Law Commons^™

#I U: Considering The Context Of Online Threats, Lyrissa Lidsky

Faculty Publications

The United States Supreme Court has failed to grapple with the unique interpretive difficulties presented by social media threats cases. Social media make hateful and threatening speech more common but also magnify the potential for a speaker's innocent words to be misunderstood People speak differently on different social media platforms, and architecturalf eatures ofplatforms, such as character limits, affect the meaning of speech. The same is true of other contextual clues unique to social media, such as gifs, hashtags, and emojis. Only by understanding social media contexts can legal decision-makers avoid overcriminalization of speech protected by the First Amendment. This …

One Judge's "Ten Tips For Effective Brief Writing" (Part Ii), Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge Terrence L. Michael (N.D.OKLA.) has written "Ten Tips for Effective Brief Writing" and posted them on the court's website. In the Journal's September-October issue, part 1 of this article began by discussing Tip #9 ("leave the venom at home"). That part proceeded to discuss Tips 1-4.

This final part discusses the remaining Tips. All 10 thoughtful Tips warrant careful consideration from advocates who prepare submissions for trial courts or appellate courts.

Symposium: Truth, Trust And The First Amendment In The Digital Age: Foreword: Whither The Fourth Estate?, Lyrissa Lidsky

Missouri Law Review

As a professor of Media Law, I have devoted my career over the past quarter of a century to the idea that the press plays a special role in our democracy. That role is largely encapsulated by the concept of the press as Fourth Estate – an unofficial branch of government in our scheme of separation of powers that checks the power of the three official branches. In our constitutional scheme, the press is the watchdog that informs us what the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government are up to and continually replenishes the stock of news – real …

Can You Have Too Much Of A Good Thing?: The Modern Marketplace Of Ideas, Rachael L. Jones

Missouri Law Review

This Article argues that though the state of the marketplace looks grim, it is not dead yet. Rather, we have entered an era in which the role of the marketplace is shifting. Instead of representing the proverbial promised land of truth and expression, the marketplace is serving an important role in the pursuit of democratic self-governance. From private media companies offering fact-checking services to combat false news to teenagers using social media to call citizens to action on gun reform, the marketplace appears to be adapting. But it remains to be seen whether the marketplace can continue to best serve …

A “Holding Company Exception” To Hertz?, Lauren Vincent

Missouri Law Review

After the Supreme Court of the United States announced in Hertz Corp. v. Friend that a corporation’s principal place of business is its “nerve center” – i.e., its “center of direction, control, and coordination” – the complexity associated with determining a corporation’s principal place of business seemed to be a thing of the past. Although the Hertz decision brought substantial clarity to the issue of corporate diversity jurisdiction, its one-size-fits-all test for determining principal place of business has proven less than straightforward when applied to modern corporate structures – notably, holding companies. This Note addresses one perplexing problem that Hertz’s …

The Press And The Expectation Of Executive Counterspeech, Ronnell Andersen Jones

Missouri Law Review

This Article explores the wider constitutional and democratic consequences of a president’s refusal to engage in counterspeech on matters of public concern. It argues that both fundamental principles of First Amendment theory and watershed cases from the United States Supreme Court presuppose a constitutional system of dialogue between the press and the executive in which the president offers verifiable, supported, fact-based counterspeech to press coverage with which he disagrees. Part II of this Article describes how marketplace-of-ideas, self-governance, and checking-function principles—although more often invoked to protect private speech from governmental restriction—also manifest a longstanding assumption of executive counterspeech. It explores …

Masthead

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

No abstract provided.

Clicks At Any Cost: Why Regulation Won't Upend The Economics Of Fake News, Amy Kristin Sanders, Rachael L. Jones

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Increasingly, the production of fake news has become industrialized; enterprising entrepreneurs are deceiving Internet users with false information while earning significant sums of money. The problem of fake news and misinformation, however, is not one solely brought about by the increase in digital technology. Historically, campaigns of misinformation have been used to achieve social, political, and economic goals long before the Internet was commonplace. But, recent calls to regulate fake news content contravene American law and run afoul of our nation’s laissez-faire approach to the regulation of false or misleading information. We argue that government-imposed, speech-limiting restrictions cannot contain fake …

Scènes À Faire As Identity Trait Stereotyping, Jasmine Abdel-Khalik

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

There is at least one place where the law not only recognizes but expects and encourages stereotyping based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression, nationality, and the like (“identity traits”) - stock characters. A stock character is the archetype of a story’s character and, as such, is excluded from copyright protection, making the stock freely available for other authors to use. However, harm arises when courts agree that a stock character is comprised of an identity trait and any other characteristic, indicating that what flows naturally from that identity trait is something more than just that identity - …

Getting Their Fix: Doctor's Dependency On Big Pharma, Larissa Tiller

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Section 6002 of the Affordable Care Act, also known as the “Sunshine Act,” was intended to stop corrupt practices within the medical community by requiring pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to disclose all transfers of value of a certain amount made between them and physicians. This article suggests that the better solution to stopping corrupt practices is to ban some transfers all together.

