Law Commons^™

Insider Trading Under Sarbanes-Oxley: Bypassing The Personal Benefit Test, Andrew J. Meyer

Missouri Law Review

Insider trading is broadly defined as the use of material nonpublic information in connection with the trade of stock or other securities. To the average person, the classic case of insider trading is a corporate executive reaping handsome personal profits by trading stock using insider information that he obtained through his position within the corporation. The reality, however, can be much more complicated

A “20/20” Vision: Supreme Court Of Missouri Revisits Admissibility Of Eyewitness Expert Testimony After More Than 30 Years, Emily Miller

Missouri Law Review

Since 1989 the admissibility of expert testimony regarding eyewitness identifications has been unaddressed in Missouri’s courts. During this time, over 2,000 scientific studies have illustrated the fallibility of eyewitness testimony. The United States Supreme Court has long recognized the “vagaries” of eyewitness identification and the real potential for erroneous identifications leading to wrongful convictions. Most recently, advanced capabilities with DNA evidence have highlighted the tragic consequences of erroneous eyewitness identification. Indeed, a now often-cited fact: Of the 375 exonerations since 1989, nearly seventy percent involved wrongful convictions founded at least in part on eyewitness identification.

Redefining “Amend”: For The “Better” Of Whom?, Clayton A. Voss

Missouri Law Review

In Trustees of Clayton Terrace Subdivision v. 6 Clayton Terrace, LLC, the Supreme Court of Missouri overturned eighty years of legal precedent regarding the ability of homeowners to amend residential subdivision agreements to place further burdens on the use of real property. The court established that subdivisions can now increase the burdens on their lot owners, provided that the minimum number of owners, as required by the amendment provision in the subdivision indentures, support the new restriction. The court’s holding signifies a shift away from the traditional principle that a covenant authorizing a requisite majority of owners to “amend” or …

Balancing Purpose, Power, And Discretion Between Article Iii Courts And The Patent Office, Emily N. Weber

Missouri Law Review

The function of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) is to promote the industrial and technological innovation of the nation and strengthen the economy through the preservation, classification, and dissemination of patent information. The America Invents Act (“AIA”) prescribed a multitude of supporting goals to best promote innovation, such as preserving “quality patents,” “timely consideration” of issues, maintaining “cost-effective” methods, preventing “frivolous litigation,” and preventing “uncertainty.” The AIA ensures the “efficiency, objectivity, predictability, and transparency” of the patent system. Part of this act included revamping the adjudicatory forum located within the USPTO, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board …

Dwight Golann On A Year Of Zoom Mediations, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post summarizes Dwight Golann’s article, “I Sometimes Catch Myself Looking Angry or Tired …” The Impact of Mediating by Zoom. He concludes, “Mediating by Zoom is a much more positive experience than people expected and will be a large part of the field in the future.”

Shakespeare In The Courts, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

This article continues the theme of recent “Writing It Right” articles in the Journal of the Missouri Bar. These articles describe how federal and state judges today frequently accent their opinions’ substantive or procedural rulings with references to cultural markers that can resonate with the advocates, parties, and judges who comprise the opinions’ readership. The courts’ broad array of cultural references demonstrates versatility. Some of my early articles in the Journal profiled judicial opinions that referenced terminologies, rules, and traditions of baseball, football, and other sports. Together these sports’ mass audiences help define American culture.

Later my Journal articles profiled …

On The Cusp Of The Next Medical Malpractice Insurance Crisis, Philip G. Peters Jr.

Faculty Publications

Medical malpractice claims are dwindling. Total payouts are far lower than during the 2002 crisis. Yet, insurance industry profits have been sinking for a decade and are nearly in the red. After a dozen years with a “soft” insurance market, we are now on the cusp of yet another malpractice insurance crisis.

How can profits be in peril if claims have dwindled and payouts are historically low?
Answering that question requires an understanding of the insurance cycle. The cycle periodically transforms gradual increases in costs and gradual decreases in revenue into explosive increases in premiums.

The industry’s financial statistics today …

Dilyara Nigmatullina’S New Article On Planned Early Dispute Resolution And Technology, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post summarizes Dilyara Nigmatullina’s article entitled, Planned Early Dispute Resolution [PEDR] Systems and Elements: Experiences and the Promise of Technology. It investigates actual experiences of companies using PEDR systems and discusses the effect that the companies’ shift to PEDR has on law firms. It concludes by exploring how PEDR systems can benefit from the use of technological tools and how the interaction between technology and dispute resolution can affect the future of the legal profession. PEDR is discussed in Section 8.

The Odious Intellectual Company Of Authority Restricting Second Amendment Rights To The “Virtuous”, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

To the woes of the victims of American over-criminalization, we can add deprivation of the suitable tools for self-defense during national emergency and civil unrest. Federal law disarms “unlawful users” of controlled substances (including medical marijuana), and imposes a permanent firearms ban on substantially all those with prior felony convictions. A notable exception is made for white-collar criminals with felony violations of antitrust and certain business practice statutes.

