Law Commons^™

Legal Malpractice In Washington: Use Of The Rules Of Professional Conduct, Angelo Tadrous

Seattle University Law Review

Legal malpractice claims are difficult to prove. They are difficult to prove because many jurisdictions require that a plaintiff prove that, but for the lawyer’s misconduct, the client would have fared better. Thus, in a malpractice suit, a plaintiff must try a case within a case. Despite this difficulty, many jurisdictions prohibit the use of the Rules of Professional Conduct when litigating a malpractice case. Washington State is one of these jurisdictions. The Washington Supreme Court held in Hizey v. Carpenter that the Rules of Professional Conduct may not be referred to during trial. This Note argues that this prohibition …

Converting Buildings Is Hard: Why Seattle’S Municipal Government Should Streamline Commercial-To-Residential Conversions, Tyler M. King

Seattle University Law Review

The conversion of commercial buildings into housing is a promising solution to the growing housing crisis in many urban areas. However, despite its potential benefits, the process of repurposing commercial spaces is often stymied by complex zoning codes, high conversion costs, and bureaucratic hurdles. This Article argues that the local and state governments in Seattle should adopt more streamlined policies and offer greater incentives to developers to facilitate these conversions. By reforming zoning regulations and providing targeted financial support, municipalities can reduce the barriers to conversion and unlock the potential of underutilized commercial properties. This article examines the legal and …

Brief Of Amici Curiae Scholars For The Advancement Of Children’S Constitutional Rights In Support Of Respondents: St. Mary Catholic Parish V. Roy, Catherine Smith, Tanya Washington, Robin Walker Sterling, Suzette Malveaux, Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, Sara S. Hildebrand, Abigail L. Fleming, Jeremiah Chin

Scholarly Articles

This Court should consider those most directly impacted by the decision in this case: the intended beneficiaries of Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program (“UPK”), Colorado’s children. To paraphrase Shakespeare, though they be but little, they are constitutional rights-bearers and are thus entitled to be free from state-funded discrimination.

Amici are scholars of children and the law, education law, family law, and anti-discrimination law. Amici draw this Court’s attention to the significant harms children in the LGBT community would bear should Colorado be compelled to allow state-funded religious schools to discriminate against preschoolers. Exempting religious schools from the State’s equal-opportunity and antidiscrimination …

Brief Amici Curiae Of New Ways Ministry, Et Al., St. Mary Catholic Parish V. Roy, Leslie C. Griffin, Marci A. Hamilton

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Legislature Of The State Of Nevada V. Elko County, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 57 (Aug. 20, 2026), Lillian Fitzpatrick

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

In Legislature of the State of Nevada v. Elko County, the Nevada Supreme Court struck down a school-funding tax mandate whose population range fit exactly one county—holding that a statute need not name Elko County to target it.

Deamicis V. State Of Nevada, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 53 (August 20, 2026), Khadija Bhatti

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Under NRS 200.471(1)(a)(2), a defendant may be convicted of assault for each person the defendant intentionally places in reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm.

Book Review: After Apprendi And Erlinger, The Jury - Not The Judge - Determines Whether Or Not The Defendant Is A Habitual Traffic Offender, Harvey Gee

ConLawNOW

This book review discusses Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration by Rachel Barkow. The review concludes that the book persuasively argues that from the 1960s through the 1980s, the Supreme Court repeatedly departed from constitutional text, history, and precedent in expanding the government’s power to arrest, prosecute, and detain. And contends that these trends both curtailed individual liberty and worsened racial inequality. The review then builds on Barkow’s important scholarship to extend her conversation to cover criminal litigation in general jurisdiction state courts—where people are compelled to go when they are cited or …

Sffa’S Slippery Slope: Doctrinal Creep And The Erosion Of Dei, Madeleine Goedicke

Brooklyn Law Review

The Court suddenly departed from forty years of affirmative action case law in SFFA, appearing to hold that race can no longer be used as a factor in higher education admissions policies. This Note analyzes the SFFA opinion and the case law it relies on to illustrate the sudden departure from precedent case law while pointing out important exceptions within the opinion that would permit consideration of race in admissions. Regrettably, the SFFA decision has been invokved by litigants seeking to improperly expand the scope of its holding, encompassing the removal of DEI programs from K–12 and higher education institutions. …

