For half a century, student protestors at campuses across the US have called for divestment related to a variety of political issues. But how effective is this strategy? Lewis & Clark Professors Cliff Bekar and Bruce Podobnik explain why divestment may not deliver the economic and political effects that proponents seek.

05/06/2024

When farmers, conservationists, and other neighbors noticed an unusual pit being dug in Marion County, they notified the authorities about possible illegal dumping. Lewis & Clark Environmental Law Professor Craig Johnston explains why the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has ordered the dump site to be shut down. 

05/05/2024

05/01/2024

Oregon Public Broadcasting profiles Alicia Ouellette, the incoming dean of Lewis & Clark’s Law School. Dean Jennifer Johnson, who is stepping down after a decade leading our Law School, increased the school’s endowment by more than 52%. Ouellette, the former president and dean of Albany Law School in New York, looks forward to building on this success. As OPB reports, she is “excited to see how the law school engages with the city and the community and to grow those connections.”

04/26/2024

World renowned artists Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle spent ten days in residence at Lewis & Clark’s EAR (Experimental Art Research) Forest. The resulting work leaves audiences “full of admiration for Sprinkle and Stephens and the Lewis & Clark Faculty who work as both artists and academics, making space to be in life-changing relation to students,” according to art critic Hannah Krafcik. “Amidst the pressure cooker of the brewing climate crisis, this whole experience at EAR Forest offered a breath of fresh air.” 

04/25/2024

As the affordable housing crisis takes hold across large cities, small towns, suburban areas, and rural counties, some communities are imposing penalties on people who are living outside. The Supreme Court is currently considering a challenge to the way Grants Pass, a town in southern Oregon, is penalizing unhoused people. Lewis & Clark Professor Tung Yin explains the Constitutional issues at the heart of the case.

04/22/2024

Scientists are increasingly finding evidence of sentience – conscious thought or experience – among insects, fish, and other creatures. This understanding of consciousness across species has important legal implications, notes Lewis & Clark Professor Raj Reedy. Currently, federal law does not classify animals as sentient, according to Reddy. Instead, laws pertaining to animals focus primarily on conservation, agriculture or their treatment by zoos, research laboratories, and pet retailers. Recognizing sentience might lead to different judicial opinions in cases that involve or effect these creatures.

 

04/19/2024

Colleges and universities rely on the returns from investing their endowments. But many schools make those investments without addressing the issues that will shape students’ lives for decades to come. That’s why the Intentional Endowments Network created their new Endowment Impact Benchmark to gauge institutions’ progress on social and environmental objectives. Using the EIB, they gave the highest marks to Lewis & Clark, the only institution to achieve a platinum award. Earning the platinum rating “is a gratifying validation of Lewis & Clark College’s dedication to sustainability and principled action in our investing approach,” says Andrea Dooley, L&C’s chief financial officer and vice president of operations.

04/18/2024

Every year, policy experts from around the world debate in person at Lewis & Clark’s International Affairs Symposium. But it’s not just the students who learn from these events. As civil discourse deteriorates in many places across our country and the world, IAS provides a space in which even those with drastically opposing views can engage, as Todd Miller notes. “I enjoyed my time with the students and professors and sensed genuine engagement and curiosity about the issues, including the ever-polemic border.” He even credited listening to John Bolton, someone with whom he vehemently disagrees, as providing him the insights he will weave into the conclusion of his next book. Miller credits his time at L&C with imbuing him with “an ability to courageously look across borders and actually be curious and engaged, and to listen to what people are saying. That was my indirect lesson from Bolton: maybe it is by listening, rather than talking, that debates are actually won.”

04/11/2024

Native American women are overrepresented in U.S. prisons, and among “juvenile” prisoners, Native American girls are incarcerated at a rate more than four times that of their white girls. Lewis & Clark Professor Carma Corcoran (Cree), director of the Indian Law Program, explains the structural factors leading to these disparities, and what should be done to address them.

04/09/2024

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is open about his admiration of the late-ninteenth-century Mexican revolutionary Catarino Erasmo Garza. Lewis & Clark Professor Elliott Young, who wrote a biography about Garza, argues that if López Obrador wants to emulate his hero, he should remember that Garza fought for a democratic Mexico, one in which people would not be subject to state violence, and journalists and citizens would be free to criticize their government.

