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NE W S FROM THE LAW SCHOOL Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III 2000 Roth Lecturer’s Career Marked by Le a d e r s h i p Judge Wilkinson Sees Federalism as Defining Legal Issue of 21st Century The Honorable J. Ha rvie Wilkinson III of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delive red the 2000 Justice Lester W. Roth Lecture on Oct. 5, 2000. Appointed to the C i rcuit Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, Judge Wilkinson has served in a number of academic and government positions, including a clerkship under Su p re m e C o u rt Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. He was also deputy assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the De p a rtment of Justice and a professor of law at the Un i versity of Virginia, where he earned his juris doctorate in 1972. Justice Roth (1895-1992) was a 1916 graduate of the USC Law School and a former presiding justice of the Second Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal. The Roth lecture series was endowed in his honor by the Louis and Fl o re n c e Cohen Ph i l a n t h ropic Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles. Even before the November 2000 election forced the Su p reme Court to interpret Florida election law, federalism was a hot topic. In delivering the 2000 Justice Lester W. Roth Lecture at the USC Law School last Oc t o b e r, Judge J. Ha rvie Wilkinson III of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals offered a timely ove rv i ew of the perennial struggle between federal and states’ rights. His conclusion? “T h e a n s wers in this area are neither absolute nor simple. … [But] the balance of national and state authority will become one of the new century’s defining domestic stru g g l e s . ” In his pre s e n t a t i o n , “ Federalism for the Fu t u re,” Judge Wilkinson focused particularly on the Su p reme Court’s stance on federalism, noting that federalism is “not always a winning argum e n t” and that the leanings of any particular justice are not always easy to predict. Although the Su p reme Court’s more conserva t i ve justices are traditionally linked with federalism, Judge Wilkinson said reality is more complex. “Simply put,” he said, “the court’s commitment to federalism is an uncertain one. Whether federalism pre vails depend upon the context in which it arises. … The setting is the thing.” Judge Wilkinson sees few reliable tests for determining when the court will limit or extend federal power over the states. In United States v. Lopez, for instance, the court concluded that C o n g ress can regulate activities that substantially affect interstate commerce. “But one justice’s ‘substantial effect,’” he noted, “is another’s ‘trivial impact.’” Si m i l a r l y, the 1992 10th Amendment case New Yo rk v. United St a t e scontains what Judge Wilkinson called “c o n t e n t i o u s phraseology: ‘Congress may not simply commandeer the legislat i ve processes of the states by directly compelling them to enact and enforce a re g u l a t o ry pro g r a m .’ ” The word “c o m m a n d e e r, ” he noted, is not clearly defin e d . He singled out Section Fi ve of the 14th Amendment as p a rticularly “f e rtile ground for national-state conflict.” Be c a u s e of the broad powers the amendment gives Congress in passing laws that enforce constitutional guarantees such as due pro c e s s , religious liberty and equal protection, the amendment can easily “be taken so far as to dictate how state and local gove r n m e n t s transact eve ry kind of business.” Ul t i m a t e l y, Judge Wilkinson said, these tests “rely on semantic distinctions that each side in the federalism debate can shape to its own ends. T h e heavily semantic nature of the debate will make judicial outcomes unpredictable and encourage f u rther litigation. The result of a case, and indeed of federalism jurisprudence generally, lies in the interpretation of words that cannot have a meaning on which all reasonable people agre e . ” To protect itself from charges of subjective bias, Judge Wilkinson suggested that the court ask whether the uniform application of a rule is important in a particular area: “Is the issue interstate in its dimensions? Is the power traditionally a federal one? To what degree is Congre s s i n t ruding on a function that has historically been performed by the states?” Although its application is complex, Judge Wilkinson argued that federalism has an important place in the court and in the national discourse. “ Mo re than in the past,” he said, “federalism has fused the values of populism and tolerance. It asks national elites, including those in black robes, to respect the will of the people, even as it asks the people of one state to respect (and learn from) the different choices of another. ” 3 6 USCLAW s p r i n g 2001
