Digital Commons Network^™

Pleading With Particularity: Decoding When Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Claims Must Comply With Rule 9(B), Brooke R. Newman

Pepperdine Law Review

The primary tool for litigating cybercrimes is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which Congress enacted in 1984 following increased computer misuse. Since its debut, the CFAA has undergone a series of amendments. The most noteworthy of which for civil litigators came in 1994 when Congress enacted a civil penalty for cybercrimes. Part of this penalty includes 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(4), which prohibits fraudulent conduct in connection with computer usage. In recent years, litigators have weaponized § 1030(a)(4) to challenge a variety of conduct, most of which has nothing to do with cybercrimes. These filings have split district courts …

Table Of Contents & Masthead, Jacqueline Kessel

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Emortgage And Crypto-Mortgage In Home Finance, Julia Patterson Forrester Rogers

Pepperdine Law Review

Most home mortgage loans today are documented on physical paper, but they are increasingly closed as eMortgages. The move to electronic documents is inevitable and will ultimately be a positive change for lenders and borrowers. However, additional regulation is needed to address issues raised by electronic home mortgage closings and the “crypto-mortgage,” a mortgage loan with the obligation evidenced by or tethered to a non-fungible token. Lenders have traditionally required that home mortgage loans be evidenced by a wet-signed paper promissory note to gain the advantages and the certainty of Article 3 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) governing negotiable …

Formulary Apportionment: A New Framework For Personal Income Taxation, Andrew Appleby

Pepperdine Law Review

Increased post-pandemic remote working arrangements and interstate migration have upended existing personal income taxation regimes. For decades, the current paradigm has proved to be an imperfect but workable means to determine which state has the prevailing claim to impose tax on a particular item of income. The individual’s state of residence has a residual claim to all the individual’s worldwide income but defers to the state in which the income is derived if such a state is determinable. To that end, the state of residence typically provides a credit for income taxes paid on a source basis to other states. …

United States V. Rahimi, 144 S.Ct 1889 (2024), Alyssa Hohlbein

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Erlinger V. United States, 144 S.Ct. 1840 (2024), Joseph Phillipps

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Diaz V. United States 144 S.Ct. 1727 (2024), Madison Walsh

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Models Of Judicial Interpretation: From Marshall To Kavanaugh And How The Umpire Model Changed The Game, Beau Sullivan

Ohio Northern University Law Review

The three predominant modes of judicial interpretation are living constitutionalism, originalism, and the umpire model. The living constitutionalist believes the Constitution is a living document that must change and adapt over time. The living constitutionalist considers the history, text, precedent, and policy when deciding a case. This is in contrast to the originalist, who considers the history and text of the document when deciding a case. The originalist favors judicial restraint and seeks to limit the role of the judge. The devotee of the umpire model champions the independent judge whose function is to the law and does not consider …

The Evolution Of Race-Based Admissions In American Higher Education, Chenglin Liu

Ohio Northern University Law Review

This Article examines the Supreme Court’s evolving position on racebased admissions policies over the past 127 years. Between Plessy and Brown, universities used race-based policies to exclude black applicants from white universities. Brown shifted admissions policies from blocking black students to accepting them. As affirmative action gained momentum, universities escalated from merely accepting minority candidates to proactive recruitment by using quotas and lowering their admissions standards. The Court in Bakke set the ground rules for race-based admissions during that period. In 2003, Grutter upheld the university’s pursuit for a “critical mass” of minority students in its entering class. Two decades …

Shadows Of Prejudice: The History Of The Right To Counsel And The Strickland's Pursuit Of Justice3 Amidst Forgotten Witnesses And Disregarded Evidence, Reem Haikal J.D., Ll.M

Ohio Northern University Law Review

In the United States’ criminal justice system, persistent problems with ineffective legal representation reveal significant systemic issues and injustices, underscoring the urgent need for meaningful reform. This paper argues that the United States’ criminal justice system faces deep-rooted problems due to ineffective legal representation, as evidenced by the evolution of the right to counsel, the challenges posed by the Strickland standard, and contemporary criticisms of legal defense practices. Through an analysis of historical developments, landmark legal decisions, and case studies, it becomes evident that meaningful reform is essential to address systemic injustices and ensure the constitutional guarantee of effective assistance …

