Law Commons^™

Platform Pleading: Analyzing Employment Disputes In The Technology Sector, Joseph Seiner

Faculty Publications

The technology sector has created thousands of new jobs for workers across the country in an emerging multi-billion dollar industry. Many companies in this platform-based sector are attempting to characterize their workers as independent contractors rather than employees, thus stripping them of both federal and state workplace protections—including the right to bargain collectively, receive fair compensation, and avoid discrimination. The federal courts, which have always grappled with the question of worker classification, are now struggling to define employment with respect to these gig sector jobs. The result has been scattered court decisions with inconsistent and conflicting analyses.

This Essay seeks …

The Great Unfulfilled Promise Of Tinker, Mary-Rose Papandrea

Faculty Publications

The most famous line from Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District is that “[i]t can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” 393 U.S. 503, 506. People who know only this line from Tinker—and the victory it gave to the Vietnam-war protesting students—likely think of it as an incredibly speech-protective decision. It turns out that although Tinker contains lofty language about the importance of student speech rights, it sowed the seeds for the erosion of those very same rights. In the past …

Educational Gerrymandering: Money, Motives, And Constitutional Rights, Derek Black

Faculty Publications

Public school funding plummeted following the Great Recession and failed to recover over the next decade, prompting strikes and protests across the nation. Courts did almost nothing to stop the decline. While a majority of state supreme courts recognize a constitutional right to an adequate or equal education, they increasingly struggle to enforce the right. That right could be approaching a tipping point. Either it evolves, or risks becoming irrelevant.

In the past, courts have focused almost exclusively on the adequacy and equity of funding for at-risk students, demanding that states provide more resources. Courts have failed to ask the …

Pay Now, Play Later?: Youth And Adolescent Collision Sports, Vivian E. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

The routine and repeated head impacts experienced by athletes in a range of sports can inflict microscopic brain injuries that accumulate over time, even in the absence of concussion. Indeed, cumulative exposure to head impacts—not number of concussions—is the strongest predictor of sports-related degenerative brain disease in later life. The observable symptoms of disease appear years or decades after initial injury and resemble those of other mental-health conditions such as depression and dementia. The years-long interval between earlier, seemingly minor, head impacts and later brain disease has long obscured the connection between the two.

Risk of injury differs across demographics, …

Virtual Briefing At The Supreme Court, Jeffrey L. Fisher, Allison Orr Larsen

Faculty Publications

The open secret of Supreme Court advocacy in a digital era is that there is a new way to argue to the Justices. Today's Supreme Court arguments are developed online: they are dissected and explored in blog posts, fleshed out in popular podcasts, and analyzed and re-analyzed by experts who do not represent the parties or have even filed a brief in the case at all. This "virtual briefing" (as we call it) is intended to influence the Justices and their law clerks but exists completely outside of traditional briefing rules. This article describes virtual briefing and makes a case …

How Can Congress Prevent The Issuance Of Poor Quality Patents? Questions For The Record For Colleen V. Chien, Colleen V. Chien

Faculty Publications

This is a submission of responses by Prof. Colleen Chien to questions for the record posed by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) at a October 30th hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, entitled, "Promoting the Useful Arts: How can Congress prevent the issuance of poor quality patents?"

The Quiet Undoing: How Regional Electricity Market Reforms Threaten Clean Energy Goals, Shelley Welton, Danny Cullenward

Faculty Publications

In a series of largely unnoticed but extremely consequential moves, two regional electricity market operators are pursuing reforms to make it more difficult for states to achieve their clean energy goals. The federal energy regulator, FERC, has already approved one such reform and ordered a second market operator to go farther in punishing state-supported clean energy resources than it had initially proposed. In this Essay, we bring to light the ways in which the intricate, technical reforms underway in regional electricity markets threaten state climate change objectives and the durability of FERC’s regional market constructs. If FERC allows private market …

The Right To Evidence Of Innocence Before Pleading Guilty, Colin Miller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Rule Of Law Collaborative: A Center For Practical, Interdisciplinary Research, And Engagement On Pressing Rule Of Law Issues Around The World, Joel H. Samuels

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Information Asymmetry And The Protection Of Ordinary Investors, Kevin S. Haeberle

Faculty Publications

To some, the reductions in information asymmetry provided by the main securities-specific disclosure, fraud, and insider-trading laws help ordinary investors in meaningful ways. To others, whatever their larger social value, such reductions do little, if anything for these investors. For decades, these two sides of this investor-protection divide have mostly talked past each other.

