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The Lost History Of Delegation At The Founding, Christine Chabot Dec 2021

The Lost History Of Delegation At The Founding, Christine Chabot

Georgia Law Review

The new Supreme Court is poised to bring the administrative state to a grinding halt. Five Justices have endorsed Justice Gorsuch’s dissent in Gundy v. United States—an opinion that threatens to invalidate countless regulatory statutes in which Congress has delegated significant policymaking authority to the Executive Branch. Justice Gorsuch claimed that the “text and history” of the Constitution required the Court to replace a longstanding constitutional doctrine that permits broad delegations with a more restrictive one. But the supposedly originalist arguments advanced by Justice Gorsuch and like-minded scholars run counter to the understandings of delegation that prevailed in the Founding …


Agents Of Bioshield: The Fda, Emergency Use Authorizations, And Public Trust, Kirstiana Perryman Dec 2021

Agents Of Bioshield: The Fda, Emergency Use Authorizations, And Public Trust, Kirstiana Perryman

Georgia Law Review

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic spurred the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to utilize the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) procedure more than ever before. The pandemic pushed the relatively obscure procedure into public consciousness, making it a frequent topic of discussion and debate. The EUA procedure permits the FDA Commissioner to authorize the introduction of drugs, devices, or biological products into interstate commerce for use in an actual or potential emergency. To issue an authorization, the FDA Commissioner must determine that it is “reasonable to believe,” based on the “totality of the evidence,” that the product “may be effective.” This standard …


Going, Going, Gone: Takings Clause Challenges To The Cdc’S Eviction Moratorium, Meredith Bradshaw Dec 2021

Going, Going, Gone: Takings Clause Challenges To The Cdc’S Eviction Moratorium, Meredith Bradshaw

Georgia Law Review

In September 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a residential eviction moratorium to prevent the further spread of COVID- 19. One year later, the U.S. Supreme Court terminated the moratorium. During the year that the moratorium was in effect, landlords across the country filed lawsuits against the CDC because they were unable to evict tenants who did not satisfy their rental obligations. Because the moratorium allowed tenants to remain on the property without paying rent, some landlords argued that the regulation effected …


Table Of Contents Dec 2021

Table Of Contents

Georgia Law Review

No abstract provided.


Criticizing Judges: A Lawyer's Professional Responsibility, Lonnie T. Brown Dec 2021

Criticizing Judges: A Lawyer's Professional Responsibility, Lonnie T. Brown

Georgia Law Review

Lawyers, as officers of the court, are expected to act with deference and respect toward judges. Speaking sharply to or publicly criticizing members of the bench is frowned upon and not infrequently met with punitive responses. The judiciary, however, is not above reproach. Judges are fallible and may possess personal biases, tainting self-interest, or even prejudice. As such, at times, they must disqualify themselves if their ability to dispense justice fairly and impartially can reasonably be questioned. Indeed, the very nature of a judge’s role requires avoidance of even the “appearance of impropriety.” When judges fail to adhere to this …


Deadly 'Toxins': A National Empirical Study Of Racial Bias And Future Dangerousness Determinations, Justin D. Levinson, G. Ben Cohen, Koichi Hioki Dec 2021

Deadly 'Toxins': A National Empirical Study Of Racial Bias And Future Dangerousness Determinations, Justin D. Levinson, G. Ben Cohen, Koichi Hioki

Georgia Law Review

Since the beginning of the modern Death Penalty Era, one of the most important—and fraught—areas of capital punishment has been the so-called “future dangerousness” determination, a threshold inquiry that literally rests the defendant’s life or death on jurors’ predictions of the future. An overwhelming majority of capital executions have occurred in jurisdictions that embrace the perceived legitimacy of the future dangerousness inquiry, despite its obvious flaws and potential connection to the age-old racial disparities that continue to plague capital punishment. This Article presents, and empirically tests, the hypothesis that jurors’ future dangerousness assessments cannot be separated from their racial and …


Socially Distant Signing: Why Georgia Should Adopt Remote Will Execution In The Post-Covid World, Jessie Daniel Rankin Dec 2021

Socially Distant Signing: Why Georgia Should Adopt Remote Will Execution In The Post-Covid World, Jessie Daniel Rankin

