Professor Theodore Silver discusses the core themes of Secured Transactions and the importance of the course to law students. This podcast provides perspective on the challeges of Secured Transactions course.
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Our guest today is Professor Theodore Silver.
Continue readingProfessor Tessa L. Dysart and Professor Tracy Norton discuss the first comprehensive book on online law teaching titled Law Teaching Strategies for a New Era: Beyond the Physical Classroom. This podcast offers insight into how to take law school beyond the traditional, in-person experience.
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Our guests today are Professor Tessa L. Dysart and Professor Tracy Norton.
Continue readingBy Jake Falk
This paper was originally written in January 2022 as part of an independent research assignment.
On May 25, 2020, during the course of an arrest, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin.[1] While Mr. Floyd was handcuffed on the ground, Officer Chauvin placed Mr. Floyd in a restraint by kneeling on the back of his neck.[2] A bystander recorded a video which showed Officer Chauvin’s knee on the back of Mr. Floyds neck for almost ten minutes.[3] After several minutes, Mr. Floyd stopped moving, became unresponsive, and was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.[4] It was later determined that Mr. Floyd’s death was caused by Officer Chauvin’s restraint, which caused him to suffocate.[5] Throughout Officer Chauvin’s nineteen-years with the Minneapolis Police Department, there were twenty-two complaints filed against him.[6] The nature of those complaints ranged from offenses, such as showing up late to work, to using excessive force.[7]
George Floyd’s death sparked nationwide and even global protests. People across the United States were calling for change in police practice and for more accountability on the part of police officers.[8] Protesters and civil rights groups demanded more transparency into the nations police agencies and legislators at all levels were quickly pressured by the public to consider police reform, as well as implement or change current laws, particularly in New York. [9] On May 28, 2020, three days following Mr. Floyd’s death, New York lawmakers gathered to vote on a bill that would ultimately repeal Civil Rights Law § 50-a,[10] a law that made police personnel records confidential. Once the committee approved the bill, it was sent to both the Senate and the Assembly where the proposed bill was passed on June 9, 2020.[11] Then, on June 12, 2020, only eighteen days following the death of Mr. Floyd, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill, thereby repealing Civil Rights Law § 50-a.[12]
Although the repeal of Civil Rights Law § 50-a was supported by many, it was rushed and failed to consider all the consequences it would have on the criminal justice system and the legal system as a whole. Section II of this paper will explain what Civil Rights Law § 50-a was prior to its’ repeal and will explore the legislature’s intent when it was first enacted. Section III will then expand on why the law was ultimately repealed and Section IV will analyze the effect of its’ repeal, using a case law analysis. This will be followed by a discussion of what is included in police disciplinary records and what amongst those records can be used for impeachment purposes. Section VII will address the overarching question of whether all findings in disciplinary records provide defense attorneys with a good faith basis for impeachment. Finally, Section VIII will draw the conclusion that the rush to repeal Civil Rights Law § 50-a, resulted in legislature failing to consider how the repeal would affect the prosecution’s discovery obligations under the newly enacted discovery laws put into effect on January 1, 2020, six months before §50-a was repealed.
Read or download the full text of the article below.
[1] Jerry Holt, George Floyd is Killed By A Police Officer, Igniting Historic Protests, History (last updated June 25, 2021), https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-floyd-killed-by-police-officer.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Witness Contact Form at 3, State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin, 2020 Minn. Dist. LEXIS 443 (Aug. 28, 2020) (No. 27-CR-12646, 27-CR-20-12949, 27-CR-20-12953, 27-CR-20-12951).
[6] Kim Barker & Serge F. Kovaleski, Officer Who Pressed His Knee on George Floyd’s Neck Drew Scrutiny Long Before, N.Y. Times (last updated Mar. 29, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd.html.
[7] Id.
[8] Patrice Taddonio, George Floyd’s Murder and Police Accountability, One Year Later: Our Coverage, at a Glance, FrontLine (May 25, 2021), https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/george-floyd-murder-one-year-later-police-accountability.
[9] Nicquel Terry Ellis, Activists see progress after George Floyd’s death but say more must be done, USA Today (last updated Aug. 24, 2020), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/08/23/black-lives-matter-reforms-stalled-3-months-after-george-floyds-death/3337330001.
[10] NY S.B. 8674 (2020).
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
Continue readingIn this podcast recorded in December 2021, Professor Marianne Artusio discusses the legality of vaccine mandates in the United States. As she explains, historically courts generally applied a deferential rational basis test when evaluating legal challenges to such mandates. Professor Artusio also discusses recent vaccine mandates adopted in response to the pandemic as well as how courts have responded to lawsuits challenging those mandates.
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Our guest today is Professor Marianne Artusio.
Continue readingListen to our latest podcast where Mr. Block discusses his co-authored publication Selling Sex: (More) Evidence for Decriminalization. Mr. Block discusses analyzing sex work from the point of view of the same labor economics that would be applied to any other industry, rather than as a romanticized or demonized group of sexual deviants, finding destigmatization of the sex work industry as central to the increased agency and well-being of sex workers and their clients. The full text of Faelynn Carroll and Mr. Block’s article can be found here.
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Our guest today is Walter Block.
Continue readingJonathan Harr’s, A Civil Action, published in 1995, is one of the best nonfiction legal thrillers ever written. It tells the riveting story of a complicated civil suit over environmental pollution that occurred in Woburn, Massachusetts. Not surprisingly, Harr’s book was adapted into a film of the same name that was released in 1998. John Travolta played the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jan Schlichtmann, a character worthy of Shakespeare. Robert Duvall nearly steals the film as Jerry Facher, the lawyer for one of the corporate defendants.
Nearly 25 years later, the film is still a gold mine for Civil Procedure professors. In his review, Roger Ebert described A Civil Action as “John Grisham for grownups.” Schlichtmann is relentless in pursuing the case against the defendants, becoming so invested that nothing else seems to matter – an approach that has significant consequences for everyone around him as the case turns into an interminable trial. Facher, meanwhile, is a master litigator who wrings every advantage from the rules and courtroom procedures.
In this podcast, Associate Dean Rodger Citron moderates a discussion of A Civil Action with his colleagues Laura Dooley and Deseriee Kennedy.
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Our guests today are Professor Laura Dooley and Professor Deseriee Kennedy.
Continue readingListen to our latest podcast where Mr. Curtis discusses his recent publication Of Arms and the Militia: Gun Regulation by Defining “Ordinary Military Equipment.” Mr. Curtis debates that the regulation of semi-automatic riles and other arms can be achieved by defining “ordinary military equiptment” provided to militia members under the Second Amendment. The full text of the article can be found here.
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Our guest today is Edward J. Curtis, Jr.
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