Law Commons^™

Dr. Mudd And The Lincoln Assassination: The Case Reopened, John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fourth Circuit Finds University Of Maryland Minority Scholarship Program Unconstitutional, Podberesky V. Kirwan, 38 F.3d 147 (4th Cir. 1994), Kimberly J. Robinson

Law Faculty Publications

The use of minority scholarships to create a diverse student body and to remedy past discrimination has been the subject of considerable controversy in recent years. Although such scholarships constitute a small percentage of financial aid for higher education, opponents of minority scholarships argue that they unfairly discriminate against non-minority students on the basis of race. In Podberesky v. Kirwan, the Fourth Circuit held that the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) denied Daniel Podberesky, a Hispanic/white student, equal protection of the laws by excluding him from consideration for the race-based Benjamin Banneker Scholarship Program. The program, the court …

Judge William W. Schwarzer And Automatic Disclosure, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Tribute to Senior United States District Judge William W. Schwarzer upon his retirement as Director of the Federal Judicial Center.

Refining The Government Relations Program: The Final Report Of The Task Force On Aall's Government Relations Activities, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

During the summer of 1993, Kay Todd, President Elect of the American Association of Law Libraries, named a special task force to review the Association's government relations activities, presenting it with a goal of achieving a better coordination of such activities. The charges to the Task Force on AALL's Government Relations Activities and the processes that the Task Force utilized in fulfilling these charges are outlined in the final and interim reports of the Task Force, which follow this introduction. The Interim Report of the Task Force was submitted to the AALL Executive Board prior to its April 1994 meeting …

The Impoverished Idea Of Circuit-Splitting, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Senators representing every state in the latest iteration of the projected Twelfth Circuit recently revived the idea by introducing Senate Bill 956, a proposal that closely resembles a measure debated by Congress in 1990. The new bill's sponsors contend that certain factors, principally the Ninth Circuit's substantial size and burgeoning docket, have now made division of the court imperative.

This Article initially describes the origins and development of the proposed legislation. It then assesses the measure and arguments for and against dividing the Ninth Circuit. I find that there is no greater need for bifurcation now than before and that …

Much Ado About Nothing: Achieving "Essential" Negotiability In An Electronic Environment, David Frisch

Law Faculty Publications

The approach adopted here is both historical and analytical. Part II of this Article describes the historical development of assignment law, and demonstrates that it parallels a more general shift of the law away from physical conceptions of property. It concludes that although a paper-based document may still be a practical requirement, there is no longer a valid theoretical justification for not making the law of negotiable instruments media neutral. In Part III we survey the features of negotiable instrument law and compare it generally with the law of assignments. This comparison suggests that the most striking substantive difference between …

Extending The Civil Justice Reform Act Of 1990, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The passage of the Judicial Amendments act of 1994 postponed several key implementation deadlines prescribed by the Civil Justice Reform Act (CJRA) of 1990. Perhaps most significantly, the new legislation extends for one year the mid-1995 date when the RAND Corporation, which is studying ten pilot districts' experimentation with cost and delay reduction procedures, must submit its conclusions to the Judicial Conference of the United States. Numerous compelling arguments supported congressional postponement of this deadline. Most importantly, the RAND Corporation can now capture much additional data, which are critical to assessing accurately the procedures' effectiveness in decreasing expense and delay, …

The Last-In-Time Marriage Presumption, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

The typical scenario for the last-in-time marriage presumption is not as unusual as one might expect: A husband (or wife) has unexpectedly died, and the bereaved surviving spouse is in the process of bringing a legal proceeding that may include a probate action, a wrongful death action, a suit for social security benefits, a workers' compensation action, a life insurance action, or another legal action for related compensatory, probate, or insurance benefits. However, during the pendency of these actions a former wife comes forward, claiming that she has never been divorced from her deceased spouse and that she, rather than …

The Business Of The Supreme Court Revisited, John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

Nearly seventy years after its publication, Prof. Jones revisits Felix Frankfurter and James McCauley Landis' seminal 1928 book.

Manuscript Selection Anti-Manifesto, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Joining a conversation begun by James Lindgren, An Author's Manifesto, 61 U. Chi. L. Rev. 527 (1994), Prof. Tobias discusses the process of submission, review, and editorial work on articles published in student-edited law reviews.

An Author's Manifesto (Manifesto) constructively criticizes the amazingly arcane process of law review publication and affords salient suggestions for its improvement. The essay treats two aspects of this process-the selection of manuscripts and the editing of articles which sustain that venerable institution: student-edited law journals. Manifesto regales readers with many terrible tales of travesties which involve article editing but recounts comparatively few sordid stories that …

Common Sense And Other Legal Reforms, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Enactment of Congress' proposed Common Sense Legal Reforms Act (CSLRA) would impose procedural and substantive reforms that could significantly affect much federal civil litigation and could have substantial systemic impacts on the civil justice process. For instance, the measure's advocates drafted and introduced the proposed legislation with little apparent appreciation for how it might conflict with a number of ongoing public and private reform initiatives, such as an earlier Congress's Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 and the American Law Institute's efforts to adopt a Third Restatement of Torts governing products liability.

