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Fireside Chat | Victor Suthammanont '05: Financial Services Law 101, Ronald H. Filler Institute For Financial Services Law

Ronald H. Filler Institute for Financial Services Law

April 1, 2026

Trump V. Biden Judges, Stephen J. Choi, Mitu Gulati

SMU Law Review Forum

Curious about the merits of judges Donald Trump appointed in his first term as president, we previously looked at the performance of Trump-appointed judges as compared to those appointed by other presidents. On a set of three measures—productivity, influence, and independence—the Trump judges performed as well, if not better, than judges appointed by Presidents Obama and Bush. As for President Biden’s appointees, they did systemically worse than Trump’s. Biden judicial selections were, at the time we did our prior study, however, new judges. Maybe, we wondered, these judges would do better on our measures a year or two hence? What …

From Subjective Truth To Professional Duty: Navigating Controversy In The Law School Classroom, Karin Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

By engaging in analyzing opposing viewpoints, students do more than just develop a broader understanding of other perspectives. Rather, students are forced to more clearly define and evaluate their own convictions. Moreover, by shifting the focus from a professor’s discussion of controversial opposing viewpoints to a student’s self-discovery, examining controversy remains an essential component of the classroom.

Masthead

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

How Many Supreme Court Justices Can Stand On The Point Of A Needle? Originalist Scholarship, Political Neutrality, And Other Constitutional Nonsense, Stephen M. Feldman

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

In the 1935 article, "Transcendental Nonsense and the Functional Approach," Felix Cohen compared formalist legal reasoning, as practiced by traditional legal scholars and Lochner-era Supreme Court justices, to the philosophical musings of scholastic theologians. Unconnected to empirical reality, formalist legal reasoning was as nonsensical as a disquisition on “‘[h]ow many angels can stand on the point of a needle?’” Nowadays, originalist scholars are similarly engaged in nonsense. These scholars defend, refine, and practice originalist methods of constitutional interpretation as if the Supreme Court justices truly decided cases in accordance with the theory. Regardless, the justices—even the avowed originalists—do not consistently …

Harmless In Name Only: Prosecutorial Misconduct And The Right To A Fair Trial, Jennifer Brinkman

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Prosecutorial misconduct during trial—particularly improper questioning of witnesses and improper argument—occurs in front of the jury and directly shapes its deliberations. Yet appellate courts routinely dismiss such misconduct as “harmless error,” allowing convictions to stand even when prosecutors violate defendants’ rights. This Article contends that the harmless error framework both underestimates the impact of misconduct on jurors and undermines the Constitutional guarantee of a fair trial. It proposes that certain instances of misconduct that occur during trial should be classified as structural error, requiring automatic reversal. This would protect defendants’ right to a fair trial and maintain the integrity of …

Generative Adversarial Discrimination, Josh Fairfield

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Anti-discrimination law assumes that discrimination can be detected and rectified, that the evidentiary burden of the plaintiff can in fact be met. But the evolutionary logic of AI training causes it to target vulnerable groups, lie about reasoning, and above all resist detection. Because of hidden core prompts in generative AI systems, and how those prompts interact with the nature of AI training and deployment, AI will often actively hide discrimination rather than surface and address it. Stopping this will be difficult. At present, neither humans or AI can detect this emergent dark-pattern behavior. Without legal intervention, the broad use …

To Compete Or Noncompete: Lessons On The Impact Of Unenforceable Noncompete Agreements In The Entertainment Industry, Guy Mannick

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Economic and legal literature has increasingly focused on how the American legal system fails workers. One way it does so is through employee noncompetition agreements (“NCA” or “noncompete”) that limit a worker’s ability to join another company, often for better compensation and/or more responsibility. Some states enforce NCAs if they are reasonable in scope, geography, and duration; others either prohibit their application to certain types of workers or (as in California) outright prohibit them in most circumstances. More narrowly, new empirical literature about the behavioral effects of unenforceable noncompete agreements raises new questions about the behavioral impact on workers.

