Professor J. Joel Alicea  

Professional Activities
J. Joel Alicea — co-director of CIT, assistant professor of law at Catholic Law, and a nonresident fellow at AEI — acted as moderator for an event co-hosted by Catholic Law’s Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) and The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on September 1, 2022. Alicea gave an overview of the debate about originalism and the natural law tradition, introduced the evening’s three panelists, and moderated a series of questions including what is at stake in the debate and some of the misconceptions about originalism and natural law.

Professor J. Joel Alicea was named this year’s recipient of the Young Faculty Scholars Award on April 7, 2022. The Young Faculty Scholar’s Award is given by the University to a member of the faculty for demonstrated achievement during the first four years of appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor and promise of potentially significant scholarship.

Professor J. Joel Alicea published a response to Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule, in National Review on May 3, 2022. Vermeule has responded to a law review article of Alicea’s, and in an effort to continue the academic debate surrounding Constitutional Originalism this reply, "Why Originalism is Consistent with Natural Law: A Reply to Critics." addresses critiques of originalism on natural-law grounds.

J. Joel Alicea, assistant professor of law and director of the Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT), was a featured guest on the April 12 episode of Advisory Opinions, a new podcast from The Dispatch hosted by Sarah Isgur and David French. Alicea discussed is new law review article, “The Moral Authority of Original Meaning” which will be published in Notre Dame Law Review (forthcoming). Alicea also briefly discussed CIT.

Professor J. Joel Alicea was a featured guest on an episode of Religious Freedom Matters, a podcast produced by EWTN and the National Catholic Register relating to the Supreme Court's religious liberty doctrines and their future, on August 26, 2021. In an episode entitled, “How Far Do U.S. Constitutional Protections for Religious Freedom Go?” Alicea responds to the question: How far-reaching is the First Amendment’s protections for the free exercise of religion in defending religious believers?

Professor J. Joel Alicea has joined American Enterprise Institute (AEI) as a nonresident fellow where he will be focusing on constitutional theory and constitutional law as of July 15, 2021. In this role, Alicea is part of a new AEI initiative, the Center for American Constitutional Governance.

Professor J. Joel Alicea acted as the moderator of a debate hosted by the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) on October 16, 2020. The conversation centered on the relationship between natural law and originalism. 

Recent Publications
Professor J. Joel Alicea authored an op-ed, which was published in National Review on April 20, 2022. The article discusses the debate surrounding the future of American constitutionalism — calling for a more forthright conversation about “the moral foundations of American constitutionalism in general and of originalism in particular.”

Professor J. Joel Alicea had an essay published in City Journal on December 5, regarding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Mississippi’s prohibition on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy—for which oral arguments at United States Supreme Court were held on December 1, 2021. In the essay, Alicea discusses the impact that the decision could have on the fate of the conservative legal movement.

Professor J. Joel Alicea recently posted his article, “Liberalism and Disagreement In American Constitutional Theory.” Now available online, the article will appear in Virginia Law Review, Vol. 107 (forthcoming Dec. 2021). Alicea’s work reframes American constitutional theory—identifying problems with the “standard approach,” exploring the concept of liberalism, and addressing counter-arguments and objections to this new theoretical approach.

Recent Media
Professor J. Joel Alicea’s amicus brief for the case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen was praised by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during oral arguments on November 3, 2021. The case concerns the scope of the right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment 

Professor Marshall Breger 

Professional Activities
In March 2022, Professor Marshall J. Breger co-organized and spoke at an Abrahamic Dialogue Interfaith seminar in London, where he spoke on the “US sanctions regime and human rights.”

Professor Marshall J. Breger participated in the “Forum for Promoting Common Values Among the Followers of Religion” in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 11. It is the first time this forum — including Jewish and Christian religious leaders — was held in Saudi Arabia. Other participants included: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State (by zoom); His All Holiness Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople; Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of Rome; and Walter Kim, President, National Association of Evangelicals.

Professor Marshall J. Breger was a panelist at the launch of his book, The Vatican and Permanent Neutrality, on May 17, 2022. The launch will be hosted by The Centro Pro Unione and John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue in Rome, Italy, and will also be available for viewing via webcast.

Professor Marshall Breger spoke at The Eighth Assembly of the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace. The three-day conference, which ran from December 5-7, 2021, explored the theme of inclusive citizenship in an effort to promote lasting peace. Breger spoke on the second day of the Assembly—discussing the topic, “Citizenship from the Perspective of Law and Values: Prioritising the principles of truth and goodness.”

Professor Marshall Breger spoke on a panel at the Permanent Neutrality: A Model for Peace, Security, and Justice Conference on March 25, 2019, in Washington, D.C. The conference was sponsored by the CUA Institute of Policy Research.

Professor Marshall Breger met with the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on September 20, 2018. This was part of the Dialogue of Abrahamic Religions, a group that works to bring the Iranian and American people closer to each other.

Recent Publications
Professor Marshall Breger had his op-ed “The Elephant in the Impeachment Inquiry” published in the Moment 2019 November/ December 2019 issue.

Professor Marshall Breger had his op-ed “Will 2020 Be the Year of ‘Jexodus’?” published in the Moment summer issue 2019.

Marshall Breger wrote a January 10, 2019 op-ed for Moment magazine entitled "Americans Want an Immigration Fix"

Professor Marshall Breger had an op-ed on George H.W. Bush published in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on December 4, 2018

Recent Media
Professor Marshall Breger was interviewed by the Al-Hurra television channel. In the interview, Professor Breger weighed in on the powers of the President during a pandemic.

Lecturer Barry Breen

Professional Activities
Adjunct Lecturer Barry Breen won the Environment, Energy, and Resources Government Attorney of the Year Award at the ABA’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources Conference in August 2019.

Professor Daniel Bress

Professional Activities
Adjunct Professor Daniel Bress was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on July 9, 2019.

CUA Law Adjunct Professor Daniel Bress Confirmed to Serve as Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Professor Stacy Brustin

Professional Activities
Professor Stacy Brustin received the 2019 Hall of Fame: Lifetime Legacy Award at Ayuda's Standing with Immigrants event on May 9, 2019. According to Ayuda, Standing with Immigrants is all about supporting immigrants with their dreams, desires, fortitude, and perseverance to have a share of the American dream. This event marked the beginning of a new era of strategic growth.

Professor Stacy Brustin was appointed to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences project, Making Justice Accessible: Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century, focusing on Family Law.

Recent Publications
Professor Stacy Brustin, Director of the Immigrant and Refugee and Advocacy Clinic (IRAC), was recently the principal author of a June 2021 report regarding immigration reform entitled, “A Vision Forward: Policies Needed to Protect the Best Interests of ‘Category 4’ Unaccompanied Immigrant Children.” Brustin—with drafting and research support of IRAC student volunteers—partnered with United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Migration and Refugee Services for the Development of this critical report.

Professor Stacy Brustin had her op-ed, which shared her experience touring a prison-like immigration detention center in New Mexico, published in USA Today on May 16, 2019.

Recent Media
Professor Stacy Brustin was quoted in a November 1, 2018, Catholic News Agency article regarding Trump’s plan for birthright citizenship. Brustin currently serves as the Director of the new The Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Clinic [IRAC] which allows students the opportunity to represent, under the supervision of a clinic attorney, low-income immigrant and refugee clients living in D.C., Virginia, and Maryland.

Professor Roger Colinvaux

Professional Activities
Professor Roger Colinvaux presented a paper at a philanthropy conference hosted by the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law at NYU Law School on October 21. His paper, "Information Reporting in the Internet Age After Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta,” addresses the implications of a recent Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of information reporting required of nonprofit organizations in light of freedom of association First Amendment concerns raised by the Court. The two-day conference convened philanthropy experts nationwide from academe, government, and practice.

Professor Roger Colinvaux spoke on a panel at the American Bar Association’s (ABA) 2022 Fall Tax Exempt Organizations Symposium. The panel, “Charities and the First Amendment: Questioning Lobbying Limitations and the Campaign Intervention Prohibition,” reviewed legal challenges to the Section 501(c)(3) lobbying limits and campaign intervention prohibition, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Panelists also considered whether recent shifts in jurisprudence undermine prior court decisions.

Professor Roger Colinvaux participated in the DC Bar Taxation Community’s 2022 Tax Legislative and Regulatory Update Conference, held May 4-5, 2022. Colinvaux spoke on the first of the two days on a panel entitled, “Tax Exempt: Current Developments.”

Professor Roger Colinvaux was featured as a panelist on the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Professors' Corner, a monthly webinar that features a panel of law professors, discussing recent cases or issues of interest to real estate or trust and estate practitioners and scholars, on September 14, 2021. Colinvaux and Professor Ray Madoff, Boston College, spoke with moderator Rene Morency, Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, in a program entitled, “Professors' Corner: Regulating the Time to Give Away Millions: Proposed Legislation on Donor Advised Funds.”

Professor Roger Colinvaux was a panelist at the American Bar Association (ABA) 2021 May Tax Meeting on May 11, 2021. The panel, “Form 990 in the Big League,” discussed the potentially significant implications for the regulation of nonprofits at issue before the Supreme Court in Thomas More Law Society v. Becerra and Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra. Both organizations are challenging the constitutionality of the California law requiring the organizations to provide their unredacted Form 990, including the list of donors provided on Schedule B, to the State as a condition of soliciting donations in the state.

Professor Roger Colinvaux appeared as a featured guest on the podcast, Legal Talk Today. On May 21, in an episode entitled, “Private Donations vs. Government Transparency,” Colinvaux spoke with host Laurence Colletti about the right to donate privately and the potential consequences of the Supreme Court case, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta.

Roger Colinvaux joined a coalition, the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable giving, composed of wealthy individual donors, private foundations, and prominent scholars on charitable giving in order to urge Congress to adopt a set of tax proposals intended to speed up distributions from donor-advised funds and private foundations.

Professor Colinvaux participated as a panelist at the "Taxes and the Future of Philanthropy" conference jointly organized by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and the American Tax Policy Institute. 

Professor Colinvaux acted as a discussion group moderator and speaker at the 2020 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting. In the session, notable academics discussed the impact of the 1969 Tax Reform Act on charitable institutions and donor giving incentives 50 years after its passage. 

