Among Lamont’s list of nominees are three Yale College graduates: Nicole Anker ’94, Tamar Birckhead ’87, and Alayna Stone ’04. The nominees will sit for hearings before the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, with their nominations subject to a vote in both chambers of the Connecticut General Assembly. Lamont’s selection of candidates was confined to a pool of individuals who had been interviewed and approved by the Judicial Selection Commission. 

The Connecticut Superior Court is a unified court system, comprising multiple sessions across the state’s 13 judicial districts, offering specialized courts for diverse cases such as major criminal, civil, family and juvenile matters, with each session having its own set of judges. 

“One of the most notable honors of my responsibilities as governor is to fill vacancies in our court system with capable jurists whose qualifications meet the high standards that the people of Connecticut deserve on the bench,” Lamont said. “This group of nominees I am forwarding to the legislature today continues this administration’s effort to ensure that the people who are serving as judges in our state reflect the diversity, experience and understanding of the people who live here.”

Nicole Anker ’94

Anker, who received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yale College, currently serves as the legal director for the Connecticut Department of Correction. With seventeen years of legal practice, she has specialized in both constitutional and employment law within the department. 

Before joining state service, Anker worked as a litigation and employment law associate at two prominent multinational law firms, namely Bingham McCutchen, LLP, and Brown, Raysman, Millstein, Felder, and Steiner, LLP.

Among the nominees to the Superior Court, Anker is one of 13 women and also one of two candidates from Glastonbury.

Anker received her law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1998.

Tamar Birckhead ’87

With 32 years of experience in law, Birckhead began her legal career as a public defender in Massachusetts before transitioning to academia at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. She served as a faculty member there, teaching law and directing clinical programs. Now operating as a solo practitioner at Birckhead Law LLC, she primarily represents indigent individuals in criminal and juvenile courts as appointed counsel. 

In the 2016-17 academic year, Birckhead served as a visiting clinical professor of law at Yale Law School where she supervised students in delinquency defense in the juvenile court in New Haven and taught a companion course. 

Like Anker, she is one of 13 women nominated to the Superior Court, and also stands as one of two nominees from Hartford.

Birckhead received her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1992.

Alayna Stone ’04

Stone holds a master’s degree from the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy and received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yale College. Currently serving as associate attorney general and chief of the Division of Civil Litigation at the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General, she oversees various sections including Employment, Workers’ Compensation and Labor, Health and Education, Public Safety and General Litigation. Before this role, she spent eight years as an assistant attorney general in the Special Litigation section, representing all branches of state government. 

Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, she clerked for two years at the Connecticut Superior Court, followed by one year each at the Connecticut Appellate Court under now-Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson and at the Connecticut Supreme Court under former Associate Justice Carmen E. Espinosa.

Similar to Anker and Birckhead, Stone is also one of the 13 women nominated and is one of two Black women among the nominees to the Superior Court. At 41, she also stands as one of the youngest nominees and is the only candidate from New Haven.

Stone received her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2010.

The significance of the court and its judges 

According to New Haven civil rights attorney Alex Taubes LAW ’15, the Superior Court is a court of general jurisdiction, meaning that it hears almost every type of case in the state, highlighting the relevance of the court in Connecticut’s legal disputes.

“All cases pretty much first get heard in the Superior Court,” Taubes told the News. “Other cases, either get appealed to the Superior Court or can be appealed from the Superior Court.”

Grace Brunner, a student at the University of Connecticut School of Law and leader of its chapter of the legal advocacy group People’s Parity Project, emphasized to the News the importance of diversity in backgrounds among Lamont’s judicial nominations.

She told the News that she thinks such selections bring “precisely the kind of experience” needed to positively impact Connecticut residents’ lives as the experiences of the judges can shape their decisions on the bench.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to hear that Governor Lamont has embraced the advocacy efforts of the CT Pro-People Judiciary Coalition, a group our chapter proudly stands behind,” Brunner wrote in a statement to the News. “The current makeup of the Connecticut bench favors former prosecutors and corporate lawyers, which overlooks the valuable perspectives of those with backgrounds in public defense, civil rights, and legal aid.”

The Superior Court bench currently has 35 vacancies.

The post Lamont nominates 22 jurists to CT Superior Court, includes three Yale grads appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The event was co-hosted by the Yale Law Democrats, the Law School’s chapter of the progressive legal organization the American Constitution Society and OutLaws — an organization for LGBTQ+ members of the Law School community. According to YLD president Sage Mason LAW ’24, the event aimed to provide the Law School community with an opportunity to hear from a dedicated public servant and alumnus who has spent his career “fighting for justice at the highest levels of government.” 

Mason told the News that the event, which was held off the record, covered a wide range of topics from Delery’s career path and journey from law school, his outlook on leadership to his experience as White House Counsel. 

“As a law student, I’m inspired by Stuart’s commitment to public service and his work ethic, his respect for the rule of law and his faith that law can and should be a tool to improve the lives of all Americans,” Mason said. “It gives me hope for the future, that he’s been able to achieve so much without sacrificing or hiding his identity.”

