Is Bravery Being Driven Out Of Us?

The Orlando community continues to mourn the victims of the deadly mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub. (AP Photo/John Raoux) A few days ago a young woman was stabbed to death on Chicago's CTA Red Line train. She was 25-year- old Jessica Hampton. No one tried to save her. Several [...]

Gun Policy Is Hard

Here are some of the difficulties that arise when trying to do good gun policy. No amount of Facebook meme sharing, congressionalsit-ins, or shouting television personalities makes gun policy easier. Bad arguments must be called out and unavoidable facts and inevitable trade-offs must be addressed head-on.

Law Professor Demands Repeal Of 'Outdated' Second Amendment, Makes Very Weak Case

America without the Second Amendment would look like the world of Fahrenheit 451, only the government's target would be guns rather than books.

Support for second chances: HLS students join in clemency initiative

Credit: Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff PhotographerHarvard Law School students Josh Looney '18 (left) and Chloe Goodwin '18 (center) are part of a group of 26 students working with HLS legal fellow Anna Kastner (right) on the Clemency Project, which aims to gain clemency for felons serving time.

Early in the spring, first-year Harvard Law School students Chloe Goodwin, Nora Ellingsen, and Josh Looney jumped at the opportunity to volunteer with a national organization to help felons get a second shot at life.

Working with Clemency Project 2014, a coalition that supports petitions by nonviolent drug offenders for executive clemency, the students wound up enlightened and inspired.

“It was a wake-up moment for me,” said Looney, who plans to pursue a career in criminal defense. “I realized that what I was doing was really different from writing a brief for class.”

With a group of 26 students working under the supervision of pro bono attorneys from the Boston law firms Goodwin Procter and Clements & Pineault, HLS provided the largest contingent of students among the law schools participating in the project.

Clemency Project 2014 stems from President Obama's efforts to grant clemency to nonviolent felons serving harsh sentences, as part of a wider push for criminal justice reform.

Anna Kastner, a legal fellow with the HLS Criminal Justice Policy Program, which coordinated the HLS Clemency Project, said students completed their work last month.

“Our goal was to put a very concentrated effort on this work this semester so that the petitions would be reviewed by Obama before he leaves office,” said Kastner.

Students conducted phone interviews with inmates in Georgia, New Jersey, California, and other places to craft narratives to justify their clients' pleas to have their sentences commuted, a key part of the clemency petition. All the inmates were low-level, nonviolent drug offenders sentenced to 20 years or more in prison.

The students also analyzed statutes and sentencing guidelines to show that their clients' sentences would be lower under current laws. Kastner said that students' work would allow the HLS group to submit 15 petitions to the Office of the Pardon Attorney through Clemency Project 2014.

During the Obama administration, more than 21,000 prisoners have submitted clemency petitions. Three hundred and forty-eight petitions have been granted, and more than 9,000 are pending. Despite the odds, the students hope for clemency for their clients.

Prisoners interviewed by HLS students were screened by volunteers with NYU Law's Clemency Resource Center to make sure they met the criteria set by the Justice Department to apply for clemency. They had to have served 10 years or more in prison by the time they applied, shown good conduct, lacked any history of violence, and demonstrated that their sentences would be lower if they were convicted today.

 

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Open Letter on President Obama's Clemency Initiative

The Criminal Justice Policy Program's directors and a broad coalition of criminal justice experts submitted a letter to President Obama urging him to expand the administration's clemency process.

As part of their work to ensure that President Obama's clemency initiative results in meaningful relief to individuals serving unnecessarily long federal sentences, the program's leadership and other criminal justice experts signed a letter to the President urging him expand the scope of the administration's clemency efforts.

Click here to read the letter. You can also visit NPR.org to listen to National Public Radio's coverage of the issue.

For Ellingsen, who hopes to build a career as a prosecutor, the most rewarding part of the project was interacting with clients. “It was an opportunity to feel that one is doing something that is real and concrete that might make a difference,” she said.

