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Author: William A. Jacobson

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William A. Jacobson

William A. Jacobson is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell Law School.

He is a 1981 graduate of Hamilton College and a 1984 graduate of Harvard Law School. At Harvard he was Senior Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal and Director of Litigation for the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project.

Prior to joining the Cornell law faculty in 2007, Professor Jacobson had a highly successful civil litigation and arbitration practice in Providence, Rhode Island, concentrating in investment, employment, and business disputes in the securities industry, including many high profile cases reported in leading newspapers and magazines.

Professor Jacobson has argued cases in numerous federal and state courts, including the Courts of Appeal for the First, Fifth and Sixth Circuits, and the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

Professor Jacobson has a national reputation as a leading practitioner in securities arbitration. He was Treasurer, and is a former member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, a professional organization of attorneys dedicated to protecting public investors. He frequently is quoted in national media on issues related to investment fraud and investor protection, and in the past has served as one of a small number of private practice attorneys who trained new arbitrators for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Professor Jacobson is co-author of the Securities Arbitration Desk Reference (Thomson-Reuters), updated annually.

Professor Jacobson is frequently quoted in the media on political and legal topics, has authored many Op-Eds in major publications, and appears on television and radio to discuss politics and the law.

A more complete listing of Professor Jacobson's professional background is available at the Cornell Law School website. The views expressed here are his own and not those of any employer or organization,

The best way to reach Prof. Jacobson is by e-mail here.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 30, 2013 34 Comments
Current status a/o 10:15 p.m. Eastern -- House passed two amendments, Senate then rejected. Looks like no more House votes tonight. House will simply request a conference with the Senate tomorrow. So Harry Reid gets his "shutdown." https://twitter.com/robertcostaNRO/status/384865087409754112 https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/384863087586603008 https://twitter.com/robertcostaNRO/status/384864630440337408 You can watch House floor here and here (will embed when House comes back in session). UPDATE -- Senate quickly rejected House Amendments, thereby voting to preserve Congressional special privileges and unequal treatment of individuals.  Looks like the likely House response will be limited specific "clean" funding similar to what was done with military pay.  Make Democrats in Senate vote against funding Veterans Department, etc. Senate Final Vote Rejecting House Amendments 9-30-2013

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 30, 2013 22 Comments
Coming up at 4:45 p.m. Any guesses? [live feed over now][transcript here] Obama Press Statement Shutdown Basically what was expected.  The 2012 election was about Obamacare, he won, we lost, it's done, move on.  The election was about Obamacare?  Actually, it was about everything except Obamacare: Tweet - Legal Insurrection - Obama speech election about Obamacare Update: This National Review post lists all the things that do not get shut, and it's quite a long list, Not Actually a Shutdown.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 30, 2013 0 Comments

Another really busy weekend. Preparing to #BlameHarryReid. “Why you should read College Insurrection” week 12-year old RI student suspended for small keychain “gun” CBS News buries poll result showing Tea Party support rising Dear Hamilton College Bd. of Trustees, maybe your Diversity Industry is making race relations worse Annoying Sitemeter Pop-up...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 30, 2013 36 Comments
For a government shutdown if it happens. The U.S. Senate is dysfunctional because of Harry Reid. No budget. No votes on most House legislation. No nothing except his way or the highway. We're seeing it again in the Continuing Resolution and Debt Ceiling battles.  Because Reid has shut down and shut out Republican voices, the only way to raise budget issues is using Continuing Resolution and Debt Ceiling deadlines -- a necessity in Harry Reid's Senate not the choice Republicans wanted. The poisoning of our politics by Reid did not start with the latest battles, it has been his methodology for years. You will not hear this narrative in the mainstream media. So on this day of all days, Tweet out #BlameHarryReid. (You can tweet this post, or use the Tweet broadcast function at the top of the sidebar which will be active for a few hours.) (added) As of 12:41 a.m., the hashtag #BlameHarryReid was still rising (Twitter feed added to bottom of post): Topsy BlameHarryReid 9-30-2013 1241 pm Twitchy if tracking the action, #BlameHarryReid: Looming shutdown? Citizens to Sen. Reid: Own it. Thanks for making this a Topsy Top 1k post (a/o 5:35 p.m.) Topsy - BlameHarryReid post 9-30-2013 Update: True to form, Politico via Drudge reports that Reid, who had the Senate take all of yesterday and this morning off, will not allow a vote on the House bill funding the government but removing the medical equipment tax: Drudge - Harry Reid to double down on shutdown

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 29, 2013 36 Comments

Should be interesting. There is such a thing as overplaying your hand. The conventional wisdom is that Republicans who have overplayed theirs. I'm not so sure. https://twitter.com/DavidMDrucker/status/384458323468513282 ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 29, 2013 27 Comments
From The NY Times, the media world has changed:
Ask conservatives what went wrong for them the last time the government shut down, and many of them will bring up the cover of The Daily News of New York from Nov. 16, 1995. Under the block-lettered headline “Cry Baby,” it showed a cartoon of Newt Gingrich, then speaker of the Republican-led House, in tears, clutching a bottle and wearing nothing but a cloth diaper. Back then, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel was a year from its debut, Andrew Breitbart was a lowly assistant at E! Online, and The Drudge Report was an obscure gossip and news digest sent by e-mail — to the lucky few who had e-mail. But today, a fervent group of conservatives — bloggers, pundits, activists and even members of Congress — is harnessing the power of the Internet, determined to tell the story of the current budget showdown on its terms.

