The article comments on the move of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reopen past problems in Asia with his defense of Japan’s participation in sex slavery during World War II.
Journalism and Blog Posts
Publication Types:
Could the Supreme Court’s Landmark L.G.B.T.-Rights Decision Help Lead to the Dismantling of Affirmative Action?
Justice Neil Gorsuch’s textualist decision protecting gay and transgender individuals from discrimination may have laid the groundwork for a conservative case against race-conscious school-admissions policies
How the Charges Against Derek Chauvin Fit Into a Vision of Criminal-Justice Reform
Amid protests demanding “justice for George,” calls to turn the law-enforcement apparatus on itself are complicated, at a moment when activists are insistently pushing to abolish or defund the police and the prison system
Can the Constitution Reach Trump’s Corruption?
Previous Presidents did not present the need for courts to interpret the meaning of two obscure clauses
How Concerning Are the Trump Administration’s New Title IX Regulations?
The regulations, issued by the Department of Education earlier this month, free schools to do some things that previously were prohibited or understood to be disfavored
A Fair Examination of the Allegations Against Joe Biden Can Strengthen the #MeToo Movement
What is emerging from this episode is a later-draft, more refined #MeToo, in which “Believe women” stands for the imperative to listen respectfully and investigate thoughtfully
The Supreme Court Confronts Trump's Challenge to the Separation of Powers
The separation of powers is in danger of being reduced to a nauseating merry-go-round, in which neither Congress nor the Supreme Court can check the President, because each says the other should do it
The unfamiliar intimacy of online classes makes the attention to each student feel more live and personalized, not less
Who's in Charge of the Response to the Coronavirus?
Even with the risks of growing executive power, it’s worth considering federal orders to guard against the spread of COVID-19
What Would A Fair Impeachment Trial Look Like?
The public’s basic notions of procedural fairness, truth-seeking, and legitimacy are still stickily based on our expectations of trials in court — such as that witnesses will testify about the facts.
The clearest message to emerge from the court case on Harvard’s consideration of race in admissions is that elite schools are very far from being able to achieve diverse student bodies using only race-neutral methods
The End of the Gay-Panic Legal Defense
Seven state legislatures have passed bills banning defendants from blaming their actions on a sudden emotional response to an unwanted advance.
The Supreme Court Is One Vote Away from Changing How the U.S. Is Governed
With the decision in Gundy v. United States, we are now explicitly on notice that the Court will likely abandon its longstanding tolerance of Congress delegating broadly to federal agencies.
How Fetal Personhood Emerged as the Next Stage of the Abortion Wars
The abortion fight we are gearing up for departs from the realm of uneasy compromise and reengages the clash of absolutes.
Robert Mueller’s and William Barr’s “Baby” and the History of Presidential Obstruction
Obstruction of justice has been a basis for articles of impeachment against two Presidents in the past fifty years. Could Donald Trump become the third?
Donald Trump, the A.C.L.U., and the Ongoing Battle Over the Legitimacy of Free Speech
With liberal and left politics dominant on most campuses, the President can feel confident that his recent executive order serves as a partisan attack.
What happens today if one agrees to represent an accused #MeToo villain or speaks out in defense of his due-process rights?
Assessing Betsy DeVos’s Proposed Rules on Title IX and Sexual Assault
There is much to criticize in the Secretary of Education’s suggested regulations, but also much that would help make school’s handling of misconduct fairer to all parties.
At Trial, Harvard’s Asian Problem and a Preference for White Students from “Sparse Country”
It was revealed in court that Asian students in underrepresented parts of the country have to score higher on standardized tests than their white counterparts do in order to receive a recruitment letter from Harvard.
Anti-Asian Bias, Not Affirmative Action, Is on Trial in the Harvard Case
It is important not to conflate two separate concepts: the legal issue of affirmative action and the factual issue of whether Harvard discriminated against one particular racial group.
Brett Kavanaugh’s Damaging, Revealing Partisan Bitterness
The damage to the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and the Senate confirmation process is incalculable, whether he is confirmed or not.
Does Christine Blasey Ford’s Testimony Require Corroboration?
In a court of law, a judge or jury who believes that a witness is telling the truth can convict someone of a crime even without corroborating evidence. This happens all the time.
Deborah Ramirez’s Allegation Against Brett Kavanaugh Raises Classic Questions of Campus Assault Cases
The public is getting a crash course in what universities face when deciding how to evaluate accusations among students, with administrators having to know far more details than they might want to.
What Would a Serious Investigation of Brett Kavanaugh Look Like?
With the spectre of the Clarence Thomas hearings looming, Democrats and Republicans are arguing over how to handle proceedings that would consider Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual-assault allegation.
Understanding the Partisanship of Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearings
The nomination, Kavanguh’s opponents recognize, presents the Senate with a political and moral choice that will directly affect the lives of the most vulnerable.
What Michael Cohen’s Guilty Plea Doesn’t Tell Us About Trump
The truth is that Cohen’s confession of a criminal motive does not necessarily establish Trump’s. In fact, a lifetime habit of behaving sleazily may very well help the President.
Bill Cosby’s Crimes and the Impact of #MeToo on the American Legal System
Anticipating the decision in Cosby’s retrial for sexual-assault charges was like girding for a verdict on the #MeToo movement itself.
Trump’s Affairs and the Future of the Nondisclosure Agreement
A cottage industry of “Fire and Fury”-style tell-alls hangs in the balance.