04/09/2024

What’s the best way to learn – and teach – about science, history, social studies, and racial justice? In places that elucidate how those things connect. This story offered NPR listeners a chance to join Lewis & Clark Professors Liza Finkel and Cari Zall and their graduate students for an exploration of the natural and human environments in one Portland neighborhood shaped by years of environmental racism. The L&C students, who will teach science and social studies in schools throughout the region, were deepening their skills for designing place-based learning, for collaborating across the curriculum, and for bringing a social justice lens to every lesson. “When you have local, real examples of how these different things interplay and affect people’s lives, I think that’s really powerful,” Jordan Stokes, one of the L&C graduate students, said. “I think that connects and makes [our students] want to learn more.”

04/08/2024

Grizzly bear populations have recently increased. But does that mean the species is no longer endangered? It’s a scientific and also a legal question. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the listing status under the Endangered Species Act of two populations of grizzlies. But Lewis & Clark Professor Daniel Rohlf notes that it’s impossible to make a completely objective scientific determination when it comes to recovery of a species. “It’s up to society to make that call. How protective—how risk adverse do we want to be?”

04/05/2024

When Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa, the First Lady of Zimbabwe, celebrated World Aquatic Animal Day by advocating for coordinating socio-cultural, economic, and scientific efforts to protect ecosystems, her audience understood how Lewis & Clark contributed to the conservation. World Aquatic Animal Day “is the brainchild of the aquatic animal law initiative at Lewis & Clark Law School.”  Although Zimbabwe has marked the event in past years, in 2024 leaders seized on the event “to take advantage of every available tool to enhance conservation efforts in Zimbabwe.”

04/04/2024

Dunkin’ Donuts charges customers extra for nondairy milk in their coffee drinks. But a lawsuit filed recently in California contends that these charges violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, because food allergies can be considered a disability. As Lewis & Clark Professor Rajesh Reddy explains, the difference in cost between dairy and nondairy products reflects how the government subsidizes the dairy industry. “With every cup of morning Joe, it’s the dairy industry Americans are bailing out. Just how much the federal government — and taxpayers by extension — subsidize the industry is a little-known fact, and its implications are mind-boggling.” ​By keeping dairy prices artificially low, demand for dairy increases while smaller producers deal with higher production costs and lower demand. “You couldn’t come up with an inherently more unlevel playing field if you tried.”

04/03/2024

As discriminatory laws were being imposed on Japanese Americans during World War II, Minoru Yasui intentionally violated a racially targeted curfew law he knew was unconstitutional. As a result, Yasui’s citizenship was temporarily stripped, and he spent nearly a year in solitary confinement in jail, and then was held in incarceration camps until the end of World War II. Lewis & Clark Law School graduate Peggy Nagae worked with Yasui in the 1980s to reopen his case, and his convictions were overturned. Nagae continues to commemorate Yasui’s courageous commitment to civil rights, leading to him being posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and to March 28 being declared Minoru Yasui Day in Oregon.

03/28/2024

It’s not fair to ask a student and their family to commit to a particular college before they know how much it will cost to attend. But with the problems in rolling out the new FAFSA application this year, millions of American families are facing that challenge. As Nick Anderson at the American Council on Education notes, Lewis & Clark has led the way in creating a fix to meet students’ needs, by extending the deadline for students to accept our offer of admission until June 1. “Colleges should do their best to give families breathing room to make good choices,” says Anderson – and Lewis & Clark definitely agrees.

03/26/2024

In 2022, a white supremacist killed ten people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. A judge has allowed a lawsuit accusing social media companies of promoting content that radicalized the shooter to move forward. As Lewis & Clark Professor Matthew P. Bergman explains, “This historic ruling will for the first-time permit victims of racist, antisemitic, anti-immigrant, and homophobic violence to hold social media companies accountable for contributing to the epidemic of mass shootings that are plaguing our nation.” According to Bergman, who founded Social Media Victims Law Center and is representing several of the families in the suit, the case reveals how dangerous online content can be. “Social media companies purposefully designed their products to be addictive to young users like the Buffalo shooter and the artificial intelligence driven algorithms that radicalized him to commit unspeakable acts of racist violence at Tops Friendly Markets were foreseeable consequences of their intentional design decisions. These companies need to be held accountable for the role in radicalizing people resulting in all these mass shootings across America.” 

