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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 May 30, 2014 3 Comments
UPDATES: Scott Walker: No way I’m throwing fellow conservatives under bus in “John Doe” probe. Also, late this afternoon a Judge practically laughed at the investigators' request for "clarification" of the injunction:
“The order of this Court and that of the Seventh Circuit offers clear guidance as to the parameters of the injunction,” the federal judge said. “In the absence of any further information regarding the content and import of ‘discussions’ that may violate the Court’s clear directives, it is impossible for the Court to offer further clarification at this time.” A legal expert close to the John Doe proceedings said Randa is saying that Schmitz knows precisely what he can and cannot do. “Judge Randa is saying, ‘Look, guy, you know what this means and if you’re skulking around trying to do something you know you are not supposed to be doing you are risking contempt,’” said the source, who did not want to be identified due to his proximity to the John Doe proceedings. “And contempt is really a serious thing, especially against a prosecutor.”
------------------- The last time we wrote about the abusive "John Doe" investigation of conservative activists in Wisconsin, we were wondering whether Gov. Scott Walker would try to cut a prejudicial side deal with the investigators to have the probe dropped in exchange for some concessions including shutting out some key political activists, Dear Scott Walker: Don’t sell out conservative victims of “John Doe” abuses. Two developments directly related to the settlement. First, Walker issued what the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel termed a "carefully worded" statement on the settlement controversy:
The statement by Friends of Scott Walker was attributed simply to the campaign and not to any individual and appeared to deal only with the federal lawsuit, not the state investigation in which both the Club for Growth and Walker's campaign are targets. "Neither Governor Walker nor his campaign committee are parties to the federal lawsuit. This means they have no legal standing to reach a settlement or deal in their lawsuit," the statement reads in full. A spokeswoman for Walker did not respond to questions clarifying the statement.
That is technically true, but doesn't address whether a deal was being cut between Walker and the investigators on the probe itself. The issue, according to the lawyer for the plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, was that through the settlement, the investigators were trying to coerce a punishment forbidden by the court's preliminary injunction, as reported by The Wisconsin State Journal:
Thursday’s filing by David Rivkin, the attorney for O’Keefe and the group, was the latest twist in a complex legal battle over the investigation into Walker and conservative groups. In the filing, Rivkin said it appeared Schmitz was trying to “use the coercive power of the state to cut side-deals” that would violate his clients’ rights.
(added) The motion by the investigators to clarify the injunction and the response by plaintiffs are embedded at the bottom of this post.  There is a fascinating exchange of letters between the lawyers, in which the plaintiff's lawyers allege the investigators are in violation of the preliminary injunction, to which the motion was directed. The plaintiffs' counsel responded in the court filing:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 28, 2014 25 Comments

Today is a travel and meeting day for me. So imagine my consternation to read the comment in the Tip Line from commenter Ragspierre, linking to a National Review post, about Obama's West Point speech today: Have we reached peak strawman…??? I have been an Obama straw man...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 27, 2014 29 Comments
We have been following the Wisconsin "John Doe" anti-conservative witch hunt for a long time. The short story is that Wisconsin investigators using secret "John Doe" state processes have been targeting conservatives in Wisconsin under the factually and legally frivolous theory that they illegally coordinated with Scott Walker's campaign. After certain of the targets sued in federal court alleging a violation of their constitutional rights, a federal judge sided with the targets and issued an injunction barring further investigation and ordering return of evidence seized.  The investigators are in a judicial head lock. The civil suit against the investigators -- who are local prosecutors by day -- continues into the discovery phase. Money damages and other relief are in play, and the hunters have become the hunted. Here are some prior posts: Now comes a disturbing report in The Wall Street Journal that Scott Walker might cut a deal letting the investigators out, Scott Walker's Friends:
Wisconsin prosecutors have suffered a series of stunning legal defeats in recent months as they pursue a secret investigation of the conservative groups that helped Governor Scott Walker get elected. Those cases are shaping up as a major policy victory for free speech and political debate—unless a last-minute settlement rescues the prosecutors. We've learned that Steven Biskupic, who represents Friends of Scott Walker, has been negotiating with Wisconsin special prosecutor Francis Schmitz to settle the state's investigation. The understandable concern among the direct targets of the John Doe is that Mr. Biskupic will cut a deal that would exonerate Mr. Walker while wresting concessions from some of Mr. Walker's allies....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 27, 2014 2 Comments