Georgia Law Review

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and other state governors issued emergency executive orders authorizing the attestation and execution of wills, trusts, and other testamentary documents through the use of audio-video technology. Most states have traditionally required that such testamentary documents be signed in the physical presence of two or more witnesses to be valid. Georgia’s executive order permits these witnesses to instead observe the signing via video-conferencing software, alleviating the requirement that the witnesses be physically present with the testator. This authorization, however, only exists through this executive order and could lapse or be …


Boom Or Bust: Ensuring The Georgia State-Wide Business Court Fulfills Its Constitutional Promise, Roya Naghepour Dec 2021

Boom Or Bust: Ensuring The Georgia State-Wide Business Court Fulfills Its Constitutional Promise, Roya Naghepour

Georgia Law Review

The United States judiciary includes specialized court systems within its baseline civil and criminal justice structure that provide more efficient and expert adjudication in a wide variety of areas. Since the creation of the Delaware Court of Chancery in 1792, many states have established specialized business courts with jurisdiction over commercial and corporate disputes. Today, many states have business court models, all choosing to employ some version of a specialized forum for corporate and commercial issues for the sake of judicial efficiency. The Georgia State-wide Business Court was established in 2019 with limited jurisdiction over narrow categories of commercial disputes. …


The Gig Economy’S Short Reach: An Analysis Of The Scope Of The Federal Arbitration Act’S “Transportation Worker” Exemption, Emina Sadic Herzberger Dec 2021

The Gig Economy’S Short Reach: An Analysis Of The Scope Of The Federal Arbitration Act’S “Transportation Worker” Exemption, Emina Sadic Herzberger

Georgia Law Review

The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) governs arbitration agreements in the United States. Section 1 of the FAA provides an exemption from arbitration for “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” In a 2001 decision, Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the residual phrase “any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce” includes transportation workers. But, such language is ambiguous, and the Supreme Court did not expound upon what it means to be a transportation worker or to be engaged …


Sneak In Contracts, Shmuel I. Becher, Uri Benoliel Jan 2021

Sneak In Contracts, Shmuel I. Becher, Uri Benoliel

Georgia Law Review

Consumer contracts are a pervasive legal tool that govern
many of our daily activities. Yet, consumer contracts are
routinely modified by businesses after customers accept them.
Common modifications include, for example, a change in fees,
alteration of a dispute resolution clause, or revision to the firm’s
privacy policy. In fact, unilateral modifications can affect
virtually every aspect of a contract.
While the literature widely discusses the problem of ex ante
consent to consumer contracts, it does not adequately address
the problem of ex post consent to unilateral modifications. But
the practice of unilateral changes to consumer form contracts
comes with …


Judicial Review In Expedited Removal Proceedings: Applying Sims V. Apfel To Assess The Role Of Issue Exhaustion, Emily C. Snow Jan 2021

Judicial Review In Expedited Removal Proceedings: Applying Sims V. Apfel To Assess The Role Of Issue Exhaustion, Emily C. Snow

Georgia Law Review

For noncitizens in expedited removal proceedings, obtaining
judicial review of removal orders is an uphill battle. Some
barriers to judicial review are statutory: noncitizens must first
exhaust their administrative remedies, and they may seek
review only in a federal circuit court of appeals. Other barriers
are judicial—i.e., imposed by courts, not statutes.
A circuit split has emerged over one of these judicially
imposed barriers to judicial review. Some courts have held that
expedited removal proceedings do not accommodate legal
challenges to removal. In those circuits, noncitizens preserve the
opportunity for judicial review even when they do not raise a
legal …


Electoral Votes Regularly Given, Derek T. Muller Jan 2021

Electoral Votes Regularly Given, Derek T. Muller

Georgia Law Review

Every four years, Congress convenes to count presidential
electoral votes. In recent years, members of Congress have
objected or attempted to object to the counting of electoral votes
on the ground that those votes were not “regularly given.” That
language comes from the Electoral Count Act of 1887. But the
phrase “regularly given” is a term of art, best understood as
“cast pursuant to law.” It refers to controversies that arise after
the appointment of presidential electors, when electors cast
their votes and send them to Congress. Yet members of Congress
have incorrectly used the objection to challenge an assortment …


