Albany Law Faculty Serve as National Experts in Media
In the past year, Albany Law School's faculty have become trusted sources for national and local media outlets and served as expert voices addressing critical legal issues and contributing to public discourse.
Law faculty play a crucial role in translating complex legal concepts into accessible insights for the public. With increasing media demand for expert commentary on legal matters, Albany Law’s professors have stepped up, offering their knowledge on topics ranging from civil rights to emerging technologies. They’ve also injected their expert opinions in major news outlets as columnists, penning op-eds, and bringing much-needed context to complicated issues.
Op-Eds
Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life; Hon. Harold R Tyler Chair in Law and Technology Ray Brescia
May 20, 2024
The 19th Century Case That Transformed the Legal System—And Holds a Lesson for the Trump Trials
Brescia wrote in the international online outlet and magazine about the similarities between the 19th century Boss-Tweed trials and former President Trump’s current trials.
Brescia has been tapped by the national online outlet to pen quick-witted columns about former President Trump’s legal trials.
SCOTUS Shouldn’t Even Hear Trump’s Appeal on Immunity Ruling Feb. 6, 2024
Trump’s ‘No Victims’ Fraud Defense Is Insult to Taxpayers Feb. 16, 2024
Supreme Court Is Doing Trump’s Campaign Work for Him Feb. 29, 2024
Judge Cannon Could Get Herself Booted From Trump’s Docs Case March 19, 2024
These Under-the-Radar Rulings Are Really Bad for Trump March 21, 2024
Trump’s Still in Deep Legal Trouble in New York March 25, 2024
Trump’s Out-of-Control Antics Simply Won’t Work in Court April 14, 2024
Trump’s Unhinged Now, but Just Wait Until He Takes the Stand April 16, 2024
Attacking Michael Cohen’s Credibility Won’t Save Trump April 22, 2024
SCOTUS Justices’ Pro-Trump Arguments Make Zero Sense April 25, 2024
Trump Being Thrown in Jail for Contempt Could Really Happen April 30, 2024
Did Trump’s Spokesperson Violate the Terms of His Gag Order? May 8, 2024
Trump’s Verdict Was No ‘Disgrace.’ The Rule of Law Won May 30, 2024
Trump’s Whining About the “rigged” judiciary is ridiculous June 7, 2024
The Supreme Court Just Gave Trump License to Really Run Riot July 1, 2024
Immunity Corrupts. Absolute Immunity Corrupts Absolutely July 2, 2024
Rudy Ruling Shows Why We Must Insurrection-Proof Our Courts Sept. 30, 2024
Assistant Professor of Law; Director, Family Violence Litigation Clinic Dale Margolin Cecka
NYS should not allow anonymous reporting of child abuse July 1, 2024
Cecka wrote in the regional online outlet and newspaper about the need for New York to reform its system for reporting child abuse
How "It Ends With Us" gets domestic violence wrong August 21, 2024
“Capturing the truth of domestic violence is a mammoth task – and perhaps those involved with "It Ends with Us" expected accolades for even attempting it. But they owe a responsibility to the millions that live with fear every day – to tell their stories faithfully – and an even bigger responsibility to the young women who will one day experience intimate partner violence to not romanticize it. Here’s hoping that the rumored sequel is just that – a rumor,” Cecka writes in the piece tackling themes in the movie adaptation of a wildly popular novel by the same name.
"The Violence Against Women Act Turns 30 Today—But Are We Still Failing Survivors?" September 13, 2024
“These monstrous deaths—everywhere around the world—are a vile reminder that domestic violence does not discriminate by geography, profession, or status. We must commit to combating this epidemic, strengthening laws like VAWA, and ensuring that they are backed by sufficient resources and legal mechanisms which actually work to protect victims,” Cecka writes.
President and Dean Cinnamon P. Carlarne
Carlarne’s letter to the editor regarding "Asheville, Tampa and Lessons From Hurricane Helene," was published in the New York Times on Oct 10, 2024.
“Preparing for climate change demands that we rethink how we make decisions at every scale. The federal government needs to do a better job of everything from reducing emissions to updating flood maps. The North Carolina legislature needs to adopt new building standards and disaster resilience strategies. Cities and towns need to actively engage in efforts to become climate havens,” she wrote.
Visiting Assistant Professor; Director of the Immigration Law Clinic Lauren DesRosiers
"For immigrants, there's only one way forward" February 25, 2024.
"Supporting immigrant New Yorkers ensures prosperity and security for all of New York. Immigration is an extraordinary economic engine. Immigrants substantially lower crime rates, making communities safer. New York has a choice: It can fund immigration legal services and choose to uphold the dignity of immigrants and the value of equality before the law. Or it can turn its back on those principles and reward exploitative corporate greed," DesRosiers wrote.
