Law and Society Commons^™

Rewriting The Playbook: The X’S And O’S Of The House Settlement And The Future Of Student-Athletes’ Voice In Their Compensation, Matthew K.V. Glazer

Seattle University Law Review

Since the formation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the 1900s, collegiate athletes (student-athletes) have been prohibited from using their own name, image and likeness (NIL) for profit. But on July 1, 2021, the NCAA changed course and began allowing student-athletes to profit from their own NIL. In the past few years, U.S. college athletics have undergone significant changes, most notably introducing monetary compensation for student-athletes’ NIL. While these changes were long overdue and ultimately beneficial, they have significantly disrupted the landscape of college sports, giving rise to numerous challenges that some experts have compared to the “Wild …

Mr. Trump Goes To Washington Part Ii: A Review Of Richard Delgado's 2025, Kevin Johnson

Seattle University Law Review

Richard Delgado’s The Rodrigo Chronicles have captivated a generation of law students and legal scholars.  Mapping the terrain of race, racism, and Critical Race Theory (CRT), the skillful, and long-running narrative series stands as a testament to Delgado’s dedication to justice for all.

The Rodrigo Chronicles are simply one of Delgado’s many intellectual contributions and part of an unparalleled scholarly legacy.  As one of the founders of CRT, he produced a landmark body of scholarship –authoring the field's primary text,  making the argument for the regulation of hate speech,  forcefully challenging the Black/white binary of civil rights that long dominated …

From Self-Representation To Smart Representation: How Ai & Self-Help Services Can Strengthen Pro Se Litigation, John W. Park

Journal of Law and Policy

The American legal system has long struggled with the gap between those who can afford counsel and those who cannot, leaving millions of pro se litigants to navigate complex civil proceedings alone and lose at staggering rates. Yet, over decades of incremental reform, existing self-help infrastructure has failed to keep pace with the growing pro se crisis or the rapid technological advancement that now gives represented parties an unprecedented advantage. Meanwhile, law firms and attorneys increasingly harness law firm tailored AI programs that are generally unavailable to the unrepresented litigant. This technological asymmetry has transformed an already significant capability gap …

Whose Ai Data Center Line Is It Anyway? Proposing A Regulatory Framework To Provide Redress To Communities Impacted By The Externalities Of Ai, Jane Franks

Journal of Law and Policy

In some ways, artificial intelligence is not new. Humans have theorized and dreamed about AI in some form or another for thousands of years. However, as AI becomes a reality and both companies and countries alike are racing to establish dominance in the field, AI does not feel too familiar. The increased amounts of power and water required by AI data centers are unprecedented, and the federal and state legislative response to the issues facing the communities surrounding AI data centers—and the country at large—has been fragmented at best, and non-existent at worst. This Note examines the externalities of AI, …

With All The Strings Attached: Analyzing Participation Of Disempowered Groups In Structuring New York’S Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund, Nicholas Schuermann

Journal of Law and Policy

For decades, New York’s selective enforcement of cannabis prohibition has disproportionately targeted low-income Black and brown communities, resulting in mass incarceration, decimated economic opportunity, and entrenched generational harm. In 2021, New York enacted the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (“MRTA”) with an explicit reparative mandate: to redress these harms by lowering barriers to enter the new recreational cannabis market for those severely impacted by prohibition. Central to this effort is the Cannabis Social Equity Investment Fund, a $200 million program designed to provide justice-impacted entrepreneurs with turnkey retail locations, low-interest loans, and business support. In practice, however, the Fund has …

The Martha Wright-Reed Act: How The Fcc Took One Step Forward For Communication Equality For Deaf Individuals In Correctional Facilities And How It Could Be Expanded, Ashley Seebold

Seattle University Law Review

For decades, phone companies preyed on incarcerated individuals and their loved ones due to the lack of regulation of jail phone calls.2 In 2021, the average cost of a fifteen-minute jail phone call was about $3.3 In 2022, the average cost rose to $5.74, while some individuals faced an extreme charge of $24.82 for the same amount of time.4 In the early 2000s, consumer advocate and concerned grandmother Martha Wright-Reed called upon the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to fix the imbalance so she could speak to her incarcerated grandson.5 Eventually, in 2023, the FCC answered her call to action and …

How The Dod Discourages Military Families From Seeking Mental Health Counseling, Christina Welch

Seattle University Law Review

The Department of Defense’s (DoD) administration of the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) presents significant barriers to mental health care access for military spouses and children. This paper explores how the EFMP, though designed to support military families with special needs, inadvertently creates barriers to mental health treatment. Military family members often do not seek mental health treatment to avoid the program's mandatory enrollment requirements. Military family members often view enrollment in the program undesirable because enrollment can restrict the pool of potential future duty assignment locations that are available to service members.

