Faculty News 2000

12.29.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
N.C. gains 13th congressional seat ... North Carolina's population soared 21.4 percent this decade, winning the state a 13th congressional seat that could bolster representation for the Triangle and other urban areas. ... The census figures and supposed urban growth also could put to bed the long-running judicial issue of minority districts, which has come before the U.S. Supreme Court four times in the last eight years. The Justice Department after the last census ordered more minority representation in the congressional voting blocs of North Carolina, putting the state on a judicial collion course with Duke University law professor Robinson Everett. ... "The message I think is clear that what they need to do is avoid focusing on race and instead on political subdivisions," he said. "With 13 seats instead of 12, the odds are better that there will be more diversity and more opportunity." ...
12.24.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Hog farms face class-action foe ... These two dozen trial lawyers have humbled cigarette makers, diet drug companies and other corporate behemoths with multimillion dollar product liability lawsuits. Their decision in September to target a new foe - the pork industry - has already sharpened the conflict over the industry in North Carolina. Fifteen law firms specializing in class actions promise a barrage of lawsuits in the coming months that they say would reform the way factory hog farms are run. The lawyers say the industry has illegally polluted water and air, mistreated animals and violated the sanctity of rural communities from the plains of eastern North Carolina to the hills of northern Missouri. ... Duke law professor Thomas B. Metzloff, an expert in mass tort law, said by banding together the law firms gain two things: ample money to fight long battles against rich corporations, and collective talent. "Essentially, what these lawyers do is create a joint venture," Metzloff said. "There's a lot of risk. It takes a while to win. You don't see any money for a while, so financial staying power is important. You send a signal to the other side: You can't intimidate us. You can't wait us out. You can't outspend us until we give up." ...
12.19.00
Fulton County Daily Report
Election Teams Rated Lawyers of Year; Bush, Gore Groups Honored by National Law Journal ... Before Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist let oral arguments begin on Dec. 11 in what would be the culminating appeal in the 2000 battle for the White House, he thanked the lawyers for "exemplary briefing under very trying circumstances." The chief justice isn't usually so complimentary, but he knew good lawyering when he saw it. So did we. Throughout the five-week election ordeal, despite complaints about lawyers hijacking the election, lawyers acquitted themselves admirably-the reason the National Law Journal named the Bush and Gore legal teams Lawyers of the Year. ... William Van Alstyne, a noted constitutional law scholar at Duke University Law School, read most of the briefs in the litigation and says that the overall quality was "astoundingly good." "I read lots of briefs in the Supreme Court every year, and most lawyers have a minimum of 60 days to prepare, and on average, they are not as good as these," he adds. ...
12.17.00
The News & Record (NC)
Electoral College prepares to meet; an unusual presidential contest has put more attention on the state's 14 electors ... Without the Electoral College, the man Elaine Marshall supported for president this year would be heading to the White House instead of pondering his career options. Even so, the North Carolina secretary of state, a longtime Democratic Party loyalist, steadfastly supports the select group of men and women who this week officially choose the nation's 43rd president. At noon Monday, electors nationwide will convene at their respective capitols and, barring any rogue vote, confirm Republican George W. Bush as president-elect. The meetings typically pass unnoticed but might get more attention this year, considering the election results. ... William Van Alstyne, a Duke University constitutional law professor, said arguments in favor of abolishing the Electoral College "underwhelmed" him. He said the turmoil this election did not necessitate oblitertaing a process that has worked for two centuries and ensures that presidential candidates campaign in at least some places outside of the populous Northeast and California. ...
12.14.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Scholars say high court damaged itself - and Bush ... Several area scholars warned Wednesday that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that ended the presidential race could undermine public confidence in the high court and in George W. Bush's presidency. ... Duke University law professor Christopher Schroeder agrees. He said he doesn't buy the justification in the ruling, in which Rehnquist compares the Florida high court to state courts in the South during the days of segregation, when federal courts intervened to prevent miscarriages of justice due to racism. "It's especially disturbing to me that these are the same justices who declare acts of Congress unconstitutional because they tread too much on states' rights," Schroeder said. But fellow Duke law professor William Van Alstyne disagrees, saying this is not a typical federalism case. The justices had to interpret state law to see whether the Florida legislature had met constitutional requirements in the selection of its presidential electors, he said. Van Alstyne said the fact that seven justices had concerns about equal protection in the recount shows the ruling wasn't partisan or unreasonable. Without uniform guidelines on a recount, Van Alstyne said, "you get utter arbitrariness. That's the denial of equal protection." ...
12.14.00
The Palm Beach Post (FL)
Lawyers urged Gore to fight on; the vice president decided not to press the issue ... Six bottles of champagne occupy a refrigerator shelf in a walk-through kitchen adjoining Dexter Douglass' law office. "It's a sad event. We are pretty-well disbanded," Douglass said Wednesday. He teamed with attorney David Boies to champion Vice President Al Gore's lawsuit contesting the Florida presidential vote. ... Professor William Van Alstyne of the Duke University School of Law agreed that the majority opinion, in an aside, told Florida justices that time had run out for any recount that would comply with state law. But he, too, disagreed with the court's view on the deadline. "I think there is a legal wiggle room on remand so that the Florida Supreme Court can say that they don't read the statute as per the court's (majority opinion)," he said. Van Alstyne suggested that even the Dec. 18 deadline is "consequential, not fatal" because Florida's electoral votes would then become an issue of Congress to settle. ...
12.13.00
Scripps Howard News Service
Fla. laws may mean pro-Democratic reform laws ... The Supreme Court may have resolved the 2000 presidential election in ways that in the long run may open the nation's voting system to reforms that help Democrats more than Republicans, experts predict. ... For Democrats, the possible brights side to the Supreme Court ruling is that antiquated voting systems may be updated because they're not only inequitable but unconstitutional, says Duke University law professor Tom Rowe. "The main beneficiaries may be less-affluent areas that tend to have less voter-friendly technology, which will likely yield gains for the apparent losers in Tuesday's decision - the Democrats," Rowe predicts. ...
12.12.00
National Public Radio -- All Things Considered
Bitterness and sarcasm enter into debate over school vouchers in Cleveland, Ohio ... In Cleveland, supporters of school vouchers are promising to challenge a federal court ruling that struck down the city's voucher program. The court's decision yesterday reflected the divisions among the public at large. Many Americans see school vouchers as either the biggest threat or the greatest hope for millions of poor schoolchildren. ... The law, though, is not always as clear-cut, says Tom Metzloff, a law professor at Duke University. But it's important for a court's judgment to be seen as the result of courteous, respectful and civil debate, says Metzloff. "School vouchers, the whole area of governmental support of religious programs is tricky business, and I think everyone expects judges to respect each other's positions." ...link to audio
12.11.00
The Washington Post
No 'Crisis' Yet From Electoral Uncertainty, Say Legal Scholars ... Americans found themselves in a new place this weekend, confronting what many public figures called "a constitutional crisis" brought on by conflicting court decisions and continued doubt about the outcome of last month's presidential election. But legal scholars from all points on the ideological spectrum said it was too soon to declare a true constitutional crisis, one that threatened the ordinary functioning of the government or put one branch of government in open, irreconcilable conflict with another. ... A more liberal scholar, Christopher H. Schroeder of Duke University Law School, who served in the Clinton administration's Justice Department, said a constitutional crisis arises when "one of the branches of government decides not to acknowledge and accede to . . . the legitimate authority of another branch of government"--not the case here, Schroeder said. ...
12.10.00
The News & Observer (NC)
The will to give ... Triangle charities are downright nervous about Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Bush has already declared his opposition to the estate tax, commonly known as the "death tax." Pundits predict his election would almost certainly lead to the passage of a bill, the Death Tax Elimination Act, that would phase out the tax by 2010. The bill made it through both houses of Congress during the summer before it was vetoed by President Clinton. ... According to a study done by two Duke University professors, Richard Schmalbeck and Charles Clotfelter, the amount of "deferred giving" - money donated to charities through wills and trusts - would fall 24 percent to 44 percent if the estate tax did not exist. With deferred giving totaling about $ 15.6 billion in 1999, that would reduce charitable donations by $ 3.74 billion to $ 6.86 billion, Shmalbach said. Most people, Shmalbach said, respond to "price incentives" when they decide how much to give to charities. Given the choice between leaving $ 1 million to charity or just $ 450,000 to their children after the 55 percent tax is imposed, donors will often choose the former. "The tax is punitive enough that it really does encourage serious giving," said Shmalbach, a professor at the Duke University School of Law. ...
12.10.00
The Washington Post
Slim Majority Raises Fear of Court Partisanship ... Before yesterday, the Supreme Court had received extensive advice, then praise, for taking a careful, moderate and unanimous approach to the sensitive legal questions it considered in connection with this year's hung election for president. Then yesterday, five justices abandoned that approach, staking out a position that opened the court to accusations of intemperate partisanship as the majority stayed the vote count in Florida and signaled its willingness to decide the 2000 election in favor of George W. Bush. ... Professor Christopher Schroeder of Duke University's School of Law, who worked in the Clinton administration's Justice Department, called the five-member majority "imperialist" in its willingness to impose its views on other branches of government and jeopardizing the court's legitimacy. ... William Van Alstyne, a professor at Duke, noted yesterday that under Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the court struck down two dozen federal statutes during the '90s, more than any court in American history in a comparable period. He recalled three big cases in 1997 handed down in three consecutive days that struck down provisions of the Brady gun-control bill, the entire Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the entire Communications Decency Act, all three passed by substantial congressional majorities. ...
12.06.00
University Wire
Court ruling in U. Washington case could impact U. Michigan lawsuit ... While the University of Michigan anxiously awaits a decision in one of the cases challening the use of race as a factor in admissions, the 9th Circuit of Appeals has upheld the use of race in admissions at the University of Washington Law School. ... Legal experts and lawyers from each side in the University case were careful to note that the 9th Circuit's decision does not dictate what action the federal district court in Detroit takes. "I think it has some general impact," Duke University law professor Jerome Culp said. "It certainly gives judges a different interpretation of the law." Culp also said in the past the 9th Circuit has been the most overruled circuit by the Supreme Court. ...link to article
12.04.00
The New York Times
Contesting the Vote: The Vice President ... Vice President Al Gore remained determined today to press on with his legal case in Florida, holding a high-level legal strategy session that included Walter E. Dellinger III, the former acting solicitor general of the Clinton administration and a highly respected constitutional scholar. ... Dellinger, who is a law professor at Duke University and has been mentioned as a possible United States Supreme Court nominee in a Gore administration, has met previously with Gore at the vice president's residence to discuss the election. ...
