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Columbia Law School
In The News
Faculty In The News Archives:
Spring 2000
(January 2000 - May 2000)
Prof. Michael Dorf is a contributor to the inaugural issue of "WRIT,"
the first e-zine dedicated to the law, launched by FindLaw. Prof. Dorf's article,
"They Are All Activists Now," can be found at:
WRIT's home page can be found at http://writ.findlaw.com. Business Wire, May 30,
2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about Ford Motor Company's recent
acknowledgment that sport utility vehicles can be hazardous to other motorists.
"There isn't any clear duty by Ford to other motorists, they owe a duty to their
customers," said Prof. Coffee. The New York Times, May 30, 2000
Article about the confirmations of Prof. Gerard Lynch '75 and Nicholas Garaufis '74
appeared in the Legal Times on May 29, 2000.
Appearing again on CNN to discuss Napster, its rival technology Gnutella, and the
overall debate in the music industry over copyright infringement and new Internet
technology, Prof. Coffee said, "There's really no one to sue. There's just a
faceless sea in this online community of hackers who are using this new technology." "CNN
Moneyline News Hour," "Moneyline," and "Digital Jam" (May 26,
2000); "Market Coverage" (May 29, 2000)
Announcements of the pending Senate vote on -- and final confirmation of -- the
nominations of Prof. Gerard Lynch '75 and Nicholas Garaufis '74 to the
federal bench appeared in Legal Times (May 22, 2000), The Recorder and The Legal
Intelligencer (May 24, 2000), and The New York Times and The Legal Intelligencer (May 25,
2000).
Prof. Mark Barenburg's treatise on the debate over granting permanent, normal
trading status to China was referenced by U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd District. The
Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), May 25, 2000
Prof. Peter Strauss was quoted in an article titled "Compliance Education
Goes Self-Service," about the trend toward businesses hiring consultants to decipher
and ensure compliance with federal health, safety, environmental, and equal-opportunity
regulations. Many providers of such services are now using the Web to help their clients.
"The White House has stressed consumer service," said Prof. Strauss. "You
can find fantastic information that you couldn't find before from the Internal Revenue
Service, the EPA and the Social Security Administration. What is a lot less consistent is
involvement in regulatory activities." The Washington Post, May 23, 2000
Prof. Richard Gardner was quoted in an article titled "Spain's Surge,"
about the resurgence and globalization of Spain's economy. Prof. Gardner, former U.S.
Ambassador to Spain and Italy, said, "Right now, Spain is overtaking Italy on many
fronts, and the reason is political stability and the vitality of a new generation of
talented managers." Business Week, May 22, 2000
Prof. Michael Dorf appeared on ABC's "World News Tonight" to discuss
gun control rights and the Second Amendment. "The evidence is quite clear, since
colonial times, that that right has been subject to reasonable regulation," said
Prof. Dorf.
Prof. Oscar Schachter '39 received an honorary degree from Columbia at the
University's commencement exercises on May 17, 2000. The New York Times, May 18,
2000
Prof. John Coffee was one of several academics asked by the judge to file amicus
briefs in the antitrust case against Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses. The Legal
Intelligencer, May 18, 2000
Prof. Coffee was quoted in articles about the recent decision against Bear
Stearns Company, which ordered the company to pay an investor $111.5 million for failing
to warn him of the risks of foreign currency speculation. Prof. Coffee said, "This is
a number that is off the charts. It will raise eyebrows all over Wall Street." The
New York Times and the San Antonio Express-News (May 17, 2000)
Dean Ellen Wayne was a guest on NPR's "All Things Considered," where
she discussed last winter's jump in salaries for associates. Dean Wayne said: "We're
seeing people that are getting calls from headhunters six months out of law school. They
don't even have a full year's experience yet, and yet, they're being courted by people who
are trying to place them with another agency or firm. People staying at the same firm for
two years or more is unusual." She continued, "Clients in the past have helped
to support the training effort of new associates coming into the profession, and I would
hate to see that change. I would hate to see it impact not only training of associates,
but pro bono activities that law firms are engaged in." NPR Transcripts, May 16,
2000
Prof. Harvey Goldschmid was quoted in an article titled "SEC regulators
touch a populist nerve." Discussing a new SEC proposal designed to curb selective
disclosure, called "Regulation Fair Disclosure," Prof. Goldschmid said,
"There is nothing publicly useful when a favorite analyst of the company gets a call
before a stock goes down. It gives them an unfair advantage and interferes with the
integrity of the market." Financial Times (London), May 11, 2000
Prof. Robert Ferguson was scheduled to participate in the first annual
Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum at Yale Law School on May 12-13. Prof. Ferguson served
as a commentator on "The Crisis of Child Custody: A History of the Birth of Family
Law in England." M2 Presswire, May 11, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted on several CNN shows about the case against
Napster. Prof. Coffee said: "Napster is going to be a very simple story on the legal
level; namely, that the owners of intellectual property will win against organizations
like Napster that create a technology for the illegal sharing of intellectual property.
But on the enforcement level, there is no answer. There is very little way that it can use
legal remedies against a diffuse community of online users, where generally, there is no
large corporate defendant at the center of the process." "CNN Moneyline News
Hour" (May 9, 2000); "Before Hours" and "Entrepreneurs Only" (May
10, 2000)
Prof. William Sage is scheduled to participate in a June 28 conference titled
"National Symposium on Patient Safety." PR Newswire, May 10, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was the subject of an article titled "Foe Becomes Friend
for Fen-Phen," about his involvement with the massive class action diet drug
settlement. Pennsylvania Law Weekly, May 8, 2000
Prof. Jane C. Ginsburg was quoted in an article titled "Bye-Bye, American
Pie," about an amendment to copyright law that strips songwriters of any right to
their own recordings. "It is not a minor change," said Prof. Ginsburg. "If
a work is a work for hire, the authors are completely cut out." The National
Journal, May 6, 2000
Prof. Gerard Lynch '75 and Nicholas Garaufis '74 were both confirmed this week
as federal judges -- Prof. Lynch in the Southern District of New York and Mr. Garaufis in
the Eastern District of New York.
Prof. Vivian Berger was quoted in an article about the recent U.S. Supreme Court
decision interpreting a 1996 law designed to speed up executions. The court refused to
adopt a new standard that would have limited a prisoner's ability to fight a state
conviction in federal court. Prof. Berger, a general counsel of the ACLU, said the case
was "the most important of the term" for civil rights groups who had feared a
contrary ruling. Had the court affirmed the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, she continued,
no prisoner could ever have prevailed when attacking the constitutionality of a conviction
in federal court. "The downside potential was immense," Prof. Berger said. She
added that for a law designed to speed things up, it has created much legal wrangling. The
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Chicago Tribune, April 19, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article titled "Case's Spot: No. 2 with a
Bullet; Broad Duties Outlined at AOL Time Warner" about the announcement by AOL and
Time Warner that AOL CEO Steve Case will have even more power than anticipated in the
merged company, AOL Time Warner. In the combined company, Case will serve as chairman and
Gerald Levin, his counterpart at Time Warner, will be CEO. Prof. Coffee said, "The
kind of structure where senior executives report to different people like this has been
the prelude to organizational tension and bureaucratic infighting. I can't say it's an
iron law, but the experience at other companies suggests that this can't persist for a
number of years." The Washington Post, May 5, 2000
Prof. and former Dean Lance Liebman and former Dean Benno Schmidt were both
mentioned in an article about a report issued by the Assoc. of the Bar of the City of NY's
Special Commission on the Future of CUNY. Dr. Schmidt chaired the mayor's task force on
CUNY last year, and Prof. Liebman is on the City Bar Association's Commission. PR
Newswire, May 4, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was the subject of an article titled "Critic of Class
Actions Backs Settlement in Fen-Phen Case." Prof. Coffee testified in the settlement
hearings for the class-action suit against American Home Products, makers of Fen-Phen. He
defended a proposed $3.75 billion national settlement, saying it could benefit those
claiming injuries from the drugs. The Record (Bergen County, NJ), May 4, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about a dispute over the stock report
of a California company, Environmental Solutions Worldwide Inc. An analyst says he was
paid by Teodosio Pangia to write a glowing report of the company -- which caused stock
prices to jump considerably -- just several weeks before Mr. Pangia announced his
intention to sell his 3.2 million shares in the company. Mr. Pangia denies having paid the
analyst for the report. Prof. Coffee said that as a case study, Environmental Solutions
seems "consistent with a short-term manipulation of the market for the benefit of a
selling insider." The National Post, May 2, 2000
Prof. Eben Moglen was quoted in an article titled "Privacy is a thing of
the past online; Prying eyes can download your personal info in seconds." Prof.
