The recent stretch of U.S. Supreme Court decisions is making big headlines. There was the decision that returned the question of abortion rights to the states, another one that limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory power, and then there’s Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta. In this case, the majority ruled 5-4 that states do share jurisdictional authority with federal and tribal entities in the prosecution of crimes within Indian Country, when those crimes a non-Native American defendant and a Native American victim. In the 2020 Supreme Court decision from McGirt v. Oklahoma, the court held that the Creek Nation’s reservation in eastern Oklahoma had never been disestablished, meaning that the tribal and federal government had the jurisdiction to prosecute crimes by Indians on those lands. As a result, jurisdiction in these areas was shared by tribal and federal prosecutors. Kirsten Matoy Carlson, a professor of law at Wayne State University, explained that the state of Oklahoma was dissatisfied with this decision. “Post-McGirt, the state has been really hostile toward the tribes in Oklahoma,” Matoy Carlson said. “It has sought to overturn the decision in McGirt 40 times, which is unheard of.” Two years later, the Castro-Huerta decision gave the state a win. Looking forward, Carlson said a lot is unclear, from the practical questions of authority, to how long the Castro-Huerta decision will stand. “The case is unique because it has an extremely powerful descent by Justice Gorsuch,” Matoy Carlson said. “It is very clear to me that when Gorsuch wrote the dissent, he was giving arguments to people so they could make this opinion less important in the future. But it’s really hard to know whether that’s going to happen or not.”  

A little over 93% of Wayne State University Law School 2021 graduates were placed in long-term, full time bar passage required or J.D. advantage positions. The Wayne Law class of 2021 had a 7.7% increase in employment rate compared to the Wayne Law class of 2020, which had an employment rate of 85.9%. For 2021 graduates, Wayne Law was in the top 20 of all U.S. law schools in employment outcomes. Wayne Law faculty and staff are proud of the graduates’ work and accomplishments. “It is wonderful to see Wayne Law shine nationally for the outstanding employment of its graduates,” said assistant dean of career and professional development Lisa Fadler. “These exceptional employment results reflect the legal community’s recognition of the quality of Wayne Law’s graduates and academic program.” 

By Jonathan Oosting and Yue Stella Yu  At least two county prosecutors would consider criminal charges against abortion providers despite a temporary injunction against enforcement of a 1931 ban, their attorney says, underscoring uncertainty over the legal status of abortion in Michigan. Enforcement of the old law, which makes performing an abortion a felony by up to four years in prison, was suspended following a May injunction by a lower-court judge. David Kallman, a lawyer representing Republican prosecutors in Kent and Jackson counties says the injunction only applies to the state, not county prosecutors. The opinion contradicts assurances from Attorney General Dana Nessel and others that abortion remains legal in Michigan for now, despite Friday’s ruling by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Robert Sedler, a law professor at Wayne State University and special assistant attorney general to Nessel, told Bridge he believes the injunction against the 1931 abortion ban – which declared the ban unconstitutional – applies to all public officials, even though county prosecutors are not named parties in the court case. “Once you have a declaration of unconstitutionality, it’s going to bind all government officials in the state of Michigan,” he said. “Should they try to prosecute anybody, there would be an injunction against them and they could possibly be held in contempt.”  

Wayne State University plans to hold a memorial service this weekend for U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan’s longest-serving U.S. senator who died last year. Sunday’s service was announced by Levin’s namesake, the school’s Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at Wayne State University Law School. The Detroit Democrat’s family, friends and colleagues plan to honor his life and legacy at the invitation-only memorial at 1 p.m. Sunday at the university’s Student Center Ballroom.   

By Jennifer Selin Jennifer Selin, co-director, Washington Office, of the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at Wayne State University, wrote an article for The Conversation in which she analyzes previous congressional investigations in the context of the House Jan. 6 committee hearings which are attempting to answer the question of whether former President Donald Trump and his political allies broke the law in seeking to overturn the 2020 election results. The Jan. 6 hearings are part of a long history of congressional investigation, Selin writes. She notes that first congressional inquiry occurred in the House in 1792 and the Senate’s first investigation was conducted in 1818. “While the upcoming hearings of the House Jan. 6 investigative committee will be dealing with unprecedented events in American history, the very investigation of these events has strong precedent. Congress has long exercised its power to investigate some of the greatest problems facing the nation. In that way, the upcoming hearings fit squarely into the mainstream of American government oversight,” Selin writes.

The Women Lawyers Association of Michigan Foundation has announced the recipients of this year’s WLAM Foundation Awards for Outstanding Law Students. Besides their academic performance at Michigan law schools, these individuals endeavor to advance women’s roles in essential areas of law, including STEM, social justice, equality, child advocacy, and domestic violence. The recipients include Wayne Law students Dominica Convertino, Fatima Dakroub and Samantha Mackereth.  

The Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy has selected three Wayne Law students to serve as legal interns in congressional committee offices in Washington, D.D. this summer. Internship recipients are Kawkab (Kay) El-Moussaoui, Bahar Haste and Yesenia Jimenez. Each internship position involves work with congressional staff from both parties and a bipartisan approach to oversight. Students work under the supervision of an experienced attorney who is engaged in conducting oversight on behalf of a congressional committee. This is the seventh year for the 10-week internship. Collectively, 25 Wayne Law students have participated since the program’s inception.

Graduating Wayne State University Law School student Muthu Veerappan set the school record for the highest number of pro bono hours donated by a single student. Veerappan reached 1,020 total pro bono hours with the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office as part of the Warrior Pro Bono Pledge. The graduating class donated nearly 2,400 pro bono hours. “It was remarkable because I learned a lot working there over the past year,” Veerappan said. “I have done everything from preliminary exams, motions, briefs, and a jury trial to watching a victim’s 8-month-old child while they were testifying. Prior to completing his pro bono hours, Veerappan worked at Wayne Law’s Free Legal Aid Clinic, Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic, and completed a public service externship.  

Jennifer Selin, co-director of the Levin Center at Wayne Law, wrote an article for The Conversation analyzing the enforcement of unprecedented subpoenas for GOP lawmakers related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. An attempt to force five Republican lawmakers into providing information to the House panel investigating the attack is unlikely to end with the subpoenas, Selin writes. “The question of whether a committee can subpoena a sitting member of Congress is almost certain to be headed to the courts. If it does, Congress’ authority will be determined in part by a little-known provision of the U.S. Constitution called the “speech or debate” clause,” Selin writes. The clause protects legislators and their staff from liability for doing things like giving floor speeches, voting on legislation, and conducting investigations. 

By Doug Tribou and Lauren Talley  Governor Gretchen Whitmer is waiting to find out whether the Michigan Supreme Court will hear the challenge to Michigan’s dormant abortion law that would come back into effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned at the federal level. The governor has asked the state Supreme Court to bypass lower courts and declare that Michigan’s 1931 law violates privacy protections in the state constitution. Whitmer is using a combination of legal maneuvers in her challenge. To look at the possible paths, Michigan Radio turned to former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly, who served on the court from 1997 to 2012. She’s now the distinguished jurist in residence at Wayne State University Law School. “This is rare. It’s unusual. But the governor definitely has the legal authority to use her executive power to seek an informal opinion of the Supreme Court. She also has the legal authority under the Michigan constitution to bring a lawsuit in the name of the state in order to prevent violations of a constitutional power. So, that’s what she did,” Kelly said. “…The Michigan Supreme Court has to consider whether this is of such public importance that it should grant this rather extraordinary remedy of not hearing from the lower courts,” Kelly said.  

My wife and I have a big decision to make. Roughly 7 1/2 years ago, we entered our eighth and last cycle in our attempts at in vitro fertilization, the result of which were two healthy, and mischievous, twin boys. They're almost 7.  But the process left a half-dozen unused embryos that remain frozen in cryogenic storage. We've continued to pay the IVF clinic to keep those potential children safe, but after careful consideration we're ready to keep our family to four. That leaves three options: donate those embryos to another couple struggling with fertility, donate them to science or destroy them. But fears that the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling have added uncertainty for would-be parents and the providers trying to help them conceive. Christopher Lund, professor of law at Wayne State University, (says) that the 1931 law isn't necessarily applicable to IVF procedures. But, he said, the law is vague in defining what is considered a miscarriage or abortion. Section 14 of the law forbids "administering to any pregnant women any medicine, drug, [or] substance ... to procure [a] miscarriage." Section 15 forbids the providing or selling "any pills, powder, drugs or combination of drugs, designed expressly for the use of females for the purpose of procuring an abortion." 

With the possibility that an abortion ban will soon take hold in Michigan, both women and policymakers are focusing more attention on mail-order abortion pills, which are broadly available and present a stern challenge to enforcing future restrictions. Of the nearly 30,000 Michigan abortions in 2020, more than half involved pills taken at home to end a pregnancy, rather than a surgical procedure at a clinic or hospital, echoing national trends. The pills became even easier to obtain during COVID, when the Biden administration lifted a requirement that women visit their doctor to pick up a prescription. Abortion law and politics were jolted by the publication of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a right to abortion under the U.S. Constitution. Should that draft represent the court’s final decision, Michigan would again be governed by a 1931 state law that outlaws abortions in most instances along with the sale of pills or drugs to induce it. It is unclear if abortion pills will remain legal in Michigan. The presents “really complicated questions with uncertain answers,” said Lance Gable, a Wayne State University law professor with expertise in public health law and bioethics.  

Wayne State University Law School student Fatima Dakroub recently received the Dickinson Wright Scholarship from the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan (WLAM) Foundation and the Kaminski Law Scholarship from WLAM-Wayne Region. The scholarships are awarded to law students who demonstrate leadership capabilities in advancing the position of women in society, in business, and in the community. “I am honored to be selected as a recipient of these scholarships,” Dakroub, a rising 3L, said. “I never thought I would enjoy transactional work, but  I am grateful that I came to Wayne Law with an open mind and ready to explore every facet of the law in an environment that fosters my personal and professional growth.” 

