Digital Commons Network^™

What Makes An Opinion Originalist?, Christopher R. Green

Florida Law Review

Is originalism the law today? Because judicial opinions are an important part of how we know the law, it is important exactly what makes a judicial opinion originalist. Lower courts interpreting the opinions of a higher court lack the power to smooth out inconsistencies, fill in assumptions about what is really motivating the higher court, or dismiss stated rationales that conflict with what those lower courts take to be the facts. If, then, we assess opinions the way lower courts must assess them—i.e., on the basis of their texts—the only proper criterion to govern whether an opinion is originalist is …

Nyu Cardozo Robotaxi Symposium, Heyman Center On Corporate Governance, The Guarini Center On Environmental, Energy & Land Use Law

2026 Event Invitations

In the past year, interest in robotaxis in New York has surged. Last summer, Waymo started testing its vehicles on Manhattan streets. In January, Governor Hochul proposed automated vehicle pilot programs upstate. But in February, she withdrew her proposal under pressure. And in March, Waymo’s testing permit expired. The future of robotaxis in New York is an open question. This Symposium will explore the legal and policy issues that robotaxis raise. Our goal is to enrich the public conversation by bringing together experts from around the country to share their knowledge and experience. There will be two panels: one on …

Cardozo Celebrates 34th Inspire! Awards, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

Cardozo School of Law celebrated the 34th INSPIRE! Awards, recognizing alumni, students, and community members for their outstanding commitment to public service. The event honored leaders in immigration advocacy, presented student leadership and service awards, and featured a live recording of the SPARKS podcast focused on careers in public interest law.

Bridging The Justice Gap: A Comparative Study Of Legal Aid Marketing In Canada, Australia, And The United States, Farah O. Haq

Student Theses and Dissertations

Access to justice remains a central challenge across legal systems, particularly for immigrants and refugees, Indigenous communities, and survivors of domestic violence. While legal aid organizations play a critical role in bridging this gap, their effectiveness increasingly depends on how clearly and compassionately they communicate legal information online to their target audience. This thesis conducts a comparative content analysis of nine nonprofit legal aid organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia, three countries united by a common law tradition but divided by the communication barriers their communities face, examining 180 social media posts and nine websites through the lens …

State Of Nevada V. Rocky Stanley Salazar, 123 Nev. Adv. Op. 45 (May 28, 2026), Bowen Fuller

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

When second-degree murder by a controlled substance starts on tribal land but consummates on nontribal land, the state has jurisdiction to prosecute the crime.

Nevada Health And Bioscience Asset Corporation V. State Of Nevada Ex Rel. Department Of Taxation And Nevada Tax Commission, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. (May 28, 2026), Collin Faught

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The court held that contracting with a government entity does not prevent an otherwise qualifying charitable organization from receiving a sales and use tax exemption.

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Inc. V. State Ex Rel. Office Of The Nevada Attorney General (Civil), 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 40 (May 28, 2026), Charnel Gibson

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Nevada’s parental notification abortion statute is likely unconstitutionally vague because it fails to provide physicians with adequate notice of the conduct required and permits arbitrary enforcement.

Maryland Reproductive Freedom And The Full Personhood Of Pregnant People, Margaret E. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

Pregnant and birthing people are inappropriately criminalized. Such criminalization is for behavior during their pregnancy that would not otherwise be criminalized, including when there was no harm to the later born baby, and for birth outcomes like miscarriages and still births. Law supports criminalization in part because of the historic legal significance given to fetal “viability” as a demarcation between full personhood rights for pregnant people and the encroachment of fetal “personhood” on those rights. Focusing on Maryland’s new constitutional amendment for reproductive freedom, this essay examines how the new amendment offers promise in restoring the full personhood rights for …

Originalisms' Indifferences?: Friendly Amendments To Professor Girgis's "Originalism's Difference?", Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Florida Law Review

In this Essay, the author begins by summarizing their many areas of agreement with Girgis’s Dunwody Lecture, Originalism’s Difference?. Then they turn to each of Girgis’s three differences to ask a question and perhaps pose a critique. Has Girgis placed too much emphasis on “constraint”? Is “intensity” a virtue without sufficient care, balance, and open-mindedness, and perhaps a vice if it is a tendentiously intense control-f search? Is avoiding “palpable” moral reasoning a virtue if the Court is using historical evidence to cover for ideological motives and cognitive biases? This Essay turns to some of Girgis’s own examples of …

Originalism's Difference?, Sherif Girgis

Florida Law Review

This Article is a Dunwody Distinguished Lecture in Law and the topic is whether originalism makes any practical difference to constitutional reasoning and outcomes, relative to other methods of interpretation.

Does Good Originalism Need Good History?, Gary Lawson

Florida Law Review

One might think that originalism by definition is largely about history. After all, what does it mean to be “originalist” if not to be concerned primarily, if not exclusively, about the past? And if history is relevant, surely good history is better than bad history?

That seemingly obvious conclusion is not actually obvious. The role of good history, as with the role of any discipline—be it linguistics, epistemology, economics, classical studies, or political theory—depends on what questions one asks. And at least some forms of originalism ask questions for which the role of good history, as historians might define good …

2026 Inspire! Awards, Cardozo Center For Public Service Law

2026 Event Invitations

Please join the law school community for this fantastic event, which will celebrate students and community leaders who have made a powerful impact in public service this past year.

