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Ndls Communicator: Week Of 09.14.26, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

The Latest News

• Religious Liberty Clinic requests emergency relief from U.S. Supreme Court to protect Orthodox Jew's religious exercise

Student News

• J.S.D. candidate Valentina Salazar

Faculty Briefs

• Lloyd Mayer
• Mary Ellen O'Connell
• Paolo G. Carozza
• Carter Snead
• Emily Bremer
• Rick Garnett
• Christine Venter
• Dennis Wieboldt

Events

• Faculty Colloquium - Paul Yowell, University of Oxford
• Faculty and Staff Birthday Celebration
• 2025-26 SCOTUS Recap
• Homecoming 2026: Notre Dame vs. Michigan State game, September 19, 2026

Looking Ahead

• Law & Economics Workshop: Stephan Wernicke, Humboldt University of Berlin Delaware in the European Union? EU Inc. – A New European Corporate Legal Form
• Conversation …

Using Lonergan’S Method To Instruct For The Scholar: St. Mary’S Law Review On Race And Social Justice, Mike Martinez Jr

San Jose - Lonergan Chair in Catholic Philosophy

The Scholar began in the 2000s to bring light to the social justice issues of the day: Hopwood, Proposition 187 in California, Amendment 2 in Colorado, and the aggressive assault on civil rights laws, immigrants’ rights, and bilingual education. The origins of this publication began as a grassroots effort of six law students working to make a difference and contribute to the legal conversation by advocating for traditionally marginalized groups. The vision of the founding editors provided a voice for ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, immigrants, racial minorities, women, and other disenfranchised groups often silenced in our legal discourse. The concept and …

Tax Exceptionalism After Loper Bright, Conor Clarke, Noah Hertz Marks

Faculty Publications

In this article, the authors consider what Loper Bright means for the relevance of Mayo Foundation and National Muffler as well as its broader implications for agency-specific deference, and they examine older case law that can be helpful post-Loper Bright.

"How Do I Design My Law Course?": A Quick Guide For New Professors, Steven Arrigg Koh

Faculty Scholarship

How do professors start teaching law? This question is a particular challenge for new law professors, who often lack resources for course design. Written from the perspective of a recently tenured law professor, this Essay offers four major categories of decisions: semester structure, classroom, final exam, and “professorial personality.” It argues that, for each decision, reasonable minds can differ. This Essay also provides some personal reflections on the decision-making to illustrate how one professor might weigh various considerations in course design. A final Appendix is a checklist for new professors.

Between Blockchain And Black Markets: South Africa's Legal Readiness For Crypto-Driven Cyberfraud, Sagwadi Mabunda, Yassin Chande

Communications of the IIMA

This paper examines whether the proliferation of cryptocurrency-facilitated fraud warrants a reclassification of the terrestrial crime of fraud into the distinct statutory offence of cyberfraud under South African law. Engaging with established fraud typologies — exit scams, Initial Coin Offering (ICO) scams, Ponzi schemes, pump-and-dump schemes, and market manipulation — the article tests their definitional fit against both the common law of fraud and section 8 of the Cybercrimes Act 19 of 2020. Through a hypothetical composite scenario combining multiple fraud typologies, the article demonstrates that whilst cryptocurrency significantly amplifies the reach and complexity of fraudulent schemes, it functions primarily …

Cardozo Law News Brief: September 11, 2026, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Briefs

Highlights from the September 11, 2026 Cardozo Law News Brief include:

• Professor Matthew Wansley was quoted in The New York Times about Tesla’s Cybercab and the challenges of developing a reliable automated driving system.
• Professor Luis Calderón Gómez spoke to The Washington Post about the Trump administration’s proposal to remove tax exemptions from schools that consider race in admissions and the potential for legal challenges.
• Professor Zalman Rothschild spoke to Gothamist about New York’s vaccine requirements and renewed constitutional challenges to vaccination mandates.
• Adjunct Professor Gary Galperin was quoted in Newsweek about the Lindsay Clancy mistrial and the possibility of …

Twenty-Five Years After September 11, 2001: Display Boards, Natasha Nandlal Varyani

Institute for Race and the Law

These slides are quotes by the contributors to the book “Twenty-Five Years After September 11, 2001: A Collection of Personal Narratives from the Day and What Followed, edited by Professor Natasha Nandlal Varyani, Director of the Institute for Race and the Law. The slides were displayed at the program “September 11th: 25 Years After, Remembrance, Reflection & Community,” held at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse on Friday, September 11, 2026. The Roger Williams University Institute for Race and the Law, the Boston Bar Association, and the South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston co-sponsored this program. The book …

Twenty-Five Years After September 11, 2001: A Collection Of Personal Narratives From The Day And What Followed, Natasha Nandlal Varyani

Institute for Race and the Law

This book is a collection of personal reflections on 9/11, edited by Professor Natasha Nandlal Varyani, Director of the Institute for Race and the Law, printed and distributed at the program “September 11th: 25 Years After, Remembrance, Reflection & Community,” held at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse on Friday, September 11, 2026. The Roger Williams University Institute for Race and the Law, the Boston Bar Association, and the South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston co-sponsored this program. A collection of quotes from the contributors is also available in the collection.