In Defense Of The Foundation Stone: Deterring Post-Election Abuse Of The Legal Process, Joyce G. Lewis, Adam M. Sparks Jan 2021

In Defense Of The Foundation Stone: Deterring Post-Election Abuse Of The Legal Process, Joyce G. Lewis, Adam M. Sparks

Georgia Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the American way of
life and revolutionized the way we vote. Record voter turnout in
2020, including among first-time voters and voters of color, was
met with unprecedented legal challenges seeking to nullify
millions of votes. A coordinated effort to amplify groundless
accusations of voting fraud, shorthanded as “the Big Lie,” was
advanced in multiple states through scores of lawsuits.
Although the cases themselves were dismissed as lacking merit
and as failing to state actionable claims, their impact upon
public confidence in free and fair elections was palpable and
the resources of the courts and …


Finding Original Public Meaning, James Macleod Jan 2021

Finding Original Public Meaning, James Macleod

Georgia Law Review

Textualists seek to interpret statutes consistent with their “original public meaning” (OPM). To find it, they ask an avowedly empirical question: how would ordinary readers have understood the statute’s terms at the time of their enactment? But as the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County highlights, merely asking an empirical question doesn’t preclude interpretive controversy. In considering how Title VII applies to LGBT people, the Bostock majority and dissents vehemently disagreed over the statute’s bar on discrimination “because of sex”—each side claiming that OPM clearly supported its interpretation. So who, if anyone, was right? And how can textualists’ …


Table Of Contents Jan 2021

Table Of Contents

Georgia Law Review

No abstract provided.


Squaring A Circle: Advice And Consent, Faithful Execution, And The Vacancies Reform Act, Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Atticus Deprospo Jan 2021

Squaring A Circle: Advice And Consent, Faithful Execution, And The Vacancies Reform Act, Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Atticus Deprospo

Georgia Law Review

Successive presidents have interpreted the Federal
Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 to authorize the appointment of
principal officers on a temporary basis. Despite serving in a
mere “acting” capacity and without the Senate’s approval, these
acting principal officers nevertheless wield the full powers of
the office. The best argument in favor of this constitutionally
dubious practice is that an acting principal officer is not really
a “principal officer” under the U.S. Constitution because she
only serves for a limited period. Although not facially specious,
this claim elides the most important legal fact: an acting
principal officer may exercise the full …


Delaware’S Dominance And The Future Of Organizational Law, Peter Molk Jan 2021

Delaware’S Dominance And The Future Of Organizational Law, Peter Molk

Georgia Law Review

Delaware dominates the market for business formations.
Two main theoretical explanations have been offered to justify
Delaware’s continued success. One focuses on the state’s
credible commitment to producing responsive organizational
law in the future. The other looks to the network effects that
continue to encourage new formations once Delaware already
dominates. Yet, other than continued observation of Delaware’s
dominance, little empirical support exists for either theory.
This Article empirically tests entrepreneurs’, investors’, and
lawyers’ appetite for Delaware’s credible commitment. I use the
recent Delaware Supreme Court decision of Gatz Properties v.
Auriga Capital Corp., which was a negative shock to …


Assumed Facts And Blatant Contradictions In Qualified-Immunity Appeals, Bryan Lammon Jan 2021

Assumed Facts And Blatant Contradictions In Qualified-Immunity Appeals, Bryan Lammon

Georgia Law Review

When a district court denies qualified immunity at summary
judgment, defendants have a limited right to immediately
appeal that decision. In Johnson v. Jones, the U.S. Supreme
Court held that courts hearing these appeals have jurisdiction
to address only whether the facts the district court took as true
in denying immunity amount to a clearly established violation
of federal law. They lack jurisdiction to look behind the facts
that the district court assumed were true to see whether the
evidence supports those facts. Despite this seemingly clear rule,
defendants regularly flout Johnson’s jurisdictional limits,
taking improper appeals that create extra …


The Voting Rights Paradox: Ideology And Incompleteness Of American Democratic Practice, Atiba R. Ellis Jan 2021

The Voting Rights Paradox: Ideology And Incompleteness Of American Democratic Practice, Atiba R. Ellis

