Driesen writes: The Supreme Court’s opinion contradicts the 14th Amendment and the clear intent of its drafters. The court expressed concern that allowing states to enforce Section 3 could result in differing views on whether a particular person engaged in insurrection. But that is a less serious constitutional concern than subjecting the Constitution to the dangers that come with the court’s amnesty. The court could have solved that issue by simply ordering Trump off the ballot in all 50 states.
Professor Gregory Germain recently spoke with Salon on Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial.
In the article, Germain says it is “quite strange” that Trump is being charged with a cover-up but not the crime itself.
“The D.A. has very strong evidence that Trump was trying to cover up the payment,” he said. “Whether his reason for the cover up was to hide a campaign finance crime, or to avoid personal or political embarrassment rather than to cover up a crime, is the main weakness in the case” that prosecutors will have to address at trial.
As to Trump employing the advice-of-counsel defense, “whether lawyer advice is an excuse depends on what the defendant knew and intended,” says Germain.
The Princeton Review (TPR) has recognized Syracuse University College of Law’s JDinteractive (JDi) hybrid online J.D. program as one of the seven best Online J.D. programs in their 2024 rankings. Of the seven schools ranked, five are ABA-approved (including Syracuse University College of Law) meaning graduates are eligible for the bar exam in most jurisdictions.
The JDi program is celebrating its fifth anniversary this spring. With 110 graduates and approximately 250 current students in the program, it is one of the original and most well-established online programs in the country.
“We are seeing our JDi graduates take on new challenges, change career paths, and contribute to their communities,” says Dean Craig M. Boise. “Our innovative hybrid program has provided them with the knowledge, tools, and experiences to succeed, however they use their law degree.”
JDinteractive students went to JetBlue headquarters in New York City during a Residency in August 2023 to discuss asset finance.
JDi is an adaptable, year-round program that is ideal for students who are employed full-time, have parental commitments, are involved in their community, need to travel often or have other time obligations or geographic constraints.
Classes are taught by the same faculty as the on-campus J.D. program with equally rigorous academic standards through a combination of live and self-paced online class sessions. Six residencies held on the Syracuse University campus or sites worldwide provide an opportunity to connect with classmates, faculty, and alumni, and all students complete an externship in their local community. Students can also participate in law clinics, journals, advocacy competitions, and other activities.
“The JDinteractive program is breaking barriers by making a high-quality legal education more accessible,” says Professor Shannon Gardner, Associate Dean for Online Education. “Students who otherwise would not be able to pursue a legal education due to work, family, or other commitments can fulfill their goal of becoming a lawyer through this transformative program.”
JDinteractive students take a selfie together at JetBlue headquarters during a residency.
According to TPR, the ranking is “based on feedback from real students, our lists and rankings help applicants find schools where they will be a fit academically, socially, and financially.”
Professor Nina Kohn provided perspective to MarketWatch on the public guardianship system covered in the recent ProPublica news story “Bedbugs, Rats and No Heat: How One Woman Endured a Decade of Neglect in New York’s Guardianship System”.
Speaking to MarketWatch about the story, Kohn said “We really have no idea how common [cases of abuse] are, because there is a woeful lack of data about what is going on. We have known for decades that vulnerable people are placed in guardianships and then courts fail to engage in any meaningful monitoring of those arrangements to make sure that they are actually protected.”
Kohn continues that the blame is “a profound lack of monitoring for much of the problem. And that’s on the courts.”
Kohn served as the Uniform Law Commission Reporter for the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Other Protective Arrangements Act.
The College of Law’s annual Youth Law Day event recently brought more than 100 high school students from five regional schools to Dineen Hall for an introduction to the legal profession, hearing about the role of attorneys in society, and how to chart a path to law school.
Participating schools were Binghamton High School, Geneva High School, Fowler High School, Jamesville-DeWitt High School, and the Syracuse Central Institute of Technology. This year’s program was coordinated by Professor Lauryn Gouldin, co-founder of the Syracuse Civics Initiative.
Students heard from a panel of College of Law alumni on strategies for effective advocacy that featured the Hon. Thérèse W. Dancks L’91, Hon. Ramón E. Rivera L’94, Marisol Estrada Cruz L’23, and Mazaher E.G.E. Kaila L’22. Kimberly Wolf Price L’03, Chief Strategy & Diversity Officer at Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC and Member, NYSBA Committee on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, discussed how voting is a form of advocacy while Professor Katherine Macfarlane led the students through a mock law class.
The Keynote lecture was delivered by the Hon. Brenda K. Sannes, Chief United States District Judge for the Northern District of New York. Afterwards, the students broke into groups to tackle a mock argument activity led by 2L Noah Centore, 3L Evan Groder, 3L Omnia Shedid, 3L Mahogani Counts, 3L Zach Mazuzan, 3L Danny Peraza, 2L Sarah Simon-Patches, and 2L Suzan Elzawahry.
The visiting students were then able to ask a panel of current Syracuse Law students about their path to law school, how to prepare for the LSAT, good study and test-taking habits, and more. The panel was moderated by 3L Evan Groder and featured 3L Jennifer Arinze, 2L Jesse Elmer, 1L Jayda Howard, and 3L Nathanael Linton.
Suzette Meléndez, Faculty Fellow for the Office of Strategic Initiatives in Academic Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Teaching Professor at the College of Law, provided closing remarks.