Professor Colinvaux joined four other law professors on a brief in a conservation land case brought before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th circuit.

Professor Roger Colinvaux spoke to the New York City Bar on November 6, 2019, during their “Hot Topics for Not-For-Profit Law” program. Professor Colinvaux led off the program with reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Tax Reform Act of 1969.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was a commentator at a conference held by the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law at NYU, on October 24-25, 2019. Colinvaux was part of a panel discussing the current self-dealing rules and alternatives for regulating private foundations.

Professor Roger Colinvaux spoke on a Donor Advised Funds panel at the 2019 Annual Exempt Organizations Update held on February 22, 2019, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Professor Roger Colinvaux spoke on the Tax Exempt Tax Reform: The Impact of TCJA on Tax-Exempt Organizations panel sponsored by the D.C. Bar on January 29, 2019. He was also quoted in a Feb. 1 Tax Notes article entitled "Nonprofits Look to Resurrected Bill to NixUBIT Rules."

Professor Roger Colinvaux spoke at the National Tax Association's annual meeting about State and Local Tax Workarounds on November 16, 2018. He also discussed his paper on the same topic.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was on a panel at the ABA May 2018 meeting of the Tax Section entitled "Donor Advised Funds." He spoke about recent guidance by the government. Copanelists included Treasury and IRS officials. The May Meeting is the major tax meeting of the year.

Recent Publications
Professor Roger Colinvaux had a letter to the editor published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on January 31, 2022. In the letter, Colinvaux comments on Kathleen Enright’s opinion piece about donor-advised funds which was published on January 18. He criticizes the earlier publication—contending that Enright “misses the mark”—and outlines a different view of DAFs.

Professor Roger Colinvaux’s article, “Speeding Up Benefits to Charity: Donor Advised Fund and Foundation Reform,” was accepted for publication in Boston College Law Review and was made available online as of November 24, 2021. The paper explores the Accelerating Charitable Efforts (ACE) Act, bipartisan legislation introduced in Congress that would address delays in benefit in charitable giving.

Professor Roger Colinvaux recently joined colleagues in the fields of tax law, property law, natural resource management, and land use law to express concern about a provision recently added to the Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act. In the Letter to the Senate Finance Committee On H.R. 5376, Colinvaux along with six others outlined potential abuses of charitable deductions that could occur under the new provision should it be enacted.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was one of 12 authors—all of whom are professors and scholars of the law regarding nonprofit organizations—to file an amicus brief for the Supreme Court case, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Rodriquez, to be argued before the Court on April 26. Their work aimed to help the Court gain a deeper understanding of the interdependence of charities, states, and taxpayers, as well as to provide a clearer understanding of state supervision of charities and how it relates to federal tax law.

Professor Roger Colinvaux wrote an opinion piece for The Chronicle of Philanthropy that discusses the potential consequences of the case Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, a case that was argued before the Supreme Court on Monday, April 26. His article, “Donor Privacy Case Before Supreme Court Is a Threat to Nonprofit Transparency,” points out that not only does the case seek to overturn California law that requires charities raising funds in the state to report the identity of major donors, but is a larger attempt to invalidate over 50 years of transparency laws covering charitable giving.

Professor Roger Colinvaux published an op-ed in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on January 19, 2021. The piece, ‘We Need to Fix Problematic Charitable Giving Laws. The Biden Administration Can Help.’ provides a roadmap of what steps should be taken to adjust current tax law and move policies in a better direction.

Professor Roger Colinvaux joined four other law professors on a brief in a conservation land case brought before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Professor Roger Colinvaux’s article, “Charitable Tax Reform for the 21 st Century,” co-authored by Professor Ray D. Madoff, Boston College Law School, was featured as the cover story in Tax Notes.

Professor Roger Colinvaux co-authored an op-ed in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. The article entitled, “A Donor-Advised Fund Proposal That Would Work for Everyone” discussed a way to make Donor-Advised Funds work better for both the donors and the charities receiving the donations.

Professor Roger Colinvaux's article "Social Welfare and Political Organizations: Ending the Plague of Inconsistency" was published in the New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, Forthcoming. It is part of a volume addressing issues relating to social welfare organizations.

Professor Roger Colinvaux's article, "Fixing Philanthropy: A Vision for Charitable Giving and Reform" was published in Tax Notes, Vol. 162, No. 9, p. 1007, 2019.'s Deputy Director Andrew Kloster.

Professor Roger Colinvaux published a book chapter entitled "Ways the Charitable Deduction has Shaped the US Charitable Sector" in Research Handbook on Not-for-Profit Law edited by Matthew Harding.

Professor Roger Colinvaux published a blog post on HistPhil entitled "Policing the Border: A History of IRS Regulation of Political Activity," on August 24, 2018. Colinvaux also published an article in the Buffalo Law Review regarding state tax benefits and charitable deductions on August 22, 2018.

Professor Roger Colinvaux's op-ed on the IRS dark money decision was published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on July 26, 2018.

Recent Media
Catholic Law Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted in an article Law360 on April 25, 2022, in regard to the Biden administration's proposal to limit private foundations' use of donor-advised funds to meet their yearly charitable payout requirements.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted in a blog post by the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving in connection with the introduction of the Accelerating Charitable Efforts (ACE) Act in the House of Representatives. Colinvaux, a founding member of the Initiative, was one of several thought leaders in the area of philanthropic giving to comment on the bill which was introduced by Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Tom Reed (R-NY) on February 3, 2022.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted in an openDemocracy article on January 14, 2021, which explored the participation of churches and other non-profit organizations in partisan politics. Colinvaux commented in particular on the line between legally allowed voter education and partisan politics.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted in an October 14, 2020, article in The Washington Post. The article focused on a video of a Council for National Policy meeting, the contents of which have raised potential concern regarding compliance with election law and charity rules. Colinvaux was one of two tax law specialties The Post asked to review video footage and comment.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was cited in an October 13, 2020 article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Colinvaux used his expertise on donor-advised funds to comment on how foundations utilize donor-advised funds in giving and the shift away from transparency and accountability.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted in a September 30, 2020, article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Colinvaux shared his thoughts on Fidelity Charitable, the nation's largest donor-advised-fund sponsor, and their move to eliminate required minimums to create accounts.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was cited in an August 17, 2020, article in Law360 discussing the re-examination of tax exemptions granted to universities that the U.S. Department of the Treasury will conduct. Colinvaux opined that there may be a review of existing regulations, but it is unlikely to result in any major changes. 

Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted on July 16, 2020, in Law360 regarding a proposed temporary incentive that could increase the above-the-line charitable gift deduction cap that is gaining bipartisan support as a component of an emerging pandemic response package.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was cited in a November 2019 report by the Congressional Joint Economic Committee in regard to reforming the Charitable Deduction. The paper referenced as “Rationale and Changing the Charitable Deduction.”

Professor Roger Colinvaux was cited in an article entitled “The Perils of Billionaire Philanthropy,” which was published on September 11, 2019, in The Nation.

Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted in a May 20, 2019, San Francisco Chronicle article entitled "Billionaire’s student loan pledge puts pressure on wealthy"

Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted in an October 3, 2018, Bloomberg article entitled "The Super-Rich Are Stockpiling Wealth in Black-Box Charities"

Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted in The New York Times discussing charitable deduction loopholes on August 3, 2018.

CUA Law Professor Roger Colinvaux was quoted in a July 17, 2018, Washington Post article regarding dark money entitled "'Dark money' groups don’t need to disclose donors to IRS, Treasury says."

Professor Robert A. Destro

Professional Activities
Professor Robert Destro was featured on American Thought Leaders (a program by The Epoch Times) on December 9 and 11, 2021. In the two-part episode, Destro, a former assistant secretary of state for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, discussed threats to human rights ranging from state-sanctioned organ harvesting, genocide, and COVID-19 restrictions.

Professor Robert Destro was confirmed by the United States Senate as the next Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

Professor Robert Destro had a Confirmation Hearing on March 27, 2019, for his nomination as the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to nominate Professor Robert Destro to serve as the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

Professor Robert Destro was part of a panel discussion at the Family Research Council's Speaker Series, Religious Liberty and National Security: Opportunities for Secretary Pompeo on May 2, 2018.

Professor Cara Drinan

Professional Activities
Professor Cara H. Drinan testified before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee regarding two juvenile justice reform Bills—The Juvenile Interrogation Protection Act (SB 53) and a Juvenile Court Jurisdiction Bill (SB 165)—on January 27, 2022.

Professor Cara H. Drinan acted as moderator for the panel discussion, “January 6: Citizenship and the Future of American Democracy,” sponsored by the Catholic University of America’s School of Arts and Sciences. The April 26, 2021, event gathered leading voices from across the political spectrum to discuss the origins and effects of January 6. Panelists addressed the social and political causes of the January 6 assault and the implications for the future of American democracy.

Professor Cara Drinan has been elected to The American Law Institute (ALI). As a new member, Drinan joins other law professors, federal and state judges, and prestigious practitioners who comprise the ALI membership. Her scholarship focuses on criminal justice, juvenile justice, and sentencing policy, and she is excited to begin collaborating with other ALI members on these fronts.

Cara Drinan gave two book talks in the Miami area on August 7, 2018, at the independently-owned bookstore, Books & Books. Drinan was interviewed by Linda Harllee Harper and Rahim Jenkins of WPFW Radio on August 15, 2018. Professor Drinan believes the United States has gone from being a pioneer to an international pariah in its juvenile sentencing.

Recent Publications
Cara H. Drinan, Director of Faculty Research and Professor of Law, published “The Miller Trilogy and the Persistence of Extreme Juvenile Sentences,” in Georgetown’s American Criminal Law Review (2021). Drinan’s article documents the fact that, notwithstanding Supreme Court case law establishing that children are different for constitutional sentencing purposes, youth in America are still subject to extreme terms in prison. As she explains, the combination of automatic transfer provisions and mandatory sentencing schemes exposes youth to decades in prison – despite children’s diminished culpability and established capacity for change. Her article argues that each of these mechanisms—transfer laws and mandatory minimums as applied to youth—are unconstitutional after Miller.

