Digital Commons Network^™

All-Electron Molecular Tunnel Ionization Based On The Weak-Field Asymptotic Theory In The Integral Representation, Imam S. Wahyutama, Denawakage D. Jayasinghe, François Mauger, Kenneth Lopata, Kenneth J. Schafer

Faculty Publications

Tunnel ionization (TI) underlies many important ultrafast processes, such as high-harmonic generation and strong-field ionization. Among the existing theories for TI, many-electron weak-field asymptotic theory (ME-WFAT) is by design capable of accurately treating many-electron effects in TI. An earlier version of ME-WFAT relied on an accurate representation of the asymptotic tail of the orbitals, which hindered its implementation in Gaussian-basis-set-based quantum chemistry programs. In this work, we reformulate ME-WFAT in the integral representation, which makes the quality of the asymptotic tail much less critical, hence greatly facilitating its implementation in standard quantum chemistry packages. The integral reformulation introduced here is …

Arrest Unbound, Eisha Jain

Faculty Publications

Arrest has long been legally defined as a seizure, or temporary restraint on liberty, under the Fourth Amendment. But when the government arrests someone today, it imposes far more than a seizure. The government also marks individuals with arrest records, which enable wide-ranging penalties, such as deportation, civil detention, loss of a professional license, and disruption of custody. One consequence is that this regulatory structure unravels arrest from the key institutional checks that would permit the public or key actors to examine whether the government-imposed consequences stemming from arrest are fair and justified. Proportionality depends on the public at large …

Administrability Over Testamentary Freedom Of Disposition, Kevin Bennardo

Faculty Publications

This Article challenges the widely accepted view that testamentary freedom is the dominant principle of American inheritance law. It argues that administrability—the need for a predictable, efficient probate system—frequently overrides freedom of disposition. Examining executor selection, procedural constraints, contest doctrines, settlement mechanisms, and the pervasive role of judicial and statutory oversight, the Article shows that testators have far less control over the disposition of their estates than traditional rhetoric suggests. Because process shapes outcomes, limits on testators’ ability to control the probate process constitute significant limits on testamentary freedom. The Article also demonstrates how doctrines such as intestacy and settlement …

Death And Debts, Kevin Bennardo

Faculty Publications

This Article analyzes how inheritance law treats debts owed to and by a decedent, focusing on the Uniform Probate Code’s treatment of unpaid purchase-price balances associated with specifically devised property. While UPC §2‑606(a)(1) automatically gives the outstanding balance to the specific devisee, the Article argues that this rule is inconsistent with modern intent‑based ademption doctrine and with the Code’s treatment of debts owed by the estate. It contends that only outstanding balances secured by the devised asset reflect a meaningful connection to the testator’s likely intent. Unsecured balances, by contrast, should not automatically avoid ademption. The Article proposes amending the …

A Patent System For Temple Grandin, Andrew Chin

Faculty Publications

This article explores the intersection of neurodiversity and innovation through the lens of Temple Grandin’s contributions to livestock handling systems and her philosophical alignment with the U.S. patent system. Drawing on cognitive research by Simon Baron-Cohen, archaeological insights from Penny Spikins, and personal reflections, I argue that autistic cognitive styles—characterized by heightened “folk physics” aptitudes and visual thinking—have historically driven technological progress. Grandin’s patented inventions, motivated by sensory-based empathy for animals, exemplify how neurodivergent inventors seek to embed their conceptions of ethical utility into the nation’s technological infrastructure. The article critiques modern patent litigation trends, advocating instead for a system …

Debt, Work, And The State, Kate Sablosky Elengold

Faculty Publications

In every state and the District of Columbia, an individual who owes a debt to the state can lose their license to work. Without the ability to make a living, it is much harder to pay off debt. Although using occupational license restrictions as a debt collection tool appears nonsensical, it has never before been the subject of scholarly debate. This Article thus begins an important conversation about debt, work, and the state.

This Article identifies the pervasive authority that state and local governments have to revoke an individual’s occupational license solely because that person owes a debt to the …

Plastics, Carbon, Politics, And Experimentation In Environmental Governance, Donald T. Hornstein

Faculty Publications

This Article analyzes two major international environmental negotiations that concluded in late 2024 and uses them to explore emerging directions in plastics policy, carbon markets, and experimental forms of environmental governance. It examines the redesign of global carbon offset markets following the adoption of Article 6 mechanisms at COP 29, highlighting how new international standards and domestic U.S. initiatives seek to address longstanding concerns about offset quality while insulating climate policy from drastic federal political swings. The Article then evaluates the failed Busan negotiations toward a global plastics treaty, explaining how disagreements over production caps, consensus procedures, and the complexity …