Georgia Law Review

This Essay describes the “voting rights paradox”—the fact
that despite America’s professed commitment to universal
enfranchisement, voting rights legislation throughout U.S.
history has arisen in some states to serve antidemocratic,
exclusionary ends. This Essay argues that this contradiction
comes into focus when the right to vote is understood as having
as an ideological driving force based on worthiness for
admission to the franchise. This ideology of worthiness persists
because the right to vote is dependent on political decisions left
to the political branches and the majority’s willingness to allow
propaganda to influence the scope of the franchise.
Ultimately, this Essay …


Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Examining The Misclassification Of Workers As Independent Contractors, Julia H. Weaver Jan 2021

Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Examining The Misclassification Of Workers As Independent Contractors, Julia H. Weaver

Georgia Law Review

Under current National Labor Relations Board
interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act, employers
may only be punished for misclassifying their employees as
independent contractors if a separate violation of the NLRA is
present. As the U.S. economy increasingly focuses on gig work,
millions of workers are affected by misclassification, which
results in lower pay and fewer employment protections.
Misclassification also strips the government of billions of
dollars in tax revenue.
The NLRB considered the issue of making the
misclassification of employees a standalone violation of Section
8(a)(1) of the NLRA in the case Velox Express, Inc., yet it
declined …


Heirs Property In Georgia: Common Issues, Current State Of The Law, And Further Solutions, Caitlin Henderson Jan 2021

Heirs Property In Georgia: Common Issues, Current State Of The Law, And Further Solutions, Caitlin Henderson

Georgia Law Review

In Georgia, real property passes through an intestate estate
in the form of heirs property. Under this system, heirs share
ownership of the property as tenants in common. This form of
ownership poses several obstacles to realizing the land’s full
potential and, in certain circumstances, courts will partition
the property in forced sales or will physically divide the
property among the heirs. Heirs property and its accompanying
problems are particularly common in Georgia due to strict
policies concerning will execution formalities. Georgia and the
U.S. Congress have attempted to cure the problems associated
with heirs property through the adoption of …


Blockchain Neutrality, Samuel N. Weinstein Jan 2021

Blockchain Neutrality, Samuel N. Weinstein

Georgia Law Review

Blockchain technology is transforming how markets work.
Blockchains eliminate the need for trusted gatekeepers like
banks to execute, verify, and record transactions. In the
financial markets, their disruptive potential threatens both
Wall Street banks and Silicon Valley venture capitalists. How
blockchain technology is regulated will determine whether it
encourages or inhibits competition. Some blockchain
applications present serious fraud and systemic risks,
complicating regulation. This Article explores the antitrust and
competition policy challenges blockchain presents and proposes
a regulatory strategy, modeled on Internet regulation and net
neutrality principles, to unlock blockchain’s competitive
potential. It contends that financial regulators should promote
blockchain …


Sacrificing Secrecy, Daniel S. Harawa Jan 2021

Sacrificing Secrecy, Daniel S. Harawa

Georgia Law Review

Juries have deliberated in secret since medieval times. The
historical reason for the secrecy is that it promotes impartiality,
which in turn protects a defendant’s right to a fair trial. But as
it turns out, jurors are not always impartial. Lurid examples
exist of jurors condemning defendants based on the defendant’s
race, sexuality, ethnicity, and religion.
Generally speaking, courts cannot hear evidence of what
transpired during deliberations. In 2017, however, the U.S.
Supreme Court created an exception to this rule, holding that
the Sixth Amendment requires courts to hear evidence of jurors
making racially biased statements. But this exception means …


The Lost Approach To Flsa Settlement Agreements: A Freedom-Of-Contract Approach, Madison G. Conkel Jan 2021

The Lost Approach To Flsa Settlement Agreements: A Freedom-Of-Contract Approach, Madison G. Conkel

Georgia Law Review

In jurisdictions that require judicial oversight of Fair Labor
Standards Act settlement agreements, a question lingers: What
exactly should judges review? Some judges have begun
categorically striking confidentiality provisions from
settlement agreements by pointing to the purposes and goals of
the FLSA. The academic community lauds these courts’ efforts
to prevent employers from mandating employees’ silence about
the terms of their settlement agreements. This Note, however,
makes the counterargument: confidentiality provisions should
be permitted in FLSA settlements agreements as a bargaining
chip for employees who bring individual suits. If higher courts
in a given jurisdiction require judicial oversight of these …