Professor Cara Drinan discussed 'Clemency in the time of COVID-19' in an April 16, 2020, OP-ED for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. In the piece, Drinan urged Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to exercise clemency in a robust manner in order to address the correctional crisis that COVID-19 presents.

Professor Cara Drinan guest blogged for Doug Berman’s Sentencing Law & Policy blog during the week of August 1, 2018. She highlighted the central claims of her book, The War on Kids, as well as other current criminal justice topics.

Professor Cara Drinan wrote a June 24, 2018, op-ed entitled "Outraged By Kids In Cages? Look At Our Entire Juvenile Justice System" in the Huffington Post.

Professor Cara Drinan's book, The War on Kids, was featured in the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.

Recent Media
Professor Cara Drinan was quoted in a July 31, 2018, Bloomberg News article discussing the methodology in Trump's pardon process. Drinan was also quoted in an article from The New York Times regarding Pope Francis' declaration that the death penalty is wrong in all cases.

Professor Sarah Duggin

Professional Activities
Professor Sarah H. Duggin was a panelist at the ABA Business Law Section of the 2021 Spring Meeting on April 20, 2021. Her panel presentation was entitled, “The Ethical Obligations of Counsel for the Organization When Drafting Indemnification Clauses and Confronting Other Constituent Relationships.”

Professor Sarah H. Duggin chaired a panel on The Importance of the Tone at the Top which was part of the Association of Corporate Counsel/American University Business Law Review Symposium “Corporate Counsel as Business Leaders” on October 7, 2019.

Professor Sarah H. Duggin chaired a panel on Compliance Pathways and presented a paper at the Second International ComplianceNet Conference. 

Recent Publications
Professor Sarah H. Duggin co-authored an article entitled “Ethical Rules and Professional Liability Risks of Business Lawyers Advising on Executive Protection Programs” with Steven Braga, Adam P. Schwartz, and James Wing in Business Law Today on June 28, 2019.

Professor Sarah H. Duggin co-authored an article entitled “Ethical Rules and Professional Liability Risks of Business Lawyers Advising on Executive Protection Programs” in Business Law Today

Recent Media
Professor Sarah H. Duggin was cited in a PolitiFact article on August 2, 2020. In the article, which focused on fact-checking claims regarding vice-presidential pick Kamala Harris' ability to become president, Duggin used her legal expertise in constitutional law to provide insight. The article cited multiple federal laws and legal opinions to support that Harris meets the definition of a "natural born citizen. "Professor Sarah H. Duggin was quoted in a January 22, 2019, Politifact article entitled "Yes, Kamala Harris is eligible to run for president."

Professor Sarah H. Duggin was quoted in a July 2, 2018, WFMY News 2 article entitled "Capital Gazette shooting suspect seen as an angry loner, obsessed with those who 'wronged' him.” Duggin was also quoted in a POLITIFACT article discussing a president's decision to enforce or not enforce laws in connection with a review of one of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's D.C. Circuit opinions.

Professor Emeritus Clifford Fishman

Recent Publication
Professor Emeritus Clifford Fishman reflects on the statues and how Americans evaluate "national heroes" in a piece published in Washington Jewish Week. The piece is a shortened version of a sermon Fishman gave on August 29, 2020. Fishman uses the second commandment as an entry point for discussing the shortcomings of America's critical evaluations of national heroes as well as how the discussion has and should continue to move forward.

Professor Emeritus Clifford Fishman had a sermon published in the July 16, 2020 edition of Washington Jewish Week. The sermon, "Equal protection, equal justice under the law," comments on the Torah portion Matot-Messie, Numbers 30:2-36:13, which focuses on the law of homicide. Fishman's sermon draws a connection between the verses and recent current events. 

Professor Scott Flesch

Professional Activities
Adjunct Faculty member and alumnus Scott Flesch '97 has been appointed by the Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army to serve as the next Chief Trial Attorney (CTA). 

Professor A.G. Harmon

Professional Activities
Professor A.G. Harmon participated in a virtual reading of his collection of stories, Some Bore Gifts: Stories, on January 16, 2021. Harmon joined two other award-winning, Able Muse authors for the reading followed by a Q&A session.

Recent Publication
Professor A.G. Harmon's fictional story, "News from Sparta," was published in Vita Poetica in October 2020. Harmon's story explores life and sacrifice.

Professor A.G. Harmon had a recent essay published in June 2020 by the quarterly literary online journal Dappled Things. The essay, "In times like these..." deals with themes of time in the era of crisis.

Recent Media
Professor A.G. Harmon was quoted in the Law.com column, “Ahead of the Curve,” on March 16, 2021. The article highlighted Catholic Law’s 2021 Judicial Clerkship Opinion Writing Conference, noting the launch of the boot camp for incoming federal and state appellate court clerks and the importance of their preparation for these high-stakes positions.

Professor A.G. Harmon was interviewed by Catholic Writers regarding the Dignity of Work and Writing on May 16, 2019.

Professor Roger Hartley

Professional Activities
Professor Roger Hartley joined the Monday Luncheon Group (MLG) for a virtual presentation of his new book, Monumental Harm: Reckoning with Jim Crow Era Confederate Monuments on February 15, 2021. The MLG is an informal community group, based in Columbia, South Carolina, that meets to discuss local, state, national, and international issues. The group regularly invites politicians, religious leaders, researchers, business people, academicians, and others in the community to come and lead discussions on a range of topics of interest.

Recent Media
Professor Roger Hartley’s 2010 law review article, “Freedom Not To Listen: A Constitutional Analysis of Compulsory Indoctrination Through Workplace Captive Audience Meetings,” was recently referenced in a Reuters article on April 13, 2022, regarding Jennifer Abruzzo, the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, and her recent move to overturn precedent that allows employers to force workers to attend anti-union meetings.

Lecturer Monte A. Jackel

Professional Activities
Monte A. Jackel, Lecturer/Principal, Jackel Tax Law, published a letter to the editor in Tax Notes. The letter, which ran in the publication on August 20 and 22, was in regard to a book on corporate income tax in partnership land and the effects of the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Recent Publications
Monte A. Jackel, Lecturer/Principal, Jackel Tax Law, published a letter to the editor in Tax Notes Federal, a weekly publication of Tax Analysts, Fairfax, VA. In the letter, which was published on October 9, Jackel discusses the need to investigate alleged bad behavior by the IRS.

Monte A. Jackel, Lecturer/Principal, Jackel Tax Law, published a letter to the editor in Tax Notes Federal, a weekly publication of Tax Analysts, Fairfax, VA. In this letter to the editor, which was published on October 31, Jackel discusses whether the nonrecognition rules of the Internal Revenue Code should apply in computing the new corporate book minimum tax.

Monte A. Jackel, Lecturer/Principal, Jackel Tax Law, published a letter to the editor in Tax Notes, a weekly publication of Tax Analysts, Fairfax, VA. In the letter, which was published on September 5, “[Jackel] discusses the provision in the new tax law (the Inflation Reduction Act) relating to the tax-free sale of energy tax credits."

Monte A. Jackel, Lecturer/Principal, Jackel Tax Law, was quoted in a Tax Notes article published on August 11, 2022, regarding the language deleted from the corporate minimum tax proposal.

Monte A. Jackel, Lecturer/Principal, Jackel Tax Law, was quoted in a Tax Notes Federal article published on August 13, 2022, regarding the political challenge associated with writing regulations that extend the book income tax to the private equity industry.

Monte A. Jackel, Lecturer/Principal, Jackel Tax Law, was quoted in a Tax Notes Federal article by Lee A. Sheppard on the sale of tax credits pursuant to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that “such a sale may not even appear in partnership capital accounts...[and] would be as though the purchase transaction was entirely outside the partnership[…].”

Recent Media
Monte A. Jackel, Lecturer/Principal, Jackel Tax Law, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal regarding the breakup of Ernst & Young (EY) — one of the big four accounting firms — and the tax rules applicable to the accounting firm with respect to its audit clients. The article, “EY Faces Knotty Split of Its Lucrative Tax Business, was published on September 20, 2022.

Professor Regina T. Jefferson

Professional Activities
Professor Regina Jefferson was reappointed by President Trump as a Member of the Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Dean Regina Jefferson was honored as the University Marshal (Mace Bearer) during The Catholic University of America's 130th Commencement Ceremony on May 24, 2019.

Recent Publications
Dean Regina Jefferson's article "Let Them Eat Cake": Examining United States Retirement Savings Policy Through The Lens of International Human Rights Principles was published in The Harvard Human Rights Journal.

Professor Emeritus William Kaplin

Professional Activities
Professor Emeritus William A. Kaplin was honored at the recent conference of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA).

Lecturer Elizabeth Kirk

Professional Activities
Elizabeth Kirk, Director of the Center for Law and the Human Person, spoke at the 2022 National Leadership Summit for the National Institute for Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) on October 6, 2022. Kirk spoke on the second day of the two-day summit with her presentation entitled, “What NIFLA Professionals Should Know about Adoption.”

Elizabeth Kirk, director of the Center for Law and the Human Person, participated in a discussion at the American Enterprise Institute on "Adoption After Dobbs" on September 12, 2022. Panelists had an in-depth discussion regarding the findings in "Profiles in Adoption" — the most extensive study of adoptive parents ever conducted — and commissioned research on public attitudes toward adoption. Kirk focused her comments on the role of women’s decision- making in regard to adoption, especially vis-à-vis abortion. Following remarks from each of the panelists, they engaged in a moderated discussion.

Elizabeth Kirk, Catholic Law’s Director of the Center for Law and the Human Person, participated in a virtual seminar hosted by the International Catholic Jurist Forum (ICJF). The seminar, Discussion of the Relevance of Saint Joseph for Our Times, was held on December 3, 2021, in light of the Year of Saint Joseph which concluded on December 8 with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The interdisciplinary symposium, which included social scientists, theologians, and law professors each providing different perspectives on the state of fatherhood, explored “the break down of fatherhood in various areas of culture” and considered the meaning of fatherhood more broadly. Kirk gave an overview of American family law, with a focus on the legal rights of fathers.