12.03.00
The Dallas Morning News
Texas case roils health-care waters; spurned doctor takes on Humana Health Plans after complaints on physician system, peer review ... John Paul Schulze was reared in the medical school tradition of following patients from the cradle to the grave. So when Humana Health Plans of Texas terminated him as a provider, cutting 700 to 800 people from his care, he did something most doctors don't. He sued and won. The nearly $20 million verdict capped a two-year legal battle by Dr. Schulze to clear his name after Humana accused him of providing substandard care, including not reading an EKG properly. ... Clark Havighurst, a professor in health-care law at Duke University, says the decision could have far-reaching effects on the way peer reviews are conducted, making them more legalistic. "It greatly increases the burden of proof a plan needs to get rid of physicians," Havighurst said. "It could also empower physicians against health plans, giving health plans less authority." ...
12.01.00
The News Hour with Jim Lehrer
Historic Hearing, Political Wrap ... A panel of legal scholars assess the arguments and questions from today's Supreme Court hearing on the Florida election controversy. Professor Christopher Schroeder was a guest. ...link to transcript and audio
12.01.00
The Daily News (NY)
Rendezvous with History: Supremes get case on making presidents ... When the U.S. Supreme Court convenes at 10 o'clock this morning, experts expect an intense, grueling argument among legal titans who will be fighting the case of their lives. ... Yesterday, both sides filed briefs arguing the latest showstopper maneuver in the battle: whether the Florida Legislature has the power to name the electors sent to the Electoral College. Could the Supreme Court weigh in on that, or even dabble in the myriad other issues being fought in Florida? Yes, said William Van Alstyne, professor of law at Duke University. "It's always possible - if a majority of the court were convinced that these are substantial federal questions." ...link to article
11.30.00
The Boston Globe
Dedicing Death, as Fame Turns to Infamy the Role of Celebrity Debated in Murder Trial of NFL Player Carruth ... In a crowded courtroom, Rae Carruth's actions and his fame are both under scrutiny. If the jury believes the prosecution's theory that Carruth masterminded the killing of his pregnant girlfriend so he wouldn't have to pay $5,000 a month in child support, the former Carolina Panthers football player could become the first American celebrity to be sentenced to death ... "You just have to wonder if Carruth's celebrity status will undermine the prosecution's decision to seek the death penalty," said Jim Coleman, a law professor at Duke University in Durham, N.C. ...
11.28.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Attorneys argue 12th district in high court ... The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday that the shape of North Carolina's 12th Congressional District, now occupied by Rep. Melvin Watt, violates a 1993 Supreme Court ruling that districts drawn to bolster minority representation may violate the rights of whites. ... The 12th District is 46 percent black, down from the 57 percent black majority of 1996 when the even more misshapen district meandered through 160 miles of North Carolina, in some places stretching no wider than the highway. ... The plaintiff, Duke University Law School professor Robinson O. Everett, appeared in the Supreme Court Monday to argue that the district was drawn to accommodate race to an inappropriate degree. ... Attorney Walter Dellinger, speaking in defense of the state, argued that the legislature's drawing of the boundaries had been motivated by politics, not race. "These are reliably Democratic precincts in what otherwise is a Republican area of North Carolina," he said. ...link to article
11.30.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Duke professors host election discussion on Web ... As the U.S. Supreme Court takes up arguments in the contested presidential election, Duke University law professors are seizing a teaching moment, not only for their students but for all the school’s alumni. During the school’s "first experiment in continuing education on a moment’s notice," professors Christopher Schroeder, William Van Alstyne, Jefferson Powell and Thomas Rowe discussed the case and its possible outcomes. The hour-long discussion with more than 75 law students was broadcast over the Internet. Each professor discussed one aspect of the situation, from questions the Supreme Court will consider, to whether the case should even be heard by that court, to what could happen in the Florida Legislature or Congress.
11.25.00
The News & Observer (NC)
UNC, Duke law students probe case ... A local group of law students is looking into a Johnston County case in which a Goldsboro man was convicted in a 1997 attempted murder and armed robbery even though another man confessed to the crime. ... The Innocence Project, a joint endeavor of the UNC and Duke Univeristy law schools, began last year to enlist law students to investigate claims of innocence. The students read dozens of letters from inmates and select a handful of cases to pursue. ...
11.10.00
The News & Observer (NC)
No cause for panic, legal scholars say ... Forty years ago, Richard Nixon accepted his narrow loss to John F. Kennedy, explaining later in his memoirs that he did not want to "subject the country" to a protracted recount at a time of international instability. Vice President Al Gore has taken another route. On Thursday, he decided he would not accept his apparent razor-thin defeat to Texas Gov. George W. Bush in Florida's presidential vote - at least, not until charges of voting irregularities and possible fraud are heard. ... At least one law scholar said he wasn't sure the suits filed Thursday by Palm Beach County residents would prevail. The residents are seeking recourse, including a new vote, because a confusing ballot may have caused them to vote for Pat Buchanan rather than Gore. "That's one of life's 'can't helps,' " said William Van Alstyne, a Duke University law professor, referring to the mix-up. Because ballots are anonymous, it would be impossible to positively match the claims of the residents with the ballots each one punched in the voting booth. Furthermore, Van Alstyne said, it would be unfair to give voters in Palm Beach County another chance to vote knowing the outcome of the election and what rides on it. "There's no way to recreate the vote on Nov. 7," he said. ...
11.10.00
The New York Times
The 2000 Election: The Timetable ... Dec. 18, the day that presidential electors are to meet in 50 state capitals and the District of Columbia, may produce a political crisis if Florida's 25 votes are still in dispute. But the crisis will not be constitutional, scholars say, for the Constitution enables a president to be chosen even if a big state like Florida does not vote. Some commentators have suggested that the election would be thrown to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives if neither Vice President Al Gore nor Gov. George W. Bush of Texas gets a majority of the 538 electors for whom Americans voted on Tuesday. But the Constitution requires only that a winning candidate have the votes of "a majority of the whole number of electors appointed." If Florida's votes are not resolved by then, or if a legal restraining order bars Gov. Jeb Bush from filing a certificate listing Florida's electors, then Mr. Gore has enough votes from other states, if current vote totals stand and if his electors keep their pledges, to reach a majority of the 513 electors for whom Americans voted on Tuesday. ... Walter Dellinger, a professor of law at Duke University, said the reason the Constitution requires the votes of only a majority of those electors actually appointed to elect a President was that in the earliest days of the Union a state might neglect to appoint electors, and there was no reason for the process to be held hostage by that omission. ...
11.06.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Fatal fall case presents difficulty ... No one disputes the basic facts of the case -- that a Shaw University student leapt out of a dorm window to his death after a confrontation with several men. But legal experts say Wake County prosecutors still face a challenge in convincing a jury that the beating not only caused Antwan Merritt to jump but also that his alleged attackers should have known death was a possible result of their actions. ... Duke University law professor Jim Coleman explained that if someone takes action that weakens a person's resolve, such as threats or torture, and the victim then takes some deadly action on his or her own, the preson who created those cirumstances can be held responsible for the death. Then it becomes a question of whether the assailants knew the risks. ...
11.06.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Moratorium backers receive little help from politicians ... If public opinion is moving toward support for a death-penalty moratorium, as moratorium supporters believe, political leaders are not in front of the parade. Gov. Jim Hunt, who could not stop the executions planned for this year, says he sees no need to halt them. In the case of Michael Sexton, who is scheduled to be executed this week, Hunt has not yet made a decision on clemency or a reprieve in light of a legislative study commission's look at the death penalty's application in the state. No Republican or Democratic candidate for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general or state Supreme Court supports a moratorium. ... "Public officials avoid the issue," said Duke University law professor Jim Coleman, who was chairman of the American Bar Association committee that passed a moratorium resolution in 1997. "They don't address the problems with inadequate counsel and race. They don't deny these things happen, but they don't discuss them." ...
11.06.00
University Wire
Duke crowd discusses execution's future ... Since 1973, over 80 inmates -- including three from North Carolina -- have been released from death row because later evidence proved their innocence. Last Friday, the North Carolina Central University School of Law hosted "A Town Meeting: The Death Penalty Moratorium Movement in North Carolina" to disuss capital punishment and current flaws in the legal system which might allow the courts to sentence innocent people to death. ... James Coleman, a Duke University law professor, agreed that there is also a socio-economic imbalance in death penalty cases because some people cannot afford private defenders and must use "chancy" public defenders. "Some of them are getting good counsel and some are not, and that's a major factor," he said. "It might be that the quality of counsel doesn't make the difference ... but if it's the lucky people who are getting off, not the worst people, then we need to fix the problem." ...
11.07.00
National Public Radio - Morning Edition
NPR's Nina Totenberg previews arguments in today's Supreme Court case, which poses a fundamental challenge to federal regulatory powers. At issue is whether Congress acted within the Constitution, when it ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the Clean Air Act of 1970 by setting clean air standards based on public health. Professor Chris Schroeder was a guest. ...link to audio
10.31.00
The New York Times
Rod Autrey, a Republican city councilman in Charlotte, N.C., is a supporter of the death penalty in a state where it has long been entrenched. But even in reiterating that support, Mr. Autrey urged the Council in September to approve a resolution favoring a moratorium on executions in North Carolina. The Council adopted the measure, which calls for a two-year halt while steps are taken to ensure that capital punishment is administered justly. ... In the past, "there was only one position on the death penalty in North Carolina that mattered, which was that you supported it, period," said James Coleman, a Duke University law professor who has studied in the history of the death penalty in the South and was a member of the A.B.A. committee that first called for a moratorium. "There was no room for discussion. That's why I find what is happening now both extraordinary and encouraging." ...
10.27.00
The News & Observer (NC)
'Sinners' and the death penalty ... It's hard to leave a production like Raleigh Ensemble Players' "Never the Sinner" without a lot to stew over. REP hopes to make it even harder on Sunday. After its matinee, the company will invite the audience to remain for a panel discussion about the death penalty. The panel will include actor and riminal lawyer Seth Blum; Sister Joan Jurski, head of the Office of Peace and Justice for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh; A. Ayesh, a Muslim; and Duke University Law School professor James E. Coleman Jr., immediate past chair of the American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities. ... "If we educate the public and engage the public in discussions about the difficult issues surrounding the death penalty, about those who kill, and about the cirumstances that give rise to such violence," he said, "perhaps, we can make some progress, without the tragedy of an innocent person being executed, which may be the only thing that gets some irresponsible politicians to pay attention to these very serious problems." ...
