Hoke Comments on Ohio Redistricting Proposal on WCPN 90.3’s Sound of Ideas

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C|M|LAW Professor Candice Hoke appeared this morning on WCPN’s Sound of Ideas radio show.  The show focused on a proposal by the non-profit group Voters’ First to change the system by which Ohio allocates its state legislative and U.S. House districts. Currently, whichever party is in power is able to exert influence over the process and draw boundary lines to its own benefit.  Voters’ First hopes to alter the system to remove much of the politics, but critics argue that the proposal lacks a mechanism for accountability and asks judges to play an improper role.  The proposal would ask judges to select and vet redistricting-commission members.   The Ohio State Bar Association has expressed deep concerns,” that the setup would be a conflict of interest and undermine the Constitutional doctrine of the separation of powers.” 

The proposal would create an independent citizens commission that would always meet in public sessions to discuss redistricting.  The commission would include equal numbers of Republicans, Democrats, and independents, who would serve for 10-year terms.  They would be charged to create districts that are compact and which minimize division of counties, towns, and and municipalities.

Ohio Republican lawmakers redrew the state’s Congressional boundaries last year. As a result, many districts now appear to favor Republicans at the ballot box.  The Voters First proposal will be on the ballot in November.  This radio show addressed whether the proposed system would be an improvement over the current one.  Other guests included: Professor Dan Tokaji, Ohio State University Law School, Chris Redfern, Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, and Rob Frost, Chair of the Cuyahoga County Republican Party.

To listen or watch, click here: http://www.ideastream.org/soi/entry/48410

Niedringhaus Elected to Vice Chair of the Society of Academic Law Library Directors

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C|M|LAW Professor and Law Library Director Kristina Niedringhaus was recently elected Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of the Society of Academic Law Library Directors. The purpose of this organization is to promote academic law librarianship and to represent the interests of academic law libraries.

Weinstein Speaks in Wall Street Journal and on Radio regarding Chick-fil-A and the First Amendment

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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

Weinstein Moderates National Planning Law Teleconference and Contributes to Housing Encyclopedia

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Professor Alan Weinstein

On Wednesday, June 26th, C|M|LAW Professor Alan Weinstein, who is jointly appointed at CSU’s Levin College of Urban Affairs, moderated a panel and spoke at the American Planning Association’s 2012 National Planning Law Review Teleconference/Webinar. The two other speakers on the panel were Michael Allan Wolf, who holds the Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law, and Dwight Merriam, a Partner in the Robinson & Cole law firm in Hartford, CT.  There were over 850 registrants for the teleconference/webinar.

The speakers discussed a number of issues, including: the Supreme Court’s ruling in Armour v. Indianapolis, 132 S.Ct. 2073 (2012), and what it means in the broader context of challenges to local government actions based on the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment; the Court’s granting cert. in Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States,  648 F.3d 1377 (Fed. Cir. 2011), an unusual physical takings claim against the federal government; and recent developments in such areas as first amendment, telecommunications, “green” building codes, beach erosion, and rent control.

In addition, Professor Weinstein contributed an entry on Zoning to the second edition of the Encyclopedia on Housing, edited by C|M|LAW/Levin Professor Dennis Keating.  (See https://cmlawfaculty.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/keating-edits-encyclopedia-of-housing-moderates-panel-on-lending-and-loss-mitigation/.)

Keating Edits Encyclopedia of Housing, Moderates Panel on Lending and Loss Mitigation

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Sage has published the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Housing.  Professor of Urban Studies and Law Dennis Keating served on the editorial board for this publication and authored two of its entries, those on Displacement and Community Development Corporations.

In addition, on June 28 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s 2012 Policy Summit on Housing, Human Capital, and Inequality, Professor Keating moderated the panel on “Lending and Loss Mitigation: Towards a Stronger Housing Market”.  Panelist Andrea Ghent (CUNY- Baruch College) convincingly refuted the (conservative) argument that federal affordable housing legislation was a major cause of the subprime mortgage boom that led to the housing bubble bursting.   Mary Weselcouch (NYU – Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy) analyzed determinents of the incidence of mortgage loan modification, arguing that, so far, problems continue with the federal programs and the participating lenders.   Lei Ding (Wayne State – Department of Urban Studies) analyzed loss mitigation practices by mortgage loan servicers in “soft” housing markets like Detroit. Difficulties remain with those facing foreclosure trying to get the loan servicers to respond positively, especially in a weak market like Detroit.

Lind and Keating Publish on Cleveland Responses to the Mortgage Crisis

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Professor Dennis Keating, jointly appointed by CSU’s Levin College of Urban Affairs and C|M|LAW, and C|M|LAW Clinical Professor Emeritus Kermit Lind, have co-authored “Responding to the Mortgage Crisis:  Three Cleveland Examples” in the Winter 2012 issue of The Urban Lawyer, Vol. 44, No. 1:1-135.