The constitutionality of these restrictions typically is founded on the view that one is tainted as “non-virtuous” for any serious criminal conviction, which includes any felony conviction. Using extensive sampling, this article …

Book Review: Social Media And Democracy: The State Of The Field And Prospects For Reform, Cynthia W. Bassett

Faculty Publications

Social Media and Democracy illuminates the empirical social science research done to date to tease apart the effects social media has had on representative democracies. It is a collection of essays by academic social scientists researching the intersection of social media and democracy from a variety of angles.

Beyond Stress Reduction: Mindfulness As A Skill For Developing Authentic Professional Identity, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Mindfulness is often touted in the legal field for its capacity to help reduce stress and improve focus through the management of distractions. However, the potential contributions of mindfulness practice for the legal profession extend beyond stress reduction' and include great promise for helping lawyers understand who they are as members of the legal profession - that is, their professional identity. This knowledge is empowering because it allows lawyers facing ethical quandaries to make choices that better align their professional values with their personal values, rather than aligning their personal values with professional values and societal expectations of success. In …

Symposium: A New Hope? An Interdisciplinary Reflection On The Constitution, Politics, And Polarization In Jack Balkin’S “The Cycles Of Constitutional Time”, Paul Litton

Missouri Law Review

Politically, we are living in dark times. Political polarization has increased over the past forty years, reaching an extreme and causing real damage to our political system and to our interpersonal lives. Americans are experiencing more hostility and anger towards their neighbors, family members, and fellow citizens with opposing political views. Growing distrust in government and intense polarization causally contributed to the 2016 presidential election of a populist demagogue whose appeals to toxic prejudices, racial resentment, and baseless fears were designed to exacerbate political and civil division. After he lost the 2020 election, a mob of his most ardent supporters …

Some Linear Thoughts On A Cyclical Vision, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Missouri Law Review

I am honored to have been included in this Symposium on Jack Balkin’s new book, The Cycles of Constitutional Time. Professor Balkin is a giant in the legal academy and a public intellectual of the first rank. Here, as elsewhere, he has written a book that combines careful study of American history and constitutionalism with lucid, propulsive prose. The other contributors to this Symposium are themselves a Who’s Who in constitutional law, history, and political science. I am not sure I quite belong in this exalted company. Even though I have written about some specialized – if sometimes topical – …

Confusion In The Time Of Covid: The Supreme Court’S Lack Of Clarification In Balancing A Public Health Emergency And The Constitutional Right To Free Exercise, Lauren M. Marsh

Missouri Law Review

The case of Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley v. Sisolak demonstrates the breadth of a State’s authority during a public health crisis. The SAR-Co-V-2 (“COVID-19”) pandemic led to the declaration of emergency orders and most states creating guidelines for the public to follow to reduce the potential spread of the virus. These guidelines typically included bans on large gatherings, including gatherings in houses of worship, after research showed that large gatherings often turn into “superspreader” events. This led to numerous lawsuits claiming impediments in violation of the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution. The United States Supreme …

No-Poach, No Precedent: How Doj’S Aggressive Stance On Criminalizing Labor Market Agreements Runs Counter To Antitrust Jurisprudence, Noelle Mack

Missouri Law Review

When non-law-abiding citizens wonder whether their conduct is subject to criminal penalties, most turn to state and federal criminal statutes for guidance. Under antitrust law, potential wrongdoers must look to the Sherman Act – a broad “charter of freedom” requiring an unusual level of interpretation by federal courts. Reflecting Congress’ belief that “competition is the best method of allocating resources in a free market,” the Sherman Act simply outlaws “every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce.” The drafters of the Sherman Act could have delineated specific categories of proscribed conduct such as bid-rigging, price-fixing, or entering …

Copyright

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Myth Of Eternal Return And The Politics Of Judicial Review, Samuel Moyn

Missouri Law Review

Constitutionalism is an ancient idea, albeit one long associated with the form of regimes in general rather than self-governance under written charters that lay down fundamental law. As such, constitutionalism began its life linked to “dreary cyclical” stories of rise and decline, improvement and decadence, splendor and ruin. In doing so, it repurposed archaic thinking from even earlier to descry the direction of constitutional politics. But modern constitutionalism, especially the neo-providentialist form that many Americans have learned to associate with self-governance under a written document, is not the same as the archaic or the ancient. It works with a dualism …

Cock-Eyed Optimist Meets Chicken Little: Jack Balkin On The American Future, Sanford Levinson

Missouri Law Review

Given that we are close friends and the co-authors of some twenty articles and a book, Democracy and Dysfunction, it is not surprising that I think very highly of and agree with much of Jack Balkin’s new book, The Cycles of Constitutional Time. I read it in two sittings; it is a real pageturner, written with brio as Jack presents a remarkably comprehensive overview of what he discerns as various cycles in American politics (importantly including the Supreme Court and the development of constitutional doctrine) from the beginning of the new national government in 1789 to the present. It is …

Faculty List

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Race And The Cycles Of Constitutional Time, Jack M. Balkin

Missouri Law Review

The Cycles of Constitutional Time argues that we can understand American constitutional development in terms of three kinds of cycles. The first is the rise and fall of regimes featuring dominant political parties. The second is a very long cycle of polarization and depolarization that stretches from the Civil War through the present. The third cycle is a series of episodes of constitutional rot and constitutional renewal.

