Digital Commons Network^™

King, Christian Ethics, And The Promise Of Positive Fundamental Rights, H. Timothy Lovelace Jr., Patrick T. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

On February 6, 1968, leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference drafted a letter addressed to the president, Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The letter argued that the U.S. constitution facilitated economic and social second-class citizenship because the constitution did not protect economic and social rights but instead protected only civil and political rights. The letter’s authors demanded that the nation repent for its continued subordination of the poor and minorities and atone by recognizing economic and social rights. In this article, the authors recover the draft letter—a proposed economic and social bill of rights—and assert it was and …

Taking Liberties: The Supreme Court’S New Hierarchy Of Rights And Its Victims, Richard B. Katskee

Faculty Scholarship

The legitimacy of our unelected Supreme Court comes from the nature and structural limitations on judicial power. Courts do not make policy in the abstract. Rather, Article III requires federal judges to decide only real, live disputes, on the facts before them. Stare decisis then prevents the courts from changing legal rules willy-nilly. The big, important changes come instead through collective decision-making by our elected representatives. When courts do break from stare decisis, it is normally to expand protections for the politically disempowered. Those protections then make legislatures more representative and act as brakes on abuses of minorities by an …

Smart Money For The People: Using Financial Innovation And Technology To Promote Esg, Frank Emmert

Duke Law & Technology Review

Traditional fiat currencies managed by governments and central banks have had negative impacts on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. Central banks in mature democracies pursue policies that prioritize economic growth and high employment. However, these policies often lead to inflation, eroding the savings and pension funds of average citizens and encouraging risky behavior by banks and entrepreneurs. The pursuit of endless growth is socially and environmentally unsustainable. Leaders in developing countries and dictatorships use expansive monetary policy to maintain their positions, further exacerbating the situation. Convertible fiat currencies moving across borders in untraceable transactions evade regulation and taxation, with …

Structural Inequality And The New Markets Tax Credit, Michelle D. Layser, Andrew J. Greenlee

Duke Law Journal

The New Markets Tax Credit (“NMTC”) is a federal tax incentive used to promote investment in low-income neighborhoods. Many of these neighborhoods are home to historically marginalized communities. However, very few minority-led institutions participate in the NMTC program. This Article provides the first theoretical and empirical exploration of the underrepresentation of minority-led institutions in the NMTC program. Based on original interviews with representatives of Community Development Entities (“CDEs”), investors, borrowers, and consultants who participate in the NMTC program, this Article describes the “NMTC ecosystem,” a complex, relationship-driven network of NMTC program participants who influence decision-making and create opportunities for success …

Rethinking The Presumption Of Enablement In Nonpatent Prior Art, Gabrielle Carlini

Duke Law Journal

The rising popularity of tools such as preprint servers, open-access data sources, and generative artificial intelligence has resulted in a proliferation of prior art that has never been seen before under the current patent system. In a rapidly changing world, patent law is slow to catch up, and the current system is not equipped to handle the flood of incoming prior art. In the academic research setting in particular, while the use of preprint servers and open-source data has allowed researchers to participate in widespread information exchange, these tools have also generated a new, large class of prior art dedicated …

Education From Condemnations: Learning From State And Federal Reforms For A More Efficient And Just Eminent Domain, Lydia Culp

Duke Law Journal

Under current takings doctrine, governments can identify entire neighborhoods as “blighted,” condemn the private property within, and transfer it to another private owner who will use the land in a more economically advantageous way. This causes injustice by incentivizing governments and developers to target poor and vulnerable neighborhoods. And by letting governments and developers evade market forces, buy land at a bargain, and afford to take on more projects than they can manage effectively, it causes inefficiency. Economic development takings, when not abused, can help revitalize downtrodden neighborhoods, so an outright ban is not the answer. Neither is relying on …

Regulatory Managerialism As Gaslighting Government, Jodi L. Short

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Power And Knowledge In Policy Evaluation: From Managing Budgets To Analyzing Scenarios, Frank Pasquale

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Regulatory Intermediation For The Public, Daniel E. Walters

