Op-Eds and Columns

May 01, 2008

Op-Ed: City Video Surveillance May Carry High Privacy Cost (Buffalo News)

A resident quoted in a recent Buffalo News article about the city’s new video surveillance system likened the cameras to candy, saying everybody wants more. It’s an apt comparison. The unchecked proliferation of video surveillance can erode privacy the way a steady diet of candy rots teeth. ... Read More

Apr 22, 2008

Column: A Key Law-Reform Tool in Peril – The End of Facial Challenges? (New York Law Journal)

One of the most powerful tools available to those engaged in civil rights law-reform work is the so-called “facial challenge.” Under long-standing Supreme Court precedent, advocates have been able to challenge statutes “on their face” and strike them down in their entirety, sometimes even before they were ever enforced. A notable New York example of a successful facial challenge is provided by the state’s now defunct death-penalty statute, which fell after the New York Court of Appeals found a single procedural provision of the statute to be unconstitutional.... Read More

Mar 25, 2008

Column: Congestion Pricing and Big Brother (New York Metro)

People generally don’t fret much about the proliferation of surveillance cameras in New York City, unless they’re the subject of an intrusive gaze.... Read More

Mar 24, 2008

Op-Ed: Closing Under-Used Facilities Makes Financial Sense (Buffalo News)

Sheriff Timothy Howard correctly calls the state’s juvenile justice system a costly failure (Another Voice, March 14), yet he opposes cutting state funding for pretrial juvenile detention. He argues that doing so would threaten public safety. The sheriff should reconsider.
... Read More

Feb 27, 2008

Op-Ed: Proposed State Law Would Protect Women's Reproductive Health (The Journal News)

The Feb. 21 Community View by Alan P. Mehldau, "Proposed law would increase number of abortions in N.Y.," is both misguided and factually incorrect. Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposed legislation, the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, would modernize our laws and ensure our rights are protected. The bill guarantees women's ability to make their own decisions about whether and when to become pregnant and whether and when to have children. It also ensures that when it comes to state regulation of abortion, women's health will always be the paramount concern.... Read More

Feb 26, 2008

Column: Garcetti v. Caballos and Public Employee Speech in the Second Circuit (New York Law Journal)

For litigators and judges, a United States Supreme Court decision that appears to depart from well-established law can present a significant challenge. A current example of this arises from Garcetti v. Cabellos, a May 2006 decision in which the Court seemed to substantially narrow the First Amendment rights of public employees.... Read More

Jan 24, 2008

Column: Defending New Yorkers’ Liberty in ’08 (New York Metro)

It’s natural to start the new year with a list of goals and resolutions. Our state’s lawmakers are surely crafting their wish lists for the 2008 legislative session. But with a $4 billion budget deficit, any wish can become wishful thinking. Fortunately, there’s a lot the state can do to protect civil liberties that won’t cost a penny, and some moves that might even save money.... Read More

Jan 22, 2008

Op-Ed: Roe at 35: The View from a "Safe" State (Daily Kos)

As we celebrate the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion, it is time for us to take a hard look at the state of reproductive freedom, both across the country and closer to home.... Read More

Dec 21, 2007

Column: Pondering The Niceties Of Executions (New York Law Journal)

Two weeks from today the Supreme Court is to hear oral arguments in a case that has brought death-penalty executions to a halt around the country. At issue in Baze v. Rees is whether lethal injection violates the Eighth Amendment’s proscription against cruel and unusual punishment.... Read More

Dec 12, 2007

Op-Ed: Mayor’s Intrepid Traffic Plan Must Avoid Being Intrusive (New York Daily News)

So far, public debate about Mayor Bloomberg's congestion-pricing proposal has focused on issues like the specific boundaries of a congestion-pricing zone, the fees drivers will pay, the impact on mass transit and how much congestion pricing will actually reduce traffic congestion.... Read More