C|M|LAW and Levin College of Urban Affairs Professor Alan Weinstein’s article, The Effect of RLUIPA’s Land Use Provisions on Local Governments, 39 FORDHAM URB. L.J 1221 (2012), has been selected to be included in the 2013 edition of Zoning and Planning Law Handbook, published by Thomson-Reuters on the basis that it represents an important contribution to the literature of zoning and land use law. In the article, he argues that in the absence of perfect information about how RLUIPA (Religious Land Use & Institutionalized Persons Act) has affected local governments, courts have adopted a pragmatic approach to addressing RLUIPA challenges that combines appropriate judicial deference to a local government that enacts a neutral law of general applicability with the heightened judicial scrutiny that becomes appropriate when that same local government applies that same law to a specific zoning approval, a circumstance that frequently allows for subjectivity in the approval process and thus the potential for discrimination or arbitrary action against religious uses.
Category Archives: Faculty News
Hoke Quoted Widely on the Election-Related Cyber Attack in Florida
C|M|LAW Professor Candice Hoke was quoted in a news story that has been syndicated widely across the country regarding last fall’s election-related cyber attack in Florida. The case involved an attempt, last fall, to 2,500 absentee ballots through phantom requests carried about by a computer program on the Miami-Dade County elections board’s website. The large number of false requests came from a small number of IP addresses overseas, and therefore, the board’s protection software was able to discover and to reject the phony requests. The concern, however, is that this attempt exposes the vulnerabilities of computer-based elections. According to Hoke, “[t]his has been in the cards, it’s been foreseeable.” Commenting on the attractive cost-savings provided by on-line voting, Hoke said “It’s cheap, if you don’t care whether elections are stolen.”
To read the original story, see:
To see a related story click here:
Inniss to Speak at Princeton re the Princeton Fugitive Slave
C|M|LAW’s Joseph C. Hostetler-Baker & Hostetler Professor of Law, Lolita K. Buckner Inniss will speak at Princeton University on February 25, 2013. Her lecture, James C. Johnson and the Princeton Fugitive Slave Case, will be presented through the History Department and will focus on Professor Inniss’ research on the history of slavery in the Princeton area.
Details about the presentation are available here: http://www.princeton.edu/history/events_archive/viewevent.xml?id=761
More information, and many photos and facts are available at the Facebook page Professor Inniss created: The Princeton Fugitive Slave: James Collins Johnson, accessible here: https://www.facebook.com/ThePrincetonFugitiveSlaveJamesCollinsJohnson
Crocker Cited by U.S. Supreme Court in Ryan v. Valencia Gonzales
C|M|LAW Professor Phyllis L. Crocker’s article Not to Decide is to Decide: The U.S. Supreme Court’s Thirty-Year Struggle with One Case About Competency to Waive Death Penalty Appeals, 49 Wayne L. Rev. 885 (2004), has been cited in a footnote in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Ryan v. Valencia Gonzales, which was handed down on January 8th. In a unanimous opinion, the Court held that state court defendants on death row have no federal statutory right to an indefinite stay of execution from a federal court if they are incompetent; the proceedings may continue with the attorney alone litigating the case. The Court observed, “At some point, the State must be allowed to defend its judgment of conviction.” Slip op. at 18. The Court also noted that the Gonzales “does not implicate the prohibition against carrying out a sentence of death upon a prisoner who is insane.” Id. at n. 18.
You may view the decision here.
Becker, Snyder and Guttenberg Publish the 3rd Edition of The Law of Professional Conduct in Ohio
Lexis Nexis has published the 3rd edition of The Law of Professional Conduct in Ohio, co-authored by C|M|LAW Professor Susan Becker, C|M|LAW Professor Emeritus Lloyd Snyder and C|M|LAW faculty alum Jack Guttenberg (Capital). It is available both in hard copy and through the Lexis Nexis database. This new edition contains substantial updates and significantly expands its coverage of cutting edge issues such as inadvertent disclosure of confidential client information. It also covers professional conduct rules applicable in the federal district courts located in Ohio and other federal courts.
