On Saturday, February 18, 2012, the Cleveland Plain Dealer published an Op-Ed by C|M|LAW Professor David Forte in the Forum Section of the newspaper.  In response to the February 10, 2012, announcement by the Obama administration that Health and Human Services regulations would require employers, including religious organizations, to pay for contraception services through their health insurance plans, Forte argued that the Catholic Church must not back down on its fundamental beliefs.  Forte cites several instances where the Church yielded to pressures that contradicted its core beliefs, such as closing its Massachusetts and Illinois adoption services and Washington foster-care programs when faced with government policies that would require that those services not  exclude same-sex couples.  In the instant case of government rules requiring employers to provide all employees access to contraception services regardless of the religious affiliation of the employer, Forte argues that the Church must not yield.

You may read his Op-Ed here:  http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/02/church_cannot_back_down_on_its.html

C|M|LAW Legal Writing Director Carolyn Broering-Jacobs and Visiting Legal Writing Professor Jaime Bouvier published a feature article in the February 2012 edition of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s Bar Journal magazine.  Their article, A Tour Through the New Writing Manual, describes the Ohio Supreme Court’s first comprehensive Writing Manual.  They note that the manual, a work in progress for the past 20 years, because effective January 1, 2012, and provides a fully updated and integrated Manual of Citations, Style Guide, and a guide to the Structure of a Judicial Opinion.

In addition to their article in the bar journal, Professors Broering-Jacobs and Bouvier led two free CLE seminars at C|M|LAW last month to introduce the Cleveland legal community to the new manual.

A link to the article is not available at this time.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer published C|M|LAW Professor Milena Sterio’s letter to the editor, today, in response to an Opinion Editorial by Tony George, Bloom is Off Arab Spring, published last Friday.  George’s editorial concerned Democracy, Syria, and the Arab Spring.  Sterio challenges George’s assertion that the practice of Islam and the establishment of Democracy are inherently incompatible.  She argues that the United States must continue, through diplomacy,  to encourage democracy in the Middle East and must embrace the duly elected leaders, whomever they may turn out to be,  because that is what democracy means.

To read Sterio’s letter, please click here:  http://blog.cleveland.com/letters/2012/02/islam_and_democracy_can_co-exi.html

Dean Emeritus Steven H. Steinglass

Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor has appointed C|M|LAW Dean Emeritus Steven H. Steinglass to the newly created Task Force on the Funding of Ohio Courts.  According to the Court’s press release, the task force is charged with examining “long-term solutions to strengthening the financial picture of Ohio’s courts.”  The task force comprises 28 members from a broad swath of representation, including the Ohio Judicial Conference, judges associations, the Ohio State Bar Association, associations representing other major constituencies of the judicial branch, and members of the General Assembly.  Dean Steinglass is the only academic named to the task force.

According to the press release, Chief Justice O’Connor said. “Specifically, the task force will be charged with identifying the method and manner by which Ohio courts are funded; determining the long-term efficacy of the current funding models; and reviewing possible alternatives that might provide sustained and consistent funding for Ohio courts.”

To see the Ohio Supreme Court’s press release, including the names of the other members of the task force, click here: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/PIO/news/2012/budgetTF_021712.asp

C|M|LAW Clinical Professor Pam Daiker-Middaugh participated in a panel discussion at Case Law School on Thursday, February 16, entitled “The Importance of Professional Volunteerism.”  The panel was sponsored by the Student Bar Association and, in addition to Daiker-Middaugh, included representation from the Cuyahoga County Law Library, Squire Sanders, LLP, McDonald Hopkins, LLP, and Case.  The purpose of the event was encourage students to begin thinking about pro bono and community service work throughout their careers in law.

Professor Chris Sagers

Professor Chris Sagers was singled out for praise in a January 20 statement by FTC Commissioner Thomas Rosch.  Sagers had submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the American Antitrust Institute in Federal Trade Commission v. Lundbeck, Inc., the Eighth Circuit’s consideration of an FTC merger matter.  Commissioner Rosch, dissenting from the Commission’s decision not to seek certiorari from the Lundbeck decision (in which the Commission and the AAI as its amicus lost the case), began by recognizing the AAI for its work and, in particular, Sagers’ part in it.  In his published statement, Commissioner Rosch praised the AAI’s briefs and said, “One of the authors of those briefs, Professor Chris Sagers of the Cleveland–Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, rhetorically asked, ‘Why, God, Why? What really has the world come to when a merger to monopoly followed by a 1300% price increase survives Section 7 challenge? … [I]f there were need for proof that antitrust has gone completely haywire, this [case] is it.”  Commissioner Rosch is referring to a blog post by Professor Sagers in Antitrust Connect.

To read the brief, see: http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/~antitrust/sites/default/files/AAI%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf

To see Commissioner Rosch’s statement, see: http://www.ftc.gov/os/closings/publicltrs/120120lundbeck-rosch.pdf

To see Commissioner Rosch’s dissent, see: www.geoffmanne.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/ca8_op.pdf

To see the quoted blog post, see: http://www.antitrustconnect.com/2011/08/23/ftc-v-lundbeck-why-god-why/