Law Commons^™

When Good Leaders Lose Their Way, Mark Whitacre

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Recanting Confidential Witnesses In Securities Litigation, Gideon Mark

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Article examines the contentious and recurring issue of how courts should handle confidential witnesses in securities litigation who recant the information attributed to them in complaints or deny that they ever provided such information to plaintiffs’ counsel and/or investigators. The use by plaintiffs of confidential witnesses has become ubiquitous in recent years, as a primary unintended effect of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. That legislation raised the bar for pleading securities fraud and established an automatic stay of all discovery and other proceedings during the pendency of a motion to dismiss, absent application of one of …

Pleading Securities Fraud Claims--Only Part Of The Story, Marc I. Steinberg

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act And Particularity: Why Are Some Courts In An Alternate Universe?, Charles W. Murdock

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The focus of this Article is to suggest that the judicial decision-making process is often not as rational and objective as we would like to believe. Bias often affects the decision making of judges, sometimes to the extent that it appears that the writer of the opinion is living in an alternate universe.

As we progress professionally, and become more steeped in our biases, we sometimes move toward creating a world that exists in our heads and has little relation to the “real” world. While this assertion will be developed in the context of courts’ interpreting “particularly” in the Private …

The Virtues Of Private Securities Litigation: An Historic And Macroeconomic Perspective, Steven A. Ramirez

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

In the wake of the Great Depression, the federal securities laws operated to mandate disclosure of material facts to investors and extend broad private remedies to victims of securities fraudfeasors. The revelation of massive securities fraud underlying the Great Depression animated the federal securities laws as investment plunged after 1929 and failed to recover for years. For over sixty years after the enactment of the federal securities laws, no episode of massive securities fraud with significant macroeconomic harm occurred. The federal securities laws thereby operated to facilitate financial stability and prosperity, in addition to a superior allocation of capital. Unfortunately, …

Inclusionary Eminent Domain, Gerald S. Dickinson

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Article proposes a paradigm shift in takings law, namely “inclusionary eminent domain.” This new normative concept serves as a framework that molds eminent domain takings and economic redevelopment into an inclusionary land assembly model that is equipped with multiple tools to help guide municipalities, private developers and communities construct or preserve affordable housing developments. The tools to achieve this include Community Benefits Agreements (“CBAs”), Land Assembly Districts (“LADs”), Community Development Corporations (“CDCs”), Land Banks (“LABs”), Community Land Trusts (CLTs) and Neighborhood Improvement Districts (“NIDs”).

The origins of the concept derive from the zoning law context, where exclusionary zoning in …

Oil And Water: Mixing Taxable And Tax-Exempt Shareholders In Mutual Funds, Jeffrey M. Colon

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

As of 2012, roughly 23% of U.S. households’ assets and 50% of retirement assets are invested in mutual funds, thus making mutual funds one of the most important investment vehicles for U.S. households. The federal taxation of mutual funds and mutual fund shareholders has played a vital role in the development of mutual funds and their appeal to U.S. investors.

Despite the significant amount of mutual fund assets held in retirement accounts, there has been very little analysis of the issues that arise when taxable and tax-exempt shareholders invest together in the same mutual fund. A substantial body of research …

The Intertwined Fates Of Affirmative Action And The Military, Robert Knowles

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Article explores the deep connections between the crises facing the military and affirmative action. The military struggles with a sexual assault epidemic and a related failure to achieve gender and racial equality, both of which undermine its ability to effectively carry out its mission. Affirmative action faces growing skepticism from the American public and from the courts, which have been gradually eliminating the ground on which gender- and race-conscious measures can be constitutionally justified.

In this time of crisis for both, the military and affirmative action need each other like never before. Affirmative action needs the military to tell …

Truth Stories: Credibility Determinations At The Illinois Torture Inquiry And Relief Commission, Kim D. Chanbonpin

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This is the first scholarly Article to investigate the inner workings of the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (“TIRC”). The TIRC was established by statute in 2009 to provide legal redress for victims of police torture. Prisoners who claim that their convictions were based on confessions coerced by police torture can utilize the procedures available at the TIRC to obtain judicial review of their cases. For those who have exhausted all appeals and post-conviction remedies, the TIRC represents the tantalizing promise of justice long denied. To be eligible for relief, however, the claimant must first meet the TIRC’s strict …

Terry Stops, Anonymous Tips, And Driving Under The Influence: A Study Of Illinois Law, Charles Burns, Michael Conte

