In the News

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks Discusses the Los Angeles National Guard Deployment Ruling with NPR

Professor of Law Emeritus William C. Banks offers insights to NPR on the court ruling that found the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act.

“The administration crossed various lines as Judge Breyer said in his decision to engage in direct law enforcement affecting civilians in the city of Los Angeles, as forbidden by the law known as Posse Comitatus. The law’s been around since the 1870s and establishes a bright line that we don’t want soldiers on our streets enforcing domestic laws,” said Banks.

Professor Nina Kohn Discusses Nursing Home Oversight

Board of Advisors Professor of Law Nina Kohn recently spoke with the Garden City Telegram on the lack of nursing home oversight throughout the country.

High death rates among nursing home residents and poor infection control during the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the deadly ramifications of a chronically understaffed industry. But Nina Kohn, a law professor at Syracuse University, said that in the years since, most states have failed to enforce regulations that would prevent similar crises from happening in the future.

“The fact that we’re continuing to see inadequate oversight even after we learned, amid the pandemic, how dangerous that could be suggests that nursing home residents really aren’t a priority for our public officials,” she said.

And because around three-fourths of nursing home residents pay for their care primarily through Medicaid and Medicare, a lax regulatory environment can also enable fraud and misuse of tax dollars.

“The state is paying for incredibly vulnerable people to be in institutions, and we don’t have the most basic oversight of whether those institutions are caring for people in a way that is safe,” Kohn said. “We also don’t have the oversight needed to ensure that taxpayer money is being used to provide the care the taxpayers are paying for.”

The article may be behind a paywall.

Professor of Law Emeritus William C. Banks Discusses the Posse Comitatus Act with the Associated Press

Professor of Law Emeritus William C. Banks recently provided historical context of the Posse Comitatus Act, the law that regulates when federal troops can intervene in state issues, in the wake of National Guard troops being deployed to Washington, D.C., to the AP.

The law was enacted in 1878 following the post-Civil War era known as Reconstruction. Pro-segregationist representatives in Congress wanted to keep the military from blocking the enforcement of Jim Crow laws that allowed racial segregation.

Banks notes that, “the spirit of the law also has roots going all the way back to the Revolutionary War, when the founders of the United States were scarred by the British monarchy’s absolute military control.”

“We have a tradition in the United States, which is more a norm than a law, that we want law enforcement to be conducted by civilians, not the military,” Banks said.

Banks is the co-author, along with Stephen Dycus, of Soldiers on the Home Front: The Domestic Role of the American Military, which examines the Posse Comitatus Act.

Dean Terence Lau Discusses the Effects of Tariffs on the Auto Industry

Dean Terence Lau L’98, a former general counsel for Ford Motor Co.’s International Trade and Transactions practice group, recently spoke with CBS News Money Watch and the Detroit Free Press about the effects of tariffs on the auto industry.

U.S. automakers including Ford, GM and Stellantis have recently warned that higher U.S. tariffs will reduce their profits by billions of dollars. That is likely to increase new car prices, Lau said to CBS News Money Watch.

“My advice to consumers back in April was that they should wait to buy cars,” said Lau, who expects dealer prices for 2026 models to rise between 4% and 6%. “In August, my advice is to buy now.”

Lau said to the Detroit Free Press, “The Detroit 3 are being squeezed. The tariff on steel and aluminum, as well as on imported vehicles from their foreign subsidiaries, is hurting them deeply.”

Professor Gregory Germain Discusses Birthright Citizenship Case

Professor Gregory Germain provided insight into the Blaze article on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Trump’s birthright citizenship case.

“I disagree with the 9th Circuit that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause is clear on its face,” said Germain. “The clause on its face contains a limitation on birthright citizenship, requiring that the child be ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the U.S. Why was that language put in the Constitution if it was intended to be meaningless? So that language means something — the issue is what it means.”

Germain noted that the Supreme Court held in the case U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark that:

“Children born to permanent residents were subject to the jurisdiction of the United States even though the parents were citizens of China. But the Court also held that children of foreign soldiers occupying U.S. land or diplomats (or Indians) were not “subject to the jurisdiction” and not citizens. So the Court recognized that there were some exceptions to birthright citizenship, but did not clearly define them.”

