Law Commons^™

The Jurisprudence Of Union, Gil Seinfeld

Notre Dame Law Review

The primary goal of this Article is to demonstrate that the interest in national unity does important, independent work in the law of vertical federalism. We have long been accustomed to treating union as a constitutionally operative value in cases involving the duties states owe one another (i.e. horizontal federalism cases), but in cases involving the relationship between the federal government and the states, the interest in union is routinely ignored. This Article shows that, across a wide range of cases relating to the allocation of power between the federal government and the states, the states are constrained by a …

The False Promise Of Fiduciary Government, Seth Davis

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article critiques the borrowing of private law concepts to develop doctrines of judicial review in public law. A rising chorus of scholars has argued for a fiduciary theory of government designed to constrain political discretion through judicial review based upon the model of private fiduciary duties. Treating politicians and bureaucrats as fiduciaries, they argue, promises a workable judicial solution to the problem of faction in legislative and administrative decisionmaking. This Article argues the promise of fiduciary government is a false one. There are problems of fit, intent, and function with fiduciary government. Politicians and bureaucrats are not like private …

Banking And The Social Contract, Mehrsa Baradaran

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article asserts that there are three major tenets of the social contract: (1) safety and soundness, (2) consumer protection, and (3) access to credit. Regulators can and should require banks to meet standards in these areas to benefit society even if these measures reasonably reduce bank profits. Implicit in the social contract is the idea that each party must give up something in the exchange. This Article provides policymakers not only the appropriate narrative and justifications needed to frame their regulatory philosophy, but it also provides important textual support from the most prominent acts of banking legislation to give …

No Excuse: The Failure Of The Icc’S Article 31 “Duress” Definition, Benjamin J. Risacher

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note proceeds in four Parts. Part I traces the historical development of “duress” through the common and civil law systems, World War II cases, the Model Penal Code (MPC) and, finally, through an in-depth analysis of the Erdemovic case before the ICTY Appeals Chamber discussed in the introduction. Part II then discusses “duress” under Article 31 of the Rome Statute and includes a survey of the Article’s drafting history, a statutory analysis of Article 31, and an application of the ICC definition of “duress” to the Erdemovic set of facts. This Part highlights the unjust result that inevitably occurs …

Protecting More Than The Front Page: Codifying A Reporter’S Privilege For Digital And Citizen Journalists, Kathryn A. Rosenbaum

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note will first explain, in Part I, why journalists need to be protected, and detail the history of reporters invoking a reporter’s privilege in court to protect themselves from revealing their sources or information. It will then discuss Branzburg v. Hayes in Section II.A. Section II.B briefly examines circuits’ receptivity to statutory or constitutional protections of reporters. The Supreme Court has stated that Congress could pass a law to protect reporters. However, while multiple federal shield laws have been proposed, none have been passed. The most recent proposal occurred in 2013, and as of December 2013, the Senate version …

The Appointment And Removal Of William J. Marbury And When An Office Vests, Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash

Notre Dame Law Review

Scholars have ignored the most important question in one of the most famous constitutional law cases, obscuring the machinations that spawned the dispute. This Article sheds light on the events that precipitated Marbury v. Madison and also explains when an appointment vests. Thomas Jefferson famously refused to deliver a commission to William J. Marbury, causing the latter to seek a writ of mandamus from the Supreme Court. The received wisdom supposes that Jefferson’s refusal rested on the grounds that Marbury had not been appointed a justice of the peace precisely because he never had received a commission. In fact, Jefferson’s …

Nfib V. Sebelius And The Transformation Of The Taxing Power, Barry Cushman

Notre Dame Law Review

In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, Chief Justice Roberts wrote for a majority of five Justices in holding that the “shared responsibility payment” required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) constituted an imposition of a “tax” rather than a “penalty.” Thus, even though the Chief Justice and four other Justices had concluded that the provision was not a legitimate exercise of the commerce power, the Court held that it was a valid exercise of the taxing power.

