"Orwellian" is a critical term in our current political discourse. The phrase is often invoked in connection with the novel 1984, written by George Orwell and published in 1949. On this episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, Associate Dean Rodger Citron and Professor Allison Caffarone discuss what it's like to read 1984 in 2025. They discuss the novel's literary merits as well as its political insights. Interestingly, neither is particularly enamored of 1984, though they agree that the novel c...
Jun 30, 2025•35 min
Every day, it seems, brings a new national news story about higher education. Beyond the headlines, the crisis in highereducation poses economic and other risks to state and local governments that support and are supported by universities, colleges and professional schools. Touro University’s PatriciaSalkin and Albany Law School’s Jenean Taranto explore these risks in a forthcoming article in State and Local News, published by the American Bar Association. Provost Salkin and Associate Dean Taran...
Apr 21, 2025•40 min
On this episode, Professors Laura Dooley and John Quinn discuss Royal Canin U.S.A., Inc. v. Wullschleger, a recent Supreme Court case involving federal subject matter jurisdiction. Royal Canin is a straightforward case: In a unanimous decision, the Court held that when a plaintiff amends her complaint to eliminate all federal law claims and include only state law claims after the case is removed to federal court, the plaintiff’s case can no longer be heard in federal court. There is no original ...
Apr 04, 2025•46 min
On this episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, Professor Tiffany Li describes her journey from law student at Georgetown Law School to faculty member at the University of San Francisco Law School. In her conversation with Associate Dean Rodger Citron, Professor Li talks about the importance of professional networking, the ever-present need to write, and ways to distinguish yourself as a candidate even if you did not attend an elite law school.
Mar 19, 2025•53 min
Professor Jorge Roig teaches Constitutional Law at Touro Law Center. On this episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, Professor Roig discusses three recent Supreme Court decisions involving the application of the First Amendment in the context of social media. Initially Roig discusses TikTok Inc. v. Garland decision, in which the Court upheld a law making “it unlawful for companies in the United States to provide services to distribute, maintain, or update the social media platform TikTok, unles...
Mar 11, 2025•50 min
Right out of law school, Joshua Perry moved to New Orleans to work as a public defender. In the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when reformers were trying to fix a broken criminal justice system on the fly, Perry was thrown untrained into defending the city’s most vulnerable people. Over the next decade, Perry served as general counsel at the Orleans Public Defenders and then Executive Director at the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, the city’s juvenile defender. Now, Perry’s debu...
Oct 30, 2024•50 min
On this episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, Touro Law Professors Peter Zablotsky and Gabriel Weil, engage in a discussion about artificial intelligence and how this technology poses potential risks. As AI becomes more prevalent and its technical capabilities extend further beyond its current capacity, there is both a danger for misuse and for AI system failures. Professor Weil addresses how AI risk poses a problem for law and policy and further raises the argument that tort law is the best ...
Oct 30, 2024•43 min
Every era has its trial of the century. In 1925, Tennessee prosecuted John T. Scopes, a high school teacher, for teaching evolution in violation of state law. The sensational trial drew nationwide attention and included an epic clash between two lawyers – William Jennings Bryan, one of the prosecutors, and Clarence Darrow, one of the defense attorneys. In Keeping the Faith , Brenda Wineapple provides an account of the Scopes trial while exploring the case from different perspectives. In a front-...
Sep 23, 2024•50 min
Alicia Bannon, Director of the Judiciary Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, discusses the politics of state judicial elections with Associate Dean Rodger Citron. In 38 states, judges are elected. As Bannon describes, judicial elections used to be “sleepy” – not much campaigning was done and not much money was spent. For a number of reasons, that has changed. In 2023, for example, about $51 million was spent on the election of a state supreme court justice in Wisconsin. Furthermore, as Ba...
Sep 18, 2024•36 min
The Supreme Court continued its project of reshaping administrative law this term. Perhaps its most widely discussed decision in this area was Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, in which the Court overruled the doctrine of Chevron deference. How did the Chevron doctrine operate? Why, after forty years, did the Supreme Court set it aside? And what will judges do when interpreting regulatory statutes that are either ambiguous or silent on the question pending before the court? DePaul College of...
