Supreme Court

PODCAST: A Discussion with Associate Professor and Associate Dean Tiffany C. Graham regarding her role on the New York State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

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This Podcast featured Associate Professor and Associate Dean Tiffany C. Graham regarding her role on the New York State Advisory Committee (“Committee”) to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (“Commission”). Professor Zablotsky moderated this podcast, where he asked Professor Graham questions about her role and work on the Committee, which led to a discussion of the racial disparities that Black families face in the child welfare system. Professor Graham started her discussion of her journey to academia, which occurred when she realized quickly private practice was not her passion but rather, she wished to join a student environment. Professor Graham taught in California, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and now is teaching in New York. When in South Dakota, she was a faculty member and the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the University of South Dakota School of Law.  Throughout her time in that state, she had the ability to work on various civil rights issues, in particular those related to matters impacting the LGBTQIA+ community.  While there, she also served as the chair of the South Dakota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, where she was leading a project focused on maternal mortality rates for Native American women before resigning to take her current  position at Touro Law Center, which was followed by a recommendation to take a spot on the New York advisory committee. 

When she first joined the New York Committee, it decided to study racial disparities in eviction. Most recently, the Committee has been focusing on racial disparities in the foster care system.  Professor Graham noted the importance of looking at the problems in the child welfare system that exist in New York City – where they are acute – as well as throughout the state to fully understand the situation. She was clear and concise about one of the biggest obstacles that Black families face — they are often subjected to over-surveillance under harsh circumstances that derive from implicit and explicit biases. She then laid out the empirical information that the Committee learned from the witnesses who testified before them. Finally, Professor Graham spoke about the major pushback on the discrimination issues and that these problems were not created overnight. Rather, they were created throughout the centuries. She urged that, even though we have made great strides in eliminating discriminatory practices, society must continue to work on eliminating the structural inequalities that impact our institutions to ensure that they do not reproduce the harms of inequality that have existed in our communities. Professor Graham ended the podcast by asking listeners to pay attention and try to become aware of what is happening under the surface that we may not necessarily see but nonetheless exist. 

Professor Graham expects the Committee’s Report to be released at some point next year.

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review.   

Our guest today is Associate Professor and Associate Dean Tiffany C. Graham.

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PODCAST: The Petitioner’s Path to Victory in the Supreme Court in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co.   

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As the Supreme Court’s 2022-23 term neared its conclusion, the Court issued an important personal jurisdiction decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co.  By a five to four vote, the Court rejected a Due Process Clause challenge to Pennsylvania’s corporate registration statute.  In Mallory, this meant upholding a Pennsylvania court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over a Virginia corporation that did business in Pennsylvania when the corporation was sued by a Virginia citizen for injuries that, he alleged, were caused by the corporation’s conduct outside of Pennsylvania.    

Ashley Keller represented Robert Mallory, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, in the Supreme Court.  In this podcast, Keller discusses with Associate Dean Rodger Citron how he came to take the case, his strategy for getting the Supreme Court to grant certiorari and presenting original public meaning (or originalist) arguments in defense of the Pennsylvania statute, and why he was surprised that Justice Gorsuch ended up drafting the Court’s plurality opinion.  As Keller explains, Mallory is an important case for a number of reasons, including the fact that it shows that plaintiffs may array original public meaning arguments to support their view of the law.      

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review.   

Our guest today is Ashley Keller, Esq.

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PODCAST: Litigating Slavery’s Reach: A Story of Race, Rights, and the Law During the California Gold Rush

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Dred Scott v. Sandford looms over American legal and political history as perhaps the most infamous Supreme Court case of all time. In Dred Scott, the Court struck down the Missouri Compromise, holding that enslaved persons were property under the Due Process Clause and that slaveholders had the absolute right to bring them into any federal territory in the nation.

Did you know that a case raising similar issues as Dred Scott was litigated in California five years before the Supreme Court decided that case? Professor Jason Gillmer provides a thoughtful and detailed account of the California case, In re Perkins, in his forthcoming article, “Litigating Slavery’s Reach: A Story of Race, Rights, and the Law During the California Gold Rush.”  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=353902. At issue was the California Fugitive Slave Act of 1852, which declared that enslaved persons brought to California while it was a federal territory remained enslaved even after California entered the Union as a free state. Shortly after the statute was enacted, a case arose testing the law’s constitutionality, pitting the freedom of three enslaved men against the alleged Due Process rights of their enslaver. In this Touro Law Review podcast with Associate Dean Rodger Citron, Professor Gillmer explores the story that gave rise to the case, how he researched it, its relation to Dred Scott, and why the story is important to today.

