Faculty Impact February 2015

PUBLICATIONS

David Thaw Publishes in Duke Law & Technology Review

Professor David Thaw published “Reasonable Expectations of Privacy Settings: Social Media and the Stored Communications Act” in Volume 13 of Duke Law and Technology Review with Professor Christopher J. Borchert of the University of Connecticut School of Law and Professor Fernando M. Pinguelo of Seton Hall University School of Law.

In 1986, Congress passed the Stored Communications Act (SCA) to provide additional protections for individuals’ private communications content held in electronic storage by third parties. Acting out of direct concern for the implications of the Third-Party Records Doctrine—a judicially created doctrine that generally eliminates Fourth Amendment protections for information entrusted to third parties—Congress sought to tailor the SCA to electronic communications sent via and stored by third parties. Yet, because Congress crafted the SCA with language specific to the technology of 1986, courts today have struggled to apply the SCA consistently with regard to similar private content sent using different technologies. The article argues that Congress should revisit the SCA and adopt a single, technology-neutral standard of protection for private communications content held by third-party service providers. Read more

OTHER FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

Publication

Sheila I. Velez Martinez, Remittances from Puerto Rico: Unsuspected Transnational Locality in Times of Crisis, 5 Journal of Race, Gender, and Poverty 71 (2014). (SSRN)

Book Chapter

Ann Sinsheimer, Teresa Brostoff, and Nancy Burkoff, "Understanding and Using Legal Rules," in Ann Sinsheimer, Teresa Kissane Brostoff, and Nancy M. Burkoff, eds., Legal Writing: A Contemporary Approach, West Academic Publishing, 2014. (SSRN)

Other

John Burkoff, Search Warrant Law Deskbook two-volume treatise (2015), also available in the Treatises database on WESTLAW, identifier: SRCHWARLAW. (Website)

David Garrow, Toward a Definitive History of Griggs v. Duke Power Company, 67 Vanderbilt Law Review 197 (2014), reprinted in Steven Saltzman, ed., Civil Rights Litigation and Attorney Fees Annual Handbook Vol. 30, Thomson Reuters, 2014, p. 247. (SSRN)

PRESENTATIONS

Ronald Brand Speaks at University of North Carolina U.S./International Law Symposium

Professor Ronald Brand spoke on “Understanding Judgments Recognition” at the North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation symposium, The Changing Relationship Between International Law and U.S. Law. Brand’s talk was followed by comments on his paper by Professor Ralf Michaels of Duke Law School and Professor John Coyle of the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Brand’s presentation traced recent developments in judgments recognition law in the United States, the European Union, and internationally. He considered problems of proximity of place and time that he postulates have skewed the understanding and analysis of current judgments recognition law in the United States. Brand also argued that these problems affect how the international negotiations on a global convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments are approached at the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Papers from the conference will be published in the North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation. Read more

FACULTY FEATURE

In this debut installment of Faculty Features, a new series of monthly videos highlighting Pitt Law faculty members on items of current legal interest within their areas of expertise, Professor Harry Flechtner offers a tribute to the important contributions of the late Professor and Dean John E. Murray Jr., who passed away on February 11, 2015. View video

AWARDS

Dean William M. Carter is Named to 2015 Power List

Dean William M. Carter Jr. has been named to the 2015 Power List of the media firm Lawyers Of Color. The distinction honors the nation’s most influential minority attorneys and nonminority diversity advocates who have made significant contributions to the legal profession.

This is the second consecutive year Carter has received this distinction. He will be recognized at the 2015 Power List Awards Reception in Washington, D.C., on March 18. Carter also will be profiled with other honorees from across the nation in Lawyers Of Color’s forthcoming publication Power Issue 2015. Carter has served as the dean of Pitt’s School of Law since July 2012. Under his leadership, the law school has consistently been ranked as one of the nation’s upper-tier law programs. Read more

IN THE NEWS

Alan Meisel is Quoted in New York Times Article on Complexities of End-of-Life Decision Making

Professor Alan Meisel, an expert on end-of-life decision making, was quoted in a January 19 New York Times article “Complexities of Choosing an End Game for Dementia” on whether patients who develop dementia can indicate with an advance directive whether they choose to end their lives through voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED). He believes VSED could be among the viable options for people making these decisions. “People in their 50s and 60s frequently say: ‘I don’t want to be in that situation. I don’t want to put my family in that situation.’ And people will increasingly voice those views to others, sometimes in a formal way through advance directives.” Meisel stressed the importance of not referring to this method of end-of-life care as “starvation,” saying, “It’s the rhetoric more than anything.” He added that if removing patients from ventilators were suddenly referred to as “suffocation,” that issue might also become contentious. Read more

OTHER FACULTY IN THE NEWS

David Harris Comments in USA Today on No-Bid Contracts for Body Cameras for Police Officers

David Harris Offers Expert Commentary to NPR on Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Legal Troubles

David Garrow Authors Washington Post Book Review of David Axlerod Memoir Believer: My Forty Years in Politics

David Thaw Comments to Politico About Google Data Privacy

David Harris Talks to WESA About the Role of the Attorney General

John Burkoff Comments to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Dismissal of Charges Against Public Defender

William M. Carter Jr. is Profiled for Pittsburgh Business Times Personalities of Pittsburgh Series

David Harris Comments for CBS News on Assuring Local Police Department Compliance

John Burkoff Speaks to Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review About Decision to Drop Remaining Charges Against Leon Ford

John Burkoff Speaks with WESA About Race for Open Seats on Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Arthur Hellman Talks to The Daily Report About Evidentiary Hearing to Consider Charge of Judicial Misconduct Against Alabama Federal Judge

David Garrow is Quoted in a Washington Post Story About MLK's First Secretary

David Harris is Quoted in WCNC Article About the Racial Gap in U.S. Arrest Rates

David Harris Comments for Washington Post on Eric Holder’s Limiting of Seized Civil Asset Sharing

David Garrow Sits on MSNBC Panel Discussing Llife and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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