10.22.00
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Suit claims sports unequal ... It started with a softball field about 2 miles from Boone County High School. Chrissi Egan, a 15-year-old sophomore who lettered in softball, noted the field's location behind an elementary school. She and the other players must find their own transportation to and from the field, whether it's for practice or games. And there are no lights or dugouts, no locker rooms, restrooms or press boxes. Not so for Boone High's all-boy baseball team. Its diamond is on school grounds. Its field has lights, dugouts, locker rooms. There are even members of the press in its press boxes. All sports aren't treated equally, but is this discrimination? ... "There's a growing culture of sports in this country, and there's a lot of children and parents invested in these issues," said Paul Haagen, a Duke University sports law professor. "A lot of sports programs have been run by men, particularly "good ol' boys.' You're just getting people who were behind the curve doing what they've always done and not responding to the law." ...link to article
10.22.00
The Dallas Morning News
A poor reflection: A number of minority, lower-income jurors doesn't mirror county population ... Day in and day out, Dallas County courts are relying on a jury system that fails to meet a key legal standard of fairness, a survey and related research by the The Dallas Morning News show. The citizens reporting for jury duty at the county's courthouses are disproportionately white, older and wealthier than the overall population - despite a constitutional requirement that prospective jurors represent a cross section of the community, the survey reveals. ... "How can we say our justice system is working when we see one class of people - older, white, upper-middle-class citizens - always sitting in judgment of the other classes of people?" asks Duke University law professor and jury expert Neil Vidmar. ...
10.21.00
The New York Times
Appeals court reinstates ruling to allow some school prayers ... A federal appeals court has reinstated a ruling that permits student-led prayer in public-school assemblies and classrooms, after the United States Supreme Court ordered in June that the ruling be reconsidered. The ruling, first issued in July 1999 and reinstated by United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit here on Thursday, allows students to initiate and lead prayer in a classroom, assembly or football game, as long as school officials do not force them to do so or participate in any way. It upheld the practice in the schools of DeKalb County, Ala., in which students led Christian prayers over the intercom and before graduations and other school events. ... Walter Dellinger, a constitutional scholar at Duke University Law School, said there was enough "loose language" in the Santa Fe decision that it could be construed as allowing the Alabama practices. "This is right on the edge of the Santa Fe decision," Mr. Dellinger said, adding that it was not particularly unusual for a lower court to reinstate a ruling that had been set aside by the Supreme Court. ...
10.15.00
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
The McSorley case that shook the NHL has other pro leagues wondering where the fault line is between acceptible violence and criminal assault. ... Sports need violence. Without tackling, pro football is the flag variety played by fraternities. Without hard fouls, pro basketball is simply a layup drill. Without the high-and-tight pitch, baseball is T-ball. Without hitting, hockey is ice dancing with the Romanian judge the deciding factor in who wins. ... Paul Haagen, a professor of law at Duke University's Center for Sports Law and Policy, said McSorley's trial has not defined the line so much as reminded athletes that one exists. "It's a reminder to sports that whatever license it is that society is granting to them it is not the right to maim outside of the rules of the game," Haagen said. "What I think is quite clear is that there are certain forms of violence that are always unacceptable, even in sport, and a deliberate attempt to injure is in accordance with that." ...
10.10.00
The New York Times - Letters to the Editor
On Climate Control ... A climate policy that addresses methane and other greenhouse gases in addition to carbon dioxide is not a new idea; it is the current policy (Debate Rises Over a Quicker Climate Fix," Oct. 3). Prof. Richard B. Stewart of New York University and I proposed this comprehensive approach in 1989. We showed that the comprehensive approach protects the climate much more effectively, by preventing the cross-gas shifts that would result from piecemeal regulation of one gas alone, and that it sharply reduces the cost of climate protection, by giving countries the flexibility to focus on restrictions where they are least costly. The comprehensive approach became a centerpiece of United States policy in both the Bush and Clinton administrations, and it was adopted at the Rio Convention in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. Dr. James E. Hansen, the NASA climate specialist, now emphasizes the air quality benefits of controlling gases besides carbon dioxide. The plant fertilization benefits of carbon dioxide may offer a further reason to abate other gases more significantly. The comprehensive approach matches the regulatory system to the climate system. It is a win-win solution: more environmental protection at less cost. -- Jonathan Wiener, professor, Duke University School of Law and the Nicholas School of the Environment
10.03.00
The Globe & Mail (Canada)
Britain adopts law enshrining human rights ... historic and 'long overdue' legislation fails to go as far as Canada's Charter ... For the first time in its history, Britain has an official Human Rights Act, enshrining in law the right to life and to fair trial, as well as the right to privacy and freedom of expression. ... But unlike Canada's 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the new British law isn't part of a constitution and doesn't allow judges to throw out existing legislation. "It's a lot like the old Canadian Bill of Rights," Michael Byers, a law professor and expert on human rights at North Carolina's Duke University, said in a telephone interview. "It's not a constitutionalized charter like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms." ... "The British government has been reluctant to surrender very much control so, while wanting to be human-rights friendly, they haven't been willing to go the full distance and do what the Canadian government did in 1982," said Prof. Byers, who trained in Canada and used to teach at Oxford University. ...
09.24.00
The New York Times
Violence on the Screen: Unlovely and Invulnerable ... THIS is the logic of politicians when they think about popular culture: Many of today's films and music and video games are vile, not like the John Wayne movies or Elvis records they enjoyed when they were young. More than 80 percent of American adults tell pollsters they think the violence in the culture contributes to violent acts by young people. Even though the evidence of a relationship between culture and actual violence is highly uncertain, it is good politics to wax indignant about entertainment corrupting the nation's youth. Of course, the First Amendment makes if almost impossible to draft a law that would place meaningful restrictions on the entertainment. Freedom of speech is sacrosanct, and any real crackdown on entertainment would amount to an extension of regulation from Washington, something the Republicans especially deplore. ... That also might not pass constitutional muster, said William Van Alstyne, a First Amendment expert at Duke University Law School. Mr. Van Alstyne observed, for example, that children under 17 were allowed into R-rated movies if accompanied by an adult. So moviemakers were on firm legal and ethical ground when they aimed ads for movies at children in the hope that they would persuade their parents to take them. ...
09.22.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Legal luminaries light up debate at Duke ... At the front table draped in dark, solemn blue, a pantheon of graying legal titans prepared for battle Thursday in an old-fashioned debate between England and the United States. The academic exercise at Duke's Fuqua School of Business might have been sparsely attended if not for the guests shoring up the American team. As it was, a packed house turned out, mostly to see two legal celebrities. Judge and former Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who set President Clinton's impeachment into motion, sat on the American panel. The Duke Law graduate sat next to celebrated trial lawyer F. Lee Bailey, who defended O.J. Simpson against murder charges and gained fame in the 1960s when he helped overturn the murder conviction of Sam Shepherd, the doctor who became the inspiration for the television show "The Fugitive." ... Judge Robinson Everett, who teaches at Duke Law School and has successfully argued against special minority congressional districts before the U.S. Supreme Court, presided over the legal clash. ...
09.12.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Duke law professor calls for death penalty moratorium ... A Duke law professor will join the state's trial lawyers today in Raleigh to call for a state moratorium on the death penalty. The N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers will ask the General Assembly and Gov. Jim Hunt to suspend capital punishment in light of a recent study that found almost eight out of 10 death penalty appeals in the state are overturned. ... The group is not calling for an end to the death penalty and does not want to re-open the debate on capital punishment, Duke University law professor James Coleman said Monday night. "The worst thing that could happen would be for this to become political," he said. "The point is to stop executions until the state can review it: Is it being done fairly? If not, what's necessary to make it fair, and then, do the people of North Carolina want to do what's needed to make it fair?" ...
09.12.00
National Public Radio - Talk of the Nation
Federal Trade Commission's report on the entertainment industry's marketing of violent products to young children ... Tomorrow, Congress will hold hearings on a new government report that says the entertainment industry aims ads for violent movies, music and video games at children. The report by the Federal Trade Commission was requested by President Clinton in 1999 after the shooting rampage at Columbine High School. The two teen-agers responsible for the deaths of 15 people were later found to have been fans of the violent scens in the movie "Basketball Diaries." Professor William Van Alstyne was a guest. ...link to NPR archives
09.11.00
The New York Times
Gore Takes Tough Stand on Violent Entertainment ... Vice President Al Gore and his running mate, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, said today that if the entertainment industry did not stop marketing violent films, recordings and video games to children they would propose legislation or new regulatory authority allowing the federal government to sanction the industry. ... First Amendment experts said that regulating the marketing of violence through deceptive advertising laws was a plausible legal theory, but would not necessarily pass constitutional scrutiny. "Congress could readily enlarge its jurisdiction to embrace this territory of what might constitute false and misleading advertising," said William Van Alstyne, a law professor at Duke University. "But that would just set up the constitutional question." ...