Child Welfare History Of Prison Inmates Would Provide Meaningful Data For Foster Care Policy Research And Planning, Maggie Zehring

Student Scholarship

Child welfare intervention in the United States continues to operate distinctly different in each states and community without a full picture of the overall system’s efficacy. While federal and state agencies collect extensive information on children’s movement in and out of the foster care system and related adjudication, there lacks a nationwide understanding of how kids fare after exiting the system. This note argues that Departments of Correction (DOC) nationwide should collect child‑welfare history from incarcerated individuals as part of existing intake procedures and regularly communicate the data for the federal Children’s Bureau to aggregate for longitudinal analysis of foster …

Getting A Special Education: Parents, Lawyers, And The Politics Of Disability In Postwar Pennsylvania, Emma Gabriel

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This paper explores the relationship between white parent advocates in Pennsylvania and public interest lawyers, whose litigation efforts legitimized the construction of an implicitly white disabled class in the mid-twentieth century. This analysis sheds light on the ways in which school reform became a key element in the simultaneous construction and renegotiation of intellectual disability and race in the postwar era, and foregrounded the adoption of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975.

The Past, Present, And Likely Future Of Shareholder Arbitration, Mohsen Manesh

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Grounded: How Doj Merger Analysis Left Consumers Stranded, Deja Graham, Christine P. Bartholomew

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Agents, Inc., Kevin Werbach

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Ending Randomized Outcomes: Using Consumer Protection Laws To Regulate Video Game Loot Boxes And Monetization Practices That Target Children, Dennis Reilly

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Video Killed The Privacy Star: How The Sixth Circuit's Cabined Interpretation Of "Consumer" In Salazar V. Paramount Global Risks Gutting The Vppa's Privacy Protections, Nadine Fernando

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Amici Curiae Criminal Law Scholars And Legal Organizations In Support Of Petitioner, Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, Florida Association Of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Kentucky Association Of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Criminal Defense Attorneys Of Michigan, North Carolina Advocates For Justice, Virginia Association Of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Due Process Institute, Ira P. Robbins, Kyle Singhal

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT: The Sentencing Guidelines are, in practice, the most consequential legal text in federal criminal law. Yet this Court has abstained from interpreting the Guidelines for decades. That practice is anomalous in the federal judiciary and should end. District courts must correctly calculate every defendant’s guideline range at every sentencing hearing. Courts of Appeals routinely hear appeals asserting guideline mistakes. And differences of appellate opinion over purely legal, highly consequential questions often arise. This Court apparently declines to hear such cases because the Sentencing Commission could resolve those conflicts. See Braxton v. United States,500 U.S. 344, …

Reconstructing The Enforcement Of The Code Of Ethics For General Elections In Indonesia: A Prophetic Law Perspective, Fradhana Putra Disantara, Ratih Listyana Chandra, Aan Efendi, Iwan Rachmad Soetijono, Souad Ahmed Ezzerouali

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

This research examines the reconstruction of ethical code enforcement for election organizers in Indonesia through the perspective of prophetic law, arguing that ethical adjudication should extend beyond procedural compliance by integrating humanization, liberation, and transcendence as normative foundations of substantive justice. Employing doctrinal legal research, the study uses statutory, conceptual, case, and comparative approaches. It compares Indonesia's regulatory framework with the ethical governance systems of India and the United States to identify institutional models that strengthen integrity while respecting distinct constitutional traditions. The findings demonstrate that ethical adjudication differs fundamentally from administrative law: it governs the forum internum of election …

Mmu: 09/07/26-09/13/26, Student Bar Association

Monday Morning Update

This Week @ NDLS

Mass Times

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General Announcements

More Than A Call: Why The Martha Wright-Reed Act Falls Short In Reforming Prison Communication, Carrington Wilkes

Georgia Criminal Law Review

In response to widespread criticism of exploitative prison communication costs, Congress enacted the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022 (the “Act”). This legislation tasked the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) with establishing fair rates for phone and video calls made by inmates in jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers. While the Act marks a critical step in reducing financial burdens on incarcerated individuals and their families, it does not cover other widely used communication methods, such as electronic messaging, emails, and tablet-based platforms. These newer services remain largely unregulated, enabling private companies to impose excessive fees due to …