Recent Media
Elizabeth Kirk, Director of the Center for Law and the Human Person, gave an interview regarding the role of adoption post-Dobbs which was published in The Pillar on October 7, 2022. Kirk spoke about the current moment in the pro-life movement, the “soft stigma” against adoption, and what both the Church and government can do to support women who choose adoption for their children.

Recent Publications
Elizabeth Kirk, director of the Center for Law and the Human Person, wrote a reflection, “The Meaning of Kansas: Lessons from a Pro-Life Defeat,” for Public Discourse, the journal of the Witherspoon Institute, which was published on August 11, 2022.

Professor Catherine Klein

Professional Activities
Professor Catherine Klein and Catholic Law colleague Professor Emerita Leah Wortham were presenters at the virtual conference, Turning Challenges into Opportunities: Justice Education in Times of Crises, co-sponsored by Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE), International Journal of Clinical Legal Education (IJCLE), and Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education (ACCLE). Klein and Wortham gave their presentation, “How Clinical Education Collaboration Can Benefit Our Students, Our Clients, and Ourselves,” on June 16, 2021, as part of a team of people involving members from the UK, Czech Republic, Italy, Nigeria, and two other U.S. law schools.

Professor Catherine Klein, along with Catholic Law colleague Leah Wortham, joined Czech, UK, and US clinical colleagues to present How Global Clinical Education Collaboration Can Benefit Our Students, Our Clients, and Ourselves at the American Association of Law School’s Clinical Conference on Saturday, May 1, 2021. With this year’s virtual conference format, clinicians from Italy, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, Spain, and Turkey joined US colleagues from around the country at the session.

Recent Publication
Professor Catherine Klein wrote the preface for Epistemic Communities at the Boundaries of Law: Clinics as a Paradigm in the Revolution of Legal Education in the European Mediterranean Context, a new book on the development of clinics in Italy and Spain.

Professor Catherine Klein wrote the preface for a new book, Epistemic Communities at the Boundaries of Law: Clinics as a Paradigm in the Revolution of Legal Education in the European Mediterranean Context, on the development of clinics in Italy and
Spain.

Professor Megan La Belle

Professional Activities
Professor Megan La Belle participated in SMU Dedman School of Law’s 18th Annual Symposium on Emerging Intellectual Property Issues: Patent Law and Institutional Choice on Friday, October 29, 2021. The symposium, which was held virtually, focused on exploring the latest major controversies, legal developments, and judicial decisions in the field of intellectual property, through panel presentations and discussions with distinguished academics.

Professor Megan M. La Belle added insight and professional expertise as a Fintech Innovations discussion group participant at the 2020 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting. La Belle focused on bank patent activity, questioning whether the increasing use of technology is causing banks to act like tech companies in regard to patent litigation.

Professor Megan M. La Belle and Professor Heidi Mandanis Schooner discussed and workshopped their current work-in-progress, titled Fintech: New Battle Lines in the Patent Wars? on April 26, 2019.

Professor Megan M. La Belle was a speaker at the Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal's annual symposium, "The Intersection of Administrative & IP Law" at the University of Texas School of Law, as well as the Journal of Law, Liberty's annual symposium, "The Administrative State Wars Yet to Come" at New York University School of Law in February 2019.

Professor Megan M. La Belle presented her paper "An Erie Approach to Privilege Law" at the sixth annual Constitutional Law Conference held at The University of Akron School of Law on Sept. 14, 2018.

Professor Megan M. La Belle was quoted in an American Banker article discussing bank-on-bank patent suits on June 11, 2018.

Recent Media
Megan La Belle, professor of law and co-director of the Law and Technology Institute, was quoted by The Detroit News on September 8, about potential efforts to influence the outcome of a trial involving the Flint water crisis. La Belle has previously written on the subject of advertising influencing trials. Her article, “Influencing Juries in Litigation ‘Hot Spots,’” which appeared in the Indiana Law Journal in 2019, explores how corporations use image advertising in litigation “hot spots” as a means of influencing litigation outcomes.

Megan La Belle, professor of law and co-director of the Law and Technology Institute, was quoted in a recent Bloomberg Law article, “Future of Patent Licensing Deals on the Line at Federal Circuit,” on September 6, 2022. The article discusses whether a patent owner who sublicenses its patent has standing to sue another for infringement, a question that has important implications for future cases involving similar transactions.

Professor Megan La Belle was quoted in a Bloomberg Law article, “Appeals Court ‘Chips Away’ High Court’s Pliant Obviousness Take,” on May 11, 2021. Her comments were in regard to the Federal Circuit Court's recent ruling on general skepticism in obviousness analyses of patents in Auris Health v. Intuitive Surgical Operations.

Professor Megan La Belle’s participation as a panelist in SMU Dedman School of Law’s 18th Annual Symposium on Emerging Intellectual Property Issues: Patent Law and Institutional Choice on Friday, October 29, 2021, was covered by Law360. The article, “Profs Spar Over Fed. Circ. Interfering With Albright,” covered the differing opinions of the three panelists.

Professor Megan La Belle was cited in a recent Bloomberg Law article, “Doubts Deepen if ‘Exceptional’ Patent Case Fees Include PTAB Work.” The article, which was published on September 2, 2021, focused on fee-shifting for PTAB proceedings—considering recent court decisions that have raised questions on recovering fees for board disputes and also puts a spotlight on a previous Federal Circuit decision that has drawn scrutiny. La Belle previously wrote an article on the topic, “Fee Shifting For PTAB Proceedings” in 2016.

Professor Megan M. La Belle was quoted in Bloomberg Law on May 14, 2021, in an article
entitled, “Patent Jurisdiction Ruling Said to Clash With Precedent.” Her comments in the article
were in response to a recent Federal Circuit decision on personal jurisdiction in patent cases—a
decision that conflicts with the court’s precedent and will potentially complicate patent licensing
negotiations. La Belle, whose expertise includes the areas of intellectual property and federal
courts, says the decision creates a split of authority on the issue and urges the Federal Circuit to
consider the matter en banc.

Professor Megan M. La Belle was quoted in a July 31, 2020, Bloomberg Law article entitled, "Federal Circuit May Have its Eye on West Texas Patent Hot Spot." La Belle weighed in on a Federal Circuit venue order that may impact a patent case involving Adobe, inc. and have further implications for the future.

Professor Megan M. La Belle was quoted in a Sept. 4 S&P Global article entitled "The week in Fintech: Patent suit targets Wells Fargo app's mobile check deposits"

Recent Publication
Professor Megan La Belle’s article “Influencing Juries in Litigation ‘Hot Spots’” was published in the summer 2019 issue of Indiana Law Journal. The article considers how corporations are using image advertising in litigation “hot spots” as a means of influencing litigation outcomes.

Professor Mary Leary

Professional Activities
Mary Graw Leary, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research and Professor of Law, participated in a Congressional Briefing for the EARN IT Act on Tuesday, February 8, 2022. Graw Leary was also present for the Thursday press conference after the Senate Judiciary passed the bill unanimously out of the committee. The bill revises the federal framework governing the prevention of online sexual exploitation of children.

Mary Graw Leary, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research and Professor of Law, participated in a seminar organized by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on December 13, 2021. During the seminar, Rights of Alleged Victims in Penal Procedures, Graw Leary presented in a panel entitled, “Rights of Alleged Victims in Penal Procedures in the USA.” Graw Leary addressed the working group about the rights of victims of crime in the United States on both the federal and state levels. She also addressed the need for transparency and accountability for systems to retain legitimacy.

Professor Mary Graw Leary participated in “Modern Slavery – The way towards Sustainable Development Goal 8.7” on July 1, 2021. The hour-long webinar was hosted by Immigration Lawyer Solutions and the International Bar Association Global Influencer Forum.

Professor Mary Graw Leary spoke at an online roundtable on December 23, 2020, entitled “Protection of Children in the Digital Environment.” Organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Project Officer in Uzbekistan and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the roundtable was organized to provide state institutions—including law enforcement agencies, judges, and prosecutors—in Uzbekistan with guidance to enhance practices, policies, and strategies in the criminal justice sector to address.  complex challenges in addressing child abuse online.

Professor Mary Graw Leary participated in an event hosted by the U.S. Ambassadors Samuel D. Brownback, Kelley E. Currie, and John C. Richmond on December 8, 2020. The event aimed to spotlight the trafficking of women and girls into China, where they are subjected to sex trafficking, sexual assault, forced child-bearing, and forced labor in domestic service under the false pretense of marriage to local men. Graw Leary joined other speakers for a moderated panel discussing interventions and answering questions.

Professor Mary Graw Leary spoke at the Crime Victim Law Conference on November 14, 2020. The virtual, two-day event was hosted by the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI). Graw Leary spoke in a Saturday afternoon breakout session entitled, “Is the #MeToo Movement for Real? Implications for Jurors’ Rape Myth Biases.”

Professor Mary Graw Leary participated as an expert on online crimes against children at an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) roundtable in Ukraine. Over 400 prosecutors were expected to participate in the August 21, 2020, roundtable to discuss the programs for prosecutors to address the abuse of children online.

Professor Mary Graw Leary testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (EARN IT Act). Graw Leary used her experience as an academic and as a prosecutor to provide context to the problem of child sexual exploitation and provide expert testimony before the committee.

Professor Mary Graw Leary spoke at a Congressional Briefing focused on Human Trafficking victims titled, "Seeing Trafficking in 2020, Bringing Survivors into Focus." The panel discussed the survivor experience in light of the 20th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).

Professor Mary Graw Leary joined faculty at George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School to present on her paper, Is the #MeToo Movement Real? The Implications for Jurors' Biases In Sexual Assault Cases.

Professor Mary Graw Leary participated in the Louisiana Law Review Symposium at Louisiana State University entitled, "We the Jury: Conversations on the American Jury Past, Present, and Future." Graw Leary Spoke on the panel, "The Jury as a Political and Cultural Institution."

Professor Mary Graw Leary testified before the U.S. Helsinki Commission on Sept. 27, 2018.

Professor Mary Graw Leary spoke at a conference sponsored by the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture entitled: The #Me Too Moment: Second Thoughts on the Sexual Revolution on May 31, 2018. Her comments were referenced in articles by the Catholic News Agency and the Arlington Catholic Herald.