09.06.00
National Public Radio - Talk of the Nation
Look at the pros and cons of joint physical custody for divorced families ... Like it or not, divorce has become a permanent fixture in American society and the most emotional and intractable issue associated with divorce is what to do about the children. Over the last several decades, as no-fault divorce has become more common, child custody arrangements have been undergoing a change. In the early 1980s, California became the first state to allow for joint custody of children. Now joint custody is offered in all states, but usually not as the first choice. The idea behind joint cusotdy is to give both parents a full and active role in the life of their children. Many fathers argue that this is better for the children and a more equitable arrangement than the practice of automatically awarding custody to the mom, leaving Dad in a position of being weekend parents. But opponents of joint custody say it is more for the benefit of adults that for the good of the children. ... Katharine Bartlett, dean of Duke University Law School, was a guest. ...link to NPR archives
08.28.00
The Chronicle (NC)
Law school lays out long-term strategy ... As it climbs in national rankings and reputation, the School of Law now faces the University's latest long-range academic planning initiative with a fine-tuned, proven strategy. Focus on technology, internationalization and interdisciplinarity. Hire faculty who understand those areas and their relationship to basic fields of law. Pursue projects and grants that emphasize these themes. ... The law school already teaches more students enrolled in joint programs than any other law school in the nation. ... "I think one of the things that's going to come out of this planning process by all of the different strategic plans is that you will see Duke building interdisciplinary programs, the likes of which have not been built at any other university," Dean of the law school Katharine Bartlett said. ...link to article
08.28.00
The Chronicle (NC)
Law professor envisions environmental institute ... For 15 years, Professor of Law Chris Schroeder has been working to establish an interdisciplinary center for environmental studies at the University. Now, the planning process, which has as one of its foci the solicitation of proposals for new interdisciplinary initiatives, could make the Center for Environmental Solutions a reality. Project organizer Jonathan Wiener, a professor of law, is now waiting to get provisional funding from the provost's office and approval from the planning process's social sciences group. For the past several years, enthusiasm for the project has spread beyond the law school, and observers say approval seems likely. ...link to article
08.27.00
The New York Times
South's Football Fans Still Stand Up and Pray ... It started slowly at first, a few students holding hands in the bleachers and saying "Our Father who art in Heaven" while football players gathered on the North Forrest High School field Friday night. But by the time they got to "deliver us from evil," most of the crowd of 4,500 was standing, proudly reciting the Lord's Prayer, insisting that God cannot be removed even from a Class 4-A high school football game. ... Walter Dellinger, a constitutional scholar at Duke University Law School and former solicitor general of the United States, said prayer could pass muster only if it was truly private and independent of school authority, at which point it would be considered protected free speech. "It strikes me as unfortunate that football games can be used as occasions for prayer, the effect of which is to make some students feel like religious strangers at their own public schools," he said. "But as long as it is a product of private decisions by individuals or groups, it doesn't violate the Constitution." ...
08.24.00
The Wall Street Journal
The Runner-Up ... The experience of those politicians who made the short list as vice presidential nominations is varied. John F. Kennedy and George Bush eventually attained the presidency. Political heavyweights like Kevin White (George McGovern, 1972) and Anne Armstrong (Gerald Ford, 1976) were never heard from again on the national political scene. ... "John Edwards is an extraordinary lawyer," says Walter Dellinger, a distinguished law professor at Duke University. "He was able to master complexities of tough scientific, engineering and medical questions." ...
08.24.00
The Charlotte Observer
Speedway sued over land sale ... A group of shareholders of Speedway Motorsports Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the company, contending the racetrack operator wasted money when it sold a valuable tracts of land at a 25 percent discount to the company's chairman, Bruton Smith. ... Such lawsuits, in which shareholders raise complaints about dealings between a company and its senior officer or board of directors, are not unusual, said Deborah DeMott, a corporate law and finance professor at Duke University's School of Law. ...
08.22.00
National Public Radio - Morning Edition
There's been a quiet but profound shift in child custody decisions as some courts have ordered children to spend equal time with their divorcing parents. A Massachusetts judge recently ordered a five-year-old boy to spend alternating years with his mom and dad in the name of equal time. Fathers' rights groups say it shows that courts are treating dads more fairly. Others see it as a sign that the pendulum has swung too far towards parents' rights and away from a child's best interests. ... Duke University Law School dean Kate Bartlett says kids were the ones who paid the price. "I think it is true that courts may have gone too far--way too far, in some instances--to try to achieve equality at the expense of the best interests of the child. They got caught up, many of them, in this sense of how important it is for men and women to be treated equally and took their eye off the ball of what's in the child's best interests." ...link to NPR archives
08.17.00
The New York Times
Cultural sabotage waged in cyberspace ... This summer, Frank DeGraff, a 19-year-old college student, decided that he wanted to invest money through the Web, so he started working three jobs. When he had saved $200, he went to RTMark.com and placed the money in one of the site's funds, the Education Fund. But instead of money, the only returns he was promised were acts of cultural sabotage. Mr. DeGraff is hoping his investment will be used for projects like making "anti-souvenirs," aimed at various social injustices and offered to tourists, or purchasing recorded books by conservative pundits so leftist speeches can be recorded over the original material and the tapes can be put back onto sales racks in book stores. ... In truth, some of the group's actions could be considered illegal, said James Boyle, a professor of law at Duke University Law School, but other actions could fall under "fair use" or First Amendment protection. "Mostly, they are relying most on being small, mobile and intelligent," Mr. Boyle said. ...
08.13.00
The Star-Ledger (NJ)
In capital cases, poor defendants get what they pay for ... Dale Jones oversees death penalty cases for the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. Jones tries to make sure that every indigent defendant facing capital punishment gets a good lawyer. ... Poorly qualified and poorly compensated defense attorneys, in fact, represent a major reason for wrongful convictions in death penalty cases, perhaps the most significant reason, according to James E. Coleman Jr., a professor at Duke University School of Law and immediate past chair of the ABA's Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities. ...
08.11.00
Chicago Daily Herald
Teen gun stats should give us a scare ... Thirty dollars is the amount of money it takes to buy an illegal gun, according to a survey of Chicago teenagers. The teens said that it just requires "making a phone call" to find an illegal gun. That is just one of the disturbing findings in a special report on firearms put out by the Chicago Crime Commission. ... One stat compiled by the Duke University Law School and cited in the Chicago Crime Commission report was especially startling. Seventh- and 10th-graders in two major cities were asked the question: Have you ever carried a concealed gun with you anywhere? Twenty-three percent of seventh-grade boys claimed to have carried a concealed weapon. Twenty-nine percent of the 10th-grade boys said they also had. ...
08.09.00
The Washington Post
Chasing Hollywood "Pirates"; Suits a Test for Digital Copyright, Free Speech ... Produced in limited quantities and only available in navy blue, the T-shirt is a curiously old-world artifact to figure in a storm over the future of the Internet. The problem is on the back of the shirt. Several dozen lines of computer code are printed there, a program that would be incomprehensible to all but the geekiest. Still, it was enough to get the T-shirt maker, a New Jersey outfit called Copyleft, sued in San Jose last week for stealing trade secrets. The code revealed how to crack the supposedly impregnable digital video-disk format. A hacker could use it to make copies of DVD movies and exchange them across the Internet, much the way millions of people are doing with music via the Napster Web site. ... "People think of copyright as prohibiting certain actions," said Duke University law professor James Boyle. "You can't copy too much of something, you can't perform something without permission. What the content companies are starting to do is use copyright to regulate devices and research and communication. So now you can't communicate about a computer code." ...
08.06.00
The News & Record (NC)
A Reasonable Doubt: Are There Innocent People on North Carolina's Death Row? ... Could DNA exonerate any of North Carolina's death row inmates? Nobody knows. But what DNA evidence has revealed about flaws in the criminal justice system across the country is forcing North Carolinians to take a long, hard look at how - and whether - the state should administer the ultimate penalty. ... Duke University law professor Jim Coleman believes the death penalty system is "so broken" that it is destroying the public's trust in the entire criminal justice system. But that trust has largely been an illusion, said Coleman, who, as chairman of the ABA's Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, was in charge of drafting the ABA resolution calling for a national moratorium on executions. "Most people have assumed that when someone is arrested for a crime - say, murder or rape - and is convicted by a jury, then he or she is guilty. Well, that's not true. The emperor has no clothes." ...
08.03.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Contraption removed from state's gas chamber ... Most chairs are made for living. This one was designed for the condemned, with leather restraints and a trap compartment for releasing deadly cyanide. North Carolina's execution chair - where nearly 200 men and women died by lethal gas - Wednesday went the way of the gallows and the electric chair. ... Execution has evolved from a melodramatic public spectacle to a clinical procedure performed behind closed doors. James Coleman, a law professor at Duke University who witnessed the execution of his client and serial killer Ted Bundy, said the chair was symbolic of the crude nature of capital punishment. "It gives you pause to think that a country so advanced as we are is still using something so crude to kill people," Coleman said. "When you use a gurney, it then blurs the message. It sort of looks like it's a medical thing, something you associate with life, not death."
07.28.00
Investor's Business Daily
Is the Death Penalty Discrimatory? Depends on How You Slice the Data ... Prosecutors don't treat cases involving black victims as seriously, says James Coleman, a law professor at Duke University. Coleman once represented a convicted murderer during sentencing. In calling for a death sentence, the Florida prosecutor said the crime was especially horrific because Coleman's client was a black man who had raped a white woman. Nobody in the courtroom was bothered by this racial appeal, he says. "I'm not suggesting that every judge or defense lawyer would have ignored that," Coleman said. "But the fact that it was ignored in this case just simply reflects that culturally, people think in those terms." ...
07.18.00
Associated Press
ACLU urges removal of Christian cross from Catawba County's seal ... The American Civil Liberties Union is pressuring Catawba County to remove a cross from the official seal adopted 75 years ago. Government should not promote a particular religion and several Catawba County residents contacted the state ACLU about the seal displaying the key symbol of Christianity, the group's director said. ... The case in Catawba isn't necessarily a clear one, said William Van Alsyne, a Duke University professor of constitutional law. ...
07.15.00
The National Journal
Health Care: An Era of Consolidation ... Once there were Aetna, Prudential Health Care, NYLCare Health Plans and U.S. Healthcare. Then there was just Aetna U.S. Healthcare. The product of a series of mergers, Aetna U.S. Healthcare is now the nation's largest insurer, providing coverage to 21 million Americans. It also symbolizes a consolidation trend sweeping through the entire health care sector-affecting drug companies and hospitals as well as insurance companies. The trend worries some members of Congress. ... While a handful of major players dominate the health insurance market nationally, about 1,000 health plans deliver care locally, including some that are owned by national chains. And the local angle is what health analysts and government regulators examine when evaluating the impact of mergers on consumers. Clark Havighurst, a professor at Duke University School of Law who has specialized in concentration issues, put it this way: "Each market has to be analyzed separately. ... Sheer size is not by itself a problem. You have to analyze individual areas."
07.11.00
The Spokesman-Review (WA)
Letter reveals offer of water for salmon, but Idaho officals deny reference in federal document is an offer ... Contrary to the state's oft-repeated position, the federal government says Idaho is willing to negotiate a long-term commitment to provide Snake River water for salmon. ... In May 1999, Idaho District Court Judge Barry Wood ordered parties in the Nez Perce suit to try to solve the case through mediation with Duke University law professor Francis McGovern. ... McGovern said in an interview that he accepted the offer in Idaho because he found it "intellectually stimulating." "Water issues are as important as any other issue in the American West," he said. "They are as challenging for a mediator as any issue anyone can find."