Such was the case when Looney made a breakthrough after reviewing a client's case using current federal sentencing drug laws. With help of some “junior math,” he was able to determine that a client would be sentenced to 12 years rather than life for the same crime today. Due to privacy issues, students are not allowed to discuss specific details about cases or clients.

But working on clemency can be frustrating as well as rewarding. For Goodwin, the hardest part was not knowing what happens after the petition is submitted.

“It's like a black box,” she said. “People don't hear back. It's going to be challenging for our clients.”

Petitions undergo seven levels of review before the president, who has the power to grant clemency, sees them. Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor who advocates for clemency and criminal justice reform, has criticized the process as sluggish and bureaucratic and has urged Obama to act on more petitions.

Osler, the Robert and Marion Short Distinguished Chair and Professor of Law at University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, came to Boston in January to train volunteer lawyers with the Boston firms.

“Clemency is a freedom issue,” he said. “When you see the people who are being released, you realize it's a freedom issue.”

HLS students used handouts prepared by Osler that included a step-by-step guide to clemency petitions. In the process, they learned about clemency and the role it plays to remedy injustices in criminal law.

Looney, who plans to intern at the Metropolitan Public Defender's Office in Portland, Ore., this summer, was baffled when he learned of the complexity of the clemency process, but he was also struck by the possibility of helping a prisoner regain his freedom.

“We really have the chance of impacting someone's life, even though we don't know what that chance is,” he said. “It was sobering but mostly exciting to realize what we can do with our legal education.”

This story was originally published in the Harvard Gazette on June 14, 2016.

At the Asian Leadership Conference, Gasser addresses the challenges of cybersercurity in a 'hyperconnected' world

At the 2016 Asian Leadership Conference, Urs Gasser (center), HLS professor and executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society gave remarks on the future of cybersecurity as part of a panel on the topic. The conference took place on May 17 and 18 in Seoul, South Korea.

Urs Gasser, Harvard Law School professor and executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, delivered a presentation last month on “The Future of Cybersecurity” at the Asian Leadership Conference, an annual event bringing together leaders across the globe to discuss and provide solutions to Asia's most pressing challenges.

Professor Gasser joined Jean Paul Laborde, assistant secretary-general and executive director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate; Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab; and Danil Kerimi, director of Digital Economy and Global Technology Policy at the World Economic Forum, in a panel moderated by Lee Jaeyoung, member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea.

The proliferation of connectivity has contributed to the emergence of cybersecurity as one of the most salient issues of our time, leaving private sector, academic, government, and civil society stakeholders grappling with the implications of this shift. Through his work at the Berkman Center, Professor Gasser has spearheaded various efforts to help develop frameworks providing a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity. A white paper prepared by the Berkman Center in collaboration with the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Cybersecurity speaks to the systemic security issues that arise as a result of the hyperconnected world and proposes best practices that cut across sectors to address these nascent challenges.

In his panel contribution to the Asian Leadership Conference, Professor Gasser shared insights gleaned from this collaboration and argued that cybersecurity ought to be seen as a shared responsibility, much like governance of the internet itself is a shared responsibility. A shared governance in mitigating cyber risk necessitates collaboration between the public and the private sector, encompassing governments, enterprises, academics, the technical community, and civil society at large.

“A collaboration of this scale is inherently complicated due to systemic factors that include a lack of trust between governments and companies, particularly in the era of post-Snowden revelations,” he said. “This is further complicated by incentive problems between companies, where fierce competition around time-to-market prevents extensive security testing, and concerns around liability inhibit the sharing of vulnerability information.”