Ray Posts ‘In Memoriam’ to South Africa’s Chief Justice Chaskalson
C|M|LAW Professor Brian Ray posted an ‘in memoriam’ to Arthur Chaskalson, the first President and Chief Justice of South Africa’s Constitutional Court who died on December 1, 2012. Ray highlights the critical leadership role Chaskalson played in the South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement and in the creation and building of South Africa’s Constitutional Court. Ray compares Chaskalson’s role on South Africa’s Constitutional Court to Chief Justice John Marshall’s role in transforming the U.S. Supreme Court.
See: http://www.iconnectblog.com/2012/12/in-memoriam-chief-justice-arthur-chaskalson/
Crain’s Quotes Dean Boise on Tomorrow’s Lawyers and Challenges in the Legal Field
On November 27, 2012, Crain’s Cleveland Business quoted C|M|LAW Dean Craig Boise in What the legal community is saying. The piece posed two questions to five leaders in the Cleveland legal community. What attributes will be needed for tomorrow’s attorneys? What are some of the significant challenges in the legal field going forward?
In response to those questions, Dean Boise said:
“The legal sector leaders of tomorrow will above all need to be prepared to lead dramatic change. Traditionally, change within the legal sector — for both law firms and law schools —has been glacial. We now face unprecedented challenges that will require us to learn quickly the adaptability and innovation that have long characterized the business sector.
Downward pressure on costs is the greatest challenge the legal field faces over the next five years. Technology and outsourcing have transformed the way companies In virtually every other industry do business, and those companies are now demanding substantial cost concessions from their lawyers. This has led to a reduction In law firm hiring and lower associate wages, which in turn have forced law schools to examine their cost structures in light of a shrinking pool of prospective students.”
Teresa Metcalf Beasley (Senior Counsel, Calfee, Halter & Griswold, LLP), indicated that integrity and professionalism, along with a creative approach to problems, and networking/strong-reputation, would be critical attributes in future lawyers, and that in the future, there must be an emphasis on being flexible andcreative when approaching businesses with ever changing technology.
C|M|LAW alum, CMBA President, and Tucker Ellis partner, Carter Strang said that new lawyers will need the ability to use new technology and adapt to changes, and that they will need to be open to alternative work arrangements. He also noted that we must find a way to attract best and brightest to our state and local judiciaries.
Jean Robertson (General Counsel, Beck Aluminum) said that the legal sector needs transparent leadership pipelines, and an emphasis on anticipating trends, and that the recession has had a negative impact on job availability.
Finally, Judge Dan Polster (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio) suggests that future lawyers need to be creative problem solvers, with an ability to work collaboratively. He noted that equal access to services, the high cost of education, and making sure courts receive sufficient resources are significant challenges going forward.
C|M|LAW Solo Practice Incubator Featured in Crain’s Cleveland Business, and Cleveland Plain Dealer
C|M|LAW’s plans to support our graduates entering solo practice by creating a solo practice incubator was featured in this morning’s Cleveland Plain Dealer. Quoting numbers from the Wall Street Journal and the ABA on the high numbers of law graduates going into solo practice, the article, Solo incubator at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law to help new grads hang out a shingle, by Allison Grant, hails C|M|’s partnership in this project with the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. In the article, C|M|LAW Dean Craig M. Boise, notes that C|M|LAW has, for many years, seen approximately 15% of its graduates entering solo practice, by choice. This incubator is an effort, in part, to better support that choice.
Please see: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/12/solo_incubator_at_cleveland-ma.html#incart_river
An article on the same subject appeared in Crain’s Cleveland Business on Tuesday, November 27, in an article titled, Cleveland-Marshall will assist solo lawyers – Incubator eventually will offer them office space, by Michelle Park.
