This week, I and 14 other law professors from West Virginia University sent
a letter to U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., urging her and her Senate
colleagues to vote on the nomination of Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland to the United
States Supreme Court.
Writing in our individual capacities as West Virginia citizens and as legal scholars
familiar with the Constitution and its separation of powers principles, we ask
that Senator Capito urge Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley to
hold hearings and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to schedule a vote on
whether to confirm Chief Judge Garland’s nomination. The Senate should move now
to fulfill its constitutional duty to decide whether to consent to the president’s
nomination.
The Appointments Clause states that the President “shall nominate, and by and with
the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Judges of the Supreme Court.”
The “Appointments Clause” appears in Article II of the Constitution, which sets
out the powers of the Executive branch. (A separate section, Article I, pertains
to the powers of Congress.) The Constitution clearly gives the President, not the
Senate, the power to appoint Supreme Court justices. The Senate’s role is limited
to advice and consent. That role cannot be understood in a way that strips the
president of his constitutional appointment power.
MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—Last week (March 30, 20156), President Barack Obama granted
clemency to 61 federal prisoners. Three of them are clients of student attorneys
working in the
Clinical Law Program at the West Virginia University College of Law.
“To obtain a Presidential pardon on behalf of a client is a once-in-a-lifetime moment
and experience for any attorney,” said
Valena Beety, associate professor of law and director of the
West Virginia Innocence Project at WVU. “For our law students to have accomplished
this feat is incredible; I am proud of our clients for who they are, and proud
of our students for the hard work they put into their petitions and advocating
for their clients.”
Third-year law student Adriana Faycurry (left) worked with Dwayne Walker, a
man who was 24 years old when he was sentenced in 1997 to mandatory life without
parole for selling crack cocaine. Walker has been a model prisoner who
writes children’s books, creates plans for a non-profit for inner city kids, and
has multiple vocational certifications.
Faycurry drafted Walker’s executive summary and clemency petition with assistance
from Beety and
Italia Patti, the Franklin D. Cleckley Fellow at the College of Law.
MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA --
Patrick McGinley, the Charles H. Haden II Professor of Law at West
Virginia University, is the 2016 winner of the Svitlana Kravchenko Environmental
Rights Award.
The award recognizes McGinley's "work as a legal scholar, teacher, and
public interest environmental litigator [who] has been committed to the rule
of law, speaking truth to power, mentoring law students and lawyers and empowering
families and communities marginalized by discrimination based on race, wealth,
and ethnicity."
The Land Air Water, the nation’s oldest and largest student environmental law society at
the University of Oregon, presents the award annually at its Public Interest
Environmental Law Conference.
McGinley has been a leader in environmental law during a career that has spanned
more than 40 years. Among his accomplishments, he litigated —- and won —- the first
mountaintop removal case; he represented a citizen’s group that preserved the Cranberry
Backcountry in West Virginia’s Highlands as federal wilderness; and he is a
leading authority on the Freedom of Information Act.
MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — The
fifth annual national energy conference at West Virginia University will focus
on the impacts of the global energy transition on coal communities in the state
and Central Appalachia.
The conference takes place on Friday, April 8, beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the WVU
College of Law. It will feature experts from industry, public policy organizations,
environmental groups, and academic institutions. Former Senator John D. Rockefeller
IV (D-W.Va.) will deliver the keynote address.
MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—West Virginia University College of Law Professor
Vince Cardi has been elected to The American Law Institute (ALI).
Founded in 1923, the ALI is a nonpartisan organization that produces
scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. Its membership is limited
to 3,000 individuals “who reflect the excellence and diversity of today’s legal
profession.” There are only seven ALI members in West Virginia.
The WVU Bowles Rice Professor of Law, Cardi began teaching at the College
of Law in 1967. His expertise includes bankruptcy law, commercial law, legal drafting,
sale and secured transaction, and contracts law. He is a former recipient of the
West Virginia University Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching.
Cardi serves on the West Virginia State Election Commission, the West Virginia Commission
on Uniform State Laws and the national Uniform Law Commission. For more than 20
years, he has been a member of the
West Virginia Law Institute Governing Council. He has also worked with
the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, the American Bankruptcy Institute
Law Review Advisory Board, Legal Aid of West Virginia, and the Ohio River Basin
Energy Study.
Cardi received his bachelor’s degree and J.D. from Ohio State University and earned
his LL.M. from Harvard University.
MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — A new book by WVU Law professor
Michael Blumenthal chronicles the life and work of conservationist Rita Miljo,
who was known as “the Mother Teresa of Baboons.”
In 1989, Miljo founded the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education (CARE)
in South Africa. Based on the edge of Kruger National Park, CARE is the world’s
largest rescue and rehabilitation center for Cape baboons.
In 2007, Blumenthal volunteered at CARE and began a deep and unusual friendship with
Miljo: he, the son of Holocaust survivors, and she, a childhood member of Hitler
Youth.
Before she died in a fire in 2012, Miljo entrusted Blumenthal with the telling of
her story. “Because They Needed Me: Rita Miljo and the Orphaned Baboons of South
Africa” (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2016), is drawn from Miljo’s journals spanning 30
years.
MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA —The
West Virginia University College of Law continues to be ranked a top 100 law
school by U.S. News & World Report.
In its “2017 Best Graduate Schools” guide, the magazine ranks WVU Law #97 out of
196 accredited law schools.
“The U.S. News rankings are highly competitive,” said
Gregory Bowman, dean of the College of Law. “The fact that WVU Law is a top
100 law school is largely due to our innovative programs, the high-quality legal
education we offer, and the career opportunities our students have when they graduate.
Our faculty and staff work hard to make our law school exceptional, and it shows.
We also benefit enormously from the generous support of alumni, friends, the legal
community, and WVU’s leadership.”
To compile its 2017 law school rankings, U.S. News used statistics from 2014 and
2015, including data on peer assessment, LSAT scores, employment rate, and bar
passage rate.
MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA —A Mountaineer was on the front lines of history last year
when the Supreme Court of the United States made same-sex marriage legal in all
50 states.
Jacklyn “Jaci” Gonzales Martin was co-counsel for Jim Obergefell in the groundbreaking
civil rights case Obergefell v. Hodges. She earned her undergraduate and law degrees
from
West Virginia University.
Martin is returning to campus to discuss her part in the Supreme Court decision on
Thursday, March 31, at 6:00 p.m. in the Event Hall at the WVU College of Law.
Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.
MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — The West Virginia University College of Law is hosting a conference to discuss the legal medical and industrial use of cannabis in the state.
