On September 27, Clinical Professor Ken Kowalski moderated the Federal Bar Association’s New Lawyer Training seminar entitled “A Whole Trial in 3 Hours.” This seminar featured information on voir dire, opening statements, examination of witnesses, and closings. Speakers included John R. Mitchell of Thompson Hine LLP, Susan Gragel of Goldstein Gragel LLC, Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Ohio Dennis G. Terez, and Criminal Chief for the United States Attorney’s Ohio, ND Ohio David Sierleja.
Author Archives: CSU|LAW
Simek Honored as LGBT Shining Star
On Oct. 11th Visiting Clinical Professor Maya Simek was awarded the Shining Star Award for her contributions to furthering Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered equality in an educational setting. This award honors her as an individual from the LGBT community who has proven to be a distinguished inspiration to others for guidance, inspiration, or scholarship in the field of Education. The award is part of the Cleveland LGBT Heritage Day Celebration co-sponsored by Cleveland’s LGBT Center and the City of Cleveland. Maya was recognized for the work she did to revitalize both the undergraduate and law student LGBT student organizations, her outstanding service as president of CM Allies, and her many other successful efforts to increase LGBT visibility and equality at CSU and throughout the greater Cleveland area. Many of Maya’s accomplishments occurred during her two-year tenure as a graduate assistant for LGBT Student Services in CSU’s Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, but the award also recognized Maya’s ongoing efforts to make Cleveland a better community for all its citizens, exemplified by her work to create a legal clinic at the Nueva Luz Urban Resource Center based on a community lawyering model. C|M|LAW Professor Susan Becker, the 2009 recipient of the award, presented the award to Maya.
Sundahl Coordinates 53rd Annual Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space in Cape Town, South Africa
Associate Dean Mark Sundahl coordinated the 53rd Annual Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space this week in Cape Town, South Africa. This Colloquium involves leading experts in the field of space law who delivered more than 50 papers in five sessions. The topics addressed include the commercial use of outer space, space debris and the environmental protection of space, militarization of orbital space, and the use of space for public services. The Colloquium also hosts the World Finals of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition which is judged by three sitting judges of the International Court of Justice. Dean Sundahl presented a paper at the Colloquium on the recently promulgated commercial human spaceflight regulations issued by the FAA and NASA.
Associate Dean Sundahl also co-edited a book, (with V. Gopalakrishnan, Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore), New Perspectives on Space Law – Proceedings of the 53rd IISL Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space – Young Scholars Session. At this time, a single copy is available in the Faculty Lounge for viewing.
Majette Writes About the New Health Care Reform Law
Professor Gwen Majette
Professor Gwendolyn Roberts Majette has published PPACA and Public Health: Creating a Framework to Focus on Prevention and Wellness and Improve the Public’s Health in the Fall 2011 issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. This article is part of a trilogy of articles she is writing on health care reform and was part of a symposium on public health reform.
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), a major piece of health care reform legislation. This comprehensive legislation includes provisions that focus on prevention, wellness, and public health. Some, including authors in the symposium, question whether Congress considered public health, prevention, and wellness issues as mere afterthoughts in the creation of PPACA. This article argues that they did not. This article documents the extent of congressional consideration on public health issues based on Professor Majette’s personal experiences working on the framework for health care reform – in particular, her experience as a Fellow for a member of the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee from 2008-2009.
Professor Majette also includes in this work a review of congressional activity in the United States House of Representatives. Her analysis of the congressional meetings and hearings reveals that Congress had a deep understanding about the critical need to reform the U.S. public health and prevention system. The article illustrates how PPACA will have a positive impact on public health by examining the infrastructure that Congress designed to focus on prevention and wellness, with a particular emphasis on the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council; the National Prevention, Health Promotion, Public Health, and Integrative Health Care Strategy; and the Prevention and Public Health Fund. The Council, strategy, and fund are especially important because they reflect compliance with some of the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations to improve public health in the United States, as well as international health and human rights norms that protect the right to health.
Professor Majette begins by addressing the nature of public health in general and setting forth why the U.S. public health and prevention system needs to be reformed. She describes public health as ‘what we as a society do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy.’ Primarily, the system is underfunded and there is insufficient collaboration on public health issues at the state and federal levels. In addition, among other problems, the public health system is cut-off from the health care delivery system, which reduces its effectiveness.
The article sets forth some of the debates and initiatives in the United States Congress regarding reform of the public health and prevention system. Specifically, she addresses the Senate’s framework for health care reform, including the Congressional hearings on prevention leading up to the health care reform legislation, and preliminary legislative proposals with emphasis on prevention, wellness, and public health. With respect to the hearings in both the Senate and the House, she analyzes the testimony of many witnesses who appeared before Congress.
Ultimately, Professor Majette concludes that the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, strategy, and fund fill an important gap in existing federal law by creating a framework that focuses the U.S. healthcare system on prevention and wellness. The comprehensive framework also complies with international norms on human rights by addressing the health care needs of the entire U.S. population; by addressing the intersectoral nature of health issues through adoption of a Health-In-All Policies approach at the cabinet level of the executive branch of the federal government; and by providing desperately needed resources to make financial investments into public health, prevention, and wellness.
