Author: Jessica Roberts Martin

Many deplore the vast scope of the National Security Agency sweep of private phone and electronic communications and question the balance and fairness of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court decisions about such activities. Others contend protection against terrorism requires such activities and that they must remain secret. Reacting to the public debate, President Obama seeks balance by establishing a spokesperson with the court to advocate for constitutional protection. A recent Huffington Post piece by Merton Bernstein, JD, professor of law emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, says this move is desirable but not sufficient.

Ernest Moniz, PhD, U.S. Secretary of Energy, will speak about President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan, at 2:30 pm on Oct. 4 in Laboratory Sciences Building, Room 300. Moniz’s talk is the 52nd annual Joseph W. Kennedy Memorial Lecture sponsored by the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences. A reception will follow.

James Cavallaro, professor of law at Stanford, kicks off the 16th annual School of Law Public Interest Law and Policy Speakers Series at noon today with “The Toxic Effects of Drone Strikes on Targeted Communities, the Global Role of the U.S., and our Constitutional and Democratic Principles.” Cavallaro, a well-regarded international human rights expert, is director of the Stanford International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and director of the Stanford Human Rights Center, and recently elected member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. For more information and a full list of speakers visit http://law.wustl.edu/pilss/.

Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at Washington University in St. Louis, has appointed an eight-member committee to identify candidates for the position of dean of the School of Law. Daniel Keating, JD, the Tyrrell Williams Professor of Law, will serve as interim dean. At the law school, Keating has served twice as interim dean, as well as vice dean and associate dean.

The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University’s School of Law will host the International Law Weekend – Midwest Regional conference Sept. 19-21. The theme for this year’s conference is “The Legal Challenges of Globalization: A View from the Heartland” and the panels presented at this conference will address a broad range of topics, emphasizing the impact of international law and globalization on the Midwest.

Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the 46th solicitor general of the United States, will deliver the 2013–14 Tyrrell Williams Lecture at 4 p.m. Sept. 9 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom (AB Hall, No. 310). He will speak on “The Solicitor General and Civil Rights Law: Historical Perspectives. Read more about Solicitor General Verrilli and RSVP for the event here.

As encrypted email services like Lavabit shut their doors, the importance of email privacy becomes even more clear writes Neil Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, in a recent CNN opinion piece.

Washington University is offering a training session,”Reducing Cultural Distance in the New Workplace for Managers and Supervisors,” from 8:30 a.m. to noon Sept. 10 in the Human Resources Learning & Development Center at West Campus (Training Room B, Lower Level, 7509 Forsyth Blvd).

Missouri has been held out as a model for juvenile corrections programs, but the court system that puts young people into these programs is in crisis, finds a recent report by the National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC). “Many young people in Missouri wind up having to defend themselves in our juvenile courts – and sometimes from behind bars,” says Mae C. Quinn, JD, professor of law and co-director of the Civil Justice Clinic at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Supreme Court today struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and rejected a challenge to a lower court ruling that invalidated California’s ban on same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8. Gregory Magarian, JD, constitutional law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says that the immediate effects of these decisions for same-sex couples will be profound. “The demise of DOMA means that the federal government must treat same-sex couples, legally married under state laws, just like opposite-sex married couples for purposes of federal benefits, tax status, etc,” he says. “The nullification of Proposition 8 appears to make marriage available to same-sex couples in the nation’s largest state, under a prior marriage law that Proposition 8 had purported to invalidate.”