Moglen said, "It's not a constitutional problem. It's a consumer protection problem.
We need laws to protect consumers against the collection and distribution of their
information in ways they don't approve of." Daily News, April 30, 2000
Prof. George Bermann was quoted in an article titled "A Haider in Their
Future," about Jorg Haider, the recently resigned leader of Austria's far-right
Freedom Party. Discussing recent sanctions by the European Union against Austria, Prof.
Bermann questioned on what basis European states can "collectively punish a sister
state, given the language in the E.U. treaty on human rights and the fact that any
violations on Austria's part are purely anticipated." The New York Times (NYT
Magazine), April 30, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was mentioned and quoted in several articles about the class
action settlement hearings in the fen-phen/American Home Products case. Prof. Coffee is
serving as a legal expert for American Home Products in the fairness hearings that began
on May 2, 2000. The Legal Intelligencer, May 1, 2000, and The Star-Ledger, May 2, 2000
Prof. John Coffee appeared on the CNN show "Street Sweep" to discuss the
government's recommendation to break up Microsoft. CNN Transcripts, April 28, 2000
Nathan Lewin, lecturer in law, wrote an article titled "Without a Justice:
The Properly Unattended State of the Union," published in the Legal Times on April
24, 2000.
Prof. Michael Dorf was quoted in an article titled "Two Justices Seen as
Critical in Nebraska Abortion Case." Discussing the first significant abortion-rights
case to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court since the 1992 case Casey v. Planned
Parenthood, Prof. Dorf said the arguments on April 25 would be unusual because both sides
will be arguing whether banning the dilation-and-extraction (D&X) procedure is
constitutional and whether the Nebraska law applies to abortion procedures other than
D&X. In most cases, Prof. Dorf said, the scope of a law has been determined long
before it reaches the U.S. Supreme Court. He also said the case breaks ground in that it
deals with a law that bans a method of abortion, while the Casey decision dealt with
regulations on all types of abortion. "The Casey opinion says that a law that imposes
a substantial obstacle on a woman trying to get an abortion is going to be held
unconstitutional," Prof. Dorf said. "This case provides the court with an
opportunity to clarify what constitutes a substantial obstacle." Omaha
World-Herald, April 24, 2000
Prof. Michael Dorf appeared on CBS News to discuss the removal of Elian Gonzalez
from the home of his Miami relatives. In response to the question of whether the INS made
a "fatal mistake" by placing Elian with his family in Miami before finding out
what his father's wishes were, Prof. Dorf said, "Well, in retrospect, it looks like
it was a fatal mistake, although actually, I think at the time it was the right thing to
do. Perhaps they should have gotten some more information out of Cuba about the status of
his father. But the United States doesn't even have formal diplomatic relations with Cuba,
and so the information that flows back and forth there is less than it is with other
countries." Discussing the actual removal process, during which heavily armed INS
officers entered the Miami home and took the boy, Prof. Dorf said, "The argument that
the Justice Department made, and I think reasonably, is that they were afraid of possible
violence by the crowd outside the house.... It's, in some ways, similar to U.S. military
doctrine, which is you go in with overwhelming force and strike quickly and then get out.
Now the very fact that we're talking about this, the taking custody of a six-year-old
child, the analogies to military doctrine, I think, are a little unsettling, but under the
circumstances, it worked out pretty well." CBS News Transcripts, April 24, 2000
Prof. Jim Liebman's comments on the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings in two
death-penalty cases were also quoted in the New Jersey Law Journal on April 24,
2000.
Prof. Michael Dorf was quoted in an article titled "No Quick Answers in Elian's
Case; But Delays May Help Boy's Miami Relatives Keep Him in U.S." Referring to the
federal appellate court's decision preventing Elian Gonzalez from leaving the U.S., Prof.
Dorf said, "What you are seeing here is a clash of two worlds. The political system
needs to move on an expedited basis, and the court system is not persuaded to depart from
its deliberate procedures." The New York Times, April 21, 2000 and International
Herald Tribune, April 22, 2000
Prof. Carol Sanger was quoted in an article discussing the case of Elian Gonzalez
and its ramifications on the rights of children to be heard. The article states that the
legal question is complicated in this case, partly because there is no absolute rule in
American law setting forth how old children should be before their opinions are considered
in court. "We tend not to draw the line," said Prof. Sanger. But, she continued,
the courts had not expanded their flexible approach to credit the wishes of a 6-year-old
on an issue as important as where he should live when a living parent has expressed a
strong desire. "We use a maturity standard. But the judicial system thinks a
6-year-old is inherently immature. We think they discuss what they want now: chocolate
milk, an electric car," she said. The New York Times, April 22, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about the class action suit filed on behalf
of all people whose civil rights were allegedly violated by the Los Angeles Police
Department during the ongoing Rampart scandal. Prof. Coffee said that the Rampart case
might be looked at skeptically by a federal judge because of two decisions by the U.S.
Supreme Court in the last three years in which the court threw out class action
settlements of asbestos litigation on the grounds that the interests of the class members
were too diverse to be valid. "The principal problem is a lack of factual
homogeneity," Prof. Coffee said. "To the extent that there is not a centrally
coordinated conspiracy of high-ranking police officers, rather than a loose network of
officers who have an understanding that they can break the law, class certification seems
inappropriate." Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2000
Prof. Jim Liebman was quoted in several articles about the U.S. Supreme Court's
ruling last week in a Virginia murder case. The court limited federal judges' authority to
review a prisoner's claim that his conviction or sentence was constitutionally flawed
(i.e., that his lawyer was incompetent or that prosecutors hadn't turned over important
evidence). The decision reduces the federal courts' role in death penalty appeals, but
doesn't close them out entirely, the Washington Post reported. In that paper, Prof.
Liebman said that while the court retreats from "the view that federal judges should
always maintain control, it leaves intact more federal habeas corpus power" than some
appellate courts had read into the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
Prof. Liebman also observed that the ruling, and another issued separately that
coincidentally involves a Virginia defendant named Michael Williams, repudiate the
famously conservative 4th Circuit's narrow interpretations of inmate appeals. "There
is a message," he said, "that there are limits to what the Supreme Court will
tolerate." The Washington Post, April 19, 2000; also, The Recorder, The Post and
Courier (Charleston, SC), the Austin-American Statesman, The Plain Dealer, and The Legal
Intelligencer, April 19, 2000
Prof. Vivian Berger wrote an article titled "Get out of jail with DNA." The
New York Law Journal, April 17, 2000
Prof. Vivian Berger was quoted in an article about Stephen Pack, a doctor at
Montefiore Medical Center who has been charged with assault and abortion after attacking
his pregnant mistress, a nurse at the hospital, with a hypodermic needle allegedly filled
with a drug that induces abortion. Prof. Berger said that under New York law, a fetus is
not human and therefore the doctor could not be charged with assaulting or killing it.