 Newt Gingrich Cry Baby Daily News

That's true, but only to an extent.  The liberal mainstream media is not the only voice, but it's still the dominant voice.  What power it has lost has been filled by liberal non-mainstream internet media. It's why reporters can collude at a press conference just after four Americans were killed in Benghazi to make sure the appropriate "gotcha" question was asked not of the officials responsible for the safety of our personnel, but of ... Mitt Romney.

Twitter - Legal Insurrection - Romney Press Conf

With only a couple of exceptions, no mainstream media reporters were the least bit interested in the utter failure of the Obama administration from Obama on down to address the situation, or to demand an answer as to what Obama was doing that night.  Not the least bit of interest. Instead, we had two days of non-stop all-out Romney bashing from the media.  It was a circus that comes to town whenever an event threatens Obama and the Democrats.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 29, 2013 11 Comments

I rise to stand in defense of my former home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations as the most corrupt state. From John: With apologies for the bad photography, I'm sending along the pic below that I recently snapped in Chicago. Close inspection will reveal that the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 28, 2013 37 Comments
The House of Representatives is voting late tonight on amendments to the Senate Continuing Resolution. Among the amendments being voted on are a one year delay in Obamacare, elimination of the medical device tax, and possibly a "clean" resolution to fund the military. [voting concluded] https://twitter.com/SpeakerBoehner/status/384171886436823040 https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/384174495675584512 House passes repeal of Medical Device Tax 248-174 [caption id="attachment_66310" align="alignnone" width="513"](House Vote Amendment No. 1 Repealing Medical Device Tax) (House Vote Amendment No. 1 Repealing Medical Device Tax)[/caption] House passes Delay of Obamacare until January 1, 2015, 231-192 [caption id="attachment_66312" align="alignnone" width="508"](House Vote Amendment No. 2 Delaying Obamacare for One Year) (House Vote Amendment No. 2 Delaying Obamacare for One Year)[/caption]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 28, 2013 52 Comments

Sitemeter is the free traffic meter I've been using since day one of the blog to keep track of visits and page views.  It's public, and linked at the bottom of the page in the footer. The reason I like Sitemeter is it's free.  And it's...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 28, 2013 20 Comments

Harry Reid almost never allows up or down votes on Republican agenda legislation coming out of the House.  He has taken the Senate hostage. A good example is the House Continuing Resolution which Reid would not allow to come up for a vote until Obamacare defunding...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 28, 2013 15 Comments
I told you just a couple of days ago that the Gallup headline of a decline in Tea Party popularity was misleading. The misleading headline, ignoring the details of the poll, was picked up far and wide, Congrats @Gallup for inspiring these 5 misleading anti-Tea Party headlines. The Washington Post yesterday, however, revealed that the Tea Party popularity was rising, Obamacare fight reenergizes tea party movement (emphasis added):

WaPo Tea Party Support Rising

The tea party movement rose to prominence in the early years of Obama’s presidency, helping drive a surge of conservative activism that helped flip control of the House to Republicans in 2010. At the time, according to CBS-New York Times polling, nearly a third of Americans considered themselves tea party supporters. The movement’s popularity, though faded, shows signs of growing again: A quarter of Americans in a new CBS-New York Times survey between Sept. 19 and 23 said they support the tea party, up four points from two weeks earlier.
"Oddly" enough, it was really hard to find the poll to which WaPo was referring. The rise in Tea Party popularity in the CBS-New York Times survey didn't get the attention of the misleading Gallup headline.  I could not find any stories about that finding prior to the WaPo article. The rise in Tea Party support didn't get headlines at The Times, or at CBS News which ran this misleading headline about the Gallup poll instead, but nowhere in the article mentioned its own contrary findings:

CBS News Gallup Tea Party 9-26-2013

Eventually I found the poll, here it is. CBS-NYT poll cover The question about Tea Party support shows that Tea Party support rose rapidly this month, is higher than it has been for over a year, and is in the same range it has been in since early 2010, with the exception of the surge in support around the 2010 election:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 28, 2013 5 Comments

FIRST, you find out stuff before your friends. Case in point, on Monday afternoon Leslie wrote Hamilton College sponsors “I Love Female Orgasm” workshop based on an obscure Facebook page we stumbled upon while researching the Hamilton segregation scandal.  The post was tweeted and shared on Facebook hundreds of times. [caption id="attachment_66168"...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 28, 2013 1 Comment

From Barbara: In Palmetto, FL. The bottom one says I heart capitalism and the one on the windshield says Lord, deliver us from Obamacare. Nice to know I am not alone. ...

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