Roger Williams University School of Law has dedicated , Appellate Courtroom, , naming one of the law school’s most impressive spaces in honor of one of Rhode Island’s most impressive and well-respected judges, and a long-time friend and supporter of the school. Judge Selya has served on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 1986, assuming senior status in 2006. He has been recognized nationally for his work and is renowned for his judicial writing. The , Boston Globe, dubbed him “The sesquipedalian septuagenarian,” the , New York Times, has profiled him, and the , Wall Street Journal, ’s law blog celebrated his “legendary” vocabulary. He graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He has been an attorney for more than 50 years and he previously served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. Throughout his time on the Boston-based 1st Circuit court, he has maintained chambers in Providence and remained an active and engaged member of the…, RWU Law Dean Michael J. Yelnosky , said. “Judge Selya is not the only one being honored this morning. We are being honored by the judge’s willingness to lend his name and his great reputation to this signature law school space. His votes of confidence over the years in the form of his service to the law school are culminating in this permanent relationship. That he likes us -- that he really, really likes us -- is a great…, Chief Judge Jeffrey R. Howard, , U.S. District Court Chief , Judge William E. Smith, , Rhode Island Supreme Court , Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell, , former RWU School of Law Dean , David A. Logan, and , Susan J. Goldberg, , a former clerk for Judge Selya who is now the 1st Circuit executive.
Type: Article
Diana Hassel, law professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the Roger Williams University School of Law, just wrote a piece for the RWU First Amendment blog titled “Is the Wall Between Church and State Crumbling?”, The text follows:, The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This clause has been understood to both keep religion out of government and to keep the government out of religion. That is, to erect a wall of separation between church in state. In recent years, this prohibition against the mingling of government and…, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, . That decision established that certain types of for-profit corporations could assert the right to be free from government burdens on the practice of religion. This right would allow corporations not to follow otherwise applicable general laws, such as the obligation of an employer to provide contraceptive coverage in employee health insurance plans. These same arguments have been used to assert…
Type: Article
Type: In the Media
Linda Tappa ’17, stood among onion fields in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, surveying rows of green shoots sprouting from the earth as workers hustled along, pulling bulbs to fill their barrels before sundown. As she watched the astounding bustle, a small farm owner explained his concerns about being successful on his own and how much pressure there is on the little guy to grow huge crops in order to be competitive…
Type: Article
On September 19, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed a package of criminal justice reform bills and Governor Raimondo has signed them into law. Earlier this year, RWU Law Dean Michael Yelnosky had the opportunity to sit down with the Governor to talk about that legislation, and the role RWU Law played in helping to educate the community about the issues. They also chatted more broadly about…, Governor Gina M. Raimondo became Rhode Island’s first female governor in January 2015. The Rhode Island native and Rhodes Scholar graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School before serving as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan. She co-founded a venture capital firm in Rhode Island and served four years as state treasurer before becoming governor. , Dean Yelnosky, : So how do you think your legal training impacts your political work – when you were treasurer and now in this position?, Governor Raimondo, : You know, I am thankful for it every single day. Some of it is just knowledge – it’s helpful to know the law if you are the governor; to not be afraid to dig into it. I like it: reading cases or reading the law. For example, before you came in here I was interviewing a judicial candidate. It’s helpful to have a law background when you are putting people on the bench. Second, just knowing how to…, under the law, , all of this strengthens my resolve and hopefully my ability to bring about positive changes. When I was in law school, I did a lot of the clinics – and Yale is really good for that because Connecticut allows law students to practice. So I did the housing clinic, the poverty clinic. The thing that we did that I was most proud of was, we actually threatened to sue – and we may have actually…, MY:, On the campus?, GR, : Well, around the campus. Every night the police would go around and [arrest] these women. They would then call the New Haven police, and these women would spend the night in jail. And as part of the clinic we said, ‘Why are they going to jail?’ It seemed to us they were going to jail because they were black women exercising their free speech. So anyway, we threatened to sue the Yale Police…, MY, : Yes, you were helping real people with real problems, which is what our clinics do. These are people who don’t get representation otherwise., GR, : Right! For example, we did a lot of landlord/tenant disputes. It made it real. People getting kicked out of their homes – people who have no voice, no representation, couldn’t afford a lawyer, had kids. It was a powerful thing for a privileged kid at Yale Law to have to walk into someone’s low-rent apartment in New Haven and see how they were living, and then to feel the power in using the law…, MY, : I’d like to think that the law school has also had some impact in sort of teeing up criminal justice reform. [RWU Law Distinguished Jurist in Residence Judge Judith Colenback Savage, a retired Rhode Island Superior Court judge] had a huge symposium on that topic., GR, : It definitely has. Because if [this type of reform is just coming] from the governor, then it’s somehow [perceived as] my liberal agenda on criminal justice. But having the law school, with [expert and knowledgeable] people around it, saying: “Hold on a minute, this will actually save money, this is actually best practices in criminal justice probation and parole” – that helps a ton. It’s a…, MY, : , Overall, what kind of a resource do you think the law school has been for you and for the state in general? You grew up here when there wasn’t a law