07.10.00
National Public Radio - Morning Edition
Analysis: Justices increase propensity to strike down federal laws ... June was the tumultuous month for the U.S. Supreme Court, capping a tumultuous term. The court last year was overshadowed by the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, but this term with an election about to take place, the justices made one striking decision after another. ... Professor Walter Dellinger (Duke University): Statues which often hardly any member of Congress felt that he or she voted against and maintain a role in public life, and yet the court invalidates these acts of Congress and remains popular. ...link to NPR archives
07.10.00
Business Insurance
Business assesses high court's record ... The Supreme Court's record for the just-ended 1999-2000 term is as remarkable for what the justices declined to do as for what they did. The justices refused to create a new right to sue managed care entities under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act. They also refused to allow states to pre-empt federal law in a series of business-related cases. "This was an excellent term for the business community. Across the board, this is a court that is skeptical of civil litigation as a method of social ordering," said Walter Dellinger, a professor at the Duke University School of Law in Durham, N.C., who served as acting U.S. solicitor general in the Clinton administration in 1996-97. Mr. Dellinger offered his observation during a discussion of the high court's rulings at the Washington Legal Foundation late last month. ...
07.03.00
The Charlotte Observer (NC)
Federal agency reports decline in age discrimination cases ... At a time when more older workers are holding jobs, it might be assumed more employers would find themselves facing age-discrimination suits. Not so. The number of age-bias complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is on the decline - and has been for years. ... Aging workers who face illegal discrimination may now have an easier time bringing cases to trial because of a ruling last month by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products Inc., the high court ruled an employee claiming illegal age bias does not always need concrete evidence of discrimination to prevail in court. By simplifying what proof employees must provide, the court recognized that in today's workplace, such cases are extremely difficult to win, said Trina Jones, who teaches employment-discrimination law at Duke University School of Law. ... "This case acknowledges there isn't smoking-gun evidence in most of these cases," she said. ...link to article
07.02.00
The New York Times
Split decisions: The Court rules, America changes ... It was a Supreme Court term of surpassing interest, rich in symbol and substance, a vivid reminder of the court's power to scramble settled expectations, put old questions to rest and, ultimately, to have the last word. ... "The court is reflecting in a bunch of different doctrines the general sense that the federal government is too big, too powerful, too incompetent," said Professor Christopher H. Schroeder of Duke University Law School. Cases this year in which the court struck down state incursions into the federal government's authority in foreign affairs were not the contrary, he said, reflecting instead "the classic 18th-century notion that where we need the federal government, we need it internationally." ...
06.27.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Court to review the 12th ... North Carolina's contorted 12th Congressional District - the subject of federal court action throughout the 1990s - could help determine how much race shapes the way political lines are drawn in the next decade. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the 1997 version of North Carolina's 12th District, one in which state officials say politics, not race, played the leading role in setting boundaries. ... Robinson Everett, a Duke University law professor who has represented six white plaintiffs, said he was puzzled why the Supreme Court didn't uphold the lower court and order new districts. "We obviously were disappointed because we didn't think there was any legal issue to hear," Everett said. "It seemed like a factual issue decided by the lower court." ...
06.25.00
Florida Today
State has no process to handle DNA results ... Under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, which governs some post-conviction proceedings, defendants may bring issues back to a trial court within a two-year period based on ineffective counsel, new evidence or wrongfully withheld evidence. ... Duke University criminal law professor Jim Coleman, who represented legendary killer Ted Bundy during his post-conviction proceedings, said the issue of old evidence being tested for DNA has occurred in "almost every state." ...
06.20.00
The Salt Lake Tribune
Race on to detect hormone in athletes: Scientists may perfect test for 2002 games, but lawyers doubt it will ever be defensible ... The race to find a reliable test to catch athletes using the endurance-boosting hormone EPO in time for the Sydney Olympics may come up short, but scientists are optimistic that they will slam the door on the banned drug by the 2002 Winter Games. ... But validation of an EPO test by the scientific community may not mean validation by the legal community. ... "There is little doubt that none of the existing tests for testosterone, EPO and human growth hormone would survive judicial scrutiny," said Duke University law professor Doriane Lambelet Coleman, who represents track star Mary Decker Slaney in her litigation against the U.S. Olympic Committee and track federation for what Slaney claims was a false positive drug test. ...link to article
06.20.00
Reuters News Service
Shoe executive's arrest highlights Wall Street's dark side ... Wall Street's dark side emerged again this week with the indictment Tuesday of the chairman and chief executive of shoe retailer Steven Madden Ltd. on charges of securities fraud. The incident, which comes less than a week after authorities arrested 120 people on similar charges, highlights the seamy underbelly of the long-running U.S. bull market. ... The prevalence of the Internet also contributes to this type of securities fraud, according to Jim Cox, a professor of law at Duke University. ``The ability to manipulate chat rooms and circulate rumours much more easily by virtue of the Internet has made a lot of this possible,'' Cox said. Cox, who said he was not surprised by the situation surrounding Madden, said this type of securities fraud could easily continue. ``It's a scheme that's been around a long, long time.'' ...link to article
06.15.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Sentiment grows for new House primary in Durham ... The chance of a new primary in the flawed House District 23 race once seemed so unlikely that the losing candidate even dismissed the idea. Not anymore. As more problems arise, state Rep. George Miller, who at first shrugged off a challenge, is calling for a new vote. And some elections experts now say he should get one. "I think it's a major problem," said Robinson Everett, a law professor at Duke University. "The best thing is to go ahead and do it over again." ...
06.15.00
Comtex
The final round of negotiations on fine-tuning the International Criminal Court (ICC) is underway here even as its supporters face a stepped-up campaign by the United States to exempt itself from the court's jurisdiction. ... Robinson Everett of Duke University said minor amendments of U.S. laws - not the Rome Statutes - could allay the fears of the United States. In an essay in a soon-to-be published book by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Everett, a law professor and senior judge on the U.S. Court of Military Appeals, said, "Perhaps the threat to American service members posed by the Statute may be less ominous than many have supposed." ...
06.14.00
Inter Press Service
Rights - United States challenges reach of criminal court ... The final round of negotiations on fine-tuning the International Criminal Court (ICC) is underway here even as its supporters face a stepped-up campaign by the United States to exempt itself from the Court's jurisdiction. The United States is pursuing a strategy that would change the rules of the Court so that its military personnel serving overseas could not be brought before the Court on charges of war crimes or genocide without U.S. permission. ... Robinson Everett of Duke University said minor amendments of U.S. laws - not the Rome Statutes - could allay the fears of the United States. In an essay in a soon-to-be published book by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Everett, a law professor and senior judge on the U.S. Court of Military Appeals, said, "Perhaps the threat to American service members posed by the Statute may be less ominous than many have supposed." ...
06.14.00
ABA Journal
ABA moratorium for fairness ... The death penalty and the American Bar Association's Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities go back a long way together. In fact, the two have been virtually inseparable since 1976, when the section sponsored a resolution, later withdrawn, to abolish the death penalty. ... James Coleman Jr., the Duke University law professor who chairs the section, makes no bones about his own opposition to the death penalty ... but the fact that the ABA itself has no position on the death penalty gives its call for a moratorium more credibility, he says. "It refocuses the debate from whether or not there ought to be a death penalty to how it's being carried out and what can be done to make it fairer and more just," he says. ...link to article
06.13.00
The News & Observer (NC)
State's death-penalty errors top U.S. average ... Big legal errors send more than two-thirds of appealed death-penalty convictions in North Carolina back to the courts, reflecting a national trend, a major study has found. From 1977 to 1995, state and federal courts reversed 71 percent of the 218 death sentences in North Carolina that were appealed, slightly higher than the national average, according to a national study led by Columbia University law professor Jim Liebman and released Monday. Legal scholars agree that the study spotlights serious problems in the handling of death-penalty cases. "I think the public ought to be shocked," said Jim Coleman, a Duke University law professor who serves on a legislative study commission on the death penalty. "The message is that there are serious errors being made in a large number of cases," he added. "I think it is intolerable that a system that has people's lives in the balance is so flawed." ...
06.12.00
The New York Times - Letters to the Editor
DNA Evidence ... Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck (Op-Ed, June 5) make an important point that is often missed in our focus on the role DNA has played in freeing innocent people from prison, including some from death row. DNA is available only in cases where there is biological material left at the crime scene that can be linked to the guilty person. So what we must learn from the DNA cases is why there was a miscarriage of justice in the first place. That may help to prevent injustice in future cases and to identify other cases that might have been decided unfairly, but have no biological evidence to test. By focusing only on DNA evidence, we ignore the larger point that the system convicts innocent people at an alarming rate. -- James E. Coleman Jr., professor, Duke University School of Law
06.10.00
The National Journal
The tipping point ... An activist, but centrist, Supreme Court is flexing its muscles by curbing Congress, the executive branch, and the states. One new appointment could change its balance of power. ... Possible Gore nominees include Walter Dellinger, a Duke University law professor. ...
06.09.00
The Sun-Sentinel (FL)
Senate panel to subpoena documents on Elian raid ... The Senate Judiciary Committee escalated its inquiry into the Elian Gonzalez case on Thursday by voting to subpoena Justice Department documents relating to the controversial raid to remove the Cuban boy from his Miami relatives. ... "My sense is that the committee is treading a little carefully here. On the one hand, there was a great deal of public outcry over the removal of Elian and the graphic pictures of the U.S. marshal holding a rifle near the boy," said Christopher Schroeder, co-chairman of the Center for the Study of Congress at Duke University. "On the other hand, later inquiries showed that the Justice Department conducted an operation both prudent and reasonable." ...