Professor Nina Kohn Discusses Oregon’s Proposed Long-Term Care Facility Law

Distinguished Professor Nina Kohn recently spoke with Law360 about a proposed law in Oregon to tighten the oversight of long-term care facilities. The proposal covers how residential care facilities, such as assisted living facilities and memory care units, are licensed and regulated.

Kohn said, “It’s refreshing to see a state like Oregon taking a hard look at what it can do to better protect residents of long-term care facilities that are not nursing homes.” The legislation “is a good example of how a state can try to leverage its licensure scheme to encourage safer, better care.”

Kohn noted that there’s “virtually no federal oversight” of assisted living facilities, and state regulations vary widely.

The gaps can leave older adults vulnerable. As many as 70% of assisted living residents have cognitive impairment, Kohn said.

“As a general matter, state oversight of what are typically termed ‘assisted living’ facilities is far more limited than that over ‘nursing homes,”‘ she told Law360. “And that means there is a lot less protection for residents of these facilities, even though they often have needs much like those of nursing home residents.”

The full article may be behind a paywall.

Professor Gregory Germain Provides Insights into President Trump’s Attempt to Dismiss the New York Jury Verdict

Professor Gregory Germain spoke with Bloomberg on the president’s recent court hearing to have the New York jury verdict in the hush money case dismissed. Trump’s goal has been to get the case out of state court and into federal court.

“That’s clearly what he’s trying to do, but the question is whether they’re going to let him do it,” said Germain. “He wants to get it out of the state system, that’s his goal.”

Professor Shubha Ghosh Discusses the Disney and Universal Suit Against Midjourney with the BBC

Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh spoke with the BBC about the lawsuit brought by Disney and Universal against artificial intelligence (AI) company Midjourney.

“A lot of the images that Midjourney produces just seem to be copies of copyrighted characters that might be in new locations or with a new background,” says Ghosh, director of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute.

“It doesn’t seem like they’re being transformed in a creative or imaginative way.”

He added that there is a recognition in copyright law that creativity can build on other works as long as it adds something new.

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks Discusses the Historical and Legal Perspectives of the Deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles

Professor of Law Emeritus William C. Banks has discussed the deployment of the National Guard and Marines with several media outlets. Banks is an expert in civil-military relations who wrote the book “Soldiers on the Homefront.”

Banks responded to questions from The Conversation about the historical and legal nature of President Trump deploying the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles.

In response to a question about American military troops being used in the U.S., Banks says, “They can, but it is an extraordinary exercise of authority to use troops domestically. It has rarely been done in the U.S. as a way of responding to a civil disturbance. Congress has delegated that authority of deploying American troops domestically to the president in limited circumstances. Otherwise, the only authority is exercised by governors, who have control of the National Guard.”

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks Discusses the Posse Comitatus Act with NPR

Professor of Law Emeritus William C. Banks spoke with Up First From NPR on the deployment of the military to Los Angeles. Banks discussed what the military can do as outlined in the Posse Comitatus Act.

“For sure, they can’t arrest. If the crowds are trying to push through them or throwing rocks at their face, they can protect themselves, but they can’t enforce the law,” says Banks.

He speaks at 3:25 of the audio clip.

Professor Banks spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle for the story, “DHS secretary seeks military arrests in Los Angeles in leaked letter.” “This is a grave escalation,” said Banks. “It may presage the invocation of the Insurrection Act.”

At KJZZ (Phoenix, AZ) Banks said, “The last time a president did something like this — that is to federalize the National Guard without the participation of a state governor — was in 1965,” when then-President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect Black civil rights activists from local authorities ahead of a voting rights march in Selma, Alabama.

The Latin Times “Kristi Noem Reportedly Requested Hegseth Direct Military To Make Arrests In Los Angeles: ‘A Grave Escalation'”.

The Straits Times “Trump flexes strongman instincts over Los Angeles protests”.

Professor Jenny Breen Discusses Judicial Provision in Trump Budget Bill

Professor Jenny Breen spoke with the Christian Science Monitor about a provision in the Trump budget bill that no federal court “may use appropriated funds” to enforce a contempt-of-court citation for failing to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order “if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued.”

“What Congress is trying to do here is ease the way for the administration to ignore court orders,” says Breen. “Our system requires each branch to step up and check the other branch, and this bill just broadcasts that Congress is not interested in doing that for this president.”