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Gerri Major, 18941984, was an African-American woman who lived in Harlem during a career that stretched from the 1920s through the 1970s. She was successful in a number of overlapping vocations including journalist, editor, newscaster, publicist, public health official, author, and community leader.

An article celebrating her 80th birthday said Gerri was definitely one of the new Negroes of the early 20th Century adding that by the end of the 1930s she had become one of the best known black women in America.

During World War I, she was a major in the American Red Cross. Thereafter she became a society columnist and editor for African American newspapers in her home city of New York as well as Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Baltimore.

In 1936 a newspaper reporter said her talent for writing vivid prose, her editing skill, and her ability to maintain a wide circle of influential friends brought her fame and gave her a unique position similar to that of an arbiter over the local social set.

At the time of her death, she held joint positions as associate editor of Jet and senior staff editor of Ebony magazine.

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During all of her adult life she was an active participant in civic organizations that worked to improve the health, education, and general well-being of New Yorks African American community, and for ten years from 1936 to 1946 was a publicity specialist for the Central Harlem Health District.

Early life and education

Major was born in Chicago on July 29, 1894. Her birth name was Geraldyn Hodges. When her mother died giving birth to her, her father arranged for her adoption by an aunt and uncle who lived nearby.

In a biographic sketch published in 1927, her first husband explained that her father was overcome by the sudden loss of his wife, never forgave the innocent cause of his bereavement.

Following elementary school, she attended Wendell Phillips High School and subsequently was awarded a work-study scholarship at the University of Chicago from which she graduated with a Bachelor in Philosophy degree in 1915.

While a university student, she was one of five founding members of an undergraduate chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

In the summer months after her graduation she studied at Hampton Institute and during the next school year she taught dramatic art and physical culture at Lincoln Institute, an African American college in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Not liking the situation there she returned to Chicago to enter a two-year program at Chicago Normal School so that she could qualify to teach elementary school in that city.

In the fall of 1917 Major served as a teacher-in-training, or cadet, in the Chicago public school system.

In December of that year, she interrupted her progress toward becoming a Chicago school teacher in order to marry H. Binga Dismond, whom she had met at the University of Chicago.

The ceremony took place at Camp Logan in Houston, Texas, where Dismond was training for service in the Army.

During American participation in World War I, while he served in France, she became a Red Cross nurse in Chicago, leaving that organization in 1918 with the rank of major.

In 1919 Major taught at the Stephen A. Douglas Elementary School, the same school she had attended as a child.

In his biographic sketch of 1927 her husband noted that it was a distinctive honor to be appointed school clerk since 95 percent of the teachers were non-Aframerican.

She left the teaching profession in 1923 when she and her husband moved to Manhattan. She later said she found herself with nothing to do in New York and was positively miserable until 1925 when she participated in a fund raising effort for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Early in March of that year she composed and distributed a public announcement for the annual NAACP Dance in Harlems Manhattan Casino.

The release, which appeared in the New York Age on March 7, led to the job offer that would prove to be the starting point for her career in journalism.

Later life

During the course of a long career, Major was a journalist, editor, newscaster, publicist, public health official, author, and community leader.

Journalist

The paragraph she distributed to publicize the NAACP dance caught the eye of Floyd J. Calvin, the New York editor for an influential African-American newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier, who subsequently named Major as the papers New York social editor.

The papers announcement of her appointment included a photograph showing her elegantly dressed and posed.

The announcement called Major a leader in Harlem society and a prime favorite in Gothams best circles.

Majors first piece for the paper, which appeared over the byline, Mrs. H. Binga Dismond, reported on plans for the Urban Leagues costume ball to be held in November 1925.

From 1925 to 1927 Major wrote a weekly column called New York Society in which she reported the doings of prominent members of the African American community.

In 1927 Major began a new column called Through the Lorgnette of Geraldyn Dismond which, instead of New York society news, contained essays and reviews on theater, books, and cultural topics.

