Law Commons^™

"Major Questions" About Preemption, Kamaile A.N. Turčan

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Case Against State-Controlled Fact-Checking: A Case Comment On Kunal Kamra V. Union Of India, Abhinav Ravi, Aravind Sundar

National Law School of India Review

The Bombay High Court in Kunal Kamra v Union of India struck down the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023, which had established a centralised fact-checking unit to issue takedown orders against social media posts that were identified as “fake or false or misleading”. The Rules threatened the safe harbour protection of social media intermediaries for failing to adhere to such takedown orders. The Court held that the establishment of the fact-check unit violates the rights of free speech, profession and equality under the Indian Constitution. This article explores the free speech implications of …

Local Government, Jacob Stalvey O'Neal, Russell A. Britt, Mathis L. Gales, Jennifer Dorminey Herzog, Nicholas A. Kinsley, M.Blake Walker

Mercer Law Review

As usual, the Survey saw multiple published cases involving the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Georgia courts clarified multiple sovereign immunity waivers, including waivers for injunctive and declaratory relief claims, waivers for nuisance claims, and waivers for claims involving negligent uses of government vehicles. This Article attempts to summarize the highlights and noteworthy cases.

Zoning And Land Use Law, Newton M. Galloway, Steven L. Jones, Joshua Williams

Mercer Law Review

For the first time since 2017, the cases reviewed for the Zoning and Land Use Law Survey did not focus on judicial decisions attempting to transform legislative zoning decisions into quasi-judicial actions. ...

For this Survey period, attention shifts to the impact of State v. SASS Group, LLC, the first case arising after the 2020 amendment to the Georgia Constitution of 1983 in which Georgia voters approved a constitutional amendment (the Amendment) which permitted a limited waiver of the state’s sovereign immunity for declaratory judgment claims seeking a judicial determination that an action of a governmental official was unconstitutional. …

Nil: How Third-Party Businesses Exploit Collegiate Student-Athletes With Impunity, Matthew Glogower

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

While there are numerous state NIL (name, image, and likeness) laws protecting student-athletes from economic exploitation, there is no federal law which offers universal protection, nationwide, to student-athletes. State NIL laws offer some protections for student-athletes from exploitation by colleges, universities, and boosters, but there is no protection for student-athletes who sign NIL deals with for-profit third-party businesses. These NIL deals, between the student-athlete and third-party businesses, make up the majority of NIL agreements. Section 6 of the proposed College Athlete Economic Freedom Act (“CAEFA”), titled “Enforcement Provisions,” aims to codify federal protection for student-athletes against colleges, universities, and boosters, …

After Further Review: Are Ncaa Conferences Now Subject To Antitrust Liability?, Madison Huberman

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Following the Alston decision, the landscape of college athletics has undergone significant transformation. Although the Supreme Court in Alston previously determined that individual conferences lacked power over the relevant market, this is no longer true for all conferences. This note explores the potential antitrust liability facing individual NCAA conferences in the post-Alston era. It reviews the NCAA’s historical context, its member institutions, and the variations in membership across Divisions and sports. The analysis then shifts to the current state of college athletics, including NIL policies, conference realignment, and media rights deals. The note further assesses whether certain conferences are susceptible …

The Enduring Relevance Of Congress Despite The Court's Shift To “Ordinary Reader” Statutory Interpretation, Abbe R. Gluck, Laila M. Robbins

Journal of Law and Policy

Has Congress become irrelevant to statutory interpretation? The dominant theoretical and doctrinal paradigm in American statutory interpretation has always been the conversation between Congress and the courts. Today, however, the Court’s new, second-generation textualists claim they have left Congress behind. They argue they have changed textualism’s perspective, from an “insider” perspective focused on Congress’s textual choices, to an “outsider” perspective based on how “ordinary people” read statutes. The Court’s self-professed shift away from a legiscentric approach, if true, would be a seismic shift in the conception of the judicial role. Whereas judges and scholars—including first-generation textualists—had for a century focused …

The Broad Church Of Modern Textualism, Nicole Steitz, Brian G. Slocum, Kevin Tobia

