State and Local Government Law Commons^™

The All-Woman Texas Supreme Court: The History Behind A Brief Moment On The Bench., Alice G. Mcafee

St. Mary's Law Journal

On the surface, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the case of Johnson v. Darr, and, in fact it was not the merits of the case that made the headlines. It was the makeup of the tribunal. Long before women in Texas were even granted the right to serve on juries and before any woman ever served as a judge on any of the lower Texas courts, the judges appointed to hear the case of Johnson v. Darr were all women. This was the first time a woman was appointed in any capacity to serve on the Texas judiciary and …

The Castle Doctrine: An Expanding Right To Stand Your Ground Comment., Denise M. Drake

St. Mary's Law Journal

Recently, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 378 effectively terminating a person’s “duty to retreat” when confronted with a criminal attack of either great bodily injury or death. Complicated issues of innocence and guilt arise when one employs deadly force as a means of self-defense. Furthermore, tragic mistakes occur when people preemptively resort to deadly force before the realization of such a threat. Societal questions still exist concerning the possibility that self-defense will turn into self-justice. Critics argue the law encourages a vigilante society, substituting law enforcement help with self-justice. Conversely, supporters believe the bill serves as a deterrent from …

My How You've Grown: The St. Mary's Law Journal Turns Forty Remark., Martin D. Beirne

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

A Meaningless Relationship: The Fifth Circuit's Use Of Dismissed And Uncharged Conduct Under The Federal Sentencing Guidelines Recent Development., Erin A. Higginbotham

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Fifth Circuit’s failure to require the uncharged conduct to have a meaningful relationship with the conduct of conviction is flawed. An amendment of section 5K2.21 specifically approved the consideration of uncharged or dismissed offenses to serve as a basis for an upward departure to reflect the actual seriousness of the offense. Confusion amongst federal circuit courts of appeal arose as to whether such conduct included uncharged or dismissed criminal offenses. Interpreting the amendment’s language has caused a circuit split. The Fifth Circuit erroneously interpreted section 5K2.21 as to require nothing more than a “remote connection” between the uncharged crime …

The Upc Authorizes Notarized Wills, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

This article reports on a 2008 amendment to the Uniform Probate Code that permits notarization as a method of will execution.

The Supreme Court And Indiana's Voter Id Law, David Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Interstate Compact On The Placement Of Children: Advocacy Tips For Child Welfare Attorneys, Vivek Sankaran

Articles

Legal advocates across the country confront hundreds of cases like Samira's each year. Many of those cases end with arms raised in frustration due to what appears to be a lack of options after the receiving state either fails to complete the home study or denies a placement. That frustration is understandabkle given the absence of language in the Compact outlining any process to compe states to complete home studies or to permit judicial review of placement denials. Yet, as advocates, we must move beyond this initial state of paralysis and develop creative ways to vindicate the rights of our …

A Presumption Against Agency Preemption, Nina A. Mendelson

Articles

Federal agencies are increasingly taking aim at state law, even though state law is not expressly targeted by the statutes the agencies administer. Starting in 2001, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued several notices saying that state laws would apply to national bank operating subsidiaries (incorporated under state law) to the same extent as those laws applied to the parent national bank. In 2003, the OCC specifically mentioned state consumer protection laws and took the position that the state laws were preempted and did not apply to mortgage lenders owned by national banks. In December 2006, …

Thou Shall Not Hunt: A Historical Introduction To And Discussion Of The Modern Debate Over Sunday Hunting Laws, Mike Balestra

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Mansion Or Fortress? The Legal Merits Of Temporary Immunity From Criminal Prosecution For Kentucky's Chief Executive, Nick Jones

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The 2007 Amendments To The Kentucky Business Entity Statutes, Thomas E. Rutledge

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

No Bonds But Those Freely Chosen: An Obituary For The Principle Of Forced Heirship In American Law, Vincent D. Rougeau

Journal Articles

This article explains the history of forced heirship in Louisiana and describes the negative implications of its demise. Section IV outlines how the end of forced heirship reveals the changing values of Louisiana culture and views on the family.