After graduating from Yale Law School, where he served as an articles editor of the Yale Law Journal, Delery clerked for Judge Gerard Bard Tjoflat of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Byron White LAW ’46 of the United States Supreme Court. In 2009, Delery joined the Department of Justice initially as chief of staff and counselor to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General, followed by a role as senior counselor to the Attorney General.

From 2021 to 2022, Delery served as Deputy Counsel to President Biden. The following year, he ascended to the role of White House Counsel to the President, marking a historic milestone as the first openly gay person to hold this position. In his role as counsel to the President, Delery advised Biden on a wide range of constitutional, statutory and regulatory legal matters, encompassing presidential authority, domestic policy, as well as national security and foreign affairs. 

His responsibilities included managing responses to prominent congressional and other investigations, along with assisting the President in the nomination and confirmation processes of federal judges. Delery stepped down from the position last year.

At the Law School, Delery currently teaches “The Department of Justice” seminar and previously instructed the “Constitutional Practice: Structure and Norms” seminar in 2020.

Matt Post LAW ’25, co-president of the ACS, wrote that Delery’s involvement in vaccine rollout, student debt relief and the confirmation of a diverse set of judges is “incredibly inspiring.” 

“The initiatives he oversaw represent the potential of progressive lawyering,” Post said. “We hope that speaker events like these will inspire students to use their education here to advance policies that improve people’s lives.”

According to Mariko Lewis LAW ’26, a member of the YLD who attended the event, Delery shared insights on leadership in response to a question from an attendee. She said that Delery explained that while leaders are often perceived as possessing extroverted and outgoing personalities, true leadership success comes from authenticity. 

Lewis added that Delery emphasized that attempting to emulate someone else is counterproductive and advised attendees to embrace their unique personalities and abilities to become effective leaders.

“As a Black woman interested in politics and policy, this resonated with me,” Lewis wrote. “It emphasized that rather than following a mold of a specific type of leadership (most often portrayed through a straight, white, confident, male), I should continue to lean into my unique personality and strengths to become a valued and effective leader.”

Gevin Reynolds LAW ’26, who moderated the event, said the event felt like a “full circle moment,” as both he and Delery served together in the White House, and he is also currently enrolled in Delery’s seminar this semester.

Reynolds told the News that throughout the conversation, Delery shared “powerful lessons” from throughout his legal career, particularly his service at the highest levels of government. He highlighted Delery’s leadership in implementing the Supreme Court’s 2013 United States v. Windsor decision, wherein the Court deemed Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. This ruling established that the federal government could not discriminate against married lesbian and gay couples regarding federal benefits and protections. Reynolds underscored the pivotal role this decision played in advancing one of the most significant expansions of LGBTQ+ rights in the nation’s history.

In an email to the News, Scott Lowder LAW ’24, a member of OutLaws who attended the event, agreed with this sentiment saying that as a gay man, it was “powerful” for him to hear Delery describe the implementation of this Supreme Court decision and the logistics of extending federal benefits to same-sex couples.

Overall, Reynolds described the event as one of their “most successful of the year.”

“As a YLS student, I am most inspired by how Stuart has used the law as a tool to defend and strengthen civil rights, both at the Department of Justice and at the White House,” Reynolds told the News.  “Despite the significant influence he has wielded throughout his career, Stuart remains one of the humblest people you’ll ever meet.”

Delery received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia. 

The post Former Biden White House Counsel Stuart Delery talks career path, leadership at Law School event appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Unveiled last month, YSE’s new “Urban Climate Leadership Certificate Program” started accepting applications for its first cohort on March 1. The nine-month virtual certificate program — focusing on the relationship between urban spaces and the climate crisis — joins two others aimed at supporting mid-career professionals in the Global South.

“We really hope that this is an opportunity to both learn about the myriad ways that cities contribute to climate change and are impacted by climate change,” said Cameron Kritikos DIV ’23 ENV ’23, Urban Climate Leadership program manager. “The speed and scale of urbanization, and the concurrent deterioration of our planetary system, demands swift and scalable solutions.”

Kritikos explained that the 36-week curriculum will encompass five themes: urbanization and climate change, adaptation solutions, carbon accounting, governance and implementation. The fully remote program will guide its 50-member cohort through a survey of current urban climate challenges, policy initiatives and new opportunities.

According to Colleen Murphy-Dunning, a School of the Environment lecturer and program staff member, the coursework will consist of 36 weekly modules, each of which involves faculty-led seminar discussions paired with an hour of asynchronous lecture by climate leaders from around the world. Intended to offer students a variety of perspectives, the program’s slate of lecturers ranges from IPCC authors to nonprofit leaders and Yale professors.

After nearly a year of development, the program looks to address a growing area of climate interest.

“Urbanization is one of the megatrends of the 21st century, and cities are at the front lines of climate change,” Karen Seto, School of the Environment professor and director of the Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability, wrote in an email to the News. “There is an urgent need to develop leaders who can help cities both mitigate and adapt to climate change.”

