Faculty Spotlight
July - December 2010

Gerald Uelmen was quoted in The New York Times about legal problems that could derail the possibility of Dianne Feinstein’s daughter, a judge, being considered for San Francisco District Attorney. He was also quoted in a widely reprinted Los Angeles Times story about problems with death-row legal representation.

Eric Goldman was quoted in more than a dozen sites such as PC World about Google being found guilty of trespassing on a Pennsylvania family's property for its Google Maps website. He was also quoted in a widely carried Canadian news story about Wikileaks and the Chronicle of Higher Education about new study-aid websites.

Northern California Innocence Project study on prosecutorial misconduct was featured on Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN.

David Friedman co-wrote an oped for the Atlanta Journal Constitution on free-market solutions to the current abysmal system for indigent defense. The oped was related to a research paper he co-wrote for the Cato Institute on the same topic.

Ed Steinman was interviewed by KCBS radio about the U.S. Supreme Court hearing of a challenge to federal courts in California taking over the administration of California state prisons in areas like prisoner health and safety. He also was interviewed by KGO radio about the Ninth Circuit argument on the constitutionality of Prop. 8, the California voter-approved prohibition of gay marriage.

Deep Gulasekaram was interviewed on KCBS radio about Congress's attempts to repeal the federal military Don't Ask, Don't Tell law, and a related Pentagon study.

Brad Joondeph was quoted in the Wall Street Journal and on NPR in Los Angeles about the ruling by a Virginia judge on whether the Obama administration's health law violates the Constitution.

Eric Goldman’s comments on Oracle’s $1.3 million verdict against SAP were quoted in nearly 200 publications across the world, after he spoke to a variety of media outlets including Associated Press, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal. He was also quoted in numerous other publications including the New York Times and NPR’s Marketplace about various tech-law topics including Amazon’s removal of a book for pedophiles.

Beth Van Schaack wrote an article assessing the applicability of International Humanitarian Law to maritime piracy, in the Opino Juris blog.

The Equal Justice Society, a national civil rights non-profit organization based inSan Francisco, will honor Professors Margalynne J. Armstrong, Margaret M. Russell, and Stephanie M. Wildman at their tenth anniversary gala on Tuesday, December 7 atYoshi's in San Francisco.Professors Armstrong, Russell, and Wildman are among thefounders of EJS.Professor Russell served as on the board of directors from 2000-2009,and will also be honored as a founding board member.For information about tickets and the work of the Equal Justice Society, visit www.equaljusticesociety.org.

For the second year in a row, Eric Goldman's Technology and Marketing Law Blog was selected as one of the ABA Journal's Blawg 100. List of blogs is here. Eric Goldman's blog is here.

Beth Van Schaack was invited to join the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Public International Law. Other members are all prior Legal Advisors to the State Department plus some renowned public international law professors, including Michael Reisman (Yale), Steve Ratner (Michigan), Jose Alvarez (NYU), Lori Damrosch (Columbia), Oona Hathaway (Yale), Gerald Neuman (Harvard), Sean Murphy (George Washington), Jenny Martinez (Stanford), Curt Bradley (Duke), & Ed Swaine (George Washington).

Eric Goldman was quoted in stories that ran in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Sacramento Bee, SmartMoney and eWeek. He discussed numerous lawsuits and legal topics including a Google lawsuit against the U.S. government and the Oracle v. SAP case and its implications for Oracle’s relationship with HP.

Deep Gulasekaram was quoted in an ABC7 story about the Supreme Court’s hearing on whether states can limit sales of violent video games to minors. The story was picked up by more than a dozen other stations nationwide including some in Norfolk, Va.; Flint, Mich; Pensacola, Fla.; Reno, and New Orleans.

Tyler Ochoa was quoted in a CNET story about another legal loss for a mother accused of illegally sharing music.

Beth Van Schaackwas quoted in Ethical Corporation Online about a federal appeals court decision that set back the ability of human-rights activists to sue U.S. companies.

David Ball wrote an oped for the Daily Journal about how politicians and others need to recognize that, just as with car safety, there will always be risks to public safety.

Stephen Diamond was quoted in two MarketWatch stories about troubles behind the start of HP’s new CEO Leo Apotheker.

Margaret Russell has has edited an anthology on the constitutional freedoms of assembly and petition. THE FIRST AMENDMENT: FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND PETITION has been published by Prometheus Books. More info...

Patricia Cain is heading an ABA Section of Taxation Teaching Tax Committee group to examine community property issues related to registered domestic partnerships and submit comments to the IRS on the topic. She gave a lecture at Golden Gate University entitled “Taxation of Registered Domestic Partnerships Community Property: The Recent IRS Shift & The Unanswered Questions”. Professor Cain also presented on several panels: at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco in August 2010 and at the annual conference of the National LGBT Bar Association in Miami in August 2010. She also gave presentations on tax and estate law for same sex couples at Sand Hill Advisors in San Francisco and for the California State Bar's Estate and Gift Tax Conference.