Jul 29, 2024•54 min
Long before he became a federal judge, even before he went to law school in the early 1970s, Michael Ponsor wrote fiction. It was not until 2013, however, that Judge Ponsor published his first novel, The Hanging Judge . In this podcast, Judge Ponsor discusses his passion for writing as well as his experiences as a lawyer and judge that inform his third published novel, Point of Order . In his conversation with Associate Dean Rodger Citron, Judge Ponsor discusses the demands and challenges of bei...
Jul 08, 2024•54 min
In Moore v. Harper, decided last year, the Supreme Court addressed the “independent state legislature theory.” In a case arising out of an election in North Carolina, proponents of the theory contended that North Carolina’s Supreme Court did not have the authority to review a legal claim that the state legislature had adopted an illegally gerrymandered congressional map. The Supreme Court rejected the theory by a 6-3 vote in Moore. In this Touro Law Review podcast, Nicholas Maggio, an attorney w...
Apr 15, 2024•42 min
Stephen Bright’s relentless pursuit of equal justice is at the center of Professor Robert Tsai’s most recent book. For nearly forty years, Bright led the Southern Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit that provided legal aid to incarcerated people and worked to improve conditions within the justice system. Among other things, Bright argued four death penalty cases at the Supreme Court and won each of them. As Tsai discusses with Associate Dean Rodger Citron, the story of these four cases illustra...
Mar 27, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Professor Kennedy conducted an insightful interview with Professor Daniel Kiel, a distinguished law professor at the University of Memphis and author of the book "The Transition: Interpreting Justice from Thurgood Marshall to Clarence Thomas." This literary work seamlessly blends historical narratives, legal analysis, and literary elements, comprehensively exploring the Supreme Court justices' perspectives on educational inequalities and racial disparities—issues Professor Kiel has dedicated his...
Mar 16, 2024•44 min
In 2023, Supreme Court justices made news not only for the cases decided but also for their personal conduct. As David Lat and Zach Shemtob noted in an article for The Atlantic, the news stories often involved “financial entanglements between justices and wealthy benefactors.” As Lat and Shemtob discuss with Associate Dean Rodger Citron, the intensity of the public response to the justices’ behavior is more noteworthy than the underlying conduct. They attribute the strong reaction to our current...
Mar 04, 2024•42 min
This podcast features a discussion of law and literature with author David Guterson, author of The Final Case and the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel Snow Falling on Cedars . Guterson discusses with Associate Dean Rodger Citron the inspirations for The Final Case – including the death of an adopted girl in a rural county in Washington State and the life of his father, an accomplished criminal defense attorney – and what he learned while immersing himself in criminal law and procedure to write t...
Feb 20, 2024•56 min
Please join us for this week's episode featuring Lawyer and author Ray Brescia where he discusses his book Lawyer Nation. Professor Zablotsky hosts and the two discuss institutions, methodologies, history, and an analysis of dynamics in the legal system. In his book Lawyer Nation Brescia identifies six forces that represent the most significant challenges facing the legal profession today. Lawyer Nation gives a significant analysis and critique of the legal system but offers concrete ideas on ho...
Feb 14, 2024•44 min
Please join us for a deep dive between Dean Burch and Dean Zakarin into the switch from the Universal Bar Examination (UBE) to the Next Gen Bar, rolling out in phases starting July 2026. Dean Burch discussed what is now tested, the new format, and gave tips on how students and schools can smoothly adjust to the change.
Feb 08, 2024•31 min
Few lawyers know who Martin Manton was. Even fewer, if any, law students learn about Manton while in school. That may change with the Hon. Gary Stein’s recent biography of Manton, Justice for Sale: Graft, Greed, and a Crooked Federal Judge in 1930s Gotham. (See Justice for Sale: Graft, Greed, and a Crooked Federal Judge in 1930s Gotham: Stein, Gary: 9781493072569: Amazon.com: Books ) Judge Stein tells the history of Judge Manton’s rapid rise – President Woodrow Wilson appointed Manton, then 36-y...