Flooding The Zone: The State Of Federal Flood Insurance At The Beginning Of Trump 2.0, Maggie Caudle, Jacob Dowler, Donald T. Hornstein

Faculty Publications

The risks of flooding in the United States have never been more apparent, making all the more significant the state of flood insurance and the legal and political volatility of the National Flood Insurance Program. In this Article we discuss the details of “Risk Rating 2.0,” the most significant change to federal flood insurance in half a century, and its legal and political future in the new world of Trump 2.0. And, in addition to describing the details of this new change to federal flood insurance, we describe its advantages and disadvantages in both the newfound political environment in which …

Service Trade Dress: Demystifying The Tertium Quid, Dustin Marlan

Faculty Publications

Trademarks are often brand names or logos. Yet other marks involve the overall appearance of a product or business — a concept called “trade dress.” Courts and scholars have long struggled with how to determine whether trade dress is distinctive enough to function as a legally protectable trademark. In attempting to clarify this murky area, Justice Scalia articulated three types of trade dress in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Brothers, Inc. These include (i) product packaging (e.g., a candy wrapper) and (ii) product design (e.g., an iPhone’s unique shape). The trouble lies in understanding the third category — what …

Government Lawyers, Ethical Dilemmas: The Case Of Herbert Wechsler And Japanese American Incarceration, Eric L. Muller

Faculty Publications

This essay examines ethical dilemmas facing government agency lawyers through two episodes from Herbert Wechsler’s wartime service as head of the DOJ War Division: overseeing the Supreme Court brief in Korematsu v. United States and administering the Renunciation Act of 1944 amid turmoil at the Tule Lake Segregation Center. In the Korematsu matter, Wechsler managed a brief that skirted the Army’s problematic “Final Report” claims (including shore-to-ship signaling), privileging institutional role fidelity over disclosure, and helping sustain a framework that justified mass removal of Japanese Americans. In the renunciation program, he chose to accept any “voluntary” citizenship renunciation regardless of …

Where Torrens Failed, John V. Orth

Faculty Publications

The early days of the Torrens system in the United States looked promising. Its spread through the country was rapid — by the early 20th century, it had been adopted in almost half of America’s states. Today, however, Torrens is all but obsolete in America. This article examines what went wrong. For one thing, a workable, if cumbersome, system of title assurance — relying on recorded deeds, warranties of title, and title insurance — already existed. For title holders, the process of petitioning for Torrens registration was unfamiliar, often expensive and protracted, and invited risk from adverse claimants. Pragmatic factors …

Civic Duties And Cultural Change, Daniel B. Rice

Faculty Publications

What duties do Americans owe the state? Today, this question seems almost incomprehensible. Compulsions in the common interest are received coolly in our rights-obsessed culture, and the Supreme Court has never announced a framework for identifying the burdens of citizenship. Yet the concept of civic duty has played a central role in America’s constitutional tradition. From shoveling snow to repairing roads to fighting overseas, private individuals have long been forced to serve the public in ways menial and profound. Strangely, the discourse of obligation that legitimated numerous compulsions has faded from professional view. Judges’ mawkish tributes to liberty pay no …

Notice, Consent, And Choice-Of-Jurisdiction Clauses In The United States, John F. Coyle

Faculty Publications

Although choice-of-jurisdiction clauses are routinely enforced by courts in the United States, there are circumstances where they are subject to special scrutiny. One of these circumstances is when the party resisting the clause was not provided with proper notice as to the existence of the clause or the identity of the chosen jurisdiction. This Article first reviews the existing case law in this area and shows that while some U.S. courts have refused to enforce clauses for lack of notice, others do so as a matter of course. It then discusses several decisions where U.S. courts have held that notice …

The Right To A Jury And The Rise Of Guilty Pleas Across Common Law Countries, Carissa Byrne Hessick

Faculty Publications

Juries have long been considered a key common law institution, yet their use has become quite uncommon in common law systems over time. Rather than trials by juries, most criminal cases are instead resolved by way of guilty pleas. The prevalence of guilty pleas is not merely a matter of defendants’ independent choices to accept responsibility and give up the right to a trial. Common law countries have adopted various legal structures over the past half century that incentivize guilty pleas and discourage trials.

This Essay will document the decline of jury trials and the rise of guilty pleas in …

Suspending The Truancy Paradigm, Barbara A. Fedders, Lucy Carlson, Max Parker

Faculty Publications

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, school absences have skyrocketed. While racially minoritized, disabled, and low-income students have historically been, and remain, most likely to experience absence, white and affluent students’ rates of attendance have also declined. To respond to this new universality of student absenteeism, some policymakers have begun to seek alternatives to what we term “the truancy paradigm.”

