Law Commons^™

Office Politics: Hiring And Firing Government Lawyers, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

In September of 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would not prosecute former DOJ Civil Rights Division official Bradley Schlozman for alleged false statements made during his congressional testimony about personnel actions at DOJ. As many government lawyers will remember, a July 2, 2008, report of the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility and Office of the Inspector General (hereinafter, the IG's report) found that Schlozman had violated the Civil Service Reform Act when he "considered political and ideological affiliations in hiring career attorneys and other personnel actions affecting career attorneys in the Civil Rights Division." Often …

Operatively White: Exploring The Significance Of Race And Class Through The Paradox Of Black Middle-Classness, Audrey Mcfarlane

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The black–white paradigm has been the crucial paradigm in racial geography of land use, housing and development. Yet it is worthwhile to consider that, in this context, distinctions based on race are accompanied by a powerful, racialized discourse of middle class versus poor. The black–white paradigm in exclusionary zoning, for example, involves the wealthy or middle-class white person (we need not even use the term white) protesting against or displacing the poor black person. (we also need not even use the term black). Another example of the racialized discourse of middle class versus poor is in the urban-gentrification context. The …

Rebuilding The Public-Private City: Regulatory Taking's Anti-Subordination Insights For Eminent Domain And Redevelopment, Audrey Mcfarlane

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The eminent domain debate, steeped in the language of property rights, currently lacks language and conceptual space to address what is really at issue in today's cities: complex, fundamental disagreements between market and community about Development. The core doctrinal issue presented by development is how can we acknowledge the subordination of citizens who happen to live in areas that are attractive to wealthier citizens. In particular, how should we address the political process failure reflected in the privatized methods of decisionmaking that typify redevelopment? The conceptual language and analytical construct for appropriately addressing these issues come from critical race theory …

Pro-Gun Scholars Twist Constitution, Kenneth Lasson

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Earlier this year, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia became the first federal tribunal to strike down a local gun-control law, holding that the Founding Fathers would have allowed all private citizens to arm themselves.

Remarkable Evolution: The Early Constitutional History Of Maryland, Charles A. Rees

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Putting The "Public" Back Into Public-Private Partnerships For Economic Development, Audrey Mcfarlane

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Public-Private Partnerships are viewed quite positively. In the context of working with local government for economic development, the interests and concerns of the private appear to dominate the development decision-making. This Essay explores eminent domain decisions and community benefits agreements for standards for measuring the efficacy of these partnerships. It suggests ways in which we can begin to think about public accountability and public benefits to be derived from these partnerships.

Wrongful Discharge: The Use Of Federal Law As A Source Of Public Policy, Nancy M. Modesitt

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Wrongful discharge in violation of public policy circumscribes the employment at-will doctrine by prohibiting employers from firing employees who engage in conduct that is deemed to be protected by state or federal public policy. While much has been written about the pros and cons of such wrongful discharge claims, to date no scholarship has focused on the problems that arise when the source of public policy is a federal rather than state statute. This article analyzes the historical and current approaches to the use of federal statutes as a source of public policy to protect employees against discharge, concluding that …

Legal Indeterminacy Made In America: American Legal Methods And The Rule Of Law, James Maxeiner

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The thesis of this Article is that the indeterminacy that plagues American law is "Made in America." It is not inherent in law. Rather, it is a product of specific choices of legal methods and of legal structures made in the American legal system.

Who Fits The Profile?: Thoughts On Race, Class, Clusters And Redevelopment, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This essay shifts the discussion of gentrification and redevelopment to consider the mechanics of exclusion in the formulation and operation of today's commercial retail shopping venues typically included in today's urban redevelopment projects. In particular the essay discusses the exclusionary implications of geo-demographic cluster classification systems that use race and class to construct profiles of desirable customers for urban redevelopment schemes.

The New Inner-City: Class Transformation, Concentrated Affluence And The Obligations Of The Police Power, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This article examines the role of local government in the process of urban spatial restructuring (gentrification). In light of the disparate needs and competing interests of different racial and socioeconomic groups seeking a place in the city, there are limits to local government's ability to facilitate redevelopment projects that deliberately aim to accomplish class transformation and exclusively reconfigure the inner city for the affluent. These limits exist by virtue of implied obligations of the police power.

Redevelopment And The Four Dimensions Of Class In Land Use, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This essay begins with the proposition that the battle over the exercise of eminent domain as a question of the extent to which we accept local economic development as a proper exercise of local governmental authority. In light of the reality that economic development seeks to accomplish redevelopment to meet the social needs and consumption tastes of the affluent, the issue of local governments' autonomy to engage in redevelopment for economic development purposes is suffused with socioeconomic class struggles over land use. Therefore, the changes wrought by redevelopment challenge us to think and talk about class in ways for which …

Foreword, Byron L. Warnken

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Preserving Community In The City: Special Improvement Districts And The Privatization Of Urban Racialized Space, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This essay examines some of the ramifications of the formation of business improvement districts (BIDs) in urban centers that levy additional taxes in particular geographic areas to provide supplementary services. Originally designed to further business development to improve the tax base of the entire city, these districts are increasingly being used by affluent city neighborhoods to enhance what are viewed as inadequate municipal services. Because cities are often divided into affluent, white neighborhoods and poor minority ones, BIDs are troubling in that they reinforce race and class divisions within what is theoretically an urban whole. Professor McFarlane argues that we …

Local Economic Development Incentives In An Era Of Globalization: The Exploitation Of Decentralization And Mobility, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This essay discusses the dilemma corporate mobility through globalization presents for cities that are fixed geographically. Corporations seek and cities offer business incentives that with questionable benefits to local residents. The essay recommends that the local government dilemma and susceptibility to exploitation be acknowledged. While the essay recommends that cities seek to limit their efforts to be providers of local infrastructure (eg., roads, utilities, an educated workforce) it also recommends that the cities are incapable of addressing the corporate mobility issue on their own and are prone to continued exploitation.

