On Friday, September 17, Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson participated in the Future Environmental Law Professors’ Workshop hosted by the Haub School of Law at Pace University.  Robertson served as a commenter on mock job talks for prospective environmental law professors, and also as a member of small team conducting mock faculty appointments interviews.

Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law at C|M|LAW, and Professor of Environmental Studies at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University.

On September 26, Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson participated in Vermont Law School’s Annual Environmental Scholarship Colloquium.  The annual event, usually conducted in-person in S. Royalton, Vermont, was held on-line. Below is an image from the colloquium (Professor Robertson in the center).

Robertson presented her work-in-progress, Local Governments, Home Rule and the Rights of Nature: Lessons from Afar on Protecting Close to Home. In addition, she commented on the works-in-progress of her co-panelists — Alice Kaswan (San Fransciso), Creating Home: Multilevel Governance Structures for Emerging Climate Migration, and Jonathan Rosenbloom (Vermont), Land Use Justice: Concrete Steps to Alleviate Embedded Racial Bias in Land Use Codes.

Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law at C|M|LAW, and Professor of Environmental Studies at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University.

Professor Milena Sterio participated as a panelist in an event titled “Post-Conflict State Rebuilding After Mass Atrocities,” on September 22.  The event was hosted by the NYU Center for Global Affairs and was based on a book which Professor Sterio recently co-authored with Professor Paul Williams (American University Washington College of Law), Research Handbook on Post-Conflict State Building (Edward Elgar).  

On Sept. 21, 2020, Clinical Professor of Law Doron Kalir was interviewed by Charles Ellison of WURD Radio in Philadelphia on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The conversation covered key opinions authored by Justice Ginsburg (for example, the Virginia Military Institute (“VMI”) case, which allowed women into this previous male-only military academy for the first time thanks to her; and the Lilly Ledbedder dissenting opinion, allowing women more time to sue for pay discrimination at work, which became President Obama’s first signed law). 

Professor Kalir also discussed the various options Democrats may have in the face of a speedy confirmation process to the Supreme Court by the Republican-controlled Senate, and the implications of such a process in light of opposing view taken by Senate leaders back in February 2016, upon the passing of Justice Scalia. Finally, Professor Kalir discussed Justice Ginsburg’s explicit “fervent” dying wish, that she would “not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Professor Kalir noted that unfortunately, that dying wish received very little attention over the weekend, and perhaps should be amplified in the coming days by her many supporters. 

Professor Milena Sterio, along with several colleagues from the Public International Law and Policy Group, a prominent Washington D.C.-based NGO, filed an amicus brief with the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the case of Bosco Ntaganda. The brief is attached below: 

Bosco Ntaganda was convicted by the ICC on 18 counts of war crimes in 2019 for his military involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sentenced to 30 years in prison; his case is currently on appeal before the ICC and the ICC invited academics/others to submit amicus briefs in the appellate case. 

Professor Sterio/the Public International Law and Policy Group is one of 12 such academics/groups that was selected to submit an amicus brief.  Professor Sterio/PILPG’s brief focuses on the definition of “attacks” under international humanitarian law in the context of attacks on cultural property.

Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Professor of Law, was featured in a long interview for the podcast series American Scandal, produced by the widely followed podcast platform Wondery. Sagers was featured in the final episode in an American Scandal series on the golden age of monopoly, and its culmination in the celebrated antitrust case against Standard Oil.

Sagers also participated with a student film production team at San Diego State University in a new documentary film on the history and legal aspects of vertical integration in the film industry.

Sagers also spoke with the radio program This Morning with Henry Shinn, carried on TBS eFM radio in Seoul, South Korea (click on “This Morning 3” for Sept. 17, 2020) to explain the spectacular ongoing antitrust litigation between Apple and Epic Games. Epic, creator of the popular video game Fortnite, challenges Apple’s practices of imposing its expensive payment system on AppStore participants, and otherwise excluding competition there.

On Thursday September 6, Clinical Professor of Law Doron Kalir presented at the Academic Engagement Network (AEN)’s zoom conference. AEN is a pro-Israel network of academics from across the country and across disciplines, who mainly monitor and discuss anti-Israel rhetoric on campus. AEN’s first-ever zoom conference hosted 50 professors, from across the nation, who discussed several issues.

Professor Kalir’s presentation dealt with Israel’s plans for Annexation – plans that are currently shelved due to the UAE Normalization Agreement. The presentation generated quite a heated discussion, reflecting the broad ideological diversity of those participating in the AEN. 

On September 3, Professor Deborah A. Geier was a guest on the “Sound of Ideas” program on WCPN, where she discussed the ins and outs of the optional payroll tax deferral that was the subject of President Trump’s August 8 Executive Order.

Her segment begins at about minute 38 at this link: https://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-ideas/cuyahoga-county-and-tri-c-partner-to-train-law-enforcement-officers-in-de-escalation-techniques.

Professor Gwen Majette has been invited to moderate the virtual panel Intersecting Realities:  Health, Race, and the Ongoing Legacies of Slavery and Jim Crow as part of the “1619 Project in 2020” sponsored by the University of California Irvine Center for Humanity on October 15, 2020 from 8 – 9:30 p.m.  The “1619 Project in 2020” focuses on the 1619 Project created by New York Times Pulitzer prize winning journalist, Nikole Hannah-Jones.  “Through a series of essays, photos, and podcasts, the project charts the impact of slavery on the country’s founding principles, economy, health care system, racial segregation of neighborhoods and schools, popular music, and visual representation.”  

This panel is one of a series of events that will occur before Ms. Hannah-Jones speaks virtually at the UCI.  The event will be broadcast live on facebook.   

Professor Majette has also been invited to present at the Viewing Health Justice Through the Lens of Public Health Crises at Loyola University Chicago School of Law at the end of October.   

Finally, Professor Majette has been invited to appear as a guest on the national health policy podcast, Tradeoffs, hosted by Dan Gorenstein. Professor Majette will discuss her research on disparities in health care and address the question of whether Presidential Candidate Joe Biden’s health policy proposals would be particularly beneficial to communities of color. A link to the podcast episode will be posted once it is available.    

On July 14, 2020, Professor Gwen Majette spoke with the staff of the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging.  In particular she spoke with the Staff Directors for Chairman Susan Collins and Ranking Member Bob Casey and some of their staff about the issue of health disparities in seniors.   The Staff Director noted that her work on health disparities had come across the Committee’s radar and they wanted to discuss it.  

The Special Committee on Aging is the focal point for discussion and debate on matters relating to older Americans.  Some of the issues that the committee has worked on include oversight of the Medicare program and addressing the unacceptable conditions in nursing homes.  Consistent with her scholarship, Professor Majette discussed with the committee the legal structures that create health disparities for people of color; the unique challenges that different groups of color encounter to access health care (African American, Asian Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and Native American); the concepts of equity, equality, and discrimination; and the PPACA Framework to Eliminate Health Disparities and its effectiveness.