The origin of the distinction between taxes and penalties in taxing power jurisprudence is found in the 1922 …

Sotomayor's Empathy Moves The Court A Step Closer To Equitable Adjudication, Veronica Couzo

Notre Dame Law Review

On August 6, 2009, then-Judge, now-Justice, Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the nation’s first Latina Supreme Court Justice. While many Latinos embraced the idea of having “Sonia from the Bronx” on the bench, others were fearful that her jurisprudence, combined with her background, would result in “reverse racism.” These fears, while arguably unfounded at the time, have been completely dispelled. Just as Justice Thurgood Marshall transformed the adjudications of the Supreme Court through experiential discourse, so too, to a lesser extent, has Justice Sotomayor. In both oral arguments and written opinions, Justice Sonia Sotomayor has demonstrated educative leadership—enlightening her colleagues …

The Constraint Of Dignity: Lawrence V. Texas And Public Morality, Kristian R. Mukoski

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note will proceed in four parts. Part I will catalogue the jurisprudential and philosophical conflict over the legitimacy of morals legislation. Part II will examine the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence regarding reproductive and sexual liberty, noting the trend towards conflating liberty with autonomy that culminated in Lawrence v. Texas. Part III will closely scrutinize the characterization of liberty in Lawrence, demonstrating that it is restricted by associational and spatial limitations. Part IV will connect those limitations to the description of dignity Justice Kennedy employed in Lawrence and in other cases. This conception of dignity embodies substantive values concerning the appropriate …

Is Expert Evidence Really Different?, Frederick Schauer, Barbara A. Spellman

Notre Dame Law Review

The problem with expert evidence is not the inappropriateness of the Daubert approach. The narrow focus on Daubert is misplaced. The real problem is with the more deeply entrenched view that expert evidence should be excluded under circumstances in which analogous non-expert evidence would be admitted. Daubert embodies the distinction between expert and non-expert evidence, but it is that very distinction, and not just Daubert, that is the problem. Daubert has indeed transformed modern evidence law, but perhaps it has awakened us to the need for a more profound transformation, one in which the very foundations of treating expert …

The Misbegotten Judicial Resistance To The Daubert Revolution, David E. Bernstein

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article reviews the history of the evolution of the rules for the admissibility of expert testimony since the 1980s, the revolutionary nature of what ultimately emerged, and the consistent efforts by recalcitrant judges to stop or roll back the changes, even after Rule 702 was amended to explicitly incorporate a strict interpretation of those changes.

Part I reviews the law of expert testimony through the Supreme Court’s Daubert decision. Critics had charged for decades that the adversarial system was a failure with regard to expert testimony. Parties to litigation, they argued, often presented expert testimony of dubious validity because …

Originalism And The Colorblind Constitution, Michael B. Rappaport

Notre Dame Law Review

In this Article, I challenge the claim that the original meaning clearly allows the states to engage in affirmative action. I argue that the original meaning does not plainly establish that affirmative action by the states is constitutional. Instead, there is, at the least, a reasonable argument to be made that state government affirmative action is unconstitutional. In fact, based on the available evidence, I believe that the case for concluding that the Fourteenth Amendment’s original meaning prohibits affirmative action as to laws within its scope is stronger than the case for concluding that it allows affirmative action. I do …

Confusion Isn't Everything, William Mcgeveran, Mark P. Mckenna

Notre Dame Law Review

The typical shorthand justification for trademark rights centers on avoiding consumer confusion. But in truth, this encapsulation mistakes a method for a purpose: confusion merely serves as an indicator of the underlying problems that trademark law seeks to prevent. Other areas of law accept confusion or mistake of all kinds, intervening only when those errors lead to more serious harms. Likewise, every theory of trademark rights considers confusion troubling solely because it threatens more fundamental values such as fair competition or informative communication. In other words, when it comes to the deep purposes of trademark law, confusion isn’t everything.

Yet …

Copyright False Positives, Ben Depoorter, Robert Kirk Walker

Notre Dame Law Review

Copyright enforcement is riddled with false positives. A false positive occurs when enforcement actions are taken against uses that are not actual infringements. Far from benign occurrences, copyright false positives inflict significant social harm in the form of increased litigation and transaction costs, distortions of licensing markets through rent-seeking behavior, increased piracy due to diminished public adherence with copyright law, and the systemic erosion of free speech rights and the public domain.