A Democratic Defense Of Dynamic Due Process, Miranda Mcgowan

Brooklyn Law Review

The Supreme Court has purported to vindicate democracy when it has deferred to majorities and refused to protect new unenumerated rights and liberties. Nothing could be further from the truth. An originalist or traditionalist method for identifying protected rights and liberties chains us to a discriminatory past. It bakes in a history of discrimination and political exclusion, skewing the set of individual rights that check majority power today. Originalism and traditionalism, in short, confound democratic legitimacy.

Brief For Legal Scholars And Historians As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Jackson V. State, Nos. 26-76, 26-78 (U.S Supreme Ct. Aug. 14, 2026), G. Ben Cohen, Seth P. Waxman, Ashley Bierman, Sara Saunders

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Under a Florida law enacted in 2023, a judge may impose the death penalty only if the jury first “determine[s] that the defendant should be sentenced to death.” Fla. Stat. § 921.141(2)(c). The question presented is whether the Sixth or Eighth Amendment requires that jury determination to be unanimous, or whether it suffices—as provided in the statute—for only eight of the twelve jurors to vote for death.

Beyond Walls And Wires: The Supreme Court’S Recognition Of Digital Privacy Under The Fourth Amendment, Joanna Morris

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

The Founding Fathers included the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights to protect individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures and their right to privacy. However, rapid advances in modern digital technology have challenged traditional definitions of privacy, raising constitutional questions about digital privacy rights. Smartphones and location tracking collects personal information that does not fit neatly within pre-digital era Fourth Amendment doctrines. This research examines how the United States Supreme Court has adapted interpretations of the Fourth Amendment to address digital privacy concerns, focusing on the tensions between Fourth Amendment doctrines and technology that enables extensive government access to …

State Legislatures: Guardians Of The Federal Balance, Practical Strategies For Monitoring, Strengthening, And Sustaining American Federalism (Remarks), Christian G. Fritz

Faculty Scholarship

My remarks today are drawn from my book, Monitoring American Federalism: The History of State Legislative Resistance, and from an essay I wrote this year for the Center for the Study of Federalism about the responsibility of state legislators to sound the alarm when the federal government overreaches its constitutional authority.

Kentucky's Alford Predicament: The Case For Curbing Qualified Guilty Pleas In The Commonwealth, Ben Whatley

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Right To Have Rights In United States Territories, Anthony M. Ciolli

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Duty To Develop Imperative In Immigration Proceedings, Sabrineh Ardalan, Tiffany J. Lieu

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

History And Tradition Of Inequality, Advocacy, And Progress, Teri Dobbins Baxter

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Against First Amendment Traditionalism, Jacob M. Schriner-Briggs

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Jessica De Falco V. The State Of Nevada, 142 Nev., Adv. Op. 51 (Aug. 06, 2026), Umar Abdullah

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

It is not a violation of separation of powers when a prosecuting attorney withholds consent to a jury trial waiver under NRS 175.011(1) because the state constitution protects both parties' right to jury trial.

Constitutional Drafting Processes And Constitutional Success, Adam Chilton, Murat C. Mungan, Mila Versteeg

Faculty Scholarship

Several recent constitution-making processes have been celebrated for being participatory, inclusive, and representative. However, many of these processes also failed. We theorize that aspects of these kinds of constitutional drafting processes could reduce the probability of constitutional success. To show why, we construct a “Constitution Drafting game” (CD game) in which representatives from different interest groups must draft a constitution. We consider the case where the probability of constitutional success is single peaked, but the value from successful adoption is increasing in the degree of issue protection chosen. The drafting process then leads to protection choices that are above those …

Confronting Founding Injustices: Reconstructive Constitutional Adjudication And Constitutional Legitimacy In Postcolonial States, Mutasim Abuzeid