Professor Gasser emphasized that, despite these systemic challenges there is much that both private and public sector stakeholders can do, building upon a foundation in which each stakeholder embraces its responsibility. In the case of companies, he argued, scholarship suggests that all companies should deploy basic cyber hygiene strategies, while technology companies in particular should move towards security-by-design approaches that include more extensive beta testing and product lifecycle management. Gasser stressed that governments also have to play their role, balancing on two ends of a spectrum. On one hand, he said, governments should do no harm by resisting policies that actually weaken the cybersecurity ecosystem, such as mandating backdoors or golden keys. On the other hand, Gasser noted that governments must enact baseline legislation and regulation that establish consumer protection and facilitate Internet of Things safety standards. Most importantly, governments should use the full spectrum of tools at their disposal, including the use of procurement power, capacity building, and educational strategies.

Moving forward, the investment into building distributed governance platforms, networks, and participation mechanisms (including education) will be critical, said Professor Gasser, as it addresses the complexity of stakeholder coordination head-on. Existing platforms and networks that are flexible and fast enough can be built upon, in the image of extant private­–public platforms such as the World Economic Forum, or multi-stakeholder convenings such as the Internet Governance Forum. These approaches will not solve all the challenges, he said, but will at least create the necessary spaces for knowledge-sharing and ad hoc interventions, which are often informal.

The Berkman Center is working to address the systemically important issue of cybersecurity through its collaboration with the World Economic Forum with a current focus on IoT safety and security, as well as the Berklett Cybersecurity project, which convenes a diverse group of security and policy experts from academia, civil society, and the U.S. intelligence community to explore and evaluate the roles and responsibilities of the U.S. government in promoting cybersecurity, and the Berkman Assembly, a new and innovative pilot program that is experimenting with different modes of education, collaboration, and development to work towards solving some of the tough problems at the intersections of code and policy.

Indiana's E-cigarette Nonsense

Indiana is about to create a government-sanctioned monopoly in the growing vaping industry . In addition to destroying competition and innovation, Indiana policymakers are harming the people they represent by substantially limiting consumer choice. Back in May 2015, Indiana Republican governor Mike Pence signed House Bill 1432. The main provisions in [...]

Breaking Down Hillary Clinton's Private Email Scandal

After a blowout win in California, the endorsements rolled in: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama. But before the former Secretary of State can formally accept the nomination at the party's national convention in July, she still has one major concern clouding those prospects: her email scandal.

Jocelyn Kennedy becomes executive director of the HLS library

Jocelyn Kennedy

Jocelyn Kennedy, former director for library services at the University of Connecticut School of Law, is the new executive director of the Harvard Law School Library.

“Jocelyn not only has extraordinary skill with the intricacies of legal scholarship and the law, but also is a thoughtful and sensitive leader, ready to steward our remarkable library's best facets while thinking boldly about the future,” said HLS Professor Jonathan Zittrain '95, vice dean for library and information resources.

During Kennedy's 5-year tenure at UConn, the library instituted a strategic plan to fulfill its vision that “the library is everywhere.” As a result, she and her staff increased traditional and non-traditional services to faculty, students and staff; improved outreach in person and via the web; and developed innovative service structures.

“The Harvard Law Library is a pillar in the world of legal information, known for its collections, its innovation and its stellar staff,” said Kennedy. “I am excited to be a part of the library team and the law school community. I am positive that working together we can preserve our best traditions while blazing new trails.”

In addition to her work in the library, Kennedy served as an adjunct faculty member, teaching an annual course in Advanced Legal Research, a summer course in Practice Ready Research and numerous workshops and presentations.

She served on a number of law school and university committees, including the Education Policy Committee, the Curricular Reform Committee and the Scholarly Communications Committee. She was an active participant in a task force charged with integrating library services across the university. Outside of the university, Kennedy served on the Connecticut Judiciary's Workgroup on Access to Justice in Libraries and was an active member of the Connecticut Law Tribune's Editorial Board.

Kennedy began her career working in New Hampshire as a congressional staffer for several years. She went on to receive a J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law Center (now University of New Hampshire School of Law) and clerked with the New Hampshire Superior Court for two years. After receiving an M.L.I.S. from the University of Washington, she joined the University of Michigan Law Library, serving as the faculty services librarian. She was instrumental in automating document delivery to law faculty and increasing faculty research assistance and went on to work as circulation librarian, shifting her focus to student services, interlibrary loan and access services.

