Dan Ackman

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Dan Ackman is a journalist and civil rights lawyer, who graduated from Wesleyan University and Columbia Law School. He has written on law, policy, business, and sports for such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, New York Daily News, Newsday, New York Post, The American Lawyer, The New York Observer, Slate, Inc., Pink Magazine, Salon and Forbes. He has also been a columnist for Forbes.com, BreakingViews and the Wall Street Journal's Law Page. At Forbes.com, writing about everything from the Enron scandal^[1] to the pornography industry^[2] he was named a finalist for the Online Journalism Award. [1]. He has appeared as a commentator on CNN, NPR, PBS, CNBC, CBS, the BBC, CSPAN, Fox News, ESPN Radio and Fox Business.

Some of his notable television appearances include:

• CNBC on Dennis Kozlowski's Appeal [2]
• NPR on the Frank Quattrone trial [3]
• CNN on Martha Stewart [4]
• The James Goodale Show on the Rather Report [5]
• Fox News/The O'Reilly Factor
• NPR on the Alfred Taubman price-fixing prosecution [6]
• CNN on the Dennis Kozlowski trial [7]

In addition to writing about law and business, Ackman has written extensively about off-beat sporting events such as ping pong [8], outrigger canoe racing, Ivy League wrestling [9], the Army Best Ranger competition [10], squash, the world cyber-games World Cyber Games, and white collar boxing Gleason's gym.

[edit] Civil Rights Law

As a lawyer, Ackman has successfully represented taxi drivers in claims against the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).^[3][4] These victories include:

• an order opening the TLC courts to the public^[5][6],^[7][8]
• a ruling in the case of Padberg v. McGrath-McKechnie that TLC courts systemically deprived taxi drivers of their constitutional rights to due process, by suspending their licenses based solely on allegations that they had refused to pick up passengers based on the passengers' race^[9]
• an order requiring Mayor Giuliani to testify in the Padberg v. McGrath-McKechnie case. Ackman recalled the deposition in an article he wrote for Slate in 2008. ^[10]
• a $7 million judgment for victims of the Mayor Giuliani's and the TLC's Operation Refusal policy^[11][12][13].

Ackman suffered a setback in when, on September 30, 2009, United States District Judge Sullivan granted the defendants summary judgment in Nnebe v. Daus (New York Law Journal, October 6, 2009). Judge Sullivan held that the TLC violates no constitutional provision when it suspends taxi drivers' licenses based solely upon their arrests for serious or violent crimes. Although there was no evidence that any of the drivers had ever harmed a passenger, Judge Sullivan concluded that the TLC's paramount interest in protecting passenger and public safety outweighed the drivers' interest in continued operation of a taxicab. Writing for Forbes, University of Chicago Law Professor Richard Epstein attacked that ruling, saying the court ignored the "obvious need for an expanded initial hearing that lets the driver give his version of the facts and, if need be, to post a bond to continue to earn his livelihood." ^[14] Professor Epstein noted as well that 90% of the cabbies who were arrested and suspended over the years were ultimately exonerated. In another case, Rothenberg v. Daus, contests TLC's practice of revoking taxicab drivers' licenses who are convicted of a crime, including non-violent misdemeanors and even traffic infractions, almost always occurring when the cab driver was off duty.

He is challenging the legitimacy of the city's administrative law tribunals in two lawsuits pending in the New York federal courts. ^[15][16]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ackman's web site