Mopping Up The Mess: A Call To Adopt The Seventh Circuit’S Standard For Assessing Comparator Evidence In Title Vii Discrimination Claims, Alexander S. Edmonds Jan 2021

Mopping Up The Mess: A Call To Adopt The Seventh Circuit’S Standard For Assessing Comparator Evidence In Title Vii Discrimination Claims, Alexander S. Edmonds

Georgia Law Review

In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, the U.S. Supreme
Court developed a framework to assist courts in assessing
individual disparate treatment claims based on
circumstantial evidence. Under that test, plaintiffs alleging
discrimination under Title VII must first show a prima facie
case of discrimination. Since McDonnell Douglas, courts have
modified the test by requiring plaintiffs to demonstrate that
they were treated less favorably than a similarly situated
comparator employee who is outside the plaintiff’s protected
class. Courts disagree, however, on what it means for
employees to be similarly situated. Some courts strictly
interpret the similarly situated requirement; others caution
against …


“A Kind Of Continuing Dialogue”: Reexamining The Audience’S Role In Exempting Academic Freedom From Garcetti’S Employee Speech Doctrine, Michael A. Sloman Jan 2021

“A Kind Of Continuing Dialogue”: Reexamining The Audience’S Role In Exempting Academic Freedom From Garcetti’S Employee Speech Doctrine, Michael A. Sloman

Georgia Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos
put further restraints on public employee speech by exempting
from First Amendment protection speech made pursuant to the
“official duties” of public employees. This limitation, if applied
to the speech of college professors, would constrain their
academic freedom of instruction and scholarship by permitting
overbearing institutional oversight. This constraint would be
detrimental not only to the employed professors, but also to
their students and the post-secondary educational system as a
whole. Courts should not apply Garcetti to academic freedom
in the post-secondary education context, and they should avoid
further limitations on …


Table Of Contents Jan 2021

Table Of Contents

Georgia Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Expressiveness Of Regulatory Trade-Offs, Benjamin M. Chen Jan 2021

The Expressiveness Of Regulatory Trade-Offs, Benjamin M. Chen

Georgia Law Review

Trade-offs between a sacred value—like human life—
against a secular one—like money—are considered taboo.
People are supposed to be offended by such trade-offs and to
punish those who contemplate them. Yet the last decades in the
United States have witnessed the rise of the cost-benefit state.
Most major rules promulgated today undergo a regulatory
impact analysis, and agencies monetize risks as grave as those
to human life and values as abstract as human dignity.
Prominent academics and lawmakers advocate the weighing of
costs and benefits as an element of rational regulation. The
cost-benefit revolution is a technocratic coup, however, if …


Some Objections To Strict Liability For Constitutional Torts, Michael L. Wells Jan 2021

Some Objections To Strict Liability For Constitutional Torts, Michael L. Wells

Georgia Law Review

Qualified immunity protects officials from damages for
constitutional violations unless they have violated “clearly
established” rights. Local governments enjoy no immunity, but
they may not be sued on a vicarious liability theory for
constitutional violations committed by their employees. Critics
of the current regime would overturn these rules in order to
vindicate constitutional rights and deter violations. This
Article argues that across-the-board abolition of these limits on
liability would be unwise as the costs would outweigh the
benefits. In some contexts, however, exceptions may be justified.
Much of the recent controversy surrounding qualified
immunity involves suits in which police officers …


Unintended Legislative Inertia, Mirit Eyal-Cohen Jan 2021

Unintended Legislative Inertia, Mirit Eyal-Cohen

Georgia Law Review

Institutional and political forces create strong inertial
pressures that make updating legislation a difficult task. As a
result, laws often stagnate, leading to the continued existence of
obsolete rules and policies that serve long-forgotten purposes.
Recognizing this inertial power, legislatures over the last few
decades have increasingly relied on a perceived solution—
temporary legislation. In theory, this measure avoids inertia by
requiring legislators to choose to extend a law deliberately.
This Article argues that temporary legislation is a double-
edged sword. While some temporary laws ultimately expire,
many perpetuate through cycles of extension and
reauthorization. Temporary legislation often creates its …