Saturday, September 14, 2024

Saturday Music Post - I Hear You Knockin’ on Wood

In 1966, Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper wrote "Knock on Wood" on a stormy night in Memphis at the Lorraine Motel, about two years before Martin Luther King would be assassinated in the same location. At the time, the Lorraine was one of the few places in Memphis where Black and white people could meet together, or where Black people could stay in modern commercial accommodations. Over the years, virtually all of the great Stax acts stayed there, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers, Otis Redding, and others. According to Steve Cropper, the thunderstorm gave them the idea for the refrain, "like thunder, lightning, the way you love me is frightening." The song was a hit for Eddie Floyd and has been covered many times over fifty years. Other "knockin'" songs on today's post include Fats Domino's "I Hear You Knocking" and Little Richard's "Keep a' Knocking" (covering an earlier recording by Lil Hardin).

 The clips can all be enjoyed at The Faculty Lounge.

Posted by Steve Lubet on September 14, 2024 at 05:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, September 13, 2024

Right Metaphor, Wrong Lesson

Donald Trump says he obviously won his debate with Kamala Harris because she wants to debate him again:

“In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!’ Well, it’s no different with a Debate."

The reality is that Harris, like any good fighter, has her opponent on the ropes and she plans to keep punching.

Posted by Steve Lubet on September 13, 2024 at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Academic Boycotts Cannot Become the New Normal

The University of Minnesota's Ronald Krebs has an excellent essay in Inside Higher Education, explaining how "the new AAUP statement on academic boycotts undermines scholarly values and opens the door to further politicization of the academy." Krebs identifies and sharply refutes the three major arguments in favor of legitimizing academic boycotts. 

Here are some excerpts (though I highly recommend reading the full piece):

Why do the old, serious arguments against academic boycotts get short shrift from defenders of the new AAUP policy? I suspect their silence masks, or rather reveals, deeper, unspoken disagreements over the nature of the scholarly enterprise and the purpose of the university.

 Society grants the academy special prerogatives, encapsulated in codes of academic freedom, because it recognizes the larger good the scholarly enterprise serves. Society has little reason to grant the academy those special prerogatives when the faculty collective behaves in ways that no longer advance that public good. When faculty vote for academic boycotts that violate colleagues’ academic freedom and that curb the circulation of ideas, they lose the right to autonomous democratic self-governance.

Defenses of the AAUP statement traffic, bluntly, in Orwellian doublespeak. Proponents of academic boycotts are, they claim, the true defenders of academic freedom. Those calling for unfettered scholarly exchange are, they argue, the enemies of academic freedom. Boycotting colleagues because of one’s politics, they contend, is a courageous ethical stance. Holding the line against punishing colleagues for crimes they did not commit is, they aver, pure politics. Backing the legitimacy of academic boycotts is, they maintain, the only neutral stance.

The AAUP’s new statement on academic boycotts has further delegitimized a once-august institution. It has further opened the door to the university’s already-blooming politicization and polarization. The AAUP has lost sight of the academy’s purpose.

You can read the entire essay in Inside Higher Education.

 

Posted by Steve Lubet on September 12, 2024 at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Why Is the New York Times Legitimizing a Holocaust Denier?

My new essay at The Bulwark responds to the New York Times’s egregious euphemism for Holocaust denial. Here is the gist: 

Why Is the New York Times Legitimizing a Holocaust Denier? 

IT WAS SHOCKING, although not surprising, to see Tucker Carlson praise the prominent Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper, who said Adolph Hitler was a peacemaker and called Winston Churchill the “chief villain” of World War II. But it was even more shocking—as well as dismaying and disheartening— when the New York Times conferred some credibility on Cooper by repeatedly describing him as merely a “Holocaust revisionist” rather than an outright denier.

The New York Times reported two stories on the Cooper-Carlson connection, both with misleadingly anodyne headlines: “Tucker Carlson Sharply Criticized for Hosting Holocaust Revisionist,” and “Vance Declines to Denounce Carlson After Interview With Holocaust Revisionist.”

