On Thursday, February 25, Professor Alan Weinstein presented a one-hour CLE session titled “The First Amendment and Local Government: Ongoing Concerns/Recent Developments” at the Northeast Ohio Municipal Law Directors Association’s annual Presidents’ Day Municipal Law Seminar. Professor Weinstein discussed several topics, including: policies regarding prayer at public meetings after the Court’s 2014 ruling in Town of Greece v. Galloway; how lower courts are applying the Court’s 2015 ruling in Reed v. Town of Gilbert in challenges to sign regulations and panhandling/solicitation ordinances; updates on cases involving the Religious Land Use & Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and regulation of adult entertainment businesses; and the public employee speech issues before the Court this term in Heffernan v. City of Paterson, N.J.

In January 2016, Professor Sandra Kerber participated in the Southeastern Legal Writing Conference at the University Of Miami School Of Law. The Panel Discussion which Professor Kerber participated in focused on Teaching and Advising students for Independent Research and Writing in conjunction with the ABA Standard 314.

Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio has been asked to contribute an article to the German Yearbook of International Law (GYIL). Established in 1948, the GYIL is a peer-reviewed journal, edited by the Walther Schücking Institute for International Law at the University of Kiel, the oldest university institute for public international law, founded in 1914. GYIL’s advisory board members include some of the most prominent academics in the field of international law, such as Lori Damrosch (Columbia Law School), James Crawford (Cambridge Law School and judge on the International Court of Justice), Bruno Simma (University of Michigan Law School and former judge on the International Court of Justice), and Christine Chinkin (London School of Economics and University of Michigan Law School).

Professor Sterio will contribute an article for Volume 59 (2016) due to appear in April 2017. The issue’s focus will be on “frozen conflicts” and Professor Sterio’s paper will focus on the on Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is disputed between Azerbaijan and Armenia.  Professor Sterio was a Fulbright Scholar in Azerbaijan in 2013, where she conducted research about the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson

Heidi Gorovitz Robertson, the Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law, attended the 10th Annual Meeting of the International Academic Association for Planning, Law, and Property Rights, at the University of Bern, Switzerland.  Professor Robertson presented Seeking Local Control: When State Legislation and Constitutions Collide with Local Government’s Quest to Influence Shale Development within their Borders.  

Emeritus Professor Jim Wilson was quoted in a National Law Journal article entitled “A Liberal Court Could Limit Reach of ‘Heller.'” Professor Wilson was interviewed about the possibility that a future, more liberal Supreme Court, would overturn existing case law, such as ‘Heller,” involving second amendment/gun rights and regulation.  Professor Wilson predicted, in this interview, that a future court would not likely overturn ‘Heller.”  The article also mentions Professor Wilson’s article, “Taking Stare Decisis Seriously.”

Professor Candice Hoke was interviewed by a local ABC station for a cybersecurity story on breaches of security cameras & monitors, with Russian cybergangs’ postings of private US residential, workplace,  & school scenes to the Internet.  The interview is available here.  The story and Professor Hoke’s interview were also aired by ABC Detroit, available here.

Browne Lewis, Leon and Gloria Plevin Professor of Law, delivered a lecture at Gresham College on January 25, on the topic of “The Ethics of Physician-Assisted Suicide “(founded in 1597, Gresham College is London’s oldest Higher Education Institution). The recorded lecture is available in video format here.

Professor Lewis is currently a Fulbright Scholar at King’s College in London, the United Kingdom, where she is conducting research on assisted reproductive technology and assisted suicide.

Professor David Forte has had his article, Conscience and Republican Government, accepted for publication in a volume entitled, Rights of Conscience, to be published by Peter Lang Publishers.

In addition, on February 10, 2016, Professor David Forte delivered a lecture entitled, “Could a Supreme Court Justice Speak Freely on a College Campus today?” at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California.

Professor Karin Mika has been selected to serve as a brief grader for the Capital University Law School and the Family and Youth Law Center 11^th annual National Moot Court Competition in Child Welfare and Adoption Law.  The issue involves the termination of parental rights in a situation where a child has been abused and neglected but also appears not to be adoptable because of psychological issues.

In addition, Professor Mika has been selected to serve as an essay judge for the first annual “We Solve Problems” essay competition sponsored by the Gertsburg Law Firm.  The competition is a collaborative endeavor the firm has put together with Kenston High School in Chagrin Falls that is intended to have students solve difficult issues through research, thought, reflection, and written communication.  The inaugural topic is solving issues related to Cyberbullying.  Winning essays will receive monetary prizes.

Alex Gertsburg, founder of the Gertsburg law firm, is a Cleveland-Marshall graduate, and Brittany Mallow, who currently works for the firm, is a second year student at Cleveland-Marshall.

Professor Joseph Mead reports that the following articles, that he recently authored, have been accepted for publication after a rigorous peer review process:

Law and the Volunteer: The Uncertain Employment and Tort Law Implications of the Altruistic Worker, forthcoming in Nonprofit Policy Forum;

 Quasi-Governmental Organizations at the Local Level: Publicly-Appointed Directors Leading Nonprofit Organizations, forthcoming in Nonprofit Policy Forum (with K. Warren);

Why We Need Reed: Unmasking Pretext in Anti-Panhandling Legislation, forthcoming in ConLawNOW (Formerly Akron Constitutional Law Journal).

In addition, Professor Mead has also joined the Nonprofit Law Prof Blog as a contributing editor.