Law Commons^™

Ten-Step Guide To Oral Argument For Junior Attorneys, David A. Grenardo

Faculty Articles

Understanding what is necessary to argue effectively is important for junior attorneys to make compelling oral arguments. They must be persuasive, prepared, and precise. By following this 10-step guide, junior attorneys can maximize their opportunity to litigate and represent their clients’ interests.

First, tell the judge why you are there and what you want. Judges are extremely busy and may have hundreds of cases on their docket. Next, anticipate arguments and counterarguments that may be made by the parties and the court. Anticipating potential arguments aids in preparation prior to the hearing. Be responsive and respectful to the judge. Take …

Null Preemption, Jonathan R. Nash

Faculty Articles

This Article proceeds as follows. In Part I, I introduce the concept of null preemption. I discuss in greater detail the case of regulation of motor vehicle tailpipe greenhouse-gas emissions as a case study of null preemption. In Part II, I explore the contours of null preemption, and then describe, and distinguish among, several paradigmatic settings in which null preemption may arise.

In Part III, I consider the normative case for null preemption. I conclude that the case is narrow. I also consider concerns of institutional choice and argue that even those who generally defend agency preemption of state law …

The Irrepressible Influence Of Byrd, Richard D. Freer, Thomas Arthur

Faculty Articles

We set forth four interrelated theses in this article. First, Byrd is the only Supreme Court case since Erie itself to discuss all three of the core interests balanced, expressly or not, in every vertical choice of law case. Second, because Hanna's "twin aims" test ignores two of these three core interests, it cannot adequately serve as the standard for cases under the Rules of Decision Act ("RDA"). This fact is evidenced by the Court's eschewing the twin aims test in cases, like Gasperini, where state and federal interests must be accommodated. Third, as all three opinions in …

How Not To Lie With Judicial Votes: Misconceptions, Measurement, And Models, Daniel E. Ho, Kevin M. Quinn

Faculty Articles

In Part I, we describe the formal spatial theory often invoked to justify the statistical approach. While spatial theory has the nice feature of synthesizing theory and empirics, legal scholars may remain skeptical of its strong assumptions. Fortunately, measurement models can be illuminating even if the spatial theory is questionable.

To illustrate this, Part II provides a nontechnical overview of the intuition behind measurement models that take merits votes as an input and return a summary score of Justice-specific behavior as an output. Such scores provide clear and intuitive descriptive summaries of differences in judicial voting.

Confusion abounds, however, and …

Did A Switch In Time Save Nine?, Daniel E. Ho, Kevin M. Quinn

Faculty Articles

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s court-packing plan of 1937 and the “switch in time that saved nine” animate central questions of law, politics, and history. Did Supreme Court Justice Roberts abruptly switch votes in 1937 to avert a showdown with Roosevelt? Scholars disagree vigorously about whether Roberts’s transformation was gradual and anticipated or abrupt and unexpected. Using newly collected data of votes from the 1931–1940 terms, we contribute to the historical understanding of this episode by providing the first quantitative evidence of Roberts’s transformation. Applying modern measurement methods, we show that Roberts shifted sharply to the left in the 1936 term. The …

Keynote Address, Dean Spade

Faculty Articles

This article challenges the traditional methods taken by progressive lawyers and activists. It argues that superficial changes to a marginalizing system simply create “window dressing” that serves to reinforce the status quo. This article is a provocative call to radicalize legal practice, to be critical of all movements, and always question who is being excluded. It highlights that what may appear like making things better may actually be a contribution to the legitimization of the system that one intends to challenge.

Mapp V. Ohio Revisited: A Law Clerk's Diary, Polly J. Price

Faculty Articles

The 1960 Supreme Court Term laid the groundwork for the subsequent revolution in the relationship between state and federal law accomplished by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren. The "most famous search and seizure case in American history" - Mapp v. Ohio - would be decided that Term. Mapp held that the Fourth Amendment's protection against "unreasonable searches and seizures" required the exclusion of evidence found through an illegal search by state and local police officers, extending to the states a rule that had previously applied only to federal law enforcement. Mapp became a pivotal chapter in the …

Catholicism And Constitutional Law: More Than Privacy In The Penumbras, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Federal Rules Update: How Rules Are Made: A Brief Review, David A. Schlueter

Faculty Articles

A number of amendments to the Federal Rules of Procedure and Evidence became effective on December 1, 2009. The change to Criminal Rule 7 deleted subdivision (c)(2), which required that the indictment include notice that the defendant has an interest in forfeitable property. Criminal Rule 32 now provides that the presentence report state whether the government is seeking forfeiture of property. Criminal Rule 32.2 received six amendments concerning criminal forfeiture. Criminal Rule 41 created a two-step process for seizing and reviewing electronic storage media. Further, of the Rules Governing § 2254 Proceedings, Rule 11 was created to make the requirements …

Efficacy Of The Obama Policies To Combat Al-Qa’Eda, The Taliban, And Associated Forces—The First Year, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

In President Obama’s first year in office, he failed in combating al-Qa’eda, the Taliban, and associated forces. President Obama wished to change the perception on the ‘War on Terror’ established by the Bush Administration, but instead created more confusion and frustration in an attempt to change old policies.