Associate Dean for Online Education Jonathan Rosenbloom
The Rise of State and Local Environmental Leadership July 25, 2024
Rosenbloom wrote in the national legal trade outlet about how state and local governments are stepping up in response to the Supreme Court’s hostility towards environmental regulations.
"The Case for Returning Disaster-Prone Areas Back to Nature" September 27, 2024
"In disaster-prone areas where human development has not yet occurred, state or local governments should preemptively limit development. In areas where people already live but repeatedly experience catastrophic loss after multiple disaster strikes, state and local governments should step in and prevent rebuilding — no matter how nice the view.
Sacrifice zones are not an abstract idea. Many state and local governments already take a similar regulatory approach for conservation or housing purposes."
A letter to the editor titled "When Nature Says Don’t Live Here, Listen," was published in the New York Times on September 30, 2024.
“As we continue to see fires, floods, droughts, hurricanes and other storms ravage communities across the country, let’s remember that some places were never meant to be home. Let’s leave the rebuilds to nature, where the only residents are the ones that belong.”
Professor of Law; Professor of Bioethics at Albany Medical College; Director, Health Law and Compliance Program Evelyn Tenenbaum
Removing barriers to split liver transplants will save lives August 8, 2024
Tenenbaum wrote in the national health trade outlet about how changes in our organ donation system to allow more split liver transplants can save lives
Visiting Assistant Professor of Law Michael Wetmore ’14
Don't blame bail reform for random violence July 31, 2024
Wetmore wrote in the regional online outlet and newspaper about the impact judges’ lack of judicial discretion is having on crime rates.
Expert Analysis
Faculty were also called upon by several outlets to weigh in on the news of the moment. They often offered legal explanations and expertise and helped viewers and readers digest the court decisions that may impact them.
Professor Diego H. Alcalá Laboy
Albany Times Union
"Report: Ritter raid part of federal election interference probe" Aug. 23, 2024 Provided insight regarding an executed federal search warrant
Appeared on "Crimenes 101: Entre Causas y Estrategias" to discuss crime policy and the prison abolition movement in Puerto Rico August 27, 2024
Professor Vincent M. Bonventre
Spectrum TV
"Albany Law School professor breaks down SCOTUS decisions" June 30, 2023
InformNNY
"Student Loan forgiveness blocked" July 1, 2023
WTEN
"New York not able to get around SCOTUS education" July 7, 2023
NY Daily News
"Migrant crisis resurfaces old question of whether New York State has a right to shelter" August 20, 2023
ABA Journal
"Justices drop 'respectfully' in some dissents, but SCOTUS rancor is tamer than in past" October 3, 2023
Capital Tonight
“Albany law professor discusses Trump cases, N.Y. abortion insurance case” April 24, 2024
Fox 5 New York
"Supreme Court preserves access to abortion pill” June 13, 2024
Newsday
"Rowan Wilson, NYS' new chief judge, is making a quick impact" February 12, 2024
"Ruling didn't negate school bus camera tickets, experts say; Suffolk tosses 8,000 contested ones" June 19, 2024
WNYC News "Interview about the NYC Mayor Adams corruption case" September 30, 2024
Dean Ray Brescia
Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen
"US Supreme Court rules Colorado cannot ban Trump from presidential ballot," March 3, 2024.
Another legal scholar, Albany Law School's Ray Brescia, said the court's decision prevents a situation in which there is a "patchwork of states with different processes".
"If the court was to allow Colorado to proceed in this way, what's to stop some rogue prosecutor in another state from saying that a candidate from a different party is not a viable candidate because they engaged in insurrection?" he said.
"Barrett Chides Supreme Court Colleagues in Trump Ballot Rebuke," March 3, 2024.
“Barrett’s concurrence might appear that it is scolding the authors of the main opinion,” said Albany Law School professor Ray Brescia. “In reality, her very ‘boys-will-be-boys’ tone suggests that what she believes is there shouldn’t have been a separate concurrence” filed by the three liberal justices.
Her “wagging judicial finger is directed at the justices who wrote separately and not the authors of the majority’s opinion,” Brescia said.
"Supreme Court Must Strike Against Trump to Show Balance—Legal Expert," March 6, 2024.
"Why Liberal Supreme Court Justices Sided With Donald Trump," March 5, 2024.
"Brett Kavanaugh's 'Jarring' Supreme Court Remarks Stun Legal Experts," April 26, 2024.
"Supreme Court's Donald Trump Move Leaves Legal Expert 'Deeply Concerned" April 26, 2024
Appeared on the “A Little More Conversation with Ben O’Hara-Byrne” podcast on April 26, 2024.
