Law Commons^™

Personal Data And Vaccination Hesitancy: Covid-19’S Lessons For Public Health Federalism, Charles D. Curran

Catholic University Law Review

During the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the federal government adopted a more centralized approach to the collection of public health data. Although the states previously had controlled the storage of vaccination information, the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed plan required the reporting of recipients’ personal information on the grounds that it was needed to monitor the safety of novel vaccines and ensure correct administration of their multi-dose regimens.

Over the course of the pandemic response, this more centralized federal approach to data collection added a new dimension to pre-existing vaccination hesitancy. Requirements that recipients furnish individual information deterred vaccination among undocumented …

S.B. H(8): Battle Of The Bills And Private Enforcement, Hailey Martin

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Decentralizing The Nigerian Police Force: A Plausible Approach To Hinterland Securities, Amobi P. Chiamogu, Uchechukwu P. Chiamogu

Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

The structure of the Nigerian police has overtime depicted a centralized composition that negate principles of power sharing in a federal system of government. The complexities and diverse nature of policing in Nigeria remains the bane to effective and virile administration and management of the organization. The office of the Commissioner of Police vis-à-vis those of State Governors spell contradictions in power configuration from both the Constitution and the Police Act. The enactment of vigilante services and neighbourhood watches by state governments are indicative of a failing security system especially at the component units of the Nigerian federation. The hinterlands …

A History Of Corporate Law Federalism In The Twentieth Century, William W. Bratton

Seattle University Law Review

This Article describes the emergence of corporate law federalism across a long twentieth century. The period begins with New Jersey’s successful initiation of charter competition in 1888 and ends with the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. The federalism in question describes the interrelation of state and federal regulation of corporate internal affairs. This Article takes a positive approach, pursuing no normative bottom line. It makes six observations: (1) the federalism describes a division of subject matter, with internal affairs regulated by the states and securities issuance and trading regulated by the federal government; (2) the federalism is an …

Federal Common Law, Climate Torts, And Preclusion, Tom Boss

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Municipalities have been trying for decades to hold energy companies accountable for their role in the climate change crisis. In an effort to prevent suits, these companies are pushing the novel legal theory that federal common law provides a basis for jurisdiction in federal court over these claims. Once in federal court, the defendants argue that the very federal common law that served as the basis for removal has been displaced by the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. This would then justify dismissal of the entire case for failure to state a claim. Luckily for the plaintiffs, nearly all …

Reading Between The Lines Of The Ira + Iija Power Gaps, Steven Ferrey

Pace Environmental Law Review

Two major pieces of legislation enacted during the Biden Administration – the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – devote hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade to rapidly increase electrification throughout the United States. While this legislation provides substantial investment in infrastructure, it also demands action from different legal regulators. Renewable energy occupies a much larger land footprint than traditional electric power production. And land-use under the Tenth Amendment is within local and state, rather than federal, jurisdiction. To date, U.S. local land use regulation frustrates such national legislation. …

Co-Managers? The Need For Clarification Regarding State And Federal Powers In Federal Elections, Amber Mccomas

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article argues that the Court needs to clarify the distinction between the state and federal government’s roles in federal elections to avoid chaos and unconstitutional overreach. As a part of this clarification, the Court should also clarify how information is deemed “necessary.” This article looks specifically at one potential consideration: public fears regarding election security. Data and logic indicate that such fears should not be a consideration in the necessity determination as they are unreliable. Section II examines the background of the Election Assistance Commission, the applicable law, as well as criticism and support the agency has received since …

Silent Sentences: The Procedural Tragedy Of The Bureau Of Prisons' Sentence Computation Policy, Max Abramson

Georgia Law Review

The Bureau of Prisons has systematically lengthened sentences—at times doubling them—for prisoners subject to federal and state sentences for the same conduct. This phenomenon does not stem from any expressed intent on the part of federal or state judges, defense attorneys, the prosecution, or a plea deal. Instead, it arises through silence at a prisoner’s federal sentencing on a key issue: whether the federal sentence is consecutive to or concurrent with a yet-to-beimposed state sentence.