Keating and Lind write that years before the mortgage crisis fueled by subprime and predatory lending became a national crisis in 2008, this emerging disaster was ravaging neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio. Investigations that followed revealed that homeowners were being persuaded to refinance their mortgages and often to finance home repairs and amenities through predatory lending, including adjustable rate mortgages with initial low interest rates (“teaser loans”). The Cleveland neighborhood of Slavic Village was especially hard hit, with massive amounts of mortgage fraud followed by hundreds of foreclosures of borrowers resulting in housing abandonment and widespread blight. Despite these discouraging data, the three examples of responses described in this article give hope that the challenges caused by this crisis can be met and the city’s neighborhoods can be rebuilt even with a reduced population and reconfigured land uses.

The article is available at:http://www.americanbar.org/publications/urban_lawyer/2012/winter_2012.html

Lewis Publishes “Papa’s Baby” with NYU Press

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When a child is conceived from sexual intercourse between a married, heterosexual couple, the child has a legal father and mother. Whatever may happen thereafter, the child’s parents are legally bound to provide for their child, and if they don’t, they’re held accountable by law. But what about children created by artificial insemination? When it comes to paternity, the law is full of gray areas, resulting in many cases where children have no legal fathers.

In Papa’s Baby, C|M|LAW’s Professor Browne C. Lewis argues that the courts should take steps to insure that all children have at least two legal parents. Additionally, state legislatures should recognize that more than one class of fathers may exist and allocate paternal responsibility based, again, upon the best interest of the child. Lewis supplements her argument with concrete methods for dealing with different types of cases, including anonymous and non-anonymous sperm donors, married and unmarried women, and lesbian couples. In so doing, she first establishes different types of paternity, and then draws on these to create an expanded definition of paternity.

To order Papa’s Baby from NYU Press click here: http://nyupress.org/books/book-details.aspx?bookid=5825  or through Amazon, click here: http://www.amazon.com/Papas-Baby-Paternity-Artificial-Insemination/dp/0814738486/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343232500&sr=1-1&keywords=papa%27s+baby

Inniss Comments on the 40th Anniversary of Title IX, Notes Potential Uses for Combating Sexual Harassment

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In marking the 40th anniversary of Title IX, Lolita Buckner Inniss, C|M|LAW’s Joseph C. Hostetler-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law, recently posted the following at the American Constitution Society Blog:

http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/title-ix-single-episode-sexual-harassment-and-telling-stories-out-of-school

The principal provision of Title IX reads:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Although Title IX is best known for having transformed the arena of women’s sports, Inniss notes that Title IX has a much broader reach.  She writes that it also applies to sexual violence and sexual harassment. Inniss writes that one of the more controversial aspects of Title IX jurisprudence is that sexual harassment is not only defined by persistent behavior but may also be found in a single episode.  She argues that Title IX should give women an opportunity for articulating the legal and ethical wrongness of such behavior by telling their own stories in their own voices.

Kowalski Speaks on Recent U.S. Supreme Court Labor and Employment Decisions, and Argues in the Ohio Supreme Court

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Clinical Professor Ken Kowalski

C|M|LAW Clinical Professor Ken Kowalski presented Recent Supreme Court Decisions, Appellate Decisions and Related Topics in Labor and Employment Law at the NLRB Region 8 Labor Law seminar held in Cleveland on May 17th.

In addition, Professor Kowalski argued before the Ohio Supreme Court on June 5th in the case of James A. Lang [et al.] v. Director, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.  The case involves the denial of certain benefits to three Ohio workers who lost their jobs when their employer transferred its manufacturing operations to Mexico.  A wage subsidy program, Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance, created by Congress for older workers whose jobs are terminated due to national trade policies, is administered by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services through contract with the federal Department of Labor.  At issue is whether the DOL interpretation of the requirements for participation in the program contravened the statute itself.  When ODJFS sought review in the Ohio Supreme Court, the National Employment Law Project, a national advocacy organization for employment rights of lower-wage workers which had successfully represented the claimants in the lower courts, contacted the Employment Law Clinic for assistance.  C|M|LAW Clinic students researched and helped brief a number of issues of statutory interpretation presented in this litigation, and helped prepare Professor Kowalski for the oral argument.

To view the oral argument before the Ohio Supreme Court, please click here: http://www.ohiochannel.org/medialibrary/Media.aspx?fileId=135921

Sterio Publishes in the Amsterdam Law Forum Regarding Pirate Prosecutions in the National Courts of Kenya, The Seychelles, and Mauritius

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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