(Podcast) Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson spent hours on defending her representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees and denying she’d been too lenient in child pornography cases. Saikrishna Prakash, a University of Virginia law professor and former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, and Margaret Russell, a law professor at Santa Clara University, join Judy Woodruff to discuss the hearing.
Kim Forde-Mazrui, director of UVA’s Center for the Study of Race and Law, takes a different view. He said that the Supreme Court’s use of strict scrutiny, based on its reading of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, leads to a kind of “color-blindness” that ignores historic and systemic racism. “The Supreme Court’s rule that race should generally be ignored has actually prevented policies that could help to reduce the racial gap,” he said. He added that the ERA, as currently written, could cause the Supreme Court to treat sex the same way, with a kind of “sex-blindness,” he said,...
(Commentary) Finally, selective colleges can ask for far less to determine an applicant’s chances. Stephen Farmer, the vice provost for enrollment at the University of Virginia, wonders if there is a “more iterative way” of asking for materials. Instead of making the application process an enormous burden students must finish all at once, information from applicants could be gathered in chunks at different stages of the process.
(Co-written by Sara Rimm-Kaufman, Commonwealth Professor of Education) Rude seems to be in style – we see unruly passengers on airlines, hurtful comments online, and impasses among legislators. Can the pendulum swing in the other direction for this next generation? We think so, and we see educators making this happen.
This week is National Poison Prevention Week, and UVA Health and the Blue Ridge Poison Center are talking about common causes.
The African drone and data academy that held in Malawi has come to a close, and the organizers celebrated this feat with a closing ceremony. … UNICEF thanked the participation and support of the participating institutions, including the University of Virginia.
Two projects reflect how environmental justice can be achieved for places where loss have been experienced. The Tamir Rice Memorial in Cleveland illustrates how a space can evoke memory. The Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia illustrates how a space can acknowledge slavery and servitude.
(Editorial) Some students at the University of Virginia, including the editorial board of the school’s newspaper, think that “hateful rhetoric is violent – and this is impermissible.” So they oppose an April appearance by Pence. They say Pence’s past statements condemning non-heterosexual lifestyles, as well as his past vilification of immigrants, invites attacks on both groups and should rob him of his right to speak on the Grounds.
UVA alumnus Justin Anderson was far more than a spectator on Sunday. He started an NBA game for the first time in a year and a half and was a major player in the Pacers’ win, tallying 18 points, six rebounds, and four assists in 36 minutes. Anderson’s performance was the high point to-date in his multi-year fight to work his way back into the NBA.
No Washington National will ever wear number 11 again. It will always belong to [UVA alumnus] Ryan Zimmerman. The Virginia Beach native will have his number retired by the club on June 18 during the club’s series with the National League East rival Phillies. It will be part of Ryan Zimmerman Weekend, which will begin the day before.
[UVA alumna] Mallory Graham is no stranger to pageant crowns, but now, through her dedication to education and her compassion for the community, she won a new title — Salem City Schools’ 2022 Teacher of the Year.
In her “How Should a Critic Be?” graduate course at the University of Virginia, Emily Ogden provided students with an account of the history of literary studies to consider what it means to be a good critic and what constitutes a good life. Though no definitive answer was reached—and Ogden will tell you no definitive answer should have been reached—getting others to see what she sees is her goal as a critic. I can assure you that reading her essays in 3 Quarks Daily and the Yale Review or her forthcoming book, “On Not Knowing,” feels like entering into her purview, changing your own perspectiv...
(Podcast) Before the Supreme Court this term is the question of whether all pre-viability bans on abortion are unconstitutional. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the Court must address this question in light of its previous holdings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Shortly after oral argument in December 2021, UVA law professor Richard Re encouraged the Court to adopt a gradualist approach, making room for the possibility that the justices could uphold both Mississippi’s prohibition on abortions before 15-weeks gestation and its prior precedents in Roe and Casey.
Sodium hydroxide and phosphorous acid are used to remove gums and other undesirable compounds in oil, according to Dansby. But sodium hydroxide is only highly caustic or corrosive in high doses, Dr. Christopher Holstege, a medical toxicologist at the University of Virginia, said. “If it (canola oil) was highly caustic, it would burn (your skin or your body),” Holstege said. “It doesn’t burn because the sodium hydroxide isn’t there. These chemicals may be used initially, but then they’re removed.”
Meals and Wheels “provides not just food, but also companionship, and I think for many who can’t get out very easily it’s a lifeline for them,” University of Virginia President Jim Ryan said. “I think one of the things that makes Charlottesville such an amazing place, honestly, is how many people volunteer to help out their neighbors and this is a great example.”
(Podcast) In this episode of History As It Happens, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor discusses the role of the founding generation – and its compromises over slavery as written in the Constitution – in determining the course of America’s anguished history of race and racism. “As long as race is going to be so powerful in identifying people and polarizing people in politics, then the history of race in this country is going to be a battleground,” said Mr. Taylor, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation chair at the University of Virginia.
As COVID spread across the country, many experts from different fields began weighing in with ideas for battling the pandemic. They had conversations by phone and online. Now, they’ve connected again – led by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He worries the country will abandon caution when it comes to COVID – a view shared by Professor Vivian Riefberg at UVA’s graduate school of business. “We’re going to be living with it for a very long time, just as we live with the flu,” she says.
Barbara Perry with UVA’s Miller Center says this hearing shouldn’t stretch for longer than the usual four days as there are no expected scandals that may pop up. “The Democrats will be lauding Judge Jackson, and those on the other side of the aisle, the Republicans will make a show of saying that they are congratulating her and then they will begin to make very pointed statements about her background and about President Biden and those who support her,” Perry said.
Politico Magazine reached out to a select group of constitutional scholars and Supreme Court watchers to ask: What one question should senators ask to understand how she’ll shape the court? Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash, law professor and senior Miller Center fellow: “Do you believe in a living Constitution, one whose meaning changes over time to reflect modern needs and morality? And if so, why shouldn’t the political branches dominate that process of constitutional change?
A doctor at UVA Health has been honored with a big award. Dr. Taison Bell was named in the 40 Under 40 Minority Leaders in Health by the National Minority Quality Forum.