For those facing both a federal sentence and a yet-to-beimposed state sentence for the same conduct, perhaps no other aspect of sentencing has a greater …

Constitutional Confidentiality, Natalie Ram, Jorge L. Contreras, Laura M. Beskow, Leslie E. Wolf

Washington and Lee Law Review

Federal Certificates of Confidentiality (“Certificates”) protect sensitive information about human research subjects from disclosure and use in judicial, administrative, and legislative proceedings at both the state and federal levels. When they were first authorized by Congress in the 1970s, Certificates covered sensitive information collected in research about drug addiction use. Today, however, they extend to virtually all personal information gathered by biomedical research studies. The broad reach of Certificates, coupled with their power to override state subpoenas and warrants issued in the context of law enforcement, abortion regulation, and other police powers typically under state control, beg the question whether …

Revisiting The “Tradition Of Local Control” In Public Education, Carter Brace

Michigan Law Review

In Milliken v. Bradley, the Supreme Court declared “local control” the single most important tradition of public education. Milliken and other related cases developed this notion of a tradition, which has frustrated attempts to achieve equitable school funding and desegregation through federal courts. However, despite its significant impact on American education, most scholars have treated the “tradition of local control” as doctrinally insignificant. These scholars depict the tradition either as a policy preference with no formal legal meaning or as one principle among many that courts may use to determine equitable remedies. This Note argues that the Supreme Court …

Cryptocurrency: Regulate Or Facilitate? How States' Approaches To Cryptocurrency Can Be Applied On A Federal Level, Kelly Mahoney

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Within the past two years, the cryptocurrency market exceeded a record $2 trillion. As of November 2021, there are seventy-five million Bitcoin (a type of cryptocurrency) users and counting. Many states have implemented regulations and policies in response to this massive growth of the crypto market. While some states like Wyoming and Texas welcome cryptocurrency other states, such as New York and Washington, are more apprehensive and seek to constrain cryptocurrency due to its volatility and novelty. In contrast, federal agencies are still debating on how to address cryptocurrency, and glimpses of federal regulation can be seen through the 2021 …

Preference-Based Federalism, Marquan Robertson

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Is History Repeating Itself? The Role Of The Supreme Court In Protecting Minority Rights, Alyssa Fox, Annabelle Crawford

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Throughout history, the role of the Supreme Court has been debated. Some individuals argue for strict interpretation of the Constitution, while others argue that the ideals of the Constitution should be prioritized. Landmark cases decided by the Supreme Court demonstrate the shift between the protection of state sovereignty and minority rights. This article argues that the Supreme Court is responsible to intervene on behalf of minority and historically-disadvantaged groups when their rights are threatened or infringed upon by state and federal governments.

Abortion Rights And Federalism: Some Lessons From The Nineteenth Century United States, Kate Masur

ConLawNOW

The Dobbs decision, which gives states complete control over abortion laws, has unleashed conflicts that resemble the battles that arose when enslaved people fled slave states for free states, and enslavers, in turn, mobilized state and federal power to get them back. The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has prompted frequent allusions to slavery and the antebellum United States. The history of those struggles reminds us of the corrosive impact of interstate conflict and of the importance of federal protections for freedom and individual rights. The history of the United States in the nineteenth century …

Faithful Execution In The Fifty States, Zachary S. Price

Georgia Law Review

Amid heightened political conflict over criminal-justice policy, norms surrounding prosecutorial discretion have shifted rapidly. Under the prior mainstream approach, prosecutors exercised broad charging discretion, but generally did so tacitly and in case-by-case fashion out of deference to statutory law’s primacy. Under an emerging alternative approach, associated for the moment with progressive politics, prosecutors categorically and transparently suspend enforcement of laws they consider unjust or unwise. The federal government under President Obama employed this theory in high-profile policies relating to marijuana crimes, as well as immigration and the Affordable Care Act. More recently, a number of self-described “progressive prosecutors” have employed …

Free Market State (Of Mind): Antitrust Federalism, John J. Flynn And The Utah Constitution’S Free Market Clause, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Review

