Education Law Commons^™

Corporate Employment And The First Amendment Shield Against Anti-Dei Legislation, W. Mary Blee

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

No one would have thought that a Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action in higher education would affect private employment. However, the ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard did exactly that. Corporate employers’ efforts to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) were immediately pushed to the forefront of the political battlefield. In the eyes of Republican lawmakers and politicians, DEI efforts were akin to affirmative action, and therefore unconstitutional in the wake of Harvard. Their solution to this problem involved passing anti-DEI legislation and policies which restricted or eliminated employer’s DEI efforts under the guise of upholding …

Maga's Blue State Strategy: How Democrats And University Leaders Helped The Reactionary Right Weaponize Antisemitism Against Higher Education, Jonathan Feingold, Isaac Kamola

Faculty Scholarship

The professors are the enemy. Professors are the enemy. Write that on the blackboard 100 times and never forget it.

—President Richard Nixon, 1972¹

[I]f any of us wants to do the things we want to do[,] . . . we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country.

—J.D. Vance, 2021²

October 7, 2023 was many things. One of those things was a lucky break for the Heritage Foundation (“Heritage”). For decades, Heritage and its allied think tanks, donors, and officials had labored to discredit and, if possible, take over higher education in the …

The Double-Edged Rhetoric Of Parental Rights: Conflicts Between Freedom And Control In Cases Concerning Transgender Youth, Susan Etta Keller

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article examines the rhetorical structures courts and advocates deploy in two distinct lines of cases adjudicating parental rights claims affecting transgender youth: cases challenging state bans on gender-affirming care, and cases challenging school policies supportive of transgender students. Although the legal basis for the parental rights claims in each set of cases is the same—substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment—the alignment of parental interests with those of their children diverges between the two sets. In the gender-affirming care cases, parents act in concert with their children’s expressed interests; in the school policy cases, parents seek to override …

Beyond Equality To Belonging: The Missing Value In Equal Protection Law Involving Education, Danieli Evans

Washington Law Review

Belonging is a fundamental need without which people cannot function optimally. Accordingly, school belonging—students’ perceptions of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected and valued by faculty, staff, and peers—impacts students’ well-being, academic motivation and outcomes.

Equal Protection jurisprudence governing education largely overlooks the value of school belonging. Instead, it centers on a formal conception of equality, or an “anti-classification” principle, which essentially prohibits purposeful discrimination based on a fixed set of suspect traits. This formalistic “anti-classification” approach permits many policies and practices that undermine students’ sense of school belonging and inhibits schools from taking certain measures to foster belonging. …

Outbound Investment Restrictions And International Law’S Challenge, Harlan Grant Cohen

Seattle University Law Review

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the …

Resilient Dispute Resolution Systems For International Energy Conflicts, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Seattle University Law Review

Energy-related conflicts are on the rise, spanning diverse issues such as the impacts of rare mineral mining on local communities, the impacts of sanctions on energy investments due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impacts of expanded subsidies on the electric vehicle and solar panel industries. Increasingly, companies, communities, and governments are clashing over the challenges of pursuing disparate and sometimes competing energy policies. This Article argues that dispute resolution mechanisms in the energy investment sector must be fundamentally rethought. Traditional semi-adjudicatory models, which focus on winners and losers, fail to accommodate the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary energy …

Restricting Data Flows Is A Sign Of Weakness, Nikolas Guggenberger

Seattle University Law Review

There has been a seismic shift in American attitudes toward the free flow of data across borders.  In less than a decade, the United States has transitioned from condemning barriers to digital trade to constructing a digital fortress of its own. It passed legislation requiring TikTok’s parent company to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban affecting 170 million U.S. users, citing national security concerns about its ties to China and the potential for data surveillance and content manipulation. Upon legal challenge by TikTok on First Amendment grounds, the Supreme Court affirmed the ban’s constitutionality. Recent federal legislation …