Professor Nina Kohn spoke with Marketplace at length on the news of talk show host Wendy Williams being placed in guardianship. In the article “Wendy Williams’ guardianship case highlights the Need for Reforms”, Kohn speaks about:
the guardianship petition process
who can be appointed guardians (including professional guardians)
guardianship abuses (such as the Michael Oher case), and
“This isn’t just a story about bad apples doing bad things when they’re appointed guardians. This is really a story about courts removing people’s rights without adequate justification, and then not monitoring the relationship to make sure that it’s actually protected for people,” she said. It’s difficult if not impossible to quantify how often this happens, because Kohn said “there is a profound lack of data on the guardianship.”
John Dougall L’26 is sometimes referred to as “Law School Dad” by others in his cohort, not only because he is one of the older students in the JDinteractive (JDi) program at the Syracuse University College of Law but also because he is so encouraging when others are struggling, congratulates them when they succeed and texts them on holidays. “While law school can be stressful, I recognize that the better my classmates do, the better educational experience I will have,” said Dougall.
It’s a nickname he doesn’t mind, but next year people might call him “Congressman.” He’s currently running for a seat in the U.S. Congress representing Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. Dougall is not new to politics. He served in the Utah House of Representatives for a decade, earning a reputation as a watchdog . He has been the Utah State auditor since 2013, establishing performance audits that drive greater accountability beyond just financial reporting. In 2020, he became the only statewide executive branch official to win an election by more than one million votes. He’s known statewide by his nickname—‘Frugal’ Dougall— a moniker that appears on the ballot and has been in his family his whole life.
John presenting in a class during the January residency in Syracuse.
Despite his current responsibilities, law school had been on Dougall’s bucket list for about 40 years, inspired by his grandfather who was a practicing attorney well into his 90s.
“My grandfather was the last cohort to pass the Utah State bar exam before the state required you to have a bachelor’s degree,” Dougall explains. “He always shared his ‘war stories’ about studying non-stop for the bar before the requirements changed because he couldn’t afford to go to college—but he also wasn’t about to delay his dream of being an attorney.” (His grandfather later earned that bachelor’s degree at age 81.)
John chats with fellow students and faculty during the Online MBA and JDinteractive mixer.
Dougall decided not to delay his own dream any longer either and found the JDi program at Syracuse Law. A recommendation from a friend attending the JDi program only reinforced his decision.
“I needed a rigorous program that fit my schedule because I don’t have the opportunity to take three years off to go back to school full-time,” says Dougall, who also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, as well as an MBA from Brigham Young University. “I’m a champion of educational innovation, so I love to support this hybrid option that is part asynchronous, part live and part self-study. I’d like to see greater diversity in law school offerings.”
It was actually Distinguished Lecturer and former Dean of Syracuse Law Daan Braveman who caused Dougall to consider running for Congress while he was taking his Constitutional Law class. For years, Dougall stood firm that he didn’t want to “waste his time” in Washington, DC. But, despite their different political leanings, Braveman told him that there were certain problems that could only be solved in Congress and “if you want to try to fix them, you have to be willing to go there.”
“It caused me to start thinking about my unique background in fiscal accountability and the concern I have about this country’s debt and reckless spending, as well as the future of our country,” Dougall explains. “I look at my 2-year-old grandson and wonder what kind of future he’s going to have. So, I jumped into the race to try to bring some fiscal sanity to D.C.”
“For me, law school is more for the educational opportunity and the challenge than plans to be a practicing attorney. My engineering background gave me one way to look at problems, my experience in business and state government gave me other perspectives, and now law school is giving me yet another approach,” Dougall explains. “Syracuse’s JDi program is a good fit for me. I like having classmates with a diversity of work experiences who are scattered across the nation and the world. I’m focused on learning. I never look at my grades. My classmates, and even some of my professors, can’t imagine that—but that’s not what I’m here for.”
Professor Roy Gutterman L’00, Director of the Tully Center for Free Speech, discussed aspects of the U.S. government’s case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange with the Voice of America (VOA.)
In the video clip, Gutterman notes that “Certain elements of what Wikileaks and Julian Assange have done really do fit the mold of journalistic function but just dumping material out there without any context, analysis or any real vetting might not rise to the level we’d expect from someone we’d call a journalist.”
Gutterman’s comments are at :23 and 2:39 of the video.
Nassau noted that when faced with filing a paper return versus filing online, “Filing electronically is much more secure and accurate, and it’s pretty easy to do using tax software.”
Emily Pascale L’23 was named a “2024 Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award” winner by the Burton Awards. Her article “Deeply Dehumanizing, Degrading and Violating: Deepfake Pornography and the Path to Legal Recourse” was published in the Syracuse Law Review – Volume 73, Book 1. Professor Aliza Milner, Director of Legal Communication and Research, reviewed notes from the College’s academic journals to select one paper for submission.
Pascale is currently a Judicial Clerk for the Honorable Judge William Q. Hayes L’83 of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
Christopher (Martz) Arima L’22 received a “2023 Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award” winner, marking Pascale’s honor the second consecutive year a College of Law student has been named a recipient.
The Burton Awards, established in 1999, is funded by the Burton Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and academic effort devoted to recognizing and rewarding excellence in the legal profession. The Burton Awards were established to honor the finest accomplishments in law, including writing, reform, public service and interest, regulatory innovation, and lifetime achievements in the profession.
Law360 is the lead sponsor of the awards and the American Bar Association is the co-sponsor.
