Law Commons^™

Book Review Of "Judging Statutes" By Robert Katzmann, Peter Strauss

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Holding On To Clarity: Reconciling The Federal Kidnapping Statute With The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, Benjamin Reese

Michigan Law Review

In recent decades, the international community has come to recognize human trafficking as a problem of epidemic proportions. Congress responded to this global crisis in 2000 by passing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and has since supplemented that comprehensive enactment. But, in light of the widespread use of psychological rather than physical coercion in trafficking cases, a long-standing split among federal courts regarding the scope of the federal kidnapping statute raises significant concerns about the United States’ efforts to combat traffickers. In particular, the broad interpretation adopted by several circuits threatens effective enforcement of statutes designed to prosecute traffickers, …

Interpreting Force Authorization, Scott M. Sullivan

Florida State University Law Review

This Article presents a theory of authorizations for the use of military force (AUMFs) that reconciles separation of power failures in the current interpretive model. Existing doctrine applies the same text-driven models of statutory interpretation to AUMFs that are utilized with all other legal instruments. However, the conditions at birth, objectives, and expected impacts underlying military force authorizations differ dramatically from typical legislation. AUMFs are focused but temporary corrective interventions intended to change the underlying facts that prompted their passage. This Article examines historical practice and utilizes institutionalist principles to develop a theory of AUMF decay that eschews text in …

Statutory Misinterpretations: Small V. United States Darkens The Already Murky Waters Of Statutory Interpretation, Michelle Schuld

Akron Law Review

Part II of this Note will examine the background of this issue by exploring the history and purpose of the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the circuit split arising over the interpretation of the words “any court” under § 922(g)(1). Part III will focus on Small v. United States in detail, including the underlying facts, procedural history, and majority and dissenting opinions. Part IV will analyze this decision and argue that the majority misused canons of statutory interpretation to reach an interpretation that is contrary to the plain meaning of the statute. The section will also discuss the majority’s …

Purposivism In The Executive Branch: How Agencies Interpret Statutes, Kevin M. Stack

Northwestern University Law Review

After decades of debate, the lines of distinction between textualism and purposivism have been carefully drawn with respect to the judicial task of statutory interpretation. Far less attention has been devoted to the question of how executive branch officials approach statutory interpretation. While scholars have contrasted agencies’ interpretive practices from those of courts, they have not yet developed a theory of agency statutory interpretation.

This Article develops a purposivist theory of agency statutory interpretation on the ground that regulatory statutes oblige agencies to implement the statutes they administer in that manner. Regulatory statutes not only grant powers but also impose …

Rethinking Special Education's "Least Restrictive Environment" Requirement, Cari Carson

Michigan Law Review

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act promotes the education of students with disabilities together with their nondisabled peers, requiring education in the “least restrictive environment” (“LRE”). This requirement has long been subject to competing interpretations. This Note contends that the dominant interpretation—requiring education in the least restrictive environment available—is deficient and allows students to be placed in unnecessarily restrictive settings. Drawing from child mental health law, this Note proposes an alternative LRE approach that requires education in the least restrictive environment needed and argues that this alternative approach is a better reading of the law.

Fun With Administrative Law: A Game For Lawyers And Judges, Adam Babich

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The practice of law is not a game. Administrative law in particular can implicate important issues that impact people’s health, safety, and welfare and change business’ profitability or even viability. Nonetheless, it can seem like a game. This is because courts rarely explain administrative law rulings in terms of the public purposes and policies at issue in lawsuits. Instead, the courts’ administrative law opinions tend to turn on arcane interpretive doctrines with silly names, such as the “Chevron two-step” or “Chevron step zero.” To advance doctrinal arguments, advocates and courts engage in linguistic debates that resemble a smokescreen—tending to obscure …

The Demise Of Habeas Corpus And The Rise Of Qualified Immunity: The Court's Ever Increasing Limitations On The Development And Enforcement Of Constitutional Rights And Some Particularly Unfortunate Consequences, Stephen R. Reinhardt

Michigan Law Review

The collapse of habeas corpus as a remedy for even the most glaring of constitutional violations ranks among the greater wrongs of our legal era. Once hailed as the Great Writ, and still feted with all the standard rhetorical flourishes, habeas corpus has been transformed over the past two decades from a vital guarantor of liberty into an instrument for ratifying the power of state courts to disregard the protections of the Constitution. Along with so many other judicial tools meant to safeguard the powerless, enforce constitutional rights, and hold the government accountable, habeas has been slowly eroded by a …

Making The Peg Fit The Hole: A Superior Solution To The Inherant Problems Of Incorporated Definitions, Lindsey P. Gustafson

