C|M|LAW Professor Alan Weinstein was quoted in the July 28, 2012, edition of the Wall Street Journal in an article by Jack Nicas, entitled First Amendment Trumps Critics of Chick-fil-A’s Views.  The article concerns the First Amendment coming to the rescue of a chicken-sandwich chain that has drawn the ire of politicians outraged by its president’s public opposition to gay marriage.

In the article, Weinstein says that he has seen officials try to use zoning laws to block adult stores or religious institutions, but never a commercial enterprise because of political views. He said that beyond the First Amendment, “in the land-use sphere, the government has no legitimate interest” in the political views of an applicant.

Weinstein was also interviewed on-air on the same topic by WLW, a radio station in New Orleans.

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article:
http://search.proquest.com/wallstreetjournal/docview/1029897265/1383EB695975B27D4CF/1?accountid=10165

Click here to listen to the radio interview:
http://audio.wwl.com/a/60027462/7-30-12-6-45am-alan-weinstein.htm?q=Chick-Fil-A

C|M|LAW Professor Milena Sterio has published Piracy Off the Coast of Somalia: The Argument for Pirate Prosecutions in the National Courts of Kenya, The Seychelles, and Mauritius, in Volume 4, Number 2, of the Amsterdam Law Forum.  In this article, she argues that, in order to combat the rise of Somali piracy, major maritime nations should rely on national prosecutions of Somali pirates in the courts of stable regional partners, such as Kenya, the Seychelles, and Mauritius.  A systematic transfer program and prosecutions in the national courts of several regional partners would preclude the possibility of pirate catch-and-release, and could ultimately provide enough deterrence to seriously dissuade young Somali men from engaging in piracy.  The Somali pirates, enemies of all mankind, may find potent foes in the form of Kenyan, Seychellois, and Mauritian prosecutors, who will subject pirates to prosecutions on behalf of all mankind.

To read the full article, click here: http://ojs.ubvu.vu.nl/alf/article/view/264/456

C|M|LAW Professor Milena Sterio has accepted a grant from the William J. Fulbright Commission to teach and conduct research at Baku State University in Baku, Azerbaijan in the Spring semester of the 2012-2013 academic year.  She will teach two classes and perform research on statehood and secession.  In particular, she will be studying a disputed area/province  called the Nagorno-Karabakhin which has been the subject of border disputes between Azerbaijan and Armenia for almost 20 years.  Her research will focus on this area which de jure belongs to Azerbaijan but has been de facto occupied by Armenia.

C|M|LAW Professor David Forte spoke to a class in Comparative Constitutional Law at the State University of Milan, Italy on May 3, 2012.  For the class of first year Italian law students, about 80 in number, Forte described the differences between accommodation of religion in France and in the United States, with a reference to President Obama’s HHS mandate on Catholic institutions.

On May 7, 2012, Professor Forte spoke on Catholic and Islamic Traditions and the Prospect for Democracy,  at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.  He analyzed the historical similarities and differences in the way Catholicism and Islam confronted and dealt with or is dealing with the phenomenon of representative democracy.

During his trip to Italy, on May 11, 2012, Professor Forte was interviewed by Xenit, the Catholic News Agency.  His interview with Xenit centered on the significance of the Islamist consolidation of political power in the Middle East.

You may access the interview here:  http://www.zenit.org/article-34761?l=english

Professor Phyllis L. Crocker

C|M|LAW Professor Phyllis L. Crocker and C|M|LAW Adjunct Professor Gordon Friedman have been appointed to the Cuyahoga County Public Defender Commission by Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald.  Their appointments were confirmed by the Cuyahoga County Council on May 22, 2012.   The Public Defender Commission is composed of 5 members.  The Commission recommends an annual operating budget for the Public Defender’s Office, establishes its operational standards, and determines the qualifications and size of the supporting staff in the office in an effort to provide essential legal representation to indigent persons in Cuyahoga County.   Crocker and Friedman were confirmed to serve 4-year terms on the Commission.

