Government Contracts Commons^™

Overcrowding The System: Rethinking Juvenile Justice In Washington State, Mckenna White

Seattle University Law Review

The recent crisis at Green Hill School highlights the detrimental consequences of severe overcrowding in Washington State’s Juvenile Rehabilitation system—a problem exacerbated by the implementation of the JR to 25 legislation. This Note argues that the juvenile rehabilitation system, which is currently struggling to manage a wide age range of offenders, necessitates a fundamental rethinking of juvenile justice practices. By examining neurological research indicating continued brain development into the mid-twenties, along with the high prevalence of trauma among justice-involved youth, this Note proposes the creation of a dedicated third system of care within the Department of Children, Youth, and Families …

Statutes And Special Interests, Kirsten Matoy Carlson

Northwestern University Law Review

Who really decides what statutes say? Most Americans think that special interests play an outsized role in our lawmaking processes. Yet empirical studies have produced little evidence that special interests get everything, or even most of, what they ask for from Congress. This Article takes an innovative new approach to tackling the difficult question of how advocates influence legislation. It presents the first comprehensive empirical study of how advocates influence the law through amendments in the legislative process. The Article analyzes an original dataset of 2,137 witnesses and their testimony at referral hearings on 108 Indian-related bills in the 97th …

Don’T “Estop” Me Now: Estoppel, Government Contract Law, And Sovereign Immunity If Congress Retroactively Repeals Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Michael J. Cole

Lewis & Clark Law Review

This Article discusses whether Direct Loan borrowers can obtain recourse against the federal government using either promissory or equitable estoppel theories if Congress retroactively repeals the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (“PSLF”) program. The Article addresses various hurdles, including sovereign immunity and the Sovereign Acts Doctrine, which the borrowers would encounter at litigation. It concludes that, despite likely overcoming these hurdles, in many cases, the plaintiff-borrowers’ government contract law claims would likely still fail to win on their merits. The Article also contends that most, if not all, equitable estoppel claims would likely fail before a court. The Article then offers …

Strategic Institutional Positioning: How We Have Come To Generate Environmental Law Without Congress, Donald J. Kochan

Texas A&M Law Review

The administrative state has emerged as a pervasive machine that has become the dominate generator of legal rules—despite the fact that the U.S. Constitution commits the legislative power to Congress alone. When examining legislation authorizing administrative agencies to promulgate rules, we are often left asking whether Congress “dele- gates” away its lawmaking authority by giving agencies too much power and discretion to decide what rules should be promulgated and to determine how rich to make their content. If the agencies get broad authority, it is not too hard to understand why they would fulsomely embrace the grant to its fullest. …

State Preemption Of Cable Television Regulation — Whatever Happened To The Sanctity Of Contract?, William M. Marticorena, Lynda E. Marticorena

Pepperdine Law Review

California Government Code section 53066.1 as recently amended gives cable television operators the right to obtain rate increases even in the face of the city or county franchisor opposition. Since most cable franchise agreements allow the franchisor to control rates for the cable service, there is a conflict between the statute and the franchise contracts. This article examines the issue of whether the statute violates the constitutional provisions against the impairment of contracts and whether the franchisor or a subscriber of the service has the necessary standing to assert the constitutional argument.

The Congressional War On Contractors, Jessica Tillipman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The U.S. Suspension & Debarment regime is designed to ensure that the federal government does business only with “responsible” partners. One of the most fundamentally (and frequently) misunderstood aspects of the FAR 9.4 suspension & debarment system is that these tools are only to be used for the purpose of protecting the Government, not to punish contractors for their past misconduct. Unfortunately, recent congressional initiatives demonstrate many legislators’ desire to transform debarment into a tool of punishment by banishing contractors from the procurement system “with little consideration of whether such action is needed or fair."

Instead of focusing on the …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Backlash To Globalization In The Form Of State Legislation: Constitutional Implications, John R. Weber

ExpressO

This paper will examine the Constitutional issues raised by the influx of state anti-outsourcing legislation using a recently enacted New Jersey statute. The New Jersey statute is very similar to, and contains many of the same features as, many other bills introduced in legislatures across the nation. Moreover, the political impetus for the introduction and enactment of the legislation reflects the struggle over the outsourcing issue that is occurring in communities nationwide.

Choice In Government Software Procurement: A Winning Combination, Mclean Sieverding

ExpressO

Governments are such significant purchasers of IT products and services that their purchasing decisions have a substantial impact on the world’s IT marketplace. This fact calls into question the wisdom of decisions by a few policymakers (on national, state, and local levels) around the world that have sought to require that governmental procurement officials give varying degrees of preference to open source software (OSS) when evaluating competing software solutions, claiming, among other things, that such preferences are justified because OSS is cheaper and more interoperable than proprietary software and needs government handicapping in order to enter the market to compete …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Good Faith In The Cisg: Interpretation Problems In Article 7, Benedict C. Sheehy

ExpressO

ABSTRACT: This article examines the dispute concerning the meaning of Good Faith in the CISG. Although there are good reasons for arguing a more limited interpretation or more limited application of Good Faith, there are also good reasons for a broader approach. Regardless of the correct interpretation, however, practitioners and academics need to have a sense of where the actual jurisprudence is going. This article reviews every published case on Article 7 since its inception and concludes that while there is little to suggest a strong pattern is developing, a guided pattern while incorrect doctrinally is preferable to the current …