Digital Commons Network^™

Taking Legality Seriously: What The Major Questions Doctrine Is — And Isn't, Andrea Scoseria Katz, Ofra Bloch

Scholarship@WashULaw

The Major Questions Doctrine (MQD), a controversial recent innovation of the Roberts Court that applies stricter scrutiny to “major” actions taken by federal agencies, has faced criticism for being atextual, unprincipled, and nakedly ideological. But this critique misses the fact that the doctrine has near-exact analogues in many other legal systems, where it is an established tool for reining in executive overreach. This Article argues that, while the MQD reflects valid rule-of-law concerns, as applied, it lacks theoretical clarity, consistency and limits. More importantly, the Court itself lacks a theory of what the MQD is. We provide an answer grounded …

Privatising International (Organizations) Law, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

This essay explores the increasing role of private commercial actors within international organizations (IOs) and the implications for international law. Once conceived as state-centred institutions, IOs now routinely involve corporations, trade associations, and philanthropic foundations in lawmaking, policy-setting, financing, and implementation. These actors participate through multiple channels: as observers, delegates, stakeholders, funders, and partners. While private involvement has historical precedents, its contemporary scale and formalization mark a significant transformation in global governance. International law, however, offers little guidance on the boundary between public and private authority, leaving legitimacy concerns unresolved. To evaluate privatization, the article identifies two competing logics: a …

Advanced Introduction To Family Law In The Us, Susan Frelich Appleton

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Elgar Advanced Introduction provides key insights into family law in the US. In the midst of consequential changes wrought by the US Supreme Court, this book traces the evolution of the field from its origins in the law of domestic relations to the more modern regime of family law.

Key features include:
● Integrates state law, federal law, legal scholarship, and literature from other disciplines.
● Identifies the regulation of sex and the policy of keeping dependency private as family law''s principal enduring features.
● Surveys different topics in family law including: marriage, nonmarriage, and dissolution; pregnancy; parentage; and …

Abolishing The Family, Susan Frelich Appleton, Albertina Antognini

Scholarship@WashULaw

Family law scholarship is replete with calls for reform. Yet gender-, race-, and class-based inequalities within and across families remain intractable. So what if, instead of reforming the family, we abolish it?

Abolishing the family might sound like a startling idea for a family-law analysis, especially after decades of efforts to expand the legal understanding of “family.” But the proposal is hardly new. In this Article, we lay the groundwork for integrating family abolitionist ideas, which have until now mostly taken place outside of law, into family law scholarship.

While family abolition is in many ways a radical departure from …

Justifying The Fourth Amendment, Daniel Epps

Scholarship@WashULaw

Why does the Fourth Amendment belong in the Constitution? This question is not whether society should impose some legal restraints on government searches and seizures. Rather, why should such protections reside in our national charter, superior to other forms of law and insulated from change via ordinary majoritarian political processes? Despite major disputes about the Fourth Amendment’s content, Fourth Amendment theorists rarely ask this question. Almost all agree that the Fourth Amendment’s constitutional protections are critically important—even if no one can agree exactly what those protections are.

This Article seeks a justification for the Fourth Amendment—the reason why search-and-seizure protections …

Teaching Constitutional Law: Politics, Democracy And History, Andrea Scoseria Katz

Scholarship@WashULaw

Teaching Constitutional Law in the present era presents unique pedagogical challenges. My students arrive skeptical of the field, doubtful of the Supreme Court’s authority, questioning the relevance of legal methods in determining case outcomes, and perceiving constitutional adjudication as irreducibly political. Rather than dismiss these concerns, I argue that constitutional law professors must acknowledge them directly. Our task is not to restore naïve faith in judicial neutrality (an impossible ideal), but to present students with a vision of constitutional meaning-making—one grounded in politics, history, and democratic politics—in which they can recognize themselves as engaged participants in the future of our …

Seeing International Organizations In A Shifting Landscape: Law, Practice, And Authority, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

