Digital Commons Network^™

The Family Law Legacy Of The Freedom-To-Marry Movement - Moderator: Bonnie Carlson, Jessica Feinberg, Tanya Monique Washington, Marcia A. Zug

Mercer Law Review Symposium

The freedom-to-marry movement sparked sometimes unintended reactions, including accelerated legal recognition of nonmarital partners and new, alternative legal institutions, such as domestic partnerships, civil unions, and reciprocal beneficiaries. This panel will likely explore this path and the resilience of these legal innovations for same- and different-sex couples. Obergefell and its progeny, Pavan v. Smith, have also raised family law questions that have yet to be definitively resolved, such as the constitutionality of discrimination in parentage presumptions between same- and different-sex spouses. Finally, the panel might also address possible legal recognition for polyamorous relationships, which have been discussed since Obergefell …

A State Constitutional Challenge To Washington’S Denial Of Minimum Wage To Incarcerated Workers, Cailin Dahlin

Washington Law Review

This Comment challenges as unconstitutional Washington’s exemption of incarcerated individuals from the state Minimum Wage Act. Incarcerated people in Washington, unprotected by minimum wage guarantees, earn low wages in state-run inmate work programs. This statutory carveout is contrary to the rehabilitative purpose of Washington’s prisons because it impedes incarcerated people’s ability to afford necessities, participate in rehabilitative programs, and reintegrate into society. This exemption is unconstitutional under the state’s cruel punishment clause, because it is disproportionately cruel punishment and an excessive fine that incarcerated workers cannot afford. The exemption is also unconstitutional under the state’s privileges and immunities clause, because …

Making The Margins Visible: Dignity At Work And The Promise Of Puttaswamy—Review Of Gendered Bodies And Worlds Of Labour: Reconceptualizing Dignity After Puttaswamy Vs Union Of India, Shreya Shree

National Law School Journal

This review examines Kalpana Kannabiran and Devi Jagani’s reimagination of dignity as a framework for securing justice in gendered labourscapes. By centering a broad and dynamic understanding of dignity as a right, an inherent characteristic, and an enabling condition for rights-talk, the book advances new ways of articulating rights-claims through an intersectional and interdisciplinary reading of the Indian Constitution. The review highlights the significance of this approach in renewing understandings of the worker, labour, discrimination, and rights, while exploring its possibilities and limits in confronting violence and injustices embedded in gendered labour relations within the domestic sphere and beyond.

State Power And The Passamaquoddy Tribe: "A Gross National Hypocrisy"?, Francis J. O'Toole, Thomas N. Tureen

Maine Law Review

Because of their strategic location on the sparsely settled Canadian border, the Passamaquoddy Indians were of great importance in the American Revolution, and played a decisive role in securing eastern Maine for the United States. As soon as the hostilities had ended, however, the federal government promptly forgot about these Indian allies in what is now the State of Maine and, whether intentionally or not, left the Passamaquoddy Tribe in its dealings with the dominant society to the mercy of Massachusetts and, after 1820, Maine. The Passamaquoddy Tribe is a relatively small one, but there are approximately 120,000 other tribal …

State Power And The Passamaquoddy Tribe: "A Gross National Hypocrisy"?, Francis J. O'Toole, Thomas N. Tureen

Maine Law Review

Because of their strategic location on the sparsely settled Canadian border, the Passamaquoddy Indians were of great importance in the American Revolution, and played a decisive role in securing eastern Maine for the United States. As soon as the hostilities had ended, however, the federal government promptly forgot about these Indian allies in what is now the State of Maine and, whether intentionally or not, left the Passamaquoddy Tribe in its dealings with the dominant society to the mercy of Massachusetts and, after 1820, Maine. The Passamaquoddy Tribe is a relatively small one, but there are approximately 120,000 other tribal …

Nonstatutory Judicial Review Of Federal Agency Action: A New Approach To Sovereign Immunity, William P. Hardy

Maine Law Review

In deciding whether to review administrative agency action, an astute court seeks to maintain a delicate balance between over-interference with administration of legislatively created programs and denial of plaintiff's rights. This balancing process historically has been hindered by federal courts treating the doctrine of sovereign immunity as a jurisdictional bar to unconsented suits against the United States Government. Regardless of the validity of a plaintiff's grievance and in spite of the relative infrequency of such suits, the courts adhering to this traditional approach mechanically dismiss such actions solely because they seek relief against the sovereign. A few federal courts have …

Law School News: Rising Leaders In Justice: Celebrating Rwu Law's Class Of 2025 Honorees 05-07-2025, Jane Govednik

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice

Seattle University Law Review

By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …

Modern Day Colonialism Through HawaiʻI’S Quiet Title And Partition Laws, Cheyann Fujii

