Feb 22
I participated in a conversation about the longterm sustainability of federal entitlement programs with Curtis Dubay at Mizzou Law today. The conversation was sponsored by the Mizzou Law’s chapter of the Federalist Society and moderated by 3L Hannah Mudd.
Judge Jeff Harris visited with my Law and Public Policy class at Mizzou Law today. Judge Harris, presently circuit judge of Missouri’s 13th Judicial Circuit, talked to the class about his experience in all three branches of Missouri government. His visit was hosted by a student team consisting of EC Duckworth, Ariel Kiefer, Cailynn Hayter, and Ellen Henrion.
I’ve updated the course description for LAW5724, Law and Public Policy, which will be offered in the MU School of Law in Spring 2017:
This course provides students with a framework for making decisions about the policies that governments should adopt to respond to important public problems. It takes an interdisciplinary perspective and argues that decision-makers manage four kinds of risk: litigation risk, political risk, policy risk and implementation risk. Students are introduced to techniques for identifying and minimizing such risks, and apply these techniques to real-world policy problems. Guest speakers also provide a perspective on the challenges of policy choice.
Two commentaries written by students in my Law and Public Policy class have proved to be newsworthy. As this story explains, Governor Deval Patrick has just signed legislation that was discussed by Erica Mattison, JD ’13 in a commentary published in Rappaport Briefing last year. And as this story explains, Governor Patrick has also approved regulations that would ban the shackling of inmates in labor, a practice discussed by Hilary Detmold JD ’12 in a 2012 commentary for Rappaport Briefing. The commentaries can be read here.
Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo talked about his work to my Law and Public Policy class this morning. It was a great conversation.
Today’s Law and Public Policy class featured two speakers on the Mass state government’s policy agenda for the coming year: Rosemary Powers, Senior Director of Government Affairs in the office of Governor Deval Patrick, and Michael Morris, Principal at Beacon Strategies Group. The conversation was hosted by Greg Massing, Executive Director of the Rappaport Center. Photo, left to right: Powers, Morris, Massing.
David Paleologos, a polling specialist and Director of Suffolk University’s Political Research Center, talked to Law and Public Policy today. Here’s a story about one of his recent polls on the New Hampshire primary.
Sam Tyler, President of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, spoke about its role in contributing to policy discussions in yesterday’s Law and Public Policy class.
Ben Forman, Research Director for MassInc, talked to my Law and Public Policy class today about the Gateway Cities program.
Jeff Mullan, former Secretary of the MA Department of Transportation, talked about the challenges of merging state agencies in today’s Law and Public Policy class.
Alasdair S. Roberts 
