Law Commons^™

Accommodating The Public Sphere: Beyond The Market Model, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Essay has two major components. First, in Parts I and II, I describe and critique the Court's opinion in Dale, beginning with an examination of the social origins of scouting, then proceeding to an analysis of Dale. Second, in Parts III and IV, I place the questions raised in Dale in another context in which they belong but are seldom analyzed, that of the jurisprudence of public accommodations laws . . . In conclusion, I join the two major themes by framing Dale's claim as the latest in a series of cases that have invoked an evolving understanding of …

Hester Prynne, Lydia Bennet, And Section 306 Stock: The Concept Of Tainting In The American Novel, The British Novel, And The Internal Revenue Code, Stephen B. Cohen, Stephen B. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Did Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, inspire Section 306 of the Internal Revenue Code? This code provision adopts a peculiarly Hawthorne-like solution to a tax avoidance scheme known as the "preferred stock bailout." Section 306 taints the stock used in the scheme as "Section 306 stock." Special rules then govern all subsequent dispositions of the tainted stock. With its concept of a taint that can dog a stock from acquisition to disposition, Section 306 might have been designed by a novelist rather than a tax technician.

Secrecy, Guilt By Association, And The Terrorist Profile, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this essay, I will argue that the use of secret procedures and guilt by association in immigration trials is not only unconstitutional but counterproductive. I will begin with a case study, then discuss in turn the practices of secret evidence and guilt by association, and finally conclude with a consideration of how these two tactics perpetuate invidious stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims.

As Freedom Advances: The Paradox Of Severity In American Criminal Justice, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

According to the Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu, "as freedom advances, the severity of the penal law decreases."' Montesquieu's notion is in the United States Constitution's Eighth Amendment, a provision that reflects a Montesquieuan faith that punishments acceptable today will become cruel and unusual tomorrow. Yet the United States in the year 2000 presents a serious challenge to Montesquieu's notion of the progress of freedom. The United States is simultaneously a leader of the "free world" and of the incarcerated world. We celebrate and export our commitment to free markets, civil rights, and civil liberties, yet we are also a world leader …

Poverty And Welfare Policy In The Post-Clinton Era, Peter B. Edelman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is an important time to talk about people in need. There have been major changes recently in public policy toward those in need, and we have seen enough of their effect to be able to discuss the next steps. We have a new President and Congress. A recession is looking more probable by the day. And the 1996 welfare law is coming up for reauthorization in 2002. So this is a good time to look at how we are doing and what we need to do.

Disability, Federalism, And A Court With An Eccentric Mission, Michael H. Gottesman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article examines the Supreme Court's recent Eleventh and Fourteenth Amendment decisions constraining Congress's power to impose legal obligations on state governments. The context for this examination is the Court's consideration this Term of the constitutionality of the provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act authorizing individual suits against states by persons alleging they have been victimized by state disability discrimination. This article was written while the fate of the ADA case was unknown. But the Court issued its decision just as this article was going to press. A postscript has been added describing that decision and its implications. The …

Wellington’S Labors, Michael H. Gottesman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

My first class as a student at Yale Law School was the first class Harry Wellington taught there. It was the Fall of 1956. The course was Contracts. Harry entered the classroom, looking no older than the students (in truth, he 'wasn't much older), but surely better dressed. He settled himself on the corner of the desk, and the magic began. Without introduction or fanfare, Harry embarked on a monologue about a magazine that kept arriving, uninvited, in his mailbox each month. He confessed to leafing through the pages from time to time, and wondered if this obligated him to …

Cook V. Gralike: Easy Cases And Structural Reasoning, Vicki C. Jackson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In Cook v Gralike, the Court - unanimous as to result - struck down a Missouri initiative amending the state constitution to require that the failure of candidates for U.S. Congress to support a particular term-limits amendment to the United States Constitution be noted on the ballot. In an opinion joined by seven Justices, the Court held that the Missouri law exceeded the scope of states' powers to regulate the "time, place and manner" of holding congressional elections . . . The opinions are analyzed preliminarily in Part I. Part II below suggests that even if there were no Elections …

