Law Commons^™

Adverse Possession Of Municipal Land: It's Time To Protect This Valuable Asset, Paula R. Latovick

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The laws of several states regarding adverse possession of municipal land vary widely from providing no protection to granting complete immunity from such loss. Generally, states that permit adverse possession of municipally owned land do so without articulating a rationale for allowing such a loss of a valuable municipal asset. In this Article, Professor Latovick describes why the current state of the law is unsatisfactory. She then considers the public policies raised by the issue of adverse possession of municipal land. Professor Latovick concludes by proposing that states should adopt legislation expressly protecting all municipal land from adverse possession and …

The Georgia Home Rule System, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Mercer Law Review

Few doctrines attract more universal acclaim than local government "home rule"; even fewer possess a more convoluted heritage or content. As for heritage, difficulty inheres in locating a point of origin, for "home rule has roots deep in Anglo-American political history." As for content, imprecision begins with terminology itself, for "in point of fact the term has never been given legal definition and can scarcely be regarded as a term of our law at all."

Local Government Law, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Mercer Law Review

Plaintiff filed an action against the county for the repeated flooding of his home. The county attorney responded with a deft procedural maneuver:

It was my bright idea to take the plaintiff's deposition at his home. My timing was impeccable. During the deposition .... something on the order of a ten-year storm [occurred], an event which flooded [plaintiff's] property just as [he] had claimed. During our "adjournment" of the deposition, ... I [was] captured on video [by plaintiff's attorney] wading through plaintiff's front yard with my pants legs somewhere in the vicinity of my knees!

The "law" of local government, …

The Fox Guarding The Henhouse: Newman V. King County And Washington's Freedom Of Information Law, Julia E. Markley

Washington Law Review

In its 1997 decision Newman v. King County, the Supreme Court of Washington created a categorical exemption for open police files under the Public Disclosure Act (PDA). The court reasoned that if a police file was open, its confidentiality was necessarily "essential for effective law enforcement," and thus came within an exemption from disclosure. As a result of the court's decision, law enforcement agencies need only assert that an investigation is active in order for the public record to be exempt. This Note argues that the majority's broad and abstract opinion is contrary to the law and facts of …

Ultra Vires Takings, Matthew D. Zinn

Michigan Law Review

When does legislative or administrative regulatory action "go[] too far" and effectively amount to an .appropriation of private property for which the Fifth Amendment requires just compensation? This question has turned out to be one of the thorniest in American constitutional law. The Supreme Court has identified several circumstances in which one can expect to find a regulatory taking, but its numerous pronouncements on the subject give no clear rule to distinguish compensable takings from noncompensable interference with property rights. Notwithstanding its volume, the commentary on the Takings Clause by and large addresses only proper governmental action that rises to …

Beyond The Usual Suspects: The Use Of Citizens Advisory Boards In Environmental Decisionmaking, John S. Applegate

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Remedies For The Misappropriation Of Intellectual Property By State And Municipal Governments Before And After Seminole Tribe: The Eleventh Amendment And Other Immunity Doctrines, Paul J. Heald, Michael L. Wells

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Police And Thieves, Rosanna Cavallaro

Michigan Law Review

What is it about New York City that has, in the last few years, spawned a series of books attacking the criminal justice system and describing a community in which victims' needs are compelling while the rights of the accused are an impediment to justice? Why does this apocalyptic vision of the system persist, despite statistics demonstrating the sharpest decline in the city's and the nation's crime rates in decades? What explains the acute detachment from the accused that is at the core of this series of books? In Virtual Justice: The Flawed Prosecution of Crime in America, Richard Uviller …

Lawyers, Judges, And The Public Interest, John M. Payne

Michigan Law Review

Chares Haar, the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law Emeritus at the Harvard Law School and a certified elder statesman of the housing and land-use community, was one of those scholar-politicians of the 1960s who spun out innovative theories in law reviews and then moved into government to see them applied. His generation inspired mine to pursue law as a means to serve the public interest. But the days of the Kennedy brothers' Camelot are long past. Today, big government and "big courts" alike are seen as parts of the problem. In the more austere political climate of the 1990s, …

Local Government Anti-Discrimination Laws: Do They Make A Difference?, Chad A. Readler

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

During the past decade, local governments have expanded their role protecting individuals from discrimination in private employment. Although federal and state laws already protect individuals from employment discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, and disability, local anti-discrimination ordinances protect an even wider range of characteristics such as sexual orientation, marital status, military status, and income level. The author details the results of a survey indicating that the agencies and dispute resolution processes mandated by local anti-discrimination ordinances are seldom used to protect this wider range of characteristics He argues that effective, uniform anti-discrimination protection should come …

Proposition 215: De Facto Legalization Of Pot And The Shortcomings Of Direct Democracy, Michael Vitiello

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, officially titled The Compassionate Use Act of 1996, and popularly known as the "medical marijuana" initiative. This initiative allows qualifying people and their caregivers immunity from criminal prosecution when the state attempts to charge them with possession or cultivation of marijuana. Professor Vitiello uses the medical marijuana initiative as a case study illustrating flaws in California's ballot initiative process He examines the history of the initiative process in California, misleading aspects of the campaign for Proposition 215, and ambiguities in the proposition's language. Concluding that the initiative process as it now stands fosters …