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judge Posner's Simple Law, Mitchell N. Berman

Michigan Law Review

The world is complex, Richard Posner observes in his most recent book, Reflections on Judging. It follows that, for judges to achieve “sensible” resolutions of real-world disputes—by which Judge Posner means “in a way that can be explained in ordinary language and justified as consistent with the expectations of normal people” (p. 354)—they must be able to navigate the world’s complexity successfully. To apply legal rules correctly and (where judicial lawmaking is called for) to formulate legal rules prudently, judges must understand the causal mechanisms and processes that undergird complex systems, and they must be able to draw sound factual …

Aaron's Law: Reactionary Legislation In The Guise Of Justice, Matthew Aaron Viana

University of Massachusetts Law Review

This Note argues that the proposed amendment to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act dubbed “Aaron’s Law,” created in the wake of the prosecution and subsequent suicide of hacktivist Aaron Swartz, should not be enacted as it is overly reactionary legislation which would have unfortunate and unjust repercussions in the realm of civil litigation. This Note first describes the circumstances under which Mr. Swartz found himself prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, namely his intrusion into, and downloading massive amounts of data from, large internet databases like PACER and JSTOR. This Note also explores the disputed interpretation of …

Longstanding Agency Interpretations, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Fordham Law Review

How much deference—or what kind—should courts give to longstanding agency interpretations of statutes? Surprisingly, courts and scholars lack a coherent answer to this question. Legal scholars long have assumed that longstanding agency statutory interpretations are treated with heightened deference on judicial review, and federal courts sometimes have made statements suggesting that this is the case. But in practice, federal court review of longstanding agency interpretations—at both the U.S. Supreme Court and courts of appeals—turns out to be surprisingly erratic. Reviewing courts sometimes note the longevity of an agency’s statutory interpretation as a plus factor in their deference analysis but at …

What A History Of Tax Withholding Tells Us About The Relationship Between Statutes And Constitutional Law, Anuj C. Desai

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Development: Garner V. State: The Unit Of Prosecution For Use Of A Handgun In The Commission Of A Crime Of Violence Is The Crime Of Violence, Not The Victim Or Criminal Transaction; The Evidence Corroborated Two Separate Handgun Convictions; And The Trial Court's One-Year Sentence For The Second Use Of A Handgun Conviction Was Illegal, Ashlyn J. Campos

University of Baltimore Law Forum

The Court of Appeals of Maryland held that the unit of prosecution for Section 4-204 of the Maryland Code, Criminal Law Article (“section 4-204”) is the individual crime of violence, not the victim or criminal transaction. Garner v. State, 442 Md. 226, 230, 112 A.3d 392, 394 (2015). The court of appeals further held that separate handgun convictions are permitted when evidence supports multiple crimes or felonies. Id. at 244, 112 A.3d at 402. Finally, the court held that a trial court does not possess the discretion to impose a sentence less than the mandatory five year minimum prescribed by …

Recent Development: Antonio V. Ssa Sec., Inc.: Upon Exhausting All Other Tools Of Statutory Interpretation, Policy Considerations Revealed That The Maryland Legislature Did Not Intend To Abrogate The Common Law Doctrine Of Respondeat Superior Through The Enactment Of § 19-501 Of The Maryland Security Guards Act, David Bronfein

University of Baltimore Law Forum

The Court of Appeals of Maryland held that the Maryland Security Guards Act, Section 19-501 of the Maryland Code, Business Occupations and Professions Article (“section 19-501”) does not expand a security guard agency’s liability for unauthorized employee conduct; rather, the statute remains consistent with the liability prescribed by Maryland’s common law doctrine of respondeat superior. Antonio v. SSA Sec., Inc., 442 Md. 67, 90, 110 A.3d 654, 667 (2015). Finding the plain language, context, and legislative history of the statute to be ambiguous and unconvincing, the court was ultimately persuaded by policy considerations behind upholding the common law doctrine of …

Statutory Interpretations And The Therapy Of The Obvious, Edward L. Rubin

Vanderbilt Law Review

Arthur Koestler wrote that "the more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterward."' The same may be said about theories of law, and specifically about Robert Katzmann's new book, Judging Statutes. Judge Katzmann's approach to statutory interpretation seems so plausible and balanced that it is hard to believe that anyone ever believed anything else. In this particular case, however, there is in fact an "anything else." It is, of course, Justice Antonin Scalia's campaign to displace intentionalist or purposivist approaches to interpretation with what has come to be called "textualism," and his related effort to rule out reliance …