Law Commons^™

Electronic Privacy And Employee Speech, Pauline T. Kim

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The boundary between work and private life is blurring as a result of changes in the organization of work and advances in technology. Current privacy law is ill-equipped to address these changes and as a result, employees' privacy in their electronic communications is only weakly protected from employer scrutiny. At the same time, the law increasingly protects certain socially valued forms of employee speech. In particular, collective speech, speech that enforces workplace regulations and speech that deters or reports employer wrong-doing are explicitly protected by law from employer reprisals. These two developments—weak protection of employee privacy and increased protection for …

Higher Law Secularism: Religious Symbols, Contested Secularisms, And The Limits Of The Establishment Clause, Zachary R. Calo

Chicago-Kent Law Review

There are two dominant traditions of understanding the secular, both with long genealogical resonance in western thought: Christian secularity and secularism. The former links the secular to a theological narrative, while the latter defines the secular as standing over and against religion. Constitutional debate has commonly framed the issue of religious symbols as demanding resolution in favor of one of these traditions. Rather than offering a way to overcome the divide and the culture war it generates, the Court's jurisprudence has instead concretized the binary. Only by cultivating a new understanding of the secular in law might there emerge an …

Table Of Contents - Issue 3, Chicago-Kent Law Review

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of The Establishment Clause In Context: Neutrality, Religion, Or Avoidance?, Nicholas P. Cafardi

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of The Establishment Clause In Context: A Response To Ledewitz, Christopher C. Lund

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Look At The Establishment Clause Through The Prism Of Religious Perspectives: Religious Majorities, Religious Minorities, And Nonbelievers, Samuel J. Levine

Chicago-Kent Law Review

As a number of commentators have observed, the Supreme Court's record in adjudicating the free exercise claims of religious minorities—in particular, unfamiliar and unpopular religious minorities—is vulnerable to the critique that the Court's rhetoric and, at times, the Court's holdings demonstrate an inability or unwillingness to look beyond majoritarian religious perspectives. Building on this scholarship, this article analyzes the Court's adjudication of Establishment Clause cases in the context of different religious perspectives, including those of religious minorities, religious minorities, and nonbelievers.

In exploring these questions, this article traces the Court's Establishment Clause jurisprudence through several decades, examining a number of …

A Comparative Law Analysis Of Private Securities Litigation In The Wake Of Morrison V. National Australia Bank, Grant Swanson

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article examines the recent Supreme Court decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank and its broad implications for private securities litigants going forward. Morrison overturned forty years of jurisprudence when it rejected the conduct and effects tests used in some form by every Circuit Court when determining the extraterritorial reach of Section 10(b) of the Securities Act. The Court instead adopted a transactional test requiring that the security be traded in the United States or otherwise domestic, substantially cutting back the reach of Section 10(b). As a result, many securities litigants will be forced to bring claims in the …

Hide That Syndicated Junk In The Closet! A Case For Credit Risk Retention In The Clo Market, Adam Altman

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Pursuant to Section 941(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act, the federal finance and banking agencies proposed rules requiring securitizers to retain some of the credit risk associated with their securitization transactions. In their proposed rules, the agencies noted that CLO managers fall squarely within their definition of the term "securitizer." Industry participants, however, vehemently contend that CLO man- agers should not be subject to the credit risk retention rules. This note argues that if risk retention is an effective means of promoting responsible securitization activity, regulators should require CLO managers to retain credit risk.

The Constitutional Politics Of The Establishment Clause, Richard Albert

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In these reflections presented at a Symposium hosted by Duquesne University School of Law on "The Future of the Establishment Clause in Context: Neutrality, Religion, or Avoidance?" I examine the constitutional politics driving the interpretation of the Establishment Clause. I suggest that the Supreme Court's recent case law on taxpayer standing may signal a return to the founding design of the Establishment Clause. At the founding, the Establishment Clause constrained the actions of only the national government, disabled only Congress from establishing a religion, and vigorously protected the sovereignty of states. Each of these three signposts—national interdiction, congressional disability, and …

Table Of Contents, Seventh Circuit Review

Seventh Circuit Review

No abstract provided.

The Seventh Circuit Pulls The Ladder Out From Under Design Defect Plaintiffs: Bielskis V. Louisville Ladder And The Limits Of Judicial Discretion In Assessing The Reliability Of An Expert's Methodology, Bevin Carroll

Seventh Circuit Review

As issues in litigation grow more complex, reliance upon expert testimony to establish liability is growing as well, especially in products liability cases. In fact, the Seventh Circuit requires expert evidence to establish liability in most design defect claims, regardless of whether they are brought under the risk utility test or the consumer expectations test.