The bill's enactment, therefore, could additionally complicate the …

Introduction: Policy In The Wake Of The Kepone Incident, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

The goal of this panel was to examine the policies formed in the wake of the Kepone incident: the environmental laws, the regulations and policies that are designed to safeguard our natural resources to ensure that incidents such as the Kepone incident do not reoccur and if they do, to hold those responsible for environmental damage accountable for their actions.

Resolving Still Unresolved Issues Of Bankruptcy Law: A Fence Or An Ambulance, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

Congress established a Bankruptcy Review Commission ("'Commission") when it enacted the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994. Although the Commission is empowered to review the Bankruptcy Code and make recommendations based upon its findings and conclusions, its focus is directed toward making suggestions that do not disturb the fundamental principles and balance of current law. Instead, the stated purposes of the Commission are: ( 1) to investigate and study issues and problems relating to title 11, United States Code (commonly known as the "'Bankruptcy Code"); (2) to evaluate the advisability of proposals and current arrangements with respect to such issues and …

Suggestions For Circuit Court Review Of Local Procedures, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

During the 1980s, both the Judicial Conference of the United States, which is the policy-making arm of the federal courts, and Congress evinced increasing concern about the proliferation of local civil procedures, such as local rules and the procedures that individual judges apply The Judicial Conference and Congress were particularly troubled by those local procedural requirements that conflicted with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Federal Rules) or provisions of the United States Code.

In 1986, the Judicial Conference commissioned the Local Rules Project to collect and organize all local rules, standing orders of individual judges, and other local procedural …

Automatic Disclosure And Disuniformity In The Ninth Circuit, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The 1993 amendment to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1) imposes automatic disclosure and is the most controversial formal proposal to revise the Federal Rules ever developed. The provision requires litigants to divulge information that is important to their cases before commencing formal discovery. The amendment also permits all ninety-four federal districts to vary the revision or to reject it completely. Moreover, judges and parties in specific cases may modify any disclosure requirements adopted by the districts.

The amendment has remained controversial since it became effective on December 1, 1993. Less than a majority of districts subscribe to the Federal …

Participant Compensation In The Clinton Administration, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

A half-decade ago in the pages of this journal, I suggested that the Bush Administration, the federal administrative agencies, and Congress seriously consider revitalizing participant compensation. Participant compensation is the agency payment of expenses that members of the public incur when they are involved in administrative proceedings. Initiatives in the executive and legislative branches supported my recommendation that both branches revive this valuable mechanism for facilitating citizen participation in agency processes.

Much to my chagrin, the Bush Administration neither introduced legislation which would have specifically authorized participant compensation nor suggested that agencies rely on their implied authority to reimburse parties, …

A Salute To Judge William W. Schwarzer, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Tribute to Senior United States District Judge William W. Schwarzer upon his retirement as Director of the Federal Judicial Center

An Update On The 1993 Federal Rules Amendments And The Montana Civil Rules, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Tobias' recommendations to the Montana Supreme Court regarding the newly amended F.R.C.P. Rules 11 and 26.

Northern Rockies Report On 1994 Natural Resources Legislation, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

I want to report on certain political developments in the Big Sky states which will help to illuminate why 1994 was such a dismal year for national legislation relating to Montana natural resources by emphasizing the ongoing wilderness debate. Representative Pat Williams (D-Mont.), who fist won election to the House of Representatives in 1978, developed, introduced and skillfully shepherded through the House a wilderness bill that would have created approximately 1.7 million acres of new wilderness. The legislation would also have released much land for multiple use, particularly for resource development, and would have designated considerable additional acreage for further …

The Judicial Amendments Act Of 1994, Carl W. Tobias, Margaret L. Sanner

Law Faculty Publications

This 1995 essay briefly examines the Judicial Amendments Act of 1994 in an attempt to familiarize federal court judges, lawyers and parties, as well as other individuals and entities that may be interested in the operations of the courts, with the enactment.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1994-95), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 1995 Session of the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia. In addition to this legislation, there were five Supreme Court of Virginia opinions and one Fourth Circuit opinion in the year ending June 1, 1995 that involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article analyzes each of these legislative and judicial developments.