Journal of Law and Policy

Nearly thirty years ago, Justice Scalia’s Tanner lectures branded Holy Trinity Church v. United States (1892) as the anti-textualist archetype, a decision trumping the text’s plain meaning with a suspect judicial investigation of the law’s purpose or spirit. And so Holy Trinity seemed, until Gales and Solan’s groundbreaking empirical study supported an alternative reading of the key statutory term (“labor or service”) that would avoid this conflict between text and purpose. Taking inspiration from Gales and Solan, we reconsider Holy Trinity using the precepts of modern textualism, with its increased emphasis on context, pragmatics, anti-literalism, legal meaning, holistic meaning, non-compositionality, …

The Pet Fish Canon, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Journal of Law and Policy

Inspired by the work of the late Professor Larry Solan, this article proposes that judges recognize as one of the textualist canons of statutory construction a “pet fish” canon. Such a canon would posit that when an ordinary reader would understand two or more words to yield a meaning that is different than the sum of the two words defined separately, the statutory interpreter should not disaggregate them. The Roberts Court has already followed such a linguistic precept in some statutory cases, and this article proposes that the Court recognize this as a canon considered at least as seriously as …

Grammar & Syntax Arguments On The Roberts Court, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Journal of Law and Policy

In his excellent book, The Language of Judges, Professor Solan demonstrates how judges use grammatical or linguistic arguments to avoid acknowledging statutory ambiguity—and how they often get the grammar or linguistics wrong. Since his book was published, textualism has become the dominant interpretive approach on the U.S. Supreme Court—and we have seen increasingly prominent battles involving grammatical devices and rules. This comment takes Professor Solan’s analysis as a jumping off point to evaluate how grammar and linguistic arguments are employed on the modern Supreme Court, in the age of textualism. The comment offers a brief empirical and doctrinal assessment of …

Chevron's 51 Imperfect Solutions., Christopher J. Walker, Neena Menon

Articles

In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the judicial deference federal agencies previously received for their statutory interpretations, overturning the Court’s landmark 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. While Chevron was never binding on state courts, where the balance of powers and state constitutions may require different or no deference to agencies, numerous states have adopted Chevron deference, Skidmore weight, or similar deference regimes for judicial review of agency legal interpretations. Despite these developments, little scholarly attention has been paid to how and why states have developed administrative law’s deference doctrines, how the …

Foundation, Challenges And Approaches To Deepen Brics Science, Technology And Innovation Cooperation In Context Of Brics Enlargement, Xiu Yang, Haitao Chen, Ci Fang, Ziran Jiang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Deepening international science and technology innovation (STI) cooperation among BRICS countries is of great significance for empowering Global South and building a global S&T community. This study takes the ten BRICS countries in the expanded membership as the research object, deeply analyzes on deepening international STI cooperation among BRICS countries, and puts forward approaches and suggestions. Research indicates that BRICS countries have established a long-term, stable, and mature mechanism of international STI cooperation that provides an institutional guarantee for deepening international STI cooperation among BRICS countries. The rising impact of STI competence, the expanded scale of STI network, and increasingly …

Liberty And Equality Under The First Amendment: Scrutinizing Book Bans Through An Equal Protection Framework, Sarah Ryan

Brooklyn Law Review

While the constitutional text refers only to liberty, equality has been recognized as an implicit principle of the First Amendment. The guarantee of free speech ensures an equal opportunity for every voice to be heard. As school book bans proliferate, the consistent targeting of titles containing themes of race or LGBTQIA+ identity reveals a discriminatory motivation on the part of state actors. The resultant infringement on students’ right to receive information, as well as the unequal treatment of particularly-themed content would seemingly run afoul of both the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause. Given the broad discretion granted to …

A Long Road Ahead: Examining The Constitutionality Of New York City’S Congestion Pricing Plan, Emily Dulberg

Brooklyn Law Review

New York City attempted to implement New York’s first congestion pricing scheme, the Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP). The CBDTP was paused by Governor Kathy Hochul amidst concerns that the scheme will have negative impacts on families who have not financially recovered from the pandemic. The CBDTP sought to charge drivers a fee each time they entered the Central Business District (CBD), an area below 60th Street in Manhattan. The purpose of this plan was to raise funds for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to improve mass transit while simultaneously decreasing pollution and traffic congestion in New York City. …