03/19/2024

Lewis & Clark alum Aron Ouzilevski lives in Tblisi, Georgia, and writes about people who are resisting Russian authoritarianism. When he met an indigenous Karachay (an ethnic group from the North Caucasus) who works with NGOs that focus on LBGTQ+ and women’s rights in Central Asia and the North Caucasus, he was surprised to discover that she had also spent time at Lewis & Clark. “It was at once comforting and strange for me to share memories about running across a wooden bridge over a ravine to make it on time to an early class, about the incessant rain and about the rare, clear views of Mt. Hood’s snowy peak with a new acquaintance halfway around the world,” Ouzilevski notes. Even more surprising is how the Karachay woman (whose name is not given for safety reasons) describes gaining a deeper understanding of her own identity and culture while at Lewis & Clark.

03/18/2024

In 2020, Oregon voters passed Measure 110, intending to replace the war on drugs with a focus on addiction treatment. Less than three years later, the legislature and governor have dismantled much of the measure. Lewis & Clark faculty member Rob Bovett and co-author Keith Humphreys argue that the law failed because its fundamentally misunderstood the nature of addiction.

03/17/2024

Lawsuits against food giants, such as food manufacturers and fast food chains, are on the rise nationwide. As Lewis & Clark Professor Joyce Tischler explains, these suits arise because consumers seek to support companies that align with their values, such as environmentally conscious farming practices or humane treatment of animals. But too often, companies can be misleading about whether their practices and products really meet these marks. In those cases, Tischler notes, a lawsuit “forces the producer, this massive company that’s making a lot of money, to be honest with the public, to tell the truth.”

03/14/2024

Across the US, passing the state bar exam is a professional rite of passage – and sometimes a huge barrier – for law school graduates. But starting May 15, Oregon will offer a Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination (SPPE) for those studying law, creating a different pathway for lawyers to obtain their license in the state. Lewis & Clark Professor and Associate Law School Dean John Parry, who worked with colleagues across Oregon to create the SPPE, explains that this alternative focuses on “practicing law in Oregon, learning Oregon law and applying Oregon law” in significant new ways. As a result, Parry says, Oregon lawyers, courts, and the public can have “a greater degree of confidence that licensing is going to be related to what lawyers do.”

03/14/2024

Each year, the Portland Business Journal honors “Women of Influence,” who are significant leaders in their professions and communities. We’re delighted that Lewis & Clark President Robin Holmes-Sullivan is among the 2024 honorees.

03/14/2024

Wildlife protection laws don’t prohibit the cloning of Marco Polo argali sheep, which are native to central Asia and considered threatened under the US Endangered Species Act. But a Montana rancher who built a lucrative business selling cloned sheep did violate the law, as Lewis & Clark Professor Joyce Tischler explains. By transporting the cloned animal across state lines for sale, lying about their origins, and forging veterinary inspection certificates, the rancher engaged in criminal activity. As long as cloning is legal and lucrative, it might drive more illegal activity involving endangered species.  As Tischler notes, although this rancher has been charged and pleaded guilty, other people may “want to illegally import argali sheep to make money off of them.”

03/14/2024

Across the US, school board meeting have become increasingly contentious. But one Oregon parent, banned from speaking at her local board’s meeting, is suing the board for censoring her. Lewis & Clark Professor Jim Oleske explains the difference between enforcing decorum in public meeting and engaging in “viewpoint discrimination,” by silencing only those who disagree with the board.

03/14/2024

Tillamook Dairy is a beloved Oregon brand. But are the ads suggesting they are a collective of small farms in Tillamook County deceptive? Would consumers still buy Tillamook products if they knew the milk came from “Big Agra” – large-scale producers that might be cruel to cows and harming the environment? The Oregon Supreme Court convened at Lewis & Clark to hear arguments in the case.

03/06/2024

After paying out hundreds of millions of dollars for a variety of damages arising from a wildfire, the electric utility PacifiCorp is asking the state to limit future liability. But Lewis & Clark’s Green Energy Institute, along with the Sierra Club, the Citizens’ Utility Board, and Oregon Consumer Justice Law, say such a move would violate the Oregon Constitution.

