Elisabeth Haub School of Law News

Professor James Fishman speaks with Courthouse News Service about NRA facing an ‘existential’ New York trial that threatens its future.

Many experts, like Pace University law professor James Fishman, are shocked that the NRA allowed the lawsuit to get this far. “Usually what happens is, if an organization is approached by the attorney general who says ‘you are doing wrong,’ they will do whatever they can to settle before trial,” Fishman said in an interview. “Because it’s disastrous for the organization. Some organizations never recover from it.”

Professor Bennett Gershman tells Salon the court won’t let Trump lawyers try to get jurors to “disregard” the law.

The trial court will likely find that allegations of foreign influence, disinformation and biased prosecutors and other government officials will mostly "confuse" the jury and are evidently "not relevant" to Trump's state of mind, Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon. This is particularly true given that he was “repeatedly” and “strongly” advised by insiders close to him that he lost the election. “It’s a desperate and distracting effort to throw all sorts of wild and irrational claims against the wall and hope that something sticks,” Gershman said. “In legal circles, it’s mockingly referred to as the ‘shotgun’ or ‘kitchen sink’ defense.”

Professor Nicholas Robinson speaks to Times Union about the Green Amendment case over massive landfill being under appeal and its potential broader impact.

“It’s going to be watched very closely,” said Nicholas Robinson, a law professor at Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law. “It will be persuasive to any other cases that are pending.”

Pace University School of Law has tracked Green Amendment claims that have sprung up in several other cases around the state, including the People of the State of New York v. Norlite (PDF).

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Professor and staff attorney for the Food & Farm Business Law Clinic Jack Hornickel speaks with The Examiner News about a local organic farm being forced to relocate.

“The trend in the last few years of greater land unaffordability was fueled by COVID,” said Jack Hornickel, a staff attorney for the Food & Farm Business Law Clinic at Pace University in Pleasantville who has been advising Deacon. “It was an outward urban migration and because land values are driven by a free market, there are higher more profitable uses for the land than farming.”

But there are few tools available to hold the justice accountable, says Pace University Law Prof. Bennett Gershman. Thomas' willingness to receive such benefits, including trips and vacations which total in the millions of dollars, is almost “certainly unlawful and ethically reprehensible,” Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon. “We have never seen a situation like this before,” Gershman said. “Thomas could be removed from the Supreme Court for his misconduct but won’t be. He won’t leave voluntarily even if he doesn’t like the pay. He has lifetime tenure. His position appears to be to stonewall his detractors and continue to serve on the Court, serving without much distinction, but with considerable power.”

“​The state court ruling sets a historic precedent which other states may follow,” Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon. “It is a landmark ruling. I can’t think of an application of this provision in modern times.”

Professor Bennett Gershman speaks to Salon about a committee that regulates attorneys in Arizona finding probable cause to take formal action against three lawyers who acted on behalf of former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in election-related matters.