Recent Publication
Professor Mary Graw Leary authored an article, “Is the Is the #MeToo Movement for Real? The Implications for Jurors’ Biases in Sexual Assault Cases,” which was published in Louisiana Law Review, Vol. 81.

Professor Mary Graw Leary along with Louise Shelley, professor and director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center at George Mason University, co-wrote an op-ed published in the Washington Examiner entitled, “What would really happen if DC legalized prostitution?”

Professor Mary Graw Leary was appointed Chair of the Victim Advisory Group of the United States Sentencing Commission.

Recent Media
Mary Graw Leary, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, was recently quoted in an NBC News article entitled, “How the Supreme Court could change the internet as we know it.” The article, which was published on October 4, 2022, discusses potential changes for the internet as the Supreme Court is poised to hear as many as three cases this term about the legal protections social media companies have used up to this point — particularly regarding the latitude companies currently have over online speech, entertainment, and information.

Mary Graw Leary, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, weighed in on a lawsuit brought against the Washington Hebrew Congregation Preschool in an interview with Fox 5 News - DC on September 14. A group of parents brought the suit over claims that the school was negligent in their children’s sexual abuse by an employee. The school maintains that parents waived their right to sue when they signed liability waivers upon enrolling their children in the school. Graw Leary’s comments focused on how the law has shifted and the expectation of adults to engage in protective measures to ensure child safety.

Mary Graw Leary, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, was quoted in a Forbes article entitled, “How TikTok Live Became ‘A Strip Club Filled With 15- Year-Olds,’” on April 27, 2022. The article explores the dangers of child exploitation on social media platforms — like TikTok and others — and the role of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Professor Mary Graw Leary gave a brief quote on NPR’s Morning Edition on January 4, 2022. As a human trafficking expert, Graw Leary commented regarding the details of a recently released settlement between Jeffrey Epstein and one of his accusers, Virginia Guiffre. In 2009, Epstein agreed to a settlement with Giuffre, the details of which were only just recently publicized and could impact future lawsuits against those close to Epstein.

Catholic Law Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Mary Graw Leary, a former federal prosecutor and recognized expert in the areas of criminal law and procedure, victimization, exploitation, human trafficking, missing persons, technology, and the Fourth Amendment, was quoted in The New York Times on August 25, 2021. Her comments were in regards to the child pornography lawsuit that is being brought against Nirvana for their “Nevermind” album cover.

Professor Mary Graw Leary weighed in on the national discussion regarding the Breonna Taylor decision reached on September 23, 2020. As a former federal prosecutor with particular expertise in criminal law and procedure, Graw Leary spoke with Spectrum News 1 on September 25, about how Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron handled the case before the grand jury. 

Professor Mary Graw Leary was featured on the National Children's Alliance podcast One in Ten. The title of the podcast was "The Failure That Leads to All Others," which focused on the sexual abuse of children in an institutional setting. 

Professor Mary Graw Leary discussed the Maryland Court of Appeal’s Ruling that teen sexting counts as distributing child pornography on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show.

Two of Professor Mary Graw Leary’s articles were cited by the Maryland Supreme Court in a case, In re S.K. The articles were “Self-Produced Child Pornography: The Appropriate Legal and Societal Response to Juvenile Self Exploitation” and “Sexting or Self-Produced Child Pornography – The Dialogue Continues: Structured Prosecutorial Discretion within a Multi-Disciplinary Response.” The case specifically referenced a term Leary coined: “self-produced child pornography”.

Professor Mary Graw Leary was interviewed by WWL First News regarding the seal of confession and child abuse on July 2, 2019.

Professor Mary Graw Leary was interviewed by WWL First News regarding the seal of confession and child abuse on July 2, 2019.

Professor Mary Graw Leary was featured on the National Children’s Alliance podcast One in Ten. The title of the podcast was “The Failure That Leads to All Others,” which focused on the sexual abuse of children in an institutional setting.

Professor Mary Graw Leary was quoted in a May 23, 2019, Washington Post article entitled "A teen texted a graphic video of herself to friends. A court said she’d shared child pornography."

Professor Mary Graw Leary was quoted in a May 13, 2019 Washington Times article entitled "Supreme Court to decide if it will hear a case of a 4-year-old girl being stripped searched"

Professor Mary Graw Leary was quoted in a March 19, 2019, New York Times article entitled "West Virginia Sues Bishop and Diocese Over Sex Abuse, Citing Consumer Protection"

Professor Mary Graw Leary was quoted in an October 18, 2018, Washington Times article entitled "Justice Department opens investigation into clergy sex abuse in Pa. Catholic Church"

Professor Mary Graw Leary was quoted in an August 17, 2018, National Catholic Register article discussing law changes to better protect victims of child sexual abuse.

Professor David A. Lipton

Recent Media
Professor David Lipton was quoted in Bloomberg questioning the right of SEC Commissioners to bring their Second Amendment political views into the regulation of Banks on May 4, 2018.

Professor Veryl Miles

Professional Activities
Professor Veryl Miles spoke at the 2022 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting on January 7, 2022. Miles spoke at a program held by the Section on New Law Professors entitled, “The Delicate Dance: Balancing Competing Interests in Making Decisions as a New Law Professor. During the session, Miles and fellow panelists explored five areas of tension that new law professors encounter.

Professor Veryl Miles participated in an Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Faculty Focus webinar on “Navigating Faculty Politics” on April 20, 2021. As one of the program’s three featured speakers, Miles spoke about Navigating faculty culture and politics within the complex system of law schools. The speakers also touched on topics like unspoken codes of conduct, historical precedents, and power dynamics, and how to navigate such realities successfully (particularly for new faculty).

Professor Veryl Miles has been appointed to a three-year term to serve as the Chair of the Association of American Law School's (AALS) Standing Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Minority Law Teachers and Students by AALS President-elect Vicki Jackson. The charge of this committee is to make recommendations to the AALS Executive Committee on ways to assist member and fee-paid schools in efforts to improve retention and recruitment of minority faculty and students.

Professor Veryl Miles spoke on the Diversity and Inclusion Inside and Outside the Classroom panel at the 2018 AALS Workshop for New Law School Teachers. The panel was held on June 8, 2018 in Washington, D.C. 

Recent Publications
Professor Veryl Miles published her paper, “Looking Beyond the Profit and Into the Light: Consumer Financial Protection and the Common Good,” in Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy (2021). In the article, Miles considers whether secular laws through faith-based perspectives on justice can be worthwhile when assessing whether we are a just and fair society for all citizens—in particular access to fair, equitable, and helpful consumer financial products and services.

"Faith-Based Law Schools: Making Mission Matter” 66 The Cath. U. L. Rev. 795 (2017). Professor Veryl Miles's essay is entitled “Marketable and Mobile: UBE Recommended” 85 The Bar Examiner 27 (September 2016).

Rev. Raymond C. O'Brien

Recent Publications
Reverend Professor Emeritus Raymond C. O’Brien’s paper, “Child Welfare Requires Adequate Remedial Services,” was published in the Mississippi Law Journal, Vol. 92. The paper explores adequate services in the child welfare system.

Professor Emeritus Rev Raymond C. O’Brien’s book, Family Law in Perspective, was published in its fifth edition in August 2021. The book is part of the Concepts and Insight series published by Foundation Press and functions as a synopsis of the law rather than a casebook.

Professor Emeritus Rev Raymond C. O’Brien’s co-authored book, Domestic Relations: Cases and Materials, was published in its ninth edition by Foundation Press in October 2021. This casebook is widely used throughout law schools in the United States to teach domestic relations, involving issues such as marriage, nonmarriage, divorce, alimony and support, child custody and adoption, plus the parameters of domestic violence and child abuse.

Professor Emeritus Rev. Raymond C. O'Brien published his article “Child Support and Joint Physical Custody in the Catholic University Law Review, Vol. 70.

Rev. Raymond C. O'Brien continues his scholarship in the field of family law. Family Law in Perspective (4th edition) was co-authored by O'Brien and was May 14, 2018.

Dean Stephen C. Payne

Recent Media
Dean Stephen Payne was quoted extensively by Catholic News Agency on October 4, 2020, in connection with the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The article focused on the conversation surrounding the intersection of the Catholic faith and the law—particularly what Catholic judges and lawyers can offer the United States legal system.

Dean Stephen Payne was quoted by Reuters on April 16, 2020, regarding Bayer's donation of chloroquine to the United States and the concerns the donation raises. 

Dean Stephen Payne was profiled in the Arlington Catholic Herald on June 26, 2019. Payne, who is focused on living his faith through work, started his deanship appointed on July 1, 2019 

Professor Antonio Perez

Professional Activities
Professor Antonio Perez participated in the Annual Meeting of the State Department's Advisory Committee on Private International Law (ACPIL) on July 28, 2020. The ACPIL advises the State Department on U.S. participation in the UN Conference on International Trade Law, The Hague Conference on Private International Law, and the Organization of American States, among others. 

Professor Antonio Perez participated in the Catholic University of Colombia’s Conference on Private International Law held in Bogota, Colombia, on October 23, 2019. Perez lectured in Spanish on U.S. common law and statutory protections of privacy.

On February 22, 2019, during its regular session held at its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, the Inter-American Juridical Committee (CJI) approved the "Guide on the Law Applicable to International Commercial Contracts in the Americas." The document acknowledges the contribution of Professor Antonio Perez, a former CJI member, who served as an expert commentator in the drafting process.

Presentations, ”Spanish Civil Law Analogues to U.S. Tort Law” and “Civil Liability for Internet Service Providers,” at the Conference on Private International Law (“Seminario Internacional de Derecho Privado – Los Matices de de la responsabilidad civil entre Common Law y Civil Law en el Marco de la globalización”), at the Universidad Católica de Colombia, in Bogota, Colombia, October 25–26, 2018 (conference and presentations all conducted in Spanish)

Professor Antonio Perez was a panelist at International Law Practice Group, Panel on a Practical Comparison of Common Law and Civil Law Systems, Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, Maryland on November 28, 2018.

