Volume Seven ◊ August 2021

Professor Wendy Bach appeared on Pitchfork Economics discussing the Expanded Child Tax Credit and its relationship to American Social Welfare Policy. Later that week, Business Insider Australia featured Professor Bach’s comments on the same topic.

Last month, Professor Robert Blitt participated in a panel discussion during the International Society of Public Law's (ICON•S) Mundo Conference on the Future of Public Law. The panel, addressing "Human Rights Diligence and Its Place in the Toolbox of Public Law,” brought together international experts to discuss how due diligence principles can be used to strengthen human rights protection. Professor Blitt’s presentation focused on the need to ensure that emerging regional human rights mechanisms abide by best practices and preserve their overriding mandate to promote and protect universal human rights norms.

In August, Professor Blitt joined international colleagues at the International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES) World Congress to discuss conditions relating to freedom of religion or belief during the ongoing Donbas crisis. The panel, "Religion During the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict,” provided a framework for highlighting findings from a recently published eponymously titled book. Professor Blitt’s remarks focused on challenges relating to implementation of the International Religious Freedom Act, and specifically how its provisions governing non-state actors might apply in the context of addressing violations of freedom of religion or belief committed by emerging pseudo-states backed by Russia.

In a new article published by BYU's International Centre for Law and Religion Studies, Professor Blitt examines how the Russian Orthodox Church—Moscow Patriarchate acts as an echo chamber for Kremlin misinformation and disinformation intended to boost Russia’s international stature. Blitt’s assessment highlights how church and state direct accusations of “falsification” at actors who criticize Russia’s WWII record, and how both parties similarly mirror distorted narratives regarding Russia’s record on freedom of religion, autocephaly, and even the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. The article is part of an ongoing larger research project exploring the foreign policy impacts of Russia’s 2020 constitutional amendments.

At the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) annual conference at Amelia Island, Florida, Professor Zack Buck moderated the new scholars workshop, "Environmental, Economic, and Racial Justice," on July 29, 2021.

Professor Buck also participated in the SEALS discussion group on July 30, 2021, "Trending Topics in Health Law and Health Policy," where he presented his article, "When Hospitals Sue Patients, Next Steps," which is forthcoming in the Hastings Law Journal.

Professor Sherley Cruz presented virtually at two sessions during the Southeastern Association of Law Schools Conference. The first was panel on "Cultural Self-Awareness and Professional Identity Formation Across Curriculum." The second session was a scholarship workshop, "Post-Election Preview: Labor and Employment Under a New Biden Administration," where Professor Cruz discussed her research regarding low-wage essential workers.

Professor Joan Heminway was a panelist, moderator, and discussion group participant in several programs at the 2021 Southeastern Association of Law Schools conference. She offered commentary on securities and general business law opinions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2020-21 term as a panelist in the “Supreme Court and Legislative Update (Administrative, Corporate, and Intellectual Property)” program, moderated a discussion group for aspiring law professors on “Mapping Academic Opportunities,” participated in a discussion group on corporate governance entitled “First Things First: Is Short-Termism the Problem?,” moderated and participated in an additional intersectional discussion group on the legal treatment of business entity organic documents as contracts, and co-moderated the “Insider Trading and Markets” discussion group. She also served as a mentor to a new scholar whose research and writing currently centers on income taxation and entrepreneurship.

Associate Dean Michael Higdon's latest article, "LGBTQ Youth and the Promise of the Kennedy Quartet," has been accepted for publication by the Cardozo Law Review.

On August 5, Associate Dean Higdon was an invited panelist at the AALS' Appointments Committee Workshop, which was billed as "an opportunity to discuss current hiring challenges" involving "a panel of experienced appointment committee members [sharing] lessons learned from past hiring cycles about navigating online and in-person initial interviews, holding effective virtual hiring interviews, online versus in-person job talks and call backs, hiring cycle timeframes, and more."

On July 16, Professor Lucy Jewel was an invited speaker at the LatCrit Fridays Workshop devoted to recent legislation related to the teaching of racial issues in public schools and government settings. Professor Jewel spoke virtually about the impact of the newly enacted T.C.A. 29-6-10, which regulates how racial issues are taught in K12 public schools. 