Manipulation Leading To Criminalization: The Need To Expand Georgia’S Survivors First Act, Taylor Hoying

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Nicole was seventeen when she met Juan, and they began a romantic relationship. “He was gorgeous and he had charm. I just wanted someone in my life to show me attention . . . .” He suggested that she start seeing other dates for money and sent her out onto the streets. Seven months later, when Nicole was raped by a john, Juan beat her, pepper-sprayed her, and put her in a cold shower for three and a half hours. If Nicole had been told to see another john the next day and was arrested for prostitution, would the arrest …

Sit, Stay, Overturn: How New Canine Science Is Challenging Courtroom Convictions, Kerolls Gadelrab

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Courts increasingly rely on cadaver dog evidence in criminal trials, treating canine alerts as a reliable form of forensic evidence. This naive acceptance of cadaver dog evidence, coupled with courts’ continued application of out-dated admissibility standards, threatens to perpetuate wrongful convictions in an era of rapidly advancing scientific understanding. This Article argues that courts must develop a new framework for evaluating cadaver dog evidence that incorporates modern scientific research on ca-nine olfaction and scent detection capabilities. While scholars have extensively analyzed various forensic evidence standards post-Daubert, the literature has largely over-looked how recent scientific advances in understanding ca-nine olfaction should …

Expert In The Box: Keeping The Lid On Unchallenged Testimony, Derek L. Busch

Georgia Criminal Law Review

A juror with specialized knowledge carries the potential to infringe upon the trial rights of the accused, provided to them by the Sixth Amendment and incorporated to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. These rights include the right to an impartial jury and the right of confrontation, recognized since the founding of the first colonies. When a juror possesses relevant professional expertise or background information regarding evidence adduced at trial, there is a risk in how the juror will use this personal knowledge in deliberations. Particularly, there is a concern the juror will use their knowledge to add information, rather …

Officer-Created Jeopardy In Corrections: Rethinking Use-Of-Force Review After Barnes V. Felix, Dr. Hayden Smith

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Courts typically evaluate correctional uses of force by zooming in on the last seconds before impact, asking what an officer reasonably perceived at the “moment of threat.” That frame obscures a basic feature of jail and prison operations: officers’ pre-force tactical choices often create or sharply heighten the risks that force is later used to manage. Building on Barnes v. Felix’s rejection of a rigid moment-of-threat rule and the broader state-created-danger line, this Article argues that officer-created jeopardy should be treated as a central component of constitutional and institutional review in corrections. It shows how Barnes, read alongside DeShaney, Kingsley, …

Deepfakes, Deep Trouble: Navigating Legal Boundaries For Child Pornography Prosecution In The Age Of Ai, Alexandra Hoffman

Georgia Criminal Law Review

This Comment explores the evolving legal landscape of child pornography law as it pertains to “nudify” apps and other AI-generated content. It examines foundational cases in child pornography law that allowed child pornography materials to bypass First Amendment constraints, the “lascivious exhibition” standard, and recent precedents allowing courts to prosecute morphed images. This Comment analyzes the viability of prosecuting “nudify” images, arguing that a holistic approach focusing on the child’s overall harm is the best analytical framework rather than one that solely focuses on the sexual nature of the image. In doing so, it emphasizes that the identifiability of the …

Ai-Supported Analysis Of Jury Deliberation Impact Factors, Jennifer Siciliani Phd

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students conduct a controlled, two-run generative AI jury simulation to examine how a single socio-legal variable affects simulated jury deliberation. They compare and manually code the AI-generated outcomes against peer-reviewed human jury research to evaluate the model’s accuracy, limitations, and potential biases.

Appeal No.1067: Arrowhead Road Services, Llc V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Review of Chief's Orders 2025-512

History And Tradition Is Not Originalism — Nor A Good Idea, Kermit Roosevelt Iii, Sarah Choudhary

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment Does Too Much To Protect Child Predators: An Examination Of Child Erotica Under First Amendment Jurisprudence, Michael Fuccile

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Modernizing And Clarifying Family Laws: The New Jersey Law Revision Commission’S Examination Of Self-Representation, Domestic Violence, And Parental Rights, Barbara B. Rivera, Whitney G. Schlimbach, Candy Ley Velazquez, Kyle M. Ryan

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Recreational Cannabis In The Workplace: The Importance Of Implementing Clear Standards For Employers To Determine Whether Employees Are Impaired At Work, Jessica Shinski

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.