By Tara Krieger

President Obama assured him it would be “just like riding a bicycle.” The ex-president would remember what to do. But former President Bill Clinton described that night in December 2010 when Mr. Obama ceded him the White House podium another way.

“So weird.”

The nation’s 42nd president had appeared in the briefing room to lobby a tax cut bill when his Democratic successor whispered—moments before the cameras began rolling—that he would be ducking out early to appease the First Lady at a Christmas party.

“He hit me right between the eyes when we were standing there,” said Mr. Clinton, who fielded questions for an hour Thursday night from the event’s moderator, Thane Rosenbaum.

(This author, a former LASIS staff writer, feels the macrocosmic parallel of reassuming a role she once performed regularly, and is grateful for the opportunity to pen one final article before she graduates next month.)

Nearly a dozen years have passed since Mr. Clinton last occupied the Oval Office. His hair is a little whiter, his Arkansas drawl a bit hoarser, and his physique, after his much-touted conversion to a vegan lifestyle, much leaner, but he remained ever as likeably outspoken on Thursday night, the centerpiece of a conversation brought to us by the Forum on Law, Culture & Society at Fordham Law School, as part of its annual Conversation series.

Indeed, said Professor Rosenbaum, the Forum’s director, the Clinton administration feels like “another lifetime ago.”  He reminded us of that seemingly-long-ago era before the peace and prosperity of the 1990s yielded to war, terrorism, and economic strife; before a Congress that once worked together became horribly fragmented; before a budget surplus gave way to colossal debt; before traditional print and broadcast media were supplanted by the Internet and 24-hour news networks. The dualities are far from that simply pronounced—among other things, the Clinton era also featured government shutdowns and partisan impeachment hearings—but a longing for those rosier times could explain Mr. Clinton’s continued involvement as a “crusading diplomat on the world stage.”

Since leaving office in early 2001, Mr. Clinton has partnered with other political leaders—including unlikely ones such as former Senator Bob Dole and both former President Bushes—and been deployed by the United Nations, all in the name of humanitarian work, raising money for families of 9/11 victims and recovery efforts after the South Asian tsunami, Hurricanes Ike and Katrina, and the earthquake in Haiti.

In 2005, he established the William J. Clinton Foundation, a sort of global think tank that brings together philanthropists, heads of non-governmental organizations, and members of the media to form “creative networks of cooperation” to address problems such access to HIV/AIDS and malaria medication, childhood obesity, and climate change.

“If I were a lawyer, I’d say I got a disaster practice here,” said Mr. Clinton.

Well-known is that Mr. Clinton, who Thursday night offhandedly professed a love for the Socratic Method, graduated from Yale Law School in 1973. Less well-known is that his first post-law school job was teaching law at the University of Arkansas.   Read more »

By Drew Carroll

Yankee Stadium comes into view out the window of a Bronx bound 4 train and I feel a tinge of excitement.

I’m not going to a game, though.  Instead, I get off at the next stop, from where I head for my weekly visit to a seventh grade classroom inside Jordan L. Mott Middle School.

My mission: To teach the class of minority students – mostly black and Latino—about the Constitution.  Lately, the lessons have had real world practicalities for these kids.

Trayvon Martin’s shooting in Florida has sparked a nationwide discussion about that state’s “Stand Your Ground Law.” People in New York City are also talking about the New York Police Department’s “Stop-and-Frisk” policy, which is said to apply disproportionately to minorities.

The statistics bear out such suspicions: of the 684,330 stops last year, 87 percent were either black or Hispanic. The NYPD says that this is not due to racial profiling, but because more cops are assigned to high crime (mostly minority) urban areas.

Though some lawmakers are trying to craft legislation to curb the racial profiling inherent in the city’s Stop-and-Frisk Policy, it’s the law for now, and one that these seventh graders are familiar with, from their parents, siblings, or even from personal experience – though they are only 13.

My visit to the school is coordinated through Street Law, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides information to underprivileged communities about law. The program was created in honor of the slain Robert F. Kennedy, and in the 40 years since it was created, Street Law has expanded into a million dollar operation bringing legal education to the underserved across the United States and in 40 countries worldwide. Over 100 law schools participate, offering practical legal lessons in their communities.

New York Law School’s Street Law program is designed specifically to meet the challenges presented to minority communities by the city’s Stop-and-Frisk policy. For ten Fridays in the spring, New York Law School students travel to the South Bronx, lesson plans in hand. With the fourth amendment as the focal point, middle school students learn about the law governing police stops, frisks, searches, and arrests, read Supreme Court cases about their rights as students, and then argue both sides of the issues. It may be hard to imagine a group of middle school students sitting around talking about a Supreme Court case, but that is the beauty of Street Law. As one student recently told me, “I need to talk about this,” and with Street Law, she gets that chance.   Read more »

By Nadia-Elysse Harris

Let’s see how you like it if we legislate your penises, boys.

