Law Commons^™

Artificial Intelligence And Antibody Genus Claims, Thomas R. Langdon

Missouri Law Review

Antibodies are the guard dogs of the human immune system. They travel through the bloodstream, sniffing out foreign invaders (antigens), binding to them, and preventing them from harming the body. Instead of having a nose, four legs, and a tail, antibodies are Y-shaped proteins comprised of amino acids that viciously protect their hosts. Think of the tips of the “Y” as mouths that can bite certain antigens and lock them in place, rendering them harmless. Antibodies have the ability to identify a plethora of antigens to bind to and neutralize; “[s]ome researchers have estimated that the theoretical number of different …

Trouble’S Bruen: The Lower Courts Respond, Brannon P. Denning, Glenn H. Reynolds

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen revolutionized the understanding of how Second Amendment cases are to be adjudicated. Rejecting the tiered-scrutiny analysis around which the lower courts had coalesced since the 2008 Heller decision, the Court instructed courts to look to history and tradition after it was determined that state or federal regulations limited activities that fell within the protections afforded by the Second Amendment's text. Justice Thomas's opinion, however, left open significant questions about how the history-and-tradition method is to operate in practice. The Court recently held oral arguments in United States v. Rahimi, in which …

Moore News About The Independent State Legislature, Bruce Ledewitz

Law Faculty Publications

The big news about the Independent State Legislature Doctrine (Doctrine) is that, despite the expectations of most observers, including me, the Supreme Court did not fully adopt the Doctrine in Moore v. Harper. The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice Roberts, and joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Jackson, held that state courts may apply their state constitutions to state legislation affecting federal elections in the course of what the opinion called the “ordinary exercise of state judicial review.”

It is equally clear, however, that the Court in Moore federalized state constitutional decision-making in the context of federal …

Economic Security And The Separation Of Powers, Kathleen Claussen, Timothy Meyer

Articles

The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power "[t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations," but today the exercise of the foreign commerce power resides primarily with the executive branch. That transfer of control is partly the result of significant delegations of responsibility for managing foreign commerce from Congress to the executive. It is also, however, the result of the securitization of foreign commerce. The executive branch asserts that foreign commerce issues fall under its constitutional powers over foreign affairs, and, thus, that it enjoys authority over foreign commerce that exceeds the scope of congressional delegations.

This Article makes three contributions. First, …

Law, Critique And The Believer's Experience, Jean D'Aspremont

Dalhousie Law Journal

I have come to think that, most of the time, radical critics of a given discursive practice were once believers in that practice’s necessities and realities. In particular, I am of the opinion that one comes to appreciate the power of a discourse only when one has genuinely and personally experienced the necessitarian pull as well as the realities such discourse creates. To put it in phenomenological terms, I think that radical scepticism is often the expression of some self-revulsion at one’s earlier beliefs. The phenomenological causality described here is thus not simply about the devastating rage that one can …

Cities, E-Commerce & Public Health: 3 Legal Pathways To Limiting Freight Vehicle Emissions, Amy E. Turner

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In recent years, cities have become increasingly defined by e-commerce – the sprawling network of goods delivery from central warehouses to neighborhood distribution centers to residents’ front doors. This growing network of warehouses and the freight vehicles that serve them contribute significantly to a community’s greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to harmful pollutants like nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Moreover, so-called last-mile delivery warehouses (or distribution centers) are proliferating, largely in low-income communities and communities of color, where residents are exposed to increasing traffic, pollution, and harmful health impacts.

While a handful of cities have pursued approaches …

Climate Litigation In The Global South: Mapping Report, Maria Antonia Tigre

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In recent years, climate litigation has undergone a notable transformation globally, witnessing a surge in cases across diverse jurisdictions. While scholarly interest has predominantly focused on cases from the Global North, attention to litigation originating in the Global South has been more limited. Nonetheless, understanding the distinct legal grounds, remedies sought, and objectives of plaintiffs in the Global South is crucial. This report addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive insight into the current landscape of climate litigation in the Global South.

