Legal Educator-in Residence Howard E. Katz made a plenary session presentation about pedagogy in constitutional law and related courses on February 25 at the Seventh Annual ACS/Barry/Texas A&M Constitutional Law Scholars Forum (held online).

Professor Matthew Ahn has published an article, titled “No Compassion,” reporting his original research into potential Supreme Court nominee J. Michelle Childs’s criminal justice record as a district court judge. He looks at Judge Childs’s available decisions on motions for compassionate release, which he finds to be unfriendly to incarcerated individuals and largely dismissive of their concerns, both compared to other judges in South Carolina and nationwide. 

The article is published at Inquest, a forum created by Harvard Law School’s Institute to End Mass Incarceration. 

Professor Christa Laser appeared as a guest on the podcast “3 Things to Know,” hosted by WKYC journalist Stephanie Haney. She discussed intellectual property issues related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The podcast is available here.

Professor Karin Mika assisted in reviewing articles for a variety of recent events. She graded essays for the Maltz Museum’s “Stop the Hate; Youth Speak Out” competition. In addition, she graded student briefs for Capital Law School’s “Child Welfare and Adoption Law” Competition. Finally, she scored law review articles for the Scribes Law Review Award Competition.

Clinical Professor of Law Doron Kalir was quoted last week by the Business Insider regarding the implications of the Supreme Court’s abortion (SB. 8) decision. In particular, professor Kalir opined on the legal landscape likely to be created by the Court’s refusal to block the new vigilante-enforcement regime adopted by Texas. Kalir warned that other States may adopt similar measures, and that that, in turn, may lead to creating a society very few of us would like to live in. 

Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Professor of Law, appeared in the German documentary series “Opaque Worlds,” produced by Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF, and distributed by ZDF and its international arm, Deutsche Welle. 

Sagers was featured in Part 5 of the series, “The Rise of Big Tech” (paywall), which details the rise and policy challenges of the dominant online platforms. He appeared along with experts from Stanford, Columbia, UCLA, NYU, and Harvard. 

Professor Deborah Geier appeared as a guest on WCPN’s “Sound of Ideas” program on February 3 to discuss (after a much more interesting segment on potential inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) items that may be of interest in the current tax filing season. The program can be accessed here.

The Environmental Law Institute’s latest edition of The Law of Environmental Protection is now out.  Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson wrote section E. Municipal Regulation, § 29:69 through § 29:85 in “VI. State and Local Government Regulation” in the new Chapter 29, Oil and Gas. This is the first time the ELI has included Oil and Gas Law in this set so the entire oil and gas section is new.

Professor Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Professor of Law.

Professor Christa Laser is featured in The SEP Couch with Tim Polmann, a podcast focusing on standard essential patents. Standard essential patents (SEPs) are patents that claims an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard, and thus implicate the ability of companies and users to achieve interoperability. For example, all USB ports and cords work together, regardless of the manufacturer.

On the podcast, Professor Laser discusses her history of representing companies in SEP litigation, including the role of injunctions. She also discusses her transition from practice to her current role as a law professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, as well as career challenges she faced as a woman and a mother.

The video of the podcast can be viewed below.

Professor Milena Sterio participated in the American Society of International Law – Midwest Interest Group Workshop on January 28th.  Professor Sterio presented her paper, “The Ongwen ICC Case: How to Punish a Victim-Perpetrator?”  In her paper, Professor Sterio discusses the recent International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecution of Dominic Ongwen, a Lord’s Resistance Army leader who had been abducted as a child by the LRA but later rose through its ranks, became a leader, and committed numerous atrocities.  Ongwen was convicted by the ICC and sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment.  Professor Sterio discusses whether Ongwen’s sentence was appropriate and whether it adequately took into account Ongwen’s status as both a child soldier/victim and also perpetrator.