Agency Commons^™

Voice Shoppers: From Information Gaps To Choice Gaps In Consumer Markets, Noga Blickstein Shchory, Michal S. Gal

Brooklyn Law Review

Recent years have seen exponential growth in the use of voice shoppers – artificial intelligence–based algorithms installed on digital voice assistants, such as Alexa and Google Assistant, that buy products based on verbal requests received from consumers. This game-changing switch to semi-automated shopping is shaking up markets by reshaping consumer–supplier relationships, as well as the business models of suppliers and search services. Voice shoppers benefit consumers by offering speedier and more sophisticated transactions while reducing search and transaction costs. At the same time, consumers’ voluntary delegation of their search powers and product selection creates what we call a “choice gap,” …

Wrongful Improvers As A Guiding Principle For Application Of The Ftc’S Ip Deletion Requirement, Emma Elder

Washington Law Review

The 2021 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into cloud storage app developer Everalbum resulted in a consent decree that required Everalbum to delete not only unlawfully collected data, but also algorithms created using that data. The FTC had imposed this kind of penalty only once before. Questions remain about how the FTC will apply this so-called intellectual property (IP) deletion requirement in the future. This Comment argues that situations where companies develop intellectual property from misappropriated consumer data are analogous to cases where courts seek to apply the property law rule of the wrongful improver, i.e., where one party knowingly …

When Uncle Sam Spills: A State Regulator’S Guide To Enforcement Actions Against The Federal Government Under The Clean Water Act, Ian M. Staeheli

Washington Law Review

The U.S. government is one of the largest polluters on the planet. With over 700 domestic military bases and countless more federal facilities and vessels operating within state borders, there exists an enormous potential for spills and discharges of pollutants into state waters. The regulatory burden for enforcing environmental laws against the federal government falls on the Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators. But enforcing laws and regulations against the federal government and its progeny is a daunting regulatory task.

Other scholarship addresses some of the vexing peculiarities involved when regulating Uncle Sam. Those works discuss the “confusing mess” that …

The Helicopter State: Misuse Of Parens Patriae Unconstitutionally Precludes Individual And Class Claims, Gabrielle J. Hanna

Washington Law Review

The doctrine of parens patriae allows state attorneys general to represent state citizens in aggregate litigation suits that are, in many ways, similar to class actions and mass-tort actions. Its origins, however, reflect a more modest scope. Parens patriae began as a doctrine allowing the British king to protect those without the ability to protect themselves, including wards and mentally disabled individuals. The rapid expansion of parens patriae standing in the United States may be partly to blame for the relative absence of limiting requirements or even well-developed case law governing parens patriae suits. On the one hand, class actions …

Protecting The ‘Unwanted’: How And Why We Should Defend Former Gang Members In Their Pursuit Of Asylum, Anjani P. Shah

Journal of Law and Policy

This Note discusses the flaws in the tripartite analysis to determine whether an asylum seeker satisfies the protected ground of “membership in a ‘particular social group’” (“PSG”). An applicant seeking a PSG determination must prove: (1) “immutability,” (2) “social distinction,” and (3) “particularity.” This Note argues that when PSG asylum claims are denied and appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), the BIA has incoherently tangled what is actually required in order to compel an affirmative PSG determination. One group of asylum seekers that has been significantly disadvantaged by this tripartite test is former gang members. This Note argues …

Ice Transfers And The Detention Archipelago, Sabrina Balgamwalla

Journal of Law and Policy

This article examines transfers as an understudied but critical dimension of the immigration detention system. Transfers regularly take detainees in immigration custody from public to private facilities, across state lines, and beyond the jurisdiction of individual courts. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) has virtually unlimited authority to use transfers strategically to further agency goals of immigration enforcement. For individual detainees, transfers shape outcomes in their immigration cases. Noncitizens are regularly funneled into detention centers in legal jurisdictions generally hostile to claims for relief. Transfers also regularly send detainees to facilities in isolated, rural communities, where they are more likely to …

West Virginia V. Epa, Amanda Spear, Amanda Spear

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The EPA created the Clean Power Plan in an effort to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated by coal-fired power plants. The EPA determined that the Best System of Emission Reduction for existing coal-fired power plants included generation shifting methods, meaning a shift from coal to cleaner sources. The Supreme Court held, under the major questions doctrine, that Congress had not intended for the EPA to use generation shifting methods for the Best System of Emission Reduction and that the EPA had exceeded its authority in doing so. This note will explore how the decision may impact administrative …