Asha Ghosh, Urban Program manager at the School of the Environment and a lecturer at the School of Management, said that the program’s emphasis on urban spaces navigates the complex dynamics between our urban centers and the warming climate. Urban spaces are the largest contributors to global carbon emissions, but they also present some of the foremost opportunities for new climate solutions, she added. 

“Cities hold the opportunity to make the biggest impact, in terms of addressing these climate challenges,” Ghosh said.

Equity — questions about how climate differentially impacts urban communities, for instance — will be a key “thread” throughout the program, Ghosh added.

Urban forestry — currently one of the most promising nature-based solutions to climate adaptation in cities — will also receive significant instructional attention, Murphy-Dunning added. Murphy-Dunning, who is leading one of the program’s urban forestry modules, explained that trees can mitigate heat island effects but must also be considered in the context of other urban infrastructure.

The Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act has bolstered city greening efforts, bankrolling urban forestry efforts across the country with its record $1-billion investment. Now, according to Murphy-Dunning, urban foresters must consider the challenges posed by uncertain precipitation, temperature changes and potential conflicts with housing.

“It’s not just using trees as a vehicle for mitigation, but it’s also recognizing that the urban forest itself has to adapt to climate change,” Murphy-Dunning said.

Sustainable development can be especially challenging in developing nations, Ghosh explained. Many cities in the Global South undergo a process of repeated upgrading from informal to formal settlements, rather than relying entirely on planned development. Buildings and large infrastructure projects are often developed without accounting for city-mandated plans or the environmental features of the land.

Kritikos emphasized the program’s relevance to any potential students working in governance, nonprofits or the private sector. Given the complexity of cities — spaces where infrastructure, nature and communities interact — advancing urban sustainability is a “messy process” that will need to engage all stakeholders involved, Kritikos said. The program expects to offer something for applicants from a diversity of professional specializations. 

The first of the School of Environment’s certificate programs was launched in 2022 following a donation from the Three Cairns Group, the largest-ever gift in support of the school. The slate of online courses are designed to support emerging, mid-career professionals throughout the Global South.

“[The program] is going to allow us to bring the latest science to practitioners, which I think is really important,” Murphy-Dunning told the News. “[It] allows for the possibility of more people to participate in learning through the university.”

The School of the Environment’s two other certificate programs, “Financing and Deploying Clean Energy” and “Tropical Forest Landscapes,” invite students to explore green technology policies and conservation initiatives, respectively. 

Applications for this program will close on April 30. Accepted applicants will matriculate later this August. Applications for the forest landscapes program will close on April 5 and for the clean energy program on March 10. 

Ghosh and Murphy-Dunning were both hopeful the program might provide students the opportunity to connect, share ideas and generate new solutions. 

“We need to very rapidly make change because of the pressure of climate change,” Murphy-Dunning said. “I think there’s a sense of urgency … that we can’t continue to build cities the way we have in the past.” 

According to UN estimates, urban centers currently account for 75 percent of global CO2 emissions.

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In 2022, the ICJ, the United Nations international court tasked with resolving legal disputes between nations, heard several cases on the legal legitimacy of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The cases urged the ICJ to adjudicate claims of Russia being labeled a “terrorist state” and accusations of Russia violating the 1948 Genocide Convention, in which 32 countries sided with Ukraine’s genocide accusations against Russia, the largest number of countries to join another nation’s complaint at the ICJ.

Since then, the ICJ has announced major decisions on the war, the most recent of which was released on Feb. 2. 

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, further intensifying the ongoing war, which began in 2014 with Russia’s occupation of Crimea and parts of Donbas. Russia, through its 2022 invasion, has killed over 10,500 Ukrainian civilians and injured over 18,500 Ukrainian civilians. Despite calls for peace talks from the United Nations Security Council, the war in Ukraine persists and continues to cause a stream of casualties and the displacement of countless civilians in Ukraine.

“Russia is much more powerful, has many more troops and much more economic power than Ukraine and what’s been really going on is a battle between the rule of law and a commitment to democracy against the hard power of autocracy,” Koh told the News. “And what these are suggesting is that international law and the world are on Ukraine’s side.”

Koh told the News that the ICJ has rendered several “important” decisions since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The first decision, he said, was issued in March 2022, just a month following the invasion, and declared that Russian troops and paramilitary forces should not occupy Ukrainian territory. 

Koh emphasized that this decision “sent a message” illustrating the illegality of Russia’s actions.

On Jan. 31, the ICJ dismissed much of Ukraine’s terrorism accusations against Russia. Ukraine had alleged that Moscow, the capital of Russia, was a “terrorist state,” as they claimed its support for pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine ultimately led to the 2022 invasion. Among the allegations, Ukraine had also argued that Russia supplied the missile system that shot down the aircraft Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, however the ICJ ruled that violations of funding terrorism only apply to monetary and financial support, not supplying weapons or training.

Two days later, on Feb. 2, the ICJ delivered a verdict on the “genocide” allegations in the war. While the ICJ clarified that it lacked jurisdiction to determine whether Russia violated the 1948 Genocide Convention through its invasion of Ukraine, Koh noted that this ruling allowed for the case to proceed regarding whether Russia falsely accused Ukraine of genocide and whether it continued to violate the provisional measures order with Russian troops in Ukraine. 

