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If you watched the Republican National Convention, you heard a lot of coverage about the Hatch Act and the constant stream of violations occurring on live television. But does anyone really care about this? Maybe more to the point, is the law so overbroad that it’s blunted its own impact? We also check in on Yale Law School where a prominent professor is suspended for two years after an internal investigation into sexual harassment allegations.
This isn’t a good look. Yes, COVID-19 has launched everyone into a strange new world where we are still learning the rules of the road, but some things are well-established by now. Don’t have big events with lots of people, particularly not if they’re indoors. And if there’s a chance of exposure, for goodness’ sake, let everyone know. It really isn’t that difficult.
So, at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, a 1L hosted a party. Which, sigh. I fundamentally don’t understand the outbreak of partying 1Ls; don’t they know these are the grades that literally determine the course of their entire careers? Anyway, partying in academia is a huge problem without many clear solutions. In any event, according to a Twitter thread started by a 2L at the law school, someone who attended the party wound up testing positive for COVID-19. In response, the law school sent out an email warning of a “COVID-19 mass-exposure event” and the appropriate follow up steps. Except they only sent it to 1Ls.
It seems bold that the administration is so certain only 1Ls attended this “mass” event, and I guess what self-respecting 3L parties with 1Ls? Amirite? But seriously, law school classes are back at OU. In person. There seems like plenty of opportunities for law students outside of the first-year class to be exposed. People often say the your first year of law school is its own little bubble, but there are plenty of shared amenities (like, you know, bathrooms) with the larger law school community.
And the 2L who started the Twitter thread expressed those concerns. “The lack of communication about possible positives in our incredibly small part of campus is deeply disturbing,” the 2L tweeted. “We deserve to know when things like this happen. People are scared, people are at risk, families are at risk. We are not asking that you identify students, just cases.”
As reported by the OU Daily, the law school eventually did send out an email alert to all students. It’s a good thing this isn’t a highly communicable disease where time is of the essence. Oh. Wait. IT’S EXACTLY THAT.
Which led to the need to blow it all up on social media:
“We were getting to the point where we felt as a group, me included, that there just wasn’t enough transparency,” [the 2L] said. “There isn’t enough transparency. We don’t agree with the policies the university has put forth, we don’t agree that anyone who doesn’t want to be on campus should be forced to.”
Any school that is having in-person instruction has to know they are taking a big risk. The very least they should be doing is be communicative with the whole community about the potential risks as it develops.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is great at making headlines. When we last heard from her, she publicly announced for that she’d been secretly undergoing chemotherapy for her fifth battle with cancer. At the time, she noted that it had been “yielding positive results.”
Her course of treatment must be going really well, because thanks to a viral Twitter post, we now know that Ginsburg has made her first public appearance since her cancer announcement. It looks like the justice officiated an outdoor wedding this past weekend — during a pandemic, when she’s at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 due to her age and her illness.
Check out the tweet that’s been making the rounds, below:
The bride, Barb Solish, is the director of marketing and communications for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Ginsburg is a family friend. With nary a mask in this beautiful picture, where Ginsburg is seen standing barely taller than the lectern, the bride wrote in a follow-up tweet, “And don’t worry, we tested negative!”
They don’t call her the Notorious RBG for nothing. We hope she remains safe and sound and that her health continues to improve.
Ginsburg officiated a wedding over the weekend [The Hill]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Turn back the clock.
The California legislature can’t force the state supreme court to retroactively accept bar scores between 1390 and 1430 as passing, but they’ve made their feelings known on the subject. HR 103 begged the judiciary to adopt its own standard and allow scores from the last five years to be counted for the purpose of licensure, which would allow past examinees to count scores that would pass under the newly adopted 1390 standard.
In the end, the resolution wasn’t even controversial, passing by unanimous consent sometime after midnight.
Nor should it be controversial. If you maintain that the bar examination produces consistent measures over time — which California does — then a 1400 in February is the same as a 1400 now and there’s no reason to treat them differently. Add in that it minimizes the number of applicants that have to take the looming disaster of the next bar exam administration and it’s a no-brainer. These are all points that were adequately briefed and then summarily ignored by the justices.
