Faculty in the News by Date | By Name

Notable Faculty Quotes, March and April 2013

Michal Barzuza was quoted in an April 16 Deutsche Welle World article about Nevada's rising status as an incorporation mecca. "The only way Nevada could compete with Delaware is by offering a different package and catering to a different niche," she said, explaining that Nevada, already a state with lax laws in areas such as gambling or divorce, set out to carve itself a new market segment: "Catering to companies that want corporate law with almost no liability."

Darryl Brown was quoted in an April 25 Cleveland News Channel 5 story about allegations of witness tampering by the owner of a chain of truck stops (and the Cleveland Browns) who had contacted customers to repay them amounts they may have been shorted on rebates and discounts. Although defense lawyers typically advise defendants against having any contact with victims during a criminal case, he said that the nature of the case made it unusual. "This doesn't come up very often," he said. "A defendant typically doesn't know this far in advance about a criminal investigation."

Ashley Deeks was quoted in a March 21 CBC News story about what international laws, if any, govern the new and unexplored area of cyberwarfare. "Even in the kinetic world, there is no real definition of what an armed attack is," she said. "There are a lot of question marks. If you took out a banking system, and it caused massive instability in the country ... that could be construed as an armed attack by some states. But it's really an open question." In the April 8 New York Times, Deeks noted that targeted killings by drone strikes are tolerated by the Pakistani security establishment. ''There's an intangible notion that a drone flying over is less of an intrusion than troops on the ground,'' she said.

John Harrison was quoted in an April 3 Norfolk Virginian-Pilot commentary about limits on constitutional rights. Just as the First Amendment does not protect defamation or incitement to riot, he argued that the Second Amendment can also have reasonable limitations. "Where the line is -- that's what cases are coming up about," he said, rejecting the "slippery slope" argument that any restriction of a constitutional right leads to repealing it. "It's possible to maintain intermediate positions," he said.

Deborah Hellman was quoted in an article in the French edition of Slate about the state of affirmative action in the United States. "Remedying past discrimination and promoting fairness were never used by the Supreme Court as ways of justifying race-based affirmative action in higher education," she said. "The main justification mentioned was always diversity and its benefits."

John Jeffries was quoted in a March 11 Richmond Times-Dispatch article about the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that ended the court-ordered merger of the school systems in Richmond and its suburbs. Justice Powell, who had served as chairman of the Richmond School Board, did not participate in the case, but did vote to overturn a similar cross-district desegration plan the following year. "I think one could infer his position from his vote in Milliken v. Bradley, which -- at least in the view of the Supreme Court -- presented the same legal issue," Jeffries said. Jeffries was also quoted in an April 28 Reuters story about the Court's current case that could restrict universities' use of race in admissions. "The court seems to have been leaning away from allowing affirmative action for some time," he said. "If they close the door, that potentially is a very big deal."

Douglas Laycock was quoted in a March 16 Allentown Morning Call article about a family that was suing to force the neighbor who abused their daughter to buy their house. "I have never heard of that and the court may say it has no authority to order that," he said. "If the house, in fact, lost value, and if the owners are entitled to recover for that, that value can be awarded in damages without transferring ownership of the house. Selling the house to the offender might be a sensible part of a settlement, but it would be odd as a court-ordered remedy."

David Martin was quoted in an April 26 Bergen County Record article about immigrants who have received protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. "The president's announcement of this program and the reaction that it got really played a role in helping pave the way for the discussion that we are now having on immigration reform," he said.

John Monahan was quoted in a March 29 New York Times article about efforts to overturn a Texas man's death sentence as tainted by racial bias, because the jury was told that he posed a greater danger to society because he was black. Monahan said that the literature did not support more than a trivial association between race and recidivism. ''When you take into account the major risk factors for criminal recidivism, such as the number of prior convictions, age at first arrest, unemployment, education and substance abuse, race plays at most an extremely small role in predicting whether an offender will commit another violent crime,'' he said.

In a March 25 Wall Street Journal article about the effects of an SEC case against mutual fund directors, John Morley said the case could have a "significant impact" on the willingness of people to be mutual-fund directors, forcing funds to "start paying directors more" and thus eroding returns.

Daniel Ortiz was quoted in an American Public Media Marketplace story on March 25 about the cost of bringing the same-sex marriage cases to the Supreme Court. "I think that most of the law firms who are involved are not charging their full rate," he said, in part because they believe in the cause but also because taking part in hot ticket cases "makes you a real player in the profession and raises your profile for future cases."

In an April 25 Region's Business story about the strong presence of UVA Law graduates on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, George Rutherglen discussed the Graduate Program for Judges the law school operated from 1980 to 2006 and said that any judge who attended showed great motivation, intellectual curiosity and dedication to the judicial craft. "I don't think any judge who came through the program radically changed their view," but the judges saw a broader range of legal arguments so they didn't take their own positions for granted.

In a March 15 Richmond Times-Dispatch article about the continuing battle against separate and unequal education, Jim Ryan said that school administrators have more control over where nonwhite and low-income students are placed than they say they do. "The choice is ours -- it always has been," Ryan said. "For better or worse, at the end of the day it really comes down to a question of political will."

In a March 27 Charlottesville Newsplex story about the same-sex marriage cases before the Supreme Court, Rich Schragger provided insights about what to expect from the justices. "These things can be tricky, though, and we saw that in the health care case recently, where the alignments weren't as predictable," he said, noting that the case could be closely decided by the liberal-leaning court and that he expected Justice Anthony Kennedy to be the swing vote. "There are some procedural issues in the case that might have even more disagreement in the court," he said, "and you might have a whole number of opinions written and no one opinion gaining a majority."

Molly Bishop Shadel discussed her new book, "Finding Your Voice in Law School:  Mastering Classroom Cold Calls and Other Verbal Challenges," in a March 21 Charlottesville Daily Progress article about the 19th annual Virginia Festival of the Book. She said that what's true for aspiring lawyers is true for aspiring anythings: it's never too early to start putting your best foot forward. "You are already starting to establish your professional reputation," she said, explaining that success comes from putting in the hours, taking your efforts seriously and engaging with your work, regardless of where that journey takes you.

Paul Stephan was quoted in an April 9 RIA Novosti article about the Magnitsky Act, which imposes sanctions on Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses. He discussed possible court challenges by officials slapped with sanctions, saying that the most likely ground was that the law's asset-freezing provisions violate the Constitution's due process clause. "An imaginative lawyer might come up with more than I can," he said, " but I think the argument would have to be constitutional, especially as to any asset freeze."

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Faculty in the News is compiled by Kent Olson, Law Library Director of Reference, Research and Instruction; and the Law School Communications department.

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