Federal Grants, State Decisions, Brian Galle

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The authority to raise and spend money is one of the most expansive and fundamental of all Congress' enumerated powers, particularly when Congress chooses to impose conditions on those who wish to receive its cash. The consensus modern view of this conditional spending is that its unfettered use threatens the diversity and accountability goals of our federalism. As a result, nearly all commentators support either direct or indirect judge-made limits on conditional spending. These claims, I argue, rest on a set of largely unexamined assumptions about the political motivations, budgetary situation, and incentives of the state officials who must decide …

Notes On The Multiple Facets Of Immigration Federalism, Rick Su

Journal Articles

This symposium essay takes as its starting point the contestable position that some degree of immigration federalism is both constitutionally permissible and politically desirable. It suggests, however, that liberating the issue of immigration from the shadows of federal exclusivity does not necessarily tell us much about what a conceptual framework or legal jurisprudence of immigration federalism should or will actually be like. This is not solely a function of the difficulties inherent in incorporating principles of federalism into what is usually understood to be an exclusive federal field of immigration. Rather, it is also a consequence of the rifts and …

The Quiet Revolution Revived: Sustainable Design, Land Use Regulation, And The States, Sara Bronin

Sara C. Bronin

Thirty-seven years ago, a book called The Quiet Revolution in Land Use Control argued that states would soon take over localities' long-held power over land use regulation. In the authors' view, this quiet revolution would occur when policymakers and the public recognized that certain problems - like environmental destruction - were too big for localities to handle on their own. Although the quiet revolution has not yet occurred, this Article suggests that it will, and should, occur alongside the ever-growing green building movement. This movement presents practical and ideological challenges to our current system of regulating land use. This Article …

More Thoughts On The Compact Clause And The National Popular Vote: A Response To Professor Hendricks, Derek Muller

Derek T. Muller

This article briefly responds to three of the more salient issues noted by Professor Hendricks in her article "Popular Election of the President: Using or Abusing the Electoral College?, 7 ELECTION L.J. 218 (2008). First, I establish that the Supreme Court actually would enforce the requirement of congressional consent for the Compact under its current jurisprudence according to the "Political Consent" Compact Clause. Second, I define a "political compact," not merely in terms of the topic or type of the compact, but in terms of its function as a compact that tends to enlarge the power of some states at …

Regulation Short-Cut: Re-Route Pa. Code Searches To The Internet For Quicker, More Efficient Legal Research, Matthew Mcgovern

Matthew McGovern

No abstract provided.

Mandating Public School Attendance: A Proposal For Achieving Racial And Class Integration, Thomas Kleven

Thomas Kleven

The paper argues that big city school districts should consider mandating that all children attend public school as a means of integrating their schools racially and economically. Many educators believe that racial and class integration is necessary to equalize educational opportunity. A major factor impeding integration is that many minority and lower income children are essentially trapped in inner city schools where most students are from the same socio-economic and ethnic background. Much of this racial and class separation is the result of white and middle class flight to suburbia over the past 50 years or so. Nevertheless, because significant …

Mandating Public School Attendance: A Proposal For Achieving Racial And Class Integration, Thomas Kleven

Thomas Kleven

The paper argues that big city school districts should consider mandating that all children attend public school as a means of integrating their schools racially and economically. Many educators believe that racial and class integration is necessary to equalize educational opportunity. A major factor impeding integration is that many minority and lower income children are essentially trapped in inner city schools where most students are from the same socio-economic and ethnic background. Much of this racial and class separation is the result of white and middle class flight to suburbia over the past 50 years or so. Nevertheless, because significant …

Human And Fundamental Rights And Duties In Portuguese Constitution. Some Reflections, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

The Portuguese Constitution (1976) came after a period of 48 years of authoritarianism and a closed society, in which some happy few enjoyed great privileges while the great majority of people were charged with heavy duties So, by a very understandable "law of human nature", the constituent law givers could not reasonably impose constitutionally many obligations, in an autonomous way. As rights and duties are the twin sides of the same coin, the juridical formulation under the sign of rights also implies obligations, related to those same rights. This is kinder and more pleasant to do by a liberating Constitution...

El Derecho Natural, Historia E Ideologia, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Intentemos retomar algunos hilos sueltos de discursos dispersos y con una nueva mirada analítica, procuremos ver una realidad sutil y huidiza: ese derecho natural que parece silencioso en nuestros días, y más silencioso aún en los discursos psitacistas: tanto en los pomposos como en los pseudo-rigurosos.