We define the truancy paradigm as the range of coercive and often punitive interventions deployed by states and school districts to enforce compulsory attendance statutes. This paradigm, we argue, wrongly assumes (a) that strict enforcement of compulsory attendance laws …

Five Prairie Reflections On Reviving Rural America, Hannah Haksgaard, Sean Kammer, Travis L. Letellier

Faculty Publications

This Essay offers five reflections on Ann E. Eisenberg’s book Reviving Rural America: Toward Policies for Resilience. Each reflection approaches the book from the positionality of writing from rural America, specifically the prairies of South Dakota. Collectively, the reflections cover the politics of voting in a red rural state, policies of local municipal government, the central economic principles in the book, the presence of energy production in rural America, and environmentalism’s relevancy and impact.

Assessing The Past And Future Of Article Iii, Section 12 Of The South Dakota Constitution, Neil Fulton, Madison Gosch

Faculty Publications

The framers of South Dakota’s Constitution feared corruption among public officials. This inspired them to implement structural checks on corruption in that organic document. One result of that effort was Article III, Section 12. That provision prohibited legislators from entering contracts authorized during their term. It further prohibited legislators from occupying other public offices during the legislative service or being appointed to offices created or given increased compensation during their term. The expansion of state government’s reach over time and a recent reinterpretation of Article III, Section 12 raises the question of how well it aligns with current circumstances. This …

Workplace Retaliation And The Intersection Of Protected Conduct And Job Performance, Chris Schmidt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reevaluating South Dakota's Child Support Deduction: Balancing Retirement Contributions And Children's Needs, Marilyn Trefz

Faculty Publications

This article explores how South Dakota’s child support provisions, particularly the 10% allowable deduction for voluntary retirement contributions from parents’ gross income, affect the fair distribution of financial responsibilities between parents. By exploring the historical context and evolution of this statute, this article highlights the challenges and disparities the 10% deduction creates, particularly for custodial parents living in poverty. Through a comparative analysis with other states and a discussion on balancing retirement savings with child support needs, the article argues for reconsideration of the statutory allowance. The article’s aim is to ensure that the next revision of the child support …

Disclosure Benchmarking By Lawyers: Evidence Fromthe Ipo Setting, Michael S. Drake, Jeff Mcmullin, Kenneth Merkley, Chase Potter, John Treu

Faculty Publications

Lawyers play an important advisory role in drafting financial reports, yet empirical evidence documenting the influence of external legal counsel on this process remains sparse. This study focuses on a specific aspect of lawyers’ drafting process: the practice of reviewing disclosures previously filed by other issuers—a practice termed “disclosure benchmarking.” Using initial public offering (IPO) disclosures as the setting, we find that disclosure benchmarking is associated with amore efficient Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) review process. We further find that it is associated with several measures of disclosure quality, including disclosures that are less likely to be revised in subsequent …

The Influence Of Financial Data Subscriptions On Analyst Research, Braiden Coleman, Travis Dyer, Mark Lang

Faculty Publications

We use disclosed “source” data from analyst reports to infer brokerage financial data subscriptions (FDS) and investigate their effects on analyst research. When brokerages add FDS, their analysts’ forecast accuracy increases. Effect sizes are at least as large as those for analyst experience, busyness, and brokerage size. Benefits are largest for less experienced and busier analysts with less private access to management forecasting over longer horizons. Although adding new FDS benefits individual analysts, there is substantial overlap in FDS across brokerages, leading to homogenized market views. Specifically, when brokerages have overlapping FDS, their analysts’ forecasts, timing, boldness, recommendations, report content, …

Designing For Relational Ethics In Online And Blended Learning: Levinas, Buber, And Teaching Interfaith Ethics, Michael Hubbard Mackay, Jason K. Mcdonald, Andrew C. Reed

Faculty Publications

Online and blended learning (OBL) overemphasize the process of creating artifacts, producing strategies, or otherwise utilizing a “making” orientation in education. As an alternative to this making-orientation, we offer a model for relational course design founded in the philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Buber. We examine an OBL course design focused on interfaith leadership and ethics that lends itself to the need for relational pedagogy. The focus on asymmetrical and symmetrical relationships that separate Levinas and Buber’s philosophies enable rich ways of designing relational pedagogies and for resisting the making orientation. By focusing on human relationships, we demonstrate design …

Cfl Learners’ Real-Time Processing Of Chinese Radicals: An Eye-Tracking Study, Yihsuan Wood, Jeffrey Jack Green, Ellen Knell, Yu Liu