It’s another instance of legislators getting out ahead licensing reform of the issue where bar examiners and courts have faltered, with New York and Hawai’i both calling for the cancellation of the bar exam for different reasons. Score another one for responsive government!
Whether or not the court heeds the calls coming from the legislative branch remains to be seen.
Earlier: California Holds Hearing On Retroactive Bar Exam Score Resolution
California Bill Recommends Lowering Cut Score Retroactive To 2015
California Supreme Court Refuses To Apply New Cut Score Retroactively
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
Welcome listeners to this COVID-19 Special Report podcast presented by our friends at Wolters Kluwer and hosted by Evolve the Law Contributing Editor, Ian Connett (@QuantumJurist).
This report features Tim Feldman, Vice President and General Manager of Healthcare Compliance & Reimbursement at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Tim oversees product development across a vast suite of practice tools and workflow solutions to help professionals stay ahead of regulatory developments and effectively manage compliance activities.
Listen in as Tim and Ian examine the rapidly evolving healthcare regulatory compliance system, including legal and compliance technology trends, the rise of telehealth, and what to expect in this year’s election cycle as it relates to healthcare policy in light of the pandemic. All of this and more on this week’s COVID-19 Special Coverage Podcast. Thank you for listening!
The arms race is on. The recruitment of college athletes by athletic departments has always been a battle based on which programs can most persuasively pitch the unique opportunities that players will be provided to reach the next level, whether it be the coaching staff, training facilities, or history of propelling individuals to the professional ranks.
However, with four states (Florida, California, Colorado, and Nebraska) creating new laws that will allow college athletes to earn money from the use of their names, images, and likenesses, more than 30 other states considering similar legislation, and the NCAA promising legislative proposals to reform its prohibition on athletes exploiting their publicity rights, universities are entering a new realm of recruiting athletes. They are pitching their social media metrics, the companies that are based in or around the cities in which they are located, and the tools that they are equipped to provide athletes as they are about to be given, for the first time, a right to earn money in exchange for their valuable endorsements.
While Florida is technically set to be the first state to allow college athletes to commercially exploit their names, images, and likenesses (with an effective date of July 1, 2021), the NCAA has declared that it expects its own legislation to be approved by January 31, 2021, with effective dates no later than the start of the 2021-22 academic year. That would create change for athletes at schools across the country, irrespective of jurisdiction. As such, athletic departments outside of those states that have passed legislation on the issue of name, image, and likeness are preparing for what they expect to come — some creation of rights for college athletes to put them in a similar position as their colleagues on campus who have zero restrictions with regard to the commercial exploitation of their publicity rights.
The University of Texas has come out of the gates with an impressive pitch to prospective recruits as to why they should strongly consider Texas Athletics. The program, titled LEVERAGE, was announced on August 31 with a press release and video that boasts of personal branding, brand management, business formation, and entrepreneurship tools for students, opportunity management offerings and over 120 technology companies, more than 50 gaming companies and at least 40 major business headquarters based in Austin.
There is no mistaking the purpose of the efforts at the University of Texas; its athletics department is interested in capitalizing off of its size and strength, but worried that schools in states that have already passed laws related to name, image, and likeness are off to an early lead in attracting top recruits. Texas Football coach Tom Herman’s statement in the LEVERAGE release furthers this truth.
“With the NIL opportunities coming in the near future, the establishment of the LEVERAGE program is a personal development area where we will provide unmatched resources when it comes to building our players’ brands,” Herman said. “The people they will meet, opportunities at their disposal and the resources our first-class Football and Athletics programs will provide are second to none, and this program is just another great reason to be a Texas Longhorn.”
Herman’s statement is based on the belief that either the NCAA will choose to remove its current prohibition on college athletes earning money off of their names, images or likenesses, or that there will be separate federal action by way of Congress enacting a national law, such as the legislation introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio in June. However, the only state that has guaranteed its athletes the ability to exploit their publicity rights as of July 1, 2021 is Florida. It should be expected that schools in the Sunshine State, as well as athletic departments in all other states, begin to develop and announce programs that bear similarities to what Texas has unveiled by way of its LEVERAGE program.