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

The Anti-Managerial Information Commission, Margaret B. Kwoka

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

A Public Technology Option, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Framing Regulatory Managerialism As An Object Of Study And Strategic Displacement, Julile E. Cohen, Ari Ezra Waldman

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Looking Backward To Move Forward: Ending The "History And Tradition" Of Gun Violence Against The Lgbtq+ Community, Brett V. Ries

Duke Law Journal Online

Anti-LGBTQ+ gun violence is occurring in the United States at an alarming rate. The Department of Homeland Security has even issued a domestic terrorism warning for attacks against the LGBTQ+ community. When the shootings at the Pulse Nightclub in Florida and Club Q in Colorado are combined, fifty-four individuals were murdered and seventy-eight more were wounded while simply existing in an LGBTQ+ space. Both of these targeted shootings occurred within the past six years, indicating that anti-LGBTQ+ gun violence is not a relic of the past. As they were ten years ago, LGBTQ+ individuals are still disproportionately impacted by hate …

Immigration Incentives In Fcpa Enforcement: The Case For Protecting At-Risk Foreign Whistleblowers, Ken Krmoyan

Duke Law Journal

In recent years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has aggressively enforced the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), which prohibits bribing foreign officials for business purposes. In doing so, it has relied heavily on tips from its increasingly popular whistleblower program, including ones received from scores of foreign countries. However, foreign whistleblowers enjoy unequal protections vis-à-vis their U.S. counterparts. For instance, foreign whistleblowers are not protected against retaliation for lawfully reporting information to the SEC. Worse still, some foreign whistleblowers are less protected than others due to inadequate protections in their domestic systems, and some face especially great risks for …

America's Other Separation Of Powers Tradition, Jonathan L. Marshfield

Duke Law Journal

As the Supreme Court returns many critical issues to the states, the structure of state government is increasingly significant to the American constitutional order. From redistricting to reproductive rights, battles are raging over which state institutions should decide these important issues. Yet there is surprisingly little scholarship dedicated to the separation of powers under state constitutions. Instead, state doctrine and commentary tend to mimic themes in federal constitutional law and parrot Madisonian ideas of constitutional design. On this view, the separation of powers is based on carefully balanced intragovernment rivalries fueled by the private ambition of government officers. This competition …

Science As Superstition: A Model Statute For Changed Science Claims, Jack D. Wasserman

Duke Law Journal

Over the last fifteen years, the legal community has increasingly recognized the role of “changed science” in contributing to wrongful convictions. Changed science wrongful convictions occur when the scientific evidence used to convict a criminal defendant at trial has since been questioned or repudiated by the greater scientific community. To address this issue, seven states have enacted “changed science writs,” providing petitioners who may have been wrongfully convicted with a more reliable state habeas mechanism to challenge their convictions. Under these statutes, petitioners may bring challenges based on now-discredited scientific evidence, new guidelines, expert recantations, and scientific advancements. Importantly, these …

Legal Ethics After #Metoo: Autonomy, Domination, And Nondisclosure Agreements, Sung Hui Kim

Duke Law Journal

The legal profession has long embraced what is called the “standard conception” of legal ethics, the prevailing model guiding the social and professional norms of American lawyers since at least the 1970s. The standard conception requires lawyers to promote their clients’ interests vigorously within the bounds of law and urges lawyers to be morally neutral toward lawful client ends, regardless of even the predictable consequences of their representations, including any harms inflicted on third parties or the public at large. Central to the most prominent defenses of the standard conception is the value of individual autonomy, specifically the client’s. According …

All Grown Up: Qualified Immunity, Student Rights, And The Way Forward, Matthew Mcknight, Angela Guo

Duke Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.

101 Lawyers: Attorney Appearances In Twitter V. Musk, Andrew K. Jennings

Duke Law Journal Online

In summer 2022, Twitter sued Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, in Delaware’s Court of Chancery over his refusal to close his agreed-to $44 billion acquisition of the social-media company. Twitter v. Musk had the makings of corporate law’s trial of the century. Leading law firms represented Twitter, Musk, and third parties in a dispute with enormous financial, social, and political implications. In the lead up to trial, however, Musk relented and closed the deal. The corporate trial of the century was a bust, over almost as soon as it began.