Dec 21, 2023•55 min
Brief Summary: Cybercrime has become a topic of discussion in the last few years. In this Touro Law Review podcast, Nicole E. Osborne, an Associate at Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C., speaks about her experience and daily life as a member of the firm’s Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Practice Group. Nicole Osborne began with her journey to this world. Her path was more untraditional and she was in the right spot at the right time. Nicole gives advice to any student that wants to find a job in this...
Dec 11, 2023•41 min
This Podcast featured Magistrate Judge James M. Wicks, where he discussed his role as a magistrate, his path to get there, and advice to practitioners. Judge Wicks began discussing his various roles and positions as an attorney prior to his judgeship. He first became acquainted with the federal courts when he clerked for the Honorable Judge Arthur Spatt. Judge Spatt had a large influence on him and told him to consider becoming a Judge. As Judge Wicks stated, the good things that Judge Spatt did...
Sep 11, 2023•52 min
When Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question,” he surely could not have anticipated all of the pending legal cases against former President Donald Trump. Nevertheless, here we are nearly two centuries later, with four criminal prosecutions and one civil case pending and another civil case likely to be filed soon against Trump. Thane Rosenbaum, Distinguished University Professor at To...
Aug 29, 2023•53 min
This Podcast featured Associate Professor and Associate Dean TIffany C. Graham regarding her role on the New York State Advisory Committee. Professor Zablotsky moderated this podcast, where he asked Professor Graham questions about her role and work on the Committee, which led to a discussion of the racial disparities that black families face. Tiffany C. Graham is the Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion and Associate Professor of Law at Touro Law Center in Long Island, New York. Profess...
Aug 09, 2023•47 min
This Podcast featured Ashley C. Keller who represented the Plaintiff in a recent Supreme Court case, Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. (2023). Dean Rodger Citron moderated this podcast, where he asked Mr. Keller questions about his case, the Court's decision, and other constitutional issues that related. Mr. Keller is a founding partner of the firm Keller Postman LLC. He focuses on complex plaintiff side litigation and he is also a proud federalist society member. In this case, he defended...
Jul 20, 2023•50 min
Lawyer and author Martin J. Siegel discusses his biography of the Hon. Irving R. Kaufman on this week’s Touro Law Review podcast. Kaufman is most well-known today for having presided over the Cold War espionage case of United States v. Rosenberg, in which Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a married couple, were charged with conspiring to share atomic secrets with the Soviet Union, found guilty by the jury, and sentenced to death by Judge Kaufman in 1951. Two years later, after numerous appeals, the Un...
Jul 11, 2023•52 min
On this episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, we are joined by the Honorable Sol Wachtler, former Chief of the New York State Court of Appeals. This podcast is moderated by Professor Lauren Wachtler. Judge Wachtler has had an exceptional career. Serving for many years in government, and as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court, and later elected to the New York Court of Appeals where he served first as an associate judge and then as its Chief over the course of 14 years....
Apr 23, 2023•58 min
On this episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast we are joined by guest moderator Professor Lynne Kramer and guest speaker Anthony LaPinta. Anthony LaPinta is one of the top criminal trial lawyers in the State of New York who served as one of the defense attorney's representing Michael Valva in the tragic Valva case in Suffolk County, New York. The podcast discussion is centered around the ability to represent unpopular defendants. Among many other things, Mr. LaPinta explains why he volunteered ...
Apr 17, 2023•58 min
On this Touro Law Review podcast, we are joined by John Belcaster, the General Counsel of MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based art collective. MSCHF (pronounced “mischief”) produces artworks that critique and comment on American culture. The podcast discussion with Belcaster focuses on Jack Daniels Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC , a trademark case currently pending before the Supreme Court. As he explains, MSCHF filed an amicus brief (available here: MSCHF SUPREME COURT AMICUS BRIEF.indd .) in the Supr...
Mar 16, 2023•50 min
This week on the Touro Law Review podcast we are joined by Lisa Gochman to talk about her experience arguing the case, Charles C. Apprendi Jr. v. New Jersey, in front of the highest court in this country -- The United States Supreme Court.
Feb 28, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Please join us for the first podcast of the Spring 2023 semester with guest speaker Professor Michael Lewyn and Dean Citron. Dean Citron and Professor Lewyn discuss what we can expect for future bar exams and decisions to remove zoning questions from the bar exam.
Feb 28, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 28
