Legal Educator in Residence Howard E. Katz was the lead presenter on the October 14 webinar sponsored by the AALS Section on New Law Professors. The topic was The Art of Choosing Textbook for Your Course: Ideas to Help You Approach This All-Important Decision. His co-panelists were Dean Sean Scott of California Western School of Law, Professor Paul Figueroa of the University of New Mexico School of Law, and Nancy Soonpa of Texas Tech School of Law; section chair Professor Timothy Duffy of Suffolk University Law School was the moderator.

The webinar addressed the challenges, especially for newer professors, of choosing the right casebook and course materials for first-year, upper-level, and legal writing courses. Various criteria, including the coverage and clarity of the book, congruence with one’s teaching style, progression of material, being a short-case or long-case professor, quality of advice in the teachers’ manual, inclusion of review problems, financial burden to students, and institutional politics were among the topics considered.

Attendees were given a handout based on a chapter of the book Strategies and ​Techniques of Law School Teaching, written by Professor Katz and Professor Kevin F. O’Neill. The webinar was recorded and is available on the AALS website.

On October 21, 2021, Fox 8 News recognized Professor John Plecnik on live TV as one of “Cleveland’s Own” for his decade of service as a legal scholar and teacher at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University.  Fox 8 News praised Professor Plecnik for being named Professor of the Year twice and noted his service as a Lake County Commissioner.

Fox 8 News runs their television segment of “Cleveland’s Own” to celebrate and highlight people, organizations and charities making a difference in Northeast Ohio.

On Monday, October 18, Clinical Professor of Law Doron Kalir was interviewed by Joe Ingles of Ideastream Public Media on the issue of Ohio Supreme Court Justice Patrick DeWine. Justice DeWine recently announced he will not recuse himself from the trio of cases filed against the Ohio Redistricting Commission, of which his father — Governor Mike DeWine — is a member. 

Professor Kalir explained that while he has no reason to suspect actual bias by the Justice, U.S. Supreme Court precedent and the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct are satisfied with a situation where the Justice’s impartiality would be “reasonably called into question.” The confluence of circumstances in this case — the fact it arrives at the Supreme Court as a case of original jurisdiction; the fact the Justice’s father may directly gain (or lose) from the ruling; and the fact that the case is fraught with political implications — all point to a justified recusal.  

One thing that was left out of the broadcasted interview was Professor Kalir’s opinion that by refusing to recuse himself, the Justice increases the likely exposure of a U.S. Supreme Court review. While the Court would likely not intervene in an internal state issue (such as redrawing the maps), the Supreme Court had ruled, on several occasions, that a refusal to recuse by a state judge may involve a 14th Amendment Due Process issue. 

The interview can be found here.

On Thursday, September 23^rd, Prof. Mark J. Sundahl organized and moderated a panel on “Building Capacity in Space Law: An American Experience” as part of the Space Education and Strategic Applications Conference hosted by the Policy Studies Organization and the American Public University. 

During the panel, Professor Sundahl highlighted the work of CMLAW’s Global Space Law Center to train the next generation of space lawyers to provide the legal expertise needed by private companies and government agencies as the space industry expands into suborbital, orbital, and cislunar space. Professor Sundahl was joined on the panel by current and former students Hailey Hillsman ’22, Stephen Robison ’20, and Scott Parry ’12 who shared their experiences studying space law at Cleveland-Marshall.

Other panelists included Steven Freeland (Western Sydney University), and Michael Dodge (University of North Dakota). A video recording of the panel can be viewed here.

In a policy statement today, Federal Trade Commissioner Rohit Chopra cited work by Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Professor of Law. Commissioner Chopra, who has been a critic of reduced antitrust enforcement, has called for more careful review of the effectiveness of the Commission’s work. In his statement today, he singled out an important study of 2017 in which the Commission claimed to have compiled empirical evidence showing the effectiveness of the agency’s merger enforcement program. Citing work in which Sagers explained that study’s flaws, Commissioner Chopra called for the study to be reviewed, and presented preliminary follow-up evidence showing it to be questionable.

The Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection and the online MLS in Cybersecurity & Data Privacy were invited to participate in the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education’s Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week, October 18-23. Professor Brian Ray will lead a discussion of legal-related cybersecurity and privacy careers on October 19 with Center Advisory Board Members and online MLS faculty members Kirk Herath and Spence Witten.

Professor Brian Ray was part of a team consisting of Case Western Reserve University faculty members and Cleveland Clinic researchers who recently submitted a proposal in to the National Science Foundation’s Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) initiative. The team proposes to develop a comprehensive, integrated, intelligent system for early and accurate pandemic prediction and response at the personal and population levels using innovative technology to protect personal privacy.

The Sedona Conference, Data Privacy and Security Working Group 11, selected Professor Brian Ray to serve as a Dialogue Leader to lead discussion of a draft Biometric Technology Primer at its Midyear Meeting. Ray was selected this past summer by the Conference to Chair the drafting group, which consists of eleven national experts in biometric regulations and technology.

The Ohio Senate invited Professor Brian Ray to submit written testimony at a hearing on HB 177, which would permit public entities in Ohio to use blockchain technology to improve government services. Ray previously submitted testimony supporting the bill at an Ohio House committee hearing this summer.

Professor John Plecnik’s article, “Officers Under the Appointments Clause,” was cited and quoted by the Congressional Research Service, which works exclusively for the United States Congress to provide policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the Senate and House.

This same article has also been cited as authority by the Supreme Court of the United States in 2018 and the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico in 2020.

A link to the report is here.