03/06/2024

Lewis & Clark Professor Reiko Hillyer explains the surprising history of incarceration in the US, and what its lasting effects are for the nation today, in this interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and PBS’s Michel Martin. 

03/04/2024

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has represented the families of Henrietta Lacks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and households in Flint, Michigan. Attending middle school at the height of desegregation taught him that “racism is not an organic dynamic. It is a learned experience.” When Crump shared what he’s learned about undoing the harms of racism – speaking at Lewis & Clark’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Endowed Lecture – he was awarded an honorary doctorate.

02/29/2024

”Cellblocks to Mountaintops,” a multimedia podcast with a companion video series, examines how America addresses violence, defines justice, and seeks accountability through the story of Sterling Cunio. The 14-episode series features the work of Lewis & Clark’s Criminal Justice Reform Clinic, which represented Cunio.

02/29/2024

Carra Sahler, director of Lewis & Clark’s Green Energy Institute, explains why public utilities shouldn’t gamble with taxpayer dollars to expand reliance on fracked gas.  The Green Energy Institute joined with Columbia Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club, and other climate justice organizations to persuade the Oregon Public Utilities Commission not to allow for an increase that would move more fracked gas throughout the northwest. 

02/28/2024

The BBC interviews Lewis & Clark Professor Elliott Young to learn about the nineteenth-century Mexican revolutionary Catarino Garza – and the lessons Garza’s life offers for contemporary Mexican politics.

02/25/2024

Lewis & Clark Professor Steven M. Wise was a visionary founder of the field of Animal Law. During his time here, he envisioned how honoring animal rights could transform jurisprudence.

02/22/2024

“Policing Justice,” an art show at PICA (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Feb 23 to May 19, 15 N.E. Hancock St.), asks us to think about who the police are protecting and from whom. It might seem like an unusual question for an art exhibition to pose. But, as Lewis & Clark Professor Elliot Young demonstrates, it’s one worth asking in Portland, where for over 170 years, the police have disproportionately targeted people deemed undesirable by those in power, because of race (Indigenous and Black people), class (the poor, the unhoused, and labor activists), or people with mental illness.

02/20/2024

Research shows that Americans work 25% more hours than their counterparts in Europe. Lewis & Clark Professor Keith Cunningham-Parmeter explains why Americans work so much more, and what toll this takes on individuals, and on workplace productivity overall.

02/19/2024

Amy Baggio, who earned her law degree from Lewis & Clark in 2001, is Oregon’s newest federal judge. In the words of Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, “Judge Baggio and her extensive experience as both a jurist and a litigator will be an asset on the U.S. District Court in Oregon. The bipartisan support her nomination received in the U.S. Senate mirrors the strong support she received from our bipartisan selection committee of Oregon attorneys. We were proud to support Judge Baggio’s confirmation and we look forward to seeing this extremely qualified judge on the federal bench.”

02/07/2024

It’s hard to rehearse preparedness for a major earthquake–even in places where geologists predict such quakes are likely to occur. So Liz Safran, a geologist and professor in the Environmental Studies Program at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, created a video game to help Pacific Northwesterners practice. In Cascadia 9.0, players learn survival skills. As Safran notes, we shouldn’t think of preparing for a major disaster as an earthquake problem, but as a people problem. She believes we are lacking the necessary “earthquake culture” that will help us minimize the impact of a large quake. “It should be in the things we read, the movies we watch, the games we play. Not just in the parts of our lives we want to avoid, but in the parts we want to enjoy.”

02/06/2024

Mental health practitioners trained in ecotherapy help clients connect with the Earth, and with themselves. Understanding people’s emotional connections with the natural world can be integral to meeting therapeutic, educational, or sustainability goals. Training in ecotherapy at Lewis & Clark provides an opportunity for mental health practitioners and graduate students with an evidence-based, experiential, and socially progressive ecopsychology curriculum.