However, she continued, attempting to perform an abortion on a woman without her consent
is against the law. Daily News, April 16, 2000
The obituary of James Vorenberg, in which Prof. Jack Greenberg was mentioned,
appeared in The Record (Bergen County, NJ) on April 14, 2000.
Prof. Debra Livingston was mentioned in an article about aggressive policing in
NYC. The article referenced comments made by NY Police Commissioner Howard Safir at a
seminar conducted by Prof. Livingston in 1999. The New Republic, April 10, 2000
Prof. Patricia Williams was quoted in an article about the book "Police
Brutality," a collection of essays by scholars, lawyers, writers, a former NYC cop,
and many others. According to the article, Prof. Williams points out that we are victims
of the "innocent profiling" of white kids, which allowed Dylan Klebold, one of
the Columbine High School shooters, to drive around with bombs and guns in his BMW without
being stopped and searched. Newsday, April 6, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about the Microsoft ruling. The article
states that because a judge has made a final determination in the case, future litigants
can cite his findings. In addition, Microsoft can be barred from using the same defenses
used in this case. Prof. Coffee said, "Once you have had a chance to defend on the
merits and there has been a full decision by the court, you can be denied the opportunity
to re-litigate the same issue." The article said that Prof. Coffee foresees billions
of dollars in potential damages. That procedural advantage alone will attract swarms of
new lawyers, he said. "Merely the potential application of that doctrine gives
Microsoft a significant problem. It leverages up the level of risk to Microsoft." Los
Angeles Times, April 6, 2000
Prof. Eben Moglen was quoted in two articles about the Microsoft ruling. In
The Baltimore Sun on April 5, 2000, he said, "Technology in itself is not some
sort of amulet that protects you from the general purpose of the Sherman Act. Antitrust
law protects competition." Also on April 5, he was quoted in the Cincinnati
Enquirer, saying, "regardless of the remedies Judge Jackson may ultimately decide
to impose, private litigation will distract and dismember Microsoft."
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article titled "Expedited Appeal
Proposed by Judge in Microsoft Case." The article stated that based on Judge
Jackson's ruling that Microsoft was a "predatory" monopolist that had repeatedly
violated antitrust laws, the company could now face many suits from the private sector
because plaintiffs have a far less daunting challenge in suits already filed, and in
actions being considered by companies that believe they have suffered at Microsoft's
hands. "This is now an awfully big invitation to plaintiffs' lawyers," said
Prof. Coffee. "We may have reached a point for Microsoft, as there was in the tobacco
cases, that basic attitudes have shifted, and a powerful defendant is no longer seen as
invulnerable." The New York Times, April 5, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article titled "MicroStrategy to Hire
Accounting Expert," about the company that recently issued a restatement of its
financial results on March 20, 2000. The restatement caused its stock to drop 62 percent
in one day, lopping off $11 billion of the company's market valuation. Prof. Coffee said,
"For high-tech companies, there is a strong incentive to maintain continuity in
revenue growth because the first time you break that continuity and have a flat or
declining quarter, you are likely to pay a price in your" stock value. Speaking about
high-tech companies in general, Prof. Coffee said that pressure can give chief executives
an incentive "for, if need be, borrowing revenues from the next quarter and booking
them in this quarter." The Washington Post, April 4, 2000
Prof. Jim Liebman was quoted in an article about the expected issuance of a stay in
the execution of convicted murderer Philip Workman in Tennessee. According to the article,
the only person who claimed he saw Mr. Workman shoot Memphis police officer Ronald Oliver
admitted last year that police and prosecutors had coerced him to lie during the 1982
trial. Prof. Liebman said, "In a case like this one, the court could be saying we
ought to think about this again. A decision has been reached based on one point of view.
Other judges could say we believe a combination of doubts about the case lead us to think
we ought to take another look at this before we let it go." The Tennessean, April
4, 2000
Prof. Eben Moglen was quoted about the Microsoft ruling. He said, "With
clarity and care, Judge Jackson brought the Microsoft Era to a certain and devastating
end.... The facts Judge Jackson found last November are now unquestionable by Microsoft in
any other antitrust litigation brought by those who allege that they have been harmed by
this or similar conduct.... The chances of reversal on appeal are comparatively low....
Regardless of the remedies Judge Jackson may ultimately decide to impose, private
litigation will distract and dismember Microsoft, while the free software movement
continues to replace the lower-quality higher-price goods provided by any monopolist, with
superior software that anyone can get, improve and redistribute for nothing." Institute
for Public Accuracy, April 4, 2000
Prof. Issacharoff's comments (below) were reprinted in The Washington Times on
April 4, 2000.
Prof. Samuel Issacharoff was quoted in an article titled Bus Stop; The Lost
Promise of School Integration." Responding to the Supreme Court's recent decision to
let stand a ruling by a federal appeals court, which held that school authorities in
Montgomery County, MD, violated the constitution when they tried to prevent a white
student from transferring to a magnet school from his predominantly black middle school,
Prof. Issacharoff said, "You can't reconcile choice with diversity, and that's the
tragedy. Fifty years after Brown versus Board of Education, there is still no non-coercive
mechanism for racial integration that has evolved in this country." The New York
Times, April 2, 2000
Prof. Eben Moglen was quoted in an article about a US District Court judge's issuance
of an injunction barring two men from publishing a software program that overcomes
Mattel's Internet filtering program Cyber Patrol. Cyber Patrol is used by parents to block
children's access to certain Web sites. The men had made their program available on the
Web; Mattel brought suit, claiming that its copyright was violated and that the company
would suffer financial harm if its program were defeated. The article said that Prof.