The lack of comprehensive data collection by …

2025, Richard Delgado

Seattle University Law Review

"In a cutting and provocative social critique in one of the more extended Rodrigo Chronicles, Richard Delgado in 2025 employs skillful narrative—one of CRT’s many contributions to legal scholarship —to tell a gripping story of just how far the nation has descended into darkness with President Trump’s re-election. In Delgado’s vision, law professors—along with other political opponents of the President: immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, women, the underserved—have targets on their backs."

-excerpt from Kevin Johnson's review of 2025

The Preventative Care Gap: Completing The Aca’S Vision For Health, Abby Nagaich

Seattle University Law Review

This Note examines the preventive care mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the legal, political, and practical challenges that threaten its effectiveness. While the ACA significantly expanded access to no-cost preventive services, gaps remain—particularly in behavioral health, obesity management, and equitable service delivery. Ongoing litigation, potential administrative rollbacks, and shifting political leadership further destabilize this critical component of public health policy.

This Note argues that for the ACA to fulfill its original promise—and for any health framework to succeed—preventive care must be redefined as a comprehensive, early intervention approach grounded in both systemic access and patient education. It …

Dealing With The Wrongs And The Rights: Lessons On Lethal Self-Defense From Durham, North Carolina, Emily Bass

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

The tragic loss of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin and the lack of accountability that George Zimmerman faced for fatally shooting him in their Florida neighborhood inspired countless calls for politicians to reexamine self-defense laws. Still, long before stand-your-ground laws, the same racist undertones that plagued Zimmerman’s trial prevented other state courts from holding accountable those who use excessive force in proclaimed “self-defense” and killed Black teenagers.

In 1993, then fifteen-year-old Jamal Elliott and several of his friends broke into the garage of Durham, North Carolina resident Michael Seagroves, hoping to steal a motorcycle. As Jamal ran from the garage, Seagroves shot …

From Claiborne To Climate: Anti-Esg Boycott Legislation And Corporate First Amendment Rights, Ingrid Tjendro

Fordham Law Review Online

Since 2021, at least twenty-one states have enacted laws targeting financial institutions and companies that incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into their business practices. This Comment examines the First Amendment implications of one specific category of such legislation—state anti-ESG boycott statutes—and argues that they constitute an unconstitutional suppression of protected corporate speech and association.

Drawing on traditional anti-boycott jurisprudence, including NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. and Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc., and the circuit split over anti-Israel boycott legislation, this Comment centers on the recent decision in American Sustainable Business Council v. Hegar …

Against The Single-Subject Rule For The Citizen Initiative, Jonathan L. Marshfield

UF Law Faculty Publications

The citizen initiative allows voters to bypass state legislatures and propose laws for a statewide referendum. It exists in twenty-four states but has national significance because initiatives drive reform on contested issues. Recently, courts have begun to clamp down on the initiative. One significant trend is the strict enforcement of the single-subject rule to strike initiatives when they are considered too broad. Although courts are notoriously inconsistent with the rule, they assert two reasons for aggressive enforcement. First, they claim the rule’s historic purpose is to prevent any form of “logrolling”—including any imaginable aggregation of public-regarding voting blocs. Second, courts …

Socio-Legal Framework For Vulnerability: Using Public-Private Partnerships As A Tool For Disaster Management, Latisha Nixon-Jones

Pepperdine Law Review

As disasters continue to grow in size and intensity, the question arises: can governments effectively meet local and regional disaster response and recovery needs? This Article examines the history of utilizing public-private partnerships (PPPs) to enhance government functions in disaster management. The primary objective of this Article is to assess whether involving private entities in governmental roles is an effective strategy for building resilient communities and ensuring public safety, particularly for vulnerable populations. Existing literature focuses on the financial and logistical aspects of PPPs with mere mentions of legal importance. To address these failures, this Article proposes a novel socio-legal …

Individualized Cannabis Reparations, Scott Bloomberg

Texas A&M Law Review

This Article makes an argument that should be obvious. The best way for governments to right the wrongs of cannabis prohibition is to give money to people with cannabis offenses. Nonetheless, this straightforward reform has been consistently overlooked, dismissed, or minimized by policymakers and scholars alike, eschewed in favor of other social equity programs that do not right those wrongs nearly as effectively. Governments have indeed invested hundreds of millions of cannabis tax dollars in social equity licensing programs and community reinvestment initiatives. These programs—while often worthwhile—do not benefit the vast majority of people with past cannabis offenses.