Cumulative Impact Analysis In Nepa Climate Assessments, Fred Mauhs

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article argues that CI analysis is a critical tool for addressing global warming. This is because the largest anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions in the U.S. each contributes a vanishingly small portion of global GHG emissions, which alone cannot rise to NEPA’s threshold of “significance” requiring a “detailed statement…on the environmental impact of the proposed action,”i.e., an environmental impact statement (EIS). Yet there is no pollution today in greater need of assessment and understanding than GHG emissions, given the urgency of the impending catastrophe that global warming could mean for our planet.

Pre-Merits Vacatur: An Efficient, Equitable, And Environmentally Sound Remedy, Stuart Gillespie

Pace Environmental Law Review

Federal agencies are increasingly requesting voluntary remands of challenged rules, thereby circumventing judicial review, and avoiding ever having to defend the merits of those rules. Courts routinely grant these extraordinary requests, often under the guise of saving judicial resources and giving agencies a second chance to reconsider. But voluntary remands come at a steep cost, particularly in the arena of environmental litigation. There, voluntary remands not only deprive litigants of their day in court, but can also subject them (and the broader public) to unlawful and inadequate rules that are causing serious environmental harm.

Courts have long guarded against the …

Franco I Loved: Reconciling The Two Halves Of The Nation’S Only Government-Funded Public Defender Program For Immigrants, Amelia Wilson

Washington Law Review Online

Detained noncitizens experiencing serious intellectual and mental health disabilities are among the most vulnerable immigrant populations in the United States. The Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) creation of the National Qualified Representative Program (NQRP) following a class action lawsuit was an important step in finally bringing meaningful protections to this population. The EOIR pledged to ensure government-paid counsel for those facing removal who had been adjudicated “incompetent” by an immigration judge, as well as other protections for those who had been identified as having a “serious mental disorder” but who had not yet been found incompetent. The NQRP is …

Putting Labor’S Capital To Work For Labor: Restoring A Worker-Centric Vision Of Fiduciary Duty, David H. Webber

Faculty Scholarship

This report has two goals: first, to illustrate how the legal concept of fiduciary duty, designed to protect worker retirement funds, has been captured and distorted in ways that harm workers. Second, to propose means of restoring fiduciary duty to its proper purpose. The state-level fiduciary duties addressed in this report govern the investment of up to $10 trillion in assets and directly shape the retirements of 26 million working-class Americans. They are also just about the only source of worker voice in capital markets and corporate boardrooms. That is why a range of powerful business lobbies have distorted the …

The Humanities Strike Back: (E)Esg And Justice Strine Challenge Gamer Shareholder Primacy, David H. Webber

Faculty Scholarship

Leo E. Strine, Jr. is closing in on Blair and Stout for the undisputed title of all-time top-scoring stakeholderist.³ I don't intend to squander this opportunity to roast and toast him by weighing the pros and cons of basketscoring primacy. Instead, my aim is to surface an overlooked argument in the debate over shareholder primacy and stakeholderism, the case for which has been recently reinvigorated by Strine's work. My argument is this: one underappreciated aspect of shareholder primacy's appeal is that it creates a competition with a single endpoint, basically a game, and that the exhilarating tournament that results, …

Advising 101 For The Growing Field Of Social Media Influencers, Stasia Skalbania

Washington Law Review

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) protects consumers from unfair and deceptive business practices. In 2019, the FTC released the “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers Guide” (herein referred to as the “2019 Influencer Guide”). The 2019 Influencer Guide outlines advertisers’ and endorsers’ specific responsibilities relating to the advertising and marketing of products on social media platforms. Despite the extensive information provided within the 2019 Influencer Guide, there is still great confusion regarding endorsement disclosure requirements, and many brands and influencers are not in compliance with FTC recommendations. This Comment provides guidance to brands and social media influencers on how to …

All Of The Products, None Of The Liability: Examining The Supreme Court Of Ohio's Decision In Stiner V. Amazon.Com, Inc., Danny O'Connor

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Friends Of The Earth V. Haaland Case Summary, Valan Anthos

Public Land & Resources Law Review

A federal district court vacated the U.S.’s largest offshore oil and gas lease sale ever because of an inadequate NEPA analysis. The court found that the BOEM’s decision to exclude estimations of reductions in foreign oil consumption if no lease took place was arbitrary and capricious.

