April 2018

That an Arizona woman was killed by a driverless car is a tragedy, Emory Law Senior Lecturer Mark Goldfeder writes in the AJC. But we shouldn't overlook that driverless cars will also save lives, he says. "We currently have a system that allows human drivers, with all of their ticks, quirks, bad habits and malfunctions, to operate massive heavy machinery at incredibly high speeds, a system that results in approximately 37,500 deaths a year in the U.S. In fact, the U.S. Transportation Department says that about 94 percent of fatal accidents are caused by human error."

The Department of Energy has heavily subsidized Georgia Power's nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, providing a $3.4 billion-dollar loan to the utility in 2014, in addition to the $1.67 billion it is set to receive in 2018. The two reactors are the only ones being constructed in the U.S., and if completed, would be the first built here in nearly 30 years, Mindy Goldstein, director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic, writes in an AJC opinion article. "If Georgia Power and its utility partners in Vogtle cannot repay their loans, the federal government will take a loss equal to the amount in default. The subsidy fees are meant to protect taxpayers should default occur. But Georgia Power's zero dollars in down payments means taxpayers are entirely on the hook if the project fails," she writes.

As sea level rise accelerates, potentially leaving coastal homes abandoned from Texas to New England, a legal debate over submerged land asks whether governments have the authority to tear them down. Emory Law Professor Frank Alexander was quoted by Bloomberg on the subject. "Who's got responsibility for removing the damaged structures?" he asked. Not finding an answer could mean a "coastline dotted with these structures that are half sticking out of the ground."

Officials at a Florida high school where a student made a poster prom invitation that many found racist are considering disciplinary action, the Washington Post reports. Emory Law Associate Professor Fred Smith Jr. says the school may not have grounds, especially in light of the student wasn't on campus at the time. "Just like the rest of us, students have the ability to say things that are offensive. And the reason why we have free speech is to protect unpopular views," he said. "Given that he was off of the school campus, the mere fact that his speech was offensive would strike me as an insufficient basis for the school to punish him."

The neo-Nazi group, the Nationalist Socialist Movement, will hold a rally in Newnan, Ga., on April 21, and many have objected to the city granting a permit for the event. Some say hate speech should not be protected. "The safe thing for a government actor to do is not to engage in any kind of content regulation," said Emory Law Associate Professor Fred Smith Jr. "Even when people are going to say something most people in the community would find odious, our constitutional tradition is that people absolutely nonetheless have to be able to say those things."

When commenting on the recent U.S. strikes on Syria, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley called them, "justified, legitimate and proportionate." But were they legal? Laurie Blank, director of Emory Law's International Humanitarian Law Clinic, examines the difference in her opinion article, published in Lawfare.

As America deals with the human and financial costs of an opioid epidemic, there's a giant lawsuit coming to the federal court system that many compare to those brought against tobacco companies. Multi-district litigation lawsuits are rare but are increasing as the economy nationalizes and courts are being used to solve problems that the government can't, says a Washington Post story. "The MDL is being entrusted with the most difficult problems of our time," said Jaime L. Dodge, director of the Institute for Complex Litigation and Mass Claims at Emory Law. "At some level I think there's a recognition that in some of these cases it's not just a dollar or cents, it's about fixing ongoing societal problems."

Emory Law Professor Kathleen Cleaver was interviewed along with fellow historian Peniel Joseph for C-SPAN's series, "1968: America in Turmoil."