This book review symposium comes at a moment of visible strain in the postwar legal order. As of this writing, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has described a "rupture" in the rules-based world order, warning that multilateral institutions and the architecture of collective problem-solving are under threat. Notably, Carney issued that warning at the World Economic Forum in Davos, before an audience of "companies and countries." The setting underscores a broader shift in global governance, in which states, firms, and philanthropic actors increasingly occupy shared institutional spaces, unsettling assumptions about law and power at the international level. The books under …

Specialization And The Permanence Of Federal Bankruptcy Law, Rafael I. Pardo

Scholarship@WashULaw

Traditional historical accounts posit that federal bankruptcy specialization in the United States first developed under the system established by the Bankruptcy Act of 1898. That view assumes that the structural and temporal conditions necessary to foster specialization did not exist under the nation’s earlier federal bankruptcy systems—those created by the Bankruptcy Acts of 1800, 1841, and 1867. This Article theorizes that federal bankruptcy specialization very likely occurred under the pre-1898 systems and marshals evidence to that effect, primarily focusing on the Bankruptcy Act of 1841 (the 1841 Act). That statute marked a critical turning point in federal bankruptcy law, shifting …

Sustainability Assurance, Andrew F. Tuch, Luca Enriques, Alessandro Romano

Scholarship@WashULaw

A robust literature examines sustainability disclosures by public corporations, but legal scholarship has largely overlooked the role of third-party assurance—or verification—of such disclosures. This is a notable omission given the extensive literature on the auditing of financial statements, a related form of assurance.

This article responds by examining the role of assurance in sustainability reporting. In keeping with the theme of this symposium volume, it draws on US and EU law. Our discussion begins in Part I with sustainability disclosures, focusing on the requirements and practices of public companies. In Part II, we introduce sustainability assurance as well as assurance …

Tariffs And The Taxing Power: Historical Lessons For Major Questions And Nondelegation, Conor Clarke, Ari Glogower

Scholarship@WashULaw

American law is grappling with basic questions about the President’s power to impose tariffs—questions concerning whether Congress can delegate this authority, and the degree to which it has. But the ongoing tariff controversy emerges against a backdrop of conflicting and shifting historical practice. Early Congresses drafted tariff statutes in painstaking detail, while some of the broadest delegations in the early Republic involved internal taxes. In the modern era, by contrast, Congress has delegated more expansive tariff powers to the President, while retaining closer control over internal taxes. How should we understand this seemingly conflicting history of practice, and its relevance …

Foreword: The Constitution And Public Finance—Why Now And Why Ever?, Conor Clarke, Eric Kubo

Scholarship@WashULaw

This paper introduces the Washington University Law Review’s 2026 symposium issue on “Taxing, Spending, and the Constitution.” We situate the symposium’s ten papers within three interconnected developments in public finance law: the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the Sixteenth Amendment in Moore v. United States; the Trump Administration’s assertions of executive control over appropriated funds; and the use of emergency and trade statutes to justify sweeping tariff authority.

We also step back to ask why constitutional issues in public finance—long treated as a technical backwater—have become such a central site of doctrinal and political conflict. We offer several explanations beyond …

Tariffs And The Progressive Fiscal Constitution, Lawrence J. Liu, Alex Zhang

Scholarship@WashULaw

For more than a century, progressive taxation has constituted the American fiscal state. A resurgent and expanding tariff regime, however, threatens that commitment to progressive distribution. Given the ongoing popularity of tariffs, this Article examines how they might be designed and administered in a way that mitigates their regressive distributive impact. The Article thus develops and assesses proposals to (1) vary tariff burdens in accordance with the consumption of imported goods, (2) reduce income- or payroll-tax burdens on lower-income households, and (3) earmark tariff revenue for specified spending programs. Although none is perfect, we seek to articulate possibilities and highlight …

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

Scholarship@WashULaw

We consider how tax regulations should be reviewed in a post-Chevron world. In 2011, the Supreme Court’s Mayo Foundation decision subjected Treasury regulations to ordinary Chevron deference, rejecting National Muffler’s tax-specific standard of review and declaring that the Court was “not inclined to carve out an approach to administrative review good for tax law only.” In 2024, Loper Bright overruled Chevron. This Article asks what Loper Bright means for Mayo—and, in turn, for National Muffler.