This Article builds on economic theory to reveal something striking: The reductions in information asymmetry provided by the core securities laws likely impose a long-overlooked cost on buy-and-hold ordinary investors. More specifically, I explain why there is much reason to believe that the reductions take away …

Fourth Amendment Textualism, Jeffrey Bellin

Faculty Publications

The Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of “unreasonable searches” is one of the most storied constitutional commands Yet after decades of Supreme Court jurisprudence, a coherent definition of the term “search” remains surprisingly elusive Even the justices know they have a problem Recent opinions only halfheartedly apply the controlling “reasonable expectation of privacy” test and its wildly unpopular cousin, “third-party doctrine,” with a few justices in open revolt.

These fissures hint at the Court’s openness to a new approach Unfortunately, no viable alternatives appear on the horizon The justices themselves offer little in the way of a replacement And scholars’ proposals exhibit …

Liability For Ai Decision-Making: Some Legal And Ethical Considerations, Iria Giuffrida

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

References To Movies In Judicial Opinions And Written Advocacy, Part 2, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

In the Journal’s September- October issue, Part I of this article sampled recent federal and state judicial opinions that cite themes, scenes, or characters from movies listed on the American Film Institute (AFI) “100 Greatest American Films of All Time.” This Part II picks up where Part I left off. The discussion below samples recent judicial opinions that cite other well-known movies that have captivated American audiences without winning places on the “100 Greatest” list. Part II concludes by explaining why brief writers should feel comfortable following the judges’ lead by carefully using movie references to help make written substantive …

Murr V. Wisconsin And The Inherent Limits Of Regulatory Takings, Lynda L. Butler

Faculty Publications

This article examines the confusion surrounding constitutional protection of property under the substantive due process and takings clauses, using Murr as a springboard for reconsidering the substantive due process/takings distinction and asking whether the regulatory takings doctrine should remain a viable constitutional concept despite its muddled principles. While powerful reasons support treating as compensable economic regulations that are functionally equivalent to physical takings, important differences between physical and regulatory takings need to be recognized as limits to the degree of equivalence possible and therefore to the regulatory takings doctrine. A look back at the evolutionary paths of substantive due process, …

It's Not The Robot's Fault! Russian And American Perspectives On Responsibility For Robot Harms, Bryant Walker Smith, Andrey Neznamov

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assumptions About Terrorism And The Brandenburg Incitement Test, Christina E. Wells

Faculty Publications

The incitement standard announced in Brandenburg v. Ohio is one of the most familiar tests in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence. It prohibits government officials from punishing advocacy of illegal activity unless it is directed and likely to imminently incite such activity. Brandenburg's standard has become a pillar of free speech law, allowing government officials to protect public safety by punishing only speech intended and likely to create an imminent danger of harm, while protecting even the most abhorrent of speakers from suppression of their speech simply because government officials fear or dislike it. Terrorist advocacy, however, is putting pressure on …

Responsible Devolution Of Affordable Housing, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

The federal government has been heavily involved in promoting housing affordability since the 1930s and continues to have a critical role to play. Over the past several decades, the federal government has financed affordability by promoting development and income subsidies, but specific allocation decisions have devolved. Housing inequities can best be addressed locally, but only if localities are held to high standards of fairness and regional coordination is facilitated. Successful and sustainable local solutions to housing affordability will also require a substantial financial investment, one that the federal government can and should reliably and adequately provide. Each year, Congress permits …

(Under)Enforcement Of Poor Tenants' Rights, Kathryn A. Sabbeth

Faculty Publications

Millions of tenants in the United States reside in substandard housing conditions ranging from toxic mold to the absence of heat, running water, or electricity. These conditions constitute blatant violations of law. The failure to maintain housing in habitable condition can violate the warranty of habitability, common law torts, and, in some cases, consumer protection and antidiscrimination statutes. Well-settled doctrine allows for tenants’ private rights of action and government enforcement. Yet the laws remain underenforced.