She is now the chair of the Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries, former two-time chair of the Conference of Newer Law Librarians and is a member of the Law Librarians of New England.

 

 

 

No, Guns Are Not A 'Public Health Crisis'

By definition, gun violence is not a “public health crisis,” and a group of physicians, especially those in a political trade group like the AMA, cannot invent a “public health crisis” by simply declaring one.

Speaker Ryan's Call For Regulatory Humility

House Speaker Paul Ryan's new regulatory reform plan aimed at reviving the stalled economy may indeed offer a “better way.” It recognizes that competition, choice and decentralized decision-making encourage innovation and growth, in contrast to regulation, which often leads to less-productive activities, precaution and maintenance of the status quo.

The FCC's Elitist Priorities In The Regulation of Net Neutrality and Privacy

There are winners and losers from the FCC's recent regulations of net neutrality and of privacy. Unfortunately, the winners are mostly the elite, while the losers are the low income and under-served populations.

Harvard Law waste reduction 'exemplary' during Commencement in 2016

Harvard Law School staff members Carrie Ayers and Jacquelyn Kenehan sorted trash on commencement day with the Green Team to reduce landfill waste at the School through recycling and compost diversion.

Amidst the crimson celebration, pomp, and circumstance that mark commencement across campus, Harvard Law School made sure to add in a little green. Thanks to the hard work of a dedicated group of Green Team and HLS staff volunteers, the law school diverted 94.8% of all waste from the landfill on commencement day.

For the second year in a row, HLS event organizers worked together to ensure that all materials provided at commencement were compostable, including all food packaging and serviceware - the only exception being a plant-based water bottle that was recyclable.

For the first time ever, on-campus advocates such as the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic worked with dining services provider Restaurant Associates to further reduce unnecessary food waste by donating 900 leftover meals. Through a partnership with Food for Free, a local Cambridge nonprofit, the surplus food was redistributed to families in need in the Greater Boston area.

The success of the second zero-waste commencement at HLS would not have been possible without participation and collaboration across campus from sustainability champions such as the Dean of Students, Green Team-led staff volunteers, and Facilities, Custodial Services, and Restaurant Associates partners. These efforts help tackle Harvard's goal to reduce per capita waste 50% by 2020, as outlined in the University-wide Sustainability Plan.

Speaker Ryan's Plan Highlights Regulatory Burdens On Low-Income Households

By taking away consumers' ability to choose the appliance that best suits their individual needs, DOE's energy efficiency standards impose a cost on consumers, not a benefit. As Speaker Ryan's regulatory reform plan highlights, this is particularly true for poor and elderly Americans, who sadly bear the highest costs of appliance efficiency standards.

Strange Laws And Regulations In Each State

Strange Laws And Regulations In Each State

Clinical program receives grant from Milstein Foundation to launch Syrian Refugee Resettlement Project

The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program has received a generous grant from the Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation to launch the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Project.

The Obama Administration has committed to resettling at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the current fiscal year. Due to bottlenecks in processing, the United States has fallen far short of its goal to date. Over the next six months, the Clinic will be working to gather and analyze information regarding current obstacles to efficient processing of Syrians destined for U.S. resettlement. The Clinic will compile a compendium of relevant laws and regulations related to refugee resettlement, document current practice, and make practical recommendations for improvements to those processes. The report will be broadly disseminated to both Congress and the Administration and will include specific recommendations for reform.

Credit: Michael Malyszko Clinical Professor Deborah Anker LL.M. '84, founder and director of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

In describing the Project, Clinical Professor of Law and Director Deborah Anker explained, “Working with expert consultants Amy Nelson, formerly Director of the Refugee Processing Center at the Department of State, and Sana F. Shtasel, Senior Advisor to the Multi-Faith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, and with the input of key government agencies, we are excited to gather together the International Rescue Committee, HIAS, International Refugee Assistance Project, and Human Rights Watch, as part of our exceptional Advisory Board - all of which have long-standing policy and on-the-ground experience in international refugee resettlement.” She notes that the UN General Assembly has designated June 20 as World Refugee Day to show identification with and compassion for refugees around the world. “It is a fitting moment to announce the HLS Syrian Refugee Resettlement Project,” Anker said.

