C|M|LAW’s Calfee Halter and Griswold Professor of Law Milena Sterio was quoted recently in an article that appeared in LeMauricien.com, regarding the work being done by lawyers in that country in the area of Somali piracy.  Sterio has worked with other American lawyers and law professors to support the efforts of Mauritias and other countries in prosecuting Somali pirates.  Sterio outlined the growing problem of child piracy, saying it has emerged as “one of the most difficult legal issues.” She said that most child pirates are released upon capture or immediately after trial and as a result the Somali pirate kingpins are recruiting more and more of them, telling the juveniles that they have nothing to fear if captured.

To read this article, see:

http://www.lemauricien.com/article/somali-piracy-comes-ashore-mauritius-pirates-are-detained-and-trialed-island-courts

Professor Kevin F. O’Neill

C|M|LAW Professor Kevin O’Neill was quoted at length in an article,1st Amendment at issue in ban on gay-conversion therapy for minors, by David L. Hudson Jr., in
the January 2014 issue of the ABA Journal, on page 18.   The article deals with a recent Ninth Circuit decision upholding a California statute that bans a type of psychiatric therapy designed to dissuade gay and lesbian minors from homosexual conduct.  Professor O’Neill was asked to comment on the court’s First Amendment analysis.

According to O’Neill, “[p]laying the old ‘conduct-not-speech’ card is something that judges do when faced with particularly thorny speech issues . . .” He adds, “I don’t find it persuasive here, but it gave the 9th Circuit a convenient basis for applying rational-basis review.”

O’Neill says “[t]he statute singles out a particularly ludicrous treatment—a ‘medical’ treatment that is grounded upon ignorance and hostility toward gays and lesbians—and simply bans it. but the ugliness of the treatment doesn’t provide a constitutional basis for banning it.”

O’Neill notes that the Supreme Court invalidated “efforts to ban some of the ugliest speech ever” in the prohibition of images of animal cruelty in U.S. v. Stevens (2010) and violent video games in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011).

“If you’re going to uphold this statute, you have to focus on the government’s legitimate power to protect children from medical quackery,” O’Neill says. “But that doesn’t fit too easily into any of the unprotected categories of speech, such as obscenity, child porn, true threats or advocacy of imminent lawless action. The absence of clear guidance in First Amendment law may be a strong reason for granting cert in this case.”

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/1st_amendment_at_issue_in_ban_on_gay-conversion_therapy_for_minors/

Professor O’Neill’s comments appear toward the end of the article, in a section entitled, “Beyond Ugliness.”

C|M|LAW Professor Phyllis L. Crocker was quoted in the article Interim law school deans at Akron, Case face leadership challenges in critical era, by Michelle Park Lazette, in Crain’s Cleveland Business on Monday, December 9, 2013.   Crocker served as C|M|LAW’s Interim Dean from March 2010 to June 2011. The Crain’s article quoted from Crocker’s article The Paradox of Being an Interim Dean:  The Permanent Nature of a Transitory Position, 44 U. Tol. L. Rev. 319 (Leadership in Legal Education Symposium XII 2013). Crocker noted that “Interim deans can be just as effective as a permanent dean if they work as though their leadership is not limited.”

You may read the Crain’s article by clicking here:

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20131209/FREE/131209827/0/SEARCH