Law and Society Commons^™

How Did We Get Here?, Michael J. Klarman

Fordham Law Review

President Donald J. Trump’s second administration has transgressed basic rules and norms of democracy and the rule of law in myriad ways. Below, I have laid out my own top ten list of transgressions, though others could surely have made out a good case for their own “favorites.” It would not be difficult to come up with a longer list, yet the purpose of my Levine Lecture is less to describe where we are than to explain how we got here. Following an enumeration of Trump administration transgressions, my lecture turns to two questions. First, why have traditional checks on …

Fabricating The Crime Of Undocumented Presence, Eric S. Fish, Doug Keller

Fordham Law Review

In 2025, the Trump administration’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) declared that it is a federal crime simply to be an undocumented immigrant. Congress has enacted no such crime. Congress has made it a crime for an immigrant to enter the United States in a manner that “eludes examination or inspection.” For nearly 100 years, this “elude” offense has been understood to occur only at the moment an immigrant enters the country. But the Trump administration’s OLC has reinterpreted this crime as a continuing offense. Under this new reading, an immigrant who entered unlawfully eludes examination until the moment of …

The Role Of Reliance In Stare Decisis Doctrine, Rochelle Hestnas

Fordham Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent treatment of reliance interests in stare decisis doctrine is in flux. The Court has overruled long-standing precedent such as Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey with scant analysis as to how reliance interests factor into stare decisis doctrine, despite continuing to name reliance as a factor that should be considered. Arguments for whether and how reliance interests deserve protection are inherently challenging because it cannot be the case that every precedent should stand. Using Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization as a case study, this Note analyzes the Court’s claim …

Public Libraries, Limited Forums: Critiquing The Fifth Circuit’S Decision In Little V. Llano County, Spencer Emelia Petrick-Knoll

Fordham Law Review

Conflicts over the collections of public libraries have become increasingly frequent in the twenty-first century. In 2025, the Fifth Circuit held that library collections are government speech, thereby preventing patrons from challenging book removals. This Note critiques that decision and analyzes which First Amendment doctrine should govern the curation decisions of a public library. It examines the historical evolution of the public library and First Amendment doctrine to argue for classification of the public library’s collection as a limited public forum. This classification allows libraries to make reasonable, viewpoint-neutral decisions about retaining books in their collections while ensuring that viewpoint …

Splitting The Baby: Determining The Causation Standard In Family And Medical Leave Act Retaliation Claims, Eliana C. Singer

Fordham Law Review

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees employees unpaid leave following certain qualifying events. The FMLA not only provides substantive rights but also prohibits retaliation against employees who exercise those rights. When employees face unlawful retaliation, they can bring retaliation claims against their employers. However, there is disagreement among courts as to how to evaluate these claims. More precisely, courts are split concerning whether employees must prove their use of leave was a but-for cause of retaliation, or merely that it was one of an employer’s mixed motives for retaliating. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and …

The Mirage Of Meta Pixel Code: Redefining Pii In The Era Of Generative Ai, Sophie Venter

Fordham Law Review

Data privacy laws are intended to put consumers in control of whether their identifying data can be sold and used for targeted advertising. However, these laws do not provide adequate protections in the era of generative artificial intelligence (AI). This Note examines one way that existing privacy law permits companies to profit from selling data for targeted advertising without obtaining user consent: transferring video watching data in a pixel code. Some U.S. Courts of Appeals have determined that these data transfers do not sufficiently identify users and the videos they watched to constitute violations of user privacy. This has led …

Justice Lost And Found Playlist, Njaj Editorial Board

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Oh No, Don't Let The Rain Come Down..., Mervyn Bennun

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of Law Reform: Housing Codes, Bans On Retaliatory Eviction, And The Implied Warranty Of Habitability, David Ray Papke

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Unauthorized Practice Of Law Reform And Domestic Violence Advocacy: Advocate Perspectives On Legal Training, Cayley Balser, Stacy Jane

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Katherine M. Houlden

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Volume 3, Issue 1 Masthead, Njaj Editorial Board

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Modern Tribulations Of Modern Trials: Ai-Generated Content Of Deceased Victims At Sentencing And Family Law’S Cure From Ho’Oponopono & Restorative Justice, Ethan Michael Knoll

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Scenes From An Italian Restaurant: The Difficulties, Concerns, And Effects Of Protecting Cultural Elements In Restaurant Trade Dress, Lauren Lepre

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Click To Sue: Defining Receipt Of Eeoc Notices In The Digital Age, Robert J. Toth Jr.

St. Mary's Law Journal

Federal employment discrimination statutes condition a claimant’s right to sue on timely receipt of a “right-to-sue” notice from the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  Courts have historically treated certified mail slips as sufficient to trigger a claimant’s ninety-day filing window, regardless of when the claimant opened or retrieved the letter.  In the digital era, the EEOC increasingly issues notices through email and its online Public Portal, raising questions about when electronic notice constitutes “receipt.”

This Article examines recent federal appellate court decisions—Lax v. Mayorkas, McDonald v. St. Louis University, and García-Gesualdo v. Honeywell Aerospace of Puerto Rico, …

Containing The Explosion: Proposed Tort Reform To Address Nuclear Jury Verdicts In Texas, Jax Harvey

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Purging Politics: A Proposal To Remove Gerrymandering In Texas, Lauren Teske

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

On A Collision Course: The Twenty-First Amendment, The Dormant Commerce Clause, And Physical Presence Laws, Burke Craighead

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cultural Considerations: A Discussion Of Schematic Information Processing In African Plea Bargaining, Emma Joy Mcarthy

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Plea bargaining is a prominent form of alternative dispute resolution: it is the method of resolution for nearly 98% of criminal convictions in the United States and is growing in popularity worldwide, including across the continent of Africa. In many ways, plea bargaining reflects traditional restorative justice models practiced in Africa prior to the introduction of adversarial and retributive Western practices. This comment discusses schematic information processing, exploring how cultural influences shape the schemas held by members of African nations in contrast to Western ways of thinking. A deep value for community and an emphasis on relationships is at the …

Status Quo Bias Dalam Reformasi Hukum Acara Pidana Di Indonesia: Kegagalan Penguatan Pengawasan Pengadilan (Judicial Scrutiny) Yang Lebih Optimal, Choky Risda Ramadhan, Abni Nur Aini, Dheliana Khairunisa

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

Pretrial proceedings (Praperadilan), as a form of judicial scrutiny, function as a control mechanism over the actions of law enforcement officials to prevent abuses of power. This mechