The Faculty Lounge

Taboo Trades Podcast: Valuing Reproductive Loss with Jill Wieber Lens

My guest today is Jill Lens, who serves as the Dorothy M. Willie Professor in Excellence at the University of Iowa school of law. Professor Lens is a leading legal expert in reproductive justice and rights, with a particular focus on the legal treatment of stillbirth and pregnancy more generally. Her research is inspired by her son Caleb’s stillbirth in 2017, when she was 37 weeks pregnant. 

 

She joins us today to discuss her recent paper, “Valuing Reproductive Loss," published in 2023 by the Georgetown Law Journal and coauthored with Dov Fox. That paper explores the tension between abortion rights and compensating the victims of reproductive loss and argues for a post-Dobbs reasessment of the law. I’m joined by UVA Law 3L, Alyssa Lawrence, who co-hosts this episode.

 

 

Further Reading:

 

Lens bio: https://law.uiowa.edu/people/jill-wieber-lens

"Original Public Meaning and Pregnancy's Ambiguities," with Evan D. Bernick, 122 Michigan Law Review 1443 (2024), Journal | HeinOnline | UI Off-Campus Access (HeinOnline) | Lexis | Westlaw

 "Valuing Reproductive Loss," with Dov Fox, 112 Georgetown Law Journal 61 (2023), Journal | HeinOnline | UI Off-Campus Access (HeinOnline) | Lexis | Westlaw

"Abortion, Pregnancy Loss, & Subjective Fetal Personhood," with Greer Donley, 75 Vanderbilt Law Review 1649 (2022), Journal | HeinOnline | UI Off-Campus Access (HeinOnline) | Lexis | Westlaw

"Counting Stillbirths," 56 UC Davis Law Review 525 (2022), Journal

 

Krawiec bio: https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/kdk4q/1181653

Do Right Woman, Do Right Man

"Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" was written for Aretha Franklin by Chips Morman and Dan Penn, and produced at the Atlantic Records studio in New York by Jerry Wexler. An earlier attempted recording at FAME Studio in Muscle Shoals was abandoned after an altercation between Franklin's manager (and husband) and the FAME producer. The release, with Franklin playing piano and her sisters singing backup, was listed as one of Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs of all time. (This post has more audio clips than usual, because I couldn't resist.)

AALS Section on Election Law Award Winners

From Joshua Sellers, the Chair of the AALS Section on Election Law:

The AALS Section on Election Law is pleased to announce the winners of its annual awards.

The John Hart Ely Prize in the Law of Democracy

This award is presented annually by the executive committee of the AALS Section on Election Law to a senior scholar in the field for his or her “extraordinary lifetime contributions to the study of election law and the law of democracy in the United States.” This year’s recipient is Daniel Lowenstein (UCLA).

Distinguished Scholarship Award in Election Law

This award is presented annually in recognition of “a single work that exemplifies excellence in the field and that is published in a given year.” Winners are chosen by a scholarship selection committee which, in some years, additionally awards an honorable mention. Because no award was given last year, this year the Section decided to recognize winners for the past two years.

The winner for 2025 is Travis Crum (Wash U – St. Louis) for his article, The Unabridged Fifteenth Amendment, 133 Yale Law Journal 1039 (2024).

The winner for 2024 is Jacob Eisler (Florida State) for his book “The Law of Freedom: The Supreme Court and Democracy” (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The selection committee also decided to award an honorable mention to Nicholas Stephanopoulos (Harvard) for his book “Aligning Election Law” (Oxford University Press, 2024).

The winners will be recognized at the 2025 AALS Annual Meeting.

Jon Marcantel Named Interim Dean of Charleston Law

Professor Jon Marcantel has been named interim dean of Charleston Law effective November 1.  Marcantel joined the law school in 2011 and holds a JD from the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Online Book Launch 10/28 1pm Eastern - Hot Flash: How the Law Ignores Menopause and What We Can Do About It

On Monday, October 28, 2024, 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific, there will be a free, online book launch for Hot Flash: How the Law Ignores Menopause and What We Can Do About It, a new book by Emily Gold Waldman (Pace), Naomi Cahn (UVa), and me, to be published by Stanford University Press this week. We'll be joined by colleagues and commentators:

• Professor Mary Anne Franks (GW)
• Professor Craig Konnoth (UVa)
• Professor Danielle Citron (UVa)
• Dr. Ashanda St. Jean (NY Medical College)
• Dr. Margaret Wiley (UVa)
• Professor and Dean Horace Anderson (Pace)

The event is open to the public; pre-registration is required, here. The events is sponsored by the University of Virginia School of Law LawTech Center and co-sponsored by the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and the UVA Family Law Center.

SUP is offering a 20% discount with the code HOTFLASH20 for anyone purchasing on the SUP website.