Georgia State University in Atlanta has multiple experts who can comment about Wednesday’s anticipated Supreme Court rulings, including the Hobby Lobby/contraception case, Aereo, the Massachusetts abortion protest buffer zones law, and presidential executive appointments without Senate confirmation.
Specific contact information for these experts is available to reporters logged into the Newswise system in the “Contact Information” box above.
HOBBY LOBBY (Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.)
Anne Tucker, assistant professor of law, researches corporate law, including corporate constitutional rights in the context of political speech. Her research investigates policy questions about the roles, rights and responsibilities of private corporations in society’s public spheres.
Tucker is the author of “A Bad Investment: Recognizing Religious Rights of Corporations” on the Huffington Post this March (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-tucker/religious-rights-of-corporations_b_5002919.html), where she wrote:
“The Hobby Lobby arguments are couched in terms of religious freedom, but it is hard to see the net gain for liberties when such a rule would require religious disclosures and could lead to restricting investments to religiously like-minded investors. Elevating private religious beliefs to a matter of market importance threatens to chill the marketplace and erodes the long-respected boundaries between private religious beliefs, the realm of the state and the role of the marketplace.”
Tucker previously practiced corporate law with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, and clerked for the Hon. Alice D. Bonner and the Hon. Elizabeth E. Long at Georgia’s Business Court, a specialized court adjudicating high-dollar, complex, commercial and business litigation. She received her J.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington, and her bachelor’s degree in political science and journalism at Butler University in Indianapolis.
AEREO (American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo)
Georgia State has two communications experts available to discuss the case:
Gregory Lisby, professor of communication, is a licensed attorney with specialization in journalism and mass communication research. His interests include communication law and journalism history. He is the author of the award-winning book “Someone Had to be Hated: Julian LaRose Hassis-A Biography,” in addition to “Mass Communication Law in Georgia.”
His research has appeared in top journals including Communication Law and Policy, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Communication and the Law, and Journalism Quarterly. He was awarded for achievement and leadership from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and teaches courses in communication law and communication in a globalized context. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and his J.D. from Georgia State University.
Alex Cummings, assistant professor of history, is a historian of law, media, public policy and the American city, with an interest in how technology, law, economic policy and popular culture have shaped modern America.
He is the author of “Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century,” dealing with the politics of music and intellectual property since the dawn of sound recording, and has contributed to Southern Cultures, Salon and Al-Jazeera America. He is also the co-editor of the blog Tropics of Meta (http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com). He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
ABORTION PROTEST BUFFER ZONES (McCullen v. Coakley)
Wendy Simonds, professor of sociology, has research expertise on the sociology of procreative experiences. In her extensive publishing, she is the coauthor of “Laboring On: Birth in Transition in the United States,” and author of “Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice In a Feminist Clinic.” She has worked with researchers investigating mifepristone (RU-486), conducting interviews with users and healthcare workers who participated in the trials. She has also published articles on how mifepristone, as an oral abortion method, affects the ways in which people talk, think and experience abortion.
Additionally, she has worked with colleagues to examine how providers and users of emergency contraception describe their experiences, and their view of emergency contraception as it relates to procreative decision-making. She is currently working on two interdisciplinary book projects, including one centering on the life of renowned midwife Ina May Gaskin. Along with fellow sociologists, she is co-editor of “Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader,” now in its fourth edition.
She holds a Ph.D. from the City University of New York and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENTS (National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning)
Robert Howard, professor of political science, is a researcher with expertise in constitutional law, judicial politics and public policy. He is co-author of “Justice Takes a Recess: Judicial Recess Appointments from George Washington to George W. Bush,” where Howard and Scott E. Graves address how presidents have used recess appointments over time and whether the independence of judicial recess appointees is compromised.
Along with Graves, he is co-author of “Ignoring Advice and Consent: Presidential Use of Judicial Recess Appointments,” which appeared in the journal Political Research Quarterly in 2010. He is editor of Justice System Journal and holds a Ph.D. in political science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, earning a master’s at the same institution. Additionally he holds a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in Boston and a bachelor’s in political science from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.
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