02/05/2024

Oregon’s Supreme Court ruled on ambiguous language in a measure passed by voters that bars some state legislators from seeking re-election. The ruling has implications for all voter-approved ballot measures. Lewis & Clark Professor Tung Yin explains that the court’s decision adds more legal weight to Oregon ballot titles and to the language that appears in the Oregon voters’ pamphlet. “The idea that you might look outside the actual language [of the ballot measure] is not controversial, some justices support that,” Yin said. “It’s probably a pretty good argument to say the voters weren’t tricked” if they rely on the explanation of a ballot measure rather than the technical language in the measure itself.  

02/01/2024

When a mobile home park in Grants Pass, Oregon, was put up for sale, more than a hundred households were put at risk of eviction, because a new owner could convert the property to another use. But with legal expertise from Lewis & Clark’s Small Business Legal Clinic, the residents form the Family Redwood Park Cooperative and secured financing to buy the property themselves. Family Redwood Park is the first resident-owned community in Josephine County, providing a model for other rural communities.

01/31/2024

Through collaborative efforts, Tiffany Mills, Lewis & Clark’s new dance professor, crafts multidisciplinary work that transcend the boundaries of traditional art forms. Mills delves into the intricacies of human vulnerability, using themes of communication, connection, and transformation. In this interview, she reveals the path that took her from Oregon to New York City and back, and her plans for the dance department at Lewis & Clark.

01/30/2024

Theater critic Marty Hughley weighs in on Portland Center Stage’s new production: Rebecca Lingafelter, a theater professor at Lewis & Clark College and a founding member of Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, has been on a tear of remarkably varied yet consistently stellar performances in the past few years. Under the direction of PCS artistic director Marissa Wolf, we should expect more of the sensational same.

01/25/2024

Recent headlines tell a distressing story about the mental health of college students. President Robin Holmes-Sullivan’s training as a clinical psychologist gives her particular insight into how young people can learn to cope emotionally. That’s why Lewis & Clark undergraduates practice resilience-building, learning skills that will serve them throughout – and well beyond – their time in college. 

01/22/2024

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has proposed changes to the state’s clemency process. Lewis & Clark Professor Reiko Hillyer’s historical research confirms the value of this new policy. And as the students in her Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program class remind her, we need “to imagine a world where we lead with empathy and see the humanity and dignity of people” rather than treating them “as inherently threatening, dangerous, and disposable.”

01/21/2024

As controversies erupt on Ivy League campuses, the Washington Post asked Lewis & Clark President Robin Holmes-Sullivan why she wanted to lead our school. At first, the high-pressure job of leading a college might seem “too perilous, too impossible, and too unforgiving,” she conceded. But after serving in other leadership roles at the University of Oregon, the University of California system, and then at Lewis & Clark, Holmes-Sullivan found the work was “the nexus of chaos and pure joy.” When Lewis & Clark needed a new president, the Washington Post reports, she was ready.

01/12/2024

Does the Constitution give individual Americans a right to vote for the president? Or can state legislatures ignore the results of the popular election, and choose a different slate of electors? Although the topic might be hotly debated in this election year, Lewis & Clark Professor Charlie Martel writes that the matter was settled long ago, when the 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th Amendments guaranteed Americans’ rights to elect the president.

01/11/2024

Hundreds of migrants who recently arrived in Chicago have been staying in warming buses provided by the city and they haven’t taken a shower for days.
Many are hungry and sick with colds. Each night, they climb into eight warming buses to sleep at the Office of Emergency Management’s “landing zone” in the West Loop. But experts and advocates question whether these buses even qualify as humane shelters as defined by international standards. Lewis & Clark Professor Elliott Young, who specializes in transnational migration, refugees and asylum-seeking populations, calls on Chicago leaders to ensure what they provide qualifies as viable shelter spaces as defined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Though being in warming buses is better than being out on the street, it is incumbent on the city of Chicago to find more dignified living spaces,” Young said.

01/11/2024

This year, students and families are finding the process of choosing what college to attend especially stressful. The US Education Department intended to ease how families qualify for financial aid by simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), used in applying to colleges and universities across the nation. But delays and technical errors with that form mean students and families haven’t gotten reliable aid information in a timely fashion. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Lewis & Clark responded swiftly to the dilemma applicants and across the US are facing, by extending the deadline to reply to early-decision offers of admission, from January to February 15, to accommodate students waiting for their financial-aid results. “We understand how much the FAFSA timing means to students and families, and as a matter of equity, we always want to keep their needs front of mind,” notes Eric Staab, Lewis & Clark’s vice president for admissions and financial aid.

