Law Commons^™

December 4, 2016: The Supreme Court And Politics, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Supreme Court and Politics“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 10, 2016: Don’T Forget That The Game Is Still Rigged, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Don’t Forget that the Game is Still Rigged“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Brief Of The National Association For Public Defense As Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioner, Christensen V. United States Of America (U.S. November 7, 2016) (No. 16-461)., Janet Moore

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

The jury is essential to our structure of government, available to criminal defendants as the final arbiter of guilt. As this Court has recognized time and again, the jury serves an important role both structurally within the balance of powers and as a check on governmental power, adding a layer of protection for individual defendants.

The rule applied by the Ninth Circuit and some other courts, allowing dismissal of a holdout juror if a judge sees no reasonable possibility that his view is connected to the merits of the case, threatens the fundamental role of the jury. In contrast to …

Brief Of Interested Law Professors As Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioner, Edward A. Zelinsky

Amicus Briefs

Amici curiae are 14 professors of law who have devoted much of their teaching and research to the area of state taxes and the role of state tax policy in our federal system. The names and affiliations (for identification purposes only) of amici are included in an addendum to this brief. The amici are concerned with the effect of this Court’s dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence on the development of fair and efficient state tax systems. No decision of this Court has had more effect on state sales and use tax systems than Quill Corporation v. North Dakota. We believe …

Should We Presume State Protection?, James C. Hathaway, Audrey Macklin

Articles

Professors Hathaway and Macklin debate the legality of the “presumption of state protection” that the Supreme Court of Canada established as a matter of Canadian refugee law in the Ward decision. Professor Hathaway argues that this presumption should be rejected because it lacks a sound empirical basis and because it conflicts with the relatively low evidentiary threshold set by the Refugee Convention’s “well-founded fear” standard. Professor Macklin contends that the Ward presumption does not in and of itself impose an unduly onerous burden on claimants, and that much of the damage wrought by the presumption comes instead from misinterpretation and …

October 27, 2016: Republicans About To Practice Supreme Court Shutdown, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Republicans About to Practice Supreme Court Shutdown“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Brief Of The National Association For Public Defense As Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioner, Bridgeman V. District Attorney For Suffolk District, 476 Mass. 298 (2016) (No. Sjc-12157)., Janet Moore

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

As the highest courts in Florida, Missouri, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania have demonstrated, systemic relief is necessary and appropriate to cure systemic failures that deny access to courts by imposing overwhelming demands on struggling public defense systems. Government misconduct created exactly that type of constitutional crisis by flooding the Commonwealth’s criminal legal system with 24,000 Dookhan cases. New revelations of even more corruption in the Commonwealth’s forensic sciences system are now anticipated to exacerbate that crisis by adding another 18,000 Farak wrongful-conviction cases. At the same time, the District Attorneys have undermined progress on fair, reliable case-by-case resolution of …

Fundamental Differences: How The Legal Lineage Of Obergefell Can Help Us Frame A Response To It, Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Yelnosky On Ginsburg's Trump Comments 7/14/2016, Edward Fitzpatrick, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Slides: Learning From Drought Crises In Federations: Principles, Indicators And Lessons Learned, Lucia De Stefano, Dustin Garrick, Daniel Connell

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Presenters:

Lucia De Stefano, Complutense Universidad de Madrid

Dustin Garrick, McMaster University/University of Oxford

Daniel Connell, Australia National University

27 slides

Slides: The São Francisco Water Basin - Brazil, Vanessa Empinotti

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Presenter: Vanessa Empinotti, Federal University of ABC – UFABC, Brazil

20 slides

Constitutional Personhood, Zoe Robinson

College of Law Faculty

Over the past decade, in a variety of high-profile cases, the Supreme Court has grappled with difficult questions as to the constitutional personhood of a variety of claimants. Of most note are the recent corporate constitutional personhood claims that the protections of the First Amendment Speech and Religion Clauses extend to corporate entities. Corporate constitutional personhood, however, is only a small slice of a broader constitutional question about who or what is entitled to claim the protection of any given constitutional right. Beyond corporations, courts are being asked to answer very real questions about a person’s constitutional status: Do aliens …

Law Professors Want Hearing, Vote On Garland, Eric Berger, Kristen M. Blankley, Brian H. Bornstein, Eve M. Brank, Robert C. Denicola, Alan H. Frank, Stephen S. Gealy, Justin Hurwitz, David Landis, Craig M. Lawson, Richard Leiter, William H. Lyons, Richard H. Lawson, Matt Novak, Allen Overcash, Stefanie S. Pearlman, Ross Pesek, Kevin Ruser, Robert F. Schopp, Anthony Schutz, Anna Williams Shavers, Brett C. Stohs, Ryan Sullivan, Richard L. Weiner, Steven L. Willborn, Sandra Zellmer

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Dear Senator Fischer and Senator Sasse,

We write this as citizens, but we all teach at the University of Nebraska College of Law. We hold different political viewpoints and disagree frequentIy with each other on political and legal issues. As law professors, however, we share a deep commitment to the rule of law and an impartial judiciary. We therefore urge you to hold confirmation hearings and a vote on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland.

