Law Commons^™

Shielding Freedoms: State Noncooperation In Hunts For Evidence And People, Mary D. Fan

Washington Law Review

The nation is fracturing into a patchwork of rights and punishment. What some states and localities safeguard as rights, other jurisdictions are criminalizing and punishing. As the divides in rights and punishment deepen, some states are becoming sanctuaries for freedoms penalized elsewhere and enacting shield laws prohibiting cooperation with criminalization and punishment states. A prime example is shield laws protecting people seeking to exercise reproductive rights or obtain gender-affirming care. Major jurisdictions for healthcare and technology-related businesses, such as Washington, California, New York, and Massachusetts, have enacted shield laws that prohibit law enforcement and companies from complying with subpoenas seeking …

Leveling The Playing Field? Exploring The Moral Ambiguity Of The Private Attorney General Model, Nathan Heastie

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Johnson & Johnson’s market cap is twice the GDP of Oklahoma. So, when Oklahoma hauled Johnson & Johnson and other behemoth pharmaceutical companies into state court for their participation in the opioid epidemic, Big Pharma’s resources created a David v. Goliath situation. Against all odds, Oklahoma stood toe-to-toe with Big Pharma and brought home more than $650 million in settlement funds.

Oklahoma’s success would be otherwise impossible without the assistance of three private law firms serving the role of “private attorneys general.” The State signed contingency fee arrangements with the firms, transferring the financial burden of litigation from the State …

Self-Determination Through Children's Rights: Resisting The Paradoxical Pretext Of Parents' Rights Legislation, Jeremiah Chin

Washington Law Review

Washington state law balances the interests of parents and the state in education, healthcare, and the general wellbeing of children. Despite the fact that children are at the center of emerging controversies, children’s rights are rarely discussed in state legislation debating the obligations and relationships between the state of Washington and parents. In education, for example, RCW 28A.605.005 finds “[p]arents are the primary stakeholders in their children’s upbringing.” While this may be true relative to the state, it overlooks the fact that children are the primary actors, agents, and rights bearers in their own personhood. This Article therefore considers ongoing …

From The Bench To The Feed: Conflict Between Public Official Accounts And The First Amendment, Betty Yu

Washington Law Review

Imagine one day waking up, opening Facebook, and discovering that the official White House account blocked you because you left a comment expressing a viewpoint. In this case, your First Amendment right to free speech would most likely be violated. However, what happens if your local official blocks you or deletes your comments? Are your First Amendment rights violated? Well, it depends.

Historically, public officials have used public forums such as town halls to meet with citizens and answer questions. However, as social media platforms like X and Facebook have become increasingly crucial tools for communication, the distinction between personal …

Local Government Standing As State Standing, Katharine Cooney, Katherine Mims Crocker

Faculty Scholarship

It is increasingly common, and controversial, for local governments to bring lawsuits as plaintiffs in federal court. Many questions about this practice raise matters that sound in policy. But some, including the issue of standing to sue, also raise issues of constitutional law. How local governments fit into standing rules should reflect how they fit into the U.S. constitutional system more broadly. As the Supreme Court put it in the famous (and infamous) 1907 case Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh, "[m]unicipal corporations are political subdivisions of the State, created as convenient agencies for exercising such of the governmental powers of …

Frankenstein Sinatra: The Argument For A Federal Postmortem Right Of Publicity In The Ai-Era, Ian Samide

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Artificial Intelligence has fundamentally revolutionized the way media is generated and presents new and unique threats to the right of publicity. By enabling users to create high-quality, realistic deep fakes of individuals’ voices, images, or likenesses, Artificial Intelligence has created novel risks to the right of publicity. Additionally, right of publicity is currently governed by state law. This system is proving to be flawed in the internet age, as content is rarely confined to a single jurisdiction, resulting in unpredictability and juridical disputes. This note argues that a federal right of publicity is necessary to regulate Artificial Intelligence effectively and …

Chasing The American Dream: Young Adults In Financial Crisis, A. Mechele Dickerson

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

For nearly two decades, I have written about housing and I have chronicled why it is so hard for middle-class Americans to become homeowners. More recently, I have explored the concept of the “traditional” household (husband, wife and 2.5+ children) and stressed that, notwithstanding the substantial federal and state subsidies this household formation receives, it is no longer the norm. While the housing crisis persists, it has now metastasized into a widespread and sweeping financial and social breakdown. In my forthcoming book, The Middle-Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream, I more broadly explore the challenges adults …

From Redlining To Redshirting: How The New York City Public Schools’ Kindergarten Entry Policy Perpetuates Inequity, Rebecca Daverin Lelchuk