NE W S FROM THE LAW SCHOOL Grads Lend Experience, Wisdom to Board of Councilors Robert Thompson, Rich a r d Rosenblatt and Laurie Hasencamp T h ree USC law graduates have been appointed by St e ven B. Sample, USC’s president, to serve on the USC Law School Board of Councilors. The board provides advice to the dean and other administrators on a variety of issues affecting the school. In joining the board of councilors, the Honorable Ro b e rt S. Thompson ’42 brings a lifetime of wisdom and experience to the Law School — for the second time. In 1979, he left a successful 35-year career in private practice and public service to join the school’s faculty. As a pro f e s s o r, Justice Thompson was a strong voice for addressing issues of professionalism in the practice of law through legal education, and he has remained active in Law School activities since retiring from his post as Legion Lex Professor of Law in 1990. Justice T h o m p s o n’s 24 ye a r s on the bench included 12 years of service as an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal. An avid fly fisherman and trave l e r, Justice Thompson is currently enjoying re t i rement with his wife, Be t t y, in La Jolla, Calif. R i c h a rd M. Rosenblatt ’94 brings a different sort of wisdom to the board of councilors: that of the Internet guru. A widely re c o g n i zed e-commerce pioneer, Mr. Rosenblatt co-founded i Mall in 1994 and positioned the company as a leader in providing integrated e-commerce services to small businesses. When it merged in June 1999 with Exc i t e @ Home, iMall was va l u e d at $565 million. After developing and selling several other successful e-commerce companies, Mr. Rosenblatt founded Prime Ve n t u res, an investment company that focuses on re v i v i n g and repositioning fallen Internet businesses. Prime Ve n t u re s’ first project: Drk o o p.com, an Internet-based consumer health care network founded by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Eve rett Ko o p. Mr. Rosenblatt is currently CEO of Drk o o p.com and chairman and CEO of Prime Ve n t u re s . Laurie F. Hasencamp ’85 is director of legal re s e a rch at the Legal Re s e a rch Ne t w o rk (LRN), which provides lawyers with expert legal re s e a rch and analysis services and offers We b - b a s e d legal training for corporate-compliance training programs. Ms. Hasencamp joined LRN when it was formed in 1994. She previously practiced bankruptcy and finance law, first with Latham & Watkins and later with Irell & Manella. She was a judicial clerk with Judge Wa r ren Fe r g u s o n ’49 of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and, while at USC, was the editor of the S o u t h e rn Ca l i f o rnia Law Re v i e w, a student teacher for the fir s t - year legal re s e a rch and writing pro g r a m and a Shattuck Aw a rd re c i p i e n t . Law School Honored for Promoting Women in Legal Community The USC Law School re c e i ved the Myra Br a d well Aw a rd last fall from the Women Lawye r s Association of Los Angeles (W LA LA) in recognition of the school’s history of promoting and s u p p o rting women in the legal profession. The annual award honors a law firm or organization that has been exe m p l a ry in adva n c i n g women lawyers and issues that are important to women. “ In 1900, there we re only 1,000 women attorneys in the entire nation,” wrote Ei l e e n De c k e r, W LA LA president, in a letter announcing the award. She noted that W LA LA was founded by some of USC’s first women graduates. “Despite the low number of women practicing attorneys, USC Law School became one of the few law schools in the country to active l y re c ruit and admit women. W LA LA is proud to honor USC Law School for its dedication during the last century to promoting women in the legal pro f e s s i o n . ” USCLAW s p r i n g 2001 3 7
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Page 5 and 6: DEAN’S M ESS AG E the standard as
Page 7 and 8: When Leon Altman re c e i ved his l
Page 9 and 10: F E AT UR ES IMMIGRATION School. Sh
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Page 15 and 16: Presidential Fe l l o w s Three law
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Page 19 and 20: “Segregation made us look bad and
Page 21 and 22: FE AT UR ES FACULTY BOOKS “ Eve r
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