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William A. Jacobson

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William A. Jacobson
EducationHamilton College (B.A.)
Harvard University (J.D.)
Occupation(s)Lawyer
Law school professor
Blogger
EmployerCornell Law School
TitleProfessor

William A. Jacobson is an American lawyer, Cornell Law School clinical professor, and conservative blogger.

Education

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Jacobson is a 1981 summa cum laude graduate of Hamilton College.[1][2] He received his J.D. degree in 1984 from Harvard Law School.[1][2] During his time at Harvard Law School, Jacobson served as Senior Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal, for which he wrote a Case Comment entitled "Process Due Resident Aliens Upon Entering the United States," 24 Harv. Int’l Law J. 198, and as Director of Litigation for the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project.[3][4]

Career

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Early career

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From 1984 to 1993, Jacobson practiced litigation with Cahill Gordon & Reindel and with Miller & Wrubel in New York City.[5] From 1993 to 2007, he was a litigator in Providence, Rhode Island, with a civil litigation and arbitration practice.[6] His work was focused around investment, employment, and business disputes in the securities industry.[7][5]

Cornell Law School

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In 2007, Jacobson joined Cornell Law School as a Clinical Professor of Law.[2] He is also the Director of the law school's Securities Law Clinic, which provides legal services to small investors in upstate New York who have been the victims of investment fraud.[7][8]

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Jacobson is author of the conservative law blog, Legal Insurrection, which was founded in 2008.[9][10] As of July 2014, the TaxProf blog ranked Legal Insurrection as the third most visited blog run by a law professor for the year prior.[11] As of January 2011, Legal Insurrection was ranked number 24 in politics, and number 67 overall, by Technorati,[12] and number 7 for top legal blogs by Avvo.[13]

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Jacobson is president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation,[14] which he founded in 2008.[15]

Author

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Jacobson is co-author of the Securities Arbitration Desk Reference (Thomson-Reuters).[2] He is also a contributor to Politico's "Arena".[16]

Activities

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Elizabeth Warren

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During Senator Elizabeth Warren's 2012 U.S. Senate campaign against Republican Scott Brown, Jacobson criticized Warren's claim that she was 1/32nd Cherokee Indian.[17][18]

Israel and Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)

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Jacobson has lobbied against the BDS movement.[19][20][21] He has participated in numerous speaking engagements on the matter, most notably events at Harvard Law School (hosted by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) in association with Alliance for Israel),[22][23][24] Cornell University (sponsored by Cornellians For Israel),[25] Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors,[26] and the Florida Region of CAMERA.[27]

When Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi spoke to third graders at an elementary school in Ithaca, New York, in 2015, Jacobson covered the event on his blog.[28] Jacobson filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) to further investigate the circumstances surrounding the speaking event.[28] After a year-long court battle with the ICSD demanding that the ICSD remove extensive redactions in the documents provided,[29] a judge sided with Jacobson, after which the ICSD was ordered to release the video of the event.[30][28] That video included one of the speakers saying to the children, "You can defend us, you can be freedom fighters for Palestine, you can bring peace;"[31] a child is also heard saying, "When I grow up, I'm going to go to Palestine and protest."[30]

YouTube

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On January 13, 2017, Jacobson's YouTube channel was taken down, with YouTube citing copyright violations.[32] However, Jacobson stated that he was targeted for his conservative political views.[32] His channel was restored on January 15, 2017.[33]

Race

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In 2020, Jacobson authored two articles that criticized the history of Black Lives Matter. Jacobson described Black Lives Matter's founders as "anti-American, anti-capitalist activists, who want to destroy capitalism, in an act of revenge."[34] This caused controversy and Cornell Law School students called for action against him.[34]

In February 2021, Jacobson launched the website CriticalRace.org, a database listing the training activities and actions of college administrations pertaining to critical race training and anti-racism initiatives.[35]