Journal of Law and Policy

This article examines the intersection of school segregation, academic redshirting, and kindergarten admissions policies in New York City (“NYC”) Public Schools. Historically shaped by redlining, NYC’s educational landscape is currently fractured by a "hidden" redshirting-like effect: a kindergarten cutoff that allows four-year-olds into public school while private schools and most school districts across the country require students to be five. This discrepancy disproportionately affects Black and Brown families and children with disabilities, leading to increased rates of subjective special education classifications for the youngest students in a cohort. The author argues that reform is both a moral and economic imperative. …

Using Political Privilege To Profit: Insider Trading In The Government And S. 2463'S Alleged Attempt To Stop It, Allison K. Dooling

MC Law Review

Insider trading is generally illegal within the United States. However, members of Congress are notorious for regularly engaging in stock trades based on government information that mirrors insider trading. In 2023, Senators Gillibrand and Hawley proposed a bill, unlike any such proposed before, to put an ultimate ban on government insider trading: the “Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials Act” or S. 2463. On its face, S. 2463 appears to address the criticisms surrounding government insider trading. It not only increases regulation and reporting standards but also bans government officials, their spouses, and their dependents from owning any stock during …

Brief Of Edward A. And Doris Zelinsky In The Appellate Division, Third Department, New York Supreme Court, Edward A. Zelinsky, Doris Zelinsky

Amicus Briefs

To combat COVID, New York in 2020 forbade an out-of-state employee like the petitioner to commute into his New York office, forcing him to instead work at his home in Connecticut. New York now takes the remarkable position that it can tax the income Governor Cuomo forced this out-of-state employee to earn at his home exclusively outside New York. That position is as wrong as it sounds.

Both as a matter of New York law and of federal constitutional law under the Due Process and dormant Commerce Clauses, New York may not tax the income the petitioner earned exclusively at …

Clark County Deputy Marshals Association And Raymundo Enriquez V. Clark County, A Political Subdivision Of The State Of Nevada; And The Eighth Judicial District Court Of The State Of Nevada, In And For The County Of Clark, 141 Nev. Adv. Op. 49 (Oct. 23, 2025), Adrienne Jack-Sands

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

CLARK COUNTY DEPUTY MARSHALS ARE COURT EMPLOYEES, NOT PART OF A LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY EMPLOYED WITHIN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT

Unfollowing Censorship: A Policy-Oriented Analysis Of Government Pressure On Social Media Content Management, William C. Morgan

Cleveland State Law Review

The introduction of social media has facilitated communications and connectivity globally. However, in recent years, social media companies have started to adopt content moderation practices that are directly influenced by government pressure to comply with their requests to arrange information. Typically, these newly adopted practices often aim to censor or diminish the exposure of certain views, comments, and/or posts that the U.S. government, through its actors, dislike or find threatening to national security. This paper examines how informal government outreach to indirectly monitor, and control social media companies’ content moderation practices undermine the platforms’ constitutionally protected editorial autonomy. Consequently, this …

The Next Generation, Jeremiah Chin

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Wages Of Hitching Wagons, Thomas B. Bennett

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

9th Annual Stonewall Lecture Series: Safeguarding Rights In A Changing Landscape: How Rhode Island Is Protecting The Lgbtq+ Community Through Its Constitution 11-13-2025, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

West Flagler And The Future Of Sports Betting: Navigating Tribal Sovereignty And The Need For Consumer Protection In A Growing Market, Jake Granese

University of Miami Business Law Review

Sports betting in the United States has exploded in recent years, with a record–breaking $11 billion in revenue in 2023. This growth has inspired state governments to try to leverage this lucrative business. One recent development is the 2021 Gaming Compact between the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the state of Florida. The Compact represents a milestone towards exclusivity in mobile gaming for Native American tribal nations. Under the Compact, the Seminole Tribe receives sports betting exclusivity, for both retail sports wagering and online sports wagering across the state of Florida, in exchange for a revenue sharing arrangement—unlike any other …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Assembly-Line Public Defense, David S. Abrams, Priyanka Goonetilleke

Faculty Scholarship

Each year, millions of Americans rely on public defenders to fulfill their Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Despite being the linchpin of the criminal justice system, public defense remains both underfunded and understudied. This Article provides empirical analysis to contribute to a critical question: How should public defender systems be structured?

