UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA LEVIN COLLEGE OF LAW
September 14, 2009 | Vol. XIII, Issue 3
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Faculty scholarship and activities

Lidsky Clifford A. Jones
Associate in Law and Lecturer
  • Chaired two panels and presented a paper ““Penumbras of Community Competition Law: External Governance, Extraterritoriality, and the Shifting Borderlands of the Internal Market”at the conference of the Academic Society for Competition Law held at George Washington University Law School, Washington D.C.
  • Joined a group of campaign finance scholars in filing an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Citizens United involves the issue of whether the government can ban the distribution of a political documentary, “Hillary, The Movie”—critical of Hillary Clinton—where the group received some corporate funding to make the movie. The brief was referred to by Chief Justice Roberts during the oral argument on Sept 9.
  • Presented his paper, “A Bridge to Nowhere? An Essay on the Death of Public Funding of Presidential Campaigns in the 2008 Election,” on a panel organized by the Law and Political Processes Study Group, at the American Political Science Association Annual Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Lidsky Lyrissa Lidsky
Professor
  • Sept. 8, 2009, Myrtle Beach Sun News
    Lidsky commented on lawsuits brought about due to false and defamatory claims posted on the Internet/blogs. Similar lawsuits over anonymous comments have dramatically increased in the past decade as the number of Internet-based news and commentary sites has grown, according to Lidsky. In January, for example, Scott Brandon - president of The Brandon Agency in Myrtle Beach - won a $1.8 million judgment in a libel suit filed against Donald Wizeman, whose Internet blog included comments that a judge said hurt Brandon's reputation. That judgment remains unpaid, according to Horry County court records. Most lawsuits typically do not result in large monetary awards, but they can be successful in debunking rumors and providing a venue for getting an alternative viewpoint across, Lidsky said. "A lot of these suits are not about money, but about symbolically saying 'This is a lie and we don't want it said about us'," Lidsky said. "It can be very effective from a public relations standpoint."

HernandezBerta Hernandez-Truyol
  • Sept. 9, 2009, The Independent Florida Alligator
    Hernandez-Truyol was quoted in regards to UF Law being named in the top 10 colleges for Hispanics.
    “Levin named eighth best law school for Hispanics”
    As one of four Hispanic tenured or tenure track faculty members at the law college, Hernandez-Truyol cited the importance of a diverse teaching staff and student body in the recruitment process.
    "There are a series of factors that students care about when they choose a school: ranking, cost, reputation, success rates, employment rates," Hernandez-Truyol said. "But, all things equal, Latina and Latino students probably gravitate to a place that offers them all kinds of role models."
    According to the Office of Admissions, Hispanic enrollment at the college reached nine percent in 2009. This percentage has increased dramatically since professor Hernandez-Truyol began her career in education.
    "When I started teaching in 1982, I think there were 22 full-time tenure track Latina and Latino faculty in the country," she said, adding there are now more than 180. "You can't have that kind of progression without more Latinas and Latinos going to law school," she said.