants to press their case at the Federal Circuit or the Supreme Court,” said Professor Feldman (@RobinCFeldman) in an article for The National Law Journal on Intellectual Ventures’ victory in its antitrust war with Capital One in the federal district court. http://bit.ly/2lVVwfM
— Professor Feldman appeared live for a KALW radio interview on the show City Visions to discuss pharmaceutical pricing. http://bit.ly/2E5LrDG
— In an article for Bloomberg, Professor Feldman discusses some of the loopholes drug companies use to keep prices high, including filing new patents medicines already on the market to extend their exclusivity. https://bloom.bg/2CU8qlM
— Professor Feldman’s book “Drug Wars: How Big Pharma Raises Prices and Keeps Generics off the Market” was ranked by STAT as one of the 10 great health and science books from 2017. http://bit.ly/2E6cIpj

Professor Michael Salerno spoke on State Legislatures in the United States at the EUPADRA conference in Rome, Italy. http://bit.ly/2CBsUC5

According to the Los Angeles Times, the jury and President saw two different cases in the Kate Steinle murder trial and Professor Hadar Aviram (@aviramh) called the verdict a triumph because a “jury doesn’t convict people when there’s reasonable doubt. That’s what happened here.” http://bit.ly/2CpH31U
— “That would mean that if the police were corrupt, you could never investigate the chief of police,” said Professor Aviram in an article for the San Francisco Chronicle on Trump’s lawyer’s suggestion that the President can’t obstruct justice. http://bit.ly/2CTOPSq

Will Trump face a reckoning in the defamation suit brought by female accuser? Trump’s attorneys are arguing that Clinton v. Jones, which applies to federal litigation, does not apply in state courts and “that is where [Trump’s attorneys] are putting their linchpin,” suggests Professor John L. Diamond in an article for The Washington Post. http://wapo.st/2ArmeRS

“I would bet on this having a good chance of ultimately getting through with some kind of remedies attached to it,” said Professor Tim Greaney when interviewed by Politico on the proposed $69 billion merger between pharmacy giant CVS and health insurer Aetna. http://politi.co/2CTd0Rc

“The era of demonizing women through ‘slut-shaming’ may be over,” noted Professor Joan C. Williams (@joancwilliams) in an article for ABC7News on the Bay Area being represented by two women on Time cover for ‘Person of the Year.’ http://abc7ne.ws/2ArwWHO
— Are the “Blue Coasts” still mocking the flyover states — and helping empower Trump in the process? Professor Williams discusses elitism in America on a radio show panel for KCRW. http://kcrw.co/2E737yv
— Professor Williams co-authored an article for the Harvard Business Review on stable-scheduling. http://bit.ly/2CT71LX

“If making a cake for a wedding constitutes free expression, does making the flower arrangement,” asks Professor Matthew Coles in a television interview with ABC7News noting that Supreme Court justices will have to decide where to draw the line when deciding the same sex wedding cake case. http://abc7ne.ws/2CTIlmD

Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza was selected as one of the “amicus curiae” for the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, set up as part of the recent peace accords in Colombia. Professor Roht-Arriaza will be advising the Chambers of the Jurisdiction with non-binding opinions on international law, international human rights, and transitional justice issues. http://bit.ly/2E6cP4d

“This is a dangerous job. Your workers are likely to be injured and if they are injured, you need to be carrying workers’ compensation insurance,” said Professor Veena Dubal (@veenadubal) when asked for comment on the State’s recent decision to order Tehama Transport, whose firefighter employee died while battling a wildfire, to stop working after it was revealed the company did not have workers’ compensation insurance. http://bit.ly/2lYBYHx

Professor George Bisharat appeared on the eFM radio show “This Morning” to discuss Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. http://bit.ly/2CTTnIu