LARAW Director Evangeline Abriel presented oral argument in Lopez-Cardona v. Holder before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.In September she was a panelist at the Immigration Reform Forum presented by the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA) in Saratoga, California.In October she presented a nation-wide webinar on Immigration Relief for Victims of Human Trafficking on behalf of the U.S. Catholic Conference's Migration and Refugee Services. In December Abrilpresented a two-day training, along with Lynette Parker of the Katherine and George Alexander Law Center, on removal proceedings and on immigration law and crimes in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Horthern Mariana Islands.

Michael Flynn was recently invited to serve as a justice for the final round of the regional Thomas Tang Moot Court Competition, hosted by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. (www.napaba.org/napaba/) The final round will be held in the en banc courtroom of the Ninth Circuit.

Stephanie Wildman co-edited the anthology WOMEN AND THE LAW STORIES. Wildman also contributed a chapter to the volume and co-authored the introduction. Read more...

Responding to Northern California Innocence Project's recent report on prosecutorial misconduct, the California State Bar Association is reviewing the records of 130 prosecutors named in the report for possible disciplinary action. Link to Mercury News Article. Here is an article from the Cal Bar Journal.

Eric Goldman was quoted in the (UK) Register about Wikileaks’ Pentagon papers and whether Amazon has any legal exposure for hosting a version of the papers. He was also quoted in other publications including the Wall Street Journal, ABA Law Journal, MediaPost, Sacramento Bee and Miami Herald about various tech-law issues including the use of Craigslist for criminal activity and “data scraping” companies.

Gerald Uelmen was quoted in numerous sites and publications, including the Huffington Post and the Media Awareness Project, about Prop. 19, the marijuana-legalization measure.

Gerald Uelmen published an opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee about costs associated with death penalty cases in California. From the article: "...The biggest reason for the delay in California is that the demand for competent, experienced death penalty lawyersvastly exceeds the available supply. The size of the available supplyis directly related to the economics of practicing law in a state like California. More than 40 percent of the 713 inmates on California's death row are still waiting for the appointment of a lawyer to handle the habeascorpus reviews to which they are constitutionally entitled."

Gerald Uelmen spoke to the San Jose Mercury News about concerns for the future of the state’s judiciary should Meg Whitman be elected governor, for a story run in numerous affiliated papers. He also spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle about former California Jerry Brown’s statements about the late, liberal Supreme Court justice Rose Bird and to the Sacramento Bee and Wall Street Journal about the marijuana-legalization measure Prop. 19.

Ed Steinman spoke to the San Jose Mercury News about legal maneuvers in the Los Gatos murder-for-hire trial. The story ran in several local papers.

Ed Steinman was quoted in a widely reprinted Contra Costa Times story about the trial underway for abusers of a teenage boy who escaped prolonged captivity.

Kyle Grahamspoke to ABC about a case in which a man with Egyptian and Muslim heritage was tracked via GPS by the FBI.

The Northern California Innocence Project released a groundbreaking report about hundreds of cases of prosecutorial misconduct in California over the last decade. The report found that punishment was meted out in about 1% of some 600 cases it tracked where prosecutorial misconduct was established. The study was authored by Cookie Ridolfi and Maurice Possley, and made headlines in more than a dozen papers, websites, TV news and blogs including articles in the Wall Street Journal, KGO ABC TV 7, the Los Angeles Times, and the ABA Journal.

Ellen Kreitzberg was quoted on the legal issues behind California’s first lethal injection case in nearly five years. Professor Krietzberg spoke to NBC Bay Area, CBS TV, KCBS radio and KLIV radio as well as the San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press about the ever-changing story. The AP story ran in more than 65 publications.

Deep Gulasekaram discussed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on the CBS 5 morning show.

Ellen Kreitzberg was awarded the “2010 Friend of the Public Defender” award “in recognition of the generous support of the indigent accused and the constitutional right to counsel” at a dinner celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s office.

Eric Goldman spoke to KRON4 about the Rutgers tragedy, and was widely noted forhaving spurred online document sharing company Scribd to improve privacy protections by changing to an opt-in model. He also appeared in numerous Florida papersdiscussing a crime stemming from a Craigslist ad. He was quoted in MediaPost, ZDNet, and elsewhere on a variety of high-tech law cases including the admission into evidence of a defendant’s deleted Facebook postings.

Al Hammond and Michelle Oberman were honored by Santa Clara University at the President’s Faculty Recognition Reception on September 14. Professor Hammond received a President’s Special Recognition Award which goes to someone who has made a significant contribution to advancing student and faculty persity and inclusive excellence. Professor Oberman received the Award for Recent Achievement in Scholarship which recognizes a tenured faculty member or senior lecturer whose scholarly or creative work over the previous five years represents a major contribution to a field of knowledge or to the arts. Read more...

Dean Donald Poldenwas quoted by USA Today about ways in which law schools can improve reporting of their job-placement statistics.

Angelo Ancheta, director of the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, has received a one-year renewal award of $21,334 from the State Bar of California Legal Services Trust Fund Program.The funds will be used to provide legal assistance to immigrant victims of domestic violence.

Eric Goldman was quoted in a widely reprinted L.A. Times story about how bloggers face significant liability for critical posts. That story, and Goldman’s quotes, were picked up by bloggers for the ABA Journal and Wall Street Journal, as well as sites like FoxNews.com. He also spoke to various media, including Chicago Tribune and The New York Times, about other tech-law topics.