This …

Before The Last Breath: How Alabama’S Nitrogen Execution Adoption Created A Procedural Crisis On Death Row, Caroline E. Penfield

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

In 2024 and 2025, Alabama executed eleven people. During this time and in the years leading up to it, the State botched multiple lethal injections. Seeking an ostensibly constitutional way to continue carrying out executions, Alabama introduced death by nitrogen gas suffocation. The problems with lethal injection are not unique to Alabama, but Alabama was the first to adopt and use the novel nitrogen gas method, despite concerns from medical professionals, the public, and inmates themselves. Alabama put little to no protocol in place for inmates to exercise their statutory right to elect this method, leading to confusion and harm. …

Reel It In: Untangling The Circuit Split On The Constitutionality Of Geofence Warrants Under The Fourth Amendment, Kate P. Risser

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

This Note examines geofence warrants and their ongoing threat to constitutionally protected rights such as privacy, speech, and assembly. Part I will provide background information on geofence warrants and examine the prominent justifications for the use of the warrants. Part II will examine how law enforcement’s use of geofence warrants threatens citizens’ constitutionally protected fundamental rights like privacy and reproductive rights. Specifically, Part II addresses how geofence warrants disproportionately target and affect women, people of color, and low-income individuals. Part III will detail the history of the Fourth Amendment tracing its roots to before the Founding Era then exploring applicable …

The Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly: A 10-Year History Volumes 87-96 (2016-2025), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

This article is the second supplement to my previous two articles covering the history of The Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly.² For the period of this article, Robert E. Rains, Professor Emeritus, Penn State Dickinson Law, has been the editor, replacing Professor Louis Del Duca, who had served as editor for an amazing 47 years. The January 2016 issue appropriately began with two articles in homage to Prof. Del Duca.³

Piercing The Algorithmic Fog Of War: Ai-Enabled Decision-Support Systems And The Responsibility Gap For War Crimes Under The Rome Statute, Karen H. Cho

UC Law SF International Law Review

This article examines how the integration of artificial intelligence-enabled decision-support systems (AI-DSS) into military conflict complicates the attribution of individual criminal responsibility for war crimes under the Rome Statute. Unlike lethal autonomous weapons systems which are intended to supplant human agency, AI-DSS augments human decision-making across the targeting cycle while simultaneously introducing opacity and bias. These characteristics risk facilitating indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, undermining t4he principles of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law. Through a case study of Israel’s deployment of systems such as “the Gospel,” “Lavender,” and “Where’s Daddy?” in Gaza, this article illustrates how algorithmic mediation obscures …

Salmonella In Poultry: Tackling An Age-Old Issue In An Evolving Era Of Agency Scrutiny, Samantha Girschick

Georgia State University Law Review

The Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo marks the end of Chevron deference and fundamentally reshapes the administrative law landscape. In its wake, agencies must now defend regulatory action without the benefit of the judiciary’s longstanding presumption in favor of that agency’s statutory interpretations. Against this backdrop, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) attempted to classify certain strains and quantities of Salmonella as adulterants under the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA)—an interpretation that marked a sharp departure from decades of prior agency position. Although the proposed rule was withdrawn before finalization by the Trump Administration, unresolved …

Some Or None? How Ab 1412 Closes The Gap In Interstate Special Education Transfers, Hope Austin

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Securing Safe Transitions: A Policy Argument For Sb 434’S Strengthened Eviction Safeguards, Eric Brown

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Life Without Parole: How Sb 672 Reshapes Extreme Sentencing For Youth Offenders, Karina Cardenas

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Above The Flames: Autonomous Aircraft And The Evolution Of Wildfire Response, Hakela Hapner

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ab 412: A Failed Attempt At Balancing Artificial Intelligence And Copyright, Erin Forger

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Arbitration Vs. Consumer Rights: How Sb 82 Further Diminishes Public Trust And Understanding Of The Arbitration Process, Peter Liu

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ab 446: Why The Answer To “How Much?” Should Never Be “It Depends.”, Dalton Mabery

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Look What You Made Me Do: Common-Sense Inferences About Independent Decision-Makers In Standing Law, Eli Bartz

Missouri Law Review

On a rainy evening in 2009, John Coomer was sitting behind the visitor’s dugout at Kauffman Stadium. Between innings, Coomer looked at the scoreboard, and the Kansas City Royals’ mascot Sluggerrr threw a hot dog into the stands, hitting Coomer in the eye and detaching his retina. Coomer sued the Royals for negligence, but the jury found in the Royals’ favor. The Missouri Supreme Court overturned the jury verdict, holding that, while spectators assume the risks of balls and bats flying into the stands, they do not assume the risk of flying hot dogs. The ruling sparked controversy, with one …