Faculty Publications

This study used eye-tracking to investigate the real-time processing of phonetic and semantic radicals (components of Chinese characters that give clues to their pronunciation and meaning) by intermediate-level university Chinese foreign language (CFL) learners. Additionally, the study examined how knowledge and awareness of radicals affect real time character processing. Real-time radical processing involves identifying radicals and understanding their phonetic or semantic roles, while real-time character processing includes recognizing radicals and instantly comprehending entire characters’ meanings and pronunciations. This study’s first task focuses on radical processing, where CFL learners use radical knowledge to interpret multiple characters simultaneously. The second task extends …

Foreign Tax Holiday Participation And U.S. Job And Investment Loss, Zackery D. Fox, Linda Krull, Scott G. Rane

Faculty Publications

We investigate whether foreign tax holiday participation among U.S. multinational companies is associated with offshoring U.S. jobs and other domestic investment activities. We find that foreign tax holiday participation is associated with (1) an increase in offshoring U.S. jobs and (2) a decrease in domestic investment, as proxied by changes in the number of employees, capital expenditures, and R&D activity. Furthermore, we find evidence suggesting that the association between targeted, temporary tax incentives provided by foreign tax holidays and firms’ domestic activities is stronger among firms with a smaller foreign presence and is distinct from the impact of foreign statutory …

An House For The Lord: Solomon's Temple And Temple Worship In Ancient Israel, Dan Belnap

Faculty Publications

It would not be exaggeration to say that at the center of Old Testament history and theology is covenantal worship and the temple. From the Garden of Eden to the altars constructed by Abraham and the patriarchs, and the portable tabernacle of Moses, the concept of sacred space plays a fundamental role throughout biblical history and in the life of ancient Israel. But during the period of the monarchy, it became possible to construct a permanent house for the Lord. Thus, the construction and dedication of the temple are the primary subject within Solomon’s narrative arc. This chapter explores the …

Fiddler Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Ocypodidae) From Coastal Ecuador And The Galápagos Islands: Species Descriptions And Dna Barcodes, Carl L. Thurman, John C. Mcnamara, Hsi-Te Shih, Mariana V. Capparelli

Faculty Publications

Neotropical regions near the equator are recognized as speciation “hot spots” reflecting their abundant biodiversity. In western South America, the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, the Galápagos Archipelago, and northern Peru form the Tropical Eastern Pacific biome. This area has the greatest heterogeneity of sympatric fiddler crab species of any portion of the planet. Since the coastal fauna has not been assessed for almost 50 years, we studied fiddler crab species diversity in Ecuador and on the Galápagos Archipelago. Preserved collecting records for various species were examined at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, the American Museum …

Indirect Earnings Management, Scott B. Jackson, Jason T. Rasso, Aaron F. Zimbleman

Faculty Publications

We hypothesize that managers use their hierarchical role as reviewers of accounting judgments and estimates to manage earnings, which we call indirect earnings management (IEM). Across a series of experiments using highly experienced financial executives as participants, we provide evidence that IEM (1) is likely used by managers to achieve current and future earnings targets, (2) reduces both cognitive dissonance associated with managing earnings and the extent to which managers think that their behaviors constitute earnings management, and (3) is more likely to be used when corporate governance is strong than when corporate governance is weak. The results of this …

Patenting The Taboo: Sex, Drugs, And Abortion, Andrew Gilden, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Faculty Publications

The patent system provides a surprisingly rich archive of the interplay between social norms and technological change. Patent law requires applicants to publicly disclose the novelty and usefulness of their inventions, thereby bringing to light areas of innovation that may have previously lived in the shadows. In other words, patent law encourages public disclosure of technologies that are taboo—developed and practiced in secret, for reasons such as social approbation, illegality, or religious sanctity. To obtain a patent for a taboo technology, patentees must establish their legitimacy as innovators while navigating cultural norms that are hostile to their fields of innovation. …

Understanding The Mechanisms Of Interpretative Change, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

Interpretive methodology changes over time, and we appear to be in a period of particular ferment. In federal statutory interpretation, which is the focus of this Article, several important changes in interpretive methods have occurred in recent decades or are underway. There has been a gradual, decades-long shift away from intentionalist tools like legislative history. In addition, as the culmination of a series of smaller steps, the Supreme Court has just reshaped the doctrine governing deference to agency interpretations, a move that will require years of further clarification. And, although this shift is still taking shape, it appears that some …

Patent Law: An Open-Access Casebook, Sarah Fackrell, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec, Andres Sawicki

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.