Year: 2014

• New Gun Rights Amendment Doesn’t Trump Federal Law, Professor Vars Says

  In an essay for Jurist magazine, Professor Fredrick Vars says Alabama’s gun regulations will be mostly unchanged by the state’s new constitutional amendment. “Most of the important gun laws in Alabama are federal. The state constitution has no effect on federal Law,” he wrote. “The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution dictates that result. For…

• Women In Greek Communities Less Likely To Report Domestic Violence, Professor Cooper Says

  Women who are members of campus Greek communities are less likely to report domestic violence, Professor Tanya Asim Cooper said recently during a panel discussion. “These women, for a lot of reasons, are often reluctant to come forward,” Cooper said at Shatter the Silence, a domestic violence event hosted by Miss University of Alabama Danielle…

• Attempts To Use Civil Rights Law To Challenge Discrimination Against Gay Employees Have Been Mixed, Vice Dean Leonard Says

  State Rep. Patricia Todd, Alabama’s only openly gay legislator, is preparing a bill to ban workplace discrimination against gay and lesbian state employees, but Vice Dean James Leonard recently told the Anniston Star that attempts to use Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to challenge such discrimination in federal courts has been “hit or…

• Hubbard May Have A Successful Defense For Ethics Violations, Professor Carroll Says

  Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard recently won re-election, but he still faces felony ethics charges. Hubbard was indicted in October on 23 charges accusing him of using his offices for financial gain. Professor Jenny Carroll says Hubbard may have a successful defense because he has insisted that he acted for the good of the people….

• Professor Carodine Discusses George Zimmerman Case with Mark O’Mara

  Professor Montre D. Carodine and Defense Attorney Mark O’Mara recently discussed race and what role it played in the George Zimmerman trial at a program sponsored by the Duquesne University School of Law. Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin in 2012, and his acquittal of second-degree murder and manslaughter sparked a national conversation on racial profiling…

• Obama Nominates Alumna Leigh Bradley As General Counsel for Veterans Affairs

  President Barack Obama has nominated Leigh A. Bradley, director of the Standards of Conduct Office within the Office of General Counsel at the Department of Defense, as general counsel for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Since July, Bradley, ’81, has served as Special Counsel to the Secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to…

• November 2014

  News BBL Invites Alumni, Law Students To Take Stress TestAs part of the program, “The Business of Being a Lawyer,” Professor Pam Pierson and Jacklyn Nagle, a UA psychology doctoral candidate (2015), are conducting a study on how lawyers manage stress and helpful strategies for doing so.Members of the Alabama State Bar are invited to…

• Professor Krotoszynski Says Alabama I.D. Law May Be Difficult To Challenge

  Professor Ronald Krotoszynski says recent Voting Rights Act decisions may make it more difficult to prove that Alabama’s Voter I.D. Law harkens back to Jim Crow. In Shelby vs. Holder, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it more difficult to prove intent. “The problem that…

• Professor Horwitz Urges Alabama Voters To Vote ‘No’ On Amendment One

  Professor Paul Horwitz recently wrote in The Tuscaloosa News that Alabama voters should vote “No” on Amendment One on Nov. 4. The amendment is redundant, comes with a set of costs, and is based on religious hostility, he said. “Earlier versions of this legislation were clearly targeted specifically at Islamic law, although their proponents had no examples…

• Marsh: Athletes Have Right To Fair Process

  As more college football programs become mired in player controversies, some schools are moving quickly to resolve the matters, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The University of Florida suspended quarterback Treon Harris from the team, after he was accused of sexually assaulting a female student in a residence hall, while the University of…