Faculty & Scholarship

On Wednesday, June 26, Justice Gorsuch cited an article by Professor Jonathan Siegel in his concurring opinion in Kisor v. Wilkie. The case concerned whether courts should overturn the doctrine of "Auer defererence," which calls upon courts to defer to administrative agencies' reasonable interpretations of ambiguous agency regulations. Justice Gorsuch argued that since Auer deference was created, judicial interpretation has come to focus more on simply reading and understanding statutory and regulatory text. He cited a 1998 article by Professor Siegel for the proposition that "we are all textualists now." A search on WESTLAW shows that Professer Siegel was the first to publish this now-commonplace observation.

June 26, 2019

Professor Robert Brauneis is cited three times by Chief Justice John Roberts in his opinion for the Supreme Court in Knick v. Township of Scott, a case concerning the application of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The Court ruled that plaintiffs who allege that state or local governments have taken their private property with no compensation may proceed directly to federal court with their grievances. Professor Brauneis’s article, The First Constitutional Tort: The Remedial Revolution in Nineteenth-Century State Just Compensation Law, 52 Vand. L. Rev. 57 (1999), provided important historical background from which the Court drew in deciding the case. The article has been cited in opinions in two other Supreme Court cases, as well as in a number of state court cases.

June 21, 2019

Lawrence A. Cunningham, Founding Faculty Director of GWNY, is cited extensively in a major contracts law opinion by the Tennessee Supreme Court. The case examines contract interpretation law, which Cunningham has portrayed as "untidy but pragmatic."  The court seemed to agree, in a case that’s been widely followed throughout the national business community. "This kind of dispute arises between businesses every day, and getting clarity around how to resolve it will add enormous value."

January 18, 2019

Susan R. Jones, Professor of Clinical Law, has been elected to the American Law Institute, the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law.

October 24, 2018