Moglen called the geographic sweep of the judge's order "audacious." He said
that it represented "a sudden tumor-like expansion of the power of the courts." The
International Herald Tribune, April 3, 2000
Prof. Richard Uviller wrote an Op-Ed piece titled "Cutting Crime, Keeping Our
Rights." The piece was written in response to an editorial request for expert
opinions on how police can aggressively fight guns and drugs, while respecting a citizen's
civil rights. Prof. Uviller said, "Aggressive street patrol is the most effective
strategy for illegal handgun interdiction. But 'aggressive' does not mean brutal or
abusive, much less murderous. Officers assigned to these gun runs must be carefully
selected and rigorously trained. It's not the only way to reduce violence, but it is a
critical component of any sane policy." The New York Times, April 1, 2000
Prof. Gerard Lynch was quoted in an article titled "The man who placed truth over
justice," about former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Prof. Lynch said that the
coercive tools available to prosecutors were not designed to accomplish generalized
oversight interests. "Journalists naturally want the 'whole story,'as do historians,
sociologists, and the public. But the criminal process is designed to decide whether an
individual, at a particular moment in time, violated a very specific social norm without
qualifying for any of a limited number of particular defenses, and subject to a standard
of proof beyond a reasonable doubt," he explained. "To confuse the power to
prosecute for crimes with the power to broadly investigate malfeasance in office is
terribly dangerous." The New Republic, April 1, 2000
Prof. Bill Sage was co-author of an article titled "'Clear and convincing
evidence' law cruel," about NY State's laws on medical decision-making. The article
states that NY is one of only a handful of states whose laws explicitly prohibit family
members from making critical decisions about life-sustaining medical treatment for
patients too sick or too young to decide for themselves. Rather, NY's law requires
"clear and convincing" evidence of the patient's own wishes. The authors wrote,
"New Yorkers concerned about compassionate treatment of dying patients should press
their legislators to pass the Family Health Care Decisions Act this session. In the
meantime, take a few moments to create a health care proxy or living will." The
Times Union (Albany, NY), March 31, 2000
Profs. Jane Ginsburg and Eben Moglen have both been actively involved with
Columbia University's Committee on Intellectual Property (CIP). Prof. Ginsburg is CIP's
co-chair. Both were quoted extensively in a Columbia Spectator article titled
"Copyright policy proposal sparks debate at Columbia U." Columbia Daily
Spectator, March 30, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about an SEC judge's decision to suspend
and fine Monetta Financial Services, Inc. for improperly allocating shares of hot IPOs in
1993 to the personal accounts of three Monetta funds directors. Prof. Coffee, who
testified on the SEC's behalf in the case, said that the decision will be closely watched
in the mutual fund industry. "This is the first case that really involved hot IPO
allocations and the use of them to achieve an investment adviser's objectives, rather than
mutual fund shareholders' objectives," he said. When a mutual fund group gets an
allocation of hot IPO stock, "it is not because they are good friends of the
underwriter but because they have given the underwriter enough brokerage business from the
mutual fund," he continued. "So the mutual fund is the source of this allocation
of a kind of free money." Chicago Tribune, March 29, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article titled "Dark Side of the IPO Frenzy;
Some High-Tech Businesses Co-opt IPO Buzz to Their Own Sinister Ends." Prof. Coffee
said, "In a superheated market the pressure to go public makes the usual gatekeepers
more prepared to say, 'Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.'" The San Francisco
Chronicle, March 28, 2000
Prof. Jane Ginsburg was quoted in an article titled "Battle Brews on Rights to
Web Content, Those Who Think Material Should Be Free Are at Odds with Owners, Current
Law." Referring to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), a federal law
that, according to the article, made it a felony for someone to even attempt circumvention
of protective code, Prof. Ginsburg said that she worries about the inability of code to
identify motives behind the copying of a film in the wake of the DMCA. "The same
device that could stop me from copying a whole movie could also stop me from copying a
small amount of the movie to show to my class," she said. "In that case, the
copy would be locked up and I couldn't circumvent the lock because of the DMCA. Here is
where the existence of an alternative copy is very important." The Boston Globe,
March 26, 2000
Prof. Richard Uviller was quoted in an article about the guilty verdict in the
trial of "subway pusher" Andrew Goldstein. "People who are mentally ill can
nonetheless be guilty of crimes -- it's designed to achieve that result," he said.
The verdict was not surprising, he continued, considering Mr. Goldstein's statement to the
police that he knew his act was wrong. The New York Times, March 23, 2000
Prof. Richard Uviller was quoted in an article about the guilty verdict in the
trial of "subway pusher" Andrew Goldstein. "People who are mentally ill can
nonetheless be guilty of crimes -- it's designed to achieve that result," he said.
The verdict was not surprising, he continued, considering Mr. Goldstein's statement to the
police that he knew his act was wrong. The New York Times, March 23, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about the potential for Big Tobacco
companies to claim bankruptcy rather than face potentially enormous punitive damages in a
Florida case. If the companies were to appeal rather than file for bankruptcy, they would
have to post a bond equal to the damages awarded. Prof. Coffee said, "If the bond is
high, many if not all of the tobacco companies may not be in the position to post." The
New York Times, March 22, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about the Georgetown University Law
Students who were charged with Internet securities fraud by the SEC. The article states
that some people argue that the SEC is stretching the law to fit alleged bad behavior.
Prof. Coffee said that he thought the SEC's case was strong, but he questioned its
appearance, as the agency settled without collecting any money, despite the students'
profits of $345,000. "The facts justify the fraud prosecution, but the settlement is
so weak [that it appears to express] the SEC's own doubts of the merits," he said.
"It's rare to quantify ill-gotten gains with no attempt to get restitution." The
National Law Journal, March 20, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about the Georgetown University Law
Students who were charged with Internet securities fraud by the SEC. The article states
that some people argue that the SEC is stretching the law to fit alleged bad behavior.
Prof. Coffee said that he thought the SEC's case was strong, but he questioned its
appearance, as the agency settled without collecting any money, despite the students'
profits of $345,000. "The facts justify the fraud prosecution, but the settlement is
so weak [that it appears to express] the SEC's own doubts of the merits," he said.
"It's rare to quantify ill-gotten gains with no attempt to get restitution." The
National Law Journal, March 20, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in two articles about the potential for a Miami jury
to hand out the largest punitive damages award ever, sending Big Tobacco companies into
bankruptcy. In one article, discussing Big Tobacco's attempts to lobby Georgia, Kentucky,
Virginia, and North Carolina (where the companies have headquarters) to pass bills that
shield industry assets, Prof. Coffee said that he believed the new laws would be
overturned because they appear to violate the "full faith and credit" clause of
the U.S. Constitution, which requires the authorities in one state to enforce court
judgments from another state (The New York Times, March 20, 2000). The second
article discussed the Virginia Legislature's passing of a law seeking to cap at $25
million the bond required for one tobacco company to appeal an out-of-state judgment.
Prof. Coffee called the measure constitutionally dubious (Los Angeles Times, March 20,
2000).
Prof. Richard Uviller was quoted in three articles about the indictment last week of an
unknown rapist based on his DNA genetic profile. The indictment names "John
Doe," the man considered to be the East Side rapist in Manhattan, who is accused of
three rapes. It was filed just four days before the five-year statute of limitations
lapsed for the first rape. A John Doe indictment is legal if it contains sufficient
description of the suspect, said Prof. Uviller. "DNA certainly fits that bill. You
can change your name, physical features, but you can't change your DNA." The Post
and Courier (Charleston, SC), The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), and The Commercial
Appeal (Memphis, TN), March 16, 2000
Prof. Uviller was quoted in an article about the NYPD's continued resistance to
reform, even in the face of the Louima, Diallo, Ferguson, and Dorismond cases. Prof.
Uviller said, "The mayor and the police commissioner are in a tough spot. If they
react to all of this by saying we've got major problems with the police, it can be very
demoralizing. What they say and do publicly has to throw something to the community but
also support the troops." Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2000
Prof. Richard Briffault was quoted in an article about a debate in Mississippi over
business improvement districts. Arguments that self-taxing business improvement districts
are racist and corrupt have led to a review of Jackson, Mississippi's district by the
Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ's findings may hold
ramifications for dozens of business improvement districts in states and counties
monitored under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "There would be no reason to have a
tougher rule...[in Mississippi]. I assume the Justice Department has to think about
that," said Prof. Briffault. He continued, "New York City has 40 [business
improvement districts], most in jurisdictions subject to the Voting Rights Act." The
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), March 19, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt's call for
the securities industry to prepare a plan under which limit orders -- which are placed by
customers to trade at specific prices rather than the market price -- would be pooled by
exchanges, brokerages, and electronic trading networks (ECNs). The best orders for each
stock would be consolidated by private data vendors and sold to brokerages for use by
investors. Prof. Coffee said, "Exchanges have a deep-seated resistance to any
integration of order flow because it tends to make their specialists obsolete and cheapens
the value of their seats." He continued that specialists on exchange floors, who
smooth the execution of orders for individual stocks, might have a diminished role if
limit orders were to be electronically pooled. He also said that Chairman Levitt's plan
may be overtaken by fast-moving developments in the private sector, specifically citing
the alliance announced last week between Archipelago, an ECN, and the Pacific Exchange, a
regional stock market. "This may create a kind of central order book and reduce the
need for authoritative SEC action," Prof. Coffee said. The Seattle Times, March
17, 2000
In a USA Today article about the Freeman case, Prof. Coffee also said, "This
is The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight of insider trading. This is one of the dumber
insider schemes I've encountered, because they left too much information on their
trail." Prof. Coffee noted that the celebrated insider trading cases of the 1980s
involved the selling of inside information at the wholesale level to big players such as
Ivan Boesky, who then poured massive sums of money into companies at precisely the right
time. In the case of Freeman and his accomplices, Prof. Coffee said the information was
being sold at the "retail" level. "Once you've started selling the
information on the retail level, it leaks out, provides signals and clues and gets back to
regulators. You've got someone here advertising to a broad audience. That has proven to be
a dumb way to exploit inside information. No one should copy him." USA Today,
March 16, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about the case of John Freeman, a
temporary worker charged with conspiracy and insider trading. Mr. Freeman was a part-time
computer graphics worker at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston, where he
obtained information about companies about to merge, then used the Internet to gather more
information about the companies before passing confidential information via email and
Internet chat rooms. Mr. Freeman and 18 people he tipped off made a total of $8.4 million
in illegal stock-trading profits. Several of the people who received the information were
also charged. Prof. Coffee called the case "somewhat bizarre" because of the way
Mr. Freeman communicated his information and the large number of people who were caught.