"'Surprising' and 'disturbing': Legal experts react to Supreme Court arguments on Trump's immunity claim," April 30, 2024.
"The fact that we haven't had something like this happen before is consistent with the government's position that there are institutional norms that have largely held. So, to upset that delicate balance because, in the words of Justice Alito, we can't hold the president accountable for trying to subvert democracy in the fear that a future president might try to subvert democracy is just totally Alice in Wonderland."
Appeared live on May 26, 2024 to discuss the Supreme Court's decision to limit obstruction charges in the January 6 rioters case.
Quoted in Yahoo News piece "How Trump's Conviction will impact the US election" May 30, 2024
Brescia was quoted in the internationally syndicated newswire on how millions of voters, including Republicans, prefer early or mail-in voting
Supreme Court enters crunch time for term loaded with big issues June 24, 2024
Brescia was quoted in the national online outlet and daily Capitol Hill newspaper about the end of the Supreme Court’s term.
Ray Brescia, a constitutional law professor at Albany Law School, said that aside from the high-profile nature of the cases, they could reshape fundamental issues like the balance of power between states and the federal government.
“These decisions coming up could very well set a path for the United States over the next 20 years,” Brescia said.
Poll Dancing: Trump Pivots on Mail-in Voting June 6, 2024
Court Limits Obstruction Charges Against January 6 Rioters July 1, 2024
Brescia appeared on the national cable show CNN Newsroom to discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling on what January 6th rioters can be charged with
Professor Dale Cecka
"More States Seek To Curb Anonymous CPS Reports Against Parents" November 7, 2023
Albany Law School assistant law professor Dale Margolin Cecka was among the first to document anonymous reporting nearly a decade ago. In an influential 2014 journal article, she wrote that members of the public lack training on how to accurately identify signs of child neglect and abuse, and may do more harm than good by placing a call to authorities.
Cecka, who directs her law school’s Family Violence Litigation Clinic, said child welfare agencies should do more to corroborate anonymous CPS reports before launching investigations — unannounced visits that can be frightful and destabilizing. She praised the new laws in California and Texas that aim to tackle the problem, describing them as the first step in narrowing the “front door” of an often far-too-expansive child welfare system.
Dale Margolin Cecka
“You’ve got to start somewhere and this one is a pretty quick fix,” Cecka said. “I don’t think it’s hard to get most people on board with the idea that anonymous reports usually do nothing but open up families to needless investigation.”
"Getting Divorced While Pregnant Isn't Allowed In Some States?! " January 25, 2024
The good-ish news is that this isn't exactly a matter of policy, just best practice, says Dale Margolin Cecka, assistant professor of law and director of the Family Violence Litigation Clinic at Albany Law School.
"No states have laws explicitly preventing someone from getting a divorce if they are pregnant," she tells Scary Mommy. "Either spouse can file for a divorce and get the process started in all states, even if one party is pregnant."
There is, however, truth to the idea that divorce courts can (and do) decide to hold off on finalizing divorces for those who are pregnant until after the baby is born.
Nevertheless, "the duration of a divorce proceeding is going to vary based on the couple, judge, state, and circumstance," Cecka says. "It is always a court's discretion whether to grant a final divorce." And yep, this all goes for same-sex marriages where one partner has become pregnant via donated sperm, too.
"Supreme Court appears unlikely to restrict access to abortion pill" March 26, 2024
Dale Cecka is the director of the Family Violence Litigation Clinic at Albany Law School and closely followed Tuesday's hearing.
"The scope of this remedy being a nationwide ban...I think the judges were all pretty skeptical of that," she said. "I was surprised the more conservative justices did kind of grill the attorneys on that."
"It would be pretty hard in my opinion to get this decision upheld," Cecka added.
Courthouse News Service Podcast
Appeared on Courthouse News Service podcast on March 26, 2024
Areva Martin Show
Appeared live on the Areva Martin Show on March 13, 2024
"CPS role in Thomas Valva case prompting some rethinking of confidentiality laws" April 10, 2024.
