Raymond Ku, J.D. – Professor of Law, Laura B. Chisholm Distinguished Research Scholar, and Director, Center for Cyberspace Law and Policy

Dear Colleagues:

Greetings, and I hope that, if you are receiving this e-mail, you and yours are healthy and safe during this dangerous and strange time for the world, our nation, our community, and Case Western Reserve University.

So much is in suspension or changed or worse. We hope that the altered “Friday Lunch” will work out well. Large meetings on campus are no longer possible, so the Public Affairs Discussion Group has been re-organized, for now, as “virtual” Zoom meetings. Discussions will begin at 12:30 p.m., the usual time. Each week we will send out the newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. Every Monday the same information will be posted on fridaylunch.case.edu. If you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting.

This week’s link is:https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMod-6upzotGdZECZQev_toOJKxAtbMqv8o

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

I deeply regret that going virtual may lose some of the attractions of our gatherings. For example, I won’t be able to provide goodies until we can get back together in person. And it will not be as easy to have side conversations (though there are ways to “chat” privately in the chat function). On the positive side, our first gathering on August 28 with Professors Adler and Entin did get some attendance, and the presentations and discussion, as always with that distinguished pair, went very well.

So thank you to them and to Professor Raymond Ku, who has kindly agreed to be our speaker for September 4! He will discuss Regulating the Content of Online Platforms, a topic which is even hotter now than it would have been if he’d been able to join us on his originally scheduled date in April. Although the political use of Facebook and other platforms is the main focus of controversy at the moment, raising difficult issues about “free speech” and the integrity of elections, there are many other possible issues – copyright for one. As Director of CWRU’s Center for Cyberspace Law and Policy, and co-author of a Casebook that was just published in its 5th edition, Professor Ku is a pioneer in the teaching of cyberspace law. Please join us for what should be a fascinating look behind the headlines.

Please e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.

Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,

Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guest

Raymond Ku is Professor of Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He has also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Co-Director of Case’s Center for Law, Technology and the Arts. He received his J.D., cum laude, from New York University School of Law where he was a Leonard Boudin First Amendment Fellow in the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program, and his A.B. with Honors from Brown University where he was the recipient of the Philo Sherman Bennet Prize for the best political science thesis discussing the principles of free government. Professor Ku clerked for the Honorable Timothy K. Lewis, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then practiced constitutional, intellectual property, and antitrust law with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, and First Amendment/media and intellectual property law with Levine Pierson Sullivan & Koch, L.L.P., both in Washington, D.C. He has taught at Cornell Law School, Seton Hall University School of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and St. Thomas University School of Law.

An internationally recognized scholar, Professor Ku writes on legal issues impacting individual liberty, creativity, and technology. His articles appear in the law reviews and journals of Berkeley, Chicago, Georgetown, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, and Wisconsin among others, and he is the lead author of the first casebook devoted exclusively to the study of cyberspace law. Professor Ku was the 2009 recipient of the Case Western Reserve University Law Alumni Association’s Distinguished Teacher Award, and voted Professor of the Year by the graduating class of 2009.

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

September 11: “Deaths of Despair” and the Case for Medicare for All. With Joseph White, Ph.D., Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

September 18: The Economy Now and With the Next Administration. With Dean Baker, Ph.D., Senior Economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research.

September 25: Age and Financial Fear. With Christine L. Day, Ph.D, Professor of Political Science, University of New Orleans.

October 2: Leading on Lead Poisoning: New Initiatives in Cleveland and the Role of Research. With Robert L. Fischer, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Co-Director, Center on Urban Poverty & Community Development, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences

October 9: TBA

October 16: Covid-19 and the Economics of Health Care. With J.B. Silvers, PH.,D., John R. Mannix Medical Mutual of Ohio Professor of Health Care Finance.

October 23: COVID-19: Rapid Research and Rapid Revelations. With Mark Cameron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences.

October 30: Election Forecast Discussion. Speakers To Be Determined

November 6: “Banning the Box”: The Substance and Politics of Legislation to Reduce Obstacles to Hiring Felons. With Daniel Shoag, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Economics.

November 13: Targeted Assassinations and Other Red and Not-So-Red Lines. With Shannon E. French, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Inamori Professor of Ethics, and Director, Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence

November 20: What’s the Beef? The Controversy Over the Health Effects of Red Meat. With Hope Barkoukis, Ph.D., Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Professor in Wellness and Preventive Care and Chair, Department of Nutrition.

December 4: The Economics of Sports After (?) COVID-19. With Jonathan Ernest, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Economics.