We reject the simple inference that Loper Bright automatically revives National Muffler. But we argue that National Muffler nonetheless …

Does It Matter What People Lie About?, Stefanie Jung, Peter Krebs, Monika Leszczynska

Faculty Scholarship

We investigate whether people’s moral judgments of lies in pre-contractual negotiations differ from their views on whether such lies should give the deceived party a legal right to rescind the contract, and whether these judgments depend on the content of the lie. In a vignette study with 832 German students and 885 participants from Germany, Italy, and the United States, respondents evaluated a range of common negotiation lies. Across samples, participants were generally more likely to deem a lie immoral than to believe it should justify rescission, but the size of this gap varied depending on the lie’s subject. Lies …

Private Money, Public Risk: Why Florida’S Sb 178 Undermines Equity, Ethics, And Accountability In K–12 Athletics, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper critically evaluates Florida Senate Bill 178, which would require the Florida High School Athletic Association to adopt bylaws allowing coaches to use personal funds to support student athletes, once reported and presumed not to be an impermissible benefit. While the bill is framed to help students who lack essential items, it introduces serious structural risks that outweigh its intended benefits. By relying on private contributions within a public educational system, SB 178 threatens equity, transparency, and ethical governance.

The bill encourages uneven financial assistance that varies based on a coach’s personal means and the socioeconomic conditions of individual …

C.A.S. Full Assessment Report: State Of Florida Government Portal, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

The purpose of this assessment is to evaluate the cognitive overhead, transparency, and attentional integrity of

official State of Florida digital interfaces using the Cognitive Attentional Standards (C.A.S.) platform.

While the Florida Digital Bill of Rights (FDBR) establishes strict regulatory guardrails for consumer data

transparency, tracking opt-outs, and attentional safeguards, the State of Florida explicitly exempts its own

government agencies, public universities, and non-profit entities from complying with these rules.

This assessment serves to investigate the tension between legislative intent and government execution. By

analyzing public sector websites through the C.A.S. platform, this project will establish a “state-enforced vs.

state-executed” …

The Attention Safeguard Models: Governing Digital Harm Without Restricting Lawful Speech, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Digital platforms increasingly govern contemporary social, civic, and psychological life through systems optimized for attention capture, amplification, and monetization. While lawful expression remains protected under the First Amendment, the infrastructural mechanisms that determine how speech circulates have produced a range of attention‑based harms, including cyberbullying, engagement farming, compulsive doom scrolling, emotional dysregulation, and civic polarization. This research paper introduces the Attentional Safeguards Model (ASM), coined and formalized by Delante Clark, as a novel governance framework that mitigates such harms by regulating systems of amplification rather than restricting expression itself. Building on attention economy theory, technological mediation, constitutional free‑speech doctrine, …

Perceived Use Of Web-Based Videoconferencing For Social Connectedness Among Older Adults Living In Long-Term Care: Qualitative Study, Anna Garnett, Halyna Yurkiv, Denise M. Connelly, Richard Booth, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan, Faan

Publications

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how restrictions on in-person interactions within long-term care homes (LTCHs) severely compromised social connectedness among older adults and their families. Post pandemic, despite policy changes supporting greater in-person family engagement, frequent outbreaks continue to disrupt face-to-face interactions, and factors such as geography, life circumstances, and health can constrain family members’ ability to make regular in-person visits. Research suggests that web-based videoconferencing technology (WVT) may be a practical solution to help older adults within LTCHs to maintain social connection in the absence of physical gathering. However, increased understanding of end user experience is lacking, and more …