Most notably, President Obama refused to irrevocably and sternly tell the American public that the conflict with al-Qa’eda was indeed a war. The Bush Administration’s first action taken after 9/11 was the pronouncement that the United States was at war. President Obama instead referred to the conflict as an “overseas contingency operation.” …

American Punitive Damages Vs. Compensatory Damages In Promoting Enforcement In Democratic Nations Of Civil Judgments To Deter State-Sponsors Of Terrorism, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

The primary consequence of the attacks on 9/11 on the U.S. was a fundamental legal shift in the approach that the U.S. has taken when confronting terrorism and the States that support them. The new challenge of the post 9/11 approach focused on ways to effectively combat not only terrorist organizations but also the States that sponsor them. This new thinking demands that Western democracies adopt an internationally based functional legal methodology that can deter rogue States from sponsoring terrorism.

Civil litigation against States that sponsor or support terrorism is a potential legal tool which could be used with great …

A Non-Fatal Collision: Interpreting Rluipa Where Religious Land Uses And Community Interests Meet, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

Imagine a large church located in a multi-family residential zoning district, where commercial uses are not permitted and religious uses are permitted by special use permit. The church applies for a special use permit to open a coffee shop, which would operate throughout the week during normal business hours and would supplement and support the church's other ministries. At the hearing on the permit application, many neighbors object. They fear increased traffic, visual blight, and safety hazards for their children. The city denies the permit. The church files an action against the city, alleging that the city has substantially burdened …

Rehabilitating Mental Disorder Evidence After Clark C. Arizona: Of Burdens, Presumptions, And The Rights To Raise Reasonable Doubt, Dora W. Klein

Faculty Articles

The right not to be found guilty of a crime absent proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a powerful right. It can be undermined, however, by rules that at first seem to have little to do with reasonable doubt or with burdens of proof.

In the recent case of Clark v. Arizona, the Supreme Court considered whether states may enact rules that categorically prohibit criminal defendants from offering mental disorder evidence for the purpose of raising reasonable doubt regarding the mens rea element of a charged offense. In Arizona law, mental disorder evidence is inadmissible for the purpose of disproving …

Ending Surprise Liens On Real Property, Chad J. Pomeroy

Faculty Articles

Academics, lawmakers, and the general public have long believed that secret liens are problematic. In real property, these are liens that are not recorded in the real property filing system. Secret liens become especially problematic when they are enforced, despite their secrecy, against subsequent purchasers of the property. If the purchaser does not satisfy the lien by paying the underlying debt, the lien holder can foreclose on the property. One of the main purposes of having real property recording statutes was to avoid surprise liens (secret liens afforded priority over subsequent purchasers) and ensure that real estate purchasers and investors …

The Obstacles Of Outsourcing Imported Food Safety To China, Chenglin Liu

Faculty Articles

Outsourcing regulatory power through a bilateral agreement with China is unlikely to ensure the safety of imported food for two primary reasons: (1) shifting the regulatory burden does not present a feasible alternative to the traditional enforcement tools of outcome-based and production-based inspections and sanctions; and (2) China's burgeoning food safety regime, based on an entirely different culture and legal system, provides little incentive for Chinese food manufacturers to increase production costs to comply with U.S. standards.

There are three approaches for securing food safety in the U.S.: (1) increase inspections at the borders by utilizing traditional outcome-based enforcement tools; …

“Save The Land From Uncle Sam”: Using Life Insurance Premium Financing In Estate Planning, Lee Lytton

Faculty Articles

T

he federal estate tax can be particularly destructive to estates where there is a desire to pass on legacy holdings to succeeding generations. The estate lacks adequate cash for families to pay the resulting taxes. Therefore, life insurance premium financing may help families pay the estate taxes. An estate planning strategy utilizes life-insurance-premium financing that generates a ready cash pool to pay estate taxes is not universally applicable, but it can provide a cost-effective option for legacy preservation.

Life insurance is often used as part of an estate plan to generate and maintain separate cash reserves to pay death …

L'Oz, Emily A. Hartigan

Faculty Articles

Taking Oz Seriously is a piece that contemplates the interaction between the Law and the girl/woman in The Wizard of Oz. The interaction is set in motion by the legal document that Miss Gulch waves at Uncle Henry and Auntie Em allowing Miss Gulch to take Toto away from Dorothy. Additionally, this story is also about the feminine in our culture and in the academy. In the end, Dorothy finds her own way home. The implication is that not only is Dorothy transformed, but she is also transformative. Although it seems that the adults are just playing her along at …

Four Critical Tips For Taking Your First Witness, David A. Grenardo

Faculty Articles

There are four crucial tips for a junior attorney examining his or her first witness at trial. One must know the rules, both evidentiary and procedural. Stick to the basics of questioning at trial and the examination will go more smoothly. Something unexpected always happens at trial. Being organized and prepared allows an attorney to deal with those surprises much easier. Finally, think about the trier of fact in every question asked or statement made. Relentlessly search out the opportunity to take a witness at trial. When that opportunity arises, follow these four simple tips to make sure to do …