If he mentally unfit to hold the office of President, then he may be incapable of criminal intent.
The Transformation of Sexual-Harassment Law Will Be Double-Faced
To glimpse the future of Title VII enforcement, we should take a look at the recent history of Title IX.
How Anti-Trump Psychiatrists Are Mobilizing Behind The Twenty-Fifth Amendment
The Duty to Warn movement breaks with long-standing protocol to sound the alarm on an unstable President.
Why Didn't The Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance Prosecute The Trumps Or Harvey Weinstein?
Part of the answer might be found in the spectacular failure of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual-assault case, in 2011.
Laura Kipnis's Endless Trial By Title IX
Students and educators now live in a world where expressing an opinion about sexual harassment can be sincerely perceived as sexual harassment.
Betsy Devos, Title IX, And The "Both Sides" Approach To Sexual Assault
If another official in another Administration had made the same statements, they would be seen as reasonable, even banal.
Will Trump Be The Death Of The Goldwater Rule?
It was meant to prevent psychiatrists from politicizing their authority. But now it’s muzzling them in the midst of a vital public debate.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Affirmative Action And Asian-Americans
Since the nineties, the share of Asians in Harvard’s freshman class has remained stable, while the percentage of Asians in the U.S. population has more than doubled.
Trump's Tweeted Transgender Ban Is Not A Law
Trump seems to have taken military leaders by surprise on Wednesday by suddenly announcing a full transgender military ban.
The Trump Administration's Fraught Attempt To Address Campus Sexual Assault
Many people are skeptical of policy changes from a President who himself has been accused of sexual assault.
Doing Hard Time
Journalism and Blog Posts
N.Y. Times, Feb. 21, 2016, at BR23 (reviewing Baz Dreisinger, Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World (2016)).
Publication year: 2014
Wall Street Journal Commentary Piece
Self Defense Is Part of Our Heritage
Professor Jeannie Suk Gersen writes an opinion piece for The New York Times, Room for Debate.
Jeannie Suk Gersen, Jeannie Suk, a professor of law at Harvard who testified last summer at a Congressional hearing on the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act, addresses the question: Can you trademark the color red?
Schumer's Project Runway
Journalism and Blog Posts
The Wall Street Journal © 2010 Dow Jones & Company. All rights reserved.
Publication year: 2010
It’s illegal to copy books and paintings. Why should fashion designs be any different?
Why Racially Offensive Trademarks Are Now Legally Protected
The Court’s unanimous decision assumed that, though words may hurt, the harm to our polity is far greater when the government gets to suppress expression.
Some students have suggested that rape law should not be taught because of its potential to cause distress.
St. Paul’s School and a New Definition of Rape
The recent trial and sentencing of a prep-school student raises questions about changing attitudes toward what constitutes rape.
Today’s student protesters are directing anger at faculty and administrators, but this time the parental dynamic is notably different.
Shutting Down Conversations About Rape at Harvard Law
What could possibly be the logic behind the claim that criticism of a documentary could cause students to feel unsafe?
Who's Afraid of Gender-Neutral Bathrooms?
How the multi-stall restroom became the last public vestige of gendered social separation in America.
In a country with such a strong commitment to free speech that even hate speech is constitutionally protected, the disparaging-trademarks provision is an anomaly.
The Transgender Bathroom Debate and the Looming Title IX Crisis
The federal government has set in motion a potential Title IX collision course between its directives on sexual violence and on bathrooms.
The Unintended Consequences of the Stanford Rape-Case Recall
Activists are right to protest the lenient sentence Aaron Persky gave Brock Turner, but efforts to recall judges can have complicated effects.
College Students Go to Court Over Sexual Assault
Several recent lawsuits claim that university procedures developed to protect the Title IX rights of sexual-assault victims violate the Title IX rights of the accused.
How to protect fashion designers like Jason Wu from Forever 21 knockoffs.
The College Sex Bureaucracy
Journalism and Blog Posts
Chron. Higher Educ., Jan. 13, 2017, Chron. Rev., at 1.
Publication year: 2017
To fight assault, the feds have made colleges clumsy monitors of students’ sex lives. Will the Trump administration reverse that trend?
As Fox News confronts sexual-harassment claims, the former chairman Roger Ailes may not be the last executive to fall.
Nate Parker’s new film, “The Birth of a Nation,” is raising issues about social justice—but not the ones Parker intended.
The Legal Meaning of the Cosby Mistrial
What "Divorce" Understands About Marriage
The new HBO series shows that how people divorce can reveal more about a marriage than anything one could see before its unravelling.
Our ideas about sexual assault have shifted since the Clintons were last in power—as indicated by voters’ reactions to Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape.
Gavin Grimm's Transgender-Rights Case and the Problem with Informal Executive Action
President Obama sidestepped the usual legal process in an attempt to secure transgender rights under Title IX. Now that strategy may backfire.
A Moment of Uncertainty for Transgender Rights
The potential to protect transgender students at the state and local level is real, but may be cold comfort.
A New Phase of Chaos On Transgender Rights
Questions about what constitutes sex discrimination against transgender people will be alive long after we have answers on bathroom access.
How Trump Has Stoked The Campus Debate On Speech and Violence
How do universities teach the reasoned discussion that is crucial to the health of democracy when students see dialogue as “violence”?