Professor Michael P. Moreland Previews New U.S. Supreme Court Term
Villanova Law Professor Michael Moreland last week joined other legal scholars on The American Law Journal, a weekly talk-feature program airing on the CNN News affiliate in Philadelphia, WFMZ-TV 69, for First Monday in October: U.S. Supreme Court Preview.“The Supreme Court's upcoming term isn't yet a blockbuster,” said Moreland, “but it has the potential to be one.”
The panel reviewed key cases from last term and several compelling cases on the docket for 2011-2012 including United States v. Jones (warrantless GPS tracking, Fourth Amendment), Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington (Fourth Amendment, strip searches), FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc. (indecency, etc. First Amendment), CompuCredit Corp. v. Greenwood (mandatory arbitration) and Hosanna -Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (religious exemption from federal discrimination statutes).
“There are already some interesting cases on the application of the Fourth Amendment and on the ministerial exception for religious institutions, as well as some difficult and important preemption, arbitration, and patent cases,” said Moreland. “But if the Court agrees to hear the constitutional challenges to President Obama's health care reform legislation, the Defense of Marriage Act or California's Proposition 8, or an affirmative action program at the University of Texas, then this could quickly become an extremely important term.”
Moreland was joined by former federal judge the Hon. Edward Cahn, now of Blank Rome,Mary Catherine Roper of the ACLU of Pennsylvania,Stephen Sheller of Sheller, P.C., and host Christopher Naughton. The show aired Monday, October 3.
Moreland joined the Villanova faculty in 2006. He received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, his M.A. and Ph.D. in theological ethics from Boston College, and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. His scholarly interests focus on torts, bioethics, and law and religion.
Following law school, Moreland clerked for the Honorable Paul J. Kelly, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and was an associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., where he represented clients in First Amendment, professional liability, and products liability matters. Before coming to Villanova, he served as Associate Director for Domestic Policy at the White House, where he worked on a range of legal policy issues, including criminal justice, immigration, civil rights, and liability reform.