Most histories of law schools focus on the notable deans and professors, and the changes in curricula over time. In “Detroit’s Wayne State University Law School: Future Leaders in the Legal Community,” author Alan Schenk highlights the students and their influence on the school’s development, character, and employment opportunities. Schenk, a longtime professor at Wayne State Law School, has devoted his academic career to tax law and is regarded as an expert on value added taxation. His decision to write a book about the law school stemmed from a question posed by his wife, Betty, in the fall of 2014 when she asked him if he was the longest serving faculty member there. “When I determined that I was, I started reminiscing about my years at Wayne, my students, my colleagues, and the law school administration,” Schenk wrote in the preface to the book. “I taught at almost a dozen law schools and I always returned to Wayne – for two important reasons. First, I was treated well at Wayne and there is a tendency to return to a place that treats you well. Second, and more importantly, Wayne students were special. I enjoyed teaching them more than the students I taught at other law schools.”  

Wayne State University Law School’s Student Bar Association Board of Governors announced its 2022-23 executive board, elected by the student body. The Executive Board includes President Christina Atanasoska; Vice President Katie Prebelich; Treasurer Ila Zielke; Secretary Andrew Nurmi; ABA Representative Alexandria Sharpe; and Student Senate Representative TK Khan.

By Kirsten Matoy Carlson  It’s unusual for someone to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit one of its decisions. It’s very rare for that to happen almost immediately after the ruling was issued. But in the two years since the court’s ruling in a key case about Native American rights, the state of Oklahoma has made that request more than 40 times. State officials have also repeatedly refused to cooperate with tribal leaders to comply with the ruling, issued in 2020 and known as McGirt vs. Oklahoma. Local governments, however, continue to cooperate with the tribes and show how the ruling could actually help build connections between the tribal governments and their neighbors. In the McGirt ruling, the Supreme Court held that much of eastern Oklahoma is Indian country under the terms of an 1833 treaty between the U.S. government and the Muscogee Creek Nation. Based on that treaty and an 1885 federal law, the ruling effectively means that the state of Oklahoma cannot prosecute crimes committed by or against American Indians there. Federal and tribal officials are the only ones who can pursue these cases.

By Hilary Golston  Over four days of Senate hearings last month, Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke of her parents struggles through racial segregation and says her path was clearer than theirs as a black American after the enactment of civil rights laws. Now, she's officially been confirmed as the third Black Supreme Court Justice, the seventh woman, and the first Black woman to hold the distinguished position. Wayne State University Law Professor Robert Sedler said the partisanship has been going on for almost 20 years, when it comes to selecting judges for the Supreme Court. "The thing that has been troubling to me. Is that she. It's highly qualified to sit on the Supreme Court and in point of fact, so have been all the nominees since 2005 when George W. Bush dominated chief Justice Roberts and Samuel Alito. What has happened and both parties are guilty of this is that they have politicized the confirmation process," Sedler said. 

Students from diverse backgrounds at Wayne State University Law School have launched the “Lawyers Look Like Me” campaign, an initiative that sends a powerful message: Lawyers can look like us, too. The campaign aims to challenge stereotypes about what lawyers “look” like, celebrate historically underrepresented law students, and highlight the importance of diversifying the legal profession. The students driving this campaign represent numerous multicultural and ally organizations. “Lawyers and judges carry people’s livelihoods and liberties in their hands. It’s so important for the profession to welcome practitioners that come from all walks of life,” said Aleanna Siacon, a third-year law student and the creator of the campaign. “There’s much work to be done to address and remove the barriers that make law school inaccessible to many. But this campaign recognizes the power of representation.” 

Wayne State University Law School students Elyse Victor and Andre Hage were named finalists of the Moot Court winter in-house competition. Victor and Hage demonstrated strong oral and written advocacy skills that advanced them to the final round. “Students prepare from the first week of classes to the preliminary rounds of the competition by researching case law, writing a brief, and practicing oral arguments with senior members of the moot court team,” said Emily Barr, chancellor of the Moot Court program. “The magic of the program is watching new team members blossom into talented and zealous advocates.” The final round judges included Michigan Supreme Court Justice Megan Cavanaugh, Third Circuit Court Judge Carla Testani, and Wayne Law associate dean for research and faculty development Christopher Lund. Semi-final judges included Wayne Law professors Amy Neville, Jack Mazzara, and Dan Ellman. 

Wayne State University Law School will conduct its 2022 Ambulance Chase 5K on Saturday, April 2 from 10 a.m. to noon. Sponsored by the Wayne Law Student Bar Association Board of Governors, the Ambulance Chase 5K pokes fun at the stereotype of the ambulance-chasing lawyer and helps support a good cause. The event will support the Wayne Law Public Interest Law Fund, which provides scholarships to students to pursue positions in public interest fields.