Under Daubert, trial judges are considered the gatekeepers of expert testimony and have vast discretion in determining whether an expert’s methodology is reliable. This gatekeeping function is intended to be limited in its scope such that it is consistent with Federal Rule of Evidence …

That’S The Ticket: Arguing For A Narrower Interpretation Of The Exceptions Clause In The Driver’S Privacy Protection Act, Katherine Hutchinson

Seventh Circuit Review

The Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994 restricts states from disclosing personal identifying information contained in an individual's motor vehicle record without that person's express consent. The DPPA was a response to tragic incidents in which such information was released to members of the public who used it to locate people and commit crimes against them. However, Congress inserted into the Act a list of fourteen exceptions under which certain parties may still access these state records for specific "permissible uses." These exceptions recognized the need for such disclosure in the interests of the legitimate operational needs of government and …

Introduction: Making History, Felice Batlan

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Puerto Rican Women Nationalist Vs. U.S. Colonialism: An Exploration Of Their Conditions And Struggles In Jail And Court, Margaret Pour

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article examines the legal ramifications experienced by several women members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party as a result of their militant opposition to U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico. These women participated in the 1950 uprising in Puerto Rico or, in the case of Lolita Lebrón, the Nationalist Party's 1954 attack on the U.S. Congress. The article explores their sentences and conditions in prison from a gendered perspective. It also suggests that several of the women were tortured while in prison. The article concludes that the women drew strength from their political commitment to Puerto Rican independence and their …

The Possibility Of Compromise: Antiabortion Moderates After Roe V. Wade, 1973–1980, Mary Ziegler

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Leading studies argue that Roe itself radicalized debate and marginalized antiabortion moderates, either by issuing a sweeping decision before adequate public support had developed or by framing the opinion in terms of moral absolutes. The polarization narrative on which leading studies rely obscures important actors and arguments that defined the antiabortion movement of the 1970s. First, contrary to what the polarization narrative suggests, self-identified moderates played a significant role in the mainstream antiabortion movement, shaping policies on issues like the treatment of unwed mothers or the Equal Rights Amendment. Working in organizations like Feminists for Life (FFL) or American Citizens …

Adultery By Doctor: Artificial Insemination, 1890–1945, Kara W. Swanson

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In 1945, American judges decided the first court cases involving assisted conception. The challenges posed by assisted reproductive technologies to law and society made national news then, and have continued to do so into the twenty-first century. This article considers the first technique of assisted conception, artificial insemination, from the late nineteenth century to 1945, the period in which doctors and their patients worked to transform it from a curiosity into an accepted medical technique, a transformation that also changed a largely clandestine medical practice into one of the most pressing medicolegal problems of the mid-twentieth century. Doctors and lawyers …

Continuing The Conversation Of "The Economic Irrationality Of The Patent Misuse Doctrine", Christa J. Laser

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

This Article uses economic tools to find the best way for courts to construe or for Congress to modify the patent misuse doctrine. It attempts to continue the conversation begun by Professor Mark Lemley in his often-cited Comment, The Economic Irrationality of the Patent Misuse Doctrine. It argues that a partial economic equilibrium in patent misuse doctrine can be achieved by attempting to match Congress’s intended patent scope with the actual patent scope. It then holds that the ideal patent misuse doctrine should (1) adequately discourage patentees from seeking to exceed their patent scope while (2) continuing to encourage innovation …

The Case Of The Zia: Looking Beyond Trademark Law To Protect Sacred Symbols, Stephanie B. Turner

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

This Article tells the story of a tribe’s fight, over the past two decades, to reclaim its sacred symbol. Members of the Zia tribe, a Native American group located near Albuquerque, New Mexico, have been using their sacred sun symbol in religious ceremonies since 1200 C.E. Today, the symbol appears on the New Mexico state flag, letterhead, and license plate, and on numerous commercial products, including motorcycles and portable toilets. The tribe claims that the state appropriated the symbol without permission in 1925, and that the continued use of the symbol by various parties dilutes its sacred meaning and disparages …

Rebutting Obviousness In The Pharmaceutical Industry: Secondary Considerations Of Analogs, Jolie D. Lechner

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

Pharmaceutical companies depend on patent protection to recuperate the high costs of research and development. In regards to the patentability of structurally related compounds, the courts must decide whether a compound is obvious in view of its structurally similar prior art. In general, a compound is non-obvious over the structurally related prior art if the compound exhibits unexpected results. However, placing primary emphasis on a compound's unexpected properties is out of step with the realities of drug development. For example, during drug development, chemists will modify a compound's structure until they produce a compound that exhibits optimal pharmakinetic properties. This …

Patent Reversion: An Employee-Inventor's Second Bite At The Apple, Richard A. Kamprath

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

In an attempt to more fully compensate employee-inventors without harming the return on investment of employers, a patent reversion is proposed similar to that already in place in copyright law. In Section II, the background of the relationship between employer and employee-inventor will be discussed in terms of patent rights. This section will outline the problems inherent in the pre-assignment status quo of these rights from employees to employers. Section III will begin with Part A, which is a review of previously proposed solutions to the under-compensation of employee-inventors. The second part of Section III will discuss the proposed patent …