06.06.00
APBnews.com
Featured op-ed: "Race and Sports Crime," by Professor James Coleman of the Law School's Center for Sports Law and Policy, on how the public's perception of crime is influenced by race. ...link to article
06.06.00
APBnews.com
Crime in the NBA ... If NBA players have a reputation as lawbreakers and drug users, it may be the result of a media exaggeration of their own high profiles. It is not, however, the result of an unusually high arrest rate or the commission of especially heinous crimes. In fact, an APBnews.com study has found the arrest rate among National Basketball Association players on this year's 16 playoff teams is significantly below that of American men in general. ... "One would think, based on the way crime stories are covered when they involve athletes, is that this is a serious problem, and that athletes are basically out of control, said Professor Jim Coleman of the Center for Sports Law and Policy at Duke University. "APBnews.com's statistics indicate that not only are they not out of control, relative to the general population, but the incidents involved tend not to be serious felonies. ... They tend to be the kind of incident that Joe Blow on the street could get arrested for." ...link to article
05.30.00
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Pennsylvania technology firm Ravisent faces rash of shareholder lawsuits ... Last July, Ravisent Technologies seemed to be in high-tech heaven. Investors were confident that the Malvern software firm had its fingers on the pulse of the new economy, so they pumped $60 million into its initial public offering. But today, the stock has fallen back to earth, losing nearly 90 percent of its value since its launch. And now, the company is facing a rash of shareholder litigation. ... "There's certainly a lot of litigation going on against tech companies," said James D. Cox, a securities law professor at Duke University. "What I do think is that since the tech companies are much more visible and playing an increasing role in the economy, and increasingly in the capital markets, they are getting a large share of the suits." ...
05.29.00
The New York Times - Letters to the Editor
A Missile Shield: Tread Carefully ... William Safire doesn't mention a number of important issues in the debate about a national missile defense system. Is the United States prepared to discard an arms control system that has been a policy goal of every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower? Is it prepared to ignore the concerns of key allies like Germany, France and Japan? Is it prepared to undermine the deterrence capacity of other nuclear countries, including Russia, China, India and Pakistan? On the one hand, we have a proven system that situates the assurance of retalitory destruction within a framework of treaties. On the other hand, we have an unproven system that could provoke a new arms race. Whether the threat of "rogue states" is serious enough to require a missile defense system is an assessment that should not be made during the heat of an election campaign. -- Michael Byers, director of the program in international and comparative law at Duke University.
05.28.00
The Los Angeles Times
A bitter remedy in medical malpractice courts: Painful litigation rarely satisfies either the patient or the doctor ... A check for $460,000 had arrived in the mail the day before, but it failed to cheer Mark Johnson. His award for medical malpractice, after legal costs, was slow in coming and far too little, he complained. ... But there is little correlation between the severity of the injury and who wins at trial, according to jury researcher Neil Vidmar. Vidmar, a Duke University professor, said juries generally award compensation on the basis of negligence, not of a patient's injury, and only a fraction of lawsuits end in jury awards. ...
05.26.00
The Arizona Republic
Symington retrial poses big gamble for 2 sides ... To avoid being retried on criminal fraud charges, Fife Symington likely will have to admit wrongdoing or convince prosecutors that they will lose the next round. Federal prosecutors appear prepared to re-indict the former Arizona governor. A trial date was set for June 14, court records show, but it was scrubbed three weeks ago at the request of Symington's criminal-defense attorney, John Dowd, who wants prosecutors to drop the case and avert another long legal battle. ... Sara Sun Beale, a Duke University law professor, said other factors could help decide how the case is settled: The government's cost to retry the case, which Dowd estimates at $2 million to $3 million, and the U.S. attorney's load of other high profile cases. It is difficult to predict how those factors weigh into Symington's case, Beale said. But she noted that for both sides, retrial "is really rolling the dice."
05.18.00
APBnews.com
Cops go to bat on the baseball beat ... It's a scenario that could take place in any of the 30 cities with Major League baseball teams. Each team has a police officer assigned to it. While other professional sports teams employ retired law enforcement professionals or former players, baseball is the only sport in which moonlighting police officers are paid to help with security. ... "It sounds like an attempt to gain a kind of relationship with the police force that puts the baseball players in a privileged position," said Paul Haagen, the co-director of the Center for Sports Law and Policy at Duke University School of Law. ...link to article
05.15.00
National Public Radio - All Things Considered
A sharply divided Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. The law allowed victims of gender-based violence to sue their attackers in federal court. Professor Walter Dellinger was a guest. ...link to NPR archives
05.14.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Reno tells grads: Do your best, then move on ... U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno advocated open and accountable government at the Duke University Law School hooding ceremony Saturday, in the hope that a future attorney general might learn from her experience. "Too many lwyers pay more attention to the law than the facts," she said, instead of continuing to dig into the facts to find the missing piece to a client's innocence or guilt. ... Reno's address went out to 191 students earning their juris doctor degrees and 60 students earning their master of law. The students represent more than 40 states and almost every continent on earth, coming from countries such as Chile, Venezuela, New Zealand, China and Canada. ...

A similar article appeared in The News & Observer (NC) and on University Wire.
05.12.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Duke moot court team wins honor ... A moot court team from Duke Law School earned distinciton at a world competition. Last week, the Duke team at the Rousseau International Law Moot Court competition earned the prestigious "Prix de la Francophonie" (Prize of the Francophonie) in Germany. This prize is awarded to the team that best combines excellence in advocacy with a contribution to goodwill and international understanding. ... Team members were required to prepare their written briefs and make oral arguments in French. ...
05.12.00
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Pittsburgh Agrees to Pay Millions to a Former Football Player ... The University of Pittsburgh confirmed last week that it had settled out of court with a former football player who was paralyzed during an accident at practice in 1996. Lawyers for the player peg the value of the settlement at $31-million, but the university says it will pay roughly $5-million. ... While settlements do not carry any legal precedent, Pittsburgh's multimillion-dollar agreement could have ramifications for other universities, said John C. Weistart, a law professor at Duke University. "We don't know that it tells us much about the law, but it's certainly precedent-setting in terms of encouraging Gary and others to look at personal-injury cases" involving college athletes, he said. ...
05.08.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Duke faculty will vote on Internet work standards ... With the Internet's new avenues for online learning, professors are seeing more reason to retain the copyright to course materials they develop instead of ceding it to the university that employs them. Duke faculty will vote this week on a new policy that would reaffirm their rights to their work for use in Web-based distance education courses, as long as that freelancing doesn't conflict with their responsibilities to the university. ... David Lange, Duke Law School professor and a main crafter of the policy, said he feels the policy is the "most generous and most flexible that any major university in this country has proposed." Such rights, known legally as those of "intellectual property," have been at issue on campuses across the nation, as universities come to grips with the realities of the Internet world. Lange says Duke's policy lies somewhere between Harvard's and Stanford's, which he said are extremely loose and extremely constricting, respectively.
04.22.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Moratorium on executions wins at Duke ... By a wide margin, Duke University law students voted Thursday to support a moratorium on executions. Roughly a quarter of the law students voted in a referendum on the question, with 119 students in favor and 67 against. The results mean the student organization for the law school, the Duke Bar Association, will take what some say is the first controversial position in its history. The resolution calls for the DBA to support the American Bar Assocation's call for a moratorium on death penalty cases. The ABA wants state and federal courts to examine the fairness of such sentences. ...
04.21.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Executions fan passion at Duke ... One of the nation's most heated debates - the fairness of the death penalty - touched down Thursday inside a Duke University law student organization more accustomed to deciding matters such as where to hold the annual formal. The students voted on whether their organization, the Duke Bar Association, should support a proposed national moratorium on the death penalty. The American Bar Association proposed the moratorium in 1997 in response to mounting evidence of innocent people on death row and questions about defendants' access to competent legal representation, among other issues. ...
04.21.00
National Public Radio - Morning Edition
Barbara Bradley reports on the Navy's spy case against Petty Officer Daniel King, who's accused of sending information about U.S. submarine exercises to the Russians. The case has been delayed amid allegations that the government has denied King basic legal rights, such as the right to an attorney. The Navy says this is the biggest spy case in years. Scott Silliman, executive director of Duke Law School's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, was featured. ...link to NPR archives
04.21.00
The Washington Post
MLS operating system is upheld; judge rules that league may handle players' contracts ... A federal judge in Boston has ruled that Major League Soccer's operating structure -- under which the league, rather than the individual teams, negotiates and owns all player contracts -- does not violate federal antitrust laws. U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole also ruled that three other issues, which were raised in a class-action lawsuit eight MLS players filed against the league in early 1997, can proceed to trial Sept. 18. Among those issues is another antitrust question -- whether the league abused its position as a monopoly. ... John Weistart, a sports law expert at Duke University Law School, said, "The [ruling's] significance is it confirms the point that how a league organizes itself makes a great deal of difference for antitrust purposes." ...
04.16.00
The New York Times
Ideas and Trends: Looking for a Few Honest Lawyers ... To cynics, the news last month that three Georgetown University law students had settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges of running an Internet stock manipulation scheme that netted almost $350,000 probably came as no surprise. But even people who think the phrase legal ethics is an oxymoron may have been startled by Georgetown's announcement that it would take no action against the students, Douglas Colt, Kenneth Terrell and Jason Wyckoff, who did not admit or deny wrongdoing in the case ... James Cox, a Duke University law professor, said law schools should hold themselves and their students to a standard. "Institutions have to announce what they're about, and what law schools ought to be about it preparing people for a life of responsibility," Mr. Cox said. ...
04.14.00
The Baltimore Sun
Clinton rejects idea of pardon; president puts positive spin on impeachment fight ... President Clinton intensified his campaign to recast his impeachment in a favorable light yesterday, portraying his Senate acquittal as a salvation of the Constitution and saying he did not want, and would not ask for, a pardon from his successor. ... William Van Alstyne, a constitutional law professor at Duke University, marveled at "the president's infinite capacity to convert his tawdry peccadilloes and dissembling into a defense of the United States Constitution." "It is a tribute to the president's chutzpah and great skill in being able to put a redemptive spin on a really tawdry affair," Van Alstyne said. ...
04.14.00
The Providence Journal-Bulletin (R.I.)
Senate committee shellacs out-of-town paint lobbyists ... The nation's biggest pain manufactureres flew in a roomful of lawyers and public relations people from New York, Washington and Los Angeles yesterday to try to persuade the Senate Judiciary Committee to throw out a bill allowing communities to sue them for the damages caused by lead-based paints. By all appearances, it was a bad idea. In fact, all that out-of-town talent only seemed to anger committee members, some of whom represent neighborhoods in Providence where lead-based paints have sickened many schoolchildren. ... Paint company witnesses said last night they sympathized with the damages caused by lead paint, but they felt it was unconstitutional to pass a law allowing retroactive lawsuits. "No one doubts the seriousness of this problem," said Prof. Walter E. Dellinger, a law professor at Duke University, speaking on behalf of E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co. "But there's a disconnect, with all due respect, between the statement of how serious the problem is, and how unconstitutional it is to go back decades for a solution." ...
