In a guest column for The Tuscaloosa News, Vice Dean James Leonard argues the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Abercrombie & Fitch decision provides no clear guidance for employers about their obligations. “To avoid liability, employers must now initiate a dialogue with job applicants whenever there is a mere suggestion that a religiously mandated accommodation is…
University of Texas President Gregory L. Fenves has ordered an independent review of the university’s academic support system for athletics after several accusations of academic misconduct were made in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education story. Fenves said the review will be conducted by Gene A. Marsh, a retired UA law professor and former chair…
Gaines Brake, interim director of the Elder Law Clinic, recently explained how a power of attorney works to ABC 33/40 viewers. “It is a very powerful designation of authority,” Brake said. “A good estate plan probably should include a durable power of attorney and a healthcare power of attorney so that someone who perhaps…
Professor Susan Pace Hamill recently told AL.com she sees a parallel between former Alabama Gov. Benjamin Meek Miller and Gov. Robert Bentley. Both were conservatives who promised no new taxes, and both presided over fiscal crises. “He (Miller) was not a progressive governor at all. He was kind of like what Gov. Bentley’s going through,”…
The Law School welcomes Stephen Rushin, assistant professor of law. Professor Rushin will teach Select Problems in Criminal Law: Policing in the fall. His research focuses on issues in criminal law, criminal procedure, information privacy law, and policing. He is currently working on a book entitled The Answer to Police Misconduct (in contract with the Cambridge…
A consent degree similar to the one between the Cleveland Police Department and the U.S. Department of Justice was successful in Los Angeles, said Professor Stephen Rushin, who has studied DOJ settlements with police departments. Los Angeles was supposed to be under consent decree for five years, but the process ultimately took 12 years before the…
Footage gathered by police body cameras create a “novel issue” in jury trials, Professor John Gross recently told AL.com. “Now that the Obama Administration is pushing for national guidelines to encourage police departments to use body cameras, the courts haven’t had a chance to weigh on this because it’s a new issue,” he said. “I…
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a defendant’s offer to pay a plaintiff’s complete claim moots the plaintiff’s individual claim and class action claims when it reviews a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case, according to Bloomberg BNA. In a 2013 case, Genesis Healthcare Corp v. Symczyk, a majority of the court assumed, without deciding,…
The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal have named the finalists for the 2015 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The three books chosen to compete for the prize are: “Terminal City” by Linda Fairstein, “My Sister’s Grave” by Robert Dugoni, and “The Secret of Magic” by Deborah Johnson. The prize,…
Prof. Susan Pace Hamill said Alabama’s regressive tax structure helps explain why some of Alabama’s wealthier ZIP codes have lower rates of Alternative Minimum Tax filers and why Alabama has one of the lowest AMT filer rates in the country. High-tax states with graduated income taxes, like New York, result in a larger federal tax…