The Utah Constitution states that “[i]t is the policy of the state of Utah that a free market system shall govern trade and commerce in this state to promote the dispersion of economic and political power and the general welfare of all the people.” Utah’s so-called Free Market Clause, adopted in 1992, is unique among the constitutions of the fifty states. Through an excavation of the historical record and contemporary literature, this Article shows that the Free Market Clause owes its existence to the influence of Professor John J. Flynn of the University of Utah, whose pioneering work on antitrust …

Second Amendment Sanctuaries: Defiance, Discretion, And Race, Nicholas J. Johnson

Pepperdine Law Review

Second Amendment Sanctuaries deploy nonenforcement policies and strategies in defiance of firearms laws of superior jurisdictions. The scholarship so far has focused on whether Second Amendment Sanctuary policies are legally enforceable. This Article advances the scholarship beyond questions of de jure validity by examining the potential for practical, de facto efficacy of Second Amendment Sanctuary policies. This Article concludes that even where Second Amendment Sanctuaries have weak claims to formal validity, defiant public officials still have broad opportunities to implement Second Amendment Sanctuary policies through the exercise of enforcement discretion. The conclusion that enforcement discretion can effectuate sanctuary policies is …

Solidarity Federalism, Erin F. Delaney, Ruth Mason

Notre Dame Law Review

Studies of federalism, especially in the United States, have mostly centered on state autonomy and the vertical relationship between the states and the federal government. This Article approaches federalism from a different perspective, one that focuses on state solidarity. We explain how solidarity structures found in constitutional federations—including the United States—generate solidarity obligations, such as duties not to harm other states or their citizens. These duties give rise to principles, such as nondiscrimination, that are vital to federalism. Focusing on interstate relations and relations between states and citizens of other states, we argue that affirming both solidarity and autonomy as …

The Collective Right Endures: Pre-Heller Precedent And Our Understanding Of The Modern Second Amendment, William Reach

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Prior to 2008, legal scholars who examined the Second Amendment fell roughly into two camps: those who believed “the right of the people to . . . bear arms” only covered state militias, and those who believed it extended to individual citizens.

After District of Columbia v. Heller conclusively established that the “Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms," discussion of the collective right to bear arms largely receded from public discussion and most litigation surrounding the Second Amendment shifted to define the outer edges of the individual right. But the pre-Heller showdown between these …

Copyright And Federalism: Why State Waiver Of Sovereign Immunity Is The Best Remedy For State Copyright Infringement, Leroy J. Ellis V

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

When a photographer intentionally takes a picture of a subject, or a writer puts a story to paper, the resulting works are protected by copyright. That protection is bolstered after the authors register their works with the Copyright Office. All private parties, from individuals to corporations, can be sued for infringing on the work should they use it without pay or permission.

However, what happens when the infringer is not a private party? What happens when the state or a state entity is the infringer? What happens when a public university decides to use a copyright owner’s work without pay …

Affirmatively Resisting, Ezra Rosser

Florida State University Law Review

This Article argues that administrative processes, in particular rulemaking's notice-and-comment requirement, enable local institutions to fight back against federal deregulatory efforts. Federalism all the way down means that state and local officials can dissent from within when challenging federal action. Drawing upon the ways in which localities, states, public housing authorities, and fair housing nonprofits resisted the Trump Administration's efforts to roll back federal fair housing enforcement, this Article shows how uncooperative federalism works in practice. Despite the fact that the 1968 Fair Housing Act requires that the federal government affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH), the requirement was largely ignored …

Legalization Without Disruption: Why Congress Should Let States Restrict Interstate Commerce In Marijuana, Scott Bloomberg, Robert A. Mikos

Pepperdine Law Review

Over the past twenty-five years, states have developed elaborate regulatory systems to govern lawful marijuana markets. In designing these systems, states have assumed that the Dormant Commerce Clause (“DCC”) does not apply; Congress, after all, has banned all commerce in marijuana. However, the states’ reprieve from the doctrine may soon come to an end. Congress is on the verge of legalizing marijuana federally, and once it does, it will unleash the DCC, with dire consequences for the states and the markets they now regulate. This Article serves as a wake-up call. It provides the most extensive analysis to date of …