But in the meantime, in Twitter’s eighty-six days of …

Hawks And Doves: Evaluating Presidential Powers And Duties Against Congress's Power To Declare War, Andrea L. R. Pillai

Duke Law Journal

What would happen if Congress declared war against the president’s wishes? Would the president be forced to prosecute the war? Or are there mechanisms, whether through the system of checks and balances or the president’s own delegated, independent powers, that give the president the authority to disregard Congress’s declaration? This Note argues that a declaration of war must go through the process of bicameralism and presentment to be valid. Thus, the president has the authority to veto a declaration of war. If Congress overcomes the president’s veto, this Note concludes that the president must prosecute the war. The president does …

Shading Sunshine: The Proliferation Of Exemptions To State Open Records Laws, Cat Reid

Duke Law Journal

State and local open records laws play a vital role in our democracy. They shed light on the darkest places, exposing corruption and holding the powerful accountable. Yet lawmakers are continually chipping away at the public’s right to know by limiting the information available under open records laws. Exemptions have been passed to bolster special interests, in response to investigative journalism, and to shield lawmakers. This Note examines the proliferation of exemptions and proposes a three-pronged solution that combines statutory improvements from federal FOIA and Florida’s open records law with a call for greater public engagement on the importance of …

When An Aspiring Tax Lawyer Considered Labor Unions Important To The Future Of Capitalism, Catherine L. Fisk

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Stanley Surrey, The American Law Institute Income Tax Project, And The Normative Structure Of The Income Tax, Charlotte Crane

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Non-Cognitivist Defense Of The Supreme Court's Obscenity Doctrine, Benjamin Rossi

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Foreword: The Legacy Of Stanley S. Surrey, Ajay K. Mehrotra, Lawrence Zelenak

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Textualism, The Authoritativeness Of Congressional Committee Reports, And Stanley Surrey, George K. Yin

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Stanley Surrey And Taxing Unreallized Appreciation, Lawrence Zelenak

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

The Dead Hand Of A Silent Past: Bruen, Gun Rights, And The Shackles Of History, Jacob D. Charles

Duke Law Journal

In June 2022, the Supreme Court struck down New York’s concealed carry licensing law on Second Amendment grounds. In that decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Court declared that future Second Amendment challenges should be evaluated solely with reference to text, history, and tradition. By requiring historical precedent for any modern regulation, that test is essentially sui generis in the Court’s individual-rights jurisprudence. Yet it represents both an extension of an increasingly historically focused Supreme Court case law and a harbinger of potential doctrinal transformations in other domains.

This Article critically assesses Bruen’s test and, …

The Last Black Tobacco Union: Local 208, Segregated Seniority, And The Integrating South, Kathy Rong Zhou

Duke Law Journal

After federal reforms in the 1930s protected the right to organize, the Tobacco Workers International Union made quick work of mobilizing the American South. Its unions, though segregated, made strides. Yet Black unions’ collective bargaining gains could not transcend one of the South’s most oppressive employment practices: segregated systems for worker seniority. One Black union, Local 208 at Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company in Durham, North Carolina, fought for seniority rights for more than three decades. During this time, the federal government increasingly pressured Southern industry and labor to desegregate. Steadfast, Local 208 refused to merge with any white union …

Fact Stripping, Joseph Blocher, Brandon L. Garrett

Duke Law Journal

Appellate fact review in constitutional litigation has never been more important. Whether someone’s rights were violated often turns on what happened—matters of fact—and not solely on matters of law. That makes it all the more striking that the U.S. Supreme Court has increasingly reversed rulings of lower courts based on factual disagreement, given that such factfinding is typically entitled to significant appellate deference. Scholars and would-be reformers have noted many problems with appellate factfinding, but have tended to assume that the Court itself has final say on the applicable standard of review.

Yet as a matter of constitutional law, the …