Federal COVID-19 lawsuit

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In January 2022, Jacobson filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Mary T. Bassett, Acting Commissioner of the New York Department of Health, challenging the constitutionality of a state health department directive that considers race as a risk factor in the distribution of COVID-19 treatments.[36] The lawsuit argues that the department directive is "patently unconstitutional" because it uses racial preferences in determining whether someone qualifies to receive medical treatment, which violates the Fourteenth Amendment, the Civil Rights Act, and other federal statutes.[37]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Jacobson, William A." vivo.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
  2. ^ a b c d "William A. Jacobson". lawschool.cornell.edu.
  3. ^ "Editorial Board, 25 Harvard International Law Journal, 1984". Harvard International Law Journal. 25: 81. 1984. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
  4. ^ "Cornell Law Professor to Discuss Academic Freedom - Hamilton College". www.hamilton.edu. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
  5. ^ a b "Faculty: Jacobson" (PDF). lawschool.cornell.edu.
  6. ^ "William A Jacobson, JD - SPME". SPME. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  7. ^ a b "William A. Jacobson". cornell.edu.
  8. ^ "Securities Law Clinic". lawschool.cornell.edu.
  9. ^ "Blogger: User Profile: William A. Jacobson". blogger.com.
  10. ^ "About". Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion |. 2012-08-21. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  11. ^ "TaxProf Blog: Law Prof Blog Traffic Rankings". taxprof.typepad.com. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  12. ^ "Legal Insurrection". technorati.com.
  13. ^ "Top Legal Blogs". www.avvo.com.
  14. ^ Gus Chan (7 June 2022). "Legal education could take a hit from critical race theory controversy". Crain Communications. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2023. William Jacobson, a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation
  15. ^ Marybeth Gasman (17 June 2021). "What The Critics And Supporters Of Critical Race Theory Have In Common". Forbes. Retrieved 7 June 2023. a website called CriticalRace.org. The site is owned by the Legal Insurrection Foundation, a conservative nonprofit established by Cornell law school professor William A. Jacobson in 2008
  16. ^ "Politics, Policy, Political News". POLITICO. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  17. ^ "How Warren fumbled first controversy". POLITICO. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  18. ^ "NightSide - Professor William Jacobson Talks With Dan Rea About Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren". CBS. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  19. ^ "When Students Vote on Israel's Demise - Commentary Magazine". Commentary Magazine. 2015-05-03. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  20. ^ "Anti-Semitism at CU Gets Response". Ithaca Times. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  21. ^ "Cornell student government tables Israel divestment, averting Passover vote". JNS.org. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  22. ^ "Academics unpack BDS, anti–Semitism at media watchdog's national conference". American Israelite. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  23. ^ "War by Other Means: Israel, BDS and the Campus". JewishBoston. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  24. ^ "The REAL History of BDS Movement, by Prof. William Jacobson (Legal Insurrection via EoZ)". Israel Activist Alliance. 2016-12-30. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  25. ^ "Cornell Prof. Lectures on Ithaca Elementary School Anti-Israel Event". The Cornell Review. 2015-11-02. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  26. ^ How the Academic Boycott of Israel Hurts American Students with Professor William Jacobson, Esq., 2014-06-29, archived from the original on 2021-12-15, retrieved 2017-09-12
  27. ^ "CAMERA on campus". Jewish Journal. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  28. ^ a b c "Judge sends Ithaca schools a message over pro-Palestinian speaker". The Ithaca Voice. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  29. ^ "ICSD to release video of controversial talk". Ithaca Journal. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  30. ^ a b "Video shows pro-Palestinian indoctrination of 3rd graders in NY school". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  31. ^ "New York schoolchildren outrageously shown anti-Israel propaganda during presentation". Express.co.uk. 2016-12-16. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  32. ^ a b Rogers, James (January 13, 2017). "YouTube removes influential conservative website's channel". Fox News. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
  33. ^ Rogers, James (January 16, 2017). "YouTube restores influential conservative website's channel". Fox News. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  34. ^ a b "Cornell professor who criticized Black Lives Matter faces student boycott". Foxnews.com. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  35. ^ Bunay, Angela (2021-02-24). "Students Weigh in on Critical Race Theory Database Launched by Law School Professor". The Cornell Daily Sun. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  36. ^ Lyons, Brendan J. (2022-01-17). "Lawsuit challenges 'non-white' prioritization of COVID-19 drugs". Times Union. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  37. ^ "Law professor suing NYSDOH over directive to prioritize non-whites for COVID-19 drugs". WHEC News10NBC. 2022-01-18. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  38. ^ "Covering CPAC 2014: What the mainstream media got wrong". The Jewish Star. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
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