The Pierce Law Federalist Society will host Professor Steven Hetcher of the Vanderbilt University Law School for a luncheon event on Thursday, April 23, at 12pm in the Giles S. Rich Room. The event will be followed by a wine and cheese reception for Dr. Hetcher at 1:30pm in the Board Room.

Together with Professor Mary Wong of the Franklin Pierce Law Center, Dr. Hetcher will discuss the intersection of privacy and copyright law on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and others.

We are grateful to the Templeton Foundation Debate Series for its principal sponsorship of this event, and to the Pierce Law SBA for its ongoing support.

Event Flyer

To nominate yourself or someone else, please send an e-mail to svishnubhakat@piercelaw.edu. Nominations will be closed at 12pm on Friday.

Manuel Miranda

The Pierce Law Federalist Society hosted Mr. Manuel Miranda for a lunch event on the Supreme Court’s future under the Obama administration.

Informing Mr. Miranda’s perspective were his service as Counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in coordinating the judicial nomination stances of 51 Republican Senate staffs as well as his service as Senior Nominations Counsel to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. Miranda’s talk traced the history of the nomination process, particularly the filibuster, from the founding to the 1917 establishment of cloture to the Warren Court-era controversy over Justice Fortas to the confirmations of Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts amid the withdrawn nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Miers. Given President Obama’s majority support in the Senate and the likely coming resignation of at least one sitting Supreme Court justice, Mr. Miranda noted, an opportunity has emerged to exercise moderation and transparency in the nomination process at both the Supreme Court and federal appellate court levels. The recent letter to Mr. Obama from 41 GOP senators threatening a filibuster, after years of opposing the tactic, would be an unfortunate suppression of open Senate debate, he added.

The talk was well-received by the crowd of nearly four dozen, with Pierce faculty and a federal judge in attendance as well.

Our thanks to everyone who attended for making this such a successful call for discussion!

We will introduce newcomers to the aims of Fed-Soc and begin organizing our spring event calendar.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail Saurabh at svishnubhakat@piercelaw.edu.

We are still planning our events for the coming year and welcome all interested students to join the discussion.

Stay tuned for updates!