For more information, please contact:
Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
ADVISORY TO PRODUCERS, COLUMNISTS, AND ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL, PLANNING, SPORTS, INTERNATIONAL, HEALTH, BUSINESS, CITY DESK, FEATURES AND DAYBOOK EDITORS
CHICAGO–May 4, 2009–Chicago-Kent College of Law and Stuart School of Business have experts available to discuss current issues. To reach experts on IIT's Downtown Campus, please call Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251. Press releases and earlier advisories are available on our Web site: www.kentlaw.edu/news/advisory.
Speculation has begun on whom President Obama will nominate to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who will leave the bench in June at the end of the current term. Justice Souter, 69, served as attorney general of New Hampshire, a New Hampshire Supreme Court justice and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit before he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. A recent New York Times story quoted some of President Obama's former colleagues and law students, who characterized his legal philosophy as "minimalist (skeptical of court-led efforts at social change) and structuralist (interested in how the law metes out power in society)." The president has only indicated that any potential nominee will be "dedicated to the rule of law" and that he would like to have the new justice seated by the beginning of the 2009-10 term on October 5. Chicago-Kent has experts available for interviews.
- Constitutional scholar and Distinguished Professor Sheldon H. Nahmod can discuss the legacy of Justice Souter, whom he says "in many ways has been the conscience of the court."
- Professor Carolyn Shapiro, whose scholarly interests include the federal courts, has clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
- Dean Harold J. Krent, the author of Presidential Powers (New York University Press 2005), can discuss the appointment process, separation of powers, and constitutional and judicial philosophies.
Vice President Joseph Biden will travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo beginning the week of May 18. The White House has announced the vice president will meet with the political leadership in all three countries, as well as with U.S. officials and military personnel stationed in the region. Professor Henry H. Perritt, Jr., is available for interviews. Throughout his academic career, Professor Perritt has focused his efforts on political, social and economic issues in the Balkans. In 1998, Professor Perritt established Operation Kosovo, an initiative designed to help build a model democracy, rule of law and a market economy in the country. In April of 2004, he convened a symposium of international scholars and policymakers at Chicago-Kent to discuss final status negotiations mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, which authorized U.N. intervention in Kosovo. Last year, Professor Perritt was instrumental in the establishment of a special graduate law study program at Chicago-Kent and American University in Kosovo. He is the author of Kosovo Liberation Army: The Inside Story of an Insurgency (University of Illinois Press 2008) and The Road to Independence for Kosovo: A Chronicle of the Ahtisaari Plan (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Professor Perritt also has written a musical, "You Took Away My Flag: A Musical About Kosovo," scheduled to open June 12 in Chicago.
Quarantines in the U.S.? Although the United States has not imposed a large-scale quarantine since 1917, Chicago-Kent professor Felice Batlan says a few examples of past quarantines show how public health officials--even those with the best of intentions--have misused quarantines. "In 2006, the White House Homeland Security Council released the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan, which endorsed the use of quarantine and--in disturbing language--spoke of how law enforcement personnel and the military might be necessary to maintain quarantines by force," says Professor Batlan. She suggests the Obama administration should clearly state its position regarding quarantine and whether it supports the 2006 White House plan. Professor Batlan, who holds a Harvard law degree and a Ph.D. in history from New York University, is available for interviews about legal and historical issues related to quarantine.
Downtown Campus Events
May 8: "Governing Baseball: A History of the Relationship between Government and Major League Baseball." Christopher W. Schmidt, Chicago-Kent visiting professor and American Bar Foundation visiting scholar, will discuss what he calls "the simultaneously antagonistic and symbiotic" relationship between the U.S. government and professional baseball. Professor Schmidt will examine two recurring dynamics within that relationship, which he says reflect the ways in which Major League Baseball has depended on and benefitted from government oversight. The program, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Chicago Seminar on Sport and Culture at the Newberry Library. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. at the Newberry Library, 60 West Walton, in Chicago. For more information about the program, contact Steve Riess at (773) 442-5631.
May 17: Chicago-Kent Commencement. William E. Kovacic, immediate past-chairman and a current commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, will deliver the commencement address at Chicago-Kent College of Law's 2009 ceremonies. Commencement will begin at 3 p.m. in the Arie Crown Theater, McCormick Place's Lakeside Center, 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, in Chicago. More than 300 students are expected to receive Juris Doctor degrees, and approximately 100 Master of Laws degrees will be conferred. (A complete bio of William E. Kovacic is available at http://www.kentlaw.edu/news/releases/commencement_2009.html.)
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