Author: BC Law Impact Guest Posts

BC Law’s Mock Trial Team Wins Big at ‘Cambridge Clash’

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The inaugural ‘Cambridge Clash’ competition—created this year by Harvard Law School’s Mock Trial Society—brought eight invite-only teams from around New England and New York (Albany, BC Law, two CUNY teams, Fordham, Harvard, New York Law, and Roger Williams) to Harvard’s campus in Cambridge for a weekend tournament in November. Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of BC Law’s Defenders Clinic Steven Van Dyke, who is also one of the coaches for BC Law’s Mock Trial team, writes about what happened next.

We were somewhere in the long series of tunnels under Harvard Law School, passing row after row of multi-colored lockers, when we realized that we were no longer hungry…for food. Laden with trial boxes, bags, stray sneakers and uneaten Cava meals, three members of our mock trial team headed towards the finals of the Cambridge Clash mock trial competition. It was too late for lunch and too soon for us to admit to ourselves that our goal was becoming a reality.

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The Real Reason to Become a Prosecutor

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This guest post was written by 3L Alyssa Hatfield.

“Alyssa Hatfield on behalf of the Commonwealth.” 

As introductions go, this one might be the most terrifying. What does it mean to represent the Commonwealth? To represent an entire group of people, the defendant included? It’s a heavy weight to bear, but it’s not meant to be borne alone. 

This semester, I joined the Prosecution Clinic. As a part of the clinic, you learn a few things really fast. One: court moves really quickly. Like, really quickly. Two: how to swap stories like old-timers, because people commit some pretty odd crimes in some pretty odd ways that are ripe for class discussion. And three: to “do justice” might be the hardest and most unattainable mission to live by.

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Analyzing the Charter-Cox Merger

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Earlier this year, Charter Communications, Incorporated and Cox Communications announced a $34.5 billion proposed merger. If completed, the combined company would become both the largest cable television provider and the largest broadband provider in the country.

At first glance, one might be concerned about a proposal to merge the second and third-largest cable providers into a single behemoth. But to describe the merger in these simplistic terms fails to appreciate both the challenges facing companies in mature industries and the revolutionary changes affecting the telecommunications industry. This proposed deal is not a power grab, but a rational response to a maturing, intensely competitive market. That’s the argument that I’ve made in my latest article as part of the Free State Foundation’s Perspectives series.

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Carr Reins in FCC Overreach on School Wi-Fi

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr has been in the news a lot lately. Under his energetic leadership, the agency has pursued an ambitious agenda at a breakneck pace. And while he has taken flak (including from me) for some of his high-profile controversies—perhaps most notably threatening Jimmy Kimmel like a second-rate Jersey mob boss—he deserves significant credit for the less flashy efforts his team is taking behind the scenes to restore the agency’s proper role and rein in the prior administration’s excesses. One such effort was last month’s decision to terminate E-Rate funding for Wi-Fi hotspot lending and school bus Wi-Fi access. While the merits of those programs can be debated, they clearly exceeded the statute’s bounds, and the FCC was right to rein them in.

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Court Strikes Down Law Regulating Election-Related AI Content

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

By reducing traditional barriers of content creation, the AI revolution holds the potential to unleash an explosion in creative expression. It also increases the societal risks associated with the spread of misinformation. This tension is the subject of a recent landmark judicial decision, Babylon Bee v Bonta (hat tip to Ajit Pai, whose social media account remains an outstanding follow). The eponymous satirical news site and others challenged California’s AB 2839, which prohibited the dissemination of “materially deceptive” AI-generated audio or video content related to elections. Although the court recognized that the case presented a novel question about “synthetically edited or digitally altered” content, it struck down the law, concluding that the rise of AI does not justify a departure from long-standing First Amendment principles.

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The Ambiguity of Probable Cause: My Path to Law School

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This guest post is by Dave Sainte-Luce, a brand new 1L student at BC Law.

My fascination with law enforcement stretches as far back as my childhood. I was your normal cop-loving kid, who always perked up and watched in awe as those Ford Crown Victorias roared by with their sirens blaring and lights flashing. With each visit to the store, I could never leave without convincing my dad to buy me a new toy police car. At that age, I only understood cops as being brave and strong, running headfirst toward danger to fight crime and maintain law and order. Accordingly, I thought all criminals deserved to be punished, and the cops did the dirty work of putting the bad guys away to keep our community safe. With such a simple yet honorable equation, how could I not love the police?

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Prison Call Order Delays Reform of Market Ripe for Disruption

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Earlier this summer, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unexpectedly delayed implementation of its 2024 prison call order until 2027. The order, which was mandated by Congress and had bipartisan support in the agency and on Capitol Hill, sought to correct long-standing market distortions through a combination of cost-based pricing and competition-friendly rules. The delay was requested by incumbent providers and correctional facilities based on unexpected implementation challenges. But this postponement is unfortunate, coming right as new entrants such as Ameelio are poised to challenge those incumbents and perpetuating inefficiencies, high costs, and limited innovation in a sector ripe for disruption.

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No Good Answers to Health Insurance Cutbacks at Congressional Town Halls

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Constituents jeer and boo Nebraska lawmaker over healthcare concerns

This post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.

Over the past two weeks, Nebraska constituents grilled a Republican congressman on recent health insurance cutbacks during a pair of town halls. Their angry response — and the congressman’s difficulty in allaying their concerns — signal potential voter backlash as those cutbacks are rolled out.

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Coercion will Fail, but Trade will Endure

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This guest post by BC Law Professor Frank Garcia originally appeared in the Cambridge University Press blog.

The first year of Trump’s second term has been a chaotic one for trade, as for so much else. Before inauguration, the President had already threatened tariffs against Denmark to force a “sale” of Greenland. Within days of taking office, he began threatening or imposing illegal tariffs against Colombia, China, Mexico, Canada, all steel and aluminum exporters, the EU, and now virtually all nations that trade with us. Each of these blows is a stark reminder that we live in a time when economic coercion masquerades as trade policy. 

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