Soon afterward she began writing a weekly column of New York social news called In New York Town for the Chicago Bee, and the following year (1928) she started yet another society column, this one called New York Social Whirl appearing in the Baltimore Afro-American.

She continued to write for the Chicago Bee and the Afro-Americans through the end of the 1930s.

In 1933 she worked as a writer and editor for the short-lived Harlem Daily Citizen, and between 1927 and 1931, in addition to her other news work, she was a writer and editor for the Inter-State Tattler for which she wrote columns called Social Snapshots of Geraldyn Dismond and Between Puffs by Lady Nicotine.

She subsequently served a four-year stint as a columnist for the New York Age following which, from 1939 to 1952 she was a columnist and editor for the New York Amsterdam News.

In 1953 she began a long career as writer and editor for two sister magazines: the monthly, Ebony, and the weekly, Jet.

Editor

Majors first editorial job was New York social editor of the Pittsburgh Courier.

While still contributing extensive new content, she performed more extensive editorial work from 1928 to 1932 for the Inter-State Tattler.

In 1930 a reporter said the Tattlers name was synonymous with Geraldyn Dismond.

In 1933 and 1934 Major edited the Daily Citizen during its brief life.

Subsequently, she was both social reporter and society editor of the New York Age, and during the 1940s was womens page editor for the New York Amsterdam News in Harlem.

In 1953 she began a twenty-five-year career at Ebony as writer and society editor. She later became associate editor, and, in 1967, senior staff editor, the position she held at her death in 1984.

In 1953 she also joined Jet as writer and society editor, later becoming associate editor, a position she retained until her death.

She worked in the New York offices that were jointly maintained by both magazines. The year that she began with Ebony and Jet she was sent to England to cover the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Radio announcer and promoter

Between 1928 and 1930 Major wrote and presented a review of current events during a New York radio program that aired each week on Sunday afternoon. This made her, as one source put it, the first Negro woman commercial radio announcer.

The program was the Negro Achievement Hour, a variety show featuring talks and music that was carried on two local stations, WABC and WEVD.

In addition to newscasting, Major was a program director for the show.

The program ceased after its 85th week in August 1929. In 1930 Major helped to establish a broadcasting studio in Harlem, became the organizations secretary, and announced many of its programs on air.

Publicist

In 1928 Major became one of the first, if not the very first, African American women to take on the role of publicist.

Located in Harlem on 135th Street the Geraldyn Dismond Bureau of Specialized Publicity developed an extensive mailing list and established its credentials by landing a contract to publicize an all-African-American stage production called Africana starring Ethel Waters.

Health educator

In 1933 Major became executive director of a health center on Lenox Avenue in Harlem that was operated by the United Health Association.

The following year she was chosen by the Newspaper Guild to work on a welfare publicity project in the Central Harlem Health District.

In 1936 she passed civil service examinations and oral interviews to become a publicity assistant in the New York Bureau of Health Education and Information, a job she continued to perform until 1946.

A news report on Majors appointment said her performance on written and oral civil service examinations and her prior experience resulted in her selection and noted that she was the first African American to be hired into the position. It said, Her extraordinarily clever style of writing plus the advantage of a wide circle of friends in the elite circles wherever she went, placed her at the top of the society writers in short order. As Society Editor of the Interstate Tattler, prior to its discontinuing several years ago, she held a unique position similar to that of an arbiter over the local social set and it was during that time that her fame, both as a writer and hostess, is said to have reached its peak.

Author

In 1929 Major wrote an article for Close Up containing analysis and criticism of motion pictures. Calling itself an international magazine devoted to film art, the journal was an avant garde publication that investigated the cultural aspects of cinema beyond the mediums obvious role in entertaining its audiences. Her article was The Negro Actor and the American Movies.

In 1976 Major co-authored a book, Black Society, giving the histories of prominent African American families from colonial times to the twentieth century.

Community leader

In October 1925, the biographic sketch that accompanied Majors appointed New York social editor for the Pittsburgh Courier referred to her not just as a leader in Harlem society but also as a willing worker for charity and social uplift agencies, [who] has contributed much to the betterment of the community by her many and varied community interests.