Deep Gulasekaram was interviewed on NBC Bay Area news talking about the Prop. 8 ruling.

Al Hammond was quoted in articles in the New York Times and San Jose Mercury News about net neutrality and the recently announced proposal between Google and Verizon toprevent high-speed Internet access providers from prioritizing different kinds of traffic.

Stephen Diamond was quoted in two Associated Press Financial Wire articles about the recent ouster of Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd. The articles ran in the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, and more than 200 other papers and websites across the country.

Margalynne Armstrong was quoted in a San Francisco Chronicle article about the ruling against Proposition 8 inU.S. District Court.

Margaret Russell was quoted extensively in the media about the ruling by U.S. District Court that Proposition 8, California's same sex marriage ban, is unconstitutional. Professor Russell was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, Thomson Financial News (Reuters) the New York Times, did a radio interview with KGO-7, and a t.v. interview with KPIX, which can be watched here.

Deep Gulasekaram was asked by the American Constitutional Society (ACS) to enter a Guest Blogger entry about the Arizona Law and the recent ruling by the federal district court. Read the blog post here.

David Ball’s article “Civil, Criminal, or Mary Jane: Stigma, Legislative Labels, and the Civil Case at the Heart of Criminal Procedure”, was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for Corrections & Sentencing Law & Policy eJournal, Criminology eJournal, and eight other topics.

Tom Klein authored a chapter in the leading securities law treatise entitled Securities Law Techniques, a 7-volume treatise published by LexisNexis. 

The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), Bureau of Education and Cultural Affair of the Department of State (ECA), and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) has approved Dr. Art Gemmell for candidacy on the Fulbright Senior Specialists Roster. Gemmell is a Law Lecturer &International Law Scholar at Santa Clara Law's Center for Global Law and Policy.

Angelo Ancheta has received a one-year renewal award of $31,519 from the County of Santa Clara.The funds will be used to provide legal assistance to immigrant victims of domestic violence.

Gerald Uelmen was quoted in articles in the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle about Governor Schwarzenegger’s nomination of 3rd District Court of Appeal Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye to replace retiring California Chief Justice Ronald George.

Allen Hammond was quoted in an article in the Los Angeles Times about net neutrality rules that are expected to be issued by the FederalCommunications Commission, and which are seen as a boon to Google by limiting theability of high-speed Internet service providers, such as phone andcable companies, to steer users to their own content.

Bradley Joondeph has started the ACA Litigation Blog with Eric Lightman. The blog is “A place to find news updates, legal analysis, and all officialdocuments related to the states' constitutional challenges to thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (as amended by the HealthCare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010)”. Read more.

Gerald Uelmen was quoted in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News discussing the upcoming retirement of California Chief Justice Ronald George.

Stephen Diamond was interviewed by KGO-7 (ABC Bay Area news) regarding the accusation by a Chinese-funded academic group that Facebook and other social networking sites are allowing users to stir up unrest in China. Watch the clip here.

Ed Steinman was interviewedin two segments on KPIX/CBS 5 TV about the verdict of involuntary manslaughter reached in the case of Johannes Mehserle, the BART officer who killed Oscar Grant during a routine arrest.Watch the clip here. Professor Steinman was also quoted in an Associated Press story on the case which ran in nearly four dozen papers or websites across the country, and by theSan Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times.

Patricia Cain was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle and on KGO TV about the tax implications of certain benefits provided to same-sex partners of employees, as part of a story on Google's payment to gay and lesbian employees to offset the tax costs of benefits that are tax-free to heterosexual couples.

Dorothy Glancy was a chair at the Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, a group of privacy advocates, computer scientists, lawyers and others. The conference drew up what they hope will be a milestone for the social Web: a “bill of rights” for social-network users. The 14 principles were ultimately adopted unanimously, and organizers said they hoped the document, by encompassing ideas that have been talked about for years by tech pundits and privacy advocates, would prove to be historic. Professor Glancy was also quoted in a San Jose Mercury News article aobut the conference. The story ran in the Los Angeles Daily News and TMCnet.com as well.

Bradley Joondeph spoke with USA Today about the Elena Kagan Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Professor Joondeph also discussed the nomination hearings with radio station WHYY and Minnesota Public Radio, and talked to KLIV radio about the Supreme Court’s decision in support of the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting and Oversight Board.

Eric Goldman was quoted in an Associated Press story about a judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit against Google by Viacom over copyright infringement on YouTube – a story that was picked up in 129 online or print publications, including the Boston Globe, Forbes, Salon.com, The New York Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and San Diego Tribune. He also was quoted in a San Jose Mercury News story regarding privacy concerns about “smart” gadgets that require extensive personal information. The story ran in well over a dozen other publications. His comments to Reuters about Google’s cumulative legal problems appeared in about 20 sites or publications, including Saudi Gazette, Financial Express Bangladesh, and Reuters India. He also was quoted by MediaPost, ABC radio Australia, CNET, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, WSJ’s Digits and Bits blogs, and IDG publications about assorted cyberlaw issues.