This Article demonstrates that the reason for the underenforcement is that the tenants are poor. While the right to safe housing extends to all tenants, …

A Tax On The Clones: The Strange Case Of Bitcoin Cash, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Public Or Private Venture Capital?, Darian M. Ibrahim

Faculty Publications

The United States has an unparalled entrepreneurial ecosystem. Silicon Valley startups commercialize cutting-edge science, create plentiful jobs, and spur economic growth. Without angel investors and venture capital funds (VCs) willing to gamble on these high-risk, high-tech companies, none of this would be possible.

From a law-and-economics perspective, startup investing is incredibly risky. Information asymmetry and agency costs abound. In the United States, angels and VCs successfully mitigate these problems through private ordering and informal means. Countries without the robust private venture capital system that exists in the United States have attempted to fund startups publicly by creating junior stock exchanges …

Out Of The Quandary: Personal Jurisdiction Over Absent Class Member Claims Explained, A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

Since the Supreme Court's decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, San Francisco County, litigants and lower courts have wrestled with the issue of whether a federal court must be able to exercise personal jurisdiction with respect to each of the claims asserted by absent class members in a class action and, if so, what standard governs that jurisdictional determination. This issue is rapidly coming to a head and is poised for inevitable resolution by the Supreme Court in the near future; multiple circuit courts have heard appeals from district courts that have reached varying conclusions on …

"Surviving Through Together": Hunger, Poverty And Persistence In High Point, North Carolina, Heather Hunt, Gene R. Nichol

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Patent Litigation: Institutions, Processes, And Procedures, Bernhard Ganglmair, Christian Helmers, Brian Love

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Patent Litigation: Theory, Bernhard Ganglmair, Christian Helmers, Brian Love

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Patent Litigation: Data Access And Construction, Bernhard Ganglmair, Christian Helmers, Brian Love

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Patent Litigation: Empirical Analysis, Bernhard Ganglmair, Christian Helmers, Brian Love

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Myth Of Common Law Crimes, Carissa Byrne Hessick

Faculty Publications

Conventional wisdom tells us that, after the United States was founded, we replaced our system of common law crimes with criminal statutes and that this shift from common law to codification vindicated important rule-of-law values. But this origin story is false on both counts. The common law continues to play an important role in modern American criminal law, and to the extent that it has been displaced by statutes, our justice system has not improved. Criminal statutes regularly delegate questions about the scope of criminal law to prosecutors, and judges have failed to serve as a check on that power. …

Bar Bytes: Social Media Benefits, Risks, And Best Practices, Eve Ross

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

References To Movies In Judicial Opinions And Written Advocacy, Part 1, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

In opinions in cases with no claims or defenses concerning movies or the movie industry, trial and appellate judges often help explain substantive or procedural points, or help embellish the discussion, with references to themes, scenes, or characters from well-known films that have held Americans’ attention. Sometimes the reference appears in an opinion of the court, and sometimes it appears in a concurring or dissenting opinion.

Contract Law And The Liberalism Of Fear, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

Liberalism’s concern with human freedom seems related to contractual freedom and thus contract law. There are, however, many strands of liberal thought and which of them best justifies contract is a difficult question. In The Choice Theory of Contracts, Hanoch Dagan and Michael Heller offer a vision of contract based on autonomy. Drawing on the work of Joseph Raz, they argue that extending autonomy should be the law’s primary concern, which requires that we extend the range of contractual choices available. While there is much to admire in their work, I argue that autonomy as conceived by Dagan and Heller …