Criminal justice advocates, scholars, and the American Bar Association strongly favor vertical representation in public defense. Under this model, a single public defender represents a defendant throughout their case, from their initial appearance through sentencing. The alternative approach—horizontal representation—operates like an assembly line: Different attorneys handle each stage of …

When The Taxpayers Are Not Innocent: The Need For Punitive Damages Against Municipalities Under The Fair Housing Act, Charlotte Saltzman

Fordham Law Review

Combatting housing discrimination by municipalities is a core function of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Courts disagree, however, as to whether punitive damages can be awarded against municipal defendants. The purpose of this Note is twofold. First, it compares the Second Circuit’s recent decision in Gilead Community Services, Inc. v. Town of Cromwell, which held that punitive damages were appropriate against the Town of Cromwell, with the reasoning of district courts that came to the opposite conclusion in reliance on § 1983 precedent. Second, notwithstanding the sufficiency of the statutory analysis, it evaluates the public policy concerns of awarding …

Protecting Unbelief: Restoring Section Five Of Kentucky's Constitution, Samuel Weaver

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reconsideration Of Kentucky's Prohibition Of Special And Local Legislation, Laurance B. Vanmeter

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Living Property, Joseph William Singer

Seattle University Law Review

The Supreme Court has increasingly defined property rights that are per se exempt from regulation in the absence of compensation, most recently in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (2021) and Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023). The Court claims that it can identify property rights that are categorically protected from regulation by reference to history, tradition, and precedent. Yet this approach is oddly ahistorical; it is inconsistent with the fact that property law changed dramatically over U.S. history, as well as varying tremendously among the states. It is also inconsistent with the historical context of the Founding era. At that time, …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Roots Of Credit Inequality, Andrea Freeman

Seattle University Law Review

Debt oppression began before the United States became a country. Settlers enslaved Africans and Indigenous people, treating them as property that they could buy and sell for their economic and personal benefit. When enslavement became illegal, new economic systems and laws that included sharecropping, Black Codes, and Jim Crow kept Black people in servitude. Laws that prohibited enslaved people from owning property or selling goods to white people evolved into restrictions on Black people’s occupations and market participation, both formal and informal. When Black entrepreneurs overcame these obstacles and built wealth within Black business enclaves, white people enforced their racist …

“A Plain Denial”: Reclaiming Equal Protection In American Juvenile Law, Addie C. Rolnick, David S. Tanenhaus, Justin Iverson, Danielle L. Silvestri

Seattle University Law Review

Juvenile courts are based on the premise that children are different from adults and should therefore be treated differently. Children may be treated more informally by courts, punished for different purposes, and brought before the court for different behaviors. Since In re Gault, the Supreme Court has been clear that there are limits to how different juvenile courts can be. Juveniles are entitled to many of the same procedural protections as adult criminal defendants, although the Court has preserved some procedural differences where it has determined that their benefit is outweighed by the need to preserve the informality, flexibility, …

Redefining Section 230 Immunity, Lucas Dini

Seattle University Law Review

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has provided broad immunity to online platforms for third-party content which was the foundation for the internet's growth. However, the rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to produce algorithms to curate content to users of online services has blurred the line between being a passive host of third party content and active editorial control. This Note examines the legal, policy, and constitutional implications of applying Section 230 immunity to platforms that use AI to curate and promote third-party content. This analysis argues that algorithmic promotion of third-party content constitutes a platform's …

Overcrowding The System: Rethinking Juvenile Justice In Washington State, Mckenna White

Seattle University Law Review

The recent crisis at Green Hill School highlights the detrimental consequences of severe overcrowding in Washington State’s Juvenile Rehabilitation system—a problem exacerbated by the implementation of the JR to 25 legislation. This Note argues that the juvenile rehabilitation system, which is currently struggling to manage a wide age range of offenders, necessitates a fundamental rethinking of juvenile justice practices. By examining neurological research indicating continued brain development into the mid-twenties, along with the high prevalence of trauma among justice-involved youth, this Note proposes the creation of a dedicated third system of care within the Department of Children, Youth, and Families …

Addressing The Root Of Housing Insecurity: Washington Should Divest From “Crime-Free” Housing Programs, Sarah Cerdena

Seattle University Law Review

Crime-Free Rental Housing Properties (CFRHPs) have proven to be an ineffective and inequitable approach to public safety. Often, tenants in these properties are evicted—at times, extrajudicially—as a result of conduct that does not rise to violations of their lease provisions, much less criminal behavior. By placing extraordinary power in the hands of local law enforcement to carry out these ordinances, CFRHPs predictably pose significant harm to Black and Latinx communities, survivors of domestic violence, disabled tenants, and low-income tenants generally. Recently, the Washington State Supreme Court grappled with the tensions arising between CFRHPs and the enforcement of Washington landlord-tenant law. …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

Esg Investing Breaches Erisa Fiduciary Duties? A Closer Look At Spence V. American Airlines, Inc., Eric Chin-Ru Chang

Seattle University Law Review

In Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas found that American Airlines breached its fiduciary duties due to BlackRock’s ESG investing practices. Contrary to some reports suggesting that the ruling prohibits ESG investing under ERISA, a closer look at the ruling shows that the court only targeted American Airlines’ failure to manage conflicts of interest appropriately, rather than the legality of ESG investing itself. In light of the intensifying ESG backlash in the United States, this Article cautions against further restrictive measures on ESG investing. Such measures would exacerbate the widening …