A Delicate Balance: Adopting The French Court Of Cassation's Dual Criminality Interpretation, Matthew Hosler

Et Cetera

This Note recommends potential language to be added to various States’ criminal codes to incorporate the French Court of Cassation’s interpretation of the Dual Criminality requirement for prosecutions under universal jurisdiction. This recommendation stems from research into the concept of universal jurisdiction, leading to the discovery of the May 2023 Court of Cassation’s decision that created a pathway for countries to have jurisdiction over specific international crimes despite the crime being committed in another country. Specifically, this Note details the history of universal jurisdiction and its dual criminality requirement from the 17th century to modern times. Next, the Note details …

The Last Word On The Ohio Constitution, Jonathan L. Entin

Et Cetera

This essay offers a detailed overview of Steinglass & Scarselli’s significantly revised and expanded second edition of The Ohio Constitution, the leading analysis of that subject. The essay explores some broad themes, including judicial review, judicial independence, the relationship between the judiciary and the political branches of Ohio government, separation of powers, race and gender, the new judicial federalism, and the process for amending the Ohio Constitution. The book is an extraordinary resource for the Ohio bench and bar as well as for the general public. The essay explains why that is so and suggests that readers will use this …

Education’S Inextricable Ties To Democracy: Brown V. Board Of Education And Its Democratic Aspirations, Kayla Griffin Green

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 27, 2023, Cleveland State Law Review hosted an in-person Symposium to convene academics, legal practitioners, community advocates, and judges for a robust and timely conversation about democracy’s promise and the fight for its future. This Symposium piece will reiterate some of the conversations by panelists discussing the use of law to become Guardians of Justice, the relationship between education and democracy, and the Ohio Constitution as a tool for recapturing the state’s democratic values.

Shadows Of The Crown: The Virtue Of Equilibrium In American Sovereign Immunity, William T. Olmstead

Cleveland State Law Review

Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the federal and state governments of the United States cannot be sued or prosecuted unless they voluntarily waive their own impunity. In recent decades, the Supreme Court has expanded the scope of the sovereign immunity of the state governments. This Note argues that such an expansion is a profound and shortsighted mistake. It proposes that the most effective way to balance governmental functionality with civic accountability is to pass and ratify a constitutional amendment that solidifies national sovereign immunity and abolishes state sovereign immunity. It argues that such action is necessary to ensure the …

Custodians Of Civility, Defenders Of Democracy, Guardians Of Justice, Lee Fisher

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 27, 2023, Cleveland State Law Review hosted an in-person Symposium to convene academics, legal practitioners, community advocates, and judges for a robust and timely conversation about democracy’s promise and the fight for its future. This Symposium piece will reiterate some of the conversations by panelists discussing the use of law to become Guardians of Justice, the relationship between education and democracy, and the Ohio Constitution as a tool for recapturing the state’s democratic values.

Democracy & The Ohio Constitution – Recapturing The Innovative Spirit Of The 1912 Ohio Constitutional Convention, Melody J. Stewart

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 27, 2023, Cleveland State Law Review hosted an in-person Symposium to convene academics, legal practitioners, community advocates, and judges for a robust and timely conversation about democracy’s promise and the fight for its future. This Symposium piece will reiterate some of the conversations by panelists discussing the use of law to become Guardians of Justice, the relationship between education and democracy, and the Ohio Constitution as a tool for recapturing the state’s democratic values.

Threading The Needle In Extreme Partisan Gerrymandering Cases, Michael Gentithes

Cleveland State Law Review

Recent Supreme Court jurisprudence paints a grim picture for future reform to address extreme partisan gerrymandering. The decisions in Rucho v. Common Cause and Moore v. Harper appear to foreclose progress at both the federal and state level. Reformers must neither create unmanageable legal standards for adjudication in federal litigation, nor ask state courts to transgress ordinary bounds of judicial review when interpreting state laws that might address gerrymandering.

