Law Commons^™

Special State Standing Is Environmental: Clarifying Massachusetts V. Epa, Dorothea Allocca

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

When the Court granted states “special solicitude in [its] standing analysis” in Massachusetts v. EPA, it left lower courts with more questions than answers. While legal scholars continue to debate these questions thirteen years later, the practical impacts of Massachusetts v. EPA are coming into focus. Today states are suing the federal government, often in multistate coalitions, to enforce or challenge federal administrative policies. This intergovernmental, public-law litigation increased dramatically during the Obama administration and has further skyrocketed since January 2017. States do not exclusively rely upon special state solicitude in suing the federal government. However, this lowered procedural bar …

Information For The Common Good In Mass Torts, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, Alexandra D. Lahav

Scholarly Works

In recent years, judges have privileged confidentiality over transparency in discovery, especially in large scale multidistrict litigation such as the Opiate litigation. By uncovering the assumptions underlying our current regime, this Article sheds light on the process that got us here as a first step towards re-envisioning the rules governing information in litigation. We investigate an untold history of discovery’s publicity to show that many of our assumptions about what is public and what is private is historically contingent, even accidental. So too are our assumptions about the best way to arrive at truth.

Accordingly, we suggest that courts ought …

Delegation Enforcement By State Attorneys General, Jonathan Shaub

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

State attorneys general have taken on an increasingly active role in challenging the actions of the federal government, and, in particular, the actions of the President. During the Obama Administration, state attorneys general began suing the federal government at an increasing rate, and these actions resulted in some of the most consequential judicial decisions of the time period—as both a matter of judicial precedent and a matter of policy impact. State-initiated action against the Obama Administration resulted in a new doctrine preventing state coercion, the implications of which are only starting to be recognized. It also resulted in court-ordered cessation …

Newsroom: Trump: Full Employment For Lawyers 04-04-2017, David Logan

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The New Front In The Clean Air Wars: Fossil-Fuel Influence Over State Attorneys General- And How It Might Be Checked, Eli Savit

Michigan Law Review

Review of Struggling for Air: Power and the "War On Coal" by Richard L. Revesz and Jack Leinke, and Federalism on Trial: State Attorneys General and National Policymaking in Contemporary America by Paul Nolette.

Revisiting The Client Conundrum: Whom Does Lawyer For A Government Represent, And Who Gives Direction To That Governmental Lawyer?, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

The issue of identifying a government attorney’s client is age-old, and Washington’s Rules of Professional Conduct provide somewhat different answers for lawyers who are government employees and for those who are with private firms. The matter becomes even more interesting when a government entity’s attorney is a publicly-elected legal official: an attorney general, prosecuting attorney, or city attorney in the case of Seattle and a number of other cities around the country. Others have written thoughtful pieces on the topic from a national perspective, and there is at least one excellent but slightly outdated piece by District of Columbia municipal …

State Medical Reimbursement Lawsuits After Tobacco: Is The Domino Effect For Lead Paint Manufacturers And Others Fair Game? , Richard L. Cupp Jr.

Pepperdine Law Review

In 1998 the tobacco industry reached a settlement with the government for $246 billion. The massive size and scope of the states' tobacco settlement will inevitably exert a powerful influence on tort litigation for decades. The proliferation of copycat lawsuits, such as lead paint claims, seeking to emulate the spectacular success of the tobacco lawsuits will be one of the first aftershocks. The appropriate legislative response to this copycat litigation is to enact legislation limiting mass tort claims by states and other government entities. Because politics and economics may be influencing the filing of these lawsuits, rather than a purer …

Text(Plus-Other-Stuff)Ualism:Textualists' Perplexing Use Of The Attorney General's Manual On The Administrative Procedure Act, K. M. Lewis

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Textualist judges, such as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, are well known for their outspoken, adamant refusal to consult legislative history and its analogues when interpreting ambiguous provisions of statutory terms. Nevertheless, in administrative law cases, textualist judges regularly quote the Attorney General’s Manual on the Administrative Procedure Act, an unenacted Department of Justice document that shares all the characteristics of legislative history that textualists find odious: unreliability, bias, and failure to pass through the bicameralism and presentment processes mandated by the U.S. Constitution. As a result, judges that rely on the Manual in administrative law cases arguably reach …

Aggregate Litigation Goes Public: Representative Suits By State Attorneys General, Margaret H. Lemos

Faculty Scholarship

State attorneys general represent their citizens in aggregate litigation that bears a striking resemblance to the much-maligned damages class action. Yet, while class actions are subject to a raft of procedural rules designed to protect absent class members, equivalent suits in the public sphere are largely free from constraint. The procedural disconnect between the two categories of aggregate litigation reflects a widespread assumption that attorneys general will adequately represent the interests of the state’s citizens, obviating any need for case-specific mechanisms for assuring the loyalty of lawyer to client.

This Article challenges the presumption of adequate public representation. By conflating …

Regulating Charities In The Twenty-First Century: An Institutional Choice Analysis, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Brendan M. Wilson

Chicago-Kent Law Review

For more than fifty years scholars, practitioners, and government officials have debated whether the federal government, the state governments, or the charitable sector itself can best ensure that charity leaders fulfill their fiduciary duties. The dramatic growth of this sector, recent highly publicized governance scandals, and a push in Congress and the IRS for more federal involvement in this area have now brought this issue to a head. This article lays a foundation for resolving the dispute by developing an institutional choice framework for considering and comparing the various available options. Applying that framework, the article concludes that the best …

Federalism And Accountability: State Attorneys General, Regulatory Litigation, And The New Federalism, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Guidelines For The President's Legal Advisors (Including "Principles To Guide The Office Of Legal Counsel "), Dawn E. Johnsen

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Dissecting In Re D-J-: The Attorney General, Unchecked Power, And The New National Security Threat Posed By Haitian Asylum Seekers, Judy Amorosa

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

William Wirt & The Invention Of The Public Lawyer, H. Jefferson Powell

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Secret Life Of The Private Attorney General, Jeremy A. Rabkin

Law and Contemporary Problems

The role of the private attorney general is discussed along with the history of the office.

The Constitutionality Of The Bank Bill: The Attorney General’S First Constitutional Law Opinions, Walter Dellinger, H. Jefferson Powell

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Power Of The Attorney General To Supercede A District Attorney: Substance, Procedure & Ethics, Charles J. Yeager, Lee Hargrave

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Changes In The State's Law Firm: The Powers, Duties And Operations Of The Office Of The Attorney General, The Honorable Lacy H. Thornburg

Campbell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Governmental And Private Advocates For The Public Interest In Civil Litigation: A Comparative Study, Mauro Cappellitti

Michigan Law Review

This article examines the means by which public and group interests are represented in civil proceedings throughout the world. I have focused particular attention upon the Ministère public--a French institution imported by a large number of countries--and its analogues, the Attorney General in the common-law countries and the Prokuratura in the socialist world. The Ministère public is, and has been through its centuries-long history, an institutional method for assuring that the "public interest"--or the "collective" or "general interest,'' or the "social concern"--is adequately represented in civil litigation. Yet, other solutions have been utilized--to some extent, even in France--in lieu …

Monetary Recovery As Preventive Reliefin Fair Housing Actions By The Attorneygeneral, David Samuel De Jong

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Michigan Attorney General In Consumer And Environmental Protection, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In an effort to clarify the role of the attorney general as public representative, this Note will examine the functioning of the office of the Michigan attorney general. After an analysis of the nature and extent of the attorney general's powers and of his current utilization of those powers, several proposals to increase his effectiveness will be discussed.