Find Professor Gillmer’s book at https://ugapress.org/book/9780820351636/slavery-and-freedom-in-texas/.    

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review.   

Our guest today is Professor Jason Gillmer.

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PODCAST: New York University President Emeritus John Sexton

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At the start of his legal career, NYU President Emeritus John Sexton achieved an extraordinary clerkship trifecta.  Initially, in 1979, he clerked for Judge Harold Leventhal on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  Tragically, Judge Leventhal died several months after Sexton began working for him.  He then clerked for Judge David Bazelon, also on the D.C. Circuit.  As Sexton explains, both judges were towering figures on the court of appeals.  Sexton then clerked for Chief Justice Warren Burger, something no other Bazelon clerk ever did.  (Sexton wrote about his clerkship with the Chief Justice for the Journal of Supreme Court History in 2018; see “Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, the Court, and the Nation, 43 J. Sup. Ct. Hist. 173 (2018).)  

In his discussion with Associate Dean Rodger Citron, Sexton talks about each judge and some of the interesting cases and issues that came up while he was clerking.  He concludes with thoughts on what has changed – and what has endured – in the judiciary since he was a law clerk more than forty years ago.  

      

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review.   

Our guest today is President Emeritus of NYU, Dr. John Sexton.

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PODCAST: What’s Next from the Supreme Court with Professor Thane Rosenbaum

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On this week’s episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, Professor Thane Rosenbaum talks with Associate Dean Rodger D. Citron about several recent Supreme Court decisions.   

The conversation begins with Professor Rosenbaum’s views on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.  In Dobbs, the Court overturned Roe v. Wade and held that the regulation of abortion is a matter for states to address.  Among other things, as Rosenbaum notes, Dobbs illustrates the challenge for Chief Justice John Roberts of maintaining the Court’s institutional legitimacy.  The conversation then turns to New York State Rifle & Pistol Assoc., Inc. v. Bruen, in which the Court ruled in favor of the petitioners challenging a New York law requiring an individual to show “a special need for self-protection” in order to obtain a license to carry a handgun for that purpose.  Bruen, as Rosenbaum explains, illustrates the current Court’s commitment to originalism.  The conversation concludes with a discussion of the “Independent State Legislature” case, Moore v. Harper, that will be argued before the Supreme Court in the 2022-23 term.   

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review. 

Our guest today is Professor Thane Rosenbaum.

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PODCAST: Provost Patricia Salkin – “Lawyers Leading Higher Education”

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On this week’s episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, Patricia Salkin, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs for Touro University and Provost of the Graduate and Professional Divisions in New York, talks with Associate Dean Rodger D. Citron about lawyers as leaders in higher education.  Provost Salkin is an expert on the subject, having completed her dissertation on the subject while serving as a senior administrator at Touro.   

The conversation begins with Provost Salkin setting the stage for lawyers increasingly serving as presidents of colleges and universities.  Among other things, lawyers possess the set of skills necessary to navigate the complex landscape of higher education – one that is substantially regulated and includes litigation risks.  Provost Salkin then discusses the data she compiled and conclusions she reached in her dissertation.  Perhaps the most important aspect of her work is that she has gathered and analyzed a comprehensive data set, one that will be invaluable to future research in this area.       

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review. 

Our guest today is Provost Patricia E. Salkin.

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PODCAST: Professor Hal Abramson- Embracing Opportunities in a Legal Profession

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On this week’s episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, we are joined by Professor Michelle Zakarin who interviews Professor Hal Abramson. The theme of this podcast episode is the importance of embracing professional opportunities. Professor Abramson highlights several fascinating opportunities early in his career as the podcast tracks his legal career to today.  Specifically, Professor Abramson discusses the opportunity early in his career to file three Amicus Briefs before the United States Supreme Court and the opportunities during the 1970s energy crisis that led him to testifying in Congress and meetings with senior public officials at the Carter White House. He also discusses some of his initiatives in Russia when Russia was trying to build a democracy and considers his recent work at the UN on helping to draft a treaty. And, of course, he recalls what triggered his interest in professionally engaging in and publishing in the fields of negotiations and mediation. 

Keep a look out for Professor Abramson’s most recent article that he co-authored with Brig. Gen Letendre, US Air Force Academy, “Negotiating Social Change: The Back Story on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” 

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review. 

Our guest today is Professor Harold (Hal) Abramson.

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