Product Nationality And Corporate Identity, Trang (Mae) Nguyen

Seattle University Law Review

Global supply chains have long depended on a deceptively technical device: the attribution of a “nationality” to goods. A trade law principle, rules of origin assign products an “economic passport” that governs how they are treated at the border, including what markets they may enter and which tariff rates apply. In recent years, however, product nationality has taken on a new and far more ambitious role. As U.S. trade policy increasingly intersects with national security and human rights policy, policymakers rely on nationality-based measures to police supply chain linkages, curb geopolitical issues, and discipline firms for their links to forced …

Global Supply Chain Resilience In Emerging Technologies: A Case Study Of Bitcoin Mining, Kishanthi Parella, Carla L. Reyes

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has put into motion bold plans in critical and emerging technologies to bolster its national and economic security.  For example, the federal government created a national bitcoin strategic reserve and a stockpile of other cryptocurrency; while several states have committed to or are considering similar goals.  However, the security of these reserves is dependent on two types of supply chains within the Bitcoin mining industry: analogue supply chains, relating to the physical components needed for Bitcoin mining, and data supply chains, relating to the complex and layered logistical network of actors that create input into the software …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Approaches To Shaping International Outer Space Law And Norms, Ariel G. Silverman

Seattle University Law Review

This article explores convergences and divergencies in the United States and PRC’s responses to the stalemate in the United Nations over the future of outer space resource governance. I do so by systematically analyzing these leading space-faring nations’ policy-positions and tactics deployed to shape norms around three substantive areas of outer space resource governance: rights of ownership and scope of utilization of space resources, mechanization of the “benefits sharing” principle, and the rights and responsibilities of the private sector. I theorize that these leading space-faring nations have adopted divergent approaches due to their differing historical relationships with international law and …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Third-Party Funding: Balancing Transparency, National Security, And Access To Justice, Victoria Shannon Sahani

Seattle University Law Review

Many lawmakers who have recently become aware of the multi-billion-dollar global third-party funding industry are raising new national security concerns that further complicate preexisting, longstanding debates about transparency, disclosure, access to justice, and the best way to regulate third-party funding. In response, this Article briefly asserts three main points relating to the question of how best to regulate third-party funding. First, this Article explains the third-party funding industry, including its global regulatory landscape and how it serves three distinct populations: consumers, businesses, and law firms. Second, this Article explains that third-party funding is one tool that can help expand access …

The Field Of International Business Transactions Law, Kathleen Claussen

Seattle University Law Review

This Article studies the evolution of the scholarly subfield referred to as the law of “international business transactions” (IBT). It reviews data on academic articles, courses, textbooks and other signifiers of the growth of this research area. Beginning around 1960, scholars began to use the term “international business transactions” and by the 1980s, several law schools were offering a course by that title. A handful of dedicated textbooks soon followed. These data reflect a gradual increase in research on the topic of IBT, particularly in the United States, but also considerable diversity of subject matters covered by those works. The …

Kim Gyeong-Seok And The Origins Of Northeast Asia’S Corporate Accountability Movement For War And Colonialism, Timothy Webster

Seattle University Law Review

For the past three decades, a transnational reparations movement has unfolded across Northeast Asia. Hundreds of victims—assisted by attorneys, academics, and activists—seek remedies from Japan for various atrocities committed during World War II, colonialism, and other historical injustices.  They press their claims in street protests, legislative hearings, dramatic performances, and other fora.  The “comfort women” are the best known of these claimants; their global redress campaign ex-tends from noisy protests outside of Japan’s embassy in Seoul, to mute statues in raucous boroughs of Berlin.  More obscure, though larger in number, were the roughly one million Koreans who performed forced labor …

Navigating Compliance In A Geopolitical Era: The Case Of Chinese Multinationals In The United States, Ji Li