I INITIALLY ASSUMED that the Times’s “Holocaust revisionist” headlines had been written in haste by an uninformed editor and would therefore be quickly corrected, given that the articles themselves correctly refer to Cooper’s “false claims.”

I wrote to the two reporters and received this reply: “It's an interesting question and one we wrestled with. Classic Holocaust deniers say either the Holocaust didn’t happen or was greatly exaggerated. Cooper conceded that millions of Jews died. He is questioning the motives and methods.”

This is a meaningless, and credulous, distinction.

The Times headlines normalize Cooper’s pretension to legitimacy. They ignore the vast gulf between unintended starvation, which Cooper falsely claims, and premeditated mass murder, which is what actually happened.

You can read the full essay at The Bulwark.

Posted by Steve Lubet on September 10, 2024 at 02:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

People will come, Ray

In memory of James Earl Jones, who died Monday. I used a piece of his monologue as an epigram my first piece on fan speech.

 

Posted by Howard Wasserman on September 10, 2024 at 12:55 AM in Howard Wasserman | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday, September 09, 2024

COSELL 2024 - this Friday and Saturday - full program!

So excited to be co-hosting COSELL 2024. The 19th Annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL). 

here is the full rich program:

COSELL 2024 Schedule

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13 – USD Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice

8:00: BREAKFAST – Room AB

8:25: Welcome

  •   Dean Robert Schapiro (University of San Diego School Law)
  •   Dean Sean Scott (California Western School of Law)
  •   Professor Orly Lobel (University of San Diego School of Law)
  •   Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp (California Western School of Law)

8:45 – 10:15 a.m. GROUP 1

PANEL A: Room C

Moderator – Orly Lobel

Ruben GarciaHostile Environments

Seema PatelWhistle While You Work? The Fatal Problem with Whistleblower Regulations in Low-Wage Work Industries

Daiquiri SteeleWhistleblowing Parity

PANEL B: Room D

Moderator – Susan Bisom-Rapp

Tanya HernándezThe Role of DEI Training in Employment Discrimination Law

Diana ReddyDiscrimination as Exploitation

Michael SelmiDEI and the Private Workplace

PANEL C: Room G

Moderator – Rick Bales

Michael OswaltNew Independent Union Organizing Campaigns at Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joe’s, etc.

Gali RacabiExpressive Employers, Silent Workers

Alvin VelazquezThe Death of Labor Law and the Rebirth of the Labor Movement

10:15 - 10:30 a.m. BREAK

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.  GROUP 2

PANEL A: Room C

Moderator - Ariana Levinson

Rachel Arnow-Richman & J.H. (Rip) VerkerkeDefusing Disclaimers

Jonathan HarrisNeo-Lochnerism Meets Neo-Taylorism: Attacks on Worker Mobility

Orly LobelBetween Fuzzy Doctrine and Void Contracts: How Trade Secrecy Law Shapes the Breadth of Non-Competes

PANEL B: Room D

Moderator – Marcia McCormick

Stephanie BornsteinImpact Arbitration 

Liz Tippett, “Severe or Pervasive”: Evidence that Courts Dismiss Harassment Cases that Juries Would Find Meritorious

Deborah WidissThe Sexual Harassment Silo

PANEL C: Room G

Moderator – Gali Racabi

Samuel EstreicherThe Perils of Political Unionism

Joel HellerVoting at Work

Jeff HirschLabor Regulation of AI

12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Lunch will be served in Room AB

1:00 - 2:30 p.m. GROUP 3

PANEL A: Room C

Moderator – Michael Oswalt

Susan Bisom-Rapp & Urwana CoiquaudThe State’s Role in (De)Standardizing Work: A Government-Focused Approach to Regulatory Capture in the Platform Economy

Doron Dorfman, Work Law for Volunteers

César Rosado MarzánAlt-Labor’s Laws in Chicago and a Dignity Gap

PANEL B: Room D 

Moderator – Tristin Green

Marcia McCormickJudicial Jujitsu in Anti-Discrimination Law after Bostock

Helen NortonHow the Antidiscrimination Law of Commercial Transactions Really Works

