Law Commons^™

Another Collateral Consequence: Kicking The Victim When She’S Down, Lauren N. Hancock

Washington and Lee Law Review

Every state has a victim compensation fund that provides financial relief to victims of crime who have no other way to pay for medical expenses, funeral costs, crime scene cleanup, or other costs associated with the crime. States impose their own eligibility requirements to determine which victims can receive funding. Six states prohibit victims with certain criminal histories from obtaining compensation. This means that innocent victims of crime are left with nowhere to turn because of something that they already “paid” for. This leaves victims, who are likely already in a financially precarious situation due to their felon status, with …

Covid-19 And The Conundrum Of Mask Requirements, Robert Gatter, Seema Mohapatra

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

As states begin to loosen their COVID-19 restrictions, public debate is underway about what public health measures are appropriate. Many states have some form of mask-wearing orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection. Public health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization has conflicted. From a public health point of view, it is not clear what the right answer is. In the absence of directives, individuals are also making their own choices about mask use. At a time when public health measures, like shelter-in-place orders and social distancing, are being used to …

Personhood: Law, Common Sense, And Humane Opportunities, Helen M. Alvaré

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

It is pointless to approach Professor Chatman’s argument on its own terms (to wit, “tak[ing] our laws seriously,” or equal application across myriad legal categories of “full personhood” rights) because these terms are neither seriously intended nor legally comprehensible. Instead, her essay is intended to create the impression that legally protecting unborn human lives against abortion opens up a Pandora’s box of legal complications so “ridiculous” and “far-fetched” that we should rather just leave things where they are under the federal Constitution post-Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. This impression, in turn, is a tool to …

Under Ten Eyes, Anthony Michael Kreis

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Carliss Chatman’s If a Fetus Is a Person, It Should Get Child Support, Due Process and Citizenship brilliantly captures the moment America is in, where abortion rights hang in the balance as state legislators, like those in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, and elsewhere clamor to embrace fetal personhood. But, as Professor Chatman illustrates, legislators have expressed no interest in the full logical extent of this policy or the rights that should attach to a fetus if their measures ultimately become effective. The article incisively demonstrates how fetal personhood is singularly focused on ending abortion in the United States and is gaining …

If A Fetus Is A Person, It Should Get Child Support, Due Process, And Citizenship, Carliss N. Chatman

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This Article was originally published in The Washington Post on May 17, 2019. It has been edited and updated prior to its publication in the Washington and Lee Law Review.

Alabama has joined the growing number of states determined to overturn Roe v. Wade by banning abortion from conception forward. The Alabama Human Life Protection Act subjects a doctor who performs an abortion to as many as ninety-nine years in prison. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest. It redefines an “unborn child, child or person” as “[a] human being, specifically including an unborn child in utero …

Covid-19 And The Provisional Licensing Of Qualified Medical School Graduates As Physicians, Paul J. Larkin Jr.

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Each level of government has its own peculiar responsibilities to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The states are responsible for licensing physicians who can treat the affected people. Each year, a large number of American and foreign medical school graduates do not find a residency position in the United States. Medical school graduates who have passed the qualifying examination have acquired a considerable amount of education and training during their medical studies, far more than physician assistants, nurses, military corpsmen and medics, and civilian paramedics or emergency medical technicians. They comprise a pool of talent that could be immensely useful in …

Supervisors Without Supervision: Colon, Mckenna, And The Confusing State Of Supervisory Liability In The Second Circuit, Ryan E. Johnson

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Note received the 2019 Washington and Lee Law Council Law Review Award.

This Note analyzes two intra-Second Circuit splits that make it nearly impossible for prisoners to recover against supervisors under § 1983. First, district courts in the Second Circuit are divided as to whether the five categories of personal involvement defined in Colon v. Coughlin survive the Supreme Court’s decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal. Personal involvement by the supervisory defendant is a necessary element to impose supervisory liability. Some district courts hold that only the first and third Colon factors survive Iqbal, while others hold that all …

A Few Thoughts On “If A Tree Falls In A Roadway . . . .”, David Eggert

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Response to Ian McElhaney’s note examines (1) the background legal context that got us to where we are on falling-tree liability; (2) how this peculiar issue fits into Virginia’s general approach to the law; and (3) presents some thoughts on Mr. McElhaney’s reasoning and ultimate conclusions in urging liability for road maintainers.