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines how Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) approach compliance in the United States amid deepening geo-political rivalry and intensified regulatory scrutiny. Drawing on original survey data, this Article maps variations in compliance structures, staffing, and governance mechanisms across Chinese firms and identifies key determinants such as industry-specific regulatory intensity, listing status, and organizational imprinting from headquarters. The analysis employs a dual institutional framework to explain how compliance systems emerge from the interplay between host-state regulatory demands and home-state institutional legacies, producing hybrid structures that blend local adaptation with headquarters-driven replication. Findings reveal that while certain compliance features—such as committee …

Testimony Of Professor Zalman Rothschild Before The House Subcommittee On Early Childhood, Elementary, And Secondary Education Regarding Mahmoud V. Taylor, Zalman Rothschild

Testimony

On February 10, 2026, Professor Zalman Rothschild, Horn Family Distinguished Research Scholar in Law and Religion at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, testified before the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education of the House Committee on Education and Workforce. His testimony addressed the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor and its implications for parental rights, religious liberty, public education, vaccination mandates, and compulsory schooling.

Professor Rothschild situates Mahmoud within the broader constitutional tradition shaped by Pierce v. Society of Sisters, West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, and Wisconsin v. Yoder …

Brief Of Notre Dame Education Law Project, Notre Dame Program On Church, State & Society, And Lindsay And Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Richard W. Garnett, Nicole Stelle Garnett, John A. Meiser

Court Briefs

No. 25-802
Foothills Christian Ministries v. Kim Johnson

On Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

From the Summary of Argument

The First Amendment guarantees religious institutions the power to conduct their internal affairs. Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey- Berru, 591 U.S. 732, 746 (2020). See also Cath. Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Lab. & Indus. Review Comm'n, 605 U.S. 238, 249 (2025); id. at 255 (Thomas, J., concurring). This principle of self-governance, known as the church autonomy doctrine, is an essential feature of the Constitution’s …

Federalism, Treaty Norms, And The U.N. Report On American Education, Jorge Barrera-Rojas

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

United Nations Special Rapporteurs assess national compliance with international human rights obligations, including educational rights articulated in treaties such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights ("ICESCR"). These evaluations typically involve treaty-bound states with explicit international commitments. However, the applicability of such assessments is less straightforward in non-ratifying federal states, such as the US, which rely on diverse state-level constitutional provisions rather than federal treaty obligations.

This Article critically examines the 2025 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, following the Rapporteur's first official visit specifically addressing U.S. K-12 education policy. The analysis identifies …

Volume 14 Masthead

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Missing The Right(S) Point: How Australia’S Social Media Ban Fails Children And The Case For A Holistic Rights-Based Approach To Online Safety, Ying Chen

American University International Law Review

In December 2024, Australia rewrote the rules of growing up. Children under sixteen may learn to drive, open a bank account, and even face criminal charges—yet the Australian Government considers them too young to scroll through Instagram or send a Snapchat. With the enactment of the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, Australia became the first country to introduce an outright ban on social media access for those under sixteen. This bold legislative move has attracted global attention, with several countries reportedly considering similar measures. Through a critical analysis of Australia’s social media ban, this article provides …

Justice In Erotic Spaces, Elena L. Cohen

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

This Article posits that the concept of "erotic justice" could be used by courts to push back against the current cascade of anti-LGBTQ+ laws and meaningfully improve the lives ofgay and trans people. The beginning of the twenty-first century was widely seen as a time of great progress for LGBTQ+ people, with the legalization of gay marriage in countries across the world seen as the ultimate triumph. Yet there is a strong contemporary movement to re-criminalize the lives of LGBTQ+ people and to remove protections that have been granted by courts. In the U.S., the 2020s have seen an ongoing …