International Studies (MA) Theses

Why do some postcolonial constitutions achieve higher constitutional legitimacy than others? Across the Global South, constitutions have proliferated while legitimacy remains uneven and contested. Existing scholarship explains variation in constitutional legitimacy in postcolonial states through three dominant paradigms. Institutionalist theories equate legitimacy with procedural design and endurance, presuming that stable institutions generate compliance and, over time, diffuse support. Transformative constitutionalism locates legitimacy in social justice, emphasizing judicial doctrines such as proportionality and reasonableness to advance equality and material inclusion. Transitional justice approaches, by contrast, locate moral repair largely outside constitutional law—through truth commissions, reparations, and memory projects—often leaving the constitutional …

The Supreme Court And The Constitution, Tom Rozinski

Open Touro Created

2026

The Supreme Court and the Constitution is a casebook for undergraduate students who want to earn about the Constitutional structure of the US government. Since the Supreme Court is responsible for interpreting the Constitution, the book begins with a history of the Court before examining the processes and methods it uses to decide cases. There is also a unit on the development of judicial review and the limitations on the scope of the Court’s actions. One major unit examines the powers of the president in both foreign and domestic affairs, and includes a section on presidential immunities. Another major …

Impunity: A Case Study Of Sex Trafficking In Nevada Brothel Prostitution, Christen Price

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

It is well-documented that legalization and other forms of official protection for prostitution lead to an increase in sex trafficking, including by encouraging demand for prostitution. This paper will consider the relationship between official protection, organized crime, and sex trafficking in pro-prostitution legal regimes, both historical and contemporary. Prostitution is legal in rural counties in Nevada that have fewer than 700,000 residents, if prostitution occurs within a brothel. There is significant overlap between sex trafficking and legal brothel prostitution in Nevada, as well as a nexus to corruption and organized crime, illustrating the normalization of coercion that occurs within legalized …

Acts Of Sovereignty In Light Of Administrative And Constitutional Juisprudence In Palestine, Osayd Awawda, Bassam Qawasmeh

BAU Journal - Journal of Legal Studies - مجلة الدراسات القانونية

This paper examines the concept of acts of sovereignty within the Palestinian legal system by analyzing its application in administrative and constitutional adjudication, particularly in cases arising from the 2021 presidential decree postponing the general elections. The paper presents the arguments advanced by the parties before the administrative courts and the Supreme Constitutional Court, and evaluates the extent to which the judicial rulings align with constitutional principles, especially the right to litigation and the right to political participation, including voting and candidacy. The paper also discusses the theoretical and practical foundations for excluding acts of sovereignty from judicial review, and …

Acting Under Scrutiny: The Limits Of Federal-Officer Removal In Attorney General Of New Jersey V. Dow Chemical Company, Justin W. Berge

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Drawing A Line In The Mud: The Fifth Circuit's Narrow Reading Of Louisiana's Infrastructure Trespass Statute In White Hat V. Murrill, Andrew J. Lloyd

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Constitutionality Test: Judicial Review Of Mining License Prioritization For Religious Organizations In Indonesia, Qurrata Ayuni, Fitra Arsil

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

The enactment of Government Regulation No. 25/2024 has sparked constitutional debate in Indonesia. The regulation prioritizes Special Mining Business Permit Areas (Wilayah Izin Usaha Pertambangan Khusus, WIUPK) for religious organizations, raising critical questions about distributive justice and democratic resource governance under Article 33(3) of the 1945 Constitution. This study examines the constitutionality of this policy by asking whether the prioritization of WIUPK for religious organizations, as reviewed in Constitutional Court Decision No. 77/PUU-XXII/2024, violates Article 33(3) of the 1945 Constitution and what implications this holds for Indonesia's natural resource management paradigms and constitutional interpretation. Using doctrinal legal research, …

Reining In The Private Nondelegation Doctrine: Examining The Constitutionality Of The Horseracing Integrity And Safety Act In Light Of Fcc V. Consumers' Research, Kathryn Dorans

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Pour Un Nouvel Humanisme, J.-M. Domenach

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

No abstract provided.

Le Néo-Classicisme Pénal En France À L’Époque Contemporaine, Antoine A. El Khoury

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

No abstract provided.

La Règle « Nemo Auditur... » En Droit Français De La Responsabilité Administrative, Lara Karam

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

No abstract provided.