Music Modernization And The Labyrinth Of Streaming, Mary Lafrance

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

The shift from record sales to music streaming has revolutionized the music industry. The federal copyright regime, which is rooted in a system of economic rewards based largely on sales, has been slow to adapt. This has impaired the ability of copyright law to channel appropriate royalties to songwriters, music publishers, and recording artists when the streaming of their works displaces record sales. The Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goowwwatte Music Modernization Act of 2018 addresses some of the most significant flaws in the current system. At the same time, it creates significant ambiguities and leaves some existing issues unresolved.

Taming The Wild West: How The Sec Can Legitimize Initial Coin Offerings ("Icos"), Protect Consumers From Bad Actors, And Encourage Blockchain Development, Kenyon Briggs

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

An Initial Coin Offering (“ICO”) is the first time a blockchain-based company sells its cryptocurrency to the public. ICOs provide any blockchain entrepreneur the ability to quickly receive funding from anyone in the world. While ICOs show the potential to become a legitimate alternative to traditional early-stage investing, like angel investing and venture capital, ICOs are currently teeming with fraud and bad actors. Recent celebrity-endorsed ICOs have scammed customers, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been stolen from hard-working people. Anything goes in this current, unregulated ICO space. This article proposes five potential ICO-specific regulations for the Securities and …

Invisible Inequality And Economic Empowerment: Domestic Violence, Discrimination, And The Creation Of A New Protected Class, Cameron M. Brown Britt

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Today, there is a large population of Americans whose plight is invisible to much of the rest of society - the survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and violence. While in the last few years survivors’ voices are beginning to be heard, the legal landscape is still lagging far behind and is sorely inadequate to provide protections and relief to survivors in many areas of life. Particularly, this is prominent in the employment landscape where federal protections for survivors are sparse. Moreover, survivor-employees are vulnerable to discrimination, unfair firing, and inadequate leave for court appearances and medical assistance. These obstacles …

Examining The Impact Of In Re Brunetti On § 2(A) Of The Lanham Act, Alex Weidner

Missouri Law Review

For § 2(a)of the Lanham Act, 2017 proved to be a devastating year. Not only did the Matal v. Tam decision strike down the disparagement provision, it served as a springboard for In re Brunetti to invalidate the bar against immoral and scandalous marks later that year. This Note examines whether the majority correctly invalidated the immoral-scandalous provision, argues that it did not, and analyzes the likelihood the remaining two provisions in the Lanham Act will be struck down by another First Amendment challenge. Part II summarizes the facts and holding of In re Brunetti. Part III provides an overview …

Table Of Contents

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Section 230: Liability, Free Speech, And Ethics On Global Social Networks, Brett G. Johnson

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

No abstract provided.

Better The Devil You Know: An Examination Of Manufacturer Driven Lethal Injection Drug Shortages, Heather Booth

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

In an attempt to make executions more humane, Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections (“DOC”) consulted a physician to overhaul the state’s execution protocol. This consultation resulted in the implementation of the modern three-drug lethal injection cocktail. However, recent challenges to lethal injection protocols tell a different story. European-based drug companies, wary of having their products used in executions, have begun refusing to sell drugs to state DOCs. This refusal is mostly with respect to the first drug in the three-drug cocktail, the anesthetic. This refusal has led to drug shortages and improvisation that some doctors say will cause unnecessary pain and …

A Slanted View On The Morality Bars: Matal V. Tam, In Re Brunetti, And The Future Of Section 2(A) Of The Lanham Act, John Langworthy

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act contained two “morality bars” to the registration of trademarks: the Disparagement Clause and the Immoral and Scandalous Clause. Two recent cases, the Supreme Court decision in Matal v. Tam and the subsequent decision from the Federal Circuit, In re Brunetti, both held that the morality bars violate the First Amendment. Given the inconsistent application of the Disparagement Clause and the potential for viewpoint discrimination, theTam Court was correct in finding it unconstitutional. For similar reasons, the court in Brunetti properly extended this holding to the Immoral and Scandalous Clause. However, both decisions ignored the …