A month later, as a mark of her social standing, she was runner up in nationwide balloting for Queen of the Classic on the occasion of the annual football game between Lincoln and Howard Universities.

A year later, Major figured prominently within a group of representative New York society leaders in text accompanying a news photo headed New York Social Leaders Plan Brilliant Season. The photos caption listed some of her many positions in civic organizations.

In 1930 she was included among the Four Hundred in an article that drew a sharp contrast between the Harlem of the cabarets frequented by thrill-seeking white New Yorkers and the ebony society to which Major belonged, where fashionable men and women in tail coats and formal evening gowns attended exclusive functions for the brown upper crust to which a few white guests might be invited.

In 1939 she served as chair of the program committee for participation of African Americans in the American Common section of the 1939 New York Worlds Fair.

In 1951 Major was guest of honor and woman of the year at a charity ball held by a New York womens club.

In 1952 she was cited for humane deeds performed in behalf of her community by a New York impresario, Freddie Fulton.

Her obituary in Ebony listed some of the civic organizations to which Major belonged and mentioned thirty honors and citations that she had received.

Major traveled overseas during the 1940s and 1950s, including trips to Egypt, Brazil, and Argentina. Her wedding to John Majors, her third and final marriage, took place in Buenos Aires.

Political affiliations

In 1928 and 1930 she was reported to be a member of the Communist Party.

Asked about political affiliations in 1928 she said she would not join the National Colored Womens Democratic League and had no ties to the Democratic Party.

She said she had adopted the principles of Communism because she believed that both the Republican and Democratic Parties uphold the practices of Jim-Crowism, disenfranchisement, and race discrimination by which Negroes are degraded and oppressed.

By 1984, however, she had become an active member of the Democratic Party.

Parents and immediate family

Major was born on July 29, 1894 in her parents home on Wentworth Avenue at the western border of the Douglas section of Chicagos Bronzeville neighborhood.

Her father was Herbert Hodges and her mother was Mae Powell Hodges. Major reported that her mothers grandfather had migrated from North Carolina to Indiana seeking freedom.

Soon after her mother died while giving birth to her, she was adopted by her mothers sister, Maud Lawrence, and her husband David.

The Lawrence family had sufficient wealth to give Major an extravagant debutante ball. While yet unmarried, Major kept Hodges as her family name.

On December 15, 1917, Major married H. Binga Dismond in a military ceremony at Camp Logan in Houston.

They were divorced in 1933 but remained cordial.

In 1942 she married musician Gilbert Holland, a baritone whose voice was heard frequently on radio programs of the 1930s.

Her last marriage was to a prominent mortician from Atlantic City, New Jersey, John Richard Major. The ceremony took place in Buenos Aires during a trip they took to South America, probably in 1946.

This was her third marriage and his fourth. She was widowed by 1953 and did not remarry during the remaining three decades of her life.

Other names

Majors first name, Geraldyn, was sometimes (wrongly) given as Geraldyne or Geraldine.

Her nickname, Gerri, was sometimes given as Jerry or Gerry.

While married to H. Binga Dismond she was known as Geraldyn Dismond, Mrs. H. Binga Dismond, or (rarely) Geraldyn Hodges Dismond.

During her brief marriage to Gilbert Holland she was known as Geraldyn Holland, Geraldyn Hodges Holland, or Geraldyn Dismond Holland.

After marrying John Richard Major she was called Geraldyn Major, Geraldyn Hodges Major, and Geraldyn Dismond Major.

During the last three decades of her life her name was usually rendered as Gerri Major.

During her marriage to H. Binga Dismond she sometimes called herself and was sometimes called La Dismond.In writing the Social Whirl column for the Afro-American she called herself simply Gerry.

"Dr. Harry Delany is a renowned Harlem born and raised surgeon, the son of the great jurist and civil rights leader, Hubert Delany...." This monthly post is made in partnership with Harlem Cultural Archives.