Distinguished Professor Frank H. Wu (@frankhwu) spoke at Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China on the Chinese American Experience from the Railroad Workers to Committee of 100. http://bit.ly/2qsh6x6
— Professor Wu was featured at an event in San Diego to discuss Asian Americans and the Future of Civil Rights. http://bit.ly/2EZCoVV

Associate Dean Jeffrey Lefstin and other leading experts conclude current state of patent eligibility jurisprudence “Indefensible.” http://bit.ly/2CTQpnp

Professor Eumi Lee was interviewed on the ineffectiveness of mugshot laws in an article for the Pew Charitable Trusts. http://bit.ly/2lXi92i
— Professor Lee’s research on mugshots can be read in more depth in the forthcoming Rutgers University Law Review article entitled “Monetizing Shame: Mugshots, Privacy, and the Right to Access.” http://bit.ly/2CVdczh

Forbes highlights some of the secrets in the pending tax bill as articulated in a 35 page scholarly paper, co-authored by Professor Manoj Viswanathan, entitled “The Games They Will Play: Tax Games, Roadblocks, and Glitches Under the New Legislation.” http://bit.ly/2App0ai

“Whether you’re talking about a CEO or a Hollywood producer, the ability to remove is different for judges, with some good reasons for it. But the reality is, judges shouldn’t get a pass just because they’re a judge, any more than a senator or a president or a famous news reporter should,” said Professor Richard Zitrin in an article for Law360 on the misconduct allegations against Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski. http://bit.ly/2lUcPwP

Listen to Professor Emily Murphy on Slate’s Amicus discussing #MeToo in the courts. http://slate.me/2E7QBPB
— Professor Murphy was also interviewed by NPR to discuss her personal experience of sexual harassment by Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski, who has retired amidst multiple allegations of such conduct from at least 15 women. http://n.pr/2qpKfc8

Professor Chimène Keitner (@KeitnerLaw) discusses Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza’s forthcoming book chapter on “Measures of Non-Repetition in Transitional Justice: The Missing Link?” for the Scholarship Blog. http://bit.ly/2CT4dyA

Chancellor & Dean David Faigman and Professor Keith Hand set across Asia to help expand the college’s global presence. This included a trip to the China University of Political Science and Law to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding with Dean Jiao Hongchang to collaborate on research, scholarly exchange, and LLM students. http://bit.ly/2lUqvrD

Was the Federal government required to give public lands away to the states at statehood? Professor John Leshy comments for Daily Kos. http://bit.ly/2ArYQ6u

“There are plenty of other flawed provisions in the tax code that create opportunities for abuse,” says Emeritus Professor Bill Hutton in an article for ProPublica on the billion-dollar loophole in the tax code. http://bit.ly/2CGCbcL

Professor Richard Boswell comments on Professor Karen Musalo and Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) co-Legal Director Eunice Lee’s examination of refugee policy and regional conditions in the Obama era for the Scholarship Blog. http://bit.ly/2CFkiKu

Professor Kate Bloch spoke at the International Conference on the Independence of Justice in the Ivory Coast. http://bit.ly/2ArPKqC

“Important law is being made, sometimes in close cases, with the pro tem participation of judges who are not Supreme Court justices,” said Professor Joseph Grodin in an article for the San Francisco Chronicle on California Supreme Court vacancies. http://bit.ly/2lUZRjm

“Human rights litigation brings attention to health campaigns and supports local and global movements and coalitions to improve women’s health,” said Professor Jessica Dunn in an article for the UC’s Global Health Institute. http://bit.ly/2CDLIAt

IT’S A NEW YEAR:
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IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:
— Supervisor Jane Kim engaged the community to support the 70 Tenderloin residents temporarily displaced from their homes by a fire. http://bit.ly/2EZDTU3

— “Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz” was the book of the month for December at the San Francisco Law Library. http://bit.ly/2CsHPuX

— Charmaine’s, the rooftop cocktail lounge atop the Proper Hotel is open. http://bit.ly/2lTGwyd