You may read the full text of Professor Majette’s article at http://www2.law.csuohio.edu/newsevents/images/39JLME366.pdf
Beggs Interviewed by ACLU Oral History Project
Emeritus Clinical Professor Gordon Beggs was interviewed for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Oral History Project regarding his service to the ACLU. Beggs’ ACLU service included helping organize a student ACLU chapter at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 to address police practices at anti-war demonstrations, serving as a Law Student Civil Rights Research Council Intern while a student at Penn Law, holding five positions with the ACLU of Ohio beginning as Cleveland Executive Director in 1973 and finishing as Ohio Legal Director 1989-1991. He handled four major cases as volunteer attorney during his first years at Cleveland-Marshall.
Forte Debates ACLU’s Daniel Mach on Shari’a
On Monday, September 27, Professor David Forte debated Mr. Daniel Mach, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief on the topic “Is the Shari’a Coming to America? And Should We Care?” The Debate was held at the Cornell Club in New York and was sponsored by the New York City Federalist Society Lawyers’ Chapter.
Sundahl Quoted in the New York Times Regarding the Falling NASA Satellite
Associate Dean Mark J. Sundahl was quoted in the New York Times on Saturday, September 24, regarding tort liability, under international law, for potential damage caused by NASA’s falling satellite. The article, Satellite Falls to Earth, but We Know Not Where, by Kenneth Chang, addresses the worldwide concern about where the satellite might land and what damage would occur upon its landing. According to Sundahl, under international treaties, NASA would have paid compensation for damage or injuries caused in other countries, but if the satellite caused damage in the a United States territory, “the harmed U.S. person would have no recourse under international law, but would have to sue the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act.”
You may read the full text at http://www2.law.csuohio.edu/newsevents/images/Satellite_NYTimes.com.pdf
Sagers Drafts Second Circuit Amicus Brief on Behalf of the American Antitrust Institute
Professor Chris Sagers was the lead drafter of an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on behalf of the American Antitrust Institute. In the words of the AAI: AAI filed a brief in the Second Circuit urging the court to reject the application of the filed rate doctrine in electricity markets subject to ‘market based rates.’ AAI maintained that the filed rate doctrine, which provides immunity from antitrust damages where conduct involves regulated, filed rates, has little justification in general, and should have no place when ‘rates’ are set by competition rather than fixed by regulation. The issue is a question of first impression in the Second Circuit.”
You may view the brief at: http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/content/amicus-brief-aai-opposes-filed-rate-doctrine-electricity-simon-v-keyspan
Inniss Participates in Around Noon Book Club: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Professor Lolita Buckner Inniss participated in the Around Noon Book Club on the local National Public Radio station, WCPN, on Monday, September 19th. The topic of discussion was the 20th century classic Their Eyes Were Watcing God by Zora Neale Hurston. Joining Professor Inniss in the panel discussion, led by WCPN’s Dee Perry, were CWRU’s Rhonda Williams and Laurel School’s Ann Klotz. You may listen to the podcast here: http://www.ideastream.org/an/entry/42414
Forte Comments on Religion, Reason, and Same-Sex Marriage
Professor David Forte published a Letter to the Editor in First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life. In the letter, published in response to the article “Religion, Reason, and Same-Sex Marriage,” by Matthew J. Franck (First Things, May 2011), Forte praised Dr. Franck’s defense of the moral legitimacy of those argue against same-sex marriage. He disagrees, however, with Franck’s conclusion that the tactics of same-sex marriage advocates will be self-defeating. He writes that contrary to Franck’s position that opponents of same-sex marriage will win in the end because the majority of Americans agree with them, the sentiments of the majority may be changing. As evidence for this assertion Forte notes that the popularity of marriage in the general population has decreased dramatically, divorce rates are up, and people who divorce often do not seek to remarry as they used to. Instead, they tend to co-habit with a new partner. As such, they see marriage as a lifestyle choice. Because they are co-habiting themselves, he argues, people do not seem to see same-sex marriage as a threat to the lifestyle they are trying to build. In fact, he writes that same-sex marriage advocates may attempt to take the moral high ground, arguing that in a world where many are choosing less committed relationships, same-sex marriage advocates are arguing for the most committed relationship. Therefore, they can argue that it is they who hold marriage in the highest esteem. Forte concludes, “The attack on marriage, therefore, is deontological, political, and social. On the one hand, some, knowing that the strongest argument for marriage arises out of natural law, wish to “de-nature” marriage, as one visiting scholar stated at my university. The political attack on marriage comes through the courts, as we have seen. But the social attack comes from the new habits and sensibilities of the American people, who when asked, speak of holding marriage in high esteem, but when put to the test of practice, are more and more preferring forms of less committed relationships.”
You may read the full text of the letter at
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=17&sid=827f540d-015b-41aa-be2f-6904cf3ac306%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=hlh&AN=64087720.
CSU Law Faculty 