The report utilizes data from the Sabin Center’s Global Climate Change Litigation databases, which has seen an influx …

Investor State Dispute Settlement And Net Zero Initiatives: Case Study Of Germany’S Coal Exit Auctions, Raam Tambe

Chicago Journal of International Law

This Comment provides a comprehensive legal analysis of the potential investor-state disputes arising from Germany’s groundbreaking Coal Exit Act, which utilizes reverse auctions to phase out coal-fired power plants. The study investigates potential breaches of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), focusing on Article 10(1), the fair and equitable treatment clause, and Article 13(1), the expropriation clause. The reverse auction mechanism, when examined under ECT provisions, could be perceived as both a breach of fair and equitable treatment and an unlawful, indirect expropriation, substantially depriving investors of the value of their investments. The analysis also delves into Germany’s possible defenses to …

Boyd Law School Working To Address Rural Legal Services Provider Shortage In Nevada, Rachel J. Anderson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Criminalization Of Care: Health And The Home, Teneille R. Brown

Utah Law Review

In this issue of the Utah Law Review, our readers will hear from a variety of perspectives on how the criminalization of care is impacting our communities. Noa Ben-Asher and Margot Pollans describe how “regret” has been exploited by conservative groups in campaigns to paternalistically ban abortion and genderaffirming care. They lay out how the parallel legal strategies between bans on abortion and gender-affirming care are hardly coincidental. Rather, there is a coordination effort to pervert informed consent doctrine to promote “traditional family values,” and to police reductive heteronormative visions of identity.

Caught In The Middle: Providing Obstetric Care When Pregnant Women Have Complications, Ellen Clayton, Luke Gatta

Utah Law Review

Physicians in abortion-restrictive states who care for pregnant women who become ill are facing new challenges as they try to meet their patients’ needs while avoiding criminal prosecution on the one hand or civil litigation if there is a bad outcome, especially when care is affected by the threat of vague statutes, on the other. All these legal actions will occur in the public eye. Unfortunately, the proposed changes to HIPAA do not protect against criminal prosecution when the medical exception for the woman’s health is at issue.

Two changes are needed. The first is amending the state statutes to …

Preempting Red State Restrictions On The Use Of Fda-Approved Drugs In Gender-Affirming Care?, Lars Noah

Utah Law Review

Some observers recently have wondered whether actions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) could federally preempt increasingly common state restrictions on gender-affirming care, particularly prohibitions on the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in adolescent patients. In theory, such a legal strategy might sidestep the need to lodge increasingly unsuccessful challenges under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supremacy Clause offers little assistance, however, in attempting to get around these state laws. Indeed, even if the FDA eventually approved such uses for currently marketed drugs, implied preemption doctrine as currently configured probably would not do the trick, though securing …

Panel Presentation, The Criminalization Of Trans Lives And Health Care: Provider And Patient Perspective, Dana N. Johns

Utah Law Review

Bans on gender affirming care are going to take a group of individuals who, as a whole, are already marginalized and already at risk. And then within that group, it’s going to segregate them even more because you’re going to have the people who can do that. You’re going to the families who can take their kids eight hours to another state. Then you’re going to the family that can’t because they can’t pay out of pocket, or they can’t take off work or they can’t make it to a state where their child can get care. These laws will …

Examining The Constitutionality Of Legislative Medical Care Bans For Transgender Youth, John Mejia

Utah Law Review

As should be abundantly clear by this Article, the stakes of bans on genderaffirming health care for transgender adolescents are existential. The recent flood of state-law bans is a low point in the ongoing fight to ensure that all people truly enjoy the liberties and protections guaranteed by our state and federal constitutions. Stories like Utah’s are more likely the rule, not the exception. Legislatures around the country are rushing to push through this legislation as quickly as possible, seemingly to catch their opponents off guard. The overwhelming majority of federal district courts to consider these laws find them repulsive …

Foreword: Symposium On Current Issues In Professional Identity Formation, Patrick Longan

Mercer Law Review

On March 8, 2024, the Mercer Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism, in partnership with the Mercer Law Review, held the 24th Annual Georgia Symposium on Ethics and Professionalism. These symposia rotate among Mercer University School of Law, Georgia State University College of Law, Emory University School of Law, and the University of Georgia School of Law. Funding for the symposia comes from endowments created by the settlement of claims of litigation misconduct against the DuPont Corporation and its counsel in litigation in the 1990s. The initiative for the structure of the settlement came from the late Judge Hugh Lawson …