Faculty List

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Technology Or Privacy: Should You Really Have To Choose Only One?, Callie Haslag

Missouri Law Review

Today’s society has both the blessing and the curse of having access to a vast range of technologies. A person can be diagnosed by doctors while video-chatting from his or her own home, communicate with someone located on the other side of the world instantaneously, or monitor his or her home through enhanced security systems. It is even possible to give simple commands, like “Turn on the lights” or “Play my favorite song,” and a home assistant device, such as the Amazon Echo, will complete the given task. While these technologies offer many blessings, there are potential downsides that accompany …

Dynamex Is Dynamite, But Epic Systems Is Its Foil – Chamber Of Commerce: The Sleeper In The Trilogy, William B. Gould Iv

Missouri Law Review

This Article examines the concept of the independent contractor classification – a characterization at issue in early litigation involving the question of whether particular workers are employees or independent contractors. It describes the early cases arising in transportation, including over-the-road trucking, the taxi-cab industry, and package delivery companies like Federal Express (“FedEx”). The Article takes the position that the concept of flexibility, frequently used by employers to classify or reclassify employees as independent contractors, is a false justification for determining that employees are independent contractors. It also takes the position that engaging in part-time work for numerous employers is consistent …

Plight Of The Public Defender: Excessive Caseload As A Non-Mitigating Factor In Sanctions For Ethical Violations, Taylor Payne

Missouri Law Review

This Note discusses the thought-provoking ruling in In re Karl William Hinkebein and its implications for public defenders in Missouri. Part II of this Note details the facts and holding of the case. Part III of this Note gives a brief history of the Missouri State Public Defender System (“MSPD”), highlighting its current shortcomings and challenges. Part III then discusses the influential ethics opinion issued by the American Bar Association (“ABA”) and the ABA Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions (“ABA Standards”). Part IV of this Note analyzes the decision of the Supreme Court of Missouri to sanction Karl Hinkebein. Part …

A Sign To Many No More: Supreme Court Of Missouri Casts Away Church’S Sign Variance, Matthew Neuman

Missouri Law Review

Depending on the context in which they are encountered, the consequences of land use zoning may be viewed either as a saving grace – preserving or prospectively safeguarding the locality to similar compatible uses – or as an obstacle to overcome – hindering the development potential or use of a piece of land. Although the level of concern may vary based upon the zoning district, homeowners in residential neighborhoods have a right to be particularly sensitive to adjacent land use. Part II of this Note explores the facts of Antioch Community Church v. Board of Zoning Adjustment of City of …

Table Of Contents

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Copyright

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Presidential Attacks On The Press, Sonja R. West

Missouri Law Review

The goals of this short Article are modest. It seeks simply to differentiate the various ways Trump has attacked the press, to emphasize that we should not view them all through the same constitutional lens, and to bring attention to the most serious type of offense. In Part I, I divide the kinds of attacks into three categories of increasing seriousness. I discuss a number of examples in which Trump has used insults, generalized threats, denials of benefits, and government power to punish the press for coverage he dislikes. Then, in Part II, I analyze each type of attack under …

Taxation Of Undocumented Immigrants: The Uneasy Connection Between Regulating The Undocumented Immigrant And Fostering Illegal Activity, Nneka Obiokoye

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

This article seeks to correct some of the negative perceptions held by the general public pertaining to undocumented immigrants, by drawing attention to four major points. First, contrary to popular belief, undocumented immigrants pay taxes. Indeed, as this article will show, in many instances, undocumented immigrants pay a higher rate of tax than U.S. citizens because the burden of tax on such people tends to outweigh the benefits received. Second, undocumented immigrants are human beings with the same needs and desires as every other human. Therefore, laws and policies that tend to make it impossible for such people to provide …

How Can Practitioners Help Clients Assess Their Interests And Risks In Litigation?, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post summarizes the discussion at a Quinnipiac-Yale Dispute Resolution Workshop. It highlights some practical ideas that the audience suggested about clients’ interests, timing of discovery and mediation, possible trial outcomes, legal fees, consequences of litigation, and decision fatigue in “marathon mediations.”

Paper Promises For Drug Innovation, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

Innovation does not stop when a new medicine is launched. Development of new uses for already approved drugs, in particular, can make profound contributions to the public health. Whether a new use is suspected during the initial premarket trials, identified through focused research after approval, or discovered serendipitously by physicians treating patients, however, it requires extensive clinical testing before it can be approved by FDA. This testing takes time and money — three to five years on average, and as much as $300 million. This Article considers the incentives that federal law offers to companies to make this investment: patent …