If A Tree Falls In A Roadway, Is Anyone Liable?: Proposing The Duty Of Reasonable Care For Virginia’S Road-Maintaining Entities, Ian J. Mcelhaney

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Note considers whether a duty for road-maintaining entities is tenable under Virginia law. It also explores the rationale for imposing differing liabilities between landowners and road-maintaining entities. Part III reviews the various duties other states use with respect to dangerous roadside trees and concludes that the duty of reasonable care is most appropriate for Virginia. Sovereign immunity is a companion issue and is addressed in Part IV. The Part provides a brief overview of the policy arguments for sovereign immunity, before reviewing immunity’s impact at the state, county, and municipal levels. The Part also addresses a government employee’s entitlement …

In Search Of A Unified Theory Of The Duties Flowing From Property Ownership In Virginia: A Response To Mcelhaney’S If A Tree Falls, E. Kyle Mcnew

Washington and Lee Law Review

In his Note, Ian McElhaney concludes that the Court got it right in Cline v. Dunlora South, LLC—that the landowner owes no duty to protect travelers on adjoining roadways from natural conditions on the landowner’s property—because the Court also got it right in Cline v. Commonwealth when it held that the Commonwealth of Virginia may have that duty instead. In the narrowest view, that is certainly a defensible position. If the case is just about natural conditions and roads, then there is intuitive appeal in saying that they are the Commonwealth’s roads; so, it is the Commonwealth’s job to make …

Second Thoughts About Stun Guns, Rene Reyes

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) recently declared that the Commonwealth’s statutory ban on stun guns violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The SJC had previously upheld the statute against constitutional challenge in Commonwealth v. Caetano, but the reasoning behind this holding was rejected in a brief per curium opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016. However, the guidance given by the Supreme Court in the Caetano litigation was far from unambiguous: it faulted the SJC’s reasoning without opining on the ultimate question of the ban’s constitutionality, thus leaving open the possibility that the statute could pass …

Untangling The Circuit Splits Regarding Cell Tower Siting Policy And 47 U.S.C. § 332(C)(7): When Is A Denial Of One Effectively A Prohibition On All? , Lucas R. White

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ordinances Targeting The Homeless: Constitutional Or Cost-Effective?, Ellen M. Marks

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Public Pension Crisis , Jack M. Beermann

Washington and Lee Law Review

Unfunded employee pension obligations will present a serious fiscal problem to state and local governments in the not-toodistant future. This Article takes a look at the causes and potential cures for the public pension mess, mainly through the lens of legal doctrines that limit public employers’ ability to avoid obligations. As far as the causes are concerned, this Article examines the political environment within which public pension promises are made and funded, as an attempt to understand how this occurred. The Article then turns to ask if states could implement meaningful reforms without violating either state or federal law. In …

Just A Little Bit Of History Repeating: The California Model Of Marijuana Legalization And How It Might Affect Racial And Ethnic Minorities, Thomas J. Moran

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Conceiving Plan B: A Proposal To Resolve The Conflict Between Women And Conscientiously Objecting Pharmacists Over Access To Emergency Contraceptives, Joshua T. Shaw

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Imminently Eminent: A Game Theoretic Analysis Of Takings Since Kelo V. City Of New London, Alex Hornaday

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Better Course In The Post-Lapides Circuit Split: Eschewing The Waiver-By-Removal Rule In State Sovereignty Jurisprudence, Matthew Mcdermott

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Collision Of The Takings And State Sovereign Immunity Doctrines, Eric Berger

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Federalism's Unanswered Question: Who Should Prosecute State And Local Officials For Political Corruption?, George D. Brown

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pleading To Stay In State Court: Forum Control, Federal Removal Jurisdiction, And The Amount In Controversy Requirement, Russell D. Jessee

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remedies For The Misappropriation Of Intellectual Property By State And Municipal Governments Before And After Seminole Tribe: The Eleventh Amendment And Other Immunity Doctrines, Paul J. Heald, Michael L. Wells

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Case Comments S. Sovereign Immunity Goldstar (Panama) S.A. V. United States

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Material Burden Test: The Better Method Of Determining Takings Issues Arising Under Section 621(A)(2) Of The Cable Communications Policy Act Of 1984

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Citizens Action Coalition Of Indiana, Inc. V. Northern Indiana Public Service Company. Should Utility Consumers Pay Now Or Pay Later?

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Impact Fund Deduction In State School Appropriation Formulae

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Liddell V. Missouri: Financing The Ancillary Costs Ofpublic School Desegregation Through A Court-Orderedtax Increase, Daniel P. Shaver

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

City Of Lafayette, Louisiana V. Louisiana Power & Light Co.: Will Municipal Antitrust Liability Doom Effective State-Local Government Relations?

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Municipal Liability For Riot Damage Under Eminent Domain

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Political Subdivisions-Qualifications For Exclusion From The Labor-Management Relations Act

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.