Ai And The Legal Puzzle: Filling Gaps, But Missing Pieces, Joseph Anderson

Mercer Law Review

One of the foremost concerns arising from artificial intelligence’s penetration into the legal realm revolves around accountability and transparency. Traditional legal processes entail a human-driven decision-making paradigm, with judges, lawyers, and legal professionals accountable for their judgments and actions. However, as artificial intelligence systems grow more complex, they often operate as ‘black boxes,’ making it challenging to decipher the rationale behind their decisions. This opacity raises questions about how to attribute legal liability when AI-powered systems make errors or biased judgments. Striking a balance between the efficiency of artificial intelligence and the transparency required in legal proceedings is a pressing …

What About Us? How Law Schools Can Help Historically Underrepresented Law Students Develop Their Professional Identities, David A. Grenardo

Mercer Law Review

Talking about race, gender, and sexual orientation can be painful, messy, and difficult. This country’s history of discrimination and violence against historically underrepresented, marginalized, excluded individuals—racial and ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQIA+, those living with disabilities, the socioeconomically disadvantaged/lower class—makes these topics fraught with controversy and risk. We can easily offend someone accidentally when we try to address these topics even with the best of intentions. For example, some people may get nervous trying to figure out whether to use the words African-American, Black, BIPOC, person of color, or all of the above when discussing these topics and referring to someone …

Just Me, Myself, And I: Georgia Trial Courts May Consider Pro Se Motions Filed By Represented Criminal Defendants, Mckayla A. Doss

Mercer Law Review

For decades, Georgia’s trial courts have applied the absolute rule that pro se motions filed by represented (or presumably represented) criminal defendants were a legal nullity. In essence, hybrid representation was not permitted—legal representation precluded criminal defendants from acting as “co-counsel” or filing their own pro se motions.The application of this absolute rule substantially affected the time-sensitive period that follows a criminal conviction, as defendants in Georgia have a limited period of time to file a notice of appeal or a motion for new trial before the window of direct appeal closes. Failure to file these motions results in the …

A (Not-So) “Minor” Application Of The “Spousal Standing” Exception To Georgia’S Wrongful Death Act, Kelly N. Lafleur

Mercer Law Review

The death of a loved one is a tragedy, especially when allegations of wrongdoing exist surrounding the death, and the decision to bring a lawsuit is a deeply personal matter. But who bears the burden of making that decision—the deceased’s spouse, their child, or another loved one? The answer may depend on the court’s application of equitable principles to preserve the claim.

Georgia’s Wrongful Death Act grants a decedent’s surviving spouse the right to pursue a wrongful death claim. In the event there is no surviving spouse, that right is granted to the decedent’s “child or children, either minor or …

Evaluating The Impact Of Sb 684 In San Luis Obispo, Andrew Darrell

City and Regional Planning

This study evaluates the impact of California Senate Bill 684 (SB 684) on housing development in San Luis Obispo. SB 684 aims to streamline the approval process for small-scale residential projects to address the state's housing shortage by promoting affordable housing construction. The aim of this report will be to examine the provisions of SB 684 and evaluate the feasibility of development under it. A general overview of the legislative provisions accompanied by legal context will provide a background to the law. Case studies of small lot development will illustrate design decisions that can be incorporated into new SB 684 …

Internet Drug Prohibition And The Opioid Overdose Crisis, Benjamin A. Barsky

Washington Law Review

The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act (Ryan Haight Act) prohibits controlled substance tele-prescribing when it occurs without a preliminary in-person medical evaluation. This Article details the Ryan Haight Act’s consequences for the practice of telemedicine in general and opioid addiction treatment in particular. In doing so, it builds on literature exploring the tension between the federal criminal regulation of controlled substance prescribing and the management of large-scale public health crises, particularly the opioid overdose crisis.

By restricting the tele-prescription of certain controlled substances used for opioid addiction treatment, the Ryan Haight Act limits access to care for a …

The President’S Criminal Immunity, Amandeep S. Grewal

SMU Law Review Forum

This Article addresses a monumental question that the Supreme Court will soon decide: does the President enjoy criminal immunity for her official acts? This Article argues that she does.

The potential criminal immunity for official acts has drawn exceptionally sharp critiques. Some scholars believe that the immunity is nonsensical, absurd, or downright offensive. Judge Florence Pan of the D.C. Circuit even posited that criminal immunity would allow the President to murder her political enemies with SEAL Team Six.