"The Internet is the great fear of people handling securities cases these days,"
said Prof. Coffee. "But it's suicidal to communicate this way because there's a
trail." The Washington Post, March 15, 2000
Profs. John Coffee and Harvey Goldschmid are both scheduled to
participate in a Complex Litigation Conference sponsored by Duke University Law School and
the Institute for Law and Economic Policy on April 14 and 15, 2000. Prof. Coffee will be a
presenter in a session titled "Ethical Issues and Mass Tort Class Actions After
Amchem and Ortiz," and a commentator in a session called "Attorney's Fees and
Ethical Issues." Prof. Goldschmid will moderate a session titled "Securities
Litigation Under PSLRA and the Uniform Standards Act." Business Wire, March 14,
2000
Prof. John Coffee wrote an article titled "Selective Disclosure" for The
National Law Journal, published on March 13, 2000.
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in a Time magazine article about the SEC's efforts to
curb online stock scamming. "Traders today are willingly complicit in the
dissemination of false information," said Prof. Coffee. "That's why they often
flock to [the] chat rooms with the worst information, so they can find material that will
destabilize the market one minute before they profitably pull out the next." Time,
March 13, 2000
Prof. Jane Ginsburg was quoted in the Columbia Daily Spectator discussing the
question of students selling class notes to Websites such as Versity.com, which provides
the notes free to other students. Prof. Ginsburg, a co-chair of Columbia's recently formed
Intellectual Property Committee, said the concept of Versity.com rests on shaky legal
ground. Because the notes are based on someone else's work, they are "derivative
property," which the original owner has some rights over. "The notes would be
worthless if they didn't correspond to what the professor said," added Prof.
Ginsburg. "It's clearly a copyright infringement, and they probably should be shut
down." Columbia Daily Spectator, via University Wire, March 10, 2000
Prof. Patricia Williams was a panelist at a March 9 NYU forum on the acquittal of
the four NYPD officers who killed Amadou Diallo. Prof. Williams said that solutions
offered by the government in the wake of tragedy often miss the mark, and referred to a
recent case in which a 12-year-old boy was shot by police who thought his toy gun was
real. In the wake of that shooting, she continued, officials pushed to have realistic toy
guns pulled from the market. Prof. Williams called the reaction irresponsible, saying that
attention should have been focused on the improper conduct of the officers. Washington
Square News, via University Wire, March 10, 2000
Prof. Bill Sage will be a panelist at the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI)
Amgen Forum Conference on "The Rise of Class Action Lawsuits Against Health Care
Providers." The event will take place on Friday, March 10 at the AEI Wohlstetter
Conference Center in Washington, D.C. U.S. Newswire, March 2, 2000 and FNS Daybook,
March 10, 2000
The announcement that Prof. Harvey Goldschmid '65 will join Weil Gotshal as counsel
in June also appeared in The Lawyer, March 6, 2000.
Prof. Michael Sovern '55 was featured in a short piece titled "Michael Sovern: A
Top Gun for Sotheby's," about his appointment as chairman of the auction house. Business
Week, March 6, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about four Georgetown University Law
Center students and the mother of one of the students who have been charged with violating
securities laws. One of the students set up a free stock-picking Web site called
Fast-Trades.com and persuaded many of its 9,000 visitors to buy certain stocks--stocks
that he and his friends and mother had already purchased before his recommendations caused
the prices to swell. Prof. Coffee said that the "First Amendment does not protect
fraud, and when someone is selling a stock while urging their customers to buy it,"
there is a duty to disclose this conflict. The Washington Post, March 3, 2000
The announcement of Prof. Gerard Lynch '75's nomination to the federal district
court in New York City was also featured in The New York Times and M2 Presswire.
(See ALUMNI/AE IN THE NEWS)
Prof. Richard Uviller was quoted in an article about the trend of children being
prosecuted as adults. Referring to the shooting of a six-year-old girl this week by her
six-year-old classmate, Prof. Uviller said, "States have been rolling back the age of
responsibility. It used to be 16, and it's been pushed back to 14, and even 12. What we
have done is become more and more punitive to younger and younger children. But at 6 years
old, [a prosecution] is unthinkable." Daily News. March 1, 2000
Prof. H. Richard Uviller was quoted in an article about the second trial of Andrew
Goldstein, the subway pusher. In this trial, defense attorneys have urged Mr.
Goldstein to go off his anti-psychotic medication in an attempt to show the jury how he
behaves when not medicated. Since he stopped taking his medication, he has punched a
court social worker twice. Prof. Uviller has criticized the defense strategy, and
said that the legal issue in this case will be his state of mind at the time of the
killing, not during the trial. "Mental illness is something you don't fool
around with," he said, asking if defense lawyers should break a client's leg to
demonstrate the severity of that injury. "You don't make a demonstration out of
your own client at his peril." The New York Times, February 29, 2000
Prof. Gerard Lynch was nominated by President Clinton to the U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of New York. In addition to teaching and working as
part-time counsel with Howard, Darby & Levin (now the NY office of Covington &
Burling), Prof. Lynch has also served as chief of the criminal division of the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York from 1990-92, as associate counsel
for the Office of Independent Counsel from 1988-90, and as an assistant U.S. attorney for
the Southern District of New York from 1980-83. He also clerked for the Hon. Wilfred
Feinberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1975-76, and the Hon.
William J. Brennan, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1976-77. U.S. Newswire,
February 28, 2000
Prof. Vivian Berger was a guest on NPR's Talk of the Nation to discuss the
verdicts in the Diallo trial. NPR transcripts, February 28, 2000
Prof. Vivian Berger spoke extensively on the acquittals of four police officers
accused of murdering Amadou Diallo. Referring to testimony that one of the officers
had shouted "gun," Prof. Berger said in Newsday, "That made it obvious they
were acting out of fear, and that made it a second-guessing case. The defendants and
their lawyers were really effective in arguing, 'How would you like to be judged in the
cool light of Monday morning hindsight about how you behaved in a situation that took
place in seconds?'" On NPR's All Things Considered, she was asked if she had
been surprised by the verdict. "Not terribly surprised," she
responded. "I had thought that quite likely the two officers in the rear,
Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy, would be acquitted because they really seemingly just
depended on what was said and done by the officers ahead of them. With respect to
those officers, Sean Carroll and Edward McMellon, if I'd had to lay odds, I would have
said that they would be convicted of negligent homicide. So I'm not terribly
surprised that, being considered with the others, they got off altogether." Newsday
and NPR transcripts, February 26, 2000
Prof. Jim Liebman was quoted in an article about Federal Appeals Court Judge J.