This event will be held in a hybrid format so you can attend in-person or remotely.

Speech - Invocation For Seton Hall Law School Commencement 2026, Rev. Nicholas S. Gengaro , Chaplain

Graduation

No abstract provided.

Speech - Time Doesn't Pause (Graduation Speech), Nicholas Giaquinto

Graduation

No abstract provided.

Speech - Commencement Speech, Rev. Msgr. Joseph Reilly , S.T.L., Ph.D.

Graduation

No abstract provided.

Commencement Program - Seton Hall University Class Of 2026 School Of Law Commencement Exercises

Graduation

No abstract provided.

Speech - Introduction Of Keynote Speaker, Henna Shah

Graduation

No abstract provided.

Speech - Benediction, 2026 Seton Hall Law Graduation Ceremony, Christian E. Henniger

Graduation

No abstract provided.

Speech - Seton Hall Law Graduation 2026, Board Of Visitors Opening Remarks, Elaine Rocha , Chair, Board Of Visitors

Graduation

No abstract provided.

Academic Freedom's Inflection Point, Jerry C. Edwards

Law Faculty Scholarship

Academic freedom faces an existential crisis. The Trump administration, building on a movement that began in the states, is seeking ideological conquest of higher education. Some universities have already surrendered. Others fight on, facing an endless barrage of assaults on their institutional autonomy. Faculty too have chosen to resist, relying on their free expression rights. One of the most potent weapons in higher education’s arsenal is the constitutional academic freedom doctrine, a First Amendment protection that safeguards faculty’s academic expression and universities’ academic judgments. But the Supreme Court’s embrace of history and tradition as a focal point of its individual …

Bringing An International Natural Resources Managemet Perspective Home To New Mexico, Katherine Tara

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

The War Below: Lithium, Copper, And The Global Battle To Power Our Lives, Katherine Castillo

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Warming Up: How Climate Change Is Changing Sport, Jesse E. Mclaughlin

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Wading In The Waters: The Public’S Use Rights In Non-Navigable Streams, Loren Vigil

Natural Resources Journal

In New Mexico, the water law of prior appropriation rules. As a result, no individual holds a complete right to ownership of water in New Mexico. Instead, New Mexico landowners hold only a right to put appropriated waters to beneficial use. Appropriation of waters requires diversion, a distinct feature that prevents landowners from claiming natural watercourses flowing through their property boundaries. The unappropriated waters of the state are then vested in the state via public trust, to be used and enjoyed by the public. This public right to use often abuts landowner property rights, as water flows over and through …

Changing Right Before Our Eyes: Landscape Transformation In New Mexico, Laura Mccarthy

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Incorporating Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (“Itek”) In Post-Wildfire Response And Recovery, Phoebe Suina

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Theorizing Rural Cosmopolitanism: Modern Economic History, Urban Elites, And The Political Economy Of Disaster Recovery, Manuel Montoya

Natural Resources Journal

A heavily understated dimension of cosmopolitanism is the urban rural divide. This is particularly true in the context of modern economics, which emerged at the same time that the notion of cosmopolitanism was gaining renewed political significance. This paper examines how economic thought of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries directly influenced the socio-literary interactions of a “World Republic of Letters” and how writers such as Goethe used terms like “universal spiritual commerce” to valorize the role of the city in the making of a new modern world. The paper also describes how the rural was left behind in …

The Role Of Anticipatory, Preparatory, And Transformative Governance In Wildfire And Watershed Resilience Strategies, Robin Kundis Craig, Melinda Morgan

Natural Resources Journal

Wildfire is a game-changer for both communities and ecosystems throughout the West, including in New Mexico. Building resilience to increasing numbers of wildfire events, especially when wildfires can shift communities, ecosystems, and combined social ecological systems (“SESs”) past tipping points and into new regimes requires new approaches to governance. Focusing on the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire and New Mexico residents’ ongoing response, this Article examines post-fire needs before surveying new modes of governance that can help to address those needs in a climate change era. It ends with a summary of our engagement with the participants in the “Life After …

Climate Change, Justice, And Equity In The Adjudication Of Hermit’S Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Claims, Brett Phelps

Natural Resources Journal

Large-scale, climate-driven wildfire has become a recurring and foreseeable feature of life in the American West, creating long-term consequences for forests, watersheds, and rural communities. The 2022 Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, the largest wildfire in New Mexico history, provides an opportunity to examine how a federally created compensation statute functions once a climate disaster moves from legislation and rulemaking into adjudication. Sparked by prescribed burns on public land, the fire led Congress to enact the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act, directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) to provide expeditious and just compensation for injuries resulting from the fire. …

Adapting The Hermit’S Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act To Address The Needs Of The Community It Was Meant To Serve, Kieran Raney

Natural Resources Journal

In 2022, New Mexico experienced its worst documented wildfire season on record, and the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire was the largest among them. Over 340,000 acres of Northern New Mexico burned, devastating a multi-generational, subsistence community. In response, Congress passed the Hermit’s Peak Fire Assistance Act, the second-ever act of its kind to provide full and expeditious compensation for wildfire damage. Yet, more than four years later, many community members still have not received any funding and litigation continues over whether the Act is meant to provide noneconomic damages. This Comment outlines the steps of the rulemaking process to argue …