Legal Podcast Review: ‘Rebuttal’ Pod

/ Samantha Torre / Leave a comment

If you’ve ever seen Once Upon A Time in Hollywood – or are chronically online (like me) — you’re familiar with the image of Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo Dicaprio in a violently yellow t-shirt, pointing furiously at an (off-camera) television screen. The image was reenacted by me recently, as I poured over my criminal law reading this week. 

The reason I was furiously pointing at a case from the 1800s? Well, I recognized it. Not from a previous class, but from a podcast I had listened to on my commute to work this summer – ‘Rebuttal,’

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Reading List for Rising Lawyers

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

The number one question I get from incoming 1Ls is: how do I prepare for law school? 

The short answer is: you shouldn’t prepare. Whether you’ve worked a long career or you’re fresh out of college like I was, use your time before law school to decompress and reset. I promise you won’t fall behind. The briefing, the outlining, the cold call, it’ll all come together eventually. 

But if you’re looking for something to do or want to get the gears turning ahead of time, here’s a list of my favorite legal reads: 

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Environmental Law and the Climate Apocalypse

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

He rounded a bend to hear the roar of the conflagration and see a fire a half mile ahead like a black-and-red curtain dropped from a night sky. Even from that distance the heat stopped him. He collapsed to his knees, sat in the warm ashes through which he’d been wading, and wept.  – Denis Johnson, Train Dreams.

Fire has always been an inherent part of life in the American West. The mountains, plains, and forests that sprawl from the Mississippi to the Pacific see conflagrations that can reduce thousands of acres of landscape into smoldering ash in just a few days. Then, over time, the plants and wildlife return, and the ecology and lifestyles of the place return to normal over time. But nothing is normal anymore. And I fear we are long past the point where any legal efforts can save humanity from the bed it has made for itself.

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Sixth Circuit Strikes Net Neutrality in Victory for Tech, Administrative Law

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

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

My fellow tech policy enthusiasts, our long national nightmare is over. Last week, the Sixth Circuit brought an end to the decade-long fight over net neutrality by prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from applying Title II common carrier regulation to broadband providers. The decision is a victory for tech policy, freeing Internet access from the shadow of overbearing regulation. It’s also a win for administrative law, as it aligns with the Supreme Court’s guidance that courts, not agencies, should resolve disputes over statutory interpretations. The ruling reaffirms the principle that important policy decisions should be made by Congress, not by agencies under the guise of interpreting ambiguous statutes.

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The Language of Law: Meet Alvin Synarong

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

There are numerous roads to law school, and no one-size fits all path to a successful legal career. Follow along with our series highlighting BC Law students and how they got here! 

Our first three entries were with Sara Womble, a 2L from Winston Salem, NC, Elias Massion, who comes from Nashville, TN and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Samina Gagné from London and Columbia University. Today’s Q&A is with Alvin Synarong from Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Princeton.

Name, Hometown, Educational Background

Alvin Synarong; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; I went to Princeton and received a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Portuguese with minors in Finance and Latin American Studies (Brazil emphasis).

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What’s Next After Court Upholds TikTok Ban

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

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

Last week, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the TikTok divest-or-ban bill against a constitutional challenge. The result was unsurprising given how poorly TikTok fared at September’s oral argument. The decision itself contains many intriguing legal insights at the nexus of national security and free speech. This post examines the Court’s First Amendment analysis and explains why, despite the loss, the popular but problematic platform is unlikely to be shut down.

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Assessing the Rosenworcel Era: Lessons for Incoming FCC Chairman Carr

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

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

Blair Levin is one of telecommunications policy’s respected elder statesmen. He served as chief of staff to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Reed Hundt, executive director of the National Broadband Plan, and played a key role for the Obama transition team. His insightful commentary on tech issues, offered from his current perches at Brookings and New Street Research, is followed closely by power players both in Washington and on Wall Street.

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The COP Chronicles: Combating Climate Change on the Frontlines 

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

I’ve been following COP for as long as I can remember. As an International Relations major in undergrad, one of my student research positions was listing every sentence made by a world leader at COP into a monstrous Excel spreadsheet. And now, as a law student interested in human rights and environmental law, I read about COP nearly every day. 

But many of you must be thinking, what am I even talking about? 

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During 2L, They Work You to Death . . .?

/ Haley Cole / Leave a comment

“They” really do. Maybe it’s the adrenaline rush of 1L that shields you from the 2L crash– but crash you may, come 2L.

Heading into your 2L year, the freedom to choose your schedule is both initially exciting and slightly intimidating. But an abundance of choice in your academic calendar may lead you to oversubscribe to all the offerings of law school after a rigid 1L year hand-picked for optimal doctrinal standardization. Now, there is the expectation that you remember everything you learned during 1L because you are allegedly fluent in legalese, right?

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A Worthy Cause: The BC Innocence Program

/ Justin Sells / Leave a comment

Fundamental to the United States Constitution and paramount to our way of life is liberty: the freedom from unreasonable and arbitrary confinement or restraint.1 It is both tragic and hypocritical that despite our country’s purported emphasis on liberty, the U.S. has the largest prison population out of any other country in the world.2 Even more disturbingly, from 1989 to 2023, the National Registry of Exonerations has recorded 3,478 wrongful convictions, with those wrongfully convicted spending an average of 9.1 years in prison.3 As future attorneys, we will one day swear an oath to support the Constitution, the concept of liberty, and other rights protected by the Constitution in a manner similar to that of commissioned officers in one of the uniformed services.4 But before taking that oath, through the Boston College Innocence Program (BCIP), we have the unique privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to represent individuals who have been wrongfully convicted and incarcerated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.5 

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