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will attempt to highlight important aspects of Hawaiian history to provide readers with a clear picture on how Native Hawaiians are still impacted by colonialism, specifically when plaintiffs bring a quiet title or partition action against Native Hawaiian owners of kuleana lands. Before colonization, the concept of private land ownership did not exist in Hawai‘i, and Native Hawaiians adopted a feudal system by dividing land into geographical areas. Missionaries and businessmen brought Western ideas to Hawai‘i and influenced legislation such as the Great Māhele and the Kuleana Land Act of 1850, which solidified the concept of private property. …

Case Law On American Indians: September 2023 - August 2024, Thomas P. Schlosser

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Amici Curiae Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Service Employees International Union, American Federation Of Teachers, American Association Of University Professors, Center For Civil Rights And Critical Justice, Race And Law Centers, And Civil Rights And Advocacy Organizations In Support Of Plaintiff, Susan Godfrey Llp V. Executive Office Of The President, U.S. District Court For The District Of Columbia (Docket No. 1:25-Cv-01107-Lla), Charlotte Garden, Jeremiah Chin, Jessica Levin, Melissa Lee, Jim Davy, Robert S. Chang, Susan Mcmahon

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Amici Curiae 775 Law Professors In Support Of Plaintiff's Motion For Summary Judgment And Declaratory And Permanent Injunctive Relief, Wilfred U. Codrington Iii, Haiyun Damon-Feng, Rebecca Ingber, Rachel Landy, Jacob Noti-Victor, Alexander A. Reinert, Anthony J. Sebok

Amicus Briefs

Amicus curiae brief submitted by 775 law professors in support of Susman Godfrey LLP's motion for summary judgment and request for declaratory and permanent injunctive relief in Susman Godfrey LLP v. Executive Office of the President. The brief argues that Executive Order 14263 unlawfully targets a law firm based on its clients, advocacy, and litigation activities, in violation of the First Amendment, Fifth Amendment, and Sixth Amendment. The amici contend that the order constitutes impermissible viewpoint discrimination, interferes with the right to counsel, and threatens the independence of the legal profession and the rule of law.

Familial Fairness: Guaranteeing The Right To Counsel For Indigent Parents In Juvenile Dependency Proceedings, Jake Toth

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Fairness principles enumerated in the seminal case Gideon v. Wainwright stand for the proposition that fundamental fairness and due process require appointment of counsel for indigent litigants. However, this principle has been constrained to criminal contexts. Many other types of litigation are just as impactful as a criminal proceeding, including juvenile dependency proceedings. Nevertheless, indigent parents do not enjoy an unqualified representation right.

This Comment traces the history of the representation right and how it has been treated in a juvenile dependency context, beginning with Gideon itself and examining other cases such as Eldridge and Lassiter. It then examines …

A Love Letter To The Leaders: Why Recognizing And Discussing Secondary Trauma In Legal Work Will Benefit Your Staff, Your Clients, And Most Importantly, The Work, Isabel Corngold, Elizabeth Cole

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

When you work in a client-facing, client-centered section of the law like criminal law, and specifically wrongful convictions, you encounter trauma. Many organizations, including innocence organizations, do not do a sufficient job to recognize and address the impact of that trauma on their staff. This piece seeks to explain the potential impact of this trauma by, one, defining the terms burnout; secondary and vicarious trauma; empathetic distress; countertransference; and compassion fatigue, and, two, listing out signs and symptoms that can be caused by experiencing any of these emotions. Drawing from the authors’ experiences in innocence organizations, this piece addresses leaders …

A Constitutional Right To Counsel In Eviction Proceedings: Solutions To Ohio's Housing Stability Crisis, Audrey M. Woodward

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Policing As General Warrants, Warren Buff, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

The drafters of the Bill of Rights and its proponents envisioned a document constitutionalizing protections against some of the worst abuses they had experienced under English rule. Prominent businessmen—many of them engaged in smuggling— found their homes ransacked in search of contraband on flimsy evidence and without any reason given for the disruption of their business and consequent enrichment of government agents. The Fourth Amendment addressed the use of general warrants and writs of assistance to allow government agents to conduct broad searches with limited scrutiny. In the early years of the Constitution, this had little practical effect, because public …

Flagrant Fouls: The First Amendment, Legal Speech, And Attacks On Law Firms And The Rule Of Law, Raymond H. Brescia

Nevada Law Journal Forum

This Essay explores the Trump Administration’s unprecedented campaign targeting major U.S. law firms for retribution and examines such actions in light of the First Amendment’s relationship to these actions. Drawing on historical and doctrinal analyses, the Essay introduces and defends the concept of “legal speech” as a critical cluster of First Amendment protections encompassing the rights of lawyers to speak, associate, petition, and advocate on behalf of clients in an unfettered way and without government retaliation. Executive actions against Covington & Burling, Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey purport to revoke security clearances, bar access …

In Defense Of Pro Se Parents, Matthew F. Gillam

Fordham Law Review

Who gets to represent children in federal court? Adults have long been permitted to represent themselves in federal court under the plain meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1654. And, many adults do just that every year. But what if the real party in interest is a minor child? Who, if anyone, can exercise that child’s right to proceed pro se?