01/09/2024

The climate crisis and human activity threaten an increasing number of species, including those that live in water. World Aquatic Animal Day was created in 2020 by the Animal Law Clinic at the Lewis & Clark to bring attention to the importance of aquatic animals and the risks many of these species face. April 3 is now dedicated to celebrating and learning about aquatic animals that live in water for most of their lives: fish, amphibians, marine mammals, crustaceans, reptiles, mollusks, aquatic birds, aquatic insects, and animals like starfish and corals.

01/09/2024

When Portland City Council wanted to rethink the way the city chooses who gets to be memorialized in public spaces, Jess Perlitz, a Lewis & Clark professor specializing in sculpture and monuments, was brought in to help oversee the effort. “It was an interesting moment,” Perlitz said. “These sculptures were being asked to hold a lot, to represent a lot. I was interested in how we could use them as facilitators for a conversation that needed to be had.” But Perlitz and other Portlanders became concerned as politics disrupted the process.

01/05/2024

More than 123,000 soldiers and workers at Camp Lejeune were exposed to toxic water. But in the lengthy legal effort to receive compensation for resulting illness, they and their families face big challenges, according to Samir Parikh, a Lewis & Clark Law School professor.

“Their relatives will still hold a claim but bills and expenses pending today cannot be addressed with some vague promise of future recovery,” said Parikh, who has researched mass tort cases and reviewed the data around the Camp Lejeune.

01/04/2024

Carma Corcoran (Chippewa-Cree), director of the Indian Law Program at Lewis & Clark, is bringing public awareness and better understanding to the increased incarceration rates for Native women. Her book, The Incarceration of Native American Women: Creating Pathways to Wellness and Recovery through Gentle Action Theory, demonstrates how Native ways of knowing and being can provide new approaches to healing for incarcerated Native women.

01/04/2024

Readers have long realized even cat lovers can fall for Dog Gone: A Lost Pet’s Extraordinary Journey, the 2016 book by Lewis & Clark Creative Writing Professor Pauls Toutonghi. Made into a film starring Rob Lowe and Johnny Berchtold, Dog Gone has been named one of the The 15 Best Netflix Movies of 2023.

12/31/2023

According to Lisa Benjamin, associate professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, when it comes to mining metals that are crucial for a renewable energy revolution, it’s important to not sacrifice the health and safety of communities living near these deposits.

In order to prevent harming Native communities, Benjamin says the U.S. Bureau of Land Management should adopt stricter policies that prohibit mining at sacred sites on reservations, in nearby areas regarded as culturally important, and guarantee tribal leaders a seat at the table.

12/21/2023

Teachers, school counselors, and principals are bring trained to better meet the needs of neurodiverse students. But what about neurodiversity among teachers, counselors, and principals themselves? Mollie Galloway, chair of teaching, school counseling, and leadership studies in L&C’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling, offers this forward-looking analysis. “What I think we need, both in our own programs and in the field of educational leadership more broadly, are more formal learning opportunities for leadership candidates to support neurodivergent educators and what they bring to schools,”

12/16/2023

Isabel McTighe chose to attend Lewis & Clark College partly because = Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble (also known as PETE)’s co-founder Rebecca Lingafelter teaches here. Elsa Dougherty also attended Lewis & Clark, and then she and McTighe trained together at New York’s prestigious SITI company. Now the two theater artists have collaborated on their own original production, I’m In Control Which Means Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen To Me. As “a really electric night of theater,” their work is drawing high praise from reviewers.

12/14/2023

Residential, commercial, and industrial buildings produce 60 to 80% of all climate pollution. But when cities, states, and other jurisdictions have created policies to curb pollution, courts have sometimes sided with the industries the policies are intended to regulate. In this interview, Carra Sahler, Director of Lewis & Clark’s Green Energy Institute, helps government leaders and advocates understand what these rulings mean for policymaking in their communities.

12/14/2023

A local journalist became concerned when Oregon lowered the number of training hours required for new therapists. A Lewis & Clark expert was able to reassure her.