Michael Luttig. Judge Luttig sits on the notoriously conservative 4th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals and has a track-record of denying death penalty appeals. He is also
a man whose own father was brutally murdered by a car-jacker in 1994. The article
discusses his ability to remain impartial when trying death penalty cases. In a
preliminary study, Prof. Liebman found that in capital cases where the Richmond, VA-based
4th Circuit determined the final outcome, it found in favor of the condemned only 9
percent of the time. "When only cases from Virginia are studied, the rate of
error found by the 4th Circuit was 7 percent, the lowest rate of error found on habeas
review in the country for any state with substantial numbers of death cases," wrote
Prof. Liebman in his study. The Richmond Times Dispatch, February 20, 2000
Prof. H. Richard Uviller was quoted in an article about the second murder trial of
subway pusher Andrew Goldstein. Mr. Goldstein and his defense attorneys are trying a
new tactic in this trial: Mr. Goldstein, a schizophrenic, has stopped taking his
anti-psychotic medication for the duration of the trial in an attempt to demonstrate to
the jury the debilitating effects of his mental illness. "It seems
irresponsible to take a man off medication to produce some kind of dramatic effect before
a jury," said Prof. Uviller. "A lawyer's first duty is to preserve a
client's health." The New York Times, February 23, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about changes in the structure and
functioning of the nation's stock markets due to the boom in online trading. The
article states that the SEC is facing new legislative challenges as Wall Street and
cyberspace meet, as SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt discussed in his speech here at Columbia
Law School in September 1999. In that speech, Mr. Levitt addressed the issue of
self-regulation versus one central, regulating body. Prof. Coffee said, "When
you turn the primary (self-regulating exchange) into a privatized body, the first thing
you discover is that law enforcement is not a profit center." The National
Journal, February 19, 2000
Prof. Michael I. Sovern '55 has been appointed chairman of Sotheby's. The
former chairman, Alfred Taubman, resigned under pressure from government investigations
and potential class-action lawsuits by customers alleging that the 256-year-old auction
house and its competitor, Christie's, violated federal anti-trust laws by agreeing to fix
commissions. Prof. Sovern is president emeritus of Columbia University, and former
dean of the Law School. The New York Times and the Financial Times (London),
February 22, 2000
Visiting Prof. Mark Tushnet was quoted in an article about upcoming debates in
Congress over taxes on e-commerce. Two years ago, Congress passed a moratorium on
Internet taxation, making online vendors exempt from collecting sales taxes on Internet
purchases. Prof. Tushnet said, "If the moratorium...becomes permanent, there
may be really quite substantial effects on state revenues as shoppers shift from
mail-order and retail outlets to the Internet. That would place the states under
fiscal strain. There are various scenarios in which they would have to raise other
taxes, like property taxes. Most states are now limited by their constitutions from
doing that." The issue is turning into a classic struggle between states'
rights and federal authority. Boxed in by constitutional limits and potential
Internet revenue loss, the states want either to expand their taxing authority in return
for a simplified sales tax system or set up a national body that will collect taxes on
Internet sales and redistribute them to the states, continued Prof. Tushnet. Either
option would infringe upon a prime measure of state power -- the right to levy taxes --
and be one step closer to a nationalized sales tax system such as Europe's.
"The tradeoff the states are facing is between giving up power to the Internet
corporations and giving up power to Congress. In the first one, they don't get any
money. In the second one, they do get money. Odds are, they'll go with the
second." The Times Union (Albany, NY), February 20, 2000
Prof. Michael Dorf was quoted in an article titled "Critics Slam Judge's
No-Pregnancy Sentence." The article discussed the case of Dawn Marie Sprinkle,
who was convicted of child endangerment (for using drugs while pregnant) and forbidden
from getting pregnant for 10 years. Ms. Sprinkle was ordered by a Montana judge to
report to the county jail every few months for a pregnancy test. If she becomes
pregnant, the judge said, she could be placed under intensive supervision or jailed to
keep her from using drugs. Prof. Dorf said, "Telling people they can't
reproduce is problematic and fraught with moral questions. It's saying any child you
have while taking drugs is better off not coming into existence. There is a
constitutionality question underlying the criminal prohibition of criminal
punishment. The court is saying, 'You can't reproduce,' which is the opposite of
saying, 'You can't have an abortion.'" Because Ms. Sprinkle is 29, critics
argue that a 10-year sentence could put her ability to have children in the future at
risk. "This could mean she never has another child," said Prof.
Dorf. APBnews.com, February 18, 2000
Prof. Vivian Berger, who has been speaking extensively on the Diallo trial, was
quoted in an article about the testimony of the four police officers charged with Mr.
Diallo's murder. Some experts say that the officers' testimony seemed too canned and
rehearsed, raising questions about their candor. "They need to show they gave
warnings to show they were behaving reasonably, but they don't have to say they approached
him super-politely," said Prof. Berger. "If a witness earns the jury's
distrust by seeming to lie even on a minor point, that may cause jurors to mistrust him on
a major point." The jury's belief in the warnings could be critical, because
none of the non-police witnesses within earshot said they heard such warnings, and the
absence of clear identification might explain Diallo's otherwise unexplained attempt to
get in his door. In the absence of clear identification, noted Berger, "It
quickly crosses the line from reasonable police conduct to negligence, and it may cross
into recklessness." Newsday, February 20, 2000
Prof. Vivian Berger was quoted in an article titled "Defendants Put Jurors
in Bronx Vestibule," about the testimony of the four policemen accused of killing
Amadou Diallo. The officers have each taken the stand in their own defense and
attempted to put the jurors in their shoes in the vestibule of Mr. Diallo's home, where
they thought he had a gun. State law allows police officers or anyone else to kill
someone in self-defense if they "reasonably believe" their lives are at
risk. The law also allows for the prosecution and defense to ask the jury to
consider lesser charges. "They certainly have a decent shot at something less
than murder," said Prof. Berger. She continued that Officer Sean Carroll, who
broke down several times on the stand, gave compelling testimony that could help his
fellow officers. "Everything seems to hinge on Carroll. He was the most
user-friendly. He was able to let it all hang out." But, she added,
"there's always the danger that people will think this is totally canned."
