Law Commons^™

Asylum Ruling Halts Restrictions In New Rule, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Constitution Says About Peaceful Transfer Of Power, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[excerpt] I recently was asked whether the Constitution requires a peaceful transfer of power following an election. Sadly, the questions is not merely theoretical. President Trump has stated that, if he loses the upcoming election, it will be through fraud. And he has made it clear that he will be unrestrained in his response to any efforts to oust him from office through an election he pronounces fraudulent.

The question of whether the Constitution requires a peaceful transfer of power prompts consideration of how we should conceptualize our Constitution. Is the Constitution merely the document that was written in 1787, …

Federal Court Halts Trump’S Ban On Nonimmigrant Visas, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ida B. Wells: Fearless Journalist From Memphis Who Changed The World, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

An article about Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), a journalist who campaigned tirelessly against the horror of lynching, advocated for suffrage rights for women, exposed injustices, and battled against segregation laws.

Encouraging Entrepreneurship And Innovation Through Regulatory Democratization, Seth C. Oranburg

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "Entrepreneurship provides a path to prosperity for many people. In particular, women and minorities prefer entrepreneurship as their path to achieve the American Dream. In their striving, their startups and small businesses benefit our entire society. Entrepreneurial innovation has a positive impact on social welfare. For these reasons, the federal government has implemented numerous policies designed to support small businesses and promote startup innovation."

Securities Regulation And Social Media, Seth C. Oranburg

Law Faculty Scholarship

Federal securities regulation originally divided corporate finance into two neat categories, public and private. In 1933, private financing was limited to “sophisticated” investors but otherwise lightly regulated. Public financing became heavily regulated. In 1982, the SEC introduced Reg D, which introduced the concept of “general solicitation” to clarify the distinction between public and private offerings. Reg D is well understood to prohibit newspaper advertisements and permit direct solicitations to venture capital investors. This enabled great wealth consolidation in regions like Silicon Valley while effectively banning general solicitations in private offerings.

Now, social media communication challenges the definition of “general solicitation.” …

Five Takeaways From High Court's Term, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] Last month, the Supreme Court wrapped up it 2019-2020 term with a flurry of significant rulings.

The court confirmed that Congress and state attorneys general may subpoena third parties for evidence when legitimately investigating a sitting president; held that the executive branch must engage in reasoned decision-making when rescinding administrative protections for a vulnerable population (i.e., beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program); and defined the scope of the president's power to remove officials from high office.

The court also clarified that federal anti-discrimination employment protections extend to LGBTQ workers; held that states may punish members …

The Libertarian Case For Immigration (And Against Trump), Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Unsettled Questions In Student Speech Law, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

More than fifty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court famously proclaimed in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” In subsequent decades, the Supreme Court reduced the level of free-speech protections for public school students, but Tinker is still the lodestar decision.

There remain several areas of uncertainty regarding the scope of student (K–12) First Amendment rights. This Article addresses three of those main areas: (1) whether a student’s speech can be limited by the unruly behavior …

Asylum Update: Ninth Circuit Upholds Injunction Against Third Country Rule, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Boldly Marching Through Closed Doors: The Experiences Of The Earliest Female Attorneys In Their Own Words, Nicole P. Dyszlewski

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

History Of The First Women Project, Nicole P. Dyszlewski

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Revisiting And Confronting The Federal Judiciary Capacity “Crisis”: Charting A Path For Federal Judiciary Reform, Ryan G. Vacca, Peter S. Menell

Law Faculty Scholarship

[excerpt] "This Article revisits and confronts the growing caseload and congestion problems plaguing the federal judiciary. It begins by tracing the history and political economy surrounding judiciary reform. It then updates data on caseloads, processing times, certiorari petitions, en banc review, and other measures of judicial performance, revealing expanding caseloads and growing complexity and fragmentation of federal law. Part III explores the political, institutional, and human causes of the logjam over judiciary reform and offers an antidote: a commission tasked with developing a judiciary reform act that would not go into effect until 2030. The “2030 Commission” members would …

Valuing Young Startups Is Unavoidably Difficult: Using (And Misusing) Deferred-Equity Instruments For Seed Investing, John L. Orcutt

Law Faculty Scholarship

In a well-functioning market, reasonable investors are less likely to invest in companies when they cannot confidently value the opportunity. This presents a serious problem for young startups because they are unavoidably difficult to value. Partly in response to the valuation challenge, specialized startup investors evolved how they contract for young-startup investments. Around 2005 they began using deferred-equity instruments (first convertible notes, and later safes and the KISS). Deferred-equity instruments offer a partial solution to the valuation challenge by allowing specialized startup investors to thoughtfully invest in venture capital-eligible young startups without valuing them at the time of investment. Deferred-equity …

Judicial Review And Governmental Bad Faith, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] This column is the third and final installment of a series considering some potential implications of June Medical Services v. Russo, a case involving a constitutional challenge to a Louisiana law regulating access to abortion services. The United States Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on March 4. A decision is expected shortly.