An Empty Guarantee?, Kevin Thomas Frazier

Ohio Northern University Law Review

Self-governance constitutes the foundation of a republican form of governance. Three pressing threats to self-governance warrant closer scrutiny of the long-forgotten and wrongly interpreted Guarantee Clause (the Clause). Election interference and other limitations on the right to vote may deny individuals the control over their officials required by republican governance. Corporate consolidation of economic, cultural, and political capital likewise threatens to disturb the ability of individuals to act as free agents—unbeholden to one or a few companies for critical information and free and able to pursue their own private goals. And, finally, intentional manipulation of citizens by state governments in …

Post West Virginia V. Epa The Administrative State’S Door Is Still Ajar, Jaclyn Lopez

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA, which carves out a new rulemaking standard for Congress and federal agencies, may be as significant for its articulation of the Major Questions Doctrine (“MQD”) as it is for its treatment of Article III standing and jurisprudential mootness. This Essay examines lower courts’ subsequent treatment of West Virginia v. EPA to add dimension to the inquiry of whether the new MQD has upended the administrative state or if it is merely another arrow in the quiver for judges that prefer a weaker federal government or nondelegation altogether. It also …

West Virginia V. Epa: Maybe A Big Deal, But Maybe Not, Michael Lewyn

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

In West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court held that the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) lacked statutory authority to enact the Clean Power Plan, an EPA rule that encouraged coal-fired power plants to use non-coal sources of energy. The Court’s decision relied on the “major questions doctrine.” Under this doctrine, even if an unclear statute does not directly prohibit an administrative agency’s action, courts will reject an agency’s action when it is “asserting highly consequential power beyond what Congress could reasonably be understood to have granted.” Because the major questions doctrine is itself unclear, a variety of commentators suggested …

A More Modest Major Questions Doctrine Rooted In The Appointments Clause, Yonatan Gelblum

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

In this Essay, I explore how this constitutional mandate might guide courts adjudicating disputes that arise when agencies interpret ambiguous statutes in a manner granting them powers beyond those expressly vested by Congress. In Part I, I explain when such agency assertions of authority may implicate Appointments Clause limits on office creation. I also demonstrate how the test of Shoemaker v. United States, which assesses whether expanding an officer’s authority creates a new office for Appointments Clause purposes by adding duties not “germane” to existing duties, provides a standard for judicial review of such claims. Agency claims to …

“Major Questions” Malarkey: An Arbitrary And Capricious New Doctrine For Vetoing Controversial Agency Rules, Lars Noah

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

In 2022, after years of hinting at the idea, the United States Supreme Court officially adopted the “major questions” doctrine in West Virginia v. EPA. Commentators have already spilled plenty of ink trying to make sense of what this might portend, but so far seemingly everyone has accepted at face value the Court’s framing of the issue that it confronted in that case. This essay offers a slightly different perspective on the decision and suggests that closer attention to the precise nature of the question posed therein might reveal a distinctive flaw at the heart of the majority’s newfangled …

Climate Change, Democracy, And The Major Questions Doctrine, Joshua Ulan Galperin

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This brief Essay progresses in four parts. I will first argue that climate change is impacting the Court’s decisionmaking. Next, I will show that the significance of climate change as a modern political issue has caused the Court to downplay the statutory arrangement Congress created in the Clean Air Act. Third, I will suggest that the Court is not genuinely failing to appreciate the design of the Clean Air Act. Instead, the Court is aware of that design and feels the design goes beyond a constitutionally acceptable delegation of legislative power. Confronting the Nondelegation Doctrine head-on, however, would force …

Black Hole Of Administrative Law: The Threat Of An Ever-Expanding Major Questions Doctrine To The Judiciary, Fred B. Jacob

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Below, this essay explores how an aggressive major questions doctrine could extend its reach to judicial interpretation and the implications of doing so. Indeed, had the Court applied the major questions doctrine to its own judicial holdings in seminal cases such as Bostock v. Clayton County or Allen v. Milligan, it would have flunked. This is also true for West Virginia’s creation of the doctrine itself, which claimed newfound authority to transform administrative law despite Congress’s significant legislative attention to agency rulemaking.