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

In the recent case of Navarette v. California, No. 12-9490 (U.S. Apr. 22, 2014), the United States Supreme Court held that an anonymous tip can support an investigatory stop in the absence of independent corroboration by the arresting officer under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In the fourteen years between Navarette and Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266 (2000), in which the Court last addressed anonymous tips, lower courts across the country struggled to determine how United States Supreme Court precedents on anonymous tips apply in the context of drunk or reckless driving. Illinois courts …

Nuremberg Lives On: How Justice Jackson's International Experience Continues To Shape Domestic Criminal Procedure, Brian R. Gallini

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The end of Germany’s participation in World War II came with its formal surrender on May 8, 1945. After extensive debate over what would come of top Nazi leaders, twenty-two Nazi defendants were tried and ultimately convicted after 216 days of trials held in Nuremberg spread across eleven months between November 1945 and 1946. Associate Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson took a leave of absence from the Court to lead the trial’s prosecutorial effort. Decades of scholarship have considered and evaluated the Nuremberg trials alongside Jackson’s role in them. But, no article has evaluated how Justice Jackson’s experience as …

Trademark Hybridity And Brand Protection, Timothy Greene

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

What’s in a word? As it turns out, quite a lot. The vast majority of words in our language, including trademarked terms, signify a variety of conceptual meanings and senses. This idea of splintered definition— described in the psycholinguistics literature as “semantic ambiguity” and offered in two flavors: “homonymy” (divergent and unrelated meanings) and “polysemy” (divergent yet related senses)—is underrepresented in trademark law. As a result, there has been a proliferation of legal doctrines that fail to accurately describe our linguistic lives, most notably including dilution and genericness. This Article draws on psycholinguistics literature on semantic ambiguity resolution to highlight …

The Law As A Moral Enterprise, Robert John Araujo S.J.

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How To Talk About Sentencing Policy--And Not Disparity, Nancy Gertner Judge

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sentencing Enhancement And The Crime Victim's Brain, Francis X. Shen

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Criminal offenders who inflict serious bodily injury to another in the course of criminal conduct are typically sentenced more harshly than those who do not cause such injuries. But what if the harm caused is “mental” or “psychological” and not “physical”? Should the sentencing enhancement still apply? Federal and state courts are already wrestling with this issue, and modern neuroscience offers new challenges to courts’ analyses. This Article thus tackles the question: In light of current neuroscientific knowledge, when and how should sentencing enhancements for bodily injury include mental injuries? The Article argues that classification of “mental” as wholly distinct …

Pleading Securities Fraud Claims: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Sharon Nelles, Hilary Huber

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of The Prefiling Phase For Securities-Fraud Litigation, John M. Wunderlich

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The pleading burden that governs securities-fraud litigation is significantly higher than those standards that govern traditional civil cases. The heightened pleading burden applicable to securities cases has transformed the motion to dismiss into something like summary judgment. In fact, to contend with this heightened pleading burden, plaintiffs typically must spend more time in the prefiling phase gathering sufficient, reliable evidence of securities fraud.

With almost two decades of litigation under the securities laws’ heightened pleading burden, empirical studies are revealing that certain kinds of evidence are more likely to defeat a motion to dismiss than others. But dismissal statistics and …

(Ad)Ministering Justice: A Prosecutor's Ethical Duty To Support Sentencing Reform, Michael Cassidy

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Article stakes out an ethical argument in favor of prosecutorial leadership on sentencing reform. Prosecutors have a duty as “ministers of justice” to go beyond seeking appropriate conviction and punishment in individual cases, and to think about the delivery of criminal justice on a systemic level―promoting criminal justice policies that further broader societal ends. While other authors have explored the tensions between a prosecutor’s adversarial duties and “minister of justice” role in the context of specific litigation, few have explored what it means to be an “administer” of justice in the wider political arena. The author sets forth a …

Threats And Bullying By Prosecutors, Bennett L. Gershman

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Class-Action Tolling, Federal Common Law, And Securities Statutes Of Repose: A Recommendation, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Essay focuses on a narrow, but potentially outcome-determinative, question: Does the filing of a securities class action toll the three-year outer time limit applicable to claims under sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act and the five-year outer time limit applicable to claims under section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act, such that potential class members—after a decision on class certification—can assert an individual federal action, even if those outer time limits would have elapsed absent tolling? There is currently a circuit split on this issue, with the Tenth Circuit answering “yes” and the Second Circuit answering “no.” …

The Significance And Impact Of Price Distortion And The Fraud-On-The-Market Theory After Halliburton Ii, Charles W. Murdock