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From The Harlem Renaissance To Amsterdam News To Communism, The Legendary Gerri Major, 18941984 - Harlem World Magazine

In a remarkably unhinged analysis, NPR host Terry Gross and New York Times Magazine writer Robert Draper claimed that Russia is a communist country as they went on about how detached from reality rightwing Republicans are.

Heres the crux of the exchange (many thanks to Bryce Greene), which almost comes off like a comedy sketch:

GROSS: So, like, a really ironic [chuckle] thing about this fight against communism that the far right is doing now is that a communist country Russia! has been retweeting social media from the far right. So theyre, in their own way, almost aligned with Putin. So its dont you think its strange that theyre the ones who are, you know, decrying communist infiltration of our country?

DRAPER: Yes. Yeah. No, its certainly paradoxical. Its also paradoxical that this, you know, very rock-ribbed conservative Republican Party in the state of Arizona is so prone to Russia disinformation. And I had that said to me over and over by a number of long-time Republican operatives who said, you know, I think that Arizona is in the top seven, eight or nine when it comes to the number of the percentage of its population that is senior thats senior citizen. They have a lot of retirees that live in Arizona. So people have a lot of time on their hands, and so a lot of them sit on the internet. Theyre on Facebook, and theyre reading a lot of things. And amongst conservatives who have come to reject the so-called mainstream media, theyre very, very prone to information that confirms their biases. And they dont exactly fact-check this information.

So much of it has, in fact, come from or at least been amplified by Russia-based social media, according to these Republicans that Ive spoken to. And, you know, its also very enemy of my enemy. I mean, I think that Trump has been accused had so many associations with Russia, he and his campaign operation, and thus was accused of somehow, you know, being intertwined in a very unseemly way with Russia. That the left has, in the eyes of conservatives, has launched that argument means that maybe theres something not so bad about Russia. It means that Russia is being smeared the way that Trump is being smeared. So its all quite convoluted. And to have the word communist used as the ultimate putdown, when essentially the one great promoter of that ideology, Vladimir Putin, is very much shaping their minds or at least, you know, putting out disinformation that can shape their minds yeah, its all a very, very paradoxical situation, to be sure.

After I and others tweeted about this, NPR posted this correction:

POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: In the audio version of this story, Terry Gross incorrectly states that Russia is a communist country, when she meant to say that Putin was the head of the KGB during the communist era.

Which almost makes it worse. If you substitute what NPR now claims Gross meant to say, it really doesnt make any sense. Gross and Draper were riffing off each other in what can most charitably be described as a ridiculous example of groupthink.

It displays the all-too-frequent smugness of liberals, going on about other peoples failing to fact check, in this case talking about seniors with a lot of time on their hands while getting the most elementary facts wrong. Its remarkable projection.

The correction ignores that Draper similarly remarked that Putin is the one great promoter of that [communist] ideology.

The correction is also wrong because Putin wasnt head of the KGB during the communist era he quit the KGB in 1991 as a lieutenant colonel. He would be appointed head of the successor group, the Federal Security Service, in 1998, years after the fall of communism in Russia, by U.S. tool Boris Yeltsin.

(One of Drapers most recent books is To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq, which came out last year. If Google books search is to be believed, the book is something of a coverup. It has nothing on Bidens presiding over the rigged hearings that helped ensure the invasion, which Biden has continuously lied about.)

Heres a link to the NPR page which has a full text and audio of the interview.

This first appeared on Sam Husseinis Substack page.

Go here to see the original:
NPR Host and NYT Guest Stress that Russia is Communist While Vilifying Uninformed Republicans - CounterPunch

Weather events have been hitting with unusual force even in unlikely places, rivers that had abundantly flowed through centuries are now drying up to their bottoms, heat waves have recently surpassed records mostly in the West, the number of earthquakes worldwide are in record numbers, etc.

Biblical signs of the times.

