Professors Browne Lewis, Alan Weinstein, Doron Kalir, Stephen Lazarus, and Kevin O’Neill presented on October 2, as part of the Cleveland-Marshall faculty lunch presentation series, on the topic of “Recent Supreme Court Cases.”

Professor Lewis reviewed Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a case about reproductive rights in which the Supreme Court struck down a newly-imposed Texas regulation on abortion providers.

Professor Weinstein discussed Murr v. Wisconsin, a case in which the Supreme Court announced a new test for determining the “relevant parcel” for a takings claim.

Professor Lazarus reviewed Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado, which held that state rule of evidence 606(b) (patterned on the same-numbered federal rule) was unconstitutional under the 6th’s and the 14th Amendment’s right to a jury trial.   

Professor Kalir discussed United States v. Lee, a “crimmigration” case in which the Supreme Court clarified the rights of a non-citizen in a criminal case (where the admission of guilt by a non-citizen may lead to deportation).

Professor O’Neill reviewed Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (2017), where the Supreme Court ruled in favor of trademark registration for “The Slants,” an Asian-American rock band, striking down the disparagement clause of the Lanham Act as facially invalid under the Speech Clause of the First Amendment. 

On October 2, Professor Doron Kalir Presented on the issue of “should we support a right to counsel for immigrants facing deportation?” The presentation was to the Board of the Anti-Defamation League of Cleveland, as well as its Civil Rights Committee. Professor Kalir opined that, despite the logistical and financial hardships involved in such a task, a right to counsel in deportation proceedings is warranted and should be supported. He also admitted, however, that under current circumstances, the likelihood of such an initiative to succeed is extremely low. Professor Kalir is a member of the ADL Cleveland’s Board.

Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio published a blog post on Intlawgrrls entitled “Catalan Independence Referendum and the Kosovo ‘Precedent.'” In this blog post, Professor Sterio discusses the recent Catalan independence referendum and analyzes it within the context of international law, and within the context of other secession, such as the one in Kosovo in 2008.  The post is available here.

Retired Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Professor and Co-Founder of the Center for Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection, Candice Hoke, was recently quoted in a story published on Huffington Post entitled “States Accuse DHS of Giving Them Bad Information About Russian Hacking.”  According to Professor Hoke, “[t]he key point here is that hackers are quite knowledgeable about network configuration blunders that allow access to a sought system or resource — like election operations — via a less valuable asset that is internet facing or less well defended,” and “[u]nquestionably, hackers will attempt to gain access to election and other mission critical governmental systems through systems having no connection to elections. They often are simply exploring to see what’s possible, what network architecture mistakes can be exploited.”

On September 29, 2017, Professor Kevin O’Neill hosted and judged a mock oral argument in a First Amendment public employee speech retaliation case to be heard one week hence by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati. The lawyer arguing the case was C|M|Law alumna Michelle Sheehan, a partner at Reminger, and she was very capably opposed by 3L Aaren Host of our Moot Court Team, who presented the plaintiff’s arguments. Joining Professor O’Neill as judges were Reminger partners Holly Wilson and Brian Sullivan. Attending the argument were Ms. Sheehan’s clients, Tim Dobeck and Tim Miller of the City of Parma’s Law Department. The argument was conducted at Cleveland-Marshall in the Trial Court Room.

Professor Doron Kalir presented at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun on Rosh Ha’Shana (Jewish New Year). The presentation compared two models of a famous story: delivering a first-born to God. First, it discussed the male version – the Binding of Isaac by Abraham, as told in the Book of Genesis. Then, it discussed the female version – the story of Chana, mother of Samuel, who has given him back to the Holy Priest shortly after he was born (Sam. I).

Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio moderated a panel discussion on “Understanding DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) – Legal and Practical Implications, on September 28, at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.”  The panel discussion was a forum co-sponsored by the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Cleveland State University.  The other panelists included Professor Joe Mead, CSU College of Urban Affairs and College of Law; Professor Deirdre Mageean, College of Urban Affairs; Boyd Yarbrough, CSU Vice President of Student Affairs; Harlan Smith, Director, CSU Center for International Services and Programs; Nolan Stevens, Director of Legal Services, Nueva Luz Urban Resource Center; Philip Eichorn, Hammond Law Group, LLC; and Moatasem Al Bitar, CSU Master of Global Interactions ’16 and CSU Bachelor of Science ’13.  In addition, Adjunct Clinical Professor Maya Simek worked with Community Advocacy Clinic students to create a DACA-related fact sheet with additional resources, and immigration practitioner, Lisa Scott, Scott Global Migration Law Group, was in attendance and available to answer DACA-related questions.  Laura Ray, Cleveland-Marshall law librarian, created a research guide on this topic.

Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio published a blog post on Opinio Juris on the recent Kurdistan referendum for independence (an overwhelming majority of Kurds voted in favor of independence).  Professor Sterio in this blog post entitled “Do Kurds Have the Right to Self-Determination and/or Secession?” discusses self-determination and secession issues under international law, and how these apply to the current situation in Kurdistan.

Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio participated in a panel discussion on the topic of “The Trump Administration and International Law” at the City Club of Cleveland on September 27.  The panel discussion was organized by the Greater Cleveland International Lawyers’ Group, and the other panelists included Dean Michael Scharf, CWRU Law School, and Professors Timothy Webster and Avidan Cover, CWRU Law School.

Heidi Gorovitz Robertson, Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law, represented C|M|LAW at the National Conference of Bar Examiners workshop on multiple choice assessment in Madison, Wisconsin on September 11, 2017. The workshop targeted tenured professors teaching core courses and focused on designing high-quality multiple choice questions for use in classroom assessment as opposed to licensure examinations.