Professor Crocker is a recognized authority on the death penalty.  She chaired the American Bar Association’s Ohio Death Penalty Assessment Team that published the report Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems:  The Ohio Death Penalty Assessment Report (2007).  She has written extensively on the constitutional, historical and cultural underpinnings of capital punishment.  She is a co-author Katz & Giannelli, Baldwin’s Ohio Practice: Criminal Law (3rd ed., 2009) and is a frequent guest lecturer on capital punishment.   Professor Crocker teaches Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure I and II, Capital Punishment and the Law and the Externship Seminar.

Gordon Friedman is a partner in the law firm of Friedman and Gilbert, where he practices criminal defense in the areas of drug crimes, homicide/murder, white collar crimes, sex crimes, DUI, federal criminal practice and sentencing, tax crimes, fraud, and more.  Early in his career, he served as an assistant public defender in Cuyahoga County, and as the director of the Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland. He teaches Criminal Procedure I at C|M|LAW.  He and his law partner, Terry Gilbert, sponsor the Friedman and Gilbert Criminal Justice Forum Lecture, held annually at C|M|LAW.

Dean Craig M. Boise

Eaton Corporation is buying a rival company and incorporating the new merged company in Ireland rather than the United States.   Eaton expects to save $160 billion in taxes annually as a result of the merger and Irish incorporation.  An article in the May 22, 2012 edition of The Plain Dealer, Eaton Corp. plans to buy Cooper Industries in a $11.8 billion deal; move incorporation to Ireland, by Robert Schoenberger, indicates that Cooper Industries is already incorporated in Ireland, where the corporate tax rate is 12.5 percent.  The U.S. rate is 35 percent.  Overseas incorporation will shield Eaton from some overseas profits, though it will continue to be responsible for taxes on income earned in the U.S.

According to Dean Boise, a “secondary benefit could come from patents and other intellectual property. When a company develops new technology, it tends to license those inventions to its own subsidiaries and other companies. If those patents are held in the U.S., the profits from those licensing fees generate U.S. profits. But if Eaton is an Irish company, it can hold those patents in Dublin, and licensing fees will be subject to that country’s lower rates.”

Boise stated that “[t]hat’s one of the biggest reasons that pharmaceutical and technology companies hold their intellectual property offshore, to avoid U.S. taxation.”

To read the article, click here: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/05/eaton_corp_plans_to_merge_with.html

C|M|LAW Professor Milena Sterio will appear on “Talking Foreign Policy” at 8:00 PM (EST) on Thursday, May 24.  “Talking Foreign Policy” is an hour-long radio program hosted by Michael Scharf (Case) , in which experts discuss the salient foreign policy issues of the day.  For those outside of Cleveland, the  show will be streamed live on the Internet at wcpn.org.  In Cleveland, you can hear it on 90.3 FM — Cleveland’s NPR station.

The May 24th program will examine the controversial policy of using drones to kill Americans abroad, the challenges of bringing indicted tyrants to justice, and America’s Afghanistan exit strategy.

The expert panel for the May 24th program is composed of:

James A. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Law Chris Sagers was quoted in today’s Wall Street Journal, for his thoughts on a potential antitrust enforcement action by the Federal Trade Commission against Google.  While no complaint has yet been filed, indications are that the Commission will sue Google for having monopolized the market for “internet search.”  Google acknowledged in summer 2011 that the Commission had begun an internal investigation, and observers believe recent steps indicate that an FTC complaint is imminent.  Prominently, in April the Commission announced its hiring of a high profile Washington litigator to head a potential Google prosecution team, and just this week Google announced the publication of two Google-sponsored white papers written by prominent academics in its defense.  Asked whether these steps increased the likelihood of a complaint, Sagers said “the ‘mutual saber-rattling’ is an indication that both sides are girding for battle. Google ‘is laying out its legal strategy as a way to make the FTC blink’ . . .  while the agency’s move to bring in Ms. Wilkinson ‘demonstrates that they’re not going to back down.’ ”

The article is available here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304543904577396483337361246.html