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Introduction: Civil Legal Representation, Lisa E. Brodoff Nov 2010

Introduction: Civil Legal Representation, Lisa E. Brodoff

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.


In Re Marriage Of King: Amicus Curiae Brief Of International Law Scholars In Support Of Appellant, Martha F. Davis, Raven Lidman Nov 2010

In Re Marriage Of King: Amicus Curiae Brief Of International Law Scholars In Support Of Appellant, Martha F. Davis, Raven Lidman

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.


Amicus Curiae Brief In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellees By Asian American Justice Center, Asian Law Caucus, Asian American Institute, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, Api Equality, California Conference Of The Naacp, Chinese For Affirmative Action, Coalition For Humane Immigrant Rights Of Los Angeles, Korematsu Center At Seattle University, Mexican American Legal Defense And Education Fund, And The Zuna Institute, Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Attorneys For Amicus Curiae Oct 2010

Amicus Curiae Brief In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellees By Asian American Justice Center, Asian Law Caucus, Asian American Institute, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, Api Equality, California Conference Of The Naacp, Chinese For Affirmative Action, Coalition For Humane Immigrant Rights Of Los Angeles, Korematsu Center At Seattle University, Mexican American Legal Defense And Education Fund, And The Zuna Institute, Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Attorneys For Amicus Curiae

Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

Perry v. Hollingsworth


Law Clerks Gone Wild, Parker B. Potter, Jr. Aug 2010

Law Clerks Gone Wild, Parker B. Potter, Jr.

Seattle University Law Review

This Article grows out of my delight in seeing fellow law clerks break through the paper curtain and onto the pages of the Federal Reporter, the Federal Supplement, or some other compendium of judicial opinions. While my fascination with law clerks as the subjects rather than the instruments of judicial writing is probably not universal, I have selected the opinions I discuss in this Article with an eye toward entertaining—and maybe even instructing, if only slightly—the clerkigentsia and the judiciary. So, with that audience in mind, I set off in search of law clerks who had gone wild …


Physical-Strength Rationales For De Jure Exclusion Of Women From Military Combat Positions, Maia Goodell Aug 2010

Physical-Strength Rationales For De Jure Exclusion Of Women From Military Combat Positions, Maia Goodell

Seattle University Law Review

Women have been serving in the military in steadily increasing numbers for decades. Nevertheless, the military remains one of the few areas in which the U.S. government decides what roles are open to women based on de jure exclusions. This Article examines the law governing de jure classification, noting that a mere normative belief about women’s proper place in society is an insufficient basis to justify a sex-based exclusion. It then probes the most common rationale advanced in support of the continued de jure exclusion of women: physical strength. The Article examines four problems with the physical strength rationale: (1) …


The Cross-Dressing Case For Bathroom Equality, Jennifer Levi, Daniel Redman Aug 2010

The Cross-Dressing Case For Bathroom Equality, Jennifer Levi, Daniel Redman

Seattle University Law Review

While transgender rights advocates have won many battles in the fight for equality, bathroom discrimination remains a significant obstacle to transgender people’s full participation in society. This Article discusses the reasoning behind the cases that have rejected transgender people’s discrimination claims based on bathroom exclusion. The Article then demonstrates how these arguments mirror the rationales offered by supporters of long-dead, unconstitutional cross-dressing laws. Synthesizing the two bodies of case law, Levi and Redman offer a new way forward for transgender advocates seeking bathroom equality.


Fait Accompli?: Where The Supreme Court And Equal Pay Meet A Narrow Legislative Override Under The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Megan Coluccio Aug 2010

Fait Accompli?: Where The Supreme Court And Equal Pay Meet A Narrow Legislative Override Under The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Megan Coluccio

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment argues the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act’s consequences will be minimally felt, so long as the Act is narrowly construed. The Comment suggests congressional action was appropriate after the Supreme Court’s Ledbetter decision and discusses the political and legislative debate leading to the Act. In addition, the Comment analyzes the Act in application, exploring its meaning, implications, and function. The Comment argues that the concerns and consequences arising from the enactment of the Act can be alleviated and avoided by a narrow interpretation of its amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Finally, the Comment recommends …


Obesity And Unhealthy Consumption: The Public-Policy Case For Placing A Federal Sin Tax On Sugary Beverages, Jonathan Cummings Aug 2010

Obesity And Unhealthy Consumption: The Public-Policy Case For Placing A Federal Sin Tax On Sugary Beverages, Jonathan Cummings

