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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 December 09, 2013 25 Comments
The trial of the murderers of British army drummer Lee Rigby with machetes and knives on a London street continues. We reported before, Murderers of Lee Rigby searched for British soldier to kill. The trial is receiving almost no mainstream media coverage in the U.S. One of the killers took the stand today, and was proud of what he had done, as reported by The Telegraph:
Michael Adebolajo, 28, also told the Old Bailey jury that he was a “soldier of Allah” and that he had no regrets over the killing because he was obeying his god. He said after the case he should be either “ransomed” back to his Mujahideen brothers, freed or killed.
At the start of his defence in chief, Adebolajo sat in the witness box of Court number 2, surrounded by five security guards and just feet from Fusilier Rigby’s family. He and Michael Adebowale, 22, are accused of murdering Fusilier Rigby by running him down with a car and then hacking him to death with a meat cleaver and knives near Woolwich Barracks in south east London on May 22. Asked who al Qaeda were by his counsel, David Gottlieb, Adebolajo replied: "Al Qaeda, I consider to be Mujahideen. I love them, they're my brothers. I have never met them. I consider them my brothers in Islam." He added: "Mujahideen are the army of Allah." He said: “I am a soldier and this is war.” When asked what his defence to the charge of murder is, Adebolajo said: "I'm a soldier. I'm a soldier of Allah and I understand that some people might not recognise this because we do not wear fatigues and we do not go to the Brecon Beacons and train and this sort of thing. But we are still soldiers in the sight of Allah as a mujahid. "This is all that matters, if Allah considers me a soldier, then I am a soldier."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 09, 2013 2 Comments
We previously have highlighted the Ukrainian protest movement seeking to prevent Ukraine from falling back under Russian domination: The protests continue, but as of this writing it appears that police are moving in, although it's unclear if it's an attempt to evict the protesters completely. LIVE VIDEO and Twitter stream at bottom of post. Kyiv Post has live reporting updates. Here is video of yesterday's protest at Independence Square in Kiev:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 09, 2013 4 Comments

You'll need it in 2014. From Raging Conservative, who tweets: https://twitter.com/RagCon/status/409969991476576256 ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 08, 2013 16 Comments
We noted previously the Senior Hezbollah commander assassinated, Hassan Laqqis. Hezbollah immediately blamed Israel. It certainly makes sense when you consider how professionally it was carried out. Unlike the Jihadis who blow up cars or themselves, the Laqquis hit was carried out precisely and using silenced weapons. The hit men (or women?) got into a heavily secured area without notice, and located their target late at night. There must have been precise intelligence not only as to his location, but his movements. Even more impressively, the gunmen escaped without being captured. There must have been help to get them away from the scene, and likely out of the country, before Hezbollah security woke up to what had happened. So we are talking minutes to get out of the area, and hours to get out of the country. While we cannot eliminate that the hit was carried out by Jihadis or some other intelligence service, it seems unlikely. Foreign Policy magazine had an article asserting that Laqqis was on Israel's Kill List:
There'll be a summit conference in the sky," smiled an Israeli intelligence official Wednesday morning when he learned of the assassination of Hassan Lakkis, the Hezbollah commander in charge of weapons development and advanced technological warfare, in a Beirut suburb around midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 3. The killing of Lakkis is yet another in the latest in a long series of assassinations of leading figures in what Israeli intelligence calls the "Radical Front," which comprises two countries -- Syria and Iran -- and three organizations: Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 08, 2013 10 Comments

I don't thing the left side bumper can handle the right side bumper sticker. Or the truth. From J: A product of the Obama worshipping "education" system, no doubt....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 07, 2013 37 Comments
Nelson Mandela died on Thursday. I have been deliberately deliberative on writing about his death, in this post for the first time. As so many rushed out with statements based on self-proclaimed expertise on Mandela's life, I realized that I knew little of his life other than the big picture -- A fight to end Apartheid and a famous lack of desire for revenge. Maybe that was enough to know. What I've read the past couple of days confirms both the greatness of his accomplishments, yet also the mixed record of his life which does not justify simplification. Mandela embraced totalitarian communist and socialist regimes during his struggle against another form of unjust regime; he embraced the murderous thieving Yasser Arafat, yet also insisted on Israel's right to exist in secure borders. Here are just a few of the more informative pieces, among many dozens I've read: This immediate post-release press conference seems to embody the conflicting aspects of his history and that of South Africa:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 07, 2013 42 Comments
We have highlighted here many times the almost insane “zero tolerance” policies at school wherein students are disciplined, suspended and expelled for biting a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun, bringing Quarter coin-sized gun keychain charms to school, and even pointing a pencil and saying “bang.” Now another case. A fifth grader is suspended and faces expulsion for shooting an imaginary bow and arrow at school mimicking The Hunger Games. Megyn Kelly reports (video at bottom of post):
A fifth grader in Georgia [note: original report has since been corrected to reflect Pennsylvania] has been suspended for shooting an imaginary arrow at a classmate. The 10-year-old also faces possible expulsion. The Rutherford Institute, which is defending Johnny Jones, says he was told he violated the school’s zero tolerance policy on weapons. They’re working to get the suspension reversed and lifted from his permanent record. On Friday night’s The Kelly File, defense attorney Jonna Spilbor reacted to the ordeal. “Here’s how ridiculous it is. If we’re going to punish this poor kid for pretending to shoot a bow and arrow, let’s ticket his parents for parking their unicorn in a fire zone.”
The school is defending its decision:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 07, 2013 6 Comments