school., GR, : It’s a great resource. I meet people almost every day who are graduates of the law school, who are contributing to Rhode Island in an important way. They are public interest lawyers, or maybe they run a small business, or work in a private practice. I think that is really the way you have the biggest impact over time – [by producing] thousands of people who are very well educated and who are , local, , practicing here and making the bar better. [A good example of this dynamic involves the issue of] licenses for undocumented immigrants – that is a perfect case where I think the reason people actually oppose it is they are not fully informed. They think giving someone a driver’s license will somehow confer citizenship or help them get citizenship sooner. There is confusion about it. That’s where…, helps, the economy. Once again, the point is that if I am the only one stumping for it, then it’s [perceived as] political – like it’s part of the governor’s agenda. So having a neutral third-party, a highly respected entity such as RWU Law, that just educates people on complex issues, is massively valuable., MY, : Tell me about your philosophy on picking judges., GR, : I look for high-quality, high-integrity, hardworking [candidates]. People who I think will give everyone who comes before them a fair shake. That is important. You know, chances are, if you are in court before a judge, you are not having a good day. You’re losing your kids; you’re getting a divorce; you did something wrong; you might be poor; you might not be white. So I really want people [on…, MY:, And finally, I think your sense of humor is underrated. When you were on NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me,” you were really funny., GR, : You are nice to say that. I like to try to be funny. I tell a lot of jokes around here. Everyone is so serious, and I am always trying to leaven it with some humor., MY, : I’m going to start to change the narrative a little bit. All I hear is “all work and no play.”, GR:, That’s very gendered, though. People don’t understand: “Well, hold on a minute, are you a warm and fuzzy mom? Or are you the governor?” Here’s the thing: You can be both. You have to be different things at different times. If I’m making a difficult decision, I am going to be serious. If I’m with school kids or with my family, I’m going to be light and funny., [This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]
Type: Article
As , Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, ’s lead trial attorney, , RWU Law Professor David E. Coombs, kept telling his client: Trust the system, trust the system. That rationale seemed sound. During the 2013 trial, Coombs planned to have Manning accept responsibility for disclosing hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic files and reports to WikiLeaks. He planned to emphasize that the former Army intelligence analyst never intended to harm the country or to aid the enemy. He…, A court sketch showing Professor David Coombs (far left) and his client Pfc. Bradley Manning (seated beside him) during Manning's court martial., In addition, the defendant, who had entered prison known as Bradley Manning, emerged as a transgender woman named Chelsea Manning. And Coombs, who grew up hoping to become a lawyer in Idaho, ended up at the center of an all-consuming, highly publicized case, involving the biggest breach of secret data in U.S. history, and then helping Manning secure medical care for gender dysphoria. Today,…, Chief Justice Weisberger Visiting Professor of Law at the Roger Williams University School of Law, . And as he sat in his office, retracing his path from Boise to Bristol, he was asked if he ever regrets taking on a sprawling, emotionally draining case that spanned more than two years, encompassed more than 532,000 pages of discovery and concluded with an eight-week trial. “I don’t,” Coombs said, “because I think it represented something larger than Manning. I think the case represented such a…, 'I Need to Do This', Coombs during his active duty days in the Army. Coombs, 47, was born in Boise, raised in nearby Nampa, Idaho, and went to the University of Idaho for undergraduate studies and law school. He looked forward to becoming an attorney in his home state. But then he took part in a law school clinic, doing legal work for the Nez Perce Indian tribe, and his supervising attorney, a former judge advocate,…, Representing Bradley Manning, Coombs said the case “fell in my lap” because Manning wanted a civilian lawyer, “without concern for making any enemies within the military,” but also someone with a military background. On the news, Coombs had seen the video showing a U.S. Apache helicopter killing two Reuters news staff, and remembers thinking that whoever leaked it would be “in a world of hurt.” The phone rang, and he heard a…, Obama's Commutation, President Obama on Jan. 18, 2017, announcing his pardon of Manning. Those tears of rage were replaced by tears of joy earlier this year when President Barack Obama delivered another shocking decision – commuting all but four months of Manning’s remaining sentence. “Again, I was just overcome by such an unexpected event,” Coombs said. “I did not expect 35 years, and I certainly didn’t expect a…, The Road Ahead, Professor David Coombs during a Today Show interview. The day after the sentencing, Coombs appeared on the “Today” show, announcing that Manning was female and would seek cross-sex hormone therapy. He helped her change her name and seek transgender care. And he contacted Chase Strangio, staff attorney for the LGBT & AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. Eventually, Manning…
Type: Article
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will visit the Roger Williams University School of Law on Jan. 30. Justice Ginsburg will take part in a “fireside chat” with 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Senior Judge Bruce M. Selya at 10:30 a.m. in Room 283 – the appellate courtroom that will be named for Selya in October. “What Rhode Island can look forward to is a visit from a woman who is…, The Jan. 30 “fireside chat” will be open to RWU students and faculty only because of space limitations, but the media are invited to cover the event. More information regarding media access will be available closer to the date of the event.
Type: Article
Type: In the Media
Type: In the Media
Students: The racism, anti-Semitism, and other hatred on display in Charlottesville this weekend is a threat to this country’s central commitment to equality and to the rule of law that supports that commitment. The law school shares that commitment. I want you to know that while the law school is fully committed as well to the First Amendment, the violence that occurred in Charlottesville was…
Type: Article