Among men, the Covid 19 pandemic was of such magnitude that now seems to have set the stage for prophetic scenarios, including what was prophesied by the Blessed Mother way back in Fatima in 1917 and also in her more recent apparitions in Garabandal, Spain and Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The prophecy: oppressive communism worldwide. Hints on this could be gleaned from the recent behaviors of Russia and China which are both communists.

And yes, in the US which has remained the most powerful democratic country, communism is creeping ominously. This is what we can pick up from the case of former US president Donald Trump whose Mar-a-Lago residence was raided recently by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as reported by the independent and daring The Epoch Times.

Retired US Major General Paul Vallely has reacted to the recent FBI raid on Trumps residence, claiming that there is a socialist-communist coalition involved with the act.

He believes that there is a socialist coalition that aspires to overthrow the U.S. constitutional republic and transform it into a totalitarian communist state.

The American Republic founded in 1776 is under attack by a Socialist-Communist Coalition and an out-of-control Federal Government, Vallely said in a statement.

Trump said the FBI could have planted evidence during the raid at his residence since members of his team were blocked from watching the agents actions.

History is repeating itself as we see the tactics of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) used by a few dystopian tyrants who have methodically and comprehensively infiltrated and assumed leadership of the Democratic Party, Vallely said.

In yet another prophecy conveyed by Heaven to one of modern mystics, there was mention of the assassination of a world leader that would give rise to civil unrest. This cropped up in my mind after one American political scientist expressed fears that there are forces who want to eliminate Trump who, by the way, has been known as unfriendly to important persons advocating the so-called Great Reset and a new world order which, some mystics insist, would pave the way for worldwide communism and the entry of the Antichrist.

Having cited the Antichrist, let me share some prophecies regarding this diabolical being through the centuries.

St. Hippolytus (d 236): The patriarch Jacob, expresses himself regarding Antichrist...as he prophesied respecting Judah, he also did with respect to his son Dan... Let Dan be a serpent, sitting by the way, that bites the horses heel. And what other serpent is there, but the deceiver who was in the beginning... Jeremiah, as well, speaks in this manner: From Dan we will hear the sound of the sharpness of his horses, at the sound of the neighing of his horses, the whole land trembled (Jeremiah 8:16). Furthermore, Moses says: Dan is a lions whelp, and he will leap from Bashan(Deut.33:22)....He is naming the tribe of Dan as the one where the accuser is destined to come forth.

St. Methodius (d 311): When the Son of Perdition appears, he will be of the tribe of Dan, according to the prophecy of Jacob... he will be an ordinary man of the tribe of Dan to which Judas Iscariot also belonged.4 He will be born in Chorazin, nourished in Bethsaida, and reign in Capernaum. Chorazin will rejoice because he was born in her, and Capernaum because he will have reigned in her. For this reason in the third Gospel, the Lord gave the following statement: Woe to you, Chorazin, Woe to you, Bethsaida, woe to you, Capernaumif you have risen up to heaven, you will descend to hell.

St. Jerome (340-420), Doctor of the Church: Antichrist will be born near Babylon. He will win the support of many with gifts and money. He will sell himself to the devil, and thereafter will have no guardian angel or conscience.

Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604): Before the birth of her child, the mother of the Antichrist will announce the advent of Messiah, who (she claims) will restore great prosperity to mankind.

St. Bridget: As Christ was born from the highest type of womanhood [Virgin] so Antichrist will be born from the lowest [prostitute]. He will be a child-wonder at birth. His mother will be an accursed woman, who will pretend to be well informed in spiritual things, and his father will be an accursed man, from the seed of whom the devil shall form his work.

Fr. Bartholomew Holzhauser: Antichrist will come as the Messiah, from a land between two seas in the East...He will be born in the desert; his mother being a prostitute to the Jews and Hindus; he will be a lying and false prophet... He will begin work in the east as a soldier and a preacher of religion when 30 years old.