But there remains a path forward that focuses on clear and detailed state constitutional mandates to curb gerrymandering practices. Beneath their rhetoric, these decisions support clear legal rules over broader democratic …

A Proposal To Rebalance Direct Democracy In The Ohio Constitution, Mark Wagoner

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 27, 2023, Cleveland State Law Review hosted an in-person Symposium to convene academics, legal practitioners, community advocates, and judges for a robust and timely conversation about democracy’s promise and the fight for its future. This Symposium piece will reiterate some of the conversations by panelists discussing the use of law to become Guardians of Justice, the relationship between education and democracy, and the Ohio Constitution as a tool for recapturing the state’s democratic values.

Improper Indeterminate Incarceration: Navigating The Constitutional Quandaries Of The Reagan Tokes Law's Powers And Procedures, Sophie M. Piteo

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article advocates for an amendment to the statutory provisions that make up Ohio’s indefinite sentencing scheme to better protect offender’s constitutional rights. Through an analysis of the Reagan Tokes Law and the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling in State v. Hacker, this Article traces the evolution of Ohio’s indefinite sentencing framework, which was reinstated in 2019. It contrasts the current scheme with the previously invalidated, but very similar, Bad Time Law, which was struck down in 2000 for violating the separation of powers clause and due process rights. While the Reagan Tokes Law emerged from concerns for public safety …

Direct Democracy: Ohio Style, Steven H. Steinglass, Ernest M. Oleksy

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article is an expansion of comments by Steven H. Steinglass at a Symposium on Democracy sponsored by the Cleveland State Law Review and held on October 27, 2023. The Symposium looked broadly at threats to democracy, but the panel on which he participated focused more narrowly on the Ohio Constitution and Democracy. The Article reviews the history of direct democracy in Ohio with an emphasis on the constitutional initiative. Part I of this Article discusses the historical origins of direct democracy in Ohio and the iconic Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1912 that proposed Ohio’s direct democracy amendment. Particular …

What's Love Got To Do With It? Davis V. Henderson And A Proposed Revision To Mississippi's Termination Of Child Support Standard, Maddie Woodhead

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Fundamental Failing: The Mississippi Judiciary's Abrogation Of Its Constitutional Duty, Brad Robertson

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rising Temperatures, The Prison Litigation Reform Act, And The Heat Death Of Human Dignity In Texas Prisons, Brianne Wylie

Northwestern University Law Review

This Note seeks to shed light on the life-threatening danger of extreme heat in un-air-conditioned Texas prisons. The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) starkly limits the relief available to those suffering and dying in these prisons. This Note proposes an amendment to the legislation that could create a path toward lasting relief for incarcerated people. After analyzing the effects of increasing heat on the particularly vulnerable prison population, this Note analyzes how the Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit have handled claims alleging constitutionally violative prison conditions under the Eighth Amendment—in short, ineffectively, if at all. This Note then details …

Comity & Federalism In Extraterritorial Abortion Regulation, Jensen Lillquist

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and held that states may regulate abortion in whatever manner they wish. In the wake of Dobbs, commentators and laypersons have focused primarily on its implications for reproductive rights and other fundamental rights—such as gay marriage. Less often discussed are the questions that arise regarding state extraterritorial jurisdiction. Since Dobbs, a patchwork of laws has developed: pro-life states have placed greater restrictions on abortion, while pro-choice states have sought to expand abortion access. Questions have arisen regarding whether and to what extent states may regulate the …

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Artificial Intelligence, Christopher C. Spinosa Jr.

Touro Law Review

With governmental use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) becoming more prevalent, Americans are at risk of being subjected to the factual and legal findings of ill-equipped AI systems. The possibility of an AI takeover of the judicial branch is an undesirable reality to some individuals who are challenging laws and government programs which utilize AI systems to enforce traffic code violations. This Article considers the procedural fairness, privacy rights, and effectiveness of the various uses of AI systems in traffic code enforcement. By undertaking a thorough review of New York case law, this Article also analyzes the treatment of AI systems …

Burglary At Wal-Mart: Innovative Prosecutions Of Banned Shoplifters Under Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-14-402, Jonathan Harwell

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

No abstract provided.