Law Commons^™

The Future Of Space Governance, Melissa J. Durkee

Scholarly Works

Fifty years after the first moonwalk, the prospect for a new set of multilateral agreements governing outer space is remote, yet the legal questions raised by activity in space are mounting. With little prospect of new treaties, nations will need to make do with existing treaty law, generate customary rules to govern new applications, or develop forms of sub-legal understanding and cooperation. This special conference issue of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law addresses these questions.

Neuroscience And Mental Competency: Current Uses And Future Potential, John B. Meixner Jr.

Scholarly Works

One major conundrum in the field of law and neuroscience is that the mental states that are most relevant to legal determinations are often mental states that occurred in the past, and can longer be assessed. Could the defendant, at the time he committed the crime, have had the cognitive capacity to satisfy the required mens rea for the crime charged? Was an individual's tortious conduct intentional or inadvertent? Even if the field of neuroscience eventually gains the ability to provide data relevant to understanding of immediate mental states, those data will be unavailable to legal actors by the time …

Monopolizing Free Speech, Greg Day

Scholarly Works

The First Amendment prevents the government from suppressing speech, though individuals can ban, chill, or abridge free expression without offending the Constitution. Hardly an unintended consequence, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously likened free speech to a marketplace where the responsibility of rejecting dangerous, repugnant, or worthless speech lies with the people. This is supposed to maximize social welfare since the market is believed to promote good ideas and condemn bad ones better than the state. Nevertheless, anxiety is mounting that large technology corporations exercise unreasonable power in the marketplace of ideas.

Because the ability of “big tech” to abridge speech …

Retaliation: 462 Clark County School District V. Breeden, 532 U.S. 268 (2001), Rebecca White

Scholarly Works

Clark County School District v. Breeden, to my mind, has always been a sleeper case. A per curiam opinion, it takes up no more than five pages in the US reports, yet when I taught this case to my employment discrimination students, we often would spend a full class period – and sometimes more – on it. Why? Because it presents virtually every issue that can crop up under section 704 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the statute’s antiretaliation provision.

Distortion Of Income In A Single-Factor Sales Formula World, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

In this article, Hellerstein describes the framework governing constitutional challenges to state income tax apportionment formulas in light of the widespread adoption of single-factor sales formulas and speculates as to whether a recent Michigan court decision invalidating the application of such a formula on constitutional grounds might be a harbinger of things to come.

The Shadow Judiciary, Charlotte S. Alexander, Nathan Dahlberg, Anne M. Tucker

Scholarly Works

Magistrate judges function as a shadow judiciary, assisting U.S. district court judges-and sometimes standing in their shoes-in managing caseloads, resolving disputes, making law, and choosing winners and losers. Yet we lack basic knowledge about magistrates themselves, the rules that govern their activity, and the ways in which they execute their duties. To fill those gaps, this Article offers a detailed typology of the district-level local rules and standing orders that govern magistrate operations in civil cases. It also describes a case study of ten years of magistrate practice in a single federal district court, the U.S. District Court for the …

Buyer Beware: Variation And Opacity In Esg And Esg Index Funds, Dana Brakman Reiser, Anne M. Tucker

Scholarly Works

Evidence of the tremendous rise in the significance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is coming from all quarters. Fund flows into ESG investment vehicles are growing at a sustained and sometimes exponential pace. Fund complexes are rushing to design products, creating and rebranding scores of mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs), including lower-cost indexed options. Industry leaders, critics, and commentators are all heralding the sea change as a shift in investing-and corporate governance-to more broadly consider environmental and social factors. This Article provides vital context for this conversation. Its descriptive account of the ESG investment landscape drawn …

White V. State Of Nevada, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 67 (Dec. 26, 2019), Katrina Fadda

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

No abstract provided.