Melanie Calvat according to Our Lady of La Salette: It will be at this time that the Antichrist will be born to a Hebrew nun, a false virgin who will communicate with the old serpent, the master of impurity; his father will be a bishop. At birth, he will vomit blasphemy, he will have teeth, in a word, this will be the devil incarnate. He will scream horribly, he will perform wonders; he will feed on nothing but impurity. He will have brothers who, although not devils incarnate (possessed) like him, will be children of evil. At the age of twelve, they will draw attention to themselves by valiant victories they will have won; soon they will each lead armies, aided by the legions from hell.

St. Jerome: Nor do we think him to be the devil or a demon as some others do, but one of mankind, in whom Satan shall dwell totally.... his mouth uttering boasts, for he is the man of sin, the son of perdition, such that he will seat himself in the Temple, as if he were God.

St. Jerome: Satan shall exercise his influence over all the powers of Antichrist, both over those of his body and his soul, namely over his will, his intellect, and his memory.12 St. John Chrysostom: Antichrist will be possessed by Satan and will be the illegitimate son of a Jewish woman from the east.

St. Hilary (315- 386): Antichrist will teach that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, but is the wickedest of all criminals.

He Will Deceive the Jewish People Antichrist will be the most cunning and deceptive creature: Daniel 9:27: For one week he shall make a firm compact with many, half the week, he shall abolish sacrifice and oblation...

St. Irenaeus (d 202): The Antichrist will deceive the Jews to such an extent that they will accept him as the Messiah and worship him.

Go here to read the rest:
Cervantes: In the US, hint on the rise of communism as prophesied in Marian apparitions| SUNSTAR - SunStar Philippines

Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuez has come under fire for her comments that many interpreted as support of busing Cuban migrants to Delaware.

Nuez, herself the daughter of Cubans who settled in Miami, made the controversial remarks last week in an interview with Actualidad 1040 AM, a Spanish-language radio station popular with many Cubans living in South Florida. "The governor isn't going to stand there with his arms crossed. He's thinking what he's going to do. He's going to send them, frankly to the state of Delaware, the president's state," Nuez said on the Cada Tarde show.

The comments come as Florida has dealt with a record-breaking influx of Cuban migrants in the last year. Data from Customs and Border Protection and other federal law enforcement agencies have confirmed that almost 180,000 Cuban migrants have arrived in the United States since 2021, more than arrived in the Mariel boatlift and the 1994 Balsero crisis combined. These migrants are fleeing Cuba as the communist island struggles with blackouts, shortages, and other economic setbacks worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This migration has coincided with another large influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border that has strained the federal government's resources. However, rather than lobbying for reforms to U.S. immigration laws and the immigration system as a whole, anti-immigration politicians have responded to the crisis by busing migrants to New York City and Washington, D.C. These efforts, while flashy, have been costly. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's efforts have cost taxpayers $1,400 per migrant while doing little to deter arrivals. Back in April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged he would also bus migrants outside of his state to Delaware.

Democrats in the state wasted no time in criticizing DeSantis and Nuez. "This should shake every freedom-loving Floridian who may not look like, speak like, or vote like Governor DeSantis," Rep. Charlie Crist (DFla.)the Democratic nominee running against DeSantis for governor this yearsaid in a statement to Florida Politics. "If he is willing to play with the safety and well-being of refugees from a communist dictatorship just to play political games to win the White House in 2024, he has disqualified himself from public office."

Others have noted the hypocrisy of the comments, given DeSantis' messaging emphasis on combating socialism and communism. "You can't say you stand against communism in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua and then turn your back on those fleeing authoritarian regimes," Florida Democratic state Sen. Annette Tadeo, who is running for Congress in South Florida, said at a press conference at Miami's iconic Freedom Tower on Monday.

Nuez, for her part, has backtracked since her comments went viral on social media, arguing that Democrats and the media jumped to conclusions and misinterpreted her. "Entering the country illegally and fleeing a dictatorship to seek asylum are two different things, and misrepresenting that is offensive," she tweeted on Monday. DeSantis and his most prominent allies have also come to her defense.

