Oh deer!
A confused buck took a novel approach to getting into law school when it jumped through a window in the Law Library in October. The deer briefly wandered the halls below the Reading Room before it was let out through the main door without further incident. Photos provided by 2L Emma Duggan.
On Voting Rights
Eric Holder, the former US attorney general, spoke about voting rights, election law, and related topics at an event organized by the American Constitution Society. Following the event, he met with students for an informal conversation in Jeffries Lounge (pictured).
“The sign stealing scandal may be fodder for either jokes or righteous (hypocritical?) indignation for now, but it could unleash something that no one in the NCAA or Big 10 would want. Caveat emptor.”
—Dan Crane, the Richard W. Pogue Professor of Law, in a recent Yale Journal on Regulation article about potential antitrust issues related to the NCAA’s investigation of the U-M football team and the enforcement of rules in response to allegations of sign stealing.
$20M
The amount of the bequest that John Hoyns, ’79, committed to Michigan Law in September—one of the largest gifts in the Law School’s history.
The John K. Hoyns Scholarship Fund will prioritize the support of students with financial need; Hoyns Scholars will receive the cost of tuition as well as all associated expenses, including living costs, for the duration of their time at the Law School.
“My gift will be applied to law students lowest on the economic ladder who, even if their family is able to make some financial contribution, still can’t afford the Law School without incurring significant debt,” Hoyns said.
“When I arrived at the Law Quad as a first-year student, it was surprising to see how much more demanding law school is than college. All students at the Law School should be focused on learning the law without the distraction of finding money for expenses.”
Hoyns has given annually to the Law School for more than four decades, and his previous gifts include a $150,000 commitment to the Law School Fund in honor of his 40th class reunion.
“We are so grateful for the extraordinary generosity of John’s gift,” said Mark D. West, the David A. Breach Dean of Law and Nippon Life Professor of Law. “John will provide critical support to scores of students for generations to come, ensuring that the enduring value of a Michigan Law education is more accessible to our incredibly talented students.”
“This Note explores the intersection of the Fourth Amendment, aerial property rights, and government use of drones. It argues that the [Jones v. United States] intrusion test can be a useful doctrinal tool for analyzing aerial surveillance under the Fourth Amendment. This issue will only grow in importance as law enforcement expands its use of drone technology.”
—Randall Khalil, ’22, in “Aerial Trespass and the Fourth Amendment,” published in Michigan Law Review.
LLM Class of 2024
Countries
16
Continents
6
Years of median work experience before matriculation
4
Class of 2026
Median undergrad GPA
3.85
Median LSAT = Highest combined score in Law School history
+171
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Rich Friedman, the Alene and Allan F. Smith Professor of Law, attended a Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park in Detroit with students in the IJKL section of his Civil Procedure class.
Perspective from the EU
Rossa Fanning, LLM ’00, the attorney general of Ireland, visited Professor Daniel Halberstam’s class on European law in September to discuss Ireland’s history in the European Union, the political institutions of the EU, member state versus EU law, and the implications of Brexit. He also gave presentations to Professor Christopher McCrudden’s Comparative Human Rights Law class and at U-M’s Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia. Read more about Fanning in this issue's cover story.
Professor from Practice Luis C.deBaca, ’93, received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Nottingham, England, in July. At the ceremony, Professor Zoe Trodd, director of the Nottingham Rights Lab, said the honor recognizes “the story of Ambassador C.deBaca’s vital role in the global partnership to end modern slavery and [the story] of all the survivors, governments, and organizations who saw a chance for freedom.” C.deBaca served as ambassador at large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons during the Obama administration. In this role, he updated statutes created after the Civil War and through the 13th Amendment to develop the victim-centered approach to modern slavery that has become the global standard for combating human trafficking. He is pictured with (from left to right) University of Nottingham faculty Nalayini Thambar and Zoe Trodd and University of Nottingham President and Vice Chancellor Shearer West.
At U-M’s annual Constitution Day commemoration in September, conservative law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen outlined the argument that Donald Trump is ineligible to run for president in 2024, based on provisions in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Paulsen is the co-author of “The Sweep and Force of Section Three” in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, which received extensive media coverage after it was published in August and has been the basis of initiatives in several states to keep Trump’s name off the ballot. The Constitution Day speech, however, is one of the few times Paulsen has spoken publicly about the paper.
“In child welfare cases, the right mix of in-person and online hearings promotes access to justice, cuts delays, saves costs, and protects both children and parents’ rights more effectively than either approach alone…. An unexpected silver lining of the pandemic, online hearings can, if used prudently, help juvenile courts deliver justice to the most vulnerable and helpless among us.”
—Vivek Sankaran, ’01, clinical professor of law and director of the Child Advocacy Clinic and the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic, co-wrote an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press with the Hon. Maura D. Corrigan, former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. The op-ed urged the Michigan Supreme Court to adopt statewide rules for juvenile court hearings and recommended three key reforms: identify rules to prioritize cases and to determine which hearings must be conducted in person and which can be managed remotely; hire “technical bailiffs” to assist litigants with remote hearings; and institute time-specific calendaring to reduce the scheduling burden of attending hearings in person and online.
“Today’s commitments from JPMorgan Chase…are truly trailblazing. Had the bank implemented these stringent monitoring and reporting requirements sooner, so many young women and girls could have been spared from Jeffery Epstein’s abuse.”
—Bridgette Carr, ’02, clinical professor of law and director of the Human Trafficking Clinic, in a St. Thomas Source story about the $75 million settlement that the US Virgin Islands reached in September with JPMorgan Chase over the bank’s ties to Epstein, a convicted sex trafficker and sex offender. The settlement was hailed as groundbreaking for its use of the federal Victims Protection Act by a state attorney general; Carr was an expert witness for the US Virgin Islands.
“The substance of the opinion would not have garnered much attention except for the fact that it was authored by Chief Justice Roberts, who has, in the past, been no friend to the Voting Rights Act, most notably gutting its preclearance requirements in 2013. Alongside the Court’s largely status quo-maintaining decision last term in Moore v. Harper, Milligan stood out to many court-watchers as reason to hope for future stability in the Court’s jurisprudence around voting rights and democracy.”
—Emma Shoucair, ’18, in “The Outcome of Allen v. Milligan: A Tentative Victory for Voting Rights in Alabama,” published in Jurist.