Professor Antonio Perez acted as the moderator at The Practice of Law in the Gray Area of Covert Action, with John A. Rizzo, Robert Eatinger, and Robert Monahan, The Military and National Security Law Students Association and the Institute for Policy Research, The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, on February 7, 2019.

Recent Publication
Professor Antonio F. Pérez recently announced the release of a new book in which his latest essay appears in August 2022. The book, El derecho de la privacidad en los estados unidos, is a publication of the Catholic University of Colombia. Pérez presents for a Latin American audience a survey and analysis of privacy law in the United States. The essay is based on presentations given by Pérez on Oct. 23-24, 2019, in Bogota, Colombia.

Professor Antonio Perez wrote a book review entitled How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bots, and How I Learned to Start Worrying About Democracy for the 27 Cath. U. J. L. & Tech 129 (2019).

Recent Media
Professor Antonio Perez weighed in on United States accountability to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a July 31, 2020, article by Catholic News Agency (CNA). Perez spoke to CNA in response to German Military Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck's comments that U.S. soldiers should be held accountable by the ICC.

Professor Antonio Perez was quoted in The Catholic World Report on June 2, 2020. Legal experts from Catholic universities across the country opined on the legal ramifications of the use of the Insurrection Act in response to recent protests. Professor Perez shared his thoughts on the use of the act.

Professor Antonio Perez was featured as a segment guest on Kresta in the Afternoon. On the April 16, 2020, show, Perez spoke about Venezuela and U.S. indictment.

Professor Antonio Perez was quoted in a July 30, 2019, Law360 article about a Third Circuit decision and how it opens the door to creditor claims against Venezuela and the difficult path to collection entitled, “3rd Circ. Opens Floodgates for Venezuela Creditor Claims.”

Professor Antonio Perez was interviewed on the Kresta Radio show on May 10, 2019, regarding the moral and legal aspects of potential U.S. military intervention in Venezuela.

Professor Antonio Perez was quoted in a January 29, 2019, Law360 article entitled "New Sanctions Throw Wrench At Venezuela's Creditors."

Lecturer Roger Lu Phillips

Professional Activities
Lecturer Roger Lu Phillips, the legal director of the Syrian Justice and Accountability Center in Washington, D.C., was quoted in The New Times on November 30, 2021. His comments were regarding a trial held in Germany, in which an ISIS fighter was convicted for the death of an enslaved five-year-old girl and the capacity of the universal jurisdiction principle.

Recent Media
Lecturer Roger Lu Phillips was quoted in The New York Times on January 19, 2021. He commented on the trial of Dr. Alaa Mousa—the Syrian doctor accused of torturing opponents of the Syrian government. The long-awaited trial was being held in Frankfurt, Germany, utilizing the legal concept of “universal jurisdiction” to seek justice for victims of the Syrian government.

Professor Mark Rienzi

Professional Activities
Professor Mark Rienzi and William Saunders, Co-Directors of Catholic Law’s Center for Religious Liberty, were featured on The Federalist Society’s webinar call presented by the Religious Liberties Practice Group on August 11. With Saunders serving as moderator, he and Rienzi discussed “Religious Liberty at the Supreme Court 2022.” In particular, their conversation focused on four Supreme Court cases from the 2022 term that impacted the Court’s approach to religious liberty.

Professor Mark Rienzi earned a unanimous decision from the United States Supreme Court on June 17, 2021, on Fulton v. Philadelphia in favor of Catholic Social Services (CSS). The case brought before the Court the question of whether the city of Philadelphia could condition the contract renewal with CSS on the grounds of the inclusion of new language in the contract that would bar the organization from discriminating against same-sex couples. Through his work as president of the Becket Fund, Rienzi acted as counsel for CSS.

Professor Mark Rienzi along with Professor William Saunders, Co-Directors of Catholic Law’s Center for Religious Liberty, joined Faith & Law on March 5, 2021, for a virtual presentation, “Covid and the Courts: Current Threats to Religious Freedom.” The presentation by Professors Rienzi and Saunders focused on the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on religious worship—particularly how different jurisdictions have placed limits on worship.

Professor Mark Rienzi joined the Yale Law School (YLS) community on February 22, 2021, for a virtual presentation entitled, “COVID, Churches, and the Courts.” Hosted by YLS’s Federalist Society, the conversation focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on religious liberty jurisprudence.

Professor Mark Rienzi won two Supreme Court decisions in favor of religious liberty on July 8, 2020. Through his work as president of Becket, Rienzi has acted as counsel for Our Lady of Guadalupe School (Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru) and Little Sisters of the Poor (Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania). Both 7-2 decisions were broad wins for religious liberty.

Professor Mark Rienzi spoke about religious freedom at the Jewish Leadership Conference in New York City organized by the Tikvah Fund.

Professor Mark Rienzi participated in a Religion and the Administrative State Panel at The C. Boyden Gray Center on March 22, 2019. The panel featured comments from HHS’ Justin Butterfield, Brianne J. Gorod of Constitutional Accountability Center, Adrian Vermeule of Havard Law School, and was moderated by C. Boyden' Gray Center's Deputy Director Andrew Kloster.

Professor Mark Rienzi spoke on a panel entitled "Say What You Will?: Government Compelled Speech" at the Federalist Society National Convention on November 16, 2018. The Convention was held at The Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Recent Publication
Professor Mark Rienzi wrote an op-ed for National Review which was published on February 16, 2022. In the piece, “Supreme Court Vaccine Mandate Redux,” Rienzi delves into the case of Dr. A v. Hochul and the 16 healthcare workers petitioning the Supreme Court to hear their First Amendment challenge to New York’s vaccine mandate.

Professor Mark Rienzi penned an article reminding all to remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as we remembered his legacy on January 17, 2022. The article, “A Martin Luther King Day Reminder: Religion Matters in Public Life,” was published by National Review.

Professor Mark Rienzi published an op-ed for Real Clear Politics on April 1, 2021, in which he discussed the March 25 decision of a Washington, D.C. federal judge to strike down the numerical cap placed on places of worship within the District, as well as the trend of similar cases across the country that challenged governmental rights to impose number limits on worship in response to COVID-19.

Professor Mark Rienzi published an essay analyzing major SCOTUS decisions from the 2019-2020 term and the long-term trend toward peaceful pluralism within the law of religious liberty as part of the SCOTUSblog symposium on the Roberts court and the religion clause.

Professor Mark Rienzi’s article about the Supreme Court’s religious liberty cases was published on the SCOTUSblog. The article is entitled “Symposium: The calm before the storm for religious-liberty cases.”

Professor Mark Rienzi's article about the Supreme Court's religious liberty cases was published on the SCOTUSblog.

Recent Media
Mark Rienzi, Director of the Center for Religious Liberty and Professor of Law at Catholic Law, and President of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, was recently quoted by the Wall Street Journal. The article, “Yeshiva University Case Means We’re All Jews Now - Every American has a stake in upholding the school’s right to free exercise,” discussed a recent Supreme Court win on behalf of Yeshiva University.

Mark Rienzi, Director of the Center for Religious Liberty and Professor of Law at Catholic Law, and President of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, was a featured guest on an episode of Gray Matters on May 2, 2022. Gray Matters is the C. Bowden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State Podcast hosted by Jennifer Mascott. The panelists discussed the potential impact of Supreme Court rulings in those cases in addition to whether current approaches to protecting religious liberty are adequate to navigate contemporary challenges.

Professor Mark Rienzi was quoted in an article by Catholic News Agency on February 15, 2022. His comments were in reference to a petition made by healthcare workers in New York for the Supreme Court to block the state’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for healthcare employees, and allow religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate. The Supreme Court previously declined to issue an emergency injunction in the case and on February 14, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the Thomas More Society filed another petition for certiorari in the case at the Supreme Court.

Professor Mark Rienzi’s work on religious liberty cases was referenced in an article published in National Review on Friday, January 29. The article looks back on the recent history of legislation surrounding the topic of abortion as well as Rienzi’s work on the McCullen v. Coakley case. Rienzi was part of a team that represented Eleanor McCullen which led to a unanimous Supreme Court decision to strike down a Massachusetts law that instituted “buffer zones” surrounding abortion clinics. 

Professor Mark Rienzi was quoted in an August 31, 2020, Catholic News Service article regarding the November 2020 Supreme Court term and its religious liberty caseload. As a widely sought after religious liberty expert, Rienzi shared his thoughts on the Supreme Court's recent religion-related decisions. 

Professor Mark Rienzi recently weighed in on the religious liberty case for the Little Sisters of the Poor. As president and counsel for Becket, the religious liberty advocacy group representing the Little Sisters, Rienzi spoke with the National Catholic Register on May 8, 2020, about the three main statutes explored by the Supreme Court in their questioning.

Professor Mark Rienzi was featured on NPR - Morning Edition on May 6, 2020, regarding the religious liberty case Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania which has returned to the Supreme Court for hearings on access to birth control under the Affordable Care Act. 

Professor Mark Rienzi was quoted in The New York Times in reference to a Supreme Court hearing of an appeal made by the Trump Administration in the Obamacare contraception fight. 

Professor Mark Rienzi was quoted in The Washington Post in an article entitled, “One of the most politically volatile terms in years tests John Roberts and the Supreme Court.” The quote was in reference to the many key issues that are up for decision.

Professor Mark Rienzi was quoted on NPR’s WAMU 88.5 in a segment titled, “Abortion, Guns, And Gay Rights On The Docket For Supreme Court’s New Term.” The quote was in reference to the upcoming term for the United States Supreme Court.

Professor Mark Rienzi was quoted in a March 13, 2019 article from the Catholic News Agency entitled "DeVos allows religious groups to provide educational services."

Professor Mark Rienzi was quoted in The New York Times regarding the delivery of contraceptive services without conscripting the Little Sisters of the Poor to help on November 17, 2018.

Professor Mark Rienzi is quoted in an article regarding State of California v. Little Sisters of the Poor from One News Now on October 17, 2018. Rienzi is mentioned in an article regarding the United States Courts for the Ninth Circuit's hearing State of California v. Little Sisters of the Poor from Bloomberg Law on October 19, 2018.

