Law Commons^™

Rescuing Our Democracy By Rethinking New York Times Co. V. Sullivan, David A. Logan

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Patenting Fast And Slow: Examiner And Applicant Use Of Prior Art, Shine Tu

Law Faculty Scholarship

Previous studies have shown that an applicant's ability to obtain a patent is inexorably linked to the random assignment of a patent examiner. However, not all patent examiners are created equal. Some patent examiners allow patent applications quickly within just one or two Office Actions, resulting in only a few months of substantive patent prosecution. In contrast, other patent examiners constantly reject patents applications, which can result in unnecessarily delaying prosecution and years of substantive patent prosecution. This study focuses on how different examiners use prior art rejections to prolong or compact prosecution. Prior art rejections are one of the …

The United Postal Service—The One Word That Makes All The Difference, Jena Martin, Matthew Titolo

Law Faculty Scholarship

In recent months, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has taken center stage on a number of intersecting issues in our society: the pandemic; the upcoming election (through mail-in voting) and the controversy surrounding the appointment of Louis DeJoy to the position of Postmaster General. President Donald Trump has frequently made derogatory remarks regarding the Postal Service, calling it a “joke,” and has made repeated statements encouraging its privatization. However, President Trump’s rhetoric (as well as the rhetoric of others before him) obfuscates the critical mission of the USPS – to provide service to every American in the country; not …

Brexit, The Misrepresentation Of Democracy, And The Rock Of Gibraltar, James J. Friedberg

Law Faculty Scholarship

This short essay makes three points regarding Brexit that have not been widely considered in public or academic debate. First, Brexit advocates (Leavers) successfully misrepresented the referendum of June 2016 as a definitive expression of democratic will. (“The people have spoken.”) The slim majority result was less than such an expression, particularly because it ignored intercommunal and intergenerational democratic values—most profoundly, overriding clear majorities in Scotland and Northern Ireland which had voted to remain in the EU. Second, even though within a year of that referendum, a majority of Britons (Remainers) had come to oppose Brexit, political leadership among the …

Justice Sonia Sotomayor: The Court’S Premier Defender Of The Fourth Amendment, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

This essay posits that Justice Sonia Sotomayor is the Supreme Court’s chief defender of the Fourth Amendment and the cherished values it protects. She has consistently defended Fourth Amendment freedoms—in majority, concurring, and especially in dissenting opinions. Part I recounts a few of her majority opinions in Fourth Amendment cases. Part II examines her concurring opinion in United States v. Jones. Part III examines several of her dissenting opinions in Fourth Amendment cases. A review of these opinions demonstrates what should be clear to any observer of the Supreme Court: Justice Sotomayor consistently defends Fourth Amendment principles and values.

Fixed Stars: Famous First Amendment Phrases And Their Indelible Impact, David L. Hudson Jr., Jacob David Glenn

Law Faculty Scholarship

Some passages in First Amendment law have taken on a life and legend of their own, entering our cultural lexicon for their particular power, precision or passion. Some phrases are just so beautifully written that they cannot escape notice. Others aptly capture the essence of a key concept in a memorable way. Still others seemingly have grown in importance simply by the frequency for which they are cited in later court decisions. This article analyzes ten phrases from U.S. Supreme Court First Amendment decisions that qualify as some of the most enduring passages in First Amendment jurisprudence.

Assessing The Performance Of Voluntary Environmental Programs, Luis Inaraja Vera

Law Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, government agencies have increasingly relied on voluntary programs to achieve a variety of goals, from improving worker safety to creating healthier living conditions in urban areas. This type of government initiative is based on a bargain between the agency and private citizens: the government provides certain incentives—economic or otherwise—and private actors voluntarily adopt behaviors that benefit the public. One example is cleaning up a contaminated site and building an affordable housing project.

While agencies have made substantial progress since the creation of the first voluntary programs, much work remains. To move forward in this area, and especially …

Climate Change Disobedience, Charles R. Disalvo

Law Faculty Scholarship

Among those who recognize climate change as an existential threat, some are willing to take dramatic action against it by committing civil disobedience. Activists, such as those taking part in the Extinction Rebellion in the United Kingdom, are willing to exchange their liberty for some putative good. There is no discussion in the disobedience literature of the discrete purposes of climate disobedience or the principles by which climate activists ought to be guided in seeking to fulfill those purposes. This Article takes on that task. After offering an overview of the purposes of civil disobedience, this Article isolates those purposes …

Justice Department Inspector General’S Report Raises Troubling Questions About Fbi’S Role In Fisa Cases, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What’S Good For The Goose Is Good For The Gander, Or Is It? The Pitfalls Of Using The Court’S Neoliberal Construction Of The First Amendment To Protect Secondary Picketing, Anne M. Lofaso

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Court Issues Preliminary Injunction Against President Trump’S Ban On Uninsured Immigrants, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Global Perspective On Digital Sampling, Loren Mulraine

Law Faculty Scholarship

The state of the law in the United States is complicated by the fact that the de minimis doctrine is, and has been a muddled doctrine. Copyright law and patent law allow future authors and inventors to build upon the works of previous rights holders. In the patent world, the new work must be a non-obvious improvement on the original patent. In copyright, the key is that the secondary user cannot take a substantial portion of the prior author's copyrightable expression. There is no infringement without substantial similarity. By definition, a de minimis taking is the polar opposite of substantial …