Administrative Apparition: Resurrecting The Modern Administrative State’S Legitimacy Crisis With Agency Law Analysis, Tabitha Kempf

Catholic University Law Review

There is an enduring discord among academic and political pundits over the state of modern American government, with much focus on the ever-expanding host of federal agencies and their increasing regulatory, investigative, enforcement, and adjudicatory authority. The growing conglomerate of federal agencies, often unfavorably regarded as the “administrative state,” has invited decades of debate over the validity and proper scope of this current mode of government. Advocates for and against the administrative state are numerous, with most making traditional constitutional arguments to justify or delegitimize the current establishment. Others make philosophical, moral, or practical arguments in support or opposition. Though …

Slowing Down Accelerated Approval: Examining The Role Of Industry Influence, Patient Advocacy Organizations, And Political Pressure On Fda Drug Approval, Stephanie Diu

Fordham Law Review

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been revered as the gold standard in pharmaceutical safety and efficacy review since the 1960s. More recently, partly in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the pressing need for new treatments, the FDA established an accelerated approval process to hasten the review of new drug applications so that drugs could be approved and brought to market as soon as possible. Although accelerated approval has led to the availability of new treatments for patients with few other options, this Note argues that, today, the FDA grants accelerated approval too hastily and may be …

Patient Access In Fourteen High-Income Countries To New Antibacterials Approved By The Fda, Ema, Pmda, Or Health Canada, 2010-2020, Kevin Outterson, Ebiowei S. F. Orubu, John Rex, Christine Årdal, Muhammad H. Zaman

Faculty Scholarship

In 2010, the Infectious Diseases Society of America called for 10 new antibiotics by 2020. This goal was achieved in terms of the number of drug approvals, but actual patient access requires commercial launches in many countries, which itself requires sustainable commercial markets. Prior work has described limited access to new antibacterials in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), in part due to the inability of many to afford these drugs. This study examines patient access for new antibacterials in the G7 and 7 other high-income countries in Europe, to better understand other barriers to patient access to effective antibacterial therapy.

Are People In Federal Territories Part Of “We The People Of The United States”?, Gary S. Lawson, Guy Seidman

Faculty Scholarship

In 1820, a unanimous Supreme Court proclaimed: “The United States is the name given to our great republic, which is composed of states and territories.” While that key point is simple, and perhaps even obvious, the constitutional implications of such a construction of “the United States” as including federal territories are potentially far reaching. In particular, the Constitution’s Preamble announces that the Constitution is authored by “We the People of the United States” and that the document is designed to “secure the Blessings of Liberty” to the author and its “Posterity.” If inhabitants of federal territory are among “We the …

Donative Hot-Powers Cases Under The Uniform Power Of Attorney Act, F. Philip Manns Jr.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Among its significant reforms, the Uniform Power of Attorney Act (UPOAA) denies agents nine types of power unless “the power of attorney expressly grants” them. Those so-called “hot powers” relate to delegations of fiduciary authority and to donative transfers of the principal’s property for less than full consideration. The donative hot powers include creating, amending, or terminating a trust; making gifts; creating or changing beneficiary designations; creating or changing rights of survivorship; and waiving or disclaiming property interests. The rationale for requiring the grant of specific authority is the risk those acts pose to the principal’s property and estate plan. …

À La Carte Cable: A Regulatory Solution To The Misinformation Subsidy, Christopher R. Terry, Eliezer J. Silberberg, Stephen Schmitz, John Stack, Eve Sando

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Although “fake news” is as old as mass media itself, concerns over disinformation have reached a fever pitch in our current media environment. Online media outlets’ heavy reliance on user-generated content has altered the traditional gatekeeping functions and professional standards associated with traditional news organizations. The idea of objectivity-focused informational content has primarily been substituted for a realist acceptance of the power and popularity of opinion-driven “news.” This shift is starkly visible now: mainstream news media outlets knowingly spread hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and the like.