Associate Professor Juan Carlos Riofrio

Professional Activities
Visiting Associate Professor Juan Carlos Riofrio participated virtually in “Corrupción de funcionarios públicos: Degradación de la administración pública, retos y mecanismos de solución,” hosted by Universidad de Piura (Perú), September 23-30, 2022. Riofrio’s presentation explored “Corruption, causes and consequences.”

Professor William Saunders

Professional Activities
Professor William Saunders and Mark Rienzi, Co-Directors of Catholic Law’s Center for Religious Liberty, were featured on The Federalist Society’s webinar call presented by the Religious Liberties Practice Group on August 11. With Saunders serving as moderator, he and Rienzi discussed “Religious Liberty at the Supreme Court 2022.” In particular, their conversation focused on four Supreme Court cases from the 2022 term that impacted the Court’s approach to religious liberty.

Professor William Saunders along with Professor Mark Rienzi, Co-Directors of Catholic Law’s Center for Religious Liberty, joined Faith & Law for a virtual presentation, “Covid and the Courts: Current Threats to Religious Freedom.” The March 5, 2021, presentation by Professors Rienzi and Saunders focused on the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on religious worship—particularly how different jurisdictions have placed limits on worship.

Professor Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Professional Activities
Professor Heidi M. Schooner participated in a panel discussion, “The New Normal in Legal Education: What We Learned from Part-Time Programs During the Pandemic,” presented as part of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) 2022 Annual Meeting.

Professor Heidi M. Schooner moderated a panel discussion entitled, “Comparative Perspectives on Regulating Financial Conglomerates.” The panel was part of a daylong, virtual symposium, Regulating Megabanks: A Conference in Honor of Arthur Wilmarth, hosted by the University of Colorado Law School and the University of Colorado Law Review on May 24, 2021.

Professor Heidi Mandanis Schooner added insight and professional expertise as a Fintech Innovations discussion group participant at the 2020 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting. Schooner focused on bank patent activity, questioning whether the increasing use of technology is causing banks to act like tech companies in regard to patent litigation.

Professor Heidi Mandanis Schooner was part of a panel at the Administrative Law Review’s symposium on Regulating Technology to Facilitate Innovation. The panel explored the different approaches currently regulating fintech and future developments in the field.

Professor Heidi Mandanis Schooner spoke at the Permits, Licenses, and the Administrative State Public Policy Conference on October 24, 2018. The event is hosted by The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University.

Professor Heidi Mandanis Schooner was on the Fintech: Implications for Consumers and Advocates panel at the Consumer Federation of America's Consumer Assembly on May 10, 2018. 

Recent Publications
Professor Heidi M. Schooner published a blog post for the Niskanen Center on November 10, 2021. The post, “Personnel is Policy at the OCC,” comments on President Biden's nomination of Professor Saule Omarova to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Professor Schooner considers the perspective Professor Omarova would offer to the challenges of regulating both large and small financial institutions. 

Associate Dean Marin Scordato

Recent Publications
Associate Dean Marin Scordato's article "Understanding the Absence of a Duty to Reasonably Rescue in American Tort Law", 82 Tulane Law Review 1447 (2008), has been cited by Jamal Greene in "The Supreme Court 2017 Term, Foreword: Rights as Trumps?", 132 Harvard Law Review 28 (2018).

Professor Lucia Silecchia

Professional Activities
Professor Lucia Silecchia participated in the Notre Dame Law Review’s first symposium of the year, “Unconstitutional Conditions and Religious Liberty.” The symposium, hosted in collaboration with the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative on October 24, featured religious liberty experts from across the country. The program was broken into two panels and the authors discussed their written scholarship, which will appear in a special issue of the Notre Dame Law Review vol. 98’s Reflection issue.

Professor Lucia A. Silecchia was a speaker at the Conference of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools (RALS), hosted at Touro Law School in New York on September 15. The 2022 conference theme was "The Past, Present, and Future of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools." The RALS conference brings together university leaders, law school deans and faculty, judges, and lawyers to speak on a range of topics relevant to religiously affiliated law schools from diverse faith traditions. Silecchia spoke on a panel entitled, "Religion and Faculty Hiring," with colleagues from Loyola Law School (Chicago) and Pepperdine Law School. Other panels addressed religion in the intellectual life of the law school, religious thought in scholarship and advocacy, religion and the practice of law, religious liberty advocacy, and a roundtable discussion on the general theme of the past, present, and future of religiously affiliated law schools.

Professor Lucia Silecchia participated in a virtual discussion on "Social and Cultural Perspectives on Aging" at the 12th Interdisciplinary Conference on Aging and Social Change on September 22, 2022. Her presentation, "The Burdens of Isolation: Forced Isolation of the Elderly During Covid-19" explored the impact of the near-total isolation imposed on elders and other vulnerable persons living in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other congregate residential settings during COVID-19.

Professor Lucia A. Silecchia was the lunch speaker at the Legal Humanities Fellowship Program hosted by the Collegium Institute for Catholic Thought & Culture at the University of Pennsylvania. Her talk entitled, "Environmental Law and The Common Good," explored the ways in which environmental law internationally and domestically serves the common good—or has difficulties doing so.

Professor Lucia A. Silecchia participated as an expert panelist in the “Symposium on Natural Rights” on October 22, 2021. Hosted by the Journal of Property Law at Texas A&M University School of Law, Silecchia presented her paper “Property and Moral Duties: Some Reflections on Modern Catholic Social Theory.”

Professor Lucia A. Silecchia was recently appointed as a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Continuing Legal Education. The aim of the Committee is "creating and promoting high quality, reasonably priced legal education on a fiscally sound basis. This includes programs, publications, productions in various electronic and other media, and other products and activities for use by the legal profession in New York State." Silecchia’s term begins June 1, 2021.

Professor Lucia Silecchia participated in “Women in Environmental Law,” a panel hosted by The Catholic University of America on March 22, 2021. As part of the University’s celebration of Women’s History Month, Silecchia joined other panelists to speak about their experiences as women working in environmental law.

Professor Lucia Silecchia participated in a panel discussion on the upcoming election, hosted by Catholic University of America's Campus Ministry and the Student Government Association on October 15, 2020. Silecchia joined the panel to discuss the upcoming election and how those who are Catholic might exercise their responsibilities as faithful citizens. After prepared comments by the panelists, they engaged in a discussion of thoughtful questions submitted by participants.

Professor Lucia Silecchia participated in a virtual program entitled, "The Threat of the Throwaway Culture to the Elderly in a Time of COVID," hosted by Fordham University School of Law. The September 16, 2020, discussion focused on the current pandemic and how it has revealed challenges faced in how our elders are cared for in the United States.  

Catholic Professor Lucia Silecchia was a panelist during two discussions on the Church in Crisis held in California on May 29-30, 2019.

Professor Lucia Silecchia spoke at the conference What’s Really Going On? The Root Causes of the Current Crisis held by The Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America on March 26, 2019. She also spoke at a Church in Crisis: A Panel Discussion in Chicago held by The Catholic University of America on April 11, 2019.

Professor Lucia Silecchia was a speaker at the Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life held at Georgetown University on January 19, 2019. The Conference, keynoted this year by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, is celebrating its 20th Anniversary as the largest collegiate pro-life conference in the nation. Silecchia's talk will be on "Death, Dignity, Despair and Deceit: Fighting the Danger of Assisted Suicide." Silecchia moderated a discussion at The Role of the Laity in Responding to the Crisis: Theological and Historical Foundations on February 6 at The Catholic University of America.

Recent Media
Professor Lucia Silecchia was quoted in an August 30, 2019, Catholic News Agency article, which
was discussing what is next for pro-life legislation.

Professor Lucia Silecchia was quoted in a March 18, 2019, National Catholic Register article entitled "Assisted Suicide Battle Plays Out Across Several States." CUA Law Professor Lucia Silecchia wrote a NY Daily op-ed entitled "The real tragedy behind Operation Varsity Blues: Colleges forget their mission is to produce virtuous adults, not just successful ones" on March 19, 2019.

Professor Lucia Silecchia was quoted in a January 25, 2019, Catholic News Agency article on New York's new abortion law entitled "What does ‘for the life and health of the mother’ mean in abortion law?"

Professor Lucia Silecchia was quoted in an E&E News article entitled "1,000 sermons: Clergy invokes kids' case from the pulpit" on October 19, 2018.

Professor Lucia Silecchia debuted the biweekly column "On Ordinary Times" in January 2019. Inspired by the April 10, 2019 observance of National Siblings Day, this column, entitled “The Companions of Ordinary Times” reflects on the important role of the bond between sisters and brothers, takes a glimpse at examples -- good and bad! - of Biblical siblings, and expresses gratitude for the blessing of siblings as companions through the ordinary times of life.

Recent Publications
Lucia A. Silecchia, professor of law and director of Faculty Research, published an opinion piece in Newsweek on August 23, 2022. In the article, “In the Post-Dobbs Era, Universities Must Step Up to Support Pregnant Students,” Silecchia discusses how universities can and must directly address student concerns about pregnancy's impact on their academic and professional futures in the post-Dobbs era.

Professor Lucia A. Silecchia published her article, “A ‘Directed Trust’ Approach to Intergenerational Solidarity in American Environmental Law and Policy: A Modest Proposal,” on April 30, 2021, in William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review, Vol. 45. The paper explores the possible value of the use of trust law in the environmental law context—reviewing the ways in which trust doctrine can work as a means of implementing principles of intergenerational responsibility in the environmental law context.

Professor Lucia A. Silecchia’s bi-weekly column “On Ordinary Times,” was published by The Boston Pilot on April 21, 2021. The column, “A Labor of Ordinary Time,” offers a reflection on the link between social teachings of the Church and teachings regarding work and labor, and how this last year has highlighted the importance of work.

Professor Lucia Silecchia released the twenty-second edition of her biweekly column "On Ordinary Times," entitled "Reuniting for Ordinary Times." This column reflects on the many ways in which the seasons of Advent and Christmas give us many celebratory occasions to gather together–—and encourages seeking out ways to come together with those in our lives with whom we may have grown apart. 

Professor Lucia Silecchia’s latest editions of her biweekly column “On Ordinary Times” focuses on the beginning of a new school year and the sorrows of September 11th.