Daily News, February 16, 2000
Prof. Jim Liebman was quoted extensively in an article about the recent series of
stays of execution granted by the U.S. Supreme Court -- six since July. The stays,
which require the vote of at least five justices, signify a subtle shift in the way the
Court is approaching death penalty cases. A larger-scale sign of change, according
to Prof. Liebman, can be seen by comparing the Court's death penalty docket five years ago
or so with today's cases. In previous years, many of the Court's death penalty cases
came on appeal by states from decisions of the liberal U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th
Circuit. "The Court felt the 9th Circuit was out of line, and that it needed
disciplining," said Prof. Liebman. Now, and for the last several terms,
the death penalty cases before the Court come most often from Virginia and the
conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, and, said Prof. Liebman, all have
been filed by inmates rather than the state, suggesting the Court is open to arguments
that the death penalty is being improperly administered. And though the Court has
decided in favor of the state in these cases, it is often by a 5-4 vote. "The
Court may have thought two or three years ago that it could withdraw from these cases and
let the system exist," said Prof. Liebman. "But it's clear from all the
cases they still take that they can't extricate themselves. The death penalty
continues to present difficulties they can't let go by." Referring to Illinois
Governor George Ryan's January moratorium on executions in that state, Prof. Liebman said,
"The Illinois moratorium could confirm the Court's sense that there are deep problems
with the death penalty that it can't see very well. Seeing the governor of Illinois
take this action may give justices a greater sense of safety when they express their
own concerns." Legal Times, February 14, 2000
Dean David Leebron was quoted in an article about navigating the new minefield
of online investing. The article discussed the fine print in most online trading
companies' customer agreements, which makes it clear that the company is not liable in
case of shutdown-related losses, and that it is incumbent upon the customer to use
"alternative methods" to communicate with the trading company during an
outage. Dean Leebron said that the law has yet to catch up with the new online
reality. "There is no liability for the firms unless investors can prove
negligence," he said. "It's as if you walked to your brokerage firm and
they had a power outage because of a flood and you couldn't get in to trade. When
you're online, that's the risk you take." Newsday, February 16, 2000
Prof. Vivian Berger was quoted in an article about the ongoing Amadou Diallo
trial. Discussing testimony by two of the police officers accused of murder, who
said that they had believed that Mr. Diallo posed a threat of deadly force, Prof. Berger
said, "The question now is whether their fear was reasonable, and that's where all
the other evidence comes in -- the number of shots, Diallo's gesture and the
rest." Daily News, February 15, 2000
Prof. Vivian Berger was quoted in an article on the front page of The New York
Times about the Amadou Diallo trial. The article discussed the testimony of three
witnesses for the prosecution, who all claimed to have heard a pause in the shower of 41
shots fired by the defendants. Prosecutors may use the pause to argue that the
officers would have had time to realize that Mr. Diallo no longer posed a threat to their
safety. Prof. Berger said that a pause could bear on the charge of intentional
murder that the officers face. "It is much harder to infer intent at the
beginning -- the officers were reacting in fright. But if they had even a few
seconds to stop and think it over and realize their mistake," she continued, it could
support a murder charge. The New York Times, February 8, 2000
Prof. Philip Genty and Alex Roth '00 were mentioned in an article about
former death row inmate and Black Panther Lawrence Hayes, who spoke at St. Paul's Chapel
on the Columbia campus on February 3. Mr. Roth and Prof. Genty worked with the
organization Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) to secure Mr. Hayes' release from
prison on the grounds that a parole board member had "inappropriately
intervened" in Mr. Hayes' parole revocation hearing. University Wire,
February 4, 2000
Prof. Lance Liebman was quoted in an article titled "Union Reels Over Ban,
Goes to Bat for Rocker," about the Major League Baseball Players Association's
reaction to the suspension of player John Rocker. The union filed a grievance this
week to overturn Commissioner Bud Selig's decision. Prof. Liebman said that because
Rocker is a unionized employee, an arbitrator would have to interpret his contract.
Referring to the "loyalty clause" language in each player's contract, requiring
that each player "...pledges himself to the American public and to the club to
conform to high standards of personal conduct, fair play and good sportsmanship,"
Prof. Liebman said, "This is broad language that needs to be defined. Obviously
the commissioner has given it an interpretation. An arbitrator will have to think
hard about the role of a prominent professional athlete in our society." Daily
News, February 2, 2000
Prof. Victor Goldberg's comments on the antitrust case resulting from the Federal
Trade Commission's move this week to block BP Amoco's takeover of Atlantic Richfield Co.
appeared in many publications. Prof. Goldberg said that there have been other
industry challenges and price fixing cases, but "this would be the first one
attacking the basic market structure of the oil industry" since the Standard Oil case
nearly a century ago. Saying that the government may have a tough time proving its
case, Prof. Goldberg continued, "Oil flows. They're going to have to find some
sort of argument to show why the international (market) is not going to solve the
problem." The Austin American-Statesman, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis,
TN), The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), The Record (Bergen County, NJ), and The Toronto
Star, February 3, 2000
Vice Dean Richard Briffault was quoted in an article about Sandy Springs,
Georgia, a community that has filed a lawsuit in its fight to become a city. The
suit alleges that the county delegation system is unconstitutional because it violates the
"one person, one vote" principle of the 14th Amendment. Though one expert
said that courts have generally resisted extending this principle from elections to the
inner workings of a legislature, Vice Dean Briffault said, "But I wouldn't rule it
out because there's a certain logic to it." The Atlanta Journal and
Constitution, February 2, 2000
Prof. H. Richard Uviller was quoted in an article about the Amadou Diallo case and
the subsequent outrage over the NYPD's conduct in minority communities. Prof.
Uviller said, "The challenge to develop an aggressive patrol that is not murderous or
excessive is a constant puzzle." U.S. News & World Report, February 7,
2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article titled, "Once Again, Milberg Weiss
Lands on Hot Seat," about the firm's questionable involvement in the massive
securities fraud class action suit against Oxford Health Plans, Inc. There has been
some debate over a judge's July 1998 interpretation of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act, in which he formed a triumvirate of lead plaintiffs to litigate the case and
put Milberg Weiss in place as lead counsel. Prof. Coffee said, "The judge got
it wrong originally." He surmised that the judge's goal was a practical one
because he wanted to move the case as quickly as possible toward settlement.
"Firms like Sullivan and Cromwell and Milberg Weiss have negotiated class action
settlements once a week for decades," Prof. Coffee continued. "[The judge]
knows that repeat players are more likely to get to settlement faster than
strangers. However, that's not the congressional goal." The Recorder,
January 26, 2000
Prof. Vivian Berger spoke on NPR's Morning Edition about New York
State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi's ruling that struck down a New York law banning
cameras from the courtroom. "If another high-profile case arises tomorrow, say
in Buffalo, and the judge feels differently, the judge does not have to follow Judge
Teresi's ruling even if you could somehow hypothesize the same facts as the Diallo
case," Prof. Berger said. National Public Radio transcripts, January
26, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article titled, "Firm Takes
Big Gamble On AOL-Time Warner Deal," about Cravath, Swaine & Moore's involvement
in the merger. The article states that according to several sources close to the
agreement, the firm has agreed to receive one of the biggest transaction fees ever for a
law firm -- $35 million -- if the merger closes. If the deal falls through, however,
the firm will receive little or nothing. There is one exception built into the
agreement: if the deal falls apart, the firm will recover a percentage of fees for
associates' time spent on document production. Prof. Coffee said that he is not
certain that other companies will imitate this arrangement. "It'll be
interesting to see how this turns out," he continued. The Recorder,
January 20, 2000
Prof. Patricia Williams delivered the keynote address at a January 17
ceremony at the Brooklyn Academy of Music honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In her
remarks, Prof. Williams said that civil rights must advance until it is no longer
remarkable when a Latino from the Bronx becomes a chief executive; until black is really
seen as beautiful and "not a suspect profile," and until "Martin Luther
King himself could come down from heaven, land in the middle of Times Square and hail a
cab without a moment's thought." Speaking to a crowd of more than 2,100 people,
Prof. Williams reflected on her childhood in the South, saying, "My life has exceeded
not only my parents' but my own wildest dreams when I think back to the world in which I
was born." Also a columnist for The Nation, Prof. Williams noted that her
success story was "too often used as the exception that proves the rule."
Hilary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) also spoke at the
event. Newsday, January 18, 2000
Prof. Patricia Williams was quoted in an article about the celebration of
Martin Luther King Jr. Day in light of the December 8 verdict that Dr. King was not killed
by a lone gunman, but rather the victim of a far-reaching conspiracy that included the
U.S. government. A Memphis jury declared that 73-year-old Loyd Jowers was liable in
Dr. King's death for purportedly hiring a Memphis restaurant owner to kill him. Dr.