This Note argues that the correct reading of 28 U.S.C. § 1654 would permit parents to litigate pro se in federal court where the real party in interest is their minor child. This is based on a straightforward, grammatically correct …

Corporate Governance Speech, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

The State has always regulated the intra-firm communications that make corporate governance possible, most commonly by mandating disclosures of information by a corporation to its shareholders. Some such laws are labeled “securities regulation,” but securities regulation is a broad category that extends to speech by actors who are outside the corporate enterprise as well. Also, the conventional securities regulation category does not capture all such laws; other examples, including informationforcing mandates, can be found in state corporate law. This Article uses the term “corporate governance speech” to describe the communications among shareholders, directors, and officers through which corporate governance is …

The Employees’ Dilemma: Balancing Internal Reporting, Whistleblowing, And Insider Trading Risks, Geeyoung Min

Seattle University Law Review

The Essay examines how recent developments in insider trading regulations and whistleblower reward programs can lead to unintended and counterproductive results of discouraging employees from using internal reporting channels within corporate compliance programs. While the presence of a robust and well-functioning corporate compliance program is a critical factor both in mitigating the level of public enforcement actions against companies and in protecting corporate managers from liability in private litigation, these programs often provide little incentive for employees to report potential misconduct internally.

Corporate compliance programs are designed to promote the upward information flow within the company, which is essential for …

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Seattle University Law Review

A variety of businesses now cite 303 Creative when seeking First Amendment protection for their refusal to serve certain customers based on those customers’ protected class status. How this litigation will play out remains to be seen. But future courts need not, and should not, repeat the 303 Creative Court’s misunderstanding of how the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions actually works.

Part I of this Essay explains the Court’s longstanding understanding of the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions, and then describes the Court’s failure to engage with this precedent in 303 Creative. Part II then identifies the 303 Creative decision’s …

Judicial Economy In The Age Of Ai, Yonathan A. Arbel

Articles

Individuals do not vindicate the majority of their legal claims because of access to justice barriers. This entrenched state of affairs is now facing a disruption. Lawyers and non-lawyers alike are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools to perform legal tasks tools that sharply reduce the costs of generating legal materials. There is finally hope that AI might allow many more to access justice.

Paradoxically, what we gain in access to justice we might lose in the delivery of justice. The problem is not that AI tools are ineffective. Indeed, they are even more effective than most realize affecting every stage …

Survivors Speak Out: Analyzing Minnesota's Anti-Slapp Law Through The Lens Of Johnson V. Freborg, Taylor Anderson

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Publications

No abstract provided.

Solicitation By Lawyers: Piercing The First Amendment Veil, Louise L. Hill

Maine Law Review

Historically, the legal profession has considered the solicitation of business inappropriate. The profession has articulated this condemnation of solicitation, which developed as a principle of good taste among a small and homogeneous group of practitioners, in the form of specific rules prohibiting its members from engaging in certain forms of conduct. In recent years, the United States Supreme Court has considered various rules that restrict the commercial speech of lawyers. Reviewing these proscriptive rules, the Court struck down categorical bans on lawyer advertising and targeted, direct mail solicitation as violative of the first amendment. Because the free flow of information …

Emergency Powers For Good, Elena Chachko, Katerina Linos

William & Mary Law Review

Emergency powers are widely, and justly, criticized as threats to the rule of law. In the United States, forty-three declared emergencies give the executive vast authority to exercise power unencumbered by standard legal and procedural requirements. A long tradition of executive use of emergency powers to erode civil liberties amplifies fears of executive overreach.

Yet this, we argue, is only part of the picture. We examine how emergency powers can be used for good. We argue that under certain limited conditions, political actors can legitimately invoke emergency powers to transform public policy. In addition to widely accepted requirements of crisis …

Law School News: Transforming Adversity Into Advocacy 9-4-2024, Andrew Clark, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Interview Of Professor John Brittain, Donny R. Williams

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Statehood: The Bridge To Transforming The District Of Columbia's Criminal Justice System, Shelley Broderick

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Subfederal In Immigration Polarization, Huyen Pham, Pham Hoang Van

Faculty Scholarship

The framing of subfederal immigration regulation as a red- blue divide is conventional wisdom. As more states, cities, and counties have engaged in the regulation of immigrants within their jurisdictions, it is not particularly surprising to see deep-red states like Texas enacting laws that restrict the rights of immigrants in their jurisdictions (e.g., requiring police within the state to honor detainers issued by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)) or deep-blue states like California enacting laws that protect immigrants’ rights (e.g., issuing driver’s licenses without requiring proof of lawful immigration status).

Rather than only reflecting national polarization on immigration …