While it appears that Texas Athletics is choosing, at least for the time being, to provide tools to athletes in-house, there may be opportunities for external third parties to provide resources and training such as financial literacy, opportunity management, compliance assistance, and content creation capacities to athletic departments that choose to follow in the footsteps of the University of Texas. I am part of a team that is going to announce such an offering in the very near future as a viable third-party solution to level the playing field.
Darren Heitner is the founder of Heitner Legal. He is the author of How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, published by the American Bar Association, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. You can reach him by email at heitner@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @DarrenHeitner.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
COVID has forced us to have a serious talk about the bar exam. The anachronistic test invented to screen attorneys entering the profession without any formal legal education simply makes no sense in a world where almost every jurisdiction now requires a three-year degree from an ABA-accredited school to enter the profession. Most years we just shrug off this fact, but in the midst of a global pandemic, as some states feverishly jam applicants into convention halls in the name of taking the test, the ritual rings hollow. The crisis provides an opportunity to take stock and ask if we really need this thing after all and if there isn’t a better way to regulate the profession than asking people to quiz people from memory about doctrines they will never see in practice and then never check in with them again over the rest of their four decade career.
One person who didn’t need the crisis to have serious doubts about the bar exam is Greta Van Susteren. Five years ago, she videotaped a message of encouragement to everyone taking the bar exam and explained exactly how she feels about the test from her perspective as a legal analyst who practiced for years and has taught as an adjunct.
Yup.
Over the weekend, the video earned a second jolt of fame when current examinees found it and realized that, if anything, it’s more relevant now than it was then. Van Susteren joined in on social media to add support to the effort to reform professional licensing.
#Scam indeed.
And it’s all in the name of a mad quest for cash that only hurts the applicants.
Personally, I think she undersells the competition aspect, especially in states like Delaware and California. Adding to the mountain of debt upon law school graduates is more of an effect than a purpose, but that doesn’t blunt her point.
As for a replacement mechanism, Van Susteren has an answer.
Diploma privilege it is!
It may not be the ideal solution absent the pandemic. There are law schools out there that are very close to the definition of “#scam” themselves and a long-term diploma privilege solution must work hand-in-hand with a more robust accreditation process that can guarantee graduates are prepared to practice law. But the “crisitunity” afforded by COVID doesn’t provide the luxury of waiting and could greatly advance the reform effort by allowing a longitudinal study of the fitness of a class admitted without the exam.
As one might expect, the diploma privilege world swiftly embraced Van Susteren as a high-profile ally in a struggle that far too often gets denigrated as “kids who don’t want to take the exam.”
As they say in political Twitter, “welcome to the resistance.”
Except, Greta’s been with the resistance since before it even got rolling and she has the YouTube receipts to prove it.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
HARARE – A Zimbabwe court has ordered an investigation into death threats made against a jailed opposition MDC MP, allegedly by a prison boss.
Job Sikhala has been arrested on charges of inciting public violence amid protests in the country against corruption and human rights abuses.
Sikhala has been in prison for over a week now.
He is facing the same charges as journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and opposition activist Jacob Ngarivhume – that of inciting public violence.
All are in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and, the trio feels unsafe.
Sikhala’s legal representative Harrison Nkomo said, “what we placed before the courts is that Mr Sikhala is afraid for his life because there were death threats that were made to him whilst in prison. Secondly, the issue of COVID-19 in the cells and the court has directed that prison must investigate and report to the honourable court within 48 hours”
A Harare-based private company, Impala Car Hire, is being condemned on social media after one of its vehicles was used to kidnap Tawanda Muchehiwa, the cousin of ZimLive editor, Mduduzi Mathuthu last month.
People are demanding the firm release the details of the person who hired the vehicle to carry out the abduction.
Protestors hold up placards against the government of Zimbabwe’s alleged state corruption, media freedom and the deteriorating economy outside the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria on August 7, 2020.
JOHANNESBURG – President Cyril Ramaphosa said he would send special envoys to Zimbabwe within “days” in a second attempt to resolve an ongoing crisis in the country’s northern neighbour.
Three veteran South African politicians travelled to Zimbabwe in early August after authorities banned anti-government demonstrations and arrested several protesters.
The delegation did not meet opposition parties and was widely criticised for failing to confront President Emmerson Mnangagwa about his administration’s mounting crackdown on dissent.