Statutory Privileges And Immunites For Voluntarily Performed Environmental Audits: Should New York State Join The Race?, Joan M. Fildes

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Congressional Alternatives In The Wake Of City Of Boerne V. Flores: The (Limited) Role Of Congress In Protecting Religious Freedom From State And Local Infringement, Daniel O. Conkle

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Establishing The Biological Rights Doctrine To Protect Unwed Fathers In Contested Adoptions, Toni L. Craig

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Maintaining An Accusatorial System Of Justice: The States' Refusal To Follow The Supreme Court's Sanctioning Of Official Police Deception In Moran V. Burbine, John F. Terzano

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Ours is the accusatorial as opposed to the inquisitorial system. Such has been the characteristic of Anglo-American criminal justice since it freed itself from practices borrowed by the Star Chamber from the Continent whereby an accused was interrogated in secret for hours on end. Under our system society carries the burden of proving its charge against the accused not out of his own mouth. It must establish its case, not by interrogation of the accused even under judicial safeguards, but by evidence independently secured through skillful investigation.... Protracted, systematic and uncontrolled subjection of an accused to interrogation by the police …

The District Of Columbia Revitalization Act And Criminal Justice: The Federal Government's Assault On Local Authority, Jonathan M. Smith

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The District of Columbia ("the District") enjoys a unique relationship with the federal government. As a matter of Constitutional pronouncement, citizens of the District are deprived of the right to ultimate control over the content of local laws. The Constitution provides that, "[t]he Congress shall have the power ... to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States."2 Since the District's establishment in 1791, 3 Congress has not hesitated to exercise …

Oregon V. Elstad Revisited: Urging State Court Judges To Depart From The U.S. Supreme Court's Narrowing Of Miranda, Claudia R. Barbieri

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Imagine an average young man on the threshold of adulthood, living in a medium-sized town in a middle-class family. Still in his early years, he gets into a little local trouble and one day finds the police at his door. They ask him questions about a burglary. He panics, and as he racks his brain for some scrap of legal knowledge that might get him out of this frightening situation, he admits that he knows about the crime, stating he was there. The police become more persistent, telling him they know about his involvement, asking him if he wants to …

The Constitution And Private Government: Toward The Recognition Of Constitutional Rights In Private Residential Communities Fifty Years After Marsh V. Alabama, Steven Siegel

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Article considers the application of the Supreme Court's state-action theory to residential commmunity associations (RCAs), a form of housing and community governance that has experienced extraordinary growth in recent years. Fewer than 500 RCAs were in existence in the United States before 1960. In the early 1990s, it was estimated that 32 million Americans lived in 150,000 RCAs. A continuing boom in RCA construction has led to predictions that twenty-five to thirty percent of Americans will be living in RCAs by early in the next century. Steven Siegel argues that this trend, although largely unnoticed, carries significant implications for …

Printz V. United States: Tenth Amendment Limitations On Federal Access To The Mechanisms Of State Government, Kevin Todd Butler

Mercer Law Review

In Printz v. United States, the Supreme Court addressed the Tenth Amendment's protection of state sovereignty, a significant issue in the contemporary debate on the nature of United States federalism. Striking a key provision of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act ("Brady Act") as unconstitutional, the Court expanded Tenth Amendment limitations on the federal government's access to the mechanisms of state government. The Court decision implicated issues bearing on the commerce power and the power of Congress to enlist state compliance with federal policy objectives.

Tough Love In The District: Management Reform Under The District Of Columbia Financial Responsibility And Management Assistance Act , Stephen R. Cook

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of Cooperative Federalism: Why State Autonomy Makes Sense And "Dual Sovereignty" Doesn't, Roderick M. Hills Jr.

Michigan Law Review

It is commonplace to observe that "dual federalism" is dead, replaced by something variously called "cooperative federalism," "intergovernmental relations," or "marble-cake federalism." According to this conventional wisdom, state and local officials do not enforce merely their own laws in their distinct policymaking sphere. Rather, as analyzed in a voluminous literature, state and local governments also cooperate with the federal government in many policymaking areas, ranging from unemployment insurance to historic preservation. These nonfederal governments help implement federal policy in a variety of ways: by submitting implementation plans to federal agencies, by promulgating regulations, and by bringing administrative actions to enforce …

Toward A More Just And Predictable Civil Justice System, George N. Meros, Jr.

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legislative Efforts To Limit State Reproductive Privacy Rights, Charlene Carres

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Clerk Fees: Legislation And Litigation, J. Marleen Ahearn

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Charles M. Leibson And The Revival Of State Constitutional Law: A Microcosm Of A Movement, Jennifer Digiovanni

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Morally And Legally: A Parent's Duty To Prevent The Abuse Of A Child As Defined By Lane V. Commonwealth, Rachel S. Zahniser

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Law Survey: Evidence, Robert G. Lawson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Law Survey: Family Law, Louise Everett Graham

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Law Survey: Torts, Ronald L. Green

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Past And Future Of Kentucky's Fraudulent Transfer And Preference Laws, Douglas C. Michael

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.