The first column sought to place June Medical Services in context by describing the history of constitutional abortion-rights litigation at the Supreme Court. The second explained what the case is likely to tell us about the respect the court will show to prior constitutional …

The Supreme Court Rules That Trump’S Daca Rescission Doesn’T Pass Muster, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Anti-Slapp Coverage And The First Amendment: Hurdles To Defamation Suits In Political Campaigns, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

Defamation cases often arise out of intemperate or offensive statements made in political campaigns. These comments may refer to a candidate’s criminal history, familial conduct, or other matters. Whatever the subject, emotions undoubtedly run high during hotly contested campaigns. However, First Amendment protection is at its zenith when speakers engage in political speech, and speech about political candidates is inherently political speech. Thus, defamation suits arising out of political campaigns face significant hurdles, including (1) anti-SLAPP statutes and a greater public awareness of SLAPP suits; (2) a history and tradition of mudslinging and enhanced protection of political speech during political …

Essay: Cyberbullying And Freedom Of Speech, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

Part I of this essay examines state cyberbullying laws. These laws vary a lot in terms of language and coverage but this part attempts to group these different state laws into different categories. This section categorizes cyberbullying laws into two main categories—(1) those that treat cyberbullying as a crime and (2) those that address cyberbullying as a violation of a school’s code of conduct. Part II of this essay then addresses court decisions that deal with cyberbullying. Once again, this essay examines the topic from both the perspective of (1) criminal law decisions and (2) school law decisions.

Essay: Understanding First Amendment Freedoms Through The Remarkable Life Of "The Greatest" --Muhammad Ali, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

Muhammad Ali represents much more than a great sports figure and one of the greatest fighters of all time.He is also the epitome of the citizen protected by the First Amendment– a man who paid dearly for his religious convictions and provocative speech, but found a defense in the amendment’s forty-five words. An examination of First Amendment freedoms through the prism of Ali can teach us much about the fragility of the amendment but also the strength that we all can find in it. The First Amendment provides: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting …

Immigration Update: Ninth Circuit Rules Against Trump Ban On Uninsured, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Corporations Hybrid: A Covid Case Study On Innovation In Business Law Pedagogy, Seth C. Oranburg, David D. Tamasy

Law Faculty Scholarship

A worldwide pandemic is forcing schools to close their doors. Yet the need to teach students remains. How can faculty – especially those who are not trained in technology-mediated teaching – maintain educational continuity? This Essay provides some suggestions and relatively quick and easy strategies for distance education in this time of coronavirus. While it is written from the perspective of teaching law school, it can be applied to teaching other humanities such as philosophy, literature, religion, political theory, and other subjects that do not easily lend themselves to charts, graphs, figures, and diagrams. This Essay includes an introductory technology …

The Female Legal Realist Inside The Common Law, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

This essay, a response piece to Anita Bernstein’s thought-provoking book The Common Law Inside the Female Body, examines the powerful tool of the common law and the role that judges play in wielding it. I begin by drawing on my twenty-four years of teaching and looking at the questions that I, and my students, grapple with every year while studying the common law: Do the uncoordinated actions of individual judges, juries, and lawyers and parties generate an efficient legal system? And does that system result in some version of justice for most of the parties, most of the time, …

Trump’S Coronavirus Immigration Order Is A Restriction In Search Of A Rationale, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court And Constitutional Stare Decisis, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] This column is the second in a series of three considering some potential implications of June Medical Services v. Russo, a case involving a constitutional challenge to a Louisiana law regulating access to abortion services. The United States Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on March 4, 2020. A decision is expected by the end of June. More on the case below.

High Crimes: Liability For Directors Of Retail Marijuana Corporations, Lauren A. Newell

Law Faculty Scholarship

Selling retail marijuana in the United States is illegal — or is it? A rising number of states have legalized the retail sale of marijuana and are busily regulating these sales and the companies that make them. Even so, the sale of marijuana is a crime under federal law. Are companies that sell retail marijuana duly sanctioned, productive contributors to their state economies, or are they felons just waiting for the wheels of justice to turn in their direction? At this moment, no one can answer that question with certainty.

What is certain is that more companies are being formed …

Regulating Care Robots, Valarie K. Blake

Law Faculty Scholarship

Care robots already assist the elderly in some nursing homes around the globe and could be in widespread use in hospitals and private homes sooner than we think. These robots promise great hope for patients: robots can provide increased independence, assistance with daily living, comfort and distraction during procedures, education, and companionship during vulnerable and lonely times in patients' lives. Despite these promising features, there are a number of concerns; care robots, designed with the aim of winning patient trust and affection, have unprecedented access to personal lives as well as recording and sensory capabilities beyond any human. They pose …

Is The Right To Abortion Still Specially Protected?, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[excerpt] Last week, in June Medical Services v. Russo, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that once again raises questions about the extent to which the Constitution protects a woman's right to end a pregnancy. But the way in which the court resolves the case is likely to reveal more than just its views on abortion rights.

This column, the first in a series of three, describes the legal and historical path that led to June Medical Services. The next two will explore what the case suggests about, respectively, how the current court will treat constitutional …

Distance Education In The Time Of Coronavirus: Quick And Easy Strategies For Professors, Seth C. Oranburg

Law Faculty Scholarship

This essay, written by a law professor and a student teaching assistant, shares suggestions intended to increase student engagement and improve learning outcomes by creating and using digital teaching assets effectively. The essay briefly summarizes the literature on traditional and online law school pedagogy and then explains the Hybrid Corporation class we taught during the Spring 2020 COVID-19 emergency. We report on what worked well in our real-world classroom environment and what worked when we had to shift totally to an online delivery format. We found that good videos are critical, and we explain why and how we created what …

Asylum Update: Ninth Circuit Deals Two Defeats To The Trump Administration, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Maybe If We Turn It Off And Then Turn It Back On Again? Exploring Health Care Reform As A Means To Curb Cyber Attacks, Deborah Farringer

Law Faculty Scholarship

The health care industry has moved at a rapid pace away from paper records to an electronic platform across almost all sectors — much of it at the encouragement and insistence of the federal government. Such rapid expansion has increased exponentially the risk to individuals in the privacy of their data and, increasingly, to their physical well-being when medical records are inaccessible through ransomware attacks. Recognizing the unique and critical nature of medical records, the United States Congress established the Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force under the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 for the purpose of reviewing cybersecurity …