C|M|LAW plans to open a solo practice incubator in the fall of 2013 to support new graduates of the law school who choose a solo practice career. Only a few other law schools across the country have opened an incubator, ten of fewer nationally. The C|M|LAW incubator will be the first and only such effort in Ohio. The estimated cost of construction will be between 1.2-1.5 million and the solo incubator will built in newly constructed office space within the walls of the C|M|LAW Library, although the library will not be directly accessible from the law office space. Leases will be for 18-months and, at completion, there will be approximately 15 spaces available. Some spaces will be available for 2013 graduates, and additional space will be reserved for 2014 graduates.
C|M|LAW Professor Witmer-Rich and Law Student Brendan Heil Argue that DNA Profiles Should Get Greater Privacy Protection
C|M|LAW Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich and C|M|LAW student Brendan Heil published a Op-Ed piece in today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer. Titled Keep DNA evidence private, their article appears in a written pro/con debate in the Sunday opinion pages responding to the Ohio Supreme Court’s recent decision in State v. Emerson. According to Witmer-Rich and Heil, in Emerson, the Court held that ‘the Fourth Amendment does not protect an individual’s personal DNA profile.’ In the Court’s words, “[a] person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her DNA profile extracted from a lawfully obtained DNA sample.” Witmer-Rich and Heil argue that the Court unnecessarily eroded DNA privacy for Ohio citizens. The Plain Dealer, upon receiving the piece, solicited a response from Jacob S. Sherkow (a fellow at the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford Law School), linked below. Although the Plain Dealer will not be publishing responses, Witmer-Rich and Heil respond below to Sherkow’s piece.
To read Witmer-Rich and Heil’s article, please click here: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/12/keep_dna_evidence_private_jona.html
To read the other side of the debate, written by Jacob Sherkow (Stanford), please click here: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/12/dna_profiles_vs_sequences_jaco.html
In response to Sherkow, Witmer-Rich and Heil offer the following:
First: Had the Ohio Supreme Court reasoned the way Sherkow did–clearly distinguishing between a limited “DNA profile” and broader types of DNA information, and making clear it was only the former that enjoyed no Fourth Amendment protection–it would have been more plausible and less alarming. The decision used much broader logic than Sherkow does, and thus has potentially broader implications than his (more reasonable) opinion. That’s partly why we called the opinion not only “startling” but “unnecessary,” i.e. the case could have been affirmed on much narrower grounds.
Second: Sherkow’s argument is that we need not worry about the government using our DNA profile, which “only” identifies us and does not represent the entire DNA sequence. This suggests that there should be no objection to the government requiring everyone in the country to submit a sample to a national DNA database, so long as only the profile is used and not the sequence. If you find this troubling, you should find something troubling about Sherkow’s view.
Sterio Publishes The Right to Self-determination Under International Law: “Selfistans,” Secession, and the Rule of the Great Powers
Professor Milena Sterio
C|M|LAW Professor Milena Sterio’s first book, The Right to Self-determination Under International Law: “Selfistans,” Secession, and the Rule of the Great Powers, will be published on Monday, November 5, 2012. Published by Routledge Press, it proposes a novel theory of self-determination; the Rule of the Great Powers. It argues that traditional legal norms on self-determination have failed to explain and account for recent results of secessionist self-determination struggles. While secessionist groups like the East Timorese, the Kosovar Albanians and the South Sudanese have been successful in their quests for independent statehood, other similarly situated groups have been relegated to an at times violent existence within their mother states. Thus, Chechens still live without significant autonomy within Russia, and the South Ossetians and the Abkhaz have seen their conflicts frozen because of the peculiar geo-political equilibrium of power within the Caucuses region.
The Rule of the Great Powers, which asserts that only those self-determination seeking entities which enjoy the support of the majority of the most powerful states (the Great Powers) will ultimately have their rights to self-determination fulfilled. The Great Powers, potent military, economic and political powerhouses such as the United States, China, Russia, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy, often dictate self-determination outcomes through their influence in global affairs. Issues of self-determination in the modern world can no longer be effectively resolved through the application of traditional legal rules; rather, resort must be had to novel theories, such as the Rule of the Great Powers.
For more information, or to order a copy, see http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415668187/
CSU Law Faculty 