Law Commons^™

Citizen Enforcement Laws Threaten Democracy, David A. Carrillo, Stephen M. Duvernay

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

No abstract provided.

Algorithmic Personalized Wages, Zephyr Teachout

Faculty Scholarship

The paper explores algorithmically created personalized wages: what they are, what they mean, and what we can do about them. First, it establishes a taxonomy of five different forms of algorithmic wage differentiation: productivity-based wage adjustments, wages shifted through incentive bonuses and demerits, behavioral wages, dynamic wages, and wages shifted to conduct an experiment. It argues that these techniques are likely to spread from gig work to the formal employment context.

Second, it argues that the spread of these techniques has democratic implications. They will increase economic and racial inequality. They will harm labor solidarity. Perhaps most importantly, they put …

One Person, How Many Votes? Measuring Prison Malapportionment, Ian Bollag-Miller

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

“One-person, one-vote” is a fundamental principle of democracy. In practice, however, vote distribution among population groups is often less than equal. Even in established democracies, prison malapportionment—the distribution of legislative seats by counting incarcerated people in their prisons’ districts rather than their home districts—is one example of a practice that distorts voter representation. Prison malapportionment allows less populous districts that house prisons to maximize their voting power at the expense of more densely populated districts from which many incarcerated people previously lived. While there has been significant scholarship on the causes and effects of prison malapportionment, there is no standard …

Depoliticizing The Supreme Court Through Term Limits: A Worthwhile Reform Effort, Kara King

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

The United States Supreme Court is in a legitimacy crisis. Americans are losing faith in the Supreme Court as an independent branch of government. As a result, policymakers and academics have put forth several proposals to reform the Court. The concept of an eighteen-year term limit maintains some bipartisan support and stands out as the most likely reform. This Article argues that term limits could help depoliticize the nomination process, bring greater stability to the Court, and restore confidence in the Court.

Taking History Seriously: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Reflections On Progressive Lawyering, And Section 3 Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Andrew G. Celli Jr.

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

History has lessons to teach, and lawyers can learn from and use history in ways other than by cherry-picking from it. This Article contends that, while American history may be vexed, progressive lawyers can fully embrace history and hold it up into the light for consideration, all in service of progressive ends.

This Article describes a recent litigation that illustrates the point. In March 2022, the Author, together with other lawyers and a non-partisan pro-democracy group, represented voters from Georgia’s fourteenth congressional district in their effort to disqualify U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from the Georgia ballot—based upon Section 3 …

Increasing Voter Investment In American Democracy: Proposals For Reform, Adam Drake

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

Millions of Americans choose to stay home every election cycle. Polling suggests that these nonvoters are either apathetic with respect to the democratic process or feel alienated from the United States government. Reforms to the democratic system should focus on alleviating these sentiments, ultimately encouraging more voters to show up to the polls. As turnout increases, so too does the legitimacy and stability of the U.S. government.

With that goal in mind, this Article advocates for a five- prong approach to reforming the electoral system. The first proposed step is to eliminate unnecessary barriers to voting by establishing federal automatic …

I Hope Tilden Was Right, Jerry H. Goldfeder

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

No abstract provided.

Updating Anderson-Burdick To Evaluate Partisan Manipulation

Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

This Article analyzes jurisprudence concerning the judicial review of election laws. It suggests that the United States Supreme Court’s approach should acknowledge the realities of political partisanship when reviewing challenged laws and regulations. Specifically, this Article proposes a judicial test to evaluate election laws for partisan biases using factors modeled on those employed by the Court in Gingles v. Thornburg. Simply put, the manipulation of election laws to pursue partisan advantages poses the greatest threat to our democracy. Accordingly, this Article concludes that protecting our democracy from election practices that benefit one party over another in the guise of …

Hardball Vs. Beanball: Identifying Fundamentally Antidemocratic Tactics, Jed H. Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

The “constitutional hardball” metaphor used by legal scholars and political scientists illuminates an important phenomenon in American politics, but it obscures a crisis in American democracy. In baseball, hardball encompasses legitimate tactics: pitching inside to brush a batter back but not injure, hard slides, hard tags. Baseball fans celebrate hardball. Many of the constitutional hardball maneuvers previously identified by scholars have been legitimate, if aggressive, constitutional political moves. But the label “hardball” has been interpreted too broadly to include illegitimate, fundamentally undemocratic tactics. I suggest a different baseball metaphor for such tactics: beanball, pitches meant to injure and knock out …

Will Grassroots Democracy Solve The Government Fiscal Crisis?, Julie M. Chesnik

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Policing Sex: The Colonial, Apartheid, And New Democracy Policing Of Sex Work In South Africa, India Geronimo Thusi