Expansion of the major questions doctrine to cases arising in the courts’ original jurisdiction would …

Perspectives On West Virginia V. Epa, St. John’S Law Review Editorial Board

St. John's Law Review

No abstract provided.

Publishing Companies: Where Is The Accountability?, Serena Roche

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice (ERSJ) Blog

Over the past five decades, the consensus on best practices for effective reading instruction has gradually evolved into a debate over whether young children, in kindergarten and primary grades, learn to read more successfully through a phonics or whole language based curriculum.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice website on February 4, 2025. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.

The Fare Act May Fare Better Than Opposition Claims, Rob Loeser

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice (ERSJ) Blog

New York City is currently in an affordable housing crisis.  This crisis consists of two parts—availability and affordability. On the availability side, the rental vacancy rate plummeted from 4.54 percent in 2021 to a mere 1.41 percent in 2023, a multi-decade low.  Additionally, only 400,000 housing units have been built over the past decade, despite the creation of nearly 1.2 million jobs.  Meanwhile, on the affordability side, over half of New York City households are rent-burdened, defined as spending more than thirty percent of income on rent.  Furthermore, rent prices in 2024 are seven times greater than actual salaries.

This …

Sanctioning Negligent Bankers, Kyle D. Logue, W. Robert Thomas, Jeffery Y. Zhang

Law & Economics Working Papers

Over just one week in 2023, depositor runs at a few U.S. banks threatened a worldwide banking crisis. Afterwards, the United States would suffer three of the biggest bank failures in the nation’s history; in Europe, Credit Suisse became the largest financial institution to fail since the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis. Stunned by this lightning-fast panic, lawmakers, regulators, and academics have called for significant changes to the U.S. financial regulatory framework. Leading among these proposals are calls to improve supervisory oversight of banks, to tighten existing regulations on banks, and to increase deposit insurance limits. But these proposals alone are …

State Of Utah Appellee/ Plaintiff V. Ryan Scott Hatch Appellant/Defendant : Brief Of Appellee, Utah Court Of Appeals

Utah Court of Appeals Briefs (2020 –)

Appeal from a conviction for wanton destruction of wildlife, a third degree felony, in the Sixth Judicial District, Kane County, the Honorable Mandy Larsen presiding

SCOTT F. GARRETT, JESSICA GRIFFIN ANDERSON, Counsel for Appellant

NATALIE M. EDMUNDSON, DEREK E. BROWN, JEFFREY N. STOTT, Counsel for Appellee

Is Snap Removal Unconstitutional?, Ryan H. Nelson

Pepperdine Law Review

In snap removal, an individual removes a civil action to federal district court from the courts of a state where one or more putative defendants are a citizen before any such putative defendant has been served with process. By removing before any forum-state defendants are served, the removal arguably eludes the forum-defendant rule, which prohibits removal based solely on the diversity or alienage jurisdiction statute if “any of the parties in interest properly . . . served as defendants is a citizen of the State in which such action is brought.” For years, federal judges and legal academics have disputed …

Preparing For Election Disruptions In 2024, Norman J. Ornstein

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

No abstract provided.

The U.S. Electoral System And Foreign Interference, Jeremi Suri

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

No abstract provided.

The Electoral Count Reform Act In 2024, Adav Noti

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

No abstract provided.

The County Certification Problem, Jenny Gimian

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

No abstract provided.

Litigating The 2024 Election, Richard Pildes

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

No abstract provided.

American Plastics, Llc V. Home Depot Product Authority, Llc, Order On Motion To Dismiss, Kelly L. Ellerbe

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Town Hall On The Sustainable Development Goals And Racial Justice In Miami–Dade County, Tamar Ezer, Denisse Córdova Montes, Abigail L. Fleming, Lily Arslanian, Kristina Bergman, Jordan Brooks, Alexis Burns, Cassandra Hacker, Zoe Henderson, Estefania Hernandez, Alyssa Huffman, Photini Kamvisseli Suarez, Brianna Sanchez, Lakshmi Sanmuganathan, Gabrielle Thomas, Abigail Wettstein

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.