Equity's Atrophy, Andrew Kull

Notre Dame Law Review

Current U.S. law sees numerous decisions from which a once- predictable, traditional equitable corrective has simply disappeared. The salient cases are those in which, until recently—recent history for this purpose comprising just one or two generations of lawyers and judges—equitable intervention would have been at least highly likely: because the unmodified legal outcome diverges so plainly from equity and good conscience, and because an established equitable response was part of what everybody knew. The idea that equity in U.S. law has been losing some previous degree of vitality is so venerable that it can scarcely be debatable at this point,11 …

Getting Into Equity, Samuel L. Bray, Paul B. Miller

Notre Dame Law Review

For two centuries, common lawyers have talked about a “cause of action.” But “cause of action” is not an organizing principle for equity. This Article shows how a plaintiff gets into equity, and it explains that equity is shaped by the interplay of its remedial, procedural, and substantive law. Equity is adjectival, that is, it modifies law rather than the other way around. Its power comes from remedies, not rights. And for getting into equity, what is central is a grievance. To insist on an equitable cause of action is to work a fundamental change in how a plaintiff gets …

Federal Judicial Power And Federal Equity Without Federal Equity Powers, John Harrison

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article discusses the ways in which the federal courts do and do not have equity powers. Article III courts have the judicial power, which enables them to apply the law, primary and remedial. Applicable remedial law often includes the law of equitable remedies, so the federal courts have the power and obligation to give remedies pursuant to equitable principles. The law of equitable remedies, written and unwritten, is external to the courts, not created by them, the same way written law is external to the courts. Because the unwritten law of equitable remedies is found largely in judicial practice, …

Equity's Federalism, Kellen Funk

Notre Dame Law Review

The United States has had a dual court system since its founding. One might expect such a pronouncement to refer to the division between state and federal courts, but in the early republic the equally obvious referent would have been to the division between courts of common law and the court of chancery—the distinction, that is, between law and equity. This Essay sketches a history of how the distinction between law and equity was gradually transformed into a doctrine of federalism by the Supreme Court. Congress’s earliest legislation jealously guarded federal equity against fusion with common law at either the …

Constitutional Tolling And Preenforcement Challenges To Private Rights Of Action, Michael T. Morley

Notre Dame Law Review

A person wishing to challenge the constitutionality of a law that regulates their conduct typically may sue the government official responsible for enforcing that provision for declaratory and injunctive relief pursuant to Ex parte Young. This approach is generally unavailable, however, when a plaintiff seeks preenforcement relief against laws that are enforceable exclusively through a private right of action. In such cases, there is no government official against whom to bring a typical Young claim, and constraints such as sovereign immunity and justiciability requirements often pose insurmountable obstacles. A person subject to an apparently unconstitu-tional law that is enforced …

Standing, Equity, And Injury In Fact, Ernest A. Young

Notre Dame Law Review

This contribution to the Notre Dame Law Review’s annual Federal Courts Symposium on “The Nature of the Federal Equity Power” asks what the traditions of equity can tell us about Article III standing. I take as my point of departure the observation by Professors Sam Bray and Paul Miller, in their contribution to the Symposium, that equity does not have causes of action as such—or at least not in the same way as actions at law. This is potentially important for standing, as many academic critiques of the Supreme Court's standing jurisprudence have argued that standing should turn on …

A Tipping Point In Ohio: The Primacy Model As A Path To A Consistent Application Of Judicial Federalism, The Honorable Pierre Bergeron

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

State Rejection Of Federal Law, Thomas B. Bennett

Notre Dame Law Review

Sometimes the United States Supreme Court speaks, and states do not follow. For example, in 2003, the Arizona Supreme Court agreed to “reject” a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, because no “sound reasons justif[ied] following” it. Similarly, in 2006, Michigan voters approved a ballot initiative that, according to the legislature that drafted it, sought “at the very least[] to ‘freeze’ the state’s . . . law to prevent” state courts from following a ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court. Surprising though this language may be, there is nothing nefarious about these cases. Cooper v. Aaron this is not. Unlike …