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

South Africa's Constitutional Jurisprudence And The Path To Democracy: An Annotated Interview With Dikgang Moseneke, Acting Chief Justice Of The Constitutional Court Of South Africa, Conor Colasurdo, Rebecca Marlin

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fiduciary Law's Lessons For Deliberative Democracy, David L. Ponet, Ethan J. Leib

Faculty Scholarship

One of the ascendant understandings of democracy in contemporary political theory is that democratic societies ought to be deliberative The precise requirements for "deliberative democracy" are contested both as a matter of normative theory and institutional design; but most deliberative democrats see deliberation as essential to the legitimation of decision-making within the polity. Yet deliberative democrats have expended most of their efforts mapping what deliberation should look like at two different levels of decision-making: the deliberation among citizens themselves in exercises of direct and participatory democracy - and the deliberation among legislators or other official actors within the organs of …

The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Promoting Social Change And Political Values, True Confessions About The Role Of Lawyers In A Democracy, Fred C. Zacharias

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Tensions Between Various Conceptions Of The Lawyer's Role, Rethinking The Legal Reform Agenda: Will Raising The Standards For Bar Admission Promote Or Undermine Democracy, Human Rights, And Rule Of Law?, Samuel J. Levine, Russell G. Pearce

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Promoting Access To Justice And Government Institutions, The Challenge Of Democratic Lawyering, Ascanio Piomelli

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Tensions Between Various Conceptions Of The Lawyer's Role, The Role Of The Lawyer In The American Democracy, Rakesh K. Anand

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Tensions Between Various Conceptions Of The Lawyer's Role, Regulation Of Israeli Lawyers: From Professional Autonomy To Multi-Institutional Regulation, Neta Ziv

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Promoting The Rule Of Law, Lawyers In Fragile Democracies And The Challenges Of Democratic Consolidation: The Nigerian Experience, Okechukwu Oko

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Promoting Access To Justice And Government Institutions, Way To Represent: The Role Of Black Lawyers In Contemporary American Democracy, Carla D. Pratt

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Foreword, Bruce A. Green

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Keynote Address: Consensus Building, Public Dispute Resolution, And Social Justice, Lawrence E. Susskind

Fordham Urban Law Journal

These remarks were prepared for and delivered at the Second Annual Fordham University School of Law Dispute Resolution Society Symposium on October 12, 2007. The Address discusses how democracy, public dispute resolution, and social justice fit together. The speaker opens with an example of a small city making a decision about a large industrial development project from the perspective of a traditional model and a consensus-oriented model. He then addresses three major problems with the first: (i) the majority rule problem; (ii) the representation problem; and (iii) the adversarial format problem. The speaker goes on to advocate for the consensus-building …

A Comparison Of Criminal Jury Decision Rules In Democratic Countries, Ethan J. Leib

Faculty Scholarship

This paper furnishes jury system information about the twenty-eight democracies (excluding the United States) that have been consistently democratic since at least the early 1990s and have a population of five million people or more (with allowance for Mexico and South Africa). I describe general rules that do not always apply to every crime in every context. In the United States, for example, we tend to use a randomly-selected jury of twelve people that sits for a single case; laws generally require unanimity to convict and unanimity to acquit. Failure to reach unanimity results in a “hung” jury, with the …

Tinkering With Torture In The Aftermath Of Hamdan: Testing The Relationship Between Internationalism And Constitutionalism , Catherine Powell

Faculty Scholarship

Bridging international and constitutional law scholarship, the author examines the question of torture in light of democratic values. The focus in this article is on the international prohibition on torture as this norm was addressed through the political process in the aftermath of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Responding to charges that the international torture prohibition -- and international law generally -- poses irreconcilable challenges for democracy and our constitutional framework, the author contends that by promoting respect for fundamental rights and for minorities and outsiders, international law actually facilitates a broad conception of democracy and constitutionalism. She takes on the question …

Families, Associations, And Political Pluralism, William A. Galston

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Partisan Of Nonpartisanship: Justice Stevens And The Law Of Democracy, Pamela S. Karlan

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federalism As Westphalian Liberalism, Roderick M. Hills, Jr.

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Leaders, Followers, And Free Riders: The Community Lawyer's Dilemma When Representing Non-Democratic Client Organizations, Michael Diamond, Aaron O'Toole

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article explores various aspects of the dissonance between the democratic ideal and the reality of groups in disenfranchised and disempowered communities. The authors discuss the intersection of democracy and community action by examining the sociology of groups and the social psychology of leaders and followers. They also examine the role of, and choices presented to, an attorney working in a community and for a local community group.

Dimensions Of Democracy, Christopher L. Eisgruber

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Of Constitutional Self-Government, Jed Rubenfeld

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.