“I think this is really a battle between the past and the future,” Koh told the News. “Russia lost its empire and is trying to return Ukraine to its empire and Ukraine is looking to the future and wants to be an independent democracy more closely associated with Europe.”

When asked about his next course of action, Koh said that he is looking to provide additional leverage for Ukraine in the situation. 

Koh spoke about the importance of showcasing Ukraine as a representation of democratic values, the rule of law and a universal commitment to human rights while contrasting Russia as isolated and aggressive. 

“In this world, the right values win but that calls on people committed to those values to step up and to understand when those issues are at stake,” he said.

Charles Brower, a law professor at Wayne State University School of Law, told the News that legal observers have described the ICJ’s rulings as disappointing for Ukraine’s efforts to leverage the international judicial process in ways that could increase pressure on Russia. 

He said that the judgments themselves were unlikely to significantly impact the ongoing war between the two nations.

“Even if Ukraine had succeeded on all its arguments, no one expected Russia to comply with any judgments rendered against it,” he explained.

Olena Lennon, national security professor and expert on Ukraine at the University of New Haven, echoed this sentiment saying that she thinks the ICJ’s decisions will not have any effect on the war, given that Russia previously ignored legal orders from the ICJ in March 2022 to suspend all military activities on the territory of Ukraine.

Brower said that the international legal system allows this, given that it operates in a context where the establishment and maintenance of a minimum degree of order has to be the overriding priority and is often under threat. Members of the ICJ are elected by the Security Council and the General Assembly, and the ICJ itself lacks coercive powers to enforce their decisions, Brower explained. 

“Given that context, it should come as no surprise that the court’s jurisprudence skews towards the maintenance of order and, therefore, may not prioritize achievement of justice in the broader sense,” Brower said.

However, Lennon said Ukraine has not needed official court rulings to convince the world that Russia’s violations of international law are a threat not only to Ukraine’s survival but to regional and global security writ large.

Referencing countries that have officially condemned Russia’s aggression, imposed sanctions on Russia and provided aid to Ukraine, Lennon said that court rulings are not necessary to publicly condemn Russia. 

“Serving justice to the Russian perpetrators properly is still critical both to deter similar crimes in the future and to provide healing to the victims,” Lennon said. “However, at this stage, what matters more is other countries’ concrete collaborative actions to defend Ukraine and preserve Western institutions by any means possible, no matter how that support is codified.”

Koh has taught at Yale Law School since 1985.

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The case centers on claims that Douglass Mackey, a social media influencer on X, formerly known as Twitter, made during the 2016 presidential election campaign. Mackey, who was known to his 58,800 followers as Ricky Vaughn, repeatedly tweeted false claims to supporters of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton LAW ’73 that they could cast their ballots via text message in the weeks leading up to the election.

Mackey was convicted by a New York jury in March 2023, ordered to pay a $15,000 fine and charged with violating Section 241, which prohibits conspiring to “injure” individuals’ federal rights or privileges, including the right to vote. He was sentenced to seven months in prison and appealed his conviction to the Second Circuit.

The YLS Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic filed its amicus brief in collaboration with Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan anti-authoritarian organization, on behalf of election law expert and UCLA School of Law professor Richard Hasen. The brief argues that a Reconstruction-era civil rights law can be utilized to prosecute deliberate misinformation regarding voting procedures, while still upholding the First Amendment’s right to freedom of speech.

“Section 241 properly construed does punish purposeful lies about when, where, or how people vote and is not overbroad,” the brief reads. “It prohibits, among other things, conspiracies to ‘injure … any person … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States.’”

According to Tobin Raju, Craig Newmark Clinical Fellow at the MFIA clinic, the issue of figuring out how laws can grapple with disinformation is something members of the clinic have been thinking about.

Raju told the News that Section 241, initially crafted to address resistance to Reconstruction in former Confederate states, presents a distinct application in this scenario due to the relatively recent emergence of X and other social media platforms. He said that despite the new technological landscape, historical precedents demonstrate that the use of this law to prosecute lies about election procedures is proper. Raju added that intentionally deceptive practices have previously been subject to criminalization under this statute.

 “It’s about applying prior precedent in similar situations, just to modern technology,” Raju said.

Raju explained that when Mackey appealed his conviction to the Second Circuit, the case was placed on an expedited track — meaning that briefing moved relatively quickly and that it will be heard for oral argument 0n April 5.

Raju said that students in the clinic took a hands-on approach to the work, being involved in tasks ranging from research assistance to drafting portions of the brief.

“I really appreciated the opportunity to work on this case because I think combating election disinformation is going to be key to preserving our democracy, this year and beyond,” Victoria Maras LAW ’25, an MFIA clinic member who worked on the brief, told the News. “As a former Field Organizer, I know how important it is to get the right information out to voters, and, by the same token, how harmful it can be when misinformation spreads.”

Maras said she was grateful that this brief can show how people who conspire to spread false election information can be held accountable without threatening First Amendment free speech rights.