Developing A Best Practice Guideline For Clinical Practice In A Digital Health Environment: Systematic Reviews Based On The Grading Of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, And Evaluation Approach, Lauren Bailey, Lyndsay Howitt, Nafsin Nizum, Christine Buchanan, Maureen Charlebois, Jennifer Yoon, Rob Beleno, Michelle Beyn, Rebecca Bliss, Elizabeth Borycki, Margarita Cleghorne, Sandra Davidson, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan, Faan, Alexander Hamilton, Tsz Yee Ip, Margery Konan, Daile Moffat, Sanaz Riahi, Tiziana Rivera, Tammy Rooke, Vaishali Sengar, Steve Sottile, Meredith Whitehead, Vanessa Burkoski

Publications

Background:

Digital health refers to the field of knowledge and practice associated with the development and use of digital technologies to improve clinical practice and health outcomes. Knowledge of digital health technology is becoming essential for all nurses and health providers.

Objective:

This study aims to present the results of the systematic reviews that were used to inform the recommendations in a best practice guideline (BPG) following the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) approach. Reviews focused on digital health education for nurses and health providers, peer champion models, and the use of predictive analytics in digital health …

Benefits And Harms Of Copyright Restrictions And Conditions On Burnout And Other Psychometric Assessment Scales, Robert G. Badgett, Sudha Xirasagar, Hayrettin Okut

Publications

INTRODUCTION: Copyright conditions can hinder the scientific and usage impact of essential assessment tools in healthcare, organizational psychology, and other fields. The stories of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) are well-documented. Despite decades-old recommendations to blend copyright restrictions of intellectual property when used for commercial purposes with permissive but distinct copyright terms for non-commercial and scholarly use, few authors of assessment tools do so.

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether restrictive copyrights limit the long-term scientific impact of copyright holders (often medical schools/faculty), by inhibiting downstream use, research, and improvement of measurement tools by other researchers. …

Unresolved Challenges Of Fuel Cell Propulsion Systems In Urban Air Mobility: An Mbse-Based Systematic Literature Review, Johannes Bachler, Stephen Wright, Kari T. Koskinen

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the unresolved challenges in fuel cell propulsion system integration in small-category VTOL-capable aircraft, addressing a critical gap in the existing literature by elaborating an MBSE-based systematic literature review with the PRISMA content analysis strategy. The methodology reviewed 122 papers in peer-reviewed journals published from 2000 to 2024 and included keyword research in four relevant publication platforms before analyzing the papers in a deductive MBSE V-model strategy combined with an inductive, data-driven research analysis. The results reveal a significant misalignment between identified barriers and proposed future research, indicating that current R&D efforts are …

Towards Optimal And Resilient Ac/Dc Microgrids: Control Design, Analysis, And Implementation, Jun Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microgrids serve as a small-scale power grid for utilizing renewable energy to enhance energy reliability, sustainability, and resilience. As an autonomous system, an islanded microgrid can disconnect from the utility grid and operate independently by maintaining system voltage and frequency. However, this new feature introduces coordination problems among distributed generators (DGs), such as 1) how to make sure the voltage profile and current sharing in DC microgrid with different types of converters; 2) how to reduce the impact of cyberattack when the system coordination is performed based on communication, and 3) how to calculate the steady state under a droop …

Godsightings: In The Wake Of A Man Saved By God Who Then Became His Photographer, Floyd Daniel

Daniel Collection

Autobiography of Floyd Daniel, photographer. The Daniel Photography collection, part of the Whitworth Special Collections, contains 1500 publications on the history of photography.  Books either focus on photography as an art form and communication medium, or that exemplify photographic excellence. Historically significant applications of photography are also included in  this collection. Originally the private collection of Floyd Daniel, it was gifted to Whitworth in 1995. The collection was expanded by subsequent additional gifts by Floyd and Shirley Daniel of Seattle.

Introduction To Christian Ethics, Michael Knight, Lizette Knight

Academic Books

No abstract provided.