04.13.00
BBC Radio - Analysis
The subject of the program, titled "Peace in Our Time," was worldwide ethnic violence. Professor Donald Horowitz was a guest.
04.02.00
Chicago Sun-Times
Avoiding commitment ... When high school athletes back out of verbal commitments to college athletic programs, college coaches feel betrayed. A commitment is a commitment, they say. But is it really? ... "Until the athlete signs the letter of intent, there is no binding effect," said Paul Haagen, a professor of law at Duke University and the co-director of the Center on Sports Law and Policy. "But that is a regulatory matter and not a contract matter." ...link to article
04.02.00
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Students at two N.C. law schools begin working to free the innocent ... Durham, N.C. -- In prisons across the United States, death row inmates often proclaim their innocence despite the findings of judge and jury, despite years of fruitless appeals. Now, a group of law school students from 15 universities, including Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, are trying to prove some of those prisoners are actually innocent. Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill got involved in the Innocence Project after faculty attended a conference and heard from Barry Scheck, the Yeshiva University law professor and DNA expert who gained notoriety in the O.J. Simpson and Louise Woodward trials. The universities joined forces to heed Scheck's call for law schools to investigate claims of innocence. Among the 550 letters Duke students have read are seven cases they plan to study more closely. UNC has two. ... ''In each letter, you can hear the prisoner talking,'' said Duke student volunteer Pamela Lialia Hoefer. ''You can hear their frustration and their cry for help.'' ...link to article
04.02.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Moot questions of utmost importance ... All the issues may be moot, but these Duke law students take the matter very seriously. They practice their oral arguments for weeks on end to get their working and gestures just so. They come back a week early from Christmas break to write a 35-page legal brief that will never boost any class grade. They also may have to argue the entire case in French. ... This week, one team of three students will take on teams from 50 countries as they argue international law - in English - in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. This team has already won the regional competition, defeating students from the University of Virginia in the finals in February at UNC Chapel Hill. At the end of April, four students from Duke will be the first American team ever to compete om the Rousseau International Moot Court Competition, which will take place in Hamburg. Participants must do everything - from writing the brief to oral arguments - in French. And on the domestic front, earlier this year, a team of two Duke students made it to the quarter-finals of the most prestigious U.S. competition, the National Moot Court Competition put on by the American College of Trial Lawyers. A second Duke team lost in the regional competition but took home the award for best brief. ...
03.31.00
The News & Record (NC)
N.C. graduate schools get high marks in U.S. News rankings ... Duke's graduate schools in buiness, law and medicine ranked in the top 10 in the nation, according to the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings of top graduate schools. The magazine will hit newsstands Monday. ... For Duke, the rankings provide annual confirmation that the Durham university ranks among the nation's elite colleges. "We're gratified that the quality of the university's graduate and professional schools is recognized as being among the best in the nation," Duke spokesman Al Rossiter Jr. said. Duke's medical school ranked sixth in the nation. Its Fuqua School of Business ranked eigth in the nation. The law school was 10th. ...link to article
03.28.00
The News & Record (NC)
District shuffle confuses election ... New boundaries for Triad congressional districts are confusing candidates, voters and political party officials. A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court two weeks ago revived a never-used 1997 plan for congressional districts, radically rearranging the lines through the Triad for the 5th, 6th and 12th districts. ... The N.C. Assembly's first plan, drawn in 1992, was found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1996. Responding to a lawsuit by Duke University law professor Robinson Everett, the high court ruled that legislators overemphasized race in drawing the original plan. ...link to article
03.27.00
The National Law Journal
Spy suspect, lawyer can't talk alone ... A U.S. sailor who could face the death penalty for espionage isn't being allowed to meet privately with his lawyers, for what the U.S. Navy says are security reasons. ... Former Air Force JAG Col. Scott Silliman says that the controversy should have been avoided, although he admits that the issues in the King case are less clear-cut than in Goldsmith. Mr. Silliman, executive director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University, says that Mr. Turley should have simply submitted to a security clearance. "If I were the Navy JAG, just because an attorney stipulated that he wouldn't use classified information wouldn't be enough because there is an absolute mandate to protect classified information," says Mr. Silliman. ...link to article
03.26.00
The New York Times
Pinochet's Revenge: Oliver North, You'd Better Watch Out ... Imagine that the year is 2005 and that Oliver North, the retired Marine lieutentant colonel and former National Security Council staff member in the Reagan White House, is on trial in Lebanon. He has been arrested while vacationing in Switzerland on an international murder warrant issued by Lebanon. The charge is that he helped direct the 1986 bombings of Libya that killed 31 people. ... The events have not happened, of course, but international legal experts say that in the wake of the near-extradition of Gen. Augusto Pinochet of Chile to Spain, it is no longer so hard to imagine a situation in which a former high American official could be arrested while traveling and then tried in any foreign country, for crimes alleged to have been committed anywhere in the world. ... "What we have done is restricted the travel opportunities for people like Henry Kissinger, Wesley Clark and Bill Clinton," said Michael Byers, a professor of international law at Duke University. "We have reduced their options in traveling to rogue states and their allies." ...
03.26.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Law grads dazzled by fat pay ... Across the country, big law firms are jacking up starting salaries for prize recruits in a frenzy to compete not only with other firms, but also with Internet companies offering stock options that could be worth a fast fortune. In just three months, starting salaries have shot up $25,000 or more at some major firms in North Carolina, topping $100,000 for the first time. Salaries are even higher in Atlanta, Washington, New York and California, where the pay explosion began in January in response to lawyer-raiding by Internet companies in Silicon Valley. ... "It's a great time for law students looking for jobs, but there's a price they pay for that kind of money," said Duke professor Tom Metzloff, the law school's dean of academic affairs. "It puts a lot of pressure on them to produce right away. You've got to hit the floor running now." ...
03.25.00
The News & Observer (NC)
High court won't order quick appeal on district ... The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday denied without comment a request to order the state to file a speedy appeal so that North Carolina's redistricting case could be heard before the court's summer recess. ... Robinson Everett, a Duke University law professor, had sought an expedited appeals schedule. ...
03.23.00
The Providence Journal-Bulletin (R.I.)
Legislation would lift statue of limitations on lawsuits ... Legislation that would make it easier for homeowners who want to sue paint companies for manufacturing lead-based paint draws emotional testimony from families and strong objections by lawyers for the paint industry. ... Speaking on behalf of the paint industry were former Rhode Island Atty. Gen. Julius Michaelson, former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Walter Dellinger, and former U.S. Rep. Alan Wheat, of Missouri. ... Dellinger, now a law professor at Duke University, said even though lead poisoning is a serious health problem, an unconstitutional bill is not the answer. ...
03.23.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
150 crowd anti-death penalty talk ... Sister Helen Prejean, the best-selling author of "Dean Man Walking," told Duke law students Wednesday to make room in their lives for poor people, "because they've got nobody if there's not people like you." Since her first experiences with death-row inmates, Prejean has lobbied for an end to the death penalty. The current justice system is unfair to minorities and hurts all involved, she says, from the families of the victims to the families of the prisoners to even those who make their living from the system, such as prison guards. ... Prejean urged the Duke students to get outside their personal "terrariums" to volunteer with helping prisoners, or doing other pro bono work for the poor. ... Kelvin Tuckett, a second-year Duke law student, said that while he had heard Prejean speak before, he was especially moved by her call to "make sure you have a room in your professional life for the poor." Tuckett said he currently helps poor people in Durham with housing matters. ...
03.23.00
University Wire
'Dean Man Walking' author speaks at Duke Law School ... With passion and spunk, Sister Helen Brejean captivated a Duke University Law School audience Wednesday, tearing into the death penalty and sharing her experiences as a spiritual adviser to death row inmates. ... Prejean said she feels that public support for the death penalty is waning, citing surveys showing that Americans are becoming more like their counterparts in other industrialized countries. A petition circulating Wednesday gathered at least 100 signatures asking for a moratorium on executions. ...link to article
03.21.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Company denies hiding autos' faults ... Flames sputtered from under the hood of a nearly new Dodge minivan, which had to be towed back to the dealer. During the next year, the Caravan's owners returned it to the Cary dealership so many times for its noisy engine and brakes and faulty door locks that the Chrysler Corp. finally bought it back. But a little more than six months later, that same minivan showed up at a Wilson car lot, where Peter and Frances Pleskach of Wake County thought they were getting a good deal. What they didn't know is that they were buying a lemon - a vehicle bought back by the manufacturer because of its persistent repairs - because the dealer didn't tell them, as required by state law. ... Tom Domonoske is a part-time Duke law school faculty member who also represents consumers in disputes over their cars and mobile homes. He says that in lawsuits over the years he has gathered evidence that car makers and dealers across the country hide that information. "There is massive institutional fraud practiced in the retail car industry, which although we do work in this area, I am still shocked by," Domonoske said. ...
03.21.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Speedy action sought in redistricting case ... The plaintiff in North Carolina's congressional redistricting lawsuit asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to order the state to file a speedy appeal so the court can rule before its summer recess starts in late June. Robinson Everett, the Duke University law professor who filed the lawsuit over the 12th Congressional District, said the state should have to file its formal appeal by April 10 to ensure a quick decision on whether the court will hear it at all. ... "It seems especially important that the court decide as rapidly as possible whether the General Assembly has imposed upon the voters of North Carolina another unconstitutional racially gerrymandered redistricting plan, the use of which would violate the 14th Amendment," Everett's petition said. ...
03.20.00
Business Insurance
Clearer contracts urged for HMOs ... Clearer contracts might have spared managed care plans some of the legal assault they currently face, according to an expert on health care law. The managed care industry hasn't operated under contracts that spelled out exactly which services would be covered, relying instead on a "consensus" understanding that "managed care" would involve cost and care restrictions, said Clark C. Havighurst, William Neal Reynolds Professors at Duke University Law School in Durham, N.C. Health maintenance organizations had feared that courts wouldn't uphold contracts that limited care, Mr. Havighurst said. His remarks were made during a discussion on the rise of class-action lawsuits against health care providers, held at the American Enterprise Institute last week in Washington. ...
