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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 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. ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 27, 2013 41 Comments
From my wife after over 30 years: "I already have the ring. I'm done making sandwiches." Background: Two people meet. Make sandwiches. Fall in love. Make more sandwiches. Plan to get married. 124 sandwiches NY Post
Eric devoured the sandwich as if it were a five-star meal, diving in with large, eager bites. “Babes, this is delicious!” he exclaimed. As he finished that last bite, he made an unexpected declaration of how much he loved me and that sandwich: “Honey, you’re 300 sandwiches away from an engagement ring!” .... Today, I’ve made and blogged about 176 sandwiches. Over the months, my creations have grown more complex — lobster rolls, bánh mìs, pulled pork. No matter what’s on the menu, Eric smiles and says thank you. He’s just happy I cook for him at all. “You women read all these magazines to get advice on how to keep a man, and it’s so easy,” he says. “We’re not complex. Just do something nice for us. Like make a sandwich.”
Read the whole thing.  It's a great love story.  And watch the video at the bottom of this post, it's love to which the sandwiches really are mere observers. But someone had to go and ruin it.  Via Jim Treacher: Twitter - sandwich complaints Really, what do you care?  I thought feminism meant empowering women to make their own choices.  I guess it meant empowering you to make choices for women who don't make the choices you would make. And why is Chris Hayes chiming in on a woman's choice?  Chris Hayes is anti-choice and part of the patriarchy!

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 27, 2013 25 Comments
Obama held a victory dance over Senate Republicans as part of a press statement today. Before he got around to gloating and calling the Tea Party extremists, Obama started with the big announcement that he had spoken by phone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani:
I do believe that there is a basis for resolution. Iran’s supreme leader has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons. President Rouhani has indicated that Iran will never develop nuclear weapons. I’ve made clear that we respect the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy in the context of Iran meeting its obligations.... I also communicated to President Rouhani my deep respect for the Iranian people.
Of course, it was historic. For the Mullahs. https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/383678578971271168 https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/383690230433198081 https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/383687451631292416 Having the U.S. become a participant in preserving Mullah rule against their own people has been the precondition to which Obama always has been willing to agree. That's why he was silent during the 2009 street protests. https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/383685789453787136 https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/383684860067323904

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 27, 2013 19 Comments
The Senate has passed the necessary 60 votes to cut off debate on the House Continuing Resolution, opening the way for Harry Reid to strip out the Obamacare defunding provision and get a vote on a Continuing Resolution restoring Obamacare funding. The procedural explanation is here. https://twitter.com/amandacarpenter/status/383634778991652866 https://twitter.com/Citizens_United/status/383634654361690114 [caption id="attachment_66109" align="alignnone" width="502"]Senate Cloture Vote Final Vote (Senate votes 79-19 for Cloture on House Continuing Resolution)[/caption] https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/383636918355128320 https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/383636628641554432 https://twitter.com/BretBaier/status/383639488922017793

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 27, 2013 4 Comments

We previously documented the provocative antics of French diplomat Marion Castaing. Playing her part in a Pallywood drama, we demonstrated that contrary to the media narrative, Castaing was not roughed up by Israeli soldiers. Instead, the video from several angles proved: I think we’ve seen enough from the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 27, 2013 34 Comments
Among the nicest things the Democratic smear machine called Sarah Palin was "Caribou Barbie." Just about everything else they called her was much worse. The term "Caribou Barbie" started within days of Palin's nomination for Veep in August 2008.  By September 2, 2008, the term was spreading throughout the left-blogosphere, as Michelle Malkin noted at the time. The term so took hold that it even was the subject of an SNL skit in October 2008, with Palin delivering the punch line in an attempt to make light of the term. It later was used by NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd:
"Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy."
The treatment of Palin was sexist -- including liberal women who mocked Trig Palin and thought it the worst thing in the world that Palin had the audacity to bring him on stage with her -- but not just because of the term "Caribou Barbie."  That term was the least of it. The "Caribou Barbie" name was part of the myriad of accompanying photoshops and sexualizations of her, using any excuse to make sex jokes.  Palin wasn't just turned into any Barbie, but a sexy librarian and bikini model not just in the blogosphere, but from stars such as Stephen Colbert. With Palin it wasn't just the use of the term "Barbie," it was the full package of sexualized attacks, including from mainstream publications. [caption id="attachment_66047" align="alignnone" width="400"](Newsweek magazine, feature article, November 23, 2009) (Newsweek magazine, feature article, November 23, 2009)[/caption]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 26, 2013 23 Comments
I covered earlier the negative spin Gallup put on its recent Tea Party polling.  What showed a stable support/opposition over the last two years -- including a drop in opposition -- was spun as a negative only by comparison to three years ago. Gallup could have titled its report "No real change in Tea Party Support" or "Tea Party Support/Opposition Stable." Instead, Gallup put this spin on it:

Gallup Tea Party Support 9-26-2013

That misleading spin has been picked up and run with across the media, which is trying to tie the supposed decline to Ted Cruz's rise since 2012. But there was no meaningful decline since 2012 -- just 2% within the poll's 3% margin of error.  Support is actually 1% higher than in 2011.  You have to go back three years to the 2010 mid-term pro-Republican wave election, when Tea Party support peaked briefly, to see a substantial decline.  But that substantial decline took place prior to the 2012 election, long before Cruz was in the Senate.

Gallup Tea Party Support Chart 9-26-2013

Even with that, over 1 in 5 Americans still support the Tea Party and half of Americans are neutral.  Considering the demonization of the Tea Party in the media and Washington, D.C., a stable support/opposition is pretty amazing. No one is interested in the details, it's just political gamesmanship. Here are 5 profoundly misleading headlines inspired by Gallup:

1.  The Week -- Why does everyone hate the Tea Party?

Really? 73% of people supporting or being neutral on the Tea Party means everyone hates the Tea Party?

 

The Week - Gallup Tea Party 9-26-2013

2. Taylor Marsh - No One Supports the Tea Party Anymore:

Well, if by "no one" you mean over 1 in 5 Americans, slightly more than self-identify as liberal:

Taylor Marsh Gallup Tea Party 9-26-2013

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 26, 2013 61 Comments

The deification of Trayvon Martin, with comparisons to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Emmitt Till, is just part of the false narrative of the prosecution of George Zimmerman. We are seeing a mythology grow and become embedded on campuses which misrepresents the factual and legal nature...

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