Law Commons^™

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures: States Lead Misguided Offensive To Enforce Sales Tax Against Online Retailers, Ricky Hutchens

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is a near universal experience. An individual wants to purchase an item. He shops around to find the best price. After a diligent search, he realizes that if he makes the purchase online, he can avoid being charged sales tax on the item. Depending on the price of the item and the tax rate, the savings can be substantial- sometimes enough to justify paying for shipping. But many consumers fail to consider another consequence: choosing an online retailer effectively denies tax revenue to a buyer's home state. In the United States, state governments have three basic options for generating …

Revitalizing Dormant Commerce Clause Review For Interstate Coordination, Jim Rossi, Alexandra B. Klass

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Interstate coordination presents one of the most difficult challenges for American federalism as well as for energy markets and policy. Existing laws vest the approval of large-scale energy infrastructure projects such as interstate oil pipelines and high-voltage, interstate electric transmission lines with state and local levels of government. At the same time, state siting and eminent domain regimes routinely enable and even encourage state regulators to hold out from approving interstate infrastructure projects, hobbling any hope for interstate coordination. This Article analyzes how judicial review under dormant Commerce Clause principles and doctrine can promote better interstate coordination by discouraging regulatory …

Rico Overreach: How The Federal Government's Escalating Offensive Against Gangs Has Run Afoul Of The Constitution, Matthew H. Blumenstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

The United States has a problem with gangs. According to the Department of Justice, there are more than twenty thousand gangs in the United States today, with over one million members. There are gangs in every state and in the District of Columbia. This is a dire problem in the eyes of federal government officials. According to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, "Gangs threaten our society .... They bring a culture of violence and drugs to our doorsteps, creating an atmosphere of fear, diminishing the quality of life, and endangering the safety, well-being, and future of our children." In response, the …

The Right Results For All The Wrong Reasons: An Historical And Functional Analysis Of The Commerce Clause, Anna J. Cramer

Vanderbilt Law Review

Two football players rape an eighteen-year-old college student. A high-school senior carries a concealed handgun into a school building.' An arsonist burns down a trailer occupied by an interracial couple. An armed robber, after burglarizing the home of a couple and their handicapped child, speeds off in the family's Suburban.'

All of these crimes are local in nature. It seems obvious that each perpetrator would be hauled down to the local courthouse and indicted under applicable criminal law. One naturally assumes that the law would be a state statute. Yet, these perpetrators will not only face state criminal prosecution but …

Free Trade And The Regulatory State: A Gatts-Eye View Of The Dormant Commerce Clause, Daniel A. Farber, Robert E. Hudec

Vanderbilt Law Review

At one time, federalism may have seemed a peculiarly American institution. Today, however, we can see federalism as a special case of the more general problem of allocating power among geographic units. Problems of federalism arise in structures as large as the European Union' and the even larger global trade system under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ("GATT").

Free trade increasingly is accepted as a value internationally, as it always has been for commerce within the United States. Yet, both internationally and domestically, free trade must accommodate the reality of the modern regulatory state-a state that shows little …