This current state of affairs is not some freak accident. The Supreme Court’s First Amendment …

Legal Liability For Artificially Intelligent "Robot Lawyers", Michael Loy

Lewis & Clark Law Review

This Comment discusses liability for the use of autonomous “robot lawyers” in the practice of law. A “robot lawyer” is an artificially intelligent (AI) software program that performs legal tasks traditionally handled by lawyers. Law firms currently use “non-autonomous” robot lawyers that operate under the supervision of a human attorney to assist in legal research, e-discovery, and contract drafting. In the future, “autonomous” robot lawyers that operate without human oversight may one day represent clients. However, courts and legislatures have not determined who will be liable for errors, omissions, malpractice, or other harms caused by autonomous robot lawyers. This Note …

Judicial Review Of Emergency Administration, Desiree Leclercq

Scholarly Works

This Article seeks to describe and defend the judicial review of federal agencies’ responses to national emergencies – what I refer to as “emergency administration.” That may prove difficult. Agencies are experts in their respective fields. During emergencies, scholars and policymakers assume that judges will defer to that expertise under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). On January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court defied that assumption when it blocked the Biden Administration’s workplace vaccine and masking rules. Critics now assume that judges are reviewing emergency administration to constrain regulation. Both assumptions conclude that judicial review is neither sincere nor helpful during …

The Sec’S Climate Disclosure Rule: Critiquing The Critics, George S. Georgiev

Faculty Articles

Climate change is an existential phenomenon, which entails a wide variety of physical risks as well as sizeable but underappreciated economic risks. In March 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved to address some of the information gaps related to the effects of climate change on firms by proposing a rule that requires public companies to report detailed and standardized information about important climate-related matters for the benefit of investors and markets. Though the rule proposal was welcomed by many market participants, it was also met with a level of opposition that was unusual in both its intensity …

Can Environmental Law Solve The "Forever Chemical" Problem?, Mark P. Nevitt, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Articles

Although federal environmental law purports to provide the public with comprehensive protection against chemical risks, the U.S. chemical industry is characterized by self­ regulation. This self-regulation is exemplified by the dangers posed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (''PFAS'')­ broad classes of persistent toxic substances that have now entered nearly every American's bloodstream and hundreds of public drinking water systems. Despite data linking exposure to these "forever chemicals" to cancer, infertility, and a host of other public health harms, environmental law has failed to safeguard the American people from PFAS' toxic legacy. How did this occur? And what should be done …

Antidiscrimination And Tax Exemption, Alex Zhang

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court held, in Bob Jones University v. United States, that violations of fundamental public policy— including race discrimination in education—disqualify an entity for tax exemption. The holding of the case was broad, and its results cohered with the ideals of progressive society: the government ought not to subsidize discrimination, particularly of marginalized groups. But almost four decades later, the decision has never realized its antidiscriminatory potential. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has limited implementation to the narrowest facts of the case. The scholarly literature has not formulated a systematic account of how to enforce the Bob Jones …

Requiring The Executive To Turn Square Corners: The Supreme Court Increases Agency Accountability In Department Of Homeland Security V. Regents Of The University Of California, Claudia J. Bernstein

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Administrative agencies frequently promulgate rules that have dramatic effects on peoples’ lives. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) is one such example. DACA grants certain unlawful immigrants a temporary reprieve from deportation, as well as ancillary benefits such as work permits. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) sought to rescind DACA on the basis that the program violates the Immigration and Nationality Act.

This Comment analyzes the recent Supreme Court decision about DACA’s recission in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of University of California. In rejecting DHS’s attempt to rescind DACA, the Court strengthened agency accountability …

An Attempt To Bring Modern Workplace Realities To The Social Security Disability Adjudication System, Robert E. Rains

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Book Review: This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race (2020) By Nicole Perlroth, Amy C. Gaudion

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

How Can Federal Actors Compete On Noncompetes? Examining The Need For And Possibility Of Federal Action On Noncompetition Agreements, Robert Mcavoy

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Employees have been frustrated by the restrictiveness of noncompete agreements and confused about their enforceability for decades. The added complication of choice-of-law provisions in employment contracts with noncompetes creates a sea of unpredictability for both employees and employers.

Each state applies its own policy to noncompete agreements. While every state treats noncompetes differently than typical contract provisions, a broad spectrum exists between the states that are friendly and those that are hostile to the enforcement of noncompetes. Employees and employers often fail to understand whether their noncompete is enforceable under the jurisdiction chosen by the contract, and courts override choice-of-law …