On July 30, Professor Jewel appeared virtually, along with Elizabeth Berenguer and Teri McMurtry-Chubb, to present their work on critical and comparative rhetoric at the SEALS annual meeting. Their panel was entitled Reason on Trial: Interrupting and Disrupting the Legal Writing Canon. On July 31, also at SEALS, Professor Jewel participated in a broader discussion group, "Discipline Building: Interrogating and Disrupting the Legal Writing Canon, "which was devoted to the ideas raised in her previous panel. 

Professor Jewel’s book manuscript, Critical and Comparative Rhetoric: Unmasking Privilege and Power in Law and Legal Advocacy (with Elizabeth Berenguer and Teri McMurtry-Chubb) has been accepted for publication by Bristol University Press (UK). 

Professor Jewel has been invited to participate in a symposium, "Conspiracy Theories, Disinformation, and Civil Rights," hosted by the LSU Law Journal for Social Justice and Policy. The symposium will take place on October 8, 2021.

Professor George Kuney was quoted extensively in Law360’s coverage of the currently pending bankruptcy reform legislation being discussed in Congress. The bills address, among other things, perceived abuses of third party release practice as well as forum shopping. 

Associate Dean Paula Schaefer and Professor Alex Long were speakers on the SEALS panel "Professional Responsibility in Our Turbulent Times."

Associate Dean Paula Schaefer and Professor Joy Radice spoke on the panel "Incorporating Racial Justice Issues in the Classroom" at the SEALS Annual Conference.

Professor Glenn Reynolds' recent book, "The Social Media Upheaval" is being used as a text at New York University's Journalism School, in a course on journalism history from the 18th Century to the present.

Professor Reynolds also testified before the Tennessee General Assembly's Joint Study Committee on Refugees on Thursday, August 12. Topics included federal pre-emption, intergovernmental immunities, and aspects of administrative law.

Associate Dean Paula Schaefer and Professor Joy Radice spoke on the panel "Incorporating Racial Justice Issues in the Classroom" at the SEALS Annual Conference.

Associate Dean Schaefer and Professor Alex Long were speakers on the SEALS panel "Professional Responsibility in Our Turbulent Times."

Associate Dean Schaefer was also a commentator on a paper at the Evidence Summer Workshop, hosted by Vanderbilt Law School on August 2, 2021. The paper was "Presuit Lawyer Duties on Creating, Preserving, Producing and Protecting Information Relevant to Civil Litigation" by Jeffrey Parness.

Law360 interviewed Associate Dean Schaefer and cited her scholarship in an article regarding sanctions for discovery misconduct against Endo Pharmaceuticals and its attorneys in opioid litigation in New York and Tennessee. Earlier this year, a Tennessee court entered default judgment and other monetary sanctions against Endo for its discovery misconduct; that case subsequently settled for $35 million. In the New York case, a motion for default judgment is pending while the case is being tried. The New York plaintiffs requested default judgment based on the late disclosure of a large volume of documents, including “smoking gun” documents that reflected that the company continued to promote the drugs to doctors despite knowledge that they were being diverted for improper purposes. One late-produced sale rep document referenced the doctor’s office full of “drug abusers and crackheads.” In both cases, the courts have addressed the role of Arnold & Porter in the discovery misconduct, with the Tennessee court counting each false statement by an attorney in its default judgment order.

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently cited Professor John Sobieski's article, "An Update of the New Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure," 46 Tenn. L. Rev. 727, 734 (1979), ultimately adopting the position advocated by Professor Sobieski. The case is Milan Supply Chain Solutions, Inc. v. Navistar, Inc. and can be found here.

Professor Greg Stein’s article,"The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Urban Land Use Patterns," has been published at 48 Florida State University Law Review 193 (2021). The article examines the many ways in which the increasing prevalence of self-driving cars will have an impact on zoning rules, roadway design, vehicle miles traveled, and environmental laws.