Choosing A Criminal Procedure Casebook: On Lesser Evils And Free Books, Ben L. Trachtenberg

Faculty Publications

Among the more important decisions a law teacher makes when preparing a new course is what materials to assign. Criminal procedure teachers are spoiled for choice, with legal publishers offering several options written by teams of renowned scholars. This Article considers how a teacher might choose from the myriad options available and suggests two potentially overlooked criteria: weight and price.

March 25, 2016: Religious Exemptions, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Religious Exemptions“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Top Five Supreme Court Nomination Myths, Paul M. Collins Jr., Lori A. Ringhand

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

What Two Legal Scholars Learned From Studying 70 Years Of Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings, Lori A. Ringhand, Paul Collins

Popular Media

This article in The Conversation on March 21, 2016 and moves beyond the conventional wisdom espoused by Biden, Kagan and others, and presents a strong case for an alternative view of the hearings. Examining every statement made at confirmation hearings from 1939 to 2010, we conclude the hearings are important to the health of American democracy. Based on this, we’d like to see partisan politics pushed aside and Judge Merrick Garland to get a hearing.

Legal Scholarship Spotlight: The Evolution Of Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings, Lori A. Ringhand, Paul Collins

Popular Media

This article appearing at the SCOTUSblog on March 25, 2016, discusses the role of the Senate Judiciary Committee plays in the nomination of Supreme Court Justices.

Newsroom: Yelnosky On Passing Of Justice Scalia 02-24-2016, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

On The Record: The Disastrous Decisions Of The Republican Nominees To The U.S. Supreme Court, Jana Nestlerode

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

February 16, 2016:Does The Constitution Protect The Right To Have More Than One Child?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Does the Constitution Protect the Right to Have More than One Child?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Newsroom: A True Original(Ist) 02-15-2016, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

February 14, 2016: Was Scalia A Great Justice?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Was Scalia a Great Justice?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Trending @ Rwu Law: Professor Tanya Monestier's Post: Is Corporate Registration A Proper Basis For General Jurisdiction?: 02-09-2016, Tanya Monestier

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Anthony Amsterdam's Perspectives On The Fourth Amendment, And What It Teaches About The Good And Bad In Rodriguez V. United States, Tracey Maclin

Faculty Scholarship

Anthony Amsterdam’s article, Perspectives On The Fourth Amendment is one of the best, if not the best, law review article written on the Fourth Amendment. Thus, Minnesota Law Review on its hundredth anniversary fittingly recognizes and honors Professor Amsterdam’s article in its Symposium edition, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Celebrating 100 Volumes of the Minnesota Law Review.” I am flattered that the Law Review invited me to participate in this Symposium.

Specifically, my article connects two perspectives from Amsterdam’s article — the Fourth Amendment’s concern with discretionary police power and the Framers’ vision of the Fourth Amendment to bar …

January 9, 2016: Lessons From New York, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Lessons from New York“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Fourth Chief Justice Of The United States, John Marshall, Meagan Schantz

Writing Across the Curriculum

The fourth Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall (1755-1835), served thirty-four years (1801-1835) in the United States Supreme Court. During his term, Marshall established a stable foundation for the United States Judiciary, which in turn increased the role and scope of the federal government. Marshall’s life and achievements are documented in the biography, The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law by Charles F. Hobson, the editor of The Papers of John Marshall.

Justice Harlan's Enduring Importance For Current Civil Liberties Issues, From Marriage Equality To Dragnet Nsa Surveillance, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Quiet Revolution In Induced Patent Infringement, Timothy R. Holbrook

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court over the last decade or so has reengaged with patent law. While much attention has been paid to the Court’s reworking of what constitutes patent-eligible subject matter and enhancing tools to combat “patent trolls,” what many have missed is the Court’s reworking of the contours of active inducement of patent infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b). The Court has taken the same number of § 271(b) cases as subject matter eligibility cases—four. Yet this reworking has not garnered much attention in the literature. This Article offers the first comprehensive assessment of the Court’s efforts to define active …

Ferc V. Epsa And The Path To A Cleaner Electricity Sector, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the impact of FERC v. Electric Power Supply Association, in which the Supreme Court upheld FERC’s demand response rule (Order 745) and confirmed FERC’s authority over “practices” “directly affecting” wholesale rates for electricity. It contends that the Supreme Court made a definitive pronouncement on FERC’s authority over end users of electricity who also provide resources back to the electric grid. It also contends that FERC v. EPSA marks the end of “dual federalism” in electricity law that treated federal and state jurisdiction as separate and distinct spheres of authority. Instead, it posits a new era of concurrent …