Recent Case: Fourth Circuit Finds University Of Maryland Minority Scholarship Program Unconstitutional, Podberesky V. Kirwan, 38 F.3d 147 (4th Cir. 1994), Kimberly J. Robinson

Law Faculty Publications

In Podberesky v. Kirwan,4 the Fourth Circuit held that the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) denied Daniel Podberesky, a Hispanic/white student, equal protection of the laws by excluding him from consideration for the race-based Benjamin Banneker Scholarship Program. The program, the court held, was not narrowly tailored to remedy past discrimination at the University. In its analysis, however, the court applied only a portion of the applicable legal standard. A proper analysis of the program using the factors set forth in United States v. Paradise would have demonstrated that the program was narrowly tailored to address the racial …

The Second Adoption Of The Establishment Clause: The Rise Of The Non-Establishment Principle, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

In the 70 years since Gitlow first incorporated the First Amendment protections of speech and press against the states, the Establishment Clause has been a boon to incorporation's enemies and an embarrassment to its friends. Scholars who make the historical case for general incorporation either ignore, or carefully distinguish, the case of the Establishment Clause. Anti-incorporationists, on the other hand, use the case against incorporation of the Establishment Clause as their cause celebre. In fact, so wonderfully ambiguous is the history surrounding this opening line of the Bill of Rights that originalists use it to attack incorporation, and nonoriginalists use …

Toward A Sustainable Urbanism: Lessons From Federal Regulation Of Urban Stormwater Runoff, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This Article focuses on the particularly vexing challenge of forging a sustainable urbanism in Edge Cities and analyzes regulatory attempts to control urban stormwater runoff. If our task is to "describe the natural world and to evaluate our actions toward it in ways that presuppose ... [a] community between nature and mankind," we must also characterize and address this source of considerable pollution, which originates from thousands of dispersed locations. Unfortunately, environmental protection efforts have only begun to address the pollution of urban stormwater runoffs. Parts II and III of this Article detail these largely unsuccessful attempts and conclude that …

Increasing Balance On The Federal Bench, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

In President Bill Clinton's first year of service, he nominated unprecedented numbers and percentages of highly qualified women and minorities to the federal judiciary. The Clinton Administration correspondingly employed an effective process for choosing potential jurists that generated relatively little controversy.

Some wondered whether President Clinton could improve his first year judicial selection record during his second year in office, especially given the number of international conflicts and pressing domestic matters that faced the Administration. These complications threatened to deflect the Administration's attention from naming judges.

Now that the 103d Congress has adjourned and President Clinton has reached mid-term, the …

Marriage And Divorce: Legal Foundations, Azizah Y. Al-Hibri

Law Faculty Publications

This unique reference is a comprehensive encyclopedia dedicated to the institutions, religion, politics, and culture in Muslim societies throughout the world. Placing particular emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World contains over 750 articles in four volumes on Muslims in the Arab heartland as well as South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

An invaluable resource, the Encyclopedia offers extensive comparative and systematic analyses of Islamic beliefs, institutions, movements, practices, and peoples on an international scale. The alphabetically arranged articles range from brief 500-word essays to major interpretive and synthetic treatment …

Welfare Reform, Child Care Costs, And Taxes: Delivering Increased Work-Related Child Care Benefits To Low-Income Families, Mary L. Heen

Law Faculty Publications

This Article focuses specifically on.tax-transfer integration of work-related child care assistance. Part I discusses the current child care assistance available to low-income workers through direct transfer programs and through the income tax system. Part II describes the need for increased child care funding and the failure of current welfare reform proposals to meet that need. Part III examines the theoretical and practical issues that must be addressed before the tax system is used as a mechanism for delivering increased child care assistance. to low-income families. Part IV critiques a proposed funding mechanism that would redirect tax benefits to lower income …

Stuck Inside The Heartland With Those Coastline Clerking Blues Again, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Circuit Judge Edward Becker, and Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi deserve kudos for helping to craft, implement, and publicize an efficacious solution to the increasing difficulties engendered by the selection of federal judicial law clerks. The jurists' essay, The Federal Judicial Law Clerk Hiring Problem and the Modest March 1 Solution, which recently appeared in the Yale Law Journal, is a must read for all those who participate in the process of law clerk hiring.

The concerted efforts of Justice Breyer and Judges Becker and Calabresi have apparently succeeded in bringing considerable order out of chaos, …

Refining Federal Civil Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 (CJRA) has reached the mid-point of its implementation nationally and in the Montana Federal District Court. At this juncture, one of the most important aspects of statutory effectuation is evaluation of the experimentation that federal district courts have conducted under the legislation. The timing is particularly propitious in the Montana federal district because the court recently completed the annual assessment of statutory implementation that the CJRA requires. These developments in civil justice reform, particularly relating to evaluation of the experimentation which has occurred, warrant examination. This Article undertakes that effort.

The Article first …

Losing The Littoral Zone, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Review of John Stilgoe, Alongshore (1994)