Seattle University Law Review

A growing body of research has established an empirical link between consumption of sugary beverages and numerous health problems. Yet, while few people disagree that reduced consumption of sugary beverages is a desirable goal for American society, many people disagree about how to reduce it. This Comment argues that a proposed sin tax on sugary beverages is sound policy, and Congress should implement the tax in order to combat and address the obesity epidemic because (1) consumers are subject to cognitive and informational defects that affect consumers’ abilities to make the best welfare-generating decisions, and (2) sugary-beverage consumption causes healthcare-related …


Leveraged Etfs: The Trojan Horse Has Passed The Margin-Rule Gates, William M. Humphries Aug 2010

Leveraged Etfs: The Trojan Horse Has Passed The Margin-Rule Gates, William M. Humphries

Seattle University Law Review

What do the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the demise of Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns all have in common? One word: leverage. The misuse of leverage, in all its forms, contributed greatly to all of these events. Yet even today, common investors can purchase a leveraged exchange-traded fund (leveraged ETF), a complex product that uses leverage to increase returns, without triggering applicable laws designed to regulate the use of leverage. This Comment articulates the basics surrounding the functions and operations of leveraged ETFs and margin rules in order to assess the compatibility of the two. The Comment argues …


The Challenges For Directors In Piloting Through State And Federal Standards In The Maelstrom Of Risk Management, Chief Justice E. Norman Veasey Aug 2010

The Challenges For Directors In Piloting Through State And Federal Standards In The Maelstrom Of Risk Management, Chief Justice E. Norman Veasey

Seattle University Law Review

In the 2010 Berle Center Directors’ Academy Keynote Address, Chief Justice Veasey addresses “the federal and state contexts relating to the corporate-governance focus on business risk and the expectations laid at the doorstep of directors and officers of U.S. public companies.” Specifically, Chief Justice Veasey looks “at the governance landscape through both a federal regulatory lens and a state judicial lens as it relates to risk assessment and risk management.”


Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review Aug 2010

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.


True North: Navigating For The Transfer Of Learning In Legal Education, Tonya Kowalski Aug 2010

True North: Navigating For The Transfer Of Learning In Legal Education, Tonya Kowalski

Seattle University Law Review

As lifelong learners, we all know the feelings of discomfort and bewilderment that can come from being asked to apply existing skills in a completely new situation. As legal educators, we have also experienced the frustration that comes from watching our students struggle to identify and transfer skills from one learning environment to another. For example, a first-semester law student who learns to analogize case law to a fact pattern in a legal writing problem typically will not see the deeper applications for those skills in a law school essay exam several weeks later. Similarly, when law students learn how …


Brief Of Amici Curiae Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Asian Bar Association Of Washington, And Vietnamese American Bar Association Of Washington, Lorraine K. Bannai, Counsel For Amici Curiae Apr 2010

Brief Of Amici Curiae Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Asian Bar Association Of Washington, And Vietnamese American Bar Association Of Washington, Lorraine K. Bannai, Counsel For Amici Curiae

Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

Civil Rights Amicus Brief Project


Matters Of Preference: Tracing The Line Between Citizens, Democratic States, And International Law, Mark A. Chinen Jan 2010

Matters Of Preference: Tracing The Line Between Citizens, Democratic States, And International Law, Mark A. Chinen

Mark A. Chinen

In this Article, we assess the role the aggregation of citizen preferences into the foreign policy choices of a democratic country might play in the legitimization of international law. After addressing some of the theoretical and empirical issues associated with such an approach, we use an anticipated reaction model developed by Michael Bailey to show that even in large democracies there are mechanisms through which citizen preferences can be and are reflected in the policy choices of their representatives. Incumbents and candidates for office take policy positions in hopes of maximizing their future election chances. Although policymakers each have their …


Lifting Burdens: Proof, Social Justice, And Public Assistance Administrative Hearings, Lisa Brodoff Jan 2010

Lifting Burdens: Proof, Social Justice, And Public Assistance Administrative Hearings, Lisa Brodoff

Faculty Articles

In "Lifting Burdens: Proof, Social Justice, and Public Assistance Administrative Hearings," Lisa Brodoff describes the administrative hearing system for public assistance recipients and applicants, and asserts that it is the primary social justice system for the poor. She discusses why public assistance appellants are always placed at a significant disadvantage in this system. The article proposes that the best way to even out the inequities in adjudications is to always place the burdens of production and persuasion by clear and convincing evidence on the government in these hearings. She argues that policy, efficiency, and fairness require a consistent and heavy …


Rodrigo's Portent: California And The Coming Neocolonial Order, Richard Delgado Jan 2010

Rodrigo's Portent: California And The Coming Neocolonial Order, Richard Delgado

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.