Another MFIA clinic member, Ben Menke LAW ’25, told the News that delving into the history of Section 241, which was passed in 1870, led him to examine transcripts of debates in Congress during that time. Through this research, Menke said that he uncovered the motivations of the legislators who first enacted the law, as well as the legal opinions of the judges who applied Section 241 at the time.

“Our brief offers clarity on the proper way to construe Section 241, and we show that the law is consistent with the First Amendment,” Menke told the News. “Bad actors are finding it easier to spread knowingly false information to interfere with the right of the people to vote. Enforcing Section 241 is one way the federal government can respond to this threat.”

In a statement to the News, James Lawrence, Mackey’s attorney, said that their core argument in defense of Mackey is that he did not have fair notice, required by the Fifth Amendment, that his conduct violated “clearly established” law.

Lawrence claimed that the amicus brief uses a Supreme Court case about a different law to argue that a rarely used legal concept, not accepted in many state courts and never applied in New York, should be turned into a federal crime for misleading election information.

“If a team of federal prosecutors never came up with this convoluted argument after pursuing this case for more than three years … how could Douglass Mackey be expected to know his conduct violated Section 241 in 2016?” Lawrence wrote in the statement. 

The MFIA clinic declined to comment on Lawrence’s statement.

Raju expressed curiosity about the Court’s ruling, especially since the case will be heard during an election year.

“I think it’s an interesting case because I imagine we’ll probably be seeing similar issues in the lead-up to this next election,” Raju said.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals oversees the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont.

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Organized by its Committee on Canadian Studies, the MacMillan Center’s “Smoke from Canada” conference explored the aftermath of the fires earlier this month. The hybrid event included presentations from School of the Environment researchers and a keynote presentation delivered by guest speaker Pierre Minn, an anthropology professor at the University of Montreal.

“We conceived of our symposium in the aftermath of last summer’s wildfires in Canada and the ensuing smoke that blanketed much of the eastern United States,” Brendan Shanahan, MacMillan Center postdoctoral associate and panel moderator, wrote in an email to the News. “But as we saw with the wildfire smoke last summer, the effects of climate change in Canada are not confined within the country’s geographical boundaries.”

The interdisciplinary event invited School of the Environment researchers to speak about the relations between climate change, wildfire and public health.

Jennifer Marlon, a lecturer at the School of the Environment, addressed the ongoing gaps between wildfire impact and their perception. Even though the Canadian wildfires contributed to roughly 25 percent of global carbon emissions last year, she explained that recent work by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication suggests growing but still largely inadequate responses from the public. Per Marlon, only 47 percent of Canadians and Americans believe that climate change would harm them personally.

Sebastian Block-Munguia, a research affiliate at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, discussed how wildfires can also initiate deadly ripples throughout the ecosystem, as their pollutant can be toxic to vegetation by inhibiting plant photosynthesis.

Beginning as early as March 2023, Canadian wildfires picked up during the summer months. Wildfire smoke drifted across America and brought days of hazy smoke throughout stretches of the Northeast and the Midwest. Farms across states hard-hit by the wildfire smoke reported slower-than-usual corn growth last year.

Researchers added that prolonged exposure to smoke comes with a steep toll on human health as well.

“The wildfire smoke is really a public health problem,” Kai Chen, a professor at the School of Public Health, said at the event. “We need government policies to help regulate and help reduce the air pollution.” 

Chen, who studies the impacts of climate change on human health, explained that wildfire smoke is rich in fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5. These 2.5 micrometer-sized particles — ranging between 1/20 and 1/30 the diameter of a human hair — can have deadly effects on the nervous system and lungs, he said. Chen added that previous studies have linked PM 2.5 exposure to diseases such as asthma, lung cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

While long-term health assessments have to follow subjects for years and decades after the wildfires, Chen said that preliminary work is already revealing high costs to public health. Research Chen conducted in collaboration with Columbia University — which has access to records of New York City’s near real-time emergency system asthma visits — detected a 44-percent increase in asthma syndrome visits across all age groups during the days when smoke blanketed the city.

“Climate change is making forest fires worse by extending the length of the fire season, making the weather warmer and drier,” Block-Munguia said. “But also, fires contribute to climate change.” 

Per Block-Munguia, fires kickstart a vicious cycle: they release significant amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, which compounds global warming effects and contributes to drier, less predictable weather conditions. Plants — which rely on CO2 for photosynthesis — could also grow in excesses due to this increase in CO2 release, making them more vulnerable to catching fire.

Even so, he added that fossil fuels remain the overwhelming contributor to PM 2.5 exposure, and enable some of the climate change-related effects responsible for last year’s wildfires. In 2019, PM 2.5 was responsible for 4.1 million global deaths — roughly 1 million of which were caused by fossil fuel combustion, according to Block-Munguia. By comparison, that smoke was responsible for 0.2 million deaths, Block-Munguia said.

Despite its forest growth and natural resources, Canada has been lagging behind peer nations in climate mitigation efforts, Block-Munguia added. He cited recent reports that revealed chronically underreported CO2 emissions from the nation’s oil centers.