Zimbabwe’s government has vehemently denied that a crisis is unfolding within its borders.
“The (ANC) secretary-general will be finalising the delegation that will be going to Zimbabwe in days to go and meet with the Zimbabwe governing party,” Ramaphosa told reporters during a virtual press conference on Monday.
“When they get there they should get the opportunity of meeting other stakeholders in Zimbabwe,” he added.
“Clearly it is important that we get as broad a view of what is happening in Zimbabwe as we possibly can.”
The southern African country has been crippled by decades of mismanagement, and many Zimbabweans complain that the situation has grown worse under Mnangagwa.
In July he vowed to “flush out” the “bad apples” attempting to “divide our people” — stoking concern among social activists and opposition figures already targeted by the government.
Mnangagwa’s harsh rhetoric and a recent spate of high-profile arrests have sparked outrage on social media, with the hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter trending worldwide.
The first South African delegation, sent to Zimbabwe on August 10, met only with Mnangagwa.
No statement was issued after the visit and Ramaphosa — who is also the current chairman of the African Union — has faced pressure to take a more decisive stance.
Detained Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. (Photo: zwnews.com / Wikipedia)
After spending six weeks in remand prison applying for bail a record three times, incarcerated journalist Hopewell Chin’ono on Monday 31 August sent a distress call to his lawyers that he was “seriously ill” and in need of urgent medical attention.
His lawyer Doug Coltart immediately visited Chin’ono, who is on remand at the Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, where condemned hardcore criminals are kept.
Coltart told Daily Maverick, “Hopewell has been visited and examined by his own doctor and the symptoms of headache and fever are all consistent with Covid-19.
“Swabs have been taken and [we are] now awaiting test results after which the legal team would want Hopewell Chin’ono to be admitted at a hospital soonest. He has been given medication for the meantime.”
The jailed journalist is being represented by a team of lawyers comprising lead lawyer advocate Taona Nyamakura, Roselyn Hanzi (director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights), Coltart and Beatrice Mtetwa.
Chin’ono was arrested on 20 July, as was Transform Zimbabwe opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume. The two are charged with “incitement to participate in a gathering with intent to promote public violence”.
The journalist’s Twitter handle @daddyhope was deleted as soon as he was arrested at his home in Harare, while Ngarivhume has denied owning a Twitter handle under his name, @jngarivhume.
The two men have been denied bail on numerous and separate instances since their arrest and are being held at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison while awaiting trial. Through his Twitter handle Chin’ono frequently called out corruption by state officials, leading to the arrest and dismissal of the Minister of Health and Childcare Dr Obediah Moyo. Moyo was involved in a US$60-million Covid-19 government procurement scandal which sucked in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s sons Collins and Sean Mnangagwa.
Moyo and his co-accused, Drax International country representative Dilesh Nguwaya, are both out on Z$50,000 bail.
On 14 August, High Court judge Justice Helena Charewa granted an application filed by Chin’ono and Ngarivhume, allowing them to exercise their rights to doctors of choice and access to PPE. The two were also allowed to communicate with lawyers in private, but their access to food and clothes was subject to reasonable admin restrictions.
Compliance with the High Court order by state actors has been selective, with Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) officials refusing Chin’ono special food from outside prison which he requires because of his medical condition. Chin’ono’s lawyers were advised that the prison administrative measures did not allow access to food that is not purchased online from “reputable sources”.
Chin’ono, an international award-winning journalist and Nieman fellow, appealed to the High Court on 28 August after his application for bail based on changed circumstances was denied by magistrate Ngoni Nduna.
Chin’ono’s lawyer Mtetwa believes that state actors are acting in defiance of court orders and the law and are out to persecute and frustrate her for representing the jailed journalist. On 25 August police manning the gates at Rotten Row Magistrate’s Court refused Mtetwa access to court premises unless she produced her licence to practice. The incident happened in full sight of the media and one police officer verbally insulted Mtetwa.
Chin’ono was arrested on 20 July and the State alleges that he “incited people to revolt against President Mnangagwa’s administration during some planned anti-govt protests called for on 31 July”. He is set to appear in court on Wednesday 2 September when a ruling on his appeal for bail, based on “changed circumstances”, will be handed down by Justice Tawanda Chitapi at the High Court. DM