“We talked about this quite a bit at the Oregon Counseling Association,” says former OCA president Jeffrey Christensen, codirector of the professional mental health counseling program at Lewis & Clark College. “But these hour changes don’t really reduce the time frame for folks to get licensed—it’s still five to six years of training. Oregon had much higher client hour requirements compared to other states.”

12/13/2023

12/13/2023

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has identified illegal wildlife trafficking as one of the most prevalent forms of illegal trade globally. Experts from Lewis & Clark’s Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment helped train lawyers, prosecutors and magistrates from Southeast Liberia, a major wildlife crime hotspot, to disrupt the illicit trafficking.

12/12/2023

Hawai’i is exceptionally positioned for environmental legal action, given its long tradition of decolonization advocacy, specifically enshrined environmental rights, and a vibrant indigenous Pacific Island heritage. But this US state is also highly susceptible to the same aspects of the climate crisis that are threatening many island nations: shrinking coastlines, flooding, ocean acidification, and potable water insecurity, which disproportionately affect Native Hawaiians. “That equity context really makes Hawai’i part of the Global South in the Global North,” notes Lewis & Clark Professor Lisa Benjamin.

11/02/2023

“Stafford found love and marriage while in the CO camps of California. After the war, he furthered his efforts toward writing and settled into a career as a teacher at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where he taught for thirty years.”

08/28/2023

“‘We’re still looking at this crazy increasing extinction rate,’ said Nicholas Fromherz, an international wildlife law expert at the Lewis & Clark Law School’s Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment, a group of legal experts that focuses on protecting animals. ‘All these other protections just aren’t enough.’” 

08/26/2023

“’More and more workers are standing up and saying this isn’t working for us,’ said Keith Cunningham-Parmeter, a Lewis & Clark College law professor specializing in labor relations. He said higher costs of living are also creating tenser working relationships, calling inflation ‘an absolute paycheck killer.’ Higher inflation is leading to higher rents, he said, but wages are trailing even as people have to spend more money.”

08/18/2023

Lisa Benjamin, an environmental law professor at Lewis & Clark, is asked to weigh in on a groundbreaking verdict in a Montana climate crisis lawsuit.

08/18/2023

“Oregon is a beautiful state, with scenic hiking trails and beautiful beaches everywhere, so it’s unsurprising that its colleges are gorgeous as well. Perhaps the stand-out of Oregon’s 43 colleges and universities is Lewis & Clark College in Portland. While Lewis & Clark College may be situated right in one of the biggest cities in Oregon, the campus itself is surrounded by woods and the nearby Willamette River.”

08/14/2023

“‘The ruling really provides nothing beyond emotional support for the many cases seeking to establish a public trust right, human right or a federal constitutional right’ to a healthy environment, said James Huffman, dean emeritus at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland.”

08/14/2023

“Samir Parikh, a bankruptcy law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, said the Supreme Court has in the past reviewed fundamental bankruptcy practices and found them unconstitutional or inconsistent with the law. ‘This could be one of those instances,’ he said. ‘But losing non-consensual third-party releases would be detrimental to victim recoveries. Remember, the Purdue victims approved the plan with the releases because it enabled a meaningful recovery on a relatively short timeline. Without the releases, those victims are going to be thrown into a far more chaotic scenario.’”

08/11/2023

“The non-unanimous jury rule in Oregon, which is the subject of our film, is a good example of how decisions made nearly a century ago affect the lives of people right now…Our vision for the film was to explain the roots of this law and to bring forward the human emotions and costs that often get lost in debates about criminal justice systems. Aliza Kaplan, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, has been a leading advocate to end the non-unanimous jury verdict system. It was through Aliza that we met Tacuma Jackson and learned about how his life was derailed by this unconstitutional law. Both Aliza and Tacuma placed their full trust in the project, and we were able to follow them for the five months leading up to the Oregon Supreme Court’s ruling in late December 2022.”

08/09/2023

Climate change is causing more extreme weather events, which is increasing flooding – with devastating environmental and economic effects. Lewis & Clark Professor Daniel J. Rohlf argues that improving protections for floodplains will help recover endangered species, better protect people and communities, and save taxpayers money. 

07/02/2023