This Article shows that the critics are profoundly mistaken. Criminal immunity for a president’s official acts finds a strong foothold in Supreme …

Vol. 44, No. 3, Summer 2024: Table Of Contents, Northern Illinois University Law Review

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Table of Contents and Masthead for Volume 44, Issue 3 of the Northern Illinois Law Review

The Securities And Environment Commission? The Sec Greenhouse Gas Disclosure Rule For Investment Advisers And Companies And The Fight Against Administrative Overreach, Isaiah P. Harlan

Northern Illinois University Law Review

This article discusses the 2022 Supreme Court case West Virginia v. EPA in which the Supreme Court utilized the Major Questions Doctrine to analyze the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. After detailing the litigation leading up to and the ultimate decision in West Virginia v. EPA, I describe the SEC’s proposed rule requiring enhanced environmental disclosures and analyze the cited statutory authority in the proposed rule. Based upon the statutory and case law analysis that I have done, I conclude that the SEC has acted outside of the scope of its congressionally delegated authority.

Esg Factors In Municipal Securities Disclosures: Toward A Materiality Concept, Justin Marlowe

Northern Illinois University Law Review

State and local governments in the United States finance most of their infrastructure investment with debt instruments known as municipal bonds. The federal government does not directly regulate when or how municipal issuers access the municipal bond market, and only indirectly regulates the content of municipal borrowers’ disclosure to investors. A consequence of that unique regulatory structure is that municipal borrowers have wide discretion on whether to disclose falling property values, rising crime rates, and other long-term threats to their ability to repay investors. This is at odds with the ever-expanding information needs of investors who seek to align their …

Firearms Carceralism, Jacob D. Charles

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

Gun violence is a pressing national concern. And it has been for decades. Throughout nearly all that time, the primary tool lawmakers have deployed to stanch the violence has been the machinery of the criminal law. Increased policing, intrusive surveillance, vigorous prosecution, and punitive penalties are showered on gun offenders. This Article spotlights and specifies this approach--what it calls “firearms carceralism”--and details how a decades-long bipartisan consensus generated a set of state-centered solutions to gun violence that has not meaningfully impacted the problem. Instead, those policies have exacerbated racial inequity and compounded civic and community harms. The Article traces the …

Scientific Context, Suicide Prevention, And The Second Amendment After Bruen, Eric Ruben

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

The Supreme Court declared in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen that modern gun laws must be “consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation” to survive Second Amendment challenges. Scholarship has shown how this test of historical analogy presents difficulties because of how technological, legal, and social change has shaped policy over the centuries. This Article is the first to assess Bruen as it applies to suicide-prevention laws, and, in doing so, illuminates another form of change that complicates Bruen's implementation: scientific progress. As this Article shows, early generations of Americans fundamentally misunderstood mental illness …

Immigration Enforcement Creep In Immigrant & Employee Rights, Angela D. Morrison

Faculty Scholarship

As the only agency charged with enforcing the Immigration Reform and Control Act’s antidiscrimination provisions, the Immigrant and Employee Rights (“IER”) section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division plays an important role in protecting worker rights. Yet over the past decade, IER has moved from worker protection to immigration enforcement: a phenomenon this Article terms “immigration enforcement creep.”

This observation is based on ten years of data collected from IER’s settlement agreements, complaints filed, and telephone interventions. The data show that rather than protect noncitizen workers from unlawful discrimination, IER has moved its focus to enforcing immigration laws …

Risky Retirement: A Proposal For Ftc Oversight Of Self-Directed Iras, Jillian Sarro

Hofstra Law Review

The article discusses the growing concern over self-directed individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and their potential to jeopardize retirement security. Topics include the risks of noncompliance with IRA rules, as highlighted by a Rhode Island couple who owed the IRS due to improper handling of their IRA assets, the penalties resulting from prohibited transactions and improper asset storage, and the increasing cases of taxpayers making costly mistakes with self-directed IRAs.

The Needless Search For A Founding-Era "Hearsay" Definition, Jeffrey Bellin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Modern Confrontation Clause doctrine permits only unconfronted “out-of-court statements that would have been admissible in a criminal case at the time of the founding.” To operationalize this concept, the Supreme Court identifies “testimonial hearsay” as the Clause’s primary concern. Its opinions regularly dive into the historical record to refine what counts as “testimonial” but ignore that record in defining “hearsay.” This omission cannot last. Cases in the lower courts, and one on the Court’s recent docket, concern testimonial but (arguably) non-hearsay statements. And while confrontation jurisprudence is supposed to be tied to founding-era evidence law, the “hearsay” definition, casually referenced …