One of the many big lies of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement, and its supporters on campus, is that it wants peace. In fact, it wants war by other means, boycotts of various stripes to destroy Israel. The YaLa Young Leaders Conference seeks to have youth from around the Middle East talk online as a means of advancing peaceful relations. The YaLa Facebook page has over 450,000 likes. It's 2013 Annual Report (pdf.) details its activities and student involvement throughout the Middle East: YaLa Young Leaders 2013 Report members map Shimon Peres gave a speech at this year's conference held May 25, 2014. Other speakers were a mixed group, not all of whom (like Desmond Tutu) are considered favorable to Israel: (More conference videos here) Maybe it's a fool's errand, but at least it's an attempt to get youth talking to each other. Which is why it has been attacked since its inception by BDS movement supporters. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is the official international boycott organization. The American Studies Association adheres to its academic boycott guidelines. PACBI issued a statement calling for a boycott of this year's YaLa conference, Boycott YaLa-Young Leaders Group and Its Online Normalization Conferences:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 27, 2014 19 Comments
The Terrorism and Security Experts of Canada Network (TSEC) has just issued a report documenting Muslim Brotherhood activity in North America. Via Blazing Cat Fur, here are the summary of findings:
  • Canada has a significant presence of Muslim Brotherhood adherent individuals and organizations. Their values and actions are frequently the antithesis of the Canadian Constitution, values and law. Despite statements to the contrary, the Muslim Brotherhood considers itself above local laws and national constitutions.
  • The Muslim Brotherhood’s use of settlement and the “process of civilization jihad” has proven effective. The long term aim is to globally impose a virulent form of political Islam to the exclusion of other faiths or systems.
  • Internationally, the Muslim Brotherhood is realigning under pressure as old alliances crumble and opportunities arise. An aggressive posture is re-emerging which has used extensive political violence in the past.
  • The policy and process of denial is deeply rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood.
  • Muslim Brotherhood adherent groups should not be given governmental accreditation, access to public grants nor should they have charity status.
  • Canada’s stance against Muslim Brotherhood adherent organizations in recent years has been more aggressive than the USA, especially in financial areas.
The CBC has picked up on the report, Muslim Brotherhood activities need to be probed in Canada, report says:
The Canadian government should consider investigating the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has entrenched itself in North America and represents a greater systemic threat than al-Qaeda, according to a newly released report on the group.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2014 30 Comments
The attacks on a University of Virginia law professor for expressing legal views not in keeping with the views of some LGBT activists and much of the political establishment has created a stir in legal academia. In Jamaica, a somewhat analogous case is developing regarding a recently retired professor who was fired from his continuing HIV/AIDS research position after filing an accurate, but politically incorrect, expert report in a highly contentious case in Belize (h/t Blazing Cat Fur). The case has received almost no attention outside the Caribbean press, and none in the U.S. as far as I can tell. The background is that the Belize Supreme Court is considering a court case seeking to overturn Section 53 of the criminal code, which bans some forms of homosexual behavior, specifically male-on-male sodomy. Argument was held in May 2013 but there has been no decision as of this writing. The highly charged nature of the case pits a coalition of international gay rights activists against some Christian churches and groups. Enter Dr. Brendan Bain, who retired as a Professor in 2013 from the University of West Indies.  While still a professor, in 2012 Dr. Bain submitted testimony in the form of an Expert Report in the case (embedded in full at the bottom of this post). Dr. Bain is one of the pioneers in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, as detailed in the introduction to his Expert Report, and in the numerous news reports referenced later in this post. [caption id="attachment_87310" align="alignnone" width="454"]Dr. Brendan Bain by Steve Shapiro for the 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference (Dr. Brendan Bain,by Steve Shapiro for the 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference, used under an Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.)[/caption] Among other things, even after his retirement as a professor Dr. Bain was director of the U.S.-funded Regional Coordinating Unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART), which he helped create.  Here is his bio from 2013 from the CHART website:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2014 27 Comments
This video comes a little round-about. It started with a post by Dr. Helen Smith (h/t Instapundit) regarding some feminists trying to blame the Pick-Up Artist community for the mass murder by Elliot Rodger. Revelation No. 1: There's a " Pick-Up Artist community"? Do they have rights? Revelation No. 2: A reference to a 2012 incident in Toronto with which I was not previously familiar:
Perhaps it is the feminists and their supporters who block funding and education going to boys’ and men’s issues that are to blame. Case in point? Warren Farrell tried to give a talk in Toronto about suicide in young men and other topics and was accosted by nasty feminists who did not want him to speak.
