Law and Politics Commons^™

Slides: The Yampa: New Rules For An Old River, Jerd Smith

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Jerd Smith, Reporter, Rocky Mountain News

11 slides

Slides: The Future Of Energy: What Are The Major Projections For The U.S. Energy Future, And What Are The Implications For The West?, Gary Bryner

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Gary Bryner, Brigham Young University, Department of Political Science

9 slides

Slides: "Mitaku Oyasin" Means "We Are All Related", Bob Gough

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Bob Gough, NativeEnergy, Inc.

72 slides

The Illinois Criminal Code Of 2009: Providing Clarity In The Law, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 815 (2008), Governor James R. Thompson, Justice Gino Divito, Peter G. Baroni, Kathy Saltmarsh, Daniel Mayerfeld

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Make The Dream A Reality: Why Passing The Dream Act Is The Logical First Step In Achieving Comprehensive Immigration Reform, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1251 (2008), Aimee Deverall

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unjust Exclusion Of Gay Sperm Donors: Litigation Strategies To End Discrimination In The Gene Pool, Luke A. Boso

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Implementing A New City Charter: Thoughts On My Tenure As Corporation Counsel In A Time Of Transition, O. Peter Sherwood

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The History Of The New York City Law Department: Fighting For The City By William E. Nelson, Ross Sandler

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Automobile Emissions And Climate Change Impacts: Employing Public Nuisance Doctrine As Part Of A "Global Warming Solution" In California, Randall S. Abate

Journal Publications

The battle against climate change and its impacts in the United States must be waged on many fronts and requires many weapons. Until the federal government provides a comprehensive and mandatory legislative response to the climate change problem, gap-filling efforts such as regional, state, and local legislative initiatives and climate change litigation will be essential to achieve some progress in the ongoing challenge to combat the causes and effects of climate change. This Article focuses on one of those gap-filling efforts: public nuisance suits against power companies and automobile manufacturers for the climate change impacts caused by emissions from those …

Reflections On The New York City Law Department, Edward I. Koch

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lawyers For Government Have Unique Responsibilities And Opportunities To Influence Public Policy, Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr.

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On My Years As Corporation Counsel, Peter L. Zimroth

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Giuliani Years: Corporation Counsel 1994–1997, Paul A. Crotty

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The New York City Corporation Counsel: The Best Legal Job In America, Michael A. Cardozo

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Independence Of The Law Department, Jeffrey D. Friedlander

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Taking The Offensive: New York City’S Affirmative Suits, Gail Rubin

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Immigration Reform In America: Past, Present, And Future, Thaddeus Coffman

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This paper examines immigration legislation throughout the history of the United States. The author has divided the focus of legislative activity into four main eras: the Laissez- Fair Era (1789-1875), the Anti-Asian Era (1876-1920), the National Origin Quotas Era (1921-1953), and the Illegal Immigration Era (1954-present). While these eras are not all inclusive, they are indicative of the main focus of legislation passed during their time. The author then compares the impact of major legislation passed during these eras to three current proposals aimed at addressing the increasing issue of illegal immigration: two versions of a guest-worker program and amnesty/legalization …

Antitrust Process And Vertical Deference: Judicial Review Of State Regulatory Inaction, Jim Rossi

ExpressO

Courts struggle with the tension between national competition laws, on the one hand, and state and local regulation, on the other – especially as traditional governmental functions are privatized and as economic regulation advances beyond its traditional role to address market monitoring. This Article defends a process-based account of the state action antitrust exception against alternative interpretations, such as the substantive efficiency preemption approach recently advanced by Richard Squire, and elaborates on what such a process-based account would entail for courts addressing the role of state economic regulation as a defense in antitrust cases. It recasts the debate as focused …

The Constitutional And Statutory Framework Organizing The Office Of The United States Attorney, Christian M. Halliburton

Seattle University Law Review

The U.S. Attorney position is one characterized by a broad delegation of the duty to enforce the laws of the United States, and to appear on behalf of the government in any civil action involving the United States or its revenues. This delegation of duties necessarily entails the exercise of discretion, and that exercise of discretion necessarily depends on the United States Attorneys' independence of judgment. The U.S. Attorney can thus be described as an agent with multiple principles, or a servant of two masters: the U.S. Attorneys clearly serve at the "pleasure" of the President, must be responsive to …

Train Wreck At The Justice Department: An Eyewitness Account, John Mckay

Seattle University Law Review

In a series of early morning phone calls on December 7, 2006, seven United States Attorneys were ordered to resign. Despite initial denials, it would later be revealed that two other U.S. Attorneys had also been ordered to submit their resignations, bringing the total number to nine. Each was given no explanation for the dismissal and most were led to believe that they alone were being dismissed, raising the specter of unstated wrongdoing and encouraging silent departures. Those dismissed uniformly cited the maxim that they "served at the pleasure of the President" and most sought to avoid publicly disputing the …