New Homeland Security Asylum Rule Allows Removal To Central American Countries That Have Signed Agreements With The U.S., Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against Proclamation Barring Uninsured Immigrants, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Investment In Latin America Will Limit Migration North, Ryan J. O'Riordan, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

The refugee crisis at the US Southern Border is due to multiple compounding factors: Latin America’s over-reliance on commodities, failure to economically diversify to innovation, and a lack of coherent US strategic engagement with the region. The situation is hemispheric; imploding states and a serious humanitarian calamity loom ever larger on the southern horizon. Since this represents a long-term problem requiring strategic and sustainable development initiatives, a new Alliance for Progress for the 21st Century is proposed which will build partnerships to advance innovation-driven development across the region.

Rescinding Inclusion In The Administrative State: Adjudicating Daca, The Census, And The Military's Transgender Policy, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Data Scams, Roger Allan Ford

Law Faculty Scholarship

Targeting platforms like Google and Facebook are usually seen as presenting tradeoffs between utility and privacy. This Article identifies and describes a different, non-privacy cost of targeting platforms: they make it easier for malicious actors to scam others. They do this by making it easier for scammers to reach the most promising victims, hide from law-enforcement authorities and others, and develop better scams. Technology offers potential solutions, since the same data and targeting tools that enable scams could help detect and prevent them, though neither platforms nor law-enforcement officials have both the incentives and expertise needed to develop and deploy …

President Trump Bars Uninsured Immigrants From The U.S., Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

So You Want To Talk About Race By Ijeoma Oluo, Nicole P. Dyszlewski

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Quantifying The Resilience Value Of Distributed Energy Resources, James M. Van Nostrand

Law Faculty Scholarship

Extreme weather events, which are occurring with increasing frequency as a result of climate change, threaten the reliability and resilience of the nation's electricity grid. Increased flooding due to intense rainfall, hurricane damage fueled in part by a warmer atmosphere and warmer, higher seas, and widespread wildfires caused by extended drought conditions constitute potential hazards for utility infrastructure and delivery of essential electricity service. As a possible adaptation strategy, increased deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs), which are small-scale generating resources located near-and connected to-a load being served with or without grid interconnection, can improve the resilience of the electric …

Review Of Ian Kerr And Jane Bailey, The Implications Of Digital Rights Management For Privacy And Freedom Of Expression, 2 Journal Of Information, Communication & Ethics In Society 87 (2004), Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

Ian Kerr, who passed away far too young in 2019, was an incisive scholar and a much treasured colleague. The wit that sparkled in his papers was matched only by his warmth toward his friends, of whom there were many. He and his many co-authors wrote with deep insight and an equally deep humanity about copyright, artificial intelligence, privacy, torts, and much much more.

Ian was also a valued contributor to the Jotwell Technology Law section. His reviews here display the same playful generosity that characterized everything else he did. In tribute to his memory, we are publishing a memorial …

Uncertainty In Employee Status Across Federal Law, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

Numerous federal statutes rely on a distinction between employees and independent contractors. Based on a series of Supreme Court decisions from 1968 through 2003, courts and administrative agencies have used a common law multifactor test to draw this distinction. In an effort to enhance predictability and certainty within and across legislation, these cases have rejected a purposive approach in applying the test. But the Supreme Court has never said which, if any, of the factors are the most important in the analysis, nor has anyone determined whether the underlying purpose—enhancing predictability and certainty—has been attained.

This empirical Study uses content …

Supreme Court Stays Asylum Injunction: Signal On The Merits Or Procedural Snag?, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ok, Google, Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Human Lawyering?, Amy Vorenberg, Julie A. Oseid, Melissa Love Koenig

Law Faculty Scholarship

Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human lawyering? The answer is no. Despite worries that AI is getting so sophisticated that it could take over the profession, there is little cause for concern. Indeed, the surge of AI in the legal field has crystalized the real essence of effective lawyering. The lawyer’s craft goes beyond what AI can do because we listen with empathy to clients’ stories, strategize to find that story that might not be obvious, thoughtfully use our imagination and judgment to decide which story will appeal to an audience, and creatively tell those winning stories.

This article reviews …

What Ending The Flores Agreement On Detention Of Immigrant Children Really Means, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ninth Circuit Stays Part Of Injunction Against Third Country Asylum Rule, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

East Bay District Court Enjoins New Asylum Rule, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Administration's New Asylum Rule Exceeds Statutory Authority, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Do Female Investors Support Female Entrepreneurs? An Empirical Analysis Of Angel Investor Behavior, Seth C. Oranburg, Mark Geiger

Law Faculty Scholarship

There is an ongoing debate on why female entrepreneurs face greater challenges than their male counterparts do in raising capital for their companies. Rooted in homophily – theory supporting the notion that women support women – is the argument that there are not enough female investors to support female-led firms. In the context of accredited investor-investee exchanges, we explored whether the gender of investor and the gender of investee’s CEO are related. Using a United States sample of 529 investments from fiscal year 2018, we found a significant association between the gender of the investor and the gender of the …

Asylum Update: Trump’S ‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy Can Continue, The Ninth Circuit Rules, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.