Academic Freedom Of Part-Time Faculty, J. Peter Byrne

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Everyone assumes that part-time faculty should enjoy a full measure of academic freedom. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has consistently argued for it. Martin Michaelson's draft "Academic Freedom Policy and Procedures," a touchstone for this symposium, accords academic freedom through contract to full-time and part-time faculty without distinction. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education raised the alarm that "To Many Adjunct Professors, Academic Freedom Is a Myth;" nowhere did it question the normative claim that an adjunct should enjoy complete academic freedom.

Proportional Equality: Readings Of Romer, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

One of the great enigmas of equal protection law is Romer v. Evans. In finding sufficient power in the rational basis test to invalidate a state constitutional amendment enacted by popular vote, the Supreme Court left legal scholars in its doctrinal dust, puzzled over the answers to multiple questions. Was this a new rational basis test? If so, how could one know when to apply it? Had the standard of review for state acts adversely affecting lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans changed? If so, to what? Had Bowers v. Hardwick been overruled? If so, why?

Surrogacy From The Perspectives Of Economic And Civil Liberties, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The field of law and economics, of which Judge Posner is the leading theorist, has offered a rich and sophisticated framework for thinking about a wide variety of problems at the interface of law and society. The theory, based on economic principles for understanding behavioral incentives and disincentives, is widely taught in law schools and is influential in scholarship. I have not always agreed with the application of the theory to complex problems of individual and group behavior, yet I constantly have been impressed with the elegance of the writing and analysis.

Judge Posner thinks about surrogacy arrangements in terms …

Secret Trials, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Today, U.S. immigration authorities use secret evidence to lock up immigrants in deportation proceedings, to exclude aliens at the border, and to oppose applications for "relief from deportation," including asylum.

Defending Congress, Seth P. Waxman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Every year the Solicitor General must decide, one case at a time, what the interests of the United States are with respect to several thousand different cases in the federal and state courts. Should the United States appeal, or seek rehearing, or petition for certiorari, or file a brief amicus curiae, or intervene? What issues should the United States raise, and what arguments should it make? How should the law be interpreted or the doctrine applied? The goal is for the United States to speak with one voice - a voice that reflects the interests of all three branches of …

In The Shadow Of Daniel Webster: Arguing Appeals In The Twenty-First Century, Seth P. Waxman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is natural - I suppose it is expected - for every Solicitor General to hold forth at some point during his tenure with pearls of wisdom on the Twelve Secrets, or Ten Commandments, or Five Essential Rules of effective oral advocacy. I have always been reluctant to do that . . . reluctantly, after years of resistance, I too will unburden myself of a few principles. First, though, I would like to reach back in history for some inspiration by reflecting a bit on Daniel Webster.

Collusion And Collective Action In The Patent System: A Proposal For Patent Bounties, John R. Thomas

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Persistent commentary contends that the Patent Office is issuing patents that appropriate public domain concepts at an alarming frequency. Complaints of low patent quality enjoy growing resonance with regard to business methods, computer software, and other inventions for which patents were not traditionally sought. In this article, Professor Jay Thomas explains how the judiciary's lenient view of patentable subject matter and utility standards, along with miserly congressional funding policies, have rendered the Patent Office an increasingly porous agency. Professor Thomas next reviews existing proposals for improving patent quality, including the conventional wisdom that adoption of an opposition system will contribute …

Challenges Of The New Economy: Issues At The Intersection Of Antitrust And Intellectual Property, Robert Pitofsky