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This past summer, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. (“Halliburton II”), in which the Court held that a defendant may establish lack of price impact at the certification stage to establish a lack of reliance based upon the fraud-on-the-market theory. This was the third decision in three years dealing with the fraud-on-the-market approach to establishing commonality with respect to reliance by plaintiffs on management’s misrepresentations. In so doing, the Supreme Court retained market efficiency as an element of the fraud-on-the-market theory, but also reflected a broader and less restrictive …

Navigating Alternatives To Securities Fraud Class Actions: State Law And Opt-Out Litigation, Jeffrey Paul Mahoney

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Securities Litigation As A Window Into Supreme Court Litigation, Thomas Goldstein

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Implications For Market Efficiency And Damages Analysis Of Plaintiff Interpretations Of Halliburton Ii's Statement That "Market Efficiency Is A Matter Of Degree", David Tabak

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

On June 23, 2014, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. (“Halliburton II”) that prior case law “affords defendants an opportunity to rebut the presumption by showing, among other things, that the particular misrepresentation at issue did not affect the stock’s market price.”1 While this has generally been considered the key holding, it has not gone unnoticed that the Court affirmed its prior ruling in Basic, Inc. v. Levinson,2 mentioning that the “presumption of reliance thus does not rest on a ‘binary’ view of market efficiency”3 and, referring to the Brief for …

Improving Hipaa Enforcement And Protecting Patient Privacy In A Digital Healthcare Environment, Roger Hsieh

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Electronic medical records (“EMRs”) have helped healthcare organizations improve patient care, but EMRs are susceptible to exposing the confidentiality of patients’ medical records to identity thieves and members of the general public. The federal enforcement of patient privacy law—notably the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), which was designed to deter and punish breaches of patient privacy—has failed to keep pace with new privacy risks posed by healthcare technology. Although federal legislation now allows state Attorneys General to file suit under HIPAA, for reasons explained in this Article, they too will not enforce HIPAA effectively. Because institutional enforcement of …

A Test By Any Other Name: The Influence Of Justice Breyer's Concurrence In Kiobel V. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., Alex S. Moe

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., the Supreme Court applied the presumption against extraterritorial application to the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”). In doing so, the Court undermined the generally accepted view of the ATS: that it could apply to actions abroad. Applying this presumption severely limited the factual circumstances that could produce a viable ATS claim. The majority opinion carved an exception, permitting extraterritorial ATS claims that “touch and concern” the United States, but declined to set more specific guidelines. In the absence of such guidelines, lower courts have applied the presumption in an overbroad fashion, barring claims that …

Around The World Of Securities Fraud In Eighty Motions To Dismiss, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cracks In The Ivory Tower: How The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act Can Protect Students From Sexual Assault, Lauren P. Schroeder

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Sexual assault is a pervasive problem on college campuses, yet colleges and universities are frequently criticized for their failure to address it. As a result, Congress passed the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (“Campus SaVE Act”) in 2013. The Campus SaVE Act aims to address the unique needs of victims of sexual assault on college campuses by adding much needed protections for students, such as mandating increased reporting of crime statistics. Moreover, the Act helps students by requiring schools to create plans to prevent this violence, to educate victims on their rights and resources, and to detail processes that are …

Keeping Trolls Out Of Courts And Out Of Pocket: Expanding The Inequitable Conduct Doctrine, Giordana Mahn

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Patent Asserting Entities (“PAEs”), often compared with the mythological troll who lurks under a bridge it did not build, demanding payment from anybody who wants to pass, are criticized for their business model as a type of “holdup” on innovation. They wait until a practicing entity infringes, then demand payment for technology that they did not create. Their critics charge PAEs with stifling innovation, crippling research and development, and chilling healthy competition. And although the courts, Congress, and government agencies identified PAEs as an issue since their recent emergence, current patent laws are ill-suited to limit PAE litigation and combat …

Undead Statutes: The Rise, Fall, And Continuing Uses Of Adultery And Fornication Criminal Laws, Joanne Sweeny Dr.

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Cohabitation is a reality for a majority of Americans. Nonmonogamous relationships are increasing over time, yet having a sexual relationship outside of marriage is illegal in a surprising number of states. Conservative groups or politicians also occasionally champion these laws, ensuring their longevity. This enduring conflict of values between the majority and a vocal minority is part of a cultural trend that has existed for centuries. From colonial times to the present, adultery and fornication laws have gone from being the most prolifically enforced to being virtually ignored by prosecutors and held to be unconstitutional invasions of privacy by judges. …