According to the panelists, last year’s El Niño cycle likely compounded the scale of the Canadian wildfires. El Niño, during which a warm Pacific Ocean shifts the flow of jet streams, often leads to drier, hotter weather across the Pacific Northwest — perfect conditions for a wildfire, Marlon said. Marlon added that Canada might not expect fires of last year’s size for at least another five to seven years.
Roughly 7,300 forest fires burn through Canada each year.

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The event, which brought together over 2,500 people from various sectors interested in sustainability, served as a platform for exploring emerging trends and sharing insights on environmental challenges. 

“Attending GreenBiz was an enriching experience that provided insights into the emerging trends in corporate sustainability and facilitated valuable connections with fellow professionals in the field,” Lucia Castellares Tello ENV ’25 said.

The conference boasted an impressive lineup of attendees, with nearly 50 percent representing companies with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion, according to their website.  

Throughout the event, students had the opportunity to participate in panels, workshops and networking sessions. Lauren Phipps ENV ’24 worked for the GreenBiz Group for over six years, and this year marked her ninth time attending the conference. Phipps moderated a panel discussion titled “Making Progress on Critical Minerals and Materials.” The session provided insights into the intersection of sustainability and resource management, emphasizing the importance of responsible mining practices in achieving clean energy goals and sharing expertise across organizations.

 “If you want to think strategically about making business sustainable, you need to think beyond the walls of your own organization,” Phipps said when discussing the panel.

Speaking with the News about their motivations for attending, several students highlighted the importance of staying connected with their professional community and gaining real-world perspectives beyond academia. They emphasized the need to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical applications, underscoring the value of experiential learning in shaping their career paths. 

“I loved how applied everything was,” Emily Lin ENV ’25 said. “What I learn at Yale can be different from what is currently happening in space, and to understand and engage with the implementation and barriers beyond academia is so informative. This makes me excited to go into the real world after equipping myself with knowledge and tools I get from YSE.” 

Throughout the conference, students engaged in discussions on a wide range of topics, including the role of agriculture in reducing emissions, the challenges of implementing circular economy solutions and the influence of Gen Z on corporate sustainability initiatives. They also had the opportunity to hear from industry leaders, such as Zoe Chance, senior lecturer in management at the Yale School of Management, who shared stories and insights on driving positive change within organizations. 

Daniel González Pena ENV ’24 expressed appreciation for the willingness of conference participants to share their struggles and challenges, highlighting the collaborative spirit that permeated the event – an energy that González said reflects the collective, interdisciplinary action needed to address the climate crisis.

 “As we are dealing with the climate crisis, there is not one solution. The conference highlighted that we are going to need inputs from people in various industries and from all walks of life,” said González. 

The GreenBiz24 Conference took place in JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa, Phoenix, Arizona.

Correction, Feb. 22: A previous version of this article did not mention Yale School of Management students’ participation in the conference. The article has been updated to reflect the correct information.

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The issue is both critical and “intensely under-discussed,” per Abbe Gluck ’96 LAW ’00, founding faculty director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School. 

To discuss the mechanisms that cause and may help prevent abuse and fraud targeting elderly Americans, the YLS community and individuals from across Connecticut convened in the Sterling Law Building on Feb. 16 for panel discussions at an event hosted by the Solomon Center. 

The event, titled “Innovating Elder Justice: New Ways of Using Law, Medicine, and Technology to Address Abuse and Financial Exploitation in an Aging Society,” featured several panels led by lawyers and medical experts, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73 as the event’s keynote speaker.

“Today we heard about impactful inventions ranging from new screening tools in emergency departments to domestic violence initiatives, to apps that send alerts to family members when unusual bank account activity is detected,” Gluck wrote to the News. “There is so much work for us to do; today’s conversation was just the beginning.”

The event began with opening remarks from Law School Dean Heather Gerken, who underscored the importance of justice for elderly people within the legal landscape. She emphasized the increasing relevance of this area of law as life expectancy continues to rise, making it imperative to address the unique legal needs and challenges faced by elderly adults. 

Gerken also spotlighted journalist Adrienne Drell LAW ’92, who attended the event, and former attorney Franklin Nitikman LAW ’66. In the 2019-2020 academic year, the Solomon Center launched the Adrienne C. Drell and Franklin W. Nitikman Elder Law Project, inspired and supported by Drell and Nitikman, aimed at exploring aging and the law through academic, experiential and theoretical lenses. Since its establishment, the program has facilitated numerous workshops and discussions addressing elder law and ageism issues.

Following Gerken’s opening remarks, Gluck highlighted the significance of the event, adding that the Law School is the first law school among the top law schools in the nation to host a conference on elder justice which she called “remarkable.” 

Gluck then posed questions for Blumenthal on the role of government in protecting elderly people, first asking what the federal government can do. 

Blumenthal stressed the importance of bipartisanship in the federal government when it comes to elder law. He emphasized the importance of the government in addressing issues of improving standards in assisted living facilities and combating fraud targeting seniors, particularly by proposing a framework for AI regulation to safeguard elderly people against online financial exploitation.