Individuals And Community, Discipline Building And Disciplinary Values: The First Twenty-Five Years Of The Legal Writing Institute, Chris Rideout

Faculty Articles

In this article Professor Rideout is the speaker at the Luncheon Speech during the Symposium “The Legal Writing Institute: Celebrating 25 Years of Teaching & Scholarship”. Professor Rideout examines what the faculty and community in legal writing has been doing in the last twenty-five years that renders legal writing a discipline. Professor Rideout explains that in their work in legal writing, along with creating a community, faculty are also creating a discipline—one that has its own practices and that has its own embedded epistemologies, ideologies, and values. The underlying values constitute the legal writing community as a discipline—of legal writing—one …

Just Talking With The Furniture, Emily A. Hartigan

Faculty Articles

The current social and political situation of the United States is post-modern, post-colonial, post-critical, and post-secular. It is located in a two-party system in which the substantive values of the population are radically fragmented. As such, American social and political culture needs new prospects for conversation, both about and constituting justice, which can cross the vast differences between its members. It is time to enter a discourse on substantive justice in a way that uses the imagined unity of modernist thought as a way station for something both old and new.

Education And Minorities In The Modern Era: Working Civil Rights Into Practice, Policy And Procedure, Albert H. Kauffman

Faculty Articles

Protecting, asserting, and guaranteeing the education rights of minority students will become even more important in the future. Different education civil rights have, in general, gone through four phases: (1) identification and recognition of the right; (2) strong legislative, judicial, and administrative enforcement of the right; (3) developed opposition to the right and judicial, legislative, and administrative inattention or opposition to dilute or ignore the right; and (4) changes in power and enforcement of the right depending on the approach of the courts and administrative agencies.

These phases relate to school finance, Limited English Proficient (“LEP”) student instruction, accent discrimination, …

Plato, The Prince, And Corporate Virtue: Philosophical Approaches To Corporate Social Responsibility, Colin P. Marks, Paul S. Miller

Faculty Articles

Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) has been a topic of discussion within corporate law and policy for over 40 years. CSR, in its broadest sense, explores what obligations a corporation should or can undertake to further the goals of society. Business academics have described four social responsibilities that any company has to society: economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. The progressive advocates within the legal academic debate surrounding CSR argue that a corporation should seek to do more than just turn a profit; it should seek to make society “better.” However, by seeking to make society “better,” the corporation begins to act …

Lifting Burdens: Proof, Social Justice, And Public Assistance Administrative Hearings, Lisa Brodoff

Faculty Articles

In "Lifting Burdens: Proof, Social Justice, and Public Assistance Administrative Hearings," Lisa Brodoff describes the administrative hearing system for public assistance recipients and applicants, and asserts that it is the primary social justice system for the poor. She discusses why public assistance appellants are always placed at a significant disadvantage in this system. The article proposes that the best way to even out the inequities in adjudications is to always place the burdens of production and persuasion by clear and convincing evidence on the government in these hearings. She argues that policy, efficiency, and fairness require a consistent and heavy …

Rock Climbing With The Gotandas, Robert S. Chang

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Rodrigo's Portent: California And The Coming Neocolonial Order, Richard Delgado

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Methademic: Drug Panic In An Age Of Ambivalence, Deborah Ahrens

Faculty Articles

The story of criminal sanctions in modern America is a familiar-and depressing narrative. According to the narrative, we live in an era where the dynamics of popular politics, the practices of the media, and the (often racialized) anxieties of modern life combine to create a one-way ratchet, in which we identify perceived new threats to public order and respond unthinkingly with harsh new criminal sanctions. On the surface, the wave of concern over methamphetamine that swept the nation in the middle part of this decade followed this script, as a media panic led to substantial popular concern and significant new …

One Is The Loneliest Number: The Single Taxpayer In A Joint Return World, Lily Kahng

Faculty Articles

The United States is one of the few developed countries to retain the joint income tax return, available for heterosexual married couples only. Since its adoption in 1948, its underlying assumptions have been challenged on many valid grounds, and yet it remains firmly embedded in mainstream political and policy discourse. In recent years, most of the debate surrounding the joint return has focused on reducing marriage penalties, bonuses, and determining who among the universe of couples ought to be extended the benefit of the marriage bonuses. The treatment of single people has received almost no attention. The scant attention paid …

Piigs, Itraxx Soyx, Neoliberalism, And Unshackled Finance Capital, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Law Of Geography And The Geography Of Law: A Post-Colonial Mapping, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

This article examines the relationship between law and geography through the prisms of colonialism and neoliberal Empire. Using two novels set in nineteenth and twenty-first century India, respectively, it evaluates the so-called first law of geography, namely that "everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things." It argues that the formative and enduring relationship between global systems of domination and modern law has created a geolegal space that has a global dimension. This geolegal space creates norms and subjectivities that are intimately related to spatially distant forces and projects. Emergence and consolidation of …

Slums, Slumdogs, And Resistance, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.