Professor Lucia Silecchia spoke at the conference What’s Really Going On? The Root Causes of the Current Crisis held by The Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America on March 26, 2019. She also spoke at a Church in Crisis: A Panel Discussion in Chicago held by The Catholic University of America on
April 11, 2019.

Professor George P. Smith, II

Professional Activities
In recognition of his professional life achievements and his support, as an alumnus of Indiana University, Professor Emeritus George Smith was presented with the University Bicentennial Medal by President Michael McRobbie. Professor Smith was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree from Indiana University in 1998.

Professor Emeritus George Smith renewed his affiliation as a Residential Fellow at The Institute for Advanced Study at Indiana University, Bloomington, in the month of November 2019. 

Professor Emeritus George Smith participated in the International Congress on Law and Mental Health in Rome, Italy. On July 25, 2019, he presented a paper entitled “Dignity in Old Age.”

Professor Emeritus George Smith was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge from July 6 to July 21, 2019.

Professor Emeritus George Smith was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge from July 6 to July 21, 2019. Smith participated in the International Congress on Law and Mental Health in Rome and presented a paper entitled Dignity in Old Age on July 25, 2019.

Professor Emeritus George P. Smith delivered a memorial lecture at the Maurer School of Law, Indiana University honoring Professor Henry H. H. Remak on March 22, 2017. The lecture has been published as an article entitled "Dignity in Living and Dying," in 25 Indiana Journal of Global Studies 413-438 (2018).

Recent Publications
Professor Emeritus George P. Smith recently had his article, “Pursuing a Right to Genetic Happiness,” published by The Journal of Law in Society. Smith’s work, which appeared in the journal’s Winter 2022 volume, focuses on reproductive freedom and “‘new’ eugenics” and looks at the exploration of “procreativity, liberty, and determining which restrictions are reasonable to impose upon its exercise.”

Professor Emeritus George P. Smith published his seventeenth book entitled, Dignity as a Human Right? Lexington Books an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, is the publisher. Smith and Catholic Law Alumnus William P. Lane '17 published the article "Re-Evaluating the Demise of the Average, Ordinary, Reasonable Person: Unintended Consequences in the Law of Nuisance" in the Catholic University Law Review, Vol. 67, Issue 4.

Assistant Professor of Law Chad Squitieri

Professional Activities
Chad Squitieri, assistant professor of law and fellow for Catholic Law’s Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, served as a panelist for a program, “Towards Nondelegation Doctrines,” co-hosted by Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) and The Georgetown Center for the Constitution. During the discussion, Professor Squitieri shared his theory of developing multiple “power specific” nondelegation doctrines.

Recent Media
Chad Squitieri, assistant professor of law and fellow for Catholic Law’s Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, appeared in a CBN News segment discussing originalism and the major questions doctrine on October 13, 2022. Professor Squitieri’s scholarship focuses on administrative law and constitutional interpretation. The segment specifically discusses how major questions doctrine was applied in West Virginia v. EPA and what it means for the administrative state and the separation of powers which is paramount to America’s Constitution.

Chad Squitieri, assistant professor of law and fellow for Catholic Law’s Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, acted as moderator at a program hosted by The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, on October 14 entitled, Administration of Antitrust: The FTC and the Rule of Law. In the third panel of the afternoon, “The FTC vs. the Roberts Court: The Major Questions Doctrine, Rulemaking, and More,” Professor Squitieri led a discussion that included Jeffery S. Lubbers, Professor of Practice in Administrative Law at Washington College of Law; Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor at Columbia Law; and The Honorable Eugene Scalia, Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

Recent Publication
Chad Squitieri, assistant professor of law and fellow for the Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT), published an essay in Law & Liberty on September 6, 2022, which outlines why the major questions doctrine, which was formally recognized by the Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA, is inconsistent with textualism.

Assistant Professor of Law Asma Uddin

Professional Activities
Visiting Assistant Professor Asma T. Uddin’s book, When Islam Is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom, has been selected by the University of Missouri School of Law (Mizzou Law) as their 2022-2023 One Read title. It was selected because it discusses the constitutional values of religious freedom for people of all faiths and explores the tensions that press on this American idea. Professor Uddin defends people of all religious faiths so that all can live and worship freely. She will be speaking with the Mizzou Law community in person on November 7, 2022.

Visiting Assistant Professor Asma Uddin participated in the Notre Dame Law Review’s first symposium of the year, “Unconstitutional Conditions and Religious Liberty.” The symposium, hosted in collaboration with the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative on October 24, featured religious liberty experts from across the country. The program was broken into two panels and the authors discussed their written scholarship, which will appear in a special issue of the Notre Dame Law Review vol. 98’s Reflection issue.

Recent Media
Catholic Law’s Visiting Assistant Professor Asma Uddin was featured in a list of 20 faith leaders that are challenging the conservative movement to change toward something more expansive, and who ask more from our fellow communities of faith. The list, “The new reformers,” appeared in an April 11, 2022, article published by Deseret News. Professor Uddin was noted as a “bridge builder” for her work addressing religious conflict as an attorney.

Professor Kevin Walsh

Professional Activities
Kevin Walsh, Knights of Columbus Professor of Law and the Catholic Tradition and co-director of CIT, served as a panelist for an event co-hosted by Catholic Law’s Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) and The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on September 1, 2022. Walsh focused his comments on the importance of justice, law, and jurisdiction, relying on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas when discussing the relationship between originalism and the natural law tradition.

Professor Elizabeth Winston

Professional Activities
Professor Elizabeth Winston spoke on a December 2 panel, “Roundtable on IP Issues and Legal Trends.” Hosted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Global Intellectual Property Academy and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Winston addressed hot issues in intellectual property law to approximately 60 judges from Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.

Recent Publications
Professor Elizabeth Winston published the article “Bargaining for Innovation” in the Villanova Law Review, Vol. 66.

Professor Elizabeth Winston published the article, “Information Age Technology “Industrial Age Law” in the Tennessee Law Review, Vol. 87.

Professor Elizabeth Winston's article entitled "Patent Boundaries" was cited in the Federal Circuit decision, M-I Drilling Fluids UK Ltd, M-I LLC v. Dynamic Air LTDA, 2018 WL 2187726, issued on May 14, 2018. The article was cited in the text of the concurrence as and in the footnotes. 

Recent Media
Professor Elizabeth Winston was quoted in a recent Bloomberg Law article, “GE Turbine Block a Setback, Not Death Knell, for New Wind Energy.” The article continues to explore the ramifications of the federal court case between Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) and General Electric (GE) over the intellectual property rights of wind turbines. Winston commented on the recent injunction against GE’s Haliade-X wind turbine and specifically an exempted pair of projects already underway in New Jersey and Massachusetts.

 

Professor Leah Wortham

Professional Activities
Professor Emerita Leah Wortham spoke at UCLA International Legal Ethics Conference (ILEC) on August 14, 2022, regarding Protecting Judicial Independence through Regional and International Standards.

Professor Emerita Leah Wortham joined Professor NYU Professor Robert Bauer, Co-Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, in a panel called The Decline of Judicial Independence in Europe: Is the U.S. on the Same Path? Jonathan McGowan, an attorney from Jacksonville, Florida, organized and moderated the panel for the American Bar Association International Law Annual Conference at the Capitol Hilton on April 28, 2022.

Professor Emerita Leah Wortham spoke online on October 15, 2021, on Judicial Resistance in the Trump and Post-Election Era at a conference hosted by the Faculty of Law of the University of Oslo and the University of Business Administration in Gdynia, Poland. The program, Servants of the law and servants of higher ideals—on judicial resistance when the rule of law is endangered, is the third in a series of conferences in a research project called Judges under Stress—the Breaking Point of Judicial Institutions sponsored by the Research Council of Norway and the University of Oslo.

Professor Emerita Leah Wortham and Catholic Law colleague Professor Catherine Klein were presenters at the virtual conference, Turning Challenges into Opportunities: Justice Education in Times of Crises, co-sponsored by Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE), International Journal of Clinical Legal Education (IJCLE), and Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education (ACCLE). Wortham and Klein gave their presentation, “How Clinical Education Collaboration Can Benefit Our Students, Our Clients, and Ourselves,” on June 16, 2021, as part of a team of people involving members from the UK, Czech Republic, Italy, Nigeria, and two other U.S. law schools.

Professor Emerita Leah Wortham, along with Catholic Law colleague Catherine Klein, joined Czech, UK, and US clinical colleagues to present How Global Clinical Education Collaboration Can Benefit Our Students, Our Clients, and Ourselves at the American Association of Law School’s Clinical Conference on Saturday, May 1, 2021. With this year’s virtual conference format, clinicians from Italy, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, Spain, and Turkey joined US colleagues from around the country at the session.

Professor Emerita Leah Wortham was honored as one of the inaugural recipients of the Externships Achievement Award at the Externships 10 Conference, “20/20 Vision for the Future,” at Syracuse University College of Law. The award, created and awarded by the Externships 10 planning committee, honors “individuals, groups, or institutions for outstanding contributions to externship pedagogy and the externship community.”  

Recent Media
Professor Emerita Leah Wortham was quoted in The National Journal on June 9, 2021. In the article, Wortham shared her thoughts on the bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) and its decision to dismiss the complaint filed against then-Attorney General William Barr for violating several ethics rules.

Professor Emerita Leah Wortham was quoted in an article for The National Law Journal on May 4, 2021. In the article, Wortham, who has worked extensively on legal ethics, gave her thoughts on Alex Oh’s departure from the SEC just one week after being in the role of Head of the Enforcement Division. Wortham commented that the pending discovery rule sanctions in the Exxon Mobile litigation likely would not result in bar discipline and hence would not have blocked Oh from her work at the SEC.

Recent Publications
Professor Emerita Leah Wortham along with Fryderyk Zoll, Professor of Law at Jagiellonian University, co-authored a chapter, “Weaponizing Judicial Discipline: Poland,” in the textbook, Disciplining Judges: Contemporary Challenges and Controversies.

Professor Emerita Leah Wortham published an article in the Clinical Law Review entitled,
“Strengthening the International Clinical Scholarly Community: Opportunities for the Clinical
Law Review and Beyond.”  

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