Professor Milena Sterio was interviewed live on the Air Talk radio program (Los Angeles NPR Station) on March 2, on the legality of the U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran under international law. The program, including Prof. Sterio’s interview, is available here.
Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich was quoted in an article titled, “Cleveland police use facial recognition without training or transparency on its use,” published by Ideastream Public Media. The article discusses a recent criminal case in which Cleveland police used facial recognition technology to obtain a search warrant in a murder investigation.
In recent public comments to City Council, Cleveland Public Safety Director Wayne Drummond stated that the Cleveland Real Time Crime Center does not use facial recognition technology. However, the recent criminal case shows that the Real Time Crime Center sent images to the Northeast Ohio Fusion Center, which conducted the facial recognition search on their behalf.
Professor Witmer-Rich opined that Cleveland police should be more open about what technology they’re using and how they’re using it.
“What body of images do we want the police to be using if, if using it at all?” Witmer-Rich said. “And is it anything that a company can scrape off of the internet, or should it be something more limited than that? Something that’s limited to a certain set of images that we know are reliable or that we know haven’t been manipulated?”
Professor Deborah Hoffman, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Cleveland State University College of Law, was featured in a news segment by WEWS News 5 Cleveland addressing legal issues related to prolonged road construction and its impact on local businesses.
The story focuses on a Geneva, Ohio business affected by extended infrastructure work. Professor Hoffman provided commentary on legal considerations involving business access, notice, and the limits of government authority.
The segment includes both a written article and video interview and is available here.
Professor Milena Sterio participated in an episode of the Legal Face-Off Radio Program on Chicago’s WGN station. In this episode, Professor Sterio was interviewed regarding the legality of U.S. action in Venezuela, including the kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Maduro, as well as the prosecution of Maduro and his wife in the Southern District of New York. The episode is available on the WGN Radio website, as well as on various social media:
Professor Sterio concluded that the U.S. actions in Venezuela were illegal under international law as they violated the U.N. Charter as well as corresponding customary law, which bans states from using force against each other. Professor Sterio also opined that the U.S. prosecution of Maduro in the Southern District of New York will most likely proceed. She explained that U.S. federal district court judges tend to defer to the executive branch on matters implicating foreign relations and national security. Moreover, there is Supreme Court precedent confirming that a forcibly kidnapped defendant can nonetheless be prosecuted in U.S. court, and precedent from the 1989-90 Panama situation, where the leader of Panama, General Noriega, was prosecuted by U.S. court despite his claims of sovereign immunity. Last, Professor Sterio discussed legal issues surrounding the enforcement of arrest warrants extra-territorially; she concluded that jurisdiction to enforce is purely territorial under international law and that the U.S. violated international law when it arrested Maduro in Venezuela.
Professor Milena Sterio appeared on a segment of Bloomberg News live on January 7. She discussed the legality of the U.S. attacks against Venezuela and the related kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro. She also focused on legal issues surrounding Maduro’s now ongoing prosecution in the Southern District of New York.
Professor Sterio also appeared on Fox News – DC on January 7, in a live news segment, where she discussed the recent decision by a federal district judge to request that Lindsay Halligan explain how and why she keeps acting as U.S. Attorney, in light of a November 2025 ruling by a different federal judge, who had ruled that she had been improperly appointed.
Professor Milena Sterio has been quoted in the media extensively regarding the United States’ attack against Venezuela on Jan. 3. Professor Sterio was quoted in a Reuters article titled “Legality of US capture of Venezuela’s Maduro in focus at United Nations.”
She was also interviewed by Fox 5 (DC) on January 3, where she offered live commentary following President Trump’s Press Conference. In addition, she was interviewed on the Air Talk radio show (Los Angeles NPR station) on January 5; the episode is available for on-demand listening here.
Finally, she was quoted in a BBC article (“Trump’s seizure of Maduro raises thorny legal questions, in US and abroad“) on January 5.
On December 17, Professor Kalir published an op-ed on Cleveland.com titled, “Texas redistricting case highlights growing judicial rift.” In the op-ed, Professor Kalir reviewed the recent Supreme Court “shadow docket” opinion in the Texas redistricting case. In that case, the Court reversed a 160-page opinion by the lower court with a short statement, without oral argument and without any real reasoning. In dissent, Justice Kagan highlighted the paradox of overruling such a thorough work product with a cursory review “over a holiday weekend.” Professor Kalir, following a New York Times survey among lower-court judges, argued that this opinion is a harbinger of a growing rift between the “one Supreme Court” and “other inferior courts” that the Constitution had invested with the “judicial power” of the United States.
Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich was quoted in an article by Signal Cleveland, titled “He brought a gunshot victim to the Cleveland Clinic. Hospital police cuffed and detained him.” The article tells the story of Ibrahim Alim, who was detained by the Cleveland Clinic police when Alim dropped off a friend who had suffered a gunshot wound. The police also seized Alim’s car.
The article reports that the Cleveland Clinic has a policy directing police to detain any person who drops off a gunshot wound victim, without regard to the circumstances of the case.
Professor Witmer-Rich explained that this policy likely violates the Fourth Amendment:
To legally detain a person and their vehicle, police must reasonably suspect they are involved in criminal activity, said Jonathan Witmer-Rich, co-director of Cleveland State University’s Criminal Justice Center. Police officers have to assess each individual on a case-by-case basis, he added, looking for specific facts that show the person is involved in criminal activity.
But the Cleveland Clinic Police Department’s gunshot wound policy does not mention the standard of reasonable suspicion. As written, Witmer-Rich said it very likely violates the Fourth Amendment.
“The problem here is that this is a blanket policy,” Witmer-Rich said. “… And so a blanket policy that has you seize the car and the person every single time, I think, is not legitimate from a Fourth Amendment perspective.”
Professor Milena Sterio participated in another episode of Talking Foreign Policy, a quarterly radio show and podcast hosted by Professor Michael Scharf, Case Western Reserve University School of Law. The program aired on Monday, December 2, and is available at the Ideastream Public Media website to listen to anytime at: Do US strikes against Venezuelan ships violate international law? | Talking Foreign Policy | Ideastream Public Media
In addition to Professor Sterio, panelists included Professor Harold Koh, Yale Law School and Former Legal Advisor to the State Department; Professor Rebecca Ingber, Cardozo Law School, and Dr Gregory Noone, Roger Williams Law School and Retired U.S. Navy Captain.
The episode focused on the legality of recent U.S. strikes against alleged narco-trafficking vessels originating from Venezuela and Colombia.
Professor Sterio was interviewed by the Fox 5 News Channel on May 1, about the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland-based man who has been wrongfully deported to El Salvador. Professor Sterio’s interview is available here: https://youtu.be/AP4YyH_LxK8?si=BcsFASegWHdMdfM5
CSU Law Faculty 