Reason Why Man Wants To Call CPS on Sister Blasted Online: 'Please Help' June 11, 2024
Cecka was quoted in the national online outlet on the process for removing children from parents’ custody if a court finds neglect or abuse is present
State Abortion Law Questions Persist With Justices’ Pill Ruling June 13, 2024
Cecka was quoted in the online trade publication on how the Supreme Court’s ruling on mifepristone may impact reproductive laws in other states
US Supreme Court ruling on emergency abortions offers no clarity for states June 27, 2024
Syndicated to U.S. News & World Report, AOL, Daily Mail, and Yahoo! News
Cecka was quoted in the internationally syndicated newswire about the Supreme Court’s ruling on Idaho’s emergency abortion ban
"The complicated legacy of the 1994 crime bill," September 16, 2024
Dale Cecka, director of the Family Violence Litigation Clinic at Albany Law School: I don’t think that the general public is aware of just how stuck between a rock and a hard place [domestic violence] victims really are. The gun aspect is so crucial: If you’re in a home with a firearm, you’re five times as likely as a woman to be killed. I have literally never seen in the hundreds of cases I’ve done, I’ve never seen a protective order where the sheriff who serves the order actually confiscates guns or forces the abuser to bring them into court or relinquish them somehow. And the woman in those instances has done everything that we’ve given her to do. Even with 20 years of experience, I sometimes wish our clients would just run away and hide, because I have nothing effective to help them.
Director of Cybersecurity and Privacy Law; and Professor of Law Antony Haynes
City and State
“New York’s progressive chief judge joins with conservatives to expand DNA searches by law enforcement,” October 30, 2023
Antony Haynes, director of cybersecurity & data privacy at Albany Law School, said that law enforcement’s use of DNA searches can reinforce racial bias.
“Since black and brown communities are overpoliced, police databases are more likely to contain their DNA. Allowing police to use family DNA may end up supercharging surveillance of communities of color, sweeping in DNA from uninvolved persons, and potentially furthering racial oppression,” Haynes wrote in an email. “One of the basic principles of American jurisprudence is to avoid unjustly harming the innocent. Because familial DNA testing targets innocent siblings, parents and children, such use appears to be contrary to this presumption, and would seem to violate the rights to genetic privacy, due process, and equal treatment under New York law.”
Government Lawyer in Residence at the Government Law Center
Bennett M. Liebman
Newsday
NYS casino licensing decisions delayed until late 2025 March 26, 2024.
NYS bill to speed up downstate casino bidding is dead Aug. 9, 2024
Politico
"DA’s fate rests with Hochul," April 29, 2024.
Visiting Assistant Professor; Director of the Immigration Law Clinic Lauren DesRosiers
Appeared on WAMC’s Capitol Connection on April 11, 2024.
Hell Gate
"The Adams Administration Is Denying Roughly Half of Migrants’ Shelter Applications" June 20, 2024
Albany Times Union
NYC, state agency hope to resettle the migrants in upstate hotels July 14, 2024
Assistant Professor of Law Nina Farnia
Democracy Now!
As Tension over Venezuelan Election Escalates, the Left Debates Who Won Contested Vote Aug. 5, 2024
Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Jermaine Cruz
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
The State of Law School Diversity in the Wake of Affirmative Action Bans July 7, 2024
Speaking Out During Tragedy
Albany Law School Professor Sarah Rogerson and her sister, Mary Mueller, the parent of a student who survived the November 2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan made several media appearances following the sentencing of Jennifer and James Crumbley, parents of the shooter, who killed four classmates using a gun from their home.
Rogerson and Mueller spoke on ABC News, CNN, NBC, NewsNation, and Scripps News Morning Rush following the sentencing on April 9, 2024. They also published an op-ed on CNN Opinion sharing their experience and presenting thoughtful solutions to combat community gun violence.
The Crumbley verdict was the first time the parents of a mass shooter were held legally responsible for a shooting committed by their child. Jurors found both parents guilty of involuntary manslaughter. They received the maximum sentence of 10-15 years including time served. The shooter was sentenced to life in prison in December 2023.
Mueller’s son, Elijah, was shot in the face. He survived but the shooter killed four students and wounded seven others, making it the worst mass shooting in Michigan’s history.
Mueller and Rogerson have used their shared perspective as Elijah’s family and their perspectives, Mueller as the survivor’s parent, and Rogerson as an expert on the law, to offer a unique perspective on mass shootings and the last effects they have on communities, families, and individuals.
Student stories and on campus opportunities get noticed
Albany Law School 3L Jonas Caballero ’25 shared his story on the Jabot Podcast, an offshoot of the Above the Law legal blog, on June 28, 2024. The episode, titled The Journey From Inmate to Law Student And Beyond With Jonas Caballero allowed him to share his unique story, background, and journey to law school.
Local CBS affiliate, WRGB Channel 6, featured stories from Albany Law School three times in the last year.
On April 10, the channel aired a feature on Caballero, titled From incarceration to law school: The inspiring journey of a former EMT turned advocate.
The following day, the channel aired a feature on Lean Into Success, Albany Law School’s program for students from historically underprivileged backgrounds to get acquainted with law school. That story was called First Year Students Lean Into Success through Albany Law School program.
On September 19, a feature story on the Flex JD program aired, titled Albany Law School launches flex program, teaching students remotely around the world