High Desert State Prison V. Sanchez, 135 Nev., Adv. Op. 68 (Dec. 26, 2019), Jeff Garrett

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

NRS § 209.4465 does not allow for good time served to be credited for those who commit child lewdness. The Court held that in order for a violation to be a continuous crime, the statute must be explicitly label the crime as continuous. Here, Respondent’s time served had been properly calculated by the district court because Respondent’s violation was codified as a one-time offense and occurred before the 2007 amendment to NRS § 209.4465. The language of the violated statutes define attempted lewdness with a child to be a one-time offense and not a continuous offense. Furthermore, the State’s assertion …

Benko V. Quality Loan Serv. Corp. 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 64 (Dec. 26, 2019), Elizabeth Davenport

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court affirmed the district court’s order granting the motion to dismiss and determined that deed of trust trustees engaged in nonjudicial foreclosure would not be required to be licensed. The Court settled the conflicting provisions of NRS 107 governing the nonjudicial foreclosure process and NRS 649 governing agencies engaged in debt collection in Nevada by determining the comprehensive and specific scheme of NRS 107 for deed of trust trustees exercised authority over the generalized nature of NRS 649 governing debt collecting agency licensing requirements for nonjudicial foreclosures.Therefore, under NRS 107 deed of trust trustees are not required to be …

Vegas United Inv. Series 105 V. Celtic Bank, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 61 (December 19, 2019), Jordan Gregory Cloward

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) Chapter 116 codifies the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act and outlines statutory regulations governing common-interest communities in Nevada. NRS Chapter 116 applies generally to all residential property owners’ associations (POAs) but does not automatically apply to nonresidential POAs. Nonresidential POAs may voluntarily elect to incorporate NRS Chapter 116 either in whole or in part. NRS Chapter 116 applies only to nonresidential POAs only to the extent expressly provided for by the incorporated statutory provisions.

Vegas United Investment Series 105, Inc. purchased a nonresidential property at a foreclosure sale pursuant to NRS § 116.3116. The conditions, covenants, and …

Buma V. Providence Porp. Dev., 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 60 (Dec. 12, 2019), E. Sebastian Cate-Cribari

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The court determined that the Nevada Industrial Insurance Act (NIIA) extends workers’ compensation protections to traveling employees while they are on work trips. The court held that traveling employee cases will use a categorical approach, where workers’ compensation is extended to traveling employees for injuries sustained during activity that can be considered an employment risk or a neutral risk which passes the increased risk test, but not to activities which are considered a personal risk. Activities considered a personal risk fall under the “distinct departure” exception, which requires that no compensation be given for injuries sustained during “personally motivated activities …

Toll V. Dist. Ct. (Gilman), 135 Nev., Advanced Opinion 58 (December 5, 2019), Gabrielle Boliou

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

A blogger claimed that his sources are protected under NRS 49.275. The court held that digital media is protected, but did not address whether a blogger is protected. The district court did not err in allowing discovery to determine whether the blogger acted with actual malice.

Chandra V. Schulte, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 66 (December 26, 2019), Michael Desmond

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that (1) the spousal exception bars recovery from the Nevada Real Estate Education, Research and Recovery Fund (“Fund”) for fraud incurred during the period of the marriage and (2) where a spouse co-owned the defrauded property, the surviving spouse may not recover from the Fund.

In Re Application Of Finley, Nevada Ct. App., No. 76715-Coa (July 25, 2019), Ben Coonan

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The court found that the lower court had erroneously applied the incorrect statute in determining the requisite waiting period to file an application to seal records, and reversed and remanded with instructions for the lower court to apply the updated statute. The court found Finley’s argument – that a later court is prohibited from considering that conviction in an application to seal further records once record of a conviction has been sealed – without merit because statutory language expressly permits courts to consider sealed records in future applications.

Cabrera V. State, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 65 (Dec. 26, 2019), Trisha Delos Santos

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that the plain language of NRS § 194.010(8) cannot be interpreted to limit the duress defense with respect to crimes that are not punishable with death, regardless of the relationship between those crimes and another crime that is punishable with death.