Vicki SchultzHow the DOJ Civil Rights Division Helped Desegregate the American Workforce in the 1960s and 70s

PANEL C: Room G 

Moderator – Branden Butler

Michael GreenResponding to Efforts to Eradicate Workplace Law Agencies

Stefan McDanielRearticulating Labor Rights

Courtlyn Roser-JonesThe General Counsel’s Labor Agenda

2:30 - 2:45 p.m. BREAK

2:45 - 4:15 p.m. GROUP 4

PANEL A: Room C

Moderator – Rick Bales

Deepa Das AcevedoThey Said- They Said: Narratives and Counter-Narratives in Tenured Faculty Terminations

Ryan NelsonWork Law’s Domain

Yiran ZhangWorkification

PANEL B: Room D

Moderator – Jessica Fink

Saru MatambanadzoInterrogating Accommodation

Nicole Porter, Troubling Trends: ADA Definition in Disability Cases 2019-2023 

D’Andra ShuRemote Work Disability Accommodations Since COVID

 

PANEL C: Room G

Moderator - César Rosado Marzan

Liz FordThe (Un)Common Law of Police Collective Bargaining

Ariana Levinson, How Union Negotiations in Worker-Owned Co-ops Compare to More Traditional Negotiations 

Noah ZatzVarieties of Democratization: Labor Law and the Co-op Problem

 4:15 - 4:30 p.m. BREAK

4:30 - 6:00 P.M. GROUP 5

 PANEL A: Room C

Moderator - Ryan Nelson

Rick BalesUsing AI to Teach LEL and ADR

Aneil Kovvali, Labor Market Competition and Collaboration

Pascal McDougallLabor Struggle, Law, and the Theory of Competition 

Shefali Milczarek-DesaiIs There Hope for Workers’ Rights?

PANEL B: Room D

Moderator - Doron Dorfman

Heidi LiuAge Discrimination and the Role of Norms

Ben PyleBan the Box: Fair Chance Hiring, Hiring Discrimination Enforcement, and Local Labor Markets

Naomi SchoenbaumInformation Regulation as Antidiscrimination: The Central Provision of the Law of Workplace Equality

PANEL C: Room G

Moderator - Liz Tippett

Jessica FinkThe Benefits and Pitfalls of Backdating #MeToo

Catherine FiskSpeech @ Work

Tristin GreenBeyond Personal Offense in Antidiscrimination Law: Muldrow’s Return to Work

 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – California Western School of Law, 350 Cedar Street, San Diego

8:30 - 9:15: BREAKFAST: 1st Floor Lobby

9:15 - 10:45 a.m. GROUP 6

PANEL A: Room LH1

Moderator - Susan Bisom-Rapp

Blair BullockThe State Takeover of Employment Law

Marcy KarinMenstrual Bargaining

Alexi Pfeffer-GillettThe Inconvenience Doctrine

PANEL B: Room LH2

Moderator – Deborah Widiss

Dallan FlakeReligious Sincerity After Groff

Jarod GonzalezPrivate Contractors, Security Clearance Determinations, and Employment Discrimination Law

Madeleine GyoryThe Reasonable Pregnant Worker

Tolu Odunsi-NelsonRedefining the Scope of Anti-Discrimination Law: Illuminating Colorism Claims as a Basis for Race Discrimination Claims by Black Entertainers

PANEL C: Room 2B

Moderator – Orly Lobel

Louis Cholden-BrownLassiter at Work: The Status of Qualified Rights to Counsel

Sofia CornejoFrom Neutral to Integral: A Feminist Analysis of Domestic Violence as a World of Work Issue

Andrea JohnsonAccusations of Racism in the Workplace

Robert MantellTwo Different Strike Zones: Inconsistent Rules Applied in Winning and Losing Discrimination Cases

 

Posted by Orly Lobel on September 9, 2024 at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Saturday, September 07, 2024

Saturday Music Post - Unrelated Cochrans

Eddie Cochran was one of the early rockers, with a rebellious image that was later perfected by Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. Wayne Cochran was called the White Knight of Soul, and was well known for his friendship with fellow Georgians James Brown and Otis Redding (he played bass on Redding's early recordings). Hank Cochran was less famous than the other two, but was extremely influential in country music, writing hits for Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold and others. Anita Cochran recorded "Fight Like a Girl" (at the bottom of the post) following her breast cancer diagnosis.

