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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 April 24, 2020 52 Comments
The myriad way state and local governments try to strip away Second Amendment rights is maddening. And almost always, the restrictions come with benign sounding names and acronyms hiding the agenda, like New York's S.A.F.E. Act (Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013), a mindblogging mix of requirements meant to make purchasing and owning guns difficult. In California, the state imposed a background check requirement for the purchase of ammunition, an unprecedented move.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 23, 2020 67 Comments
Nancy Pelosi, dragging Chuck Schumer along by his collar, caused enormous damage in delaying both the massive $2 trillion relief bill and then the follow up expansion of funding of the Paycheck Protection Program. Remember when the media lost its mind over closure of some national monuments during various Obama-era government shutdowns (which weren't really shutdowns, more scalebacks)? Pelosi has caught none of that hell despite causing millions of workers and thousands of businesses real pain.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2020 86 Comments
Here we go again. As readers are aware, for two-and-one-half years we have been raising the possibility that at some point, likely at the convention, Democrats would beg Michelle Obama to save the party from disaster by agreeing to be the presidential nominee. [A listing of our prior posts is at the bottom of this post.]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 21, 2020 45 Comments
The State of Missouri, through its Attorney General Eric Schmitt, has sued the government of China, the Communist Party of China, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and several other Chinese entities over the damage from the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. You can read the Complaint here. I'd like to see the government of China and the officials responsible for the cover-up, concealment, and lies that allowed what could have been a local issue to spread around the world, pay for what they did. I doubt this lawsuit will achieve that goal.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2020 9 Comments
The last time we checked in on the dysfunctional Israel elections, it looked like Bibi Netanyahu's Likud Party had won a sweeping election -- the third in a year -- which would allow it to put together a right-wing coalition government. BUT WAIT, then the exit polls were off and the actual results still had Likud in the lead, but without the ability to put together a ruling coalition. A majority of Knesset members said they would back Blue-and-White challenger for Prime Minister Benny Gantz, leading Israel's President to give Gantz the 'mandate' to form a government....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 19, 2020 42 Comments
Attorney General William Barr has signaled that the federal government will take action with regard to violations of the constitutional rights of citizens by state and local officials as part of Wuhan coronavirus 'stay at home' and shutdown orders. Barr was addressing particularly violations of religious freedom.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 18, 2020 52 Comments
Joe Biden doesn't have what it takes to take on Trump. He's become a sad figure as he struggles to complete sentences, keep track of his thoughts, and find words. He never should have been pushed to run for president. I covered the unfortunate series of Biden brain freezes recently in Being off center stage has helped Biden, who struggles even in friendly interviews.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 17, 2020 25 Comments
While a lot of pundit claim that the Wuhan coronavirus crisis has damaged Joe Biden's campaign by pushing him off center stage, in fact being off center stage is the best things that's happened to Biden's campaign. Biden obviously had 'cognitive decline' issues -- that's not a medical diagnosis, but an observation any honest person watching him in action the past few months recognizes. He repteadedly loses track of what he is saying, has trouble finding words, and appears to read from notes in what should be spontaneous interviews.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 17, 2020 53 Comments
The Payroll Protection Program is out of money. The SBA has stopped taking applications. Hundreds of thousands of applications that already have been submitted cannot be funded. Tens of millions of people are out of work without the backstop of businesses getting help retaining staff. And it's all because Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have taken the nation hostage in order to extort $250 billion in unrelated additional spending.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 17, 2020 35 Comments
So this has been Elizabeth Warren's endgame since it became clear several months ago that she would not win the Democratic presidential nomination. Warren stayed in the race long enough to siphon off enough support for Bernie on Super Tuesday to hand Biden the nomination. Bernie supporters called her a snake. The snake emoji became the symbol of Berner fury at Warren.
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