The controversy comes at a peculiar time politically. Nuez and DeSantis will need the support of Cuban American voters in South Florida to win reelection in a competitive state. Though some experts on the Cuban diaspora have noticed changes within the Cuban exile community on government support for new arrivals, Cuban Americans have historically backed flexible immigration policies for their fellow Cuban migrants.

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Florida Lieutenant Governor Calls for Busing Cuban Migrants to Delaware, Then Tries To Walk it Back - Reason

This is my second venture this year into review of law reviews. For the first on another of my favorite subjects, artificial intelligence, see the May 2022 blogs, Robophobia: Great New Law Review Article Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 and Professor Woods article, Robophobia. Woods, Andrew K., Robophobia, 93 U. Colo. L. Rev. 51 (Winter, 2022). These highly intelligent, engaging law professor attorneys, Woods and Stuart, give me renewed hope for the profession in general and, especially, for the key areas of technology law.

About Professor Allyson Hynes Stuart

Professor Stuart has written many other articles of interest to readers, including:

Allyson Stuart has also served as Of Counsel for the Crystal law firm, since 2015. The firm has an intriguing slogan: Lawyers for Lawyers and International Matters. The firm says that it is primarily a transactional law firm that offers some litigation services.

To conclude the personal introduction, Allyson, like me, has her own YouTube Channel, focusing on legal instruction. Professor Stuarts videos, made in 2013, are on what she calls flipping the classroom. They address most first semester Contracts issues as well as some difficult aspects of Evidence.

Introduction to Professor Stuarts Article

Privacy in discovery has been largely ignored in rules of civil procedure and left to the courts and lawyers to come up with their own solutions. The result is a hodge-podge of case law and local rules. This area of the law is, as Professor Stuart aptly describes, buried in surprising obscurity. Her article is a much needed unearthing and organization of the law. As Professor Stuart explains in her introduction after discussion of federal civil procedure rule changes:

Amid all these changes, little attention has been paid to privacy as opposed to time and expense.10 The Rules do not provide for explicit protection against discovery based on privacy,11 with the exception of redaction of personal information under Rule 5.2.12 There has long been the idea that privacy protection exists against government searches and seizures, but that there is no such concept in civil discovery.13 However, close analysis of cases reaching back to the adoption of the Rules shows that federal courts have in fact used privacy rationales to protect against discovery in many areas. District courts in particular have developed an interpretation of the Rules that protects litigants and non-litigants from discovery; courts have developed certain categories of protected information based on a balancing of the right to privacy against the need for the information in the context of the litigation.14 This law derives from Supreme Court precedent, from public policy represented in federal and state statutes, and from discretionary judicial application of the Rules. This Article unearths this body of law from its surprising obscurity. With a firm grounding in the foundations and justifications for federal protection of privacy in discovery, and in light of recent Supreme Court doctrine, the Article describes how privacy arguments can address increasingly intrusive discovery demands.

Overview of Professor Stuarts article, A Right to Privacy for Modern Discovery

After an Introduction, A Right to Privacy for Modern Discovery begins with a historical overview of privacy in civil discovery, including the landmark case of Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495 (1947). Professor Stuart observes that discovery protections can be divided into two broad categories. One is protection for information or communications deemed confidential, including attorney-client, trade-secret, business records, tax returns. The other is protection for personal privacy reasons, which professor Stuart explains:

is based on Supreme Court interpretation of the constitutional right to privacy in intimate or otherwise highly personal matters, including marriage, contraception, sexual activity, medical information, family relations, and other personal information. In addition, the Constitution protects against compelled disclosure of information that would violate a persons First Amendment rights, such as freedom of association.

As to the Constitution based privacy protection provided to discovery in civil proceedings (criminal proceedings are not discussed directly in this article), Professor Stuart notes three broad areas:

Next the article considers the public policy of privacy in discovery and identifies three basic grounds:

As to the balancing used to provide privacy to litigants, four factors are considered:

The next section is Privacy in Modern Discovery, discussed in detail below, followed by the Conclusion. The Privacy in Modern Discovery section, which is the real meat of the article, is divided into three main parts:

Discovery Today

Professor Stuarts Privacy in Modern Discovery section begins, as noted, with the Discovery Today overview (II.A.). Most readers here will already be familiar with these topics and discussion, so I will not go into them in depth. One important insight she provides pertains to the omission of privacy as an express factor for proportionality consideration under the Rule 26(b), FRCP.