Governments should …

Disproportionate Influence: Rethinking Control In American Corporate Governance, Dhruv Aggarwal, Ofer Eldar

Northwestern University Law Review

Corporate law has undergone a gradual transformation. Founding chief executive officers (“founder-CEOs”) and activist hedge funds increasingly dominate leading American corporations despite owning well short of a majority of shares. Founder-CEOs, through personal brands or dual-class voting structures, control firms despite having minority stakes; activist hedge funds, with single-digit holdings, press for major governance changes. We argue that these two types of shareholders, often treated as opposites, both dominate corporations through disproportionate influence rather than majority ownership. We describe these investors who dictate corporate policy through disproportionate influence as high-influence shareholders.

Delaware’s doctrinal response to high-influence shareholders has been inconsistent, …

What The Free-Roaming Cats Dragged In: Regulatory Concerns With Privatized Local Services, Jonathan Korger

Northwestern University Law Review

The United States entrusts local governments to provide citizens with a wide range of public services, and animal control makes up a small but essential piece of these local responsibilities. In recent years, American localities have largely privatized how they manage the nation’s growing free-roaming cat population, relying primarily on animal-loving volunteers and a controversial practice called trap-neuter-return (TNR). Academics have long debated the merits of privatization, but TNR raises a novel question: how should local governments think about regulating a privatized public service when altruism, instead of profits, motivates the service deliverer? This Note argues that TNR demonstrates the …

Law School News: Rwu Day Of Law And Justice Showcases Powerful Combinations At The Statehouse 4-9-2026, Jordan J. Phelan

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Revival Of Section 5: A Return To The Ftc’S Roots In A Time Of Democratic Crisis, Shaoul Sussman

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Sour Truth: Maine's Refusal To Provide Agricultural Workers Equal Employment Rights By Statutory Exclusion, Natalie Jump

Maine Law Review

Agricultural work is some of the most dangerous and grueling work there is, but you wouldn't know that from the way Maine's wage and hours laws have treated agricultural workers, both historically and today. Until 2025, farmworkers were not entitled to Maine minimum wage and were guaranteed only the significantly lower federal minimum wage. The Maine State Legislature decided that agricultural workers deserved more and passed a law during the first session of the 132nd Legislature that required agricultural workers to be paid Maine minimum wage. However, agricultural workers remain statutorily exempt from the definition of "employee" and therefore still …

The Multi-Hatted Court: Community Courts As Boundary Organizations, Peter Dixon, Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg

Northwestern University Law Review

As a variety of the problem-solving court model, community courts have received significant scrutiny and debate. Do they help individuals by addressing the underlying needs that contribute to criminal behavior? Do they extend an unjust criminal legal system by making help conditional upon judicial involvement? This Article moves beyond such debates to ask how community court professionals and the communities who engage with them manage these and other tensions that are inherent to the model itself. As the second in a series of articles drawing on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with diverse stakeholders at the Red Hook Community Justice …

Negligent Hiring: Recidivism And Employment With A Criminal Record, Benjamin Pyle

Northwestern University Law Review

This Article tackles a difficult legal and policy challenge— reducing the impact of criminal records on job applicants’ chances in a manner that does not spur more discrimination—by looking at how another area of law, tort liability, impacts employers’ decision-making. It uses theoretical and empirical methods to study the most common reason employers report being reluctant to hire workers with a criminal record: legal liability generated by the tort of negligent hiring. While the purpose of the tort is ostensibly to protect and make whole those harmed when an employee misbehaves in a foreseeable manner, I show that, in practice, …

The Vanishing Enforcer: Consumer Protection In An Era Of Dual Retrenchment, Alisher Juzgenbayev

Northwestern University Law Review

Recent developments, including reductions in the federal workforce, effective suspension of certain enforcement activities, and attempted centralization of independent agency rulemaking in the White House, have significantly weakened administrative agencies. This administrative retrenchment is concerning as private enforcement of a number of consumer protection statutes has been simultaneously curtailed through the Supreme Court’s decisions in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins and TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, which dramatically narrowed plaintiffs’ standing. These decisions rely in part on a vision of strong executive authority, positing that broad private standing conflicts with an Article II framework where a politically accountable President faithfully implements laws …

Checkmate Or Stalemate: The Epa, California, And The Future Of Waivers Under The Clean Air Act, William B. Gale

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

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 …