Princípio Republicano E Virtudes Republicanas, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

O presente artigo procura unir traços de aparente heterodoxia, recuperando, porém, paradigmas e tópicos que não são novos. Com efeito, nem as virtudes, nem a república, nem sequer a felicidade são novidades. O que talvez seja novo (new again) é o espírito de buscar outra vez as raízes, as fontes, para um intento de renovação do ambiente juspolítico. Somos naturalmente favorável a uma Constituição principial e valorativa, como a nossa. Mas parece-nos que há nela lugar a Virtudes (que já existem nela), e que a descoberta das Virtudes nas Constituições, e, logo, no Direito, é, afinal, um ovo de Colombo. …

Da Constituição Antiga À Constituição Moderna. República E Virtude, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Virtude e República necessariamente têm de levar-nos à Antiguidade: desde logo porque a primeira “começa” com a helénica "areté". Logo, é preciso ir, antes de mais, à Grécia Antiga, e especialmente ao legado ateniense. “Directly or indirectly, Athenian democracy as an extraordinary experiment in social history thus stimulates our own thinking about crucial issues of our own democracy and society, incomparably more complex though they are. The point is precisely that the ancients help us focus on the essentials" - como afirma Kurt A. Raaflaub.

Uma Filosofia Constitucional Comum (Luso-Brasileira), Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Onde melhor se pode aquilatar de uma filosofia constitucional? Além do cunho da constitução, que já vimos ser liberal na fórmula política (porque moderna ecodificada) e social na social, cultural e económica, o que mais exprime uma filosofia constitucional é a ética constitucional, e, antes de mais, são os valores. A Constituição cidadão brasileira e a Constituição portuguesa de 1976 comungam, em grande medida, dos meus valores de liberdade, igualdade, justiça, e outros, progressivos e de cidadania.

Cascading Infrastructure Failures: Avoidance And Response, George H. Baker, Cheryl J. Elliott

George H Baker

No critical infrastructure is self-sufficient. The complexity inherent in the interdependent nature of infrastructure systems complicates planning and preparedness for system failures. Recent wide-scale disruption of infrastructure on the Gulf Coast due to weather, and in the Northeast due to electric power network failures, dramatically illustrate the problems associated with mitigating cascading effects and responding to cascading infrastructure failures once they have occurred.

The major challenge associated with preparedness for cascading failures is that they transcend system, corporate, and political boundaries and necessitate coordination among multiple, disparate experts and authorities. This symposium brought together concerned communities including government and industry …

Much Ado About Pluralities: Pride And Precedent Amidst The Cacophy Of Concurrences, And Re-Percolation After Rapanos, Donald J. Kochan, Melissa M. Berry, Matthew J. Parlow

Donald J. Kochan

Conflicts created by concurrences and pluralities in court decisions create confusion in law and lower court interpretation. Rule of law values require that individuals be able to identify controlling legal principles. That task is complicated when pluralities and concurrences contribute to the vagueness or uncertainty that leaves us wondering what the controlling rule is or attempting to predict what it will evolve to become. The rule of law is at least handicapped when continuity or confidence or confusion infuse our understanding of the applicable rules. This Article uses the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rapanos v. United States to …

Civic Republicanism, Public Choice Theory, And Neighborhood Councils: A New Model For Civic Engagement, Matthew J. Parlow

Matthew Parlow

Progressive Policy-Making On The Local Level: Rethinking Traditional Notions Of Federalism, Matthew J. Parlow

Matthew Parlow

The Choice To Limit Choice: Using Psychiatric Advance Directives To Manage The Effects Of Mental Illness And Support Self-Responsibility, Breanne M. Sheetz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Psychiatric advance directives are a valuable tool for individuals with mental illnesses. Ulysses directives, in particular, allow individuals to bind themselves to treatment in advance of needing it for the purpose of overcoming illness-induced refusals. This Note evaluates the effectiveness of state advance directive statutes in three areas that are especially important for Ulysses directives: defining competency to execute, activate, and revoke directives; waiving the constitutional right to refuse treatment; and encouraging provider compliance. This Note ultimately advocates for other states to adopt provisions similar to a Washington State statute. The Washington statute authorizes Ulysses directives by allowing advance consent …

The Original Understanding Of The New Hampshire Constitution’S Education Clause, Edward C. Mosca

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “In 1993, the New Hampshire Supreme Court held that “part II, article 83 [of the state constitution] imposes a duty on the State to provide a constitutionally adequate education to every educable child in the public schools in New Hampshire and to guarantee adequate funding,” and that this duty is enforceable by the judiciary. This decision, known as Claremont I, was the wellspring of a line of decisions that has radically changed both the manner in which public education is funded in New Hampshire and the respective roles of the judicial branch and the representative branches in formulating education …