Exploring African Students’ Experiences With Culturally Responsive Mental Health Apps In The U.S., Emelia Essumanba-Josiah

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Digital mental health applications have proven to be effective, yet adoption remains very low among African international students in the United States. This study investigated how 17 university students perceive the usefulness of mental health apps, evaluate existing tools through their cultural lens, and recommend what a culturally responsive app would look like – all through a semi-structured interview with an app exploration exercise at a Midwestern public university. Guided by the Technology Acceptance Model and the African-Centered Wellness Model, there were six (6) key themes that emerged revealing participants carried skewed pre-migration mental health frameworks, dealt with their stressors …

Formulating Arguments: Deductive And Inductive Reasoning, Tolga Tezcan

Activities and Assignments Collection

To help students practice deductive logic by formulating testable hypotheses and deconstructing arguments. To enable students to apply inductive logic by analyzing specific observations to identify and articulate broader social patterns.

Transition To Home Guideline For Patients With Diabetes, Kathleen R. Burgner

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects

Background: Diabetes is a leading contributor to preventable hospital readmissions. These hospital readmissions often result from fragmented discharge planning, poor care coordination, and limited post-discharge support. At a 915-bed academic medical center in Southern California, the diabetes-related readmission rate was 13.3%, compared with 11.4% among patients without diabetes. This project aimed to develop an evidence-based Transition-to-Home (TTH) guideline for hospitalized patients with diabetes and evaluate the strength of its recommendations through multidisciplinary stakeholder review.

Methods: An evidence-based guideline development project was conducted over 8 weeks. A comprehensive literature search in CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, and ScienceDirect identified current evidence on transitional …

Does Guideline-Directed Breast Mri Improve Early Identification In The High-Risk Breast Cancer Population, Cemile Littlepage

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects

Introduction: In the United States, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. The American Cancer Society's 2007 guidelines (Onishi & Kataoka, 2020) and the American College of Radiology recommend that MRI screening, alongside annual mammography, be used for women at high risk for breast cancer (Lamb et al., 2023; Sardanelli et al., 2024). Currently, there are various screening models, and no standardized tool or national guideline exists for MRI screening in high-risk patients. This guideline project aims to establish a screening model and recommendations for MRI screening in high-risk women for use in primary care.

Methods: A …

Effect Of Active Music-Based Intervention Conducted By Music Therapists Or Medical Professionals On Reducing Agitation In Patients With Dementia: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Jian-Jia Huang, Yu-Hsuan Chen, Yun-Chen Chung, Yu-Peng Huang, Yu-Cheng Pei

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Music-based interventions (MI), including music therapy and music medicine, have been proposed to reduce agitation in patients with dementia, yet evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews remains inconsistent. Moreover, the efficacy of MI may vary by method and professional involvement, which has not been fully examined. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of active MI conducted by music therapists or medical professionals on agitation in patients with dementia compared with those of general therapy (GT). RCTs published between January 1, 2010, and July 31, 2021, were identified from MEDLINE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library. Study quality …

Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Registry At King Abdullah Specialized Children’S Hospital (Jiar-Kasch) In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jubran T. Alqanatish, Abdullah I. Almojali, Wejdan M. Algbaiwi, Abdullah S. Alqahtani, Abdulrahman A. Alrasheed, Lubna A. Alnasser, Wafaa M. Alsuwairi

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To establish and maintain a comprehensive, up-to-date registry of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) cases, and to outline the methodology used in creating it. Methods: Retrospective and prospective data collection commenced in August 2021, using the Hospital Information System to identify electronic medical records of JIA patients. All individuals diagnosed with JIA and receiving follow-up care at King Abdullah Specialized Children’s Hospital (KASCH) in Riyadh were included. A broad range of variables covering sociodemographic characteristics, clinical features, laboratory results, imaging findings, and therapeutic medications were recorded in the REDCap platform. Data collection update occurs every 6 months. Results: By December …