King's family had long questioned the 1969 conviction of James Earl Ray. Discussing
the speech she would give at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Prof. Williams said,
"Martin Luther King's birthday is about celebrating his life, and that is what I feel
is appropriate to do." The New York Times, January 17, 2000
Prof. Vincent Blasi was quoted in an editorial piece titled "Abroad
at Home; 'No Limit But the Sky.'" The author of the piece, Anthony Lewis,
discusses what he calls "judicial overreaching" by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Referring to federalism cases decided last June, the author quoted Prof.
Blasi as saying, "After this I want to hear no more about original intention,
textualism, strict construction or judicial restraint." The New York
Times, January 15, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article titled, "AOL's Case Moves
to Ensure His Power." As the merger of AOL and Time Warner evolves, AOL chief
executive Steve Case has named to the new company's board four executives and close
associates who will answer directly to him rather than to the new company's CEO, Time
Warner Chief Gerald Levin. Prof. Coffee said, "Normally the key person to whom
everyone reports directly or indirectly is the chief executive officer. You've got a
small little enclave here that is carved out of the general managerial and executive
authority of the chief executive officer." Prof. Coffee called the arrangement
"very rare" because it gives the members of that enclave a safety net amid the
power plays and job shifting that occur when two corporate hierarchies merge. The
Washington Post, January 15, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about "Tokyo Joe"
Park, the Internet stock picker who has been charged with civil fraud by the SEC.
The SEC has claimed that Mr. Park's disclosures weren't frequent enough and that he
deceived investors, some of whom paid as much as $200 a month to belong to his
subscription-based email club, "Societe Anonyme." Referring to other stock
pickers such as Mr. Park, Prof. Coffee said that these pundits fear that they may have to
register with the SEC and be subjected to closer oversight and new restrictions if the
agency prevails in the case. Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2000
Prof. Coffee was quoted in an article titled "Class Clarity,"
about class action suits. Referring to defense counsels who shop for favorable class
action outcomes, removing many cases from state court to a more sympathetic federal forum,
Prof. Coffee said they can also decide to negotiate with, or offer favorable terms to,
more tractable plaintiffs' lawyers rather than deal with their more recalcitrant
adversaries. The American Lawyer, January 2000
Both Prof. Coffee and Prof. Harvey Goldschmid '65
were quoted in an article titled "SEC takes aim at disclosures." The
article states that the proposals to stop the selective disclosure of corporate
information to analysts has been expected for months as the swan song of Prof.
Goldschmid's tenure as general counsel of the SEC. Under the new proposals, a
company could continue to have closed conference calls with analysts, as long as
contemporaneous public disclosure of any material information is made by either press
release or SEC filing. Prof. Coffee said that the SEC "debated whether it
should mandate open conference calls" but feared that it "would chill" the
release of company information. One instance that may prove problematic under the
new proposals is if a company inadvertently discloses material nonpublic information.
Companies will have up to a day to inform the public if this happens, but, Prof.
Goldschmid said, a company that evidences a pattern of frequent inadvertent statements
could wind up being investigated. Though he said he is proud of the proposals, Prof.
Goldschmid added that he has enjoyed teaching his students about the ambiguities of
insider trading law. The new rules, he says, "will make the classroom less fun,
but the rest of the world much better." The National Law Journal,
December 27, 1999
Prof. Harvey Goldschmid '65 appeared on CNN's shows
"Moneyline" and "Moneyline News Hour" to discuss the antitrust issues
involved in the merger of AOL and Time Warner. Referring to the expectation of some
legal experts that AOL's competitors and some public interest groups will speak out about
the potential limiting of open access, Prof. Goldschmid said, "That restriction of
access for independent competitors who may not be able to get into the game, that is a key
antitrust concern. And so it's blockage, it's restriction of access that may create
a competitive problem. And certainly, the antitrust agency's going to want to look
at it hard." CNN Transcripts, January 10, 2000
Prof. Harvey Goldschmid '65 was also quoted in an
article titled "Merger a landmark of Cyber Age." Again discussing
potential antitrust issues with the merger of AOL and Time Warner, Prof. Goldschmid said,
"The question is, are they going to be too powerful?" The
Christian Science Monitor, January 11, 2000
Prof. John Coffee was quoted in an article about the U.S. Supreme
Court's refusal to consider lower court rulings that health funds in New York, Oregon, and
Pennsylvania cannot sue the tobacco industry to recover money spent on treating
smoking-related illnesses. The high court upheld the decisions without comment.
Prof. Coffee said, "It looks like this line of cases has dwindled to a
complete failure," although he acknowledged that some lower federal courts still
might permit such cases to proceed. Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2000
Prof. Eben Moglen was quoted in an article about a lawsuit filed two
weeks ago to shut down Web sites that were distributing software allowing people to copy
DVDs. The article states that the DVD Copy Control Association's lawsuit is so
narrow that the case may not become what Internet experts hoped would be a
precedent-setting showdown over free speech rights in cyberspace. The DVD industry
claimed in its suit that Web sites have pirated proprietary technology designed to copy
DVD movies and have illegally distributed the software on the Internet. Web site
operators sued by the industry, backed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), claim
that the DVD industry is stepping on First Amendment rights and impeding the exchange and
development of new technologies. The case, however, is resting more on the question
of trade secrets than on the greater First Amendment issue, and does not invoke the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), which experts thought it would.
Referring to the DVD industry, Prof. Moglen, who is advising EFF, said, "I think they
wish to avoid litigating the DMCA question right now. They wanted the maximum bang
for the minimum buck. If they can get a California state court judgment, they can
race from court to court to enforce it." San Jose Mercury News, January
11, 2000
Prof. Carol Sanger authored an Op/Ed piece in The New York Times.
The article, titled "The Needs of the Children," discussed Troxel v.
Granville, a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court that raises the question of
non-parental visitation rights. In Troxel v. Granville, the paternal grandparents
are suing the mother of their late son's children for visitation rights. Washington
State has a statute permitting "anyone" to petition to visit children.
Prof. Sanger wrote, "...why should adults who have had established, significant
relationships with children be denied the right to seek continuing contact with
them? It is important to keep in mind that what Washington's law entitles 'anyone'
to do is not demand visitation, but only ask for it. Visitation statutes should not
be ruled unconstitutional; they should be drafted to include careful
safeguards." The New York Times, January 5, 2000
Prof. Eben Moglen wrote an article in the Commentary section of the
San Jose Mercury News titled, "Bill Gates' best bet: Set software free."
He wrote, "Microsoft should make the deal to strengthen free software before
the rush of events deprives it of the chance. If it doesn't, a decade from now
industry experts and disappointed investors will be wondering why Microsoft chose instead
the path that led to its complete destruction." The San Jose Mercury
News, December 30, 1999
Prof. Michael Dorf was quoted in an article titled "Gun
Fight" about the possibility that a case affecting gun-control laws will come before
the U.S. Supreme Court. In February 1999, a Texas judge ruled that the Second
Amendment may provide greater rights to gun ownership than the courts have agreed to in
the past. It may even guarantee individual citizens the right to "own"
guns -- a subtle but important distinction from the "right to keep and bear
arms" within a government-regulated militia. Based on the precedent set in
Texas, many legal experts believe that the decision, which is currently before a
three-judge panel at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, could be the first
Second Amendment case to reach the Supreme Court since 1939. "I suspect the
chief justice of the United States, William Rehnquist, has sympathy for this
position," said Prof. Dorf. "If this decision stands up and the U.S.
Supreme Court agrees, then I think it is quite possible that many existing gun-control
laws would be invalid." Texas Monthly, January 2000.
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