Neither Here Nor There: The Small Business Creditor’S Discharge Nightmare Under Subchapter V, Kathleen Zimmerman

Missouri Law Review

A courtroom victory feels sweet, with damages finally awarded after long, exhausting litigation—until small business bankruptcy bounces the check. In 2015, a father and son duo began their small business in rural Wisconsin. They had started their company by selling drinking glasses made fully in the USA, crafted by hand in the family workshop. Years later, a competing company began selling imitations imported from China and falsely marketed as American-made. The knockoff products undercut the duo’s market, placing the family business in distress. The father-son team sued and were able to secure a verdict in their favor for willful and …

Teaching A Social Justice Approach To Leadership In Law Schools, Tamar Ezer

Articles

Leadership is critical for social justice. Our law students have the potential to serve as future social justice leaders, building strong organizations and movements to carry out this work. Drawing on both leadership theory and practical examples from clinical legal education, this piece argues for a broad definition of leadership, embracing diversity and encompassing the counter-cultural values of listening and humility. It further proposes a three-dimensional model of social justice leadership, engaging the mind, heart, and spirit, and suggests teaching practices to strengthen each component. The first dimension focuses on cognitive competencies, including substantive mastery of an area of law …

Uncovering Settlements: Problems, Opportunities And Solutions For Settling Liability Cases In Which Insurance Coverage Is In Dispute, Marialuisa Gallozzi, Jodi Mcdougall, James Murray, Catalina Sugayan

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Artificial Intelligence In The Insurance Industry And Bad Faith Risk, Mary E. Borja, Edward J. Currie Jr., Lorelie Masters

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

No abstract provided.

An Ethics Conundrum: What Am I? Coverage Counsel Or Claim Investigator Or Both?, Neil B. Posner

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Hidden Power Of Citizenship: Political Identity In The Twilight Zone Of Equal Protection, Charles J. Anderson

Indiana Law Journal

More than half a century ago, in the landmark case of Graham v. Richardson, the Supreme Court held that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits state-level blanket exclusions of noncitizens. That case ushered in a new rule: State classifications based on alienage are “inherently suspect” and subject to strict scrutiny. But Graham’s rule has a major exception. Just a few years after Graham was decided, the Court upheld several state laws excluding noncitizens from working as police officers, public school teachers, and probation officers. So was created what would later be termed “political function” doctrine. …

Rethinking Objectivity: The Problem Of Pretext In The Fourth Amendment, Monu S. Bedi

Indiana Law Journal

Pretextual encounters continue to erode the legitimacy of the Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Simply put, a police officer can act on personal bias or animus as long as the search or seizure is deemed “objectively reasonable.” Numerous scholars (e.g., Bennett Capers, Gabriel Chin, and David Harris) have critiqued this objective standard, contending it perpetuates discriminatory practices, particularly against communities of color. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself suggested that the Court might need to reconsider the legal precedent she helped establish. More recently, Orin Kerr has also argued that the Court’s reliance on objective determinations is inconsistent with …

The Addison C. Harris Lecture: Intellectual Diversity Mandates And The Freedom To Teach, Keith E. Whittington

Indiana Law Journal

This Essay provides the first examination of the Indiana Senate Bill 202, which was adopted into law in the spring of 2024. The new law imposes an “intellectual diversity” mandate on public university classroom teaching in the state. The law is novel in its approach but is part of a larger movement to intercede in what is taught in university classrooms. The intellectual diversity mandate raises difficult and unexamined conceptual, normative, and practical problems that will now demand attention from university officials in Indiana and that might soon confront university administrators in other states across the country if the Indiana …

The Plight Of Workers: Alj Independence In Arkansas Workers’ Compensation, P. Brock Hatfield

Indiana Law Journal

“Unfortunately, many of the changes made by this act were necessary because administrative law judges, the Workers’ Compensation Commission, and the Arkansas courts have continually broadened the scope and eroded the purpose of the workers’ compensation statutes of this state. . . . In the future, if [changes must be made to Arkansas workers’ compensation law], those things shall be addressed by the General Assembly and should not be done by administrative law judges, the Workers’ Compensation Commission, or the courts.”¹It would be hard to imagine a blunter statement of purpose to undermine the independence of administrative law …