Because let’s face it, it takes two to tango.  Recent state laws intended to place obstacles in the way of women’s right to abortion don’t seem to notice that women don’t get pregnant without a little help from men. Meantime, on the federal side, the government did keep men in its discussion of women’s reproductive rights — by holding hearings on proposed birth control reform in front of a nearly all male panel of experts.

It’s somewhat surprising there’s a debate about legalized abortion at all.  We thought the matter was settled with Roe v. Wade , when the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny women the right to have an abortion. And then in 1992, Planned Parenthood v. Casey went a step further, saying that state laws regulating abortions can’t place an undue burden on women. The friction between the rights these cases try to protect and the newly proposed legislation sweeping the nation has left many women bewildered, and indignant.

And some of our elected officials are doing something about it.

In an unconventional turn of events, some state senators and representatives have begun proposing legislation aimed at the sexual and reproductive organs – of men.  For the most part, penis-targeted legislation has been flying under the radar, but luckily for you, dear readers, we rounded up some of our favorites:   Read more »

By Meghan Lalonde

I grew up in a family of hockey players. My father played and my great great great uncle is in the Hockey Hall of Fame; he scored the first goal in the first-ever National Hockey League game in 1917 when he played for the Montreal Canadiens. Even more impressive, at least to my dad, he led the league in penalty minutes.

Fighting is just one of many penalties a player can be called for during a hockey game. When a player violates a rule he receives a penalty and is sent to the penalty box for between two to five minutes, depending on the severity of the rule that was broken. Fighting will get you the full five minutes in the “sin bin.” Heard of the band Five for Fighting? Now you understand the name.

In the wake of studies that suggest repeated head trauma (like concussions) may lead to a degenerative brain diseases known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.), many contact sports have been criticized for their violent hits and frequent head injuries. The National Football League (NFL) responded by tightening rules governing hits to the head while increasing penalties and fines for players who violate the new rules. But the NHL fights on… for now.

According to a recent NHL Players’ Association poll, 98 per cent of all players think fighting is just a part of the game. But should it be?

In December, the New York Times published “Punched Out: The Life and Death of a Hockey Enforcer”, a three-part series by John Branch covering the career and death of Derek Boogaard, a former player for the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild. He played as an “enforcer”, which is hockey slang for saying he spent a good share of his ice time beating up the other team and getting beat up himself. During his career, Derek “The Boogeyman” Boogaard had a hand in over 200 fights.

He was posthumously diagnosed with C.T.E at age 28 and sadly, he isn’t the only young enforcer to have recently died with the disease.

I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Branch about the future of fighting in the NHL. Here’s what he said, and our take on it:  Read more »

By Alison Parker

There are some things in life you just don’t forget. I remember one summertime conversation with such pristine clarity that it is hard to believe that it happened almost two years ago. My dad, a Florida public defender for over 37 years, announced to my family that he was resigning from his job and moving to Afghanistan to help reform its criminal justice system.

Now, I’m not one to brag, but my dad is somewhat of a criminal defense legend in both my hometown and throughout the state. He defended the “Gainesville Ripper” in the early 90’s, which was the highest profile serial murder case that my hometown has ever seen, he has been five-time president of the Florida Public Defender Association, and was an adored trial practice professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

But more importantly, he’s nobly dedicated his life to representing the underprivileged — serial murderers, sex offenders, you name it; my dad always kept the details of his more colorful cases shielded from my older brother and me. That is exactly why going to Afghanistan just didn’t make any sense to me — why would he leave all of that behind for a war zone halfway across the world? After I got over that initial emotional hurdle (and believe me, it took a while),I realized that what he and the other lawyers in his program set out to do was an incredible challenge, and in many ways Afghanistan needs his expertise more than we do.  So, through a contract with the U.S. Department of State and a private entity, Dad was off to Afghanistan for two years.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations in the world–its economy relies largely on agriculture, but a devastating drought has made it near impossible to yield anything substantial in the last year. The nation boasts one of the highest mortality rates in the world — the average life expectancy is only 48 years. Between feuds with the Russians, the Taliban and now the United States, the nation has been in armed conflict since 1978; I think it goes without saying that it is a perilous place to be.

As “Senior Criminal Defense Advisor,” my dad is the head of a team of U.S. and Afghan attorneys and translators that work with the Afghanistan Ministry of Justice, the Afghanistan Independent Bar Association and the Independent Legal Aid Board.  His team provides training and individual mentoring to both government and private practice criminal attorneys. He also provides technical assistance in the form of advice and recommendations on management, administration and funding.

After three years of study about our legal system, I wondered what system of justice my dad was dealing with in Afghanistan. I did some research and I thought I would share some of my findings.   Read more »