So who wants to sponsor an Octopus college scholarship? Yale to hold Non-Human Rights Conference U. Georgia Genetics Prof. Says Humans the Result of Chimpanzees Mating with Pigs And you thought I was joking when I said "Everyone Gets A Trophy": Most Common Grade at Harvard is “A” of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 06, 2013 29 Comments
At which Democrats should start freaking out. The polling just keeps getting worse and worse.  A couple of months ago the generic congressional election polling was having Democrats and Establishment Republicans (yes, there is such a thing) ready to wrap the death of the Republican Party around the necks of Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. Good times, good times, for Democrats. It was a false prognosis, because Cruz and Lee were trying to stop the disaster known as Obamacare. The legacy will be Democrats going to the mat to protect and preserve Obamacare. If Democrats owned Obamacare before, as a result of the efforts of Cruz, Lee and others, Democrats swallowed Obamacare whole in September. Now everything has changed because Obamacare and Democrats are one and the same. Via Hot Air, this chart which caused Charlie Cook to declare Holy Sh-t! (my paraphrase), should make Democrats want to regurgitate their Obamacare feast:
The Democratic numbers from the generic-ballot test dropped from 45 percent to 37 percent, and Republicans moved up to 40 percent. This 10-point net shift from a Democratic advantage of 7 points to a GOP edge of 3 points in just over a month is breathtaking, perhaps an unprecedented swing in such a short period. Occurring around Election Day, such a shift would probably amount to the difference between Democrats picking up at least 10 House seats, possibly even the 17 needed for a majority, and instead losing a half-dozen or so seats.
Congressional Generic Polling Data Chart 12-6-2013 While many Democrats are desperate for relief from Obamacare, those who are to tied to the law's passage, like Mary Landrieu of Louisiana Purchase fame, are choosing to double down:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 06, 2013 15 Comments

Obama is losing the youth at many levels, as we have reported this week: Obama approval cliff dives among poor Hispanics and Non-Whites Harvard Survey: Obama and Obamacare push Millennials support off cliff Now comes another survey from National Journal, Young Americans Expect Obamacare to Be Repealed: The...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 06, 2013 30 Comments

As you read the rest of this post, please keep in mind that Elizabeth Warren never has authorized release of her hiring files at Harvard Law School or other employers to see whether her phony Native American and Cherokee status was known at the time...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 06, 2013 23 Comments
I admit to not having followed the Obama illegal alien uncle saga very carefully. He previously said he knew nothing about his then illegal alien uncle. Now he says he knows something after the uncle gave up the goods at a recent immigration hearing. The Boston Globe reports (video at bottom of post):
President Obama acknowledged on Thursday that he lived with his Kenyan uncle for a brief period in the 1980s while preparing to attend Harvard Law School, contradicting a statement more than a year ago that the White House had no record of the two ever meeting. Their relationship came into question on Tuesday at the deportation hearing of his uncle, Onyango Obama, in Boston immigration court. His uncle had lived in the United States illegally since the 1970s and revealed in testimony for the first time that his famous nephew had stayed at his Cambridge apartment for about three weeks. At the time, Onyango Obama was here illegally and fighting deportation.
Roger Simon at PJ Media (via Instapundit) asks, What if It’s All True? (emphasis mine):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 05, 2013 24 Comments
The supporters of Obamacare are oblivious to their own self-parody. This isn't 2008, kids. It is about the Cha-Ching Cha-Ching and Ba-Bling Ba-Bling. Yes, These Really Are the Winners of the Obamacare Video Contest
Back in August, a group called “Young Invincibles” teamed up with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to host an online video contest to promote Obamacare, which sounds about as terrible of an idea as the videos actually turned out. Actor Kal Penn announced the ‘Healthy Young America’ video contest winners in a Google hangout on Monday, naming three winners in the following categories: “You are Not invincible,” “Perform a song,” and “Make an animation.” Young Invincibles’ announcement touted a prize pool worth up to $30,000 for more than 100 prizes. According to the Washington Examiner, First Place took home $3,000, while the Second and Third Place winners received $2,500, and the Grand Prize winner earned $2,000. Without further ado, I present just some of the winning videos:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 05, 2013 12 Comments
I don't use the word "evil" very often here, but it certainly would be justified as to the Boycott Divestment Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel and BDS supporters in academia. See the BDS Tag for my prior writings on the BDS movement for background. Now that the National Council of the American Studies Association has endorsed an academic boycott of Israel, the ASA has joined the Jihad against Israel. The ASA National Council's justifications are flimsy and historically incorrect and biased. They cite the separation "wall" (actually mostly a fence, only a wall in certain places) as a justification without noting that the "wall" was build only after a year of unrelenting Palestinian suicide bombings at cafes, reception halls, buses, and even at Hebrew University. Several hundred Israelis civilians died in these suicide bombings. The "wall" put an end to that. So too did checkpoints, where even to this day sophisticated weapons for use against Israel are stopped.
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