To this point, Blumenthal highlighted the Elder Abuse Prevention and Protection Act, signed into law in 2017, aimed at preventing elder abuse and exploitation while enhancing the justice system’s response to victims in such cases through data collection on elder abuse. 

Blumenthal further emphasized the vulnerability of elders and advocated for updating laws to safeguard their rights, such as reforming conservatorship laws, wherein a court appoints someone to manage the affairs of a minor or incapacitated person. 

He then discussed the need for oversight in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, pointing out that such oversight is often left to states, leading to significant variations in the quality of services provided from state to state. He advocated for enhanced federal oversight, encompassing rigorous inspections, to mitigate discrepancies in state standards and ensure accountability across facilities.

 “I think transparency and oversight in the federal government can play great roles,” Blumenthal said. 

Blumenthal also addressed the intersection of elder abuse and domestic violence, particularly concerning gun violence. He outlined efforts to strengthen gun safety laws, including measures to remove firearms from individuals deemed dangerous, especially in cases involving protective orders. Blumenthal cited the need for temporary protective orders to effectively separate individuals from firearms during high-risk periods, emphasizing the importance of timely intervention in preventing domestic violence-related gun violence. 

“First of all, as Dean Gerken outlined, more people are becoming older, living longer. That’s a good thing. There are also more people who are older and living together as intimate partners, and that’s also a good thing,” he said. “But intimate partner violence is a major cause of death in America.” 

A case currently before the United States Supreme Court, United States v. Rahimi, holds significant implications for the government’s ability to restrict firearm ownership for individuals under domestic violence-related restraining orders. If the Court rules in favor of Rahimi, it could potentially limit states’ authority to prevent domestic abusers from possessing and using guns. 

Following Gluck and Blumenthal’s discussion, the event transitioned into two panels dedicated to exploring various aspects of elder justice. The first panel focused on the factors that often lead to elder abuse, highlighting how ageism can contribute to overlooking signs indicating such abuse. In the second panel, the conversation shifted to exploring approaches for addressing and preventing the exploitation of elderly people, particularly through the intersection of law and technology. The panelists in both sessions spanned a diverse set of backgrounds from lawyers and medical professors to elder fraud experts.

“Why are people stealing from older people, especially older vulnerable people? Because that’s where the money is,” said panelist Liz Loewy, co-founder of financial fraud prevention company EverSafe and former chief of the Elder Abuse Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. 

The event concluded with closing remarks by David Owen, a staff writer at the New Yorker, who was introduced by Eugene Rusyn LAW ’17, an associate research scholar at the Solomon Center. Owen finished the discussion by sharing a personal account of his mother’s experience falling prey to a scam in 2018, which he also wrote an article about in the New Yorker. Despite her age and previous strokes, he said his mother was still diligent and suspicious when it came to potential scams. Yet, he said, she still ultimately was a victim of a scheme involving fake cash prize winnings from the Publishers Clearing House. Despite efforts to report the fraud, including filling out confusing online forms and contacting law enforcement agencies, the responses were largely ineffective, he said.

Overall, Owen reflected on the challenges in raising awareness about elder fraud. Despite increased efforts from companies and agencies to warn about scams, according to Owen, contradictory messages and the complexity of reporting mechanisms create barriers for victims like his mother to seek help. He emphasized the urgent need for improved accessibility in reporting mechanisms and underscored how elder fraud might be more common than the statistics say.

“I don’t think we have any idea [of the magnitude of scams against the elderly] because I know from emails that I received after I wrote this article that there are lots and lots and lots of people who fall for these things and relatively few of them are reporting,” Owen said.

The World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is commemorated every year on June 15.

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Roberts, who referred to such papers as an “unfortunate source,” used them to support his assertion at the oral argument to argue that Roe v. Wade could be revised without being completely overturned.

While scouring through private documents has usually been restricted to academic scholars, Roberts’ argument demonstrated their use in judicial decisions, per Nicholas Mignanelli, legal research lecturer at the Law School. 

Inspired by the use of these papers, Mignanelli and Michael VanderHeijden, another lecturer at Yale Law School, introduced a new course last semester designed to equip interested law students with an understanding of court documents and judicial history.

In the course, titled “Research Methods in Judicial History,” students had the opportunity to delve into the working papers of former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart ’37 LAW ’41, who served as chairman — a former title for the current position of editor in chief and president — at the News while a Yale student. By engaging with these archival materials, the course aimed to provide students with these research skills once primarily utilized by scholars, but now, increasingly essential for legal practitioners, according to Mignanelli and VanderHeijden. 

One student who took the course, Isaac May LAW ’24, told the News that he appreciated the class’ focus on research methods which often go overlooked. 

“I would highly recommend the course,” May told the News. “Research methods in judicial history were extremely useful in becoming acquainted with an often neglected source for both historians and lawyers.”

May added that the legal field is often unsure how to handle material beyond published opinions. But he said that the professional and personal papers of judges and Supreme Court justices “can shed considerable light on their reasoning.”

Held at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the 679 boxes of Stewart’s materials and papers — the most extensive collection of any justice held at Beinecke — provided students a foundation for exploring how judges and legal scholars leverage historical court materials to inform judicial decisions. 