While the Rules revisions generally addressed the tremendous rise in ESI volume and costs with emphasis on judicial intervention, cooperation, and reduction in scope, they did not give specific attention to issues of privacy.219 However, as discoverys intrusiveness has pervaded not just vast storage databases and email but chronicles of individuals personal lives, privacy has received more attention. Commentators have advocated for privacy to be a factor in the proportionality equation,220 and courts have followed suit.221 Privacy has also featured prominently in recent Fourth Amendment case law, which has in turn influenced discovery decisions.

In a recent email exchange with Allyson Stuart on the interesting point of Rule 26(B), I pressed her on whether she thinks the Rule should be changed again. Here is her response, which, I should add, she gave me permission to include in this blog post:

I have mixed feelings about yet another revision to the Frankenstein that is Rule 26. As it is, many practitioners fail to pay attention to the revisions, treating the scope as still including anything that would lead to the discovery of relevant evidence and failing to recognize that proportionality is nothing new. I think instead the culture needs to be curbed, and attorneys should not try to obtain a vast amount of e-discovery simply because it is accessible. The casual nature of email, text and some social media content make them catnip for attorneys, but I really believe there is a chilling effect on litigation because of it. In particular, if the only relevance for certain discovery is impeachment value, it should be weighed less strongly against competing privacy interests. All that said, I would love it if the word privacy were included in the proportionality factors.

Authors Correspondence 8//9/22 with Professor Stuart

I love how she describes Rule 26 as a Frankenstein. The question remains should privacy be added as another body part to the proportionality considerations. In a video conference with Professor Stuart on August 23, 2022, she expanded on this point. Here is the relevant excerpt, which, I should again add, Allyson Stuart gave me permission to record and publish.

See video here.

Video Credit: Ralph Losey

Aside from Rule 26(b) and including privacy factors as part of a proportionality analysis, another hot issue today practitioners is cell-phone discovery. It is found at II.A.2.a. Professor Stuarts article and case citations and discussion on this point are a helpful starting point for your research. Be sure to look at the article itself for the all-important footnotes.

As the Supreme Court has recognized, cell phones are ubiquitous.222 Courts find a strong privacy interest in the content of those devices, particular when a party seeks a forensic examination of the phone.223 Like inspection of litigants hard drives and other computer systems,224 inspection of cell phones implicates privacy rights, privileged communications, and non-relevant information.225 Courts are therefore reluctant to order litigants to submit their cell phones to their opponent for purposes of forensic examination absent necessity for purposes of finding highly relevant evidence, or proof of spoliation.226 Courts also find a strong privacy interest in cell phone records.227 Courts have been strongly persuaded by recent Supreme Court Fourth Amendment doctrine in finding privacy rights in this data.228

Professor Stuarts discussion of case law is also very interesting in the Fitbit and Internet of Things sub-sections of Discovery Today (II.A.2.c.&d.). She points out that:

All of these subjects of modern discovery push the boundaries of privacy. Technology enables the gathering and storage of vast amounts of information that create digital chronicles of individuals personal lives. This phenomenon has been the focus of recent Supreme Court decisions in the Fourth Amendment context.

The next section of the article, II.B., is entitled Supreme Court Case Law on Privacy and Technology. This is very interesting, especially considering the Supreme Court bombshell case on abortion that came down after her article. Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, 597 U.S. _ (2022). I will go into all of this, along with criminal law considerations, and another video interview, in Part Two of this blog. Professor Stuart has some very insightful analysis of the Dobbs opinion and privacy, so stay tuned.

See the article here:
The Right to Privacy in Modern Discovery: a review of another great law review article Part 1 - JD Supra