Abby Milstein '76 and Howard Milstein '77 serve on the Executive Committee of the Dean's Advisory Board, and Mrs. Milstein also serves on the Visiting Committee of Harvard Law School.

“Our refugee policy needs to be driven by the immortal words engraved on the Statue of Liberty: 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.' It is our humanitarian duty to provide safety and succor to Syrian refugees, 80% of whom are women and children,” said Howard Milstein. “But our welcome must be undergirded with the highly effective security screening that we have in place. That said, Syrian refugees can make a real contribution to our economy and our country by bringing their entrepreneurial spirit to America. If we don't rescue them, we are contributing to the very condition that we most fear – radicalization born of desperation,” Milstein continued.

“We are so grateful to the Milstein Foundation for its leadership and initiative, enabling the opportunity to address the urgent needs of Syrian refugees at this critical time,” said Martha Minow, the Helen and Morgan Chu Dean and Professor at Harvard Law School. “Refugee protection respects human dignity as well as legal commitments to human rights, and HLS is honored to advance this work.”

The Syrian Refugee Resettlement Project is part of the Clinic's long tradition of assisting refugees. “For more than 30 years, HIRC has influenced the development of U.S. and international refugee law and assisted people from around the world fleeing serious human rights abuses,” said Sabi Ardalan, Assistant Director of the HLS Clinic and a lecturer on law at HLS. The Syrian Refugee Resettlement Project builds on the Clinic's long history of commitment to representing refugees, since the United States implemented its obligations under international refugee law with the 1980 Refugee Act.

In addition to its work on international refugee issues, the Clinic is also involved in appellate and policy advocacy at the local, national, and international levels, teaches students refugee law and trains them in the representation of persons seeking asylum and related humanitarian protection. The Clinic also provides legal and technical support to immigrants detained because of criminal charges or convictions.

Why The Ninth Circuit's Concealed-Carry Gun Ruling Is Nonsense

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled 7-4 that the Second Amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights does not protect the individuals right to carry a concealed firearm in public even though the Second Amendment protects the right to "bear arms." (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) On [...]

Sheldon Adelson Buys Editorial Support For Pot Prohibition In Nevada

In May 2014, when activists began collecting signatures for a marijuana legalization initiative that will appear on Nevada's ballot this November, the Las Vegas Review-Journal welcomed the measure as “an opportunity to reset America's costly drug war.” The paper's editorial board said “taxpayers finally seem to understand that spending vast [...]

Sarah Jessica Parker's hopes for the Class of 2016

“So at last we meet,” actor, producer, businesswoman and philanthropist Sarah Jessica Parker said to the Harvard Law School Class of 2016 during Class Day ceremony. She confessed that this year's graduating class has been on her mind a lot these past months, “a distraction and a beautiful burden. In other words, you've basically become my children.” And, like her own offspring, she said, she has hopes and ambitions for all of them.

Parker went on to share her list of hopes for the the Class of 2016, drawn from her own experience as an actor, parent, businessperson, and “as somebody who has had the extraordinary good fortune to pursue the things I love.” She urged the graduating class to “cling to your sense of self and uniqueness,” learn how to wrangle your fears, and follow the golden rule. “I believe it's what gives us the most meaningful success,” she said. “The admiration and trust of those whose lives we touched.”

“The world of law awaits your good sense, your unique perspective, and your careful consideration,” she told them. “Art, culture, politics, community and the larger world beckon for your head and your heart. I know you are ready.”