The Plumpy'nut Predicament: Is Compulsory Licensing A Solution?, Umar R. Bakhsh

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Appendix: What Is Transformative? An Explanatory Synthesis Of The Convergence Of Transformation And Predominant Purpose In Copyright Fair Use Law, Michael D. Murray

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

The transformative test has risen to the top of the agenda of the copyright academic community with no less than two major studies of copyright fair use and the impact of the transformative test released in 2011 by Professors Matthew Sag and Neil Netanel that follow up on three recent comprehensive studies of copyright fair use published since 2008. The lessons learned from these two 2011 statistical studies are significant, in that both studies confirm the importance of the transformative test in terms of its application by the courts as the dominant test of fair use and in the observation …

What Is Transformative? An Explanatory Synthesis Of The Convergence Of Transformation And Predominant Purpose In Copyright Fair Use Law, Michael D. Murray

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

Two recent statistical studies confirm that a court finding of “transformation” in a copyright fair use claim virtually assures a finding that the use is fair. This Article analyzes the entire body of United States Supreme Court and United States Courts of Appeals case law applying the transformative test in copyright fair use cases to present two points: first, that the transformative test modifies the first sentence of 17 U.S.C. § 107 — in particular, the terms, “the fair use of a copyrighted work” — rather than simply factor one of the four-factor test; second, in implementing the transformative test, …

Foreword, Tracey Jean Boisseau

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Finding Women In Early Modern English Courts: Evidence From Peter King's Manuscript Reports, Lloyd Bonfield

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article constitutes a preliminary report on cases involving women that appear in a manuscript authored by Chief Justice Peter King during the first seven years of his tenure as Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in early eighteenth century England. While the 327 cases he reported in the manuscript run the gamut of the procedural and substantive matters that vexed early modem Englishmen, the cases isolated and discussed hereinafter are the fifty-five cases in which women were a party to the litigation observed. By so doing, isolating cases in which women appeared as litigants, we may catalog …

Law, Land, Identity: The Case Of Lady Anne Clifford, Carla Spivack

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article presents the case history of Lady Anne Clifford, a seventeenth century Englishwoman who spent most of her adult life fighting to regain her ancestral estates, which she felt her father had unjustly left to her uncle instead of to her. Although, as the article explains, she had the better of the legal argument, that was no match for the combined forces of her two husbands and of King James I, who sought to deprive her of her land. Finally, however, because Clifford outlived her uncle's son, the last male heir, she did inherit the estates.

The article examines …

Globalization And The Re-Establishment Of Women's Land Rights In Nigeria: The Role Of Legal History, Adetoun Ilumoka

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Much has been written on women's limited legal rights to land in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, which is often attributed to custom and customary law. Persisting biases against women in legal regimes governing land ownership, allocation and use, result in a situation in which women, in all age groups, are vulnerable to dispossession and to abuse by male relatives in increasingly patriarchal family and community governance structures.

This paper raises questions about the genesis of ideas about women's rights to land in Nigeria today. It is an analysis of two court cases from South Western Nigeria in the early …

The Global "Parliament Of Mothers": History, The Revolutionary Tradition, And International Law In The Pre-War Women's Movement, Susan Hinely

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In spite of recent literature that examines late nineteenth and early twentieth century transnational movements in innovative ways, the largest transnational movement of that period, the women's movement, remains lodged in academic and popular memory as the "suffrage movement," a single-issue campaign waged by privileged Victorian women, a foregone development in the march of electoral progress that ended in victory with postwar enfranchisement. A fresh approach to the suffrage archive reveals instead a far more radical movement than conventional history suggests, one that explicitly linked its cause with both the revolutionary democratic tradition and with anti-colonial activism. Like the non-Western …

Women's Rights, Public Defense, And The Chicago World's Fair, Barbara Babcock

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Women were an important part of the great public meetings held in connection with the Chicago World's Fair. One of these "Congresses," as they were called, was devoted to the achievements of nineteenth century women, and brought together suffragists, club women, society ladies, and activists of all stripes from around the world. The Congress of Jurisprudence and Law Reform featured two American women lawyers holding their own on a platform with leading professors, judges and advocates. With an extraordinary speech based largely on her own experience in the courts, Clara Foltz launched the public defender movement.

Engendering The History Of Race And International Relations: The Career Of Edith Sampson, 1927–1978, Gwen Jordan

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Edith Sampson was one of the leading black women lawyers in Chicago for over fifty years. She was admitted to the bar in 1927 and achieved a number of firsts in her career: the first black woman judge in Illinois, the first African American delegate to the United Nations, and the first African American appointed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Sampson was also a pro-democracy, international spokesperson for the U.S. government during the Cold War, a position that earned her scorn from more radical African Americans, contributed to a misinterpretation of her activism, and resulted in her relative obscurity …