Products Liability Harmonization: A Uniform Standard, Rebecca Korzec

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Among industrialized nations, the United States is unique in addressing tort law at the state rather than the national level. For example, Australia and Canada, which share a common-law heritage with the United States, have federal tort systems. The United States approach may be appropriate in some tort settings, such as in the premises liability or motor vehicle accident context (not involving a claim of products liability), where the state rule’s impact remains within that state’s geographical boundaries. Unlike the simple 'fender-bender', which occurs within the borders of one state, the typical product is manufactured and marketed nationally or internationally. …

When Inclusion Leads To Exclusion: The Uncharted Terrain Of Community Participation In Economic Development, Audrey Mcfarlane

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Since the advent of federally-sponsored urban development, the federal government has sought to facilitate decentralized decision-making by local governments. These federal programs have also strongly encouraged local governments to include community participation in the development decision-making process. Participation evokes notions of democracy, egalitarianism, and inclusion and it is easy to support in principle. But participation is often less easy to support in practice because of its structural disconnect with urban development. This disconnect between principle and practice has been reflected in an ebb and flow of contrastingly strong and weak mandates for participation. This ebb and flow of federally-mandated participation …

Race, Space And Place: The Internal Critique Of The Empowerment Zones Program, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This Article examines the extent to which the Empowerment Zones Program is properly viewed as a neutral, rational, and beneficial program for poor, inner-city communities and their residents by exploring the limits and potential of its chief mechanism, economic development, as a tool to achieve social justice for the inner cities. This Article grounds its exploration within the contested terrain of the city, not simply as a legal or juridical concept, but in terms of its reality as a lived place on the eve of the 21st century.

Empowerment Zones: Urban Revitalization Through Collaborative Enterprise, Audrey Mcfarlane

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The federal government recently designated six empowerment zones in selected urban areas as an urban revitalization demonstration program. The program is derived from the enterprise zone strategy promoted by former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp that sought to address urban poverty by encouraging business growth through deregulation and tax incentives. The Clinton administration modified the original concept and now refers to the target areas as empowerment zones. As the definitions of "enterprise" and "empower" indicate, renaming the zones reflects a significant shift in emphasis-from a focus on stimulating business enterprise through reducing regulation to one in which regulation is used to …

Suits Against State Officials For Damages For Violations Of Constitutional Rights: Comparing Maryland And Federal Law, Stephen J. Shapiro

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strangers In Paradise: An Overview Of Maryland State Law Dealing With Noncitizens, William Karl Wilburn

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

State Constitutional Regulation Of Abortion, Michael R. Braudes

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Should States Challenge Mergers: A Proposed Federal/State Balance, Robert H. Lande

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This article critically analyzes the current system of United States merger enforcement, under which both federal and State antitrust enforcers scrutinizes and potentially can challenge any merger that affects interstate commerce. This article develops and proposes an alternative, a voluntary division of responsibility patterned after the European Union's approach. Under this alternative federal enforcers normally would defer to State enforcers for certain specified mergers, and State enforcers normally would defer to federal enforcers for other specified mergers.

Choosing The Appropriate State Statute Of Limitations For Section 1983 Claims After Wilson V. Garcia: A Theory Applied To Maryland Law, Stephen J. Shapiro

University of Baltimore Law Review

Forty-two U.S.C. section 1983 provides individuals with a federal cause of action for violations of their constitutional rights by persons acting under color of state law. The statute itself contains no limitations period for the filing of suits and, in keeping with settled federal practice, the lower federal courts have looked to state law to determine the proper limitations period. Because the lower courts adopted various inconsistent approaches to determining the appropriate state limitations period, the Supreme Court, in Wilson v. Garcia, held in 1985 that the federal courts should adopt the state limitations period for personal injury actions. In …

Public Land Banking And Mount Laurel Ii — Can There Be A Symbiotic Relationship?, Cassandra Jones Havard

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The story behind the litigation that produced two decisions in Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mount Laurel may accurately be told in terms of plans having gone awry. The New Jersey Supreme Court invalidated the two attempts by Mount Laurel to regulate land through the implementation of fiscal zoning ordinances. In its most recent decision, Mount Laurel II, the court imposed upon communities a state constitutional obligation to provide adequate housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income families. Mount Laurel II thus defines the constitutional limitations on a municipality's power to regulate land. It also establishes a supporting corollary: …

Religious Freedom And The Church-State Relationship In Maryland, Kenneth Lasson

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Maryland holds the unique and admirable distinction of having been the State whose early history most directly ensured, and whose citizenry was most directly affected by, the first amendment's grant of religious liberty. The Supreme Court's docket is still liberally sprinkled with petitions calling for renewed interpretation of the establishment clause, and Marylanders will soon vote upon a proposed new state constitution with a similar provision - hence, the opportuneness for tracing Maryland's contribution to the cause of toleration and to the principle of church-state separation.

The scope of this article will not extend beyond a sketch of the important …

Comments And Casenotes: To Kill A Mockingbird - Star Decisis And M'Naghten In Maryland, Kenneth Lasson

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There are certain pillars of jurisprudence which, despite the erosive elements of time and progress, remain sacred. After more than a century of judicial dialogue the venerable M'Naghten Rule survives as the prevailing test to determine criminal responsibility. The rule states: "To establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if he did know …