Law Commons^™

Seeking Liberty’S Refuge: Analyzing Legislative Purpose Under Casey’S Undue Burden Standard, Lucy E. Hill

Fordham Law Review

In the 1992 decision Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the U.S. Supreme Court crafted the “undue burden” standard for evaluating the constitutionality of abortion laws. Under that standard, a state is free to regulate abortion, as long as the regulation does not impose an undue burden on a woman’s right to an abortion. Although the standard is disjunctive, the Casey opinion focuses on the “effect” prong of the test, with little guidance as to what a “purpose” prong inquiry would look like. Subsequent Supreme Court abortion jurisprudence has served only to obscure the issue. Circuit courts, therefore, …

Must Substantive Due Process Land Use Claims Be So “Exhaust”Ing?, Nader James Khorassani

Fordham Law Review

When is a land use dispute a federal case? Although some perceive challenges to zoning and land use laws as local issues ripe for local resolution, some fights over land use pose constitutional questions suitable for federal adjudication. Indeed, many zoning disputes implicate substantive due process, a federally protected constitutional guarantee. A circuit split has developed regarding when plaintiffs may assert substantive due process claims in federal court. While the First and Seventh Circuits only hear such cases when the plaintiff has first brought her substantive due process claim in state court, the Second, Third, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits impose …

Track Me Maybe: The Fourth Amendment And The Use Of Cell Phone Tracking To Facilitate Arrest, Jeremy H. Rothstein

Fordham Law Review

Police use of technology to locate and track criminal suspects has drawn increasing attention from courts, commentators, and the public. In United States v. Jones, the Supreme Court held that police installation of a GPS tracking device on a suspect’s vehicle constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment. Less attention has been paid to police tracking of cell phones—a far more common practice. Police can now locate a cell phone within several feet, using either GPS or information taken from cell towers.

In August 2011, the government asked a federal magistrate judge in Maryland to allow thirty days of …

It's Time For A Good Hard Look In The Mirror: The Corporate Law Example, John A. Barrett, Jr.

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

This Article asserts that the move from the industrial age to the

information age represents a fundamental change to our society on

such a widespread basis that the legal order must reexamine the

premises about how our society functions, assessing whether

foundational elements of U.S. Common Law remain valid. This

Article first confronts briefly the continuing acceptance of certain

foundational premises in contract and intellectual property law,

illustrating that such premises are no longer supported by the

realities of modern society. With fundamental change challenging

multiple areas of law in the information age, this problem is worthy

of widespread inquiry …

Application Of The Concept Of Project Finance In Iraq- A Comparative And Analytical Study, Faris K. Nesheiwat

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Many scholars and experts have addressed the issue of project finance, but one area that remains without detailed examination is its legal treatment under the legal systems of developing countries. The legal concepts applied under project finance are Western and are not necessarily identical to or compatible with legal concepts in Middle Eastern countries in general or Iraq in particular. In that sense, project finance is a transplanted legal concept when examined in the Middle Eastern legal framework. Although this Paper tackles the legal and strategic issues arising from the use of project finance in Iraq, its analysis and comparative …

Burning Down The House Or Simply Rolling The Dice: A Comment On Section 621 Of The Dodd-Frank Act And Recommendation For Its Implementation, Joshua R. Rosenthal

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Section 621 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act modifies the Securities Act of 1933 to prohibit the underwriter, placement agent, initial purchaser, or sponsor, or any affiliate or subsidiary of any such entity of an asset-backed financial product from betting against that very product for one year after the product’s initial sale. The rule prohibits anyone who structures or sells an asset-backed security or a product composed of asset-backed securities from going short, in the specified timeframe, on what they have sold, and labels such transactions as presenting material conflicts of interest. This Comment discusses traces …

Ensuring The Stability Of Presidential Succession In The Modern Era, Fordham University School Of Law's Clinic On Presidential Succession

Fordham Law Review

This Report outlines the recommendations of Fordham Law's first Presidential Succession Clinic, whose nine students conducted their work during the 2010-2011 academic year under the guidance of Dean John D. Feerick and Adjunct Professors Dora Galacatos and Nicole A. Gordon. Their recommendations for resolving the gaps and weaknesses in the presidential succession system include: (1) statutes and executive branch actions to account for the absence of procedures for declaring the Vice President unable; (2) removing legislators from the line of succession and resolving ambiguities regarding the line of the succession; and (3) reforms for addressing the death or resignation of …

Integrating Equal Marriage, Robin A. Lenhardt

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unjustified Subsidy: Sovereign Wealth Funds The Foreign Sovereign Tax Exemption, Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The taxation of Sovereign Wealth Funds in the United States is outmoded and due for reconsideration. Offering a tax exemption to the billion dollar investment funds owned by foreign governments is both unfair and ineffective. Founded in the principles of sovereign immunity, the foreign sovereign tax exemption, codified in I.R.C. § 892, fails to satisfy the Congressional goals that motivated its creation. This Article explains the current taxation of foreign sovereigns and, by extension, Sovereign Wealth Funds. It then illustrates that the current exemption is simultaneously too broad, providing a tax exemption for activities that are clearly nongovernmental activities, and …

The End Of The Internal Compliance World As We Know It, Or An Enhancement Of The Effectiveness Of Securities Law Enforcement? Bounty Hunting Under The Dodd-Frank Act's Whistleblower Provision, Justin Blount, Spencer Markel

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

In the wake of Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme and the recent economic crisis stemming largely from loosely regulated subprime lending and mortgage-backed securities, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 21, 2010, signaling loudly and clearly that change is coming to Wall Street. But Wall Street is not the only one receiving a message. Buried deep within the 2,319 pages of the Dodd-Frank Act, companies can find Section 922, the whistleblower provision, which provides a bounty for whistleblowers who report securities violations to the Securities and Exchange Commission.These bounty provisions and …

Lessons From The Flash Crash For The Regulation Of High-Frequency Traders, Edgar Ortega Barrales

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Are equity markets vulnerable to a sudden collapse if the traders who account for about half of the volume have no regulatory obligations to stabilize prices? After the “Flash Crash” of May 6, 2010, policymakers have resoundingly answered this question in the affirmative. During the worst of the crash, some of the so-called high-frequency trading firms that dominate equity markets stopped trading and prices collapsed, momentarily wiping out almost $1 trillion in market value. In response, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering whether high-frequency trading firms should be required to act as the traders of last resort. This …