The link is to this video about Warren Farrell: Here's some more videos about the protest (Language Warning):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2014 23 Comments
A reader called to my attention this sentence  in a Washington Post report about the Obama administration outing the identity of the CIA Station Chief in Afghanistan (emphasis added):
The disclosure marked a rare instance in which a CIA officer working overseas had his cover — the secrecy meant to protect his actual identity — pierced by his own government. The only other recent case came under significantly different circumstances, when former CIA operative Valerie Plame was exposed as officials of the George W. Bush administration sought to discredit her husband, a former ambassador and fierce critic of the decision to invade Iraq.
Scooter Libby was convicted for lying to prosecutors and obstruction of justice in the Special Prosecutor's investigation, under a contorted theory that nonetheless prevailed with a jury.  He was sentenced to jail, but the sentence was commuted by George W. Bush. Libby, a close confidant of Dick Cheney, however, was not the leaker. The leaker was an Iraq War critic in the State Department, Richard Armitage. Christopher Hitchens reported at the time:
As most of us have long suspected, the man who told Novak about Valerie Plame was Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's deputy at the State Department and, with his boss, an assiduous underminer of the president's war policy.
The prosecutors knew from the start who the leaker was, but went after those closest to the White House not for leaking, but for covering up a leaker the identity of whom already was known to the investigators.  It was a perjury trap.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2014 6 Comments
Because of the time difference, I was not able to watch the Pope's visits in Israel today to the Temple Mount, Western Wall, memorial to terror victims and the Yad Vashem. Here are some tweets and video of the events: The Pope's stop at the memorial to terror victims is a good contrast to the Pallywooded stop at the security barrier in Bethelehem yesterday:
“The Vatican officials explained to us that the pope didn’t pray against the separation barrier, but he prayed against the situation that forces such a wall to be built,” diplomat Lior Haiat said. “Therefore, we thought we need to show him why we built the wall. It’s obvious that the barrier is a result of something, it is not the reason.”
It also was significant that this was the first time a Pope has visited the grave of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2014 7 Comments
Air Force Lt. Roslyn Schulte of Ladue, Missouri, was buried on Memorial Day, 2009. We have remembered her previously as best we can: I noted in 2012:
I remember seeing this post at Gateway Pundit, on May 26, 2009, which I made Post of the Day, regarding Lt. Schulte’s death, and it has stayed with me for these past three years:
Lt. Roslyn Schulte was the first female Air Force Academy graduate to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. She died last week in Afghanistan after the vehicle she was riding in was struck by a roadside bomb. Lt. Schulte could have attended an Ivy League school. Instead she chose the Air Force Academy. She dreamed of being a fighter pilot since she was 12. At the academy, she was among the top in her class. Her funeral was yesterday at the Congregation Temple Israel in St. Louis. Her boyfriend U.S. Air Force Cpt. Bruce Cohn announced that he was going to propose to Roslyn this summer.
In 2009, Daily Kos had an excellent round up of news and personal reports about Lt. Schulte's life. Lt. Schulte's friend was interviewed on Boston public radio recently:
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