Mignanelli emphasized that a significant aspect of the course also centers on court documents, in addition to papers, spanning from the filing of complaints in federal or state courts to responses and exhibits. It also encompasses the opinions of judges across various levels of the judiciary, including trial courts, appellate courts and the Supreme Court, at both state and federal levels. Moreover, students delve into the private papers of former judges like Stewart to gain insight into the judicial process and decision-making.

“I think [this course] meets a need or an interest at Yale Law School,” Mignanelli said. “And I think it’s responsive to a lot of the discussions that we’re seeing in American law right now.”

Mignanelli also told the News that the course included several guest lectures. The first was delivered by Linda Greenhouse LAW ’78, who shared insights from her experiences as a journalist covering the Supreme Court and as a biographer of the Supreme Court. The class also featured lectures from Susan deMaine, an expert on Supreme Court papers and associated policies and Eric Sonnenberg, a Yale archivist who formerly specialized in legal documents. 

In an email to the News, Greenhouse said there is a “special thrill” in handling the original documents that form part of Supreme Court history. She said that it was a pleasure for her to share that experience with the students in the class. 

On the final day of the class, students visited the Beinecke. According to Mignanelli, they were given the freedom to select materials of their choice from the Stewart papers. He explained that these papers ranged from birthday cards received by Stewart to letters he wrote to his contacts at Yale, offering students a diverse and immersive glimpse into the personal and professional life of the former Supreme Court Justice.

“The students were able to choose whatever they wanted,” he explained. “Some of them chose early drafts of famous Supreme Court opinions to see what the process was through which the language came out the way it was, and we had some who chose birthday cards, as they were really interested to see the more biographical elements of his life.” 

When asked if he would be teaching this class in future semesters, Mignanelli said that it would “definitely” run again. 

“I think there is a lot of interest right now in historical research in American law,” Mignanelli told the News.

Stewart was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958.

Correction, Feb. 22: This article has been updated to include a more accurate description of Robert’s use of private papers at oral argument.

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The bill is aimed to provide $160 million worth of grants to help students pay for workforce training programs that align with the “requirements of high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand industry sectors or occupations,” according to a report by the House of Representatives.

“The proposed Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act will have a major and immediate impact on Yale students,” Brittaney Key, the School of the Environment’s senator in the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, wrote to the News. “It forces current students into a financially vulnerable position by cutting off their access to federal loans that many use to afford housing, childcare, food, and other essential but indirect educational expenses.”

The report states that the bill “prohibits an applicable educational institution, that is subject to an excise tax on investment income of private institutions, from awarding a Federal Direct Stafford Loan, a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford loan, or a Federal Direct Plus Loan to any eligible student” to fund the workforce grants.

With an endowment that exceeds $40 billion, Yale will be among the many schools affected by the Workforce Pell Act. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill’s funding will prohibit students at 35 institutions from accessing federal loans, including those studying at Harvard, Princeton and Columbia.

The CBO also reported that in 2022, students at these 35 institutions have applied for $1.4 billion worth of federal student loans, with about 80 percent of it going to graduate students.

“Ultimately, we would like to get this legislation changed so that they get a different funding,” Chrishan Fernando, the president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, told the News. “We do not want to kill the bill. We agree with what is in it but we want to make sure that it does not go forward with the current funding offset because that would really be detrimental to a lot of graduate and professional students, to an extent undergraduate students as well.”

The senate wrote a community letter for students to sign to address the issue.

Alex Rich, GPSS Advocacy Committee Co-chair, wrote to the News that the letter was signed by 361 graduate and professional students as well as 9 graduate and professional student government groups across 14 institutions that would be affected by the bill.

“The goal of this multi-institutional community letter is for Congress to recognize these impacts and to find a different funding offset,” Key wrote to the News. “We are continuing to work together with other affected institutions and to utilize channels available to us to raise awareness and advocate for reform of this bill.”

The letter states that denying federal loans to students at “elite institutions” will put these schools more out of reach for low and middle-class students and their families.

It also says that without federal loans, students will have to face an “uncertain landscape” for acquiring student loans and rely on private and institutional loans instead.

“We sent the letter on Wednesday morning to Chairwoman Foxx and Ranking Member Scott as well as all members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce,” Rich said. 

Azita Emami, Megan Ranney and Jessica Illuzzi — the dean of the School of Nursing, dean of the School of Public Health and deputy dean for education at the School of Medicine respectively —  also addressed their concerns about the bill in an article in the Hartford Courant. 

They explained that the loss of access to federal student loans will present a serious obstacle specifically for students aspiring to healthcare careers, which will make it harder to tackle the shortage of healthcare professionals across the country to meet the demand for healthcare.

“Look up who your representative is, and make sure that you call them and then tell them about this bill,” Fernando told the News. “Tell them that it is going to affect you or people that you know and that you want them to change the funding offset … I think it is especially powerful if it is coming from students who will be directly affected by it or if they know somebody directly affected by it.”

The Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act was proposed by the Committee on Education and the Workforce on Dec. 22, 2023.

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