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There is wide agreement that the last decade or so has presented an unusually lively and challenging period for antitrust analysis. Among many reasons we can point to are deregulation and problems of transition to a free market (telecommunications and electricity production offer leading examples), developments in procedural cooperation and possible substantive convergence in response to the increasing globalization of competition and enforcement approaches, and priorities in addressing an unprecedented merger wave. An additional challenge involves the application of established antitrust principles to the growing high-tech sector of the economy. It is that application of antitrust law to the new …

Antitrust And Intellectual Property: Unresolved Issues At The Heart Of The New Economy, Robert Pitofsky

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The New Economy differs in degree rather than kind from the "old" economy. Part II of this discussion examines the key differences that define the New Economy. Part Ill turns to several implications of those differences as they pertain to antitrust enforcement. I argue that the differences do not justify sweeping generalizations that antitrust enforcement has no place in the New Economy, but do require antitrust enforcement to make adjustments and exercise sensitivity towards intellectual property issues on a case-by-case basis. The goal of a coherent overall competition policy, in deciding both what conduct to enforce against and what remedies …

Planet Asian America, Mari J. Matsuda

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In forming the Asian Law Caucus, the elders - some of whom are here in this room - chose resistance. They created a space in which Asian Americans were in charge, deciding what mattered to them and what strategies worked for them. If someone else were in charge, things would have gone differently. Risks were taken, and victories were won that would not have happened using traditional litigation strategies or leaving the work to traditional civil rights organizations. It was important to create an Asian American space to do this work: to fight Chinatown evictions, to pursue redress for the …

Two Views Of The River: A Critique Of The Liberal Defense Of Affirmative Action, Charles R. Lawrence Iii

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In response to the attack on affirmative action at educational institutions, the argument that the benefits of diversity necessitate keeping affirmative action has emerged as the dominant defense of race-conscious admissions policies. Describing this argument as the “liberal defense of affirmative action,” Professor Lawrence critiques the liberal defense because it fails to challenge the manner in which traditional standards of merit perpetuate race and class privilege, and pushes aside more radically, substantive defenses of affirmative action which articulate the need to remedy past and ongoing discrimination. While recognizing the difficulties and ambivalence inherent in advancing a new vision for defending …

A Conversation On Federalism And The States: The Balancing Act Of Devolution, Peter B. Edelman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

If you consider whether there might be a national definition of benefit levels in welfare, you might well ask whether there is a state-by-state difference in people's needs. There are some regional differences in cost of living, but, otherwise, you eat, you need shelter, and so on. The history of disability policy is very interesting in this regard because from 1935 until 1972 (apart from the addition of social security disability in the 1950s), disability was handled as a welfare category. There were separate welfare programs for the aged, blind, and the disabled, and they were structured the way Aid …

No Equal Justice, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I argue that while our criminal justice system is explicitly based on the premise and promise of equality before the law, the administration of criminal law—whether by the officer on the beat, the legislature, or the Supreme Court—is in fact predicated on the exploitation of inequality. My claim is not simply that we have ignored inequality’s effects within the criminal justice system, nor that we have tried but failed to achieve equality there. Rather, I contend that our criminal justice system affirmatively depends on inequality. Absent race and class disparities, the privileged among us could not enjoy as much constitutional …

Tribute To Norman Dorsen, Robert Pitofsky

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is an enormous delight for me to contribute to this dedication ceremony honoring Norman Dorsen. It did require, however, that I go back and note the fact that I wrote for the Annual Survey thirty-seven years ago. Not only did I discuss antitrust, I made some confident predictions. I noted with alarm that there had been five hundred corporate mergers in the previous year, but pointed out that that would level off as time went on. Well, five hundred would be a quiet month at the Federal Trade Commission these days. I am delighted with the Annual Survey's decision …

Open Access And The First Amendment: A Critique Of Comcast Cablevision Of Broward County, Inc. V. Broward County, David Wolitz