The U.S. Attorney Firings Of 2006: Main Justice's Centralization Efforts In Historical Context, James Eisenstein

Seattle University Law Review

The media, the political establishment, and the federal criminal jus-community's focus on the compelling story of the firings is hardly surprising. The details emerged over a period of many months through leaks, internal Department of Justice (DOJ) emails, press releases, interviews, and dramatic congressional testimony. The media's focus on the firings obscured their deeper significance with regard to the nature of the relations between the DOJ and its ninety-three United States Attorneys' Offices (USAOs). This Article addresses this omission by looking at the consequences of these events for the balance struck between central control by Main Justice in Washington and …

Privatization And The Law And Economics Of Political Advocacy, Alexander Volokh

ExpressO

A common argument against privatization is that private providers, motivated by self-interest, will advocate changes in substantive policy. In this Article, I evaluate this argument, using, as a case study, the argument against prison privatization based on the possibility that the private prison industry will distort the criminal law by advocating incarceration.

This “political influence” argument applies at least as well to public provision: Government agencies, too, lobby for changes in substantive law. In the prison industry, for instance, it is unclear whether private firms advocate incarceration to any significant extent, but public guard unions are known to do so …

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.

Minding The Gaps: Fairness, Welfare, And The Constitutive Structure Of Distributive Assessment, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Despite over a century’s disputation and attendant opportunity for clarification, the field of inquiry now loosely labeled “welfare economics” (WE) remains surprisingly prone to foundational confusions. The same holds of work done by many practitioners of WE’s influential offshoot, normative “law and economics” (LE).

A conspicuous contemporary case of confusion turns up in recent discussion concerning “fairness versus welfare.” The very naming of this putative dispute signals a crude category error. “Welfare” denotes a proposed object of distribution. “Fairness” describes and appropriate pattern of distribution. Welfare itself is distributed fairly or unfairly. “Fairness versus welfare” is analytically on all fours …

Crisis Bureaucracy: Homeland Security And The Political Design Of Legal Mandates, Mariano-Florentino Cuellar

ExpressO

Policymakers fight over bureaucratic structure because it helps shape the legal interpretations and regulatory decisions of agencies through which modern governments operate. In this article, we update positive political theories of bureaucratic structure to encompass two new issues with important implications for lawyers and political scientists: the implications of legislative responses to a crisis, and the uncertainty surrounding major bureaucratic reorganizations. The resulting perspective affords a better understanding of how agencies interpret their legal mandates and deploy their administrative discretion. We apply the theory to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Two principal questions surrounding this creation are …

Reviewed Work: Understanding Institutional Diversity By Elinor Ostrom, Jonathan G.S. Koppell

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

No abstract provided.

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.

Foundations Of Federalism: An Exchange, Randall P. Bezanson, Steven Moeller

ExpressO

Our manuscript entitled "The Foundations of Federalism: An Exchange" is occasioned by the Supreme Court's federalism jurisprudence which, in our judgment, calls for a broad ranging exploration of the constitutional concept of federalism itself. That exploration takes place in the form of a dialog between us which, while rewritten from its original form, nevertheless reflects our actual exchanges over an 18 month period. Our conclusion is that such terms as "sovereignty" generally have no place in American constitutional federalism, that the Supreme Court's efforts to enforce federalism limitations have been ineffective and, in some instances, counterproductive, and most basically that …

Review Essay: Radicals In Robes , Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

This essay reviews and critiques Cass Sunstein’s new book entitled Radicals in Robes. After a discussion of Sunstein’s (somewhat misleading) rhetorical nomenclature, this essay argues that Sunstein’s proposed “minimalist” methodology in constitutional jurisprudence is beneficial, but not for the reasons Sunstein suggests. Sunstein alternatively justifies judicial restraint or incrementalism on epistemological self-doubt (cautiousness being an outgrowth of uncertainty) and his fear that accomplishments by Progressives in the last century will be undone by conservative judges in the present. Constitutional incrementalism is more convincingly justified on classical economic grounds. While affirming Sunstein’s overall thesis, this essay offers an alternative rationale for …

Review Essay: Using All Available Information, Max Huffman

ExpressO

This is a review essay entitled “Using All Available Information,” in which I review and comment on Justice Stephen Breyer’s new book, Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution, published in September 2005. Justice Breyer’s book, adapted from the Tanner Lectures given in 2005 at Harvard Law School, serves partly as a response to Justice Scalia’s 1997 volume A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law. I review Justice Breyer’s book in part by comparison to and contrast with Justice Scalia’s. I propose that much about Justice Breyer’s interpretive philosophy, which centers on determining the “purposes” of texts and interpreting …