You can see them all at The Faculty Lounge.

Posted by Steve Lubet on September 7, 2024 at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, September 06, 2024

There Are No Holocaust "Revisionists"

Two recent headlines in the New York Times referred to a "Holocaust Revisionist":

Tucker Carlson Sharply Criticized for Hosting Holocaust Revisionist

Vance Declines to Denounce Carlson After Interview With Holocaust Revisionist

No, no, no, no, no. The so-called "revisionist" in question is Darryl Cooper, who in fact is a flat-out H0locaust denier. As the Times explains several paragraphs into the article:

Mr. Cooper, who has a podcast and newsletter called “Martyr Made,” proceeded to make a variety of false claims about the Holocaust and World War II, including that millions of people in concentration camps “ended up dead” merely because the Nazis did not have enough resources to care for them, rather than as a result of the intentional genocide that it was.

The White House got it right, which wasn't difficult:

“Giving a microphone to a Holocaust denier who spreads Nazi propaganda is a disgusting and sadistic insult to all Americans, to the memory of the over six million Jews who were genocidally murdered by Adolf Hitler, to the service of the millions of Americans who fought to defeat Nazism and to every subsequent victim of antisemitism.”

Holocaust deniers routinely call themselves "revisionists" to give their "moral rot" (as the White House put it) a veneer of respectability. One of their main organizations, for example, is called the Institute for Historical Review.

But the truth is that they are antisemitic deniers with no intellectual legitimacy, as Deborah Lipstadt proved in London almost 30 years ago.

There is no excuse for the Times to use the term "Holocaust revisionist" in 2024. I realize that the reporters don't write the headlines, but the editor who wrote this one should be reassigned.

 

 

Posted by Steve Lubet on September 6, 2024 at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, September 05, 2024

FIU College of Law seeks tenure-track doctrinal faculty

Florida International University College of Law, South Florida’s public law school, invites applicants for multiple tenure-track positions to begin no later than the 2025-26 academic year. We seek candidates in Environmental Law, Intellectual Property/Technology, and Criminal Law and Procedure, as well as coverage in other first-year and core upper-level courses such as Administrative Law.

Continue reading "FIU College of Law seeks tenure-track doctrinal faculty"

Posted by Howard Wasserman on September 5, 2024 at 11:57 AM in Howard Wasserman, Teaching Law | Permalink | Comments (0)

FIU College of Law seeks legal writing faculty

Florida International University College of Law, South Florida’s public law school, invites applicants for a contract position in Legal Skills and Values, to begin no later than the 2025-26 academic year.

Continue reading "FIU College of Law seeks legal writing faculty"

Posted by Howard Wasserman on September 5, 2024 at 11:56 AM in Howard Wasserman, Teaching Law | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blogging Sabbatical

I've been an active blogger for fifteen years. After much reflection, I've decided that it's time for an extended break. Academic sabbaticals give people time to reflect and to work on other projects. The same will be true here.

I'll be back sometime next year. In the meantime, as Edward R. Murrow used to say when signing off, "Good night, and good luck."

Posted by Gerard Magliocca on September 5, 2024 at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AI and oral assessments

Over the years, we have had many posts and conversations about oral assessments. I have written about my oral arguments in Fed Courts and Civil Rights, which now provide the sole end-of-semester assessment (everything else happens in-semester).

A thought this morning: Would oral assessments provide a solution to the Chat GPT/AI problem?

Posted by Howard Wasserman on September 5, 2024 at 06:41 AM in Howard Wasserman, Teaching Law | Permalink | Comments (0)