Read more coverage:

Boston Globe: Sarah Jessica Parker to Harvard Law grads: 'Wrangle your fear'

Harvard Crimson: Sarah Jessica Parker Makes Case for Dreaming at Law School Class Day

Harvard Magazine: Sarah Jessica Parker Speaks at Harvard Law School Class Day 2016

Oklahoma Cops Can Now Seize Money From Prepaid Debit Cards, Without Filing Criminal Charges

The company behind the devices will also receive a “processing fee” of 7.7 percent of all money seized using the readers.

Angle on Degrees: Commencement 2016

On May 26, from sunup to sundown, Harvard Law School celebrated its new group of graduates on Holmes Field, in front of Langdell Library. Here is a snapshot–several, to be precise–capturing the ebb and flow of ten hours of nonstop activity, celebration and accomplishment, as only a bird (or a well-placed GoPro) can.

As Fear And Intolerance Of Marijuana Declined, So Did Adolescent Use

Ever since 1996, when California became the first state to recognize marijuana as a medicine, drug warriors have been warning that loosening legal restrictions on cannabis “sends the wrong message” to the youth of America, encouraging them to use a drug they would otherwise avoid. Twenty years later, with marijuana [...]

Derek Manners wins CLEA's Outstanding Clinical Student Award

Derek Manners '16 is the winner of the Outstanding Clinical Student Award from the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). The award is presented annually to one student from each law school for his/her outstanding clinical coursework and contributions to the clinical community.

Manners was nominated by Maine's former Attorney General and Lecturer on Law James E. Tierney who taught him in the Government Lawyer: State Attorney General Clinic, an externship clinic offering students the opportunity to do legal work at various AG offices around the country. Over the course of his three years at Harvard Law, Manners has logged more than a thousand pro bono hours in service to the community and he excelled as a clinical law student.

He began his fall 2014 semester with a placement with the State Attorney General in Connecticut and continued his work through the winter and spring semesters in 2015 as well as the spring semester in 2016. During this time, he worked on a number of subprime mortgage cases. His supervisor reported that Derek played a “critical role” in understanding and organizing vast amounts of data needed to bring a case against a large investment bank. During that time, he also delved into the details of the cases and participated in national conference calls.

“Derek interned with my office for multiple semesters and, in short order, proved himself to be extremely capable and hard-working,” said Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen '80. “He assisted with a large and important investigation, and his contributions were integral to our efforts. He developed very strong and positive relationships with my investigative team, and quickly grasped the legal issues at play in the case. I am grateful to him for his service and he is deeply deserving of this recognition from the CLEA.”

Manners's direct supervisor in Hartford said: “Derek has three strengths you do not often see in a student: great intelligence, humility and an insatiable work ethic.”

Manners, who is legally blind, traveled to his clinical placement every week by taking a bus from Boston to Hartford and staying overnight in a hotel. “While I have never had a student willing to make such a weekly trip to fulfill a clinic assignment,” said Tierney, “what impressed me with Derek's work was the maturity of judgment. Although still a student, he truly served the cause of justice.”

“Derek impressed us all with his selfless devotion to his clinical work,” said Lisa Dealy, Assistant Dean of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs. “Managing a busy clinical placement in another state while balancing other law school courses and activities is impressive – to do so for three semesters is extraordinary.”

On news of receiving this award, Manners stated: “I thoroughly enjoyed my clinical experiences. It was by far the most enjoyable part of my law school career. The work we did was important and allowed me to develop my skills as an attorney. I'm truly honored to have that effort recognized.”

In the winter of 2015, he also completed an independent clinical placement with the National Federation for the Blind (NFB) in Baltimore, during which he worked on a self-advocacy toolkit designed to help students having difficulty with testing. Prior to starting clinical work, he also completed a summer internship in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Vermont's GMO Labeling Law Violates The First Amendment

Food makers can be required to warn consumers of risks in the food. Vermont thinks that GMO foods create health and environment risks, can requires labeling.But the new report by the National Academy of Science confirms that no such risks exist. Vermont's law is therefore unconstitutional