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

To what extent does the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment bar the adoption of “open access” regulations? Open access (or “net neutrality”) refers to a policy that would require broadband Internet providers, such as cable and phone companies, to allow competitive Internet Service Providers (ISPs) onto their broadband lines at nondiscriminatory rates. A federal district court in Florida recently held Broward County’s open access ordinance unconstitutional on the grounds that it would force speech – in the form of Internet content – on to the local cable company. If the district court’s analysis is correct, then open access …

Foreword: Is Reliance Still Dead?, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

One thing I found out when I was a prosecutor is that you should never tell a police officer he cannot do something, for that just serves as an open invitation for him to do it. In recent years, I have learned a similar lesson about legal scholarship which I should probably keep to myself but won't. If you proclaim the existence of a scholarly "consensus," this is an open invitation for academics to try to demolish such a claim.

The Original Meaning Of The Commerce Clause, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The U& Supreme Court, in recent cases; has attempted to define limits on the Congress's power to regulate commerce among the several states. While Justice Thomas has maintained that the original meaning of "commerce" was limited to the "trade and exchange" of goods and transportation for this purpose, some have argued that he is mistaken and that "commerce" originally included any "gainful activity." Having examined every appearance of the word "commerce"in the records of the Constitutional Convention, the ratification debates and the Federalist Papers, Professor Barnett finds no surviving example of this term being used in this broader sense. In …

Fair Use Infrastructure For Rights Management Systems, Dan L. Burk, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this paper, we consider whether rights management systems can be supported by legal and institutional infrastructures that enable appropriate public access to the works secured by these technologies. We focus primarily on the design challenges posed by the fair use doctrine, which historically has played a central role in preserving such access. Throughout the paper, however, we also use the term "fair use" to refer more generally to the variety of limiting doctrines within copyright law that serve this goal. We begin in Part II by reviewing the contours of the fair use doctrine and the legal and policy …

Civil Rights In The New Decade: The Geography Of Opportunity, Sheryll Cashin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is truly an honor and a privilege to have been invited to return to my home state of Alabama to talk about the civil rights agenda in the new decade. Lest you think that I lack the appropriate credentials to speak on this issue, I will tell you that I did go to jail for the cause. At the age of four months, I was taken by my mother, Joan Carpenter Cashin, to a sit-in at a lunch counter in Huntsville, Alabama. When my mother was arrested, she insisted on taking me with her to jail. I am very …

Highways And Bi-Ways For Environmental Justice, Richard J. Lazarus

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the past, present, and future of the environmental justice movement as illustrated by the highway between Selma and Montgomery in Alabama and the highway system surrounding the City of Atlanta in neighboring Georgia. The essay is divided into three parts. The first part describes environmental justice, seeking both to place it in a broader historical perspective and to discuss how it relates to civil rights law and environmental law. The second part undertakes a closer examination of the challenges presented by efforts to fashion positive law to address environmental justice norms. This …

The Clean Air Act And The Constitution, Lisa Heinzerling

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the summer of 1997, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) strengthened the air quality standards for two air pollutants, particulate matter and ozone, based on mounting scientific evidence of the harmfulness of these pollutants at levels allowed by the existing standards. With respect to particulate matter (PM), the agency found that numerous epidemiological studies had established an association between PM levels and premature deaths in humans, especially in the elderly population. Indeed, one study on which the EPA relied had found that approximately 60,000 premature deaths in the United States alone could be attributed, annually, to particulate matter. The scientific …

Defending Courts: A Brief Rejoinder To Professors Fried And Rosenberg, David C. Vladeck

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Harvard Professors David Rosenberg and Charles Fried have presented a provocative, sweeping critique of the theoretical foundations of tort liability that leaves virtually no aspect of our current tort system untouched, or perhaps more accurately, unscathed. Their article throws down the gauntlet to defenders of traditional tort law. For instance, Rosenberg and Fried take aim at the jury system, arguing that ex post liability rules created by juries are inefficient and should be replaced, whenever possible, by ex ante liability rules set by legislative bodies. And they attack the idea that compensation plays a legitimate role in structuring our tort …