Section Highlights

Submitted by Barry McDonald The panel moderator, Prof. Tom Metzloff (Duke), introduced the panelists—Professors Chris Lund (Wayne State), Margaret Hu (Penn State), Michael Dimino (Widener), Akram Faizer (Lincoln Memorial) and Barry McDonald (Pepperdine).  He then provided some brief reflections about the October 2020 Term. Prof. Lund kicked off the case presentations by discussing the Court’s decisions in the Fulton and Tandon free exercise cases, and the Court’s shifting notions of what constitutes discrimination against religion warranting strict scrutiny review. Next, Prof. Hu discussed the Court’s decision in Bronovich, and its implications for voting rights going forward. Prof. Dimino then spoke about three cases in which the Supreme Court chose not to decide controversial issues or decided them in narrow ways

Submitted by Colin Marks This discussion group, moderated by Dean Patricia Roberts of St. Mary’s University School of Law, explored many pressing issues that have faced deans and other administrators during the past year and a half. The group consisted of current deans and some associate deans and acted as both a catharsis for the events of the past years as well as an opportunity to learn (and sometimes laugh) from each others’ experiences. Among the topics explored were what elements of the remote environment would persist, what elements should be halted, how to deal with tough social issues and what level of interaction with student leaders is now expected. Overall, there was a sense that some remote meetings were

Submitted by Keith Robinson On the afternoon of July 29, several scholars participated in the Tensions within Law & Technology panel.  The panel was moderated by Professor Tabrez Ebrahim.  The participants discussed issues surrounding privacy law, cyber security, and copyright law as well as technologies such as the Internet of Things (“IoT”) and Artificial Intelligence (“AI”). Artificial Intelligence In the first portion of the panel, Professor Harry Surden argued that we need to pay more attention to values embedded in legal AI.  Legal AI includes using AI in the administration of the law, compliance of the law, and understanding the law.  Values embedded in these legal systems impact how AI produces outcomes that could possibly produce biased results and have

Submitted by Corinna Barrett Lain If you weren’t one of the five or so people who attended our panel on RBG this Thursday afternoon from 1-2:45, you missed out on a wonderful discussion of all things RBG. Professor Mike Dimino (Widener) served as moderator and quickly made the decision to not have panelists provide prepared remarks, but rather to have a series of shorter discussions teed up by questions that he’d pose to the group. It was a brilliant move. The panel was much more conversational, interesting, and interactive as a result. The panelists were Merritt McAlister (University of Florida), Andy Siegel (Seattle), and Corinna Lain (Richmond). Turns out, Mike, Merritt, and Andy were either former Supreme Court clerks or

Submitted by Miriam A. Cherry This discussion group was a part of the SEALs Workshop on Labor and Employment Law. Our discussion group members talked about the various technologies that impact work, including remote work, gig platforms, virtual reality, gamification, algorithmic management, and the ways that the law either has or has not kept up with the pace of different technology. In some instances, our panelists noted that technology enabled people to do their work from home during the pandemic, and that it helped people stay safe and protected during an extremely disruptive time.  One of our speakers noted the possibilities inherent in online worker organizing. However, others noted that on gig platforms and with remote work, technology has rendered