03.20.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Duke, UNC-CH law students look for innocents ... Every week, about 30 letters find their way from North Carolina prisons to the Duke University School of Law. Another several dozen end up at UNC Law School. They are requests for information scrawled on notebook paper, complaints reproduced in triplicate on carbon copies, but most of all, cries for help. What keeps Pamela Lialia Hoefer and about 60 other student volunteers sorting through them week after wewek is the belief that somewhere in that pile, someone is truly innocent, and that person can be freed. "To me, freedom is the most important aspect of life and one of the greatest things about our country," said Hoefer, a second-year Duke law student. "I can't imagine having that taken away from me for something I didn't do." ...
03.18.00
The National Journal
Klain and Dellinger join GAF's team ... Last year, GAF Corp. spent more than $4.5 million lobbying Congress in favor of legislation that would establish a national arbitration system charged with compensating asbestos victims. The company faces more than 100,000 asbestos lawsuits. This year, the GAF-backed Coalition for Asbestos Resolution is bringing in more big guns. The coalition has retained Ronald A. Klain, the former chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, and Walter E. Dellinger, the former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and loingtime law professor at Duke University. ...
03.17.00
The Washington Post
Supreme Court clears way for primary in North Carolina ... The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way today for the North Carolina congressional primary in May in a dispute over whether one district was racially gerrymandered. Without explanation, the court said in a brief ruling that the elections can be held on schedule but may be blocked once a planned state appeal is filed. It was unclear when that would be. ... The rulings resulted from a lawsuit filed by Duke University law professor Robinson Everett, who argued the district lines were juggled to make sure there was a black majority. Everett said the lines should have been drawn to ensure the district was compact. ...link to article
03.15.00
The News & Record (NC)
State lawmakers may meet to discuss the 12th District ... State legislators are preparing for a possible special session next week should the U.S. Supreme Court not temporarily block a recent ruling that invalidates the 12th Congressional District. Last week, a federal three-judge panel tossed out a version of the 12th District crafted in 1997 by the General Assembly. The judges ruled 2-1 that the district, which stretches nearly 100 miles from Greensboro to Charlotte, was a racial gerrymander and unconstitutional. ... The rulings have resulted from a lawsuit filed by Duke University law professor Robinson Everett, who contends the district lines were juggled to ensure a black majority. ...
03.10.00
The Morning Star (NC)
Primary in jeopardy, Democrats to appeal remap ruling ... When new district lines were drawn two years ago for the 12th Congressional District, they were intended to apply only to the 1998 elections while the courts sorted out the constitutionality of the boundaries created a year earlier. Now, for the third time in recent years, federal judges have intervened in the shape of the 12th District, which has been represented since 1992 by Charlotte Democrat Mel Watt. ... At issue is how the district was drawn and whether race was a motivating factor. ... In November, during a three-day trial in Raleigh, Democratic lawmakers defended redistricting as based on partisanship and not race. A Duke University law professor, backed by GOP lawmakers, however, suggested that the 12th District and the 1st District were drawn specifically to include black voters. ...link to article
03.08.00
The News & Observer (NC)
District declared invalid ... A three-judge federal panel threw North Carolina's May congressional primaries into turmoil Tuesday, ruling that the largely black 12th Congressional District laid out in 1997 was an illegal racial gerrymander and must be redrawn. Robinson Everett, the Duke University law professor who filed the lawsuit challenging the 1st and 12th districts, has argued repeatedly that the two districts were drawn primarily to elect blacks. "The bottom line is they have declared the 12th District unconstitutional," Everett said. ...
03.07.00
University Wire
New Duke project fights false imprisonment ... Inspired by a Cardozo Law School project that has helped free 37 innocent men from prison, Duke Law students and professors have started their own effort to help free wrongly convicted prisoners. Duke's Innocence Project leaders sat down Monday with the founders of the Cardozo project, Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, after the two lawyers delivered a well-attended speech in the law school. ...link to article
03.05.00
The News & Observer (NC)
Rights of doctors, patients weighed ... No one will ever know the name of the North Carolina hospital or doctor who botched the diagnosis of a five-week-old baby girl that resulted in brain damage from meningitis. After negotiating with the hospital for two years, the parents took a $2.25 million settlement in return for promising to keep the hospital's name a secret. ... Neil Vidmar, a Duke University law professor, made waves five years ago with a book challenging the widespread belief that malpractice lawsuits and verdicts are excessive. ... "It would be better to resolve these matters without going to court," Vidmar said. "But the picture that is so often painted about juries run amok, going after doctors because they have deep pockets, just doesn't hold up." ... The push for openness comes not only from the desire to reduce medical mistakes, but from patients' growing demand for more information about doctors and hospitals. "The reason an idea like this got this far is that a lot of people do not trust some parts of the medical-care industry," said Tom Metzloff, a Duke University law professor who studies malpractice issues. "Medical care has become very impersonal. But that doesn't necessarily mean less professional. We need to figure out a way to balance patients' rights in the mix, because they haven't been valued very highly." ...
03.03.00
The New York Times
S.E.C. Reaches Settlement in Web-Based 'Pump and Dump' Case ... Douglas Colt was a second-year law student at Georgetown University with a head for computers and a passion for politics when he hit upon a foolproof way to make money from the Internet. He set up a free Web site promising investors hot tips on penny stocks. But, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Colt bought the stocks in advance of his tips and sold them at a profit as soon as his followers bid up the prices. ... The system netted Mr. Colt, his mother, and three other Georgetown law students nearly $350,000 in only a couple of months last year. ... Under an S.E.C. settlement announced yesterday, none of the five participants have to pay a fine. Nor do they have to pay back their profits. While not admitting or denying wrongdoing, they merely agreed not to violate securities laws in the future, a sanction that some experts characterized as a slap on the wrist. ... The agreement surprised some legal experts. "I'm really puzzled," said James Cox, a law professor at Duke University. "If you don't make people give up their ill-gotten gains, it seems to me an invitation for people to step forward and see if they can pull a fraud off and not get caught." ...
03.01.00
The New York Times
Hurdles Seen for U.S. Rights Case in Diallo Shooting ... Federal prosecutors may have difficulty convicting the four New York City police officers who were acquitted in the death of Amadou Diallo on civil rights charges, legal experts say, but Justice Department guidelines for such cases are broad enough to allow them to file charges if they want to. The guidelines have three requirements: that the case involve "a substantial federal interest," that the original trial left that interest "unvindicated" and that there is strong enough evidence to win a conviction. ... William Van Alstyne, a professor at the Duke University Law School, said there must be a showing that the prosecutors were grossly incompetent - that they came to court drunk or did not show up at all. "Even if they were less than brilliantly competent," he said, that is insufficient reason to find that the federal interest was not served. "There is no reason to think this is a case where local authorities are collaborating to secure an immunity for their own police offers' nefarious practices because it reflects the will of their community," Mr. Van Alstyne said. The facts "lean strongly against" a civil rights prosecution, he said, "but the guidelines are written broadly enough for it to go either way." ...
02.28.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Class takes up legal issues in e-commerce ... Connie Neigel knows quite a bit about the high-tech industry. She owned a software consulting company after graduating from college, then sold it a few years later when the price was right. Later, Duke's Law School attracted her, especially the closeness of tech-driven Research Triangle Park. Now after two years in law school, she's taking a class offered there for the first time, on advising entrepreneurs. Through class time and a six-hour-a-week internship with a local e-commerce company - one that conducts business over the Internet - Neigel learns from venture capitalists and investment bankers how to bankroll and incubate new businesses. She's learning how to sweet-talk investors to get money, how to manage money they already have, how to present financial documents in the right light to the right people. ... Industry analysts say U.S. venture-capital commitments have quintupled in the past nine years to $25 billion and show no sign of slowing. That's why when local entrepreneur Kip Frey called his friend and former professor at Duke, David Lange, and suggested a class on legal issues for start-up companies, Lange took him up on it immediately. They believe the calss, which meets for a two-hour session on Fridays, may be the first of its kind in the U.S. ...
02.20.00
The Herald-Sun (NC)
Lawyers inside Clinton's impeachment speak out ... Slightly more than a year after the end of the impeachment trial of President Clinton, some of the lawyers who participated in the event can now look back on the entire affair and laugh - but that doesn't mean they don't all still feel passionately about the historic episode. Participating in a Duke Law School program on Friday were Brett Kavanaugh, deputy to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr; Abbe Lowell, chief counsel to the House Democrats; and Tom Griffith, chief counsel to the U.S. Senate. Duke Law Professor Michael Gerhardt, a consitutional law expert who testified on the history of impeachment during the house proceeding, moderated the forum. ...
02.16.00
The Ventura County Star (Calif.)
Culture will play big part in trial ... A single word stood out from the stack of books and paperwork Deputy Public Defender Christina Briles carried through the Ventura County courthouse recently - "India." The word was in the title of a book at the top of the stack, revealing the central role that culture will play in the defense of Narinder Virk. Accused of trying to drown her two children, the 39-year-old Port Hueneme woman is being portrayed by defense attorney Briles and other supporters as a victim - of an allegedly abusive husband and of her traditional role as a subservient Indian wife and mother. ... Bringing culture into the courtroom is not a new tactic, with cases dating back to the 1800s. ... Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a Duke University law professor who has studied and written extensively on the issue, agreed. "Are laws malleable due to the country you come from?" Coleman asked. ...
02.14.00
The New Republic
Supporters and opponents of campaign finance reform agree on little expcept for this: the compromise that the Supreme Court imposed on the nation 24 years ago in Buckley v. Valeo has collapsed. ... And so, as Walter Dellinger of the Duke University School of Law suggests, if Congress tried to prevent individuals and corporations from contributing to political parties or from taking out ads in The New York Times, the wealthy would start new opinion magazines on the Internet or buy radio and TV stations instead. ...
02.11.00
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Victims push for more clout in court ... Andrea Rehkamp, director of the Cincinnati chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, will never forget the day when the person who caused the death of her son by drinking and driving was brought before a judge. ... "Their (victims') rights and interests are quite important," testified Duke University professor Robert Mosteller. Referring to legislative actions, he added, "However, those rights and interests can be effectively protected and advanced through the democratic process." ...link to article
01.29.00
The Globe and Mail
Are western leaders war criminals? ... Michael Mandel says so, and he thinks he can prove it. The Toronto law professor is in the vanguard of an international effort to have the Prime Minister and 67 other Western leaders charged with war crimes before a United Nations tribunal in The Hague. ... Michael Byers, a Canadian who teaches law at Duke University, agrees that the accidental