Democratic Culture And Democratic Shocks: The Limits Of Constitutional Cycles, Jonathan Gienapp

Missouri Law Review

In his new book, The Cycles of Constitutional Time, Jack Balkin achieves something remarkable. He paints an unflinchingly grim portrait of modern American politics that is at once brutally honest about the dire state of our predicament while also somehow brimming with optimism and hope. In that regard, it is Balkinsian to its core – sober and trenchant in its analysis, yet buoyant in its outlook. Not many people could have written a book like this. And we should be grateful that he has. At a time like this, when it feels like the democratic sun is ever more likely …

Exhuming Brutus: Constitutional Rot And Cyclical Calls For Court Reform, Amanda Hollis-Brusky

Missouri Law Review

Once upon a time, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the phrase “judicial independence” struck fear into the hearts of many Americans, especially those associated with the Anti-Federalist movement. Robert Yates, for example, writing under the pseudonym “Brutus,” wrote with horror of the proposed independence of the judiciary: [The Constitution has] made the judges independent, in the fullest sense of the word. There is no power above them, to controul any of their decisions. There is no authority that can remove them, and they cannot be controuled by the laws of the legislature. In short, they are independent …

Compromising Trust, Lynn Mie Itagaki

Missouri Law Review

Public distrust erodes the efficiency and productivity of our economy, government, and society. It accelerates and amplifies weaknesses in our democratic political infrastructure alongside business relationships and social interactions in mutually reinforcing ways. Determining how to cultivate public trust depends on definitions of “the public”: to whom the government and its officials are accountable. Given the history of the United States as a White settler colonial state, its dependence on African chattel slavery, and its continuing racist xenophobia, “the public” is a frustratingly elastic term. For marginalized populations, public trust might vary in intensity over the past centuries since the …

Missouri Workers’ Compensation Enhanced Benefits For Mesothelioma Victims: Too Crispy Or Too Chewy?, Grace Hambuchen

Missouri Law Review

One of the most polarizing debates in history surrounds the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. With all controversial, highly opinionated topics, certain parties, or sides, arise. Some argue the ideal cookie is soft and chewy, while others opt for the crispy and crunchy. However, most dedicated cookie enthusiasts argue the objectively best cookie is a compromise – soft in the middle with a slight crunch on the edges. Baking involves precision. If too much or too little of a simple ingredient is added, the entire cookie changes. The cookie might be “fine,” and still edible, but it is not the …

A Contractual Dilemma: Where Arbitration Agreements And Delegation Provisions Collide, Trent H. Hamoud

Missouri Law Review

Interpretation of arbitration agreements continues to present unique and challenging issues in Missouri law. Arbitration is a mainstay of the wider field of alternative dispute resolution, seeking to merge the competing interests of would-be litigants in a speedier, less expensive, less formalized environment. Delegation provisions, however, serve as an additional analytical hurdle in determining when and what disputes can be rightfully sent to arbitration. At first glance, a seemingly irreconcilable dilemma is presented. Must assent to the arbitration agreement, and thus the delegation provision, exist before the dispute will be sent to arbitration? Or is the simple appearance of a …

Indirect Initiative And Unpopular Referendum In Missouri, Gunnar Johanson

Missouri Law Review

Most governments in the United States operate as a representative democracy through elected officials. Over time, advocates have successfully reformed many of our institutions to give citizens themselves more power through direct democracy. The direct election of United States Senators, the presidential primary, recall, the direct initiative, and popular referendum are all developments in the governments of the United States that place power directly in the hands of voters. Direct initiatives and popular referendums, specifically, are lingering evidence of the Progressive Era of the 1900s. Like most reforms of that time, proponents of direct initiative and popular referendum believed it …

Meaningful Access: True Equality Or Frightening Reality?, Mackenzie L. Stout

Missouri Law Review

“It’s too good to be true” summarizes the decision in Childress v. Fox Associates, LLC. The Childress court admirably aimed to create a more accessible society for individuals with disabilities but may have unintentionally created the exact opposite. Courts require public accommodations to provide “meaningful access” to individuals with disabilities in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). However, “meaningful access” is an unclear, evolving standard. The Childress decision strayed from precedent by heightening the standard for meaningful access to a level equal to identical access. While this heightened standard strives for the goal of true equality, …

Two Steps Forward, One Step…Back? Missouri Legislature Targets Rise In Violent Crime, Sarah Walters

Missouri Law Review

In May 2020, the Missouri Legislature passed Senate Bill 600, a controversial crime bill which made modifications to a handful of criminal provisions in an effort to tackle the violent crime plaguing the state’s largest cities. According to Senator Tony Luetkemeyer, the bill’s sponsor, inspiration for the legislation stemmed from an August 2019 USA Today report ranking Kansas City and St. Louis as the fifth- and first-most-dangerous cities in the country, respectively, and Springfield as the twelfth-most-dangerous. In a similar USA Today report ranking the most dangerous states, Missouri broke the top ten, coming in at number eight overall, with …