To combat this problem, this Article analyzes the causes that give rise to false positives, as well as their legal and social effects, and offers policy recommendations targeted …

An Argument Against Open-File Discovery In Criminal Cases, Brian P. Fox

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note argues that, for the most part, open-file discovery proponents fail to recognize the added burden that defense counsel would face under a regime in which all items of the prosecution’s evidence are available for investigation by the defense. This is particularly true in the eighty to ninety percent of criminal cases where the defendant is indigent, and the court appointed defense counsel is operating under strict resource constraints.

This Note also argues that advocates of open-file discovery fail to recognize that in the majority of cases involving prosecutorial misconduct, the prosecutor’s intentional wrongdoing will be sufficient to overshadow …

Patent Cases And Public Controversies, Amelia Smith Rinehart

Notre Dame Law Review

The Article proceeds as follows. Part I summarizes the evolution of the current standard for justiciability in declaratory patent cases, including the Supreme Court’s MedImmune opinion and its progeny in the Federal Circuit and the lower courts. Part II discusses the growing trend of public interest patent litigation and the hurdles declaratory plaintiffs face on justiciability grounds despite courts’ approval of patent challenges generally on policy grounds. Finally, Part III introduces a legislative reform that promises to afford justiciability for some members of the public without compromising Article III’s emphasis on private adjudication.

The Court-Packing Plan As Symptom, Casualty, And Cause Of Gridlock, Barry Cushman

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

Don't Be So Impatient, Gerard N. Magliocca

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

Form Over Use: Form-Based Codes And The Challenge Of Existing Development, Katherine A. Woodward

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconciling Congress To Tax Reform, Rebecca M. Kysar

Notre Dame Law Review

Tax law constantly churns, somehow avoiding the molasses of the legislative process. A common critique levied against tax law is that there is too much legislative action, resulting in ever-changing rules. This Essay argues that, in reality, congressional gridlock, the theme of the symposium for which this piece is written, is ever-present in the tax context. Although Congress increasingly enacts a high volume of temporary, patchwork tax provisions, it fails to accomplish fundamental tax reform, which is a necessary part of any solution to the looming budgetary crisis. As a result, recent proposals to enact tax reform through an existing …

Treading Water While Congress Ignores The Nation's Environment, Sandra Zellmer

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mandatory National Service: Creating Generations Of Civic Minded Citizens, Andrew M. Pauwels

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gridlock, Legislative Supramecy And The Problem Of Arbitrary Inaction, Michael J. Teter

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Union As A Safeguard Against Faction: Congressional Gridlock As State Empowerment, Franita Tolson

Notre Dame Law Review

This short essay, written for Notre Dame Law Review’s conference on congressional gridlock, argues that gridlock is an expected and integral component of the legislative process. The bicameralism and presentment requirements of Article I of the U.S. Constitution make legislation difficult to pass in order to protect the public from the whims of shifting congressional majorities. Nevertheless, gridlock that is based primarily on partisan considerations rather than policy differences can be unconstitutional, as defined by Supreme Court caselaw, if it stymies legislation that is in the public interest. The remedy for “unconstitutional” gridlock is not judicial action, however; the solution …

Legislative Gridlock And Nonpartisan Staff, George K. Yin

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Gridlock Matters, Michael J. Gerhardt

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Governance And Industry Culture, Karen Bradshaw Schulz

Notre Dame Law Review

New governance scholarship argues that a blend of public and private regulation is playing an increasing role in influencing firm behavior. Despite its burgeoning growth, new governance scholarship is critiqued as lacking practical examples. This Article begins to fill that void by conducting a new institutional economics analysis of forest sustainability certifications, an example of new governance. This Article analyzes the features of the domestic forest industry to trace why new governance emerged within it and has persisted for over seventy years. The industrial characteristics that contribute to this longstanding new governance regime include strong norms within the industry, a …

Putting Paradise In The Parking Lot: Using Zoning To Promote Urban Agriculture, Stephanie A. Maloney

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Law And Economics Of Products Liability, Keith N. Hylton

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

Site-Specific Laws, John Copeland Nagle

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.