Transfer Of Real Estate Title May Be Avoided As A Preference In Certain Jurisdictions, Aleksandra Adamska

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Exceprt)

This article addresses whether a transfer of real estate title may be avoided as a preference under section 547(b) of title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”). Section 547 permits avoidance of preferential transfers. “A preference is a ‘transfer that enables a creditor to receive payment of a greater percentage of his claim against the debtor than he would have received if the transfer had not been made and he had participated in the distribution of assets of the bankrupt estate.’” Essentially, a preference allows one creditor to receive more value than other creditors. Preferential transfers …

Intangible Property Can Satisfy The Debtor Eligibility Requirement Under Section 109(A), Edward Cho-O’Leary

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Section 109(a) of title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) states that “only a person that resides or has a domicile, a place of business, or property in the United States … may be a debtor under this title.” While a “foreign entity or individual domiciled abroad but owning property or doing business in the United States is eligible to be a debtor under 11 U.S.C. § 109,” the requirement can be difficult if the foreign entity or individual domiciled abroad has no commercial connection to the US. Consequently, the property component of Section 109(a) has …

Circuit Courts Interpret The Section 1123(A)(4) Equal Treatment Rule, Morgan Liptak

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Under section 1123(a)(4) of title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”), a plan of reorganization must “provide the same treatment for each claim or interest of a particular class, unless the holder of a particular claim or interest agrees to a less favorable treatment of such particular claim or interest.” The Supreme Court has never interpreted this provision, nor has the Bankruptcy Code defined the standard of equal treatment. As a result, the circuit courts have created a standard for what exactly the equal treatment rule requires.

The first part of this memorandum discusses what the …

Equity, Punishment, And The Company You Keep: Discerning A Disgorgement Remedy Under The Federal Securities Laws, Theresa Gabaldon

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Since its inception in 1934, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission” or the “SEC”) has wielded statutory authority to seek injunctive relief for violations of the federal securities laws. Since 1970 courts have, at the Commission’s behest and without much analysis, ordered violators to disgorge profits – make that lots and lots of profits – gained in the course of their wrongdoing. In some instances, the profits are returned to victims. In others, either because the victims are too many and too scattered or because the violation is a victimless one such as engaging in bribery, the ill-gotten gains …

Enhanced Debriefings: A Toothless Mandate?, Steven L. Schooner

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This short piece discusses the (alleged) manner in which the Department of Defense (DoD) conducted the disappointed offeror's post-award debriefing following the award of the $10 billion, $10-year Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing contracting opportunity. While the quality of DoD’s debriefing is unlikely to alter the outcome in the pending protest litigation, it seems inconsistent with policy, the current trend favoring greater transparency, and the recent Congressional mandate for “enhanced debriefings.”

The piece suggests that, consistent with decades of study and experience, debriefings make sense, but only if they are informative or, more to the point, responsive. Conversely, …

Misinformation Mayhem: Social Media Platforms’ Efforts To Combat Medical And Political Misinformation, Dawn C. Nunziato

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Social media platforms today are playing an ever-expanding role in shaping the contours of today’s information ecosystem. The events of recent months have driven home this development, as the platforms have shouldered the burden and attempted to rise to the challenge of ensuring that the public is informed – and not misinformed – about matters affecting our democratic institutions in the context of our elections, as well as about matters affecting our very health and lives in the context of the pandemic. This Article examines the extensive role recently assumed by social media platforms in the marketplace of ideas in …

Maintaining The Delicate Balance Between Due Process And Protecting Reporting Students From Re-Traumatization During Cross-Examination: Title Ix Investigations In The Wake Of The Trump Administration's Proposed Regulations, Lauren Bizier

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cranston Police Retirees Action Comm. V. City Of Cranston, 208 A.3d 557 (R.I. 2019), Tyler Martin

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

First Women Lawyers In Rhode Island, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

State V. Moten, 187 A.3d 1080 (R.I. 2018), Anna L. Kramer

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Big Tech Makes Big Data Out Of Your Child: The Ferpa Loophole Edtech Exploits To Monetize Student Data, Amy Rhoades

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Not-So-Free Spirit Of Coachella: Coachella's Overbearing Radius Clause And The Sherman Antitrust Act, Holly Santapaga

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Broken Vesper: Questioning The Relevancy And Workability Of The Church Audit Procedures Act, Benjamin W. Akins

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Be Careful Where You Spit: Do Hipaa-Covered Genetic Tests Actually Provide Greater Privacy Protection To Consumers?, Emily B. Sklar

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.