Religious Freedom, Jesuit Mission, And Dei, William M. Treanor, Amelia J. Uelmen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The ability of Jesuit educational institutions to pursue a central part of their mission – that of fostering diverse, equitable and inclusive educational environments – is under attack. This essay outlines several dimensions of their religiously-grounded mission and the reasons to strongly protect from government interference the rights of Jesuit universities to implement programs and practices that align with DEI values. First, for Jesuit universities, these programs and practices are rooted in a much deeper culture of the more than 2,000-year old Catholic intellectual tradition and the now 500-year old tradition of Jesuit spirituality. Second, drawing on the classic work …

Rekonstruksi Mekanisme Seleksi Hakim Konstitusi Di Indonesia, Indah Sri Pangestu, Dwi Yuliani, Hertaty Dorothy Dewi Siburian

Jurnal Konstitusi & Demokrasi

The mechanism for selection and election of constitutional judges in Indonesia currently still shows a diversity of procedures in each proposing institution, namely the Supreme Court, DPR and President. The process implemented does not fully reflect the principles of transparency, participation, objectivity and accountability as mandated in the Law on the Constitutional Court. Therefore, it is necessary to standardize the procedures for selection and selection of constitutional judges to ensure a more professional system and integrity. One of the solutions offered is the establishment of an independent institution responsible for the selection and recruitment of constitutional judges with a system …

The Quest For Budget Armor: Public Expenditures, Positive Rights, And Separation Of Powers In Washington's State Constitution, Kristen L. Fraser

Washington Law Review

In 2012, Washington’s landmark McCleary decision confirmed and expanded previous interpretations of the state constitution’s “paramount duty” clause, affirming a vital positive right to education and a judicial willingness to enforce it against the other branches. Notwithstanding a tense six-year period of judicial supervision after the ruling, ultimately the state legislature enacted broad education funding reforms and the appropriations and revenues to implement the additional resources for schools. Given competition among stakeholders for public funding for state programs, in the post-McCleary period, other litigants have asked courts to find similar positive constitutional rights to state services and funding. So …

Self-Determination Through Children's Rights: Resisting The Paradoxical Pretext Of Parents' Rights Legislation, Jeremiah Chin

Washington Law Review

Washington state law balances the interests of parents and the state in education, healthcare, and the general wellbeing of children. Despite the fact that children are at the center of emerging controversies, children’s rights are rarely discussed in state legislation debating the obligations and relationships between the state of Washington and parents. In education, for example, RCW 28A.605.005 finds “[p]arents are the primary stakeholders in their children’s upbringing.” While this may be true relative to the state, it overlooks the fact that children are the primary actors, agents, and rights bearers in their own personhood. This Article therefore considers ongoing …

From Fairy Tales To Fascist Nightmares: Countering Ron Desantis’ Florida, Ronald Mize, Et. Al

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

The recent spate of anti–‘woke’, don’t say gay, anti–trans, and anti–immigrant legislation, led by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, puts the sunshine state in the unenviable position of serving as the nation’s test case for Republicans’ neofascist agendas. This paper explores the exclusionary, targeting, and banning aspects of these culture war assaults on public education and outgroups. The specific banning of Critical Race Theory is discussed alongside cis–heteronormative efforts to target queer and trans communities, as well as DeSantis’ executive memoranda of transporting those at the border to sanctuary cities and S.B. 1718 aimed at excluding immigrant communities from public life …

Torts And Pesticide Drift: Amending Right-To-Farm Acts In The Wake Of Widespread Dicamba Drift By Nicholas Brown** And Matt Roessing*

Journal of Legal Studies in Business

When crops die in a field prior to harvest, a farmer loses a portion of his salary for that year. When the cause of the crop loss is natural, farmers can usually seek compensation through crop insurance and government commodity support programs. When the crops were lost as a result of pesticide drift, these forms of compensation are not usually available to farmers.1 In order to make up for their losses, farmers can seek damages through judicial redress. For many decades, various state and federal laws have combined to complicate and at times prevent farmers adversely affected by pesticide drift …

Cover Page & Table Of Contents - Volume 23

Journal of Legal Studies in Business

JLSB vol. 23 Title Page & Table of Contents