Slums, Slumdogs, And Resistance, Tayyab Mahmud Jan 2010

Slums, Slumdogs, And Resistance, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.


Discipline-Building And Disciplinary Values: Thoughts On Legal Writing At Year Twenty-Five Of The Legal Writing Institute, J. Christopher Rideout Jan 2010

Discipline-Building And Disciplinary Values: Thoughts On Legal Writing At Year Twenty-Five Of The Legal Writing Institute, J. Christopher Rideout

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.


Asian Americans And The Road To The White House: Musings On Being Invisible, Robert S. Chang Jan 2010

Asian Americans And The Road To The White House: Musings On Being Invisible, Robert S. Chang

Faculty Articles

In October 1993, the Asian Law Journal published its inaugural issue, featuring its first article entitled "Toward an Asian American Legal Scholarship: Critical Race Theory, Post-structuralism, and Narrative Space." I ASIAN L.J. 1 (1993). With this opening salvo, the Asian Law Journal (now the Asian American Law Journal) launched only the second law journal in the United States dedicated to Asian American Jurisprudence. The author of this landmark article is none other than Professor Robert S. Chang, one of the most recognized figures in Asian American Jurisprudence and Critical Race Theory. To celebrate the fifteen years since the publication of …


Rethinking Tax Priorities: Marriage Neutrality, Children, And Contemporary Families, James Puckett Jan 2010

Rethinking Tax Priorities: Marriage Neutrality, Children, And Contemporary Families, James Puckett

Faculty Articles

Tax scholarship has long struggled with whether married taxpayers should be taxed differently from unmarried taxpayers. Currently, married taxpayers are subject to different tax rates than unmarried taxpayers, and may file a joint tax return. A married couple may pay a higher or lower amount of tax than an unmarried couple with the same total income, and a single person generally pays more tax on a given income than a married couple with a single earner with the same income. These outcomes are difficult to reconcile with a commitment to income tax progressivity, which in theory requires that higher incomes …


The Study Of Secularism And Religion In The Constitution And Contemporary Politics Of Turkey: The Rise Of Interdisciplinarity And The Decline Of Methodology?, Russell Powell Jan 2010

The Study Of Secularism And Religion In The Constitution And Contemporary Politics Of Turkey: The Rise Of Interdisciplinarity And The Decline Of Methodology?, Russell Powell

Faculty Articles

Using the experience of Islamist parties in Turkey as a comparative example, this article explores whether political parties with deeply held religious ideologies can integrate themselves into liberal democracies, paying particular attention to the nature and role of legal secularism (the mechanism states use to insulate themselves from religious influence). This is an extension of the query whether the rise of illiberal political groups eventually leads to the end of liberal society. These queries engage the assumption that illiberal religious ideology is incapable of tolerating dissent or pluralism. This article examines Turkish constitutional secularism as well as the “Islamist” Justice …


Keynote Address, Dean Spade Jan 2010

Keynote Address, Dean Spade

Faculty Articles

This article challenges the traditional methods taken by progressive lawyers and activists. It argues that superficial changes to a marginalizing system simply create “window dressing” that serves to reinforce the status quo. This article is a provocative call to radicalize legal practice, to be critical of all movements, and always question who is being excluded. It highlights that what may appear like making things better may actually be a contribution to the legitimization of the system that one intends to challenge.


Brilliant Disguise: An Empirical Analysis Of A Social Experiment Banning Affirmative Action, Deirdre M. Bowen Jan 2010

Brilliant Disguise: An Empirical Analysis Of A Social Experiment Banning Affirmative Action, Deirdre M. Bowen

Faculty Articles

The notion of a colorblind society captured the imagination of voters who passed propositions banning affirmative action in higher education admissions in California, Washington, more recently in Michigan, and on November 4th, in Nebraska. Affirmative action is no longer required, proponents assert, because society no longer judges people by their skin color. They argue that the need for affirmative action is a vestige of a bygone era, and such a policy only creates resentment and stigma. This paper confronts the colorblind ideal myths of stigma and resentment, which appear at much greater rates in anti-affirmative action states. In analyzing data …


Lawyering And Learning In Problem-Solving Courts, Paul Holland Jan 2010

Lawyering And Learning In Problem-Solving Courts, Paul Holland

Faculty Articles

The introduction of Drug Courts and other problem-solving courts has brought significant change to the American criminal justice system. This change has required lawyers working in these courts to re-examine their role and to re-consider and re-calibrate the nature of their interactions and relationships with their clients and all of the other actors in the system. This article looks beyond the rhetorically charged debate that has marked these changes and offers instead a close examination of the actual experience of lawyers, judges, and most importantly, defendant-participants, in these courts. This examination demonstrates that many of the traditional values embedded in …


The Status Of Private Military Contractors Under International Humanitarian Law, Won Kidane Jan 2010

The Status Of Private Military Contractors Under International Humanitarian Law, Won Kidane

Faculty Articles

One of the serious problems that the new administration faces is undoubtedly the regulation and use of private military contractors in "the war on terror." The private military industry is largely unregulated at the national level. Its status under international law is also poorly understood. This article assesses the legal status of this industry, characterizes the various functions, demonstrates the difficulty of regulating the industry as a unitary entity, and identifies the appropriate set of international standards that the new administration and Congress as well as the larger international legal community could employ in evaluating regulatory options.


Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review Jan 2010

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.


Enumerating Old Themes? Berle’S Concept Of Ownership And The Historical Development Of English Company Law In Context, Lorraine E. Talbot Jan 2010

Enumerating Old Themes? Berle’S Concept Of Ownership And The Historical Development Of English Company Law In Context, Lorraine E. Talbot

Seattle University Law Review

This paper offers some tentative suggestions as to why Berle’s work has been read and interpreted so selectively in the United Kingdom. I suggest that this must be partly attributable to the historical developments in English company law that entrenched the notion of shareholder ownership claims. Specifically, unincorporated associations’ normative values—that members are owners and there is no distinction between small organizations with no share dispersal and large organizations with wide share dispersal—have a continuing influence on this entrenched notion of shareholder ownership claims. First, I provide an overview of the origins of English company law. Next, I address how …


Nothing Natural About It: Still Searching For A Solution To The Chapter 11 Stamp Tax Exemption, Lindsay K. Taft Jan 2010

Nothing Natural About It: Still Searching For A Solution To The Chapter 11 Stamp Tax Exemption, Lindsay K. Taft

Seattle University Law Review

In June of 2008, in Florida Department of Revenue v. Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc., the Supreme Court settled a circuit split and issued a bright line rule stating that asset transfers made prior to the confirmation of a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization no longer benefit from certain tax exemptions. As a result, the cost of selling assets in a bankruptcy case outside of a plan will increase. The provision at issue in the case, which exempts asset transfers and sales from certain state taxes, contains language ambiguous enough that four federal circuit courts have contemplated which types of asset …


Then And Now: Professor Berle And The Unpredictable Shareholder, Jennifer G. Hill Jan 2010

Then And Now: Professor Berle And The Unpredictable Shareholder, Jennifer G. Hill

Seattle University Law Review

Shareholders, and the relationship between shareholders and management, lay at the heart of Professor Berle’s scholarship. The goal of this Article is to compare the image of shareholders emerging from The Modern Corporation and Private Property and the Berle/Dodd debate with a range of contemporary visions of the shareholder that underpin some international regulatory responses to recent financial debacles, from Enron to the current global financial crisis. As the Article dis- cusses, these recent developments in the era of financial crises have prompted a reevaluation of the traditional image of the shareholder—and the role of the shareholder in the modern …


Tracking Berle’S Footsteps: The Trail Of The Modern Corporation’S Last Chapter, William W. Bratton, Michael L. Wachter Jan 2010

Tracking Berle’S Footsteps: The Trail Of The Modern Corporation’S Last Chapter, William W. Bratton, Michael L. Wachter

Seattle University Law Review

Readers game enough to work through all three hundred pages of The Modern Corporation and Private Property looking for insights on corporate law today encounter two, apparently contradictory, lines of thought. One line, set out in Books II and III, resonates comfortably with today’s shareholder-centered corporate legal theory. Here the book teaches that even as ownership and control have separated, managers should function as trustees for the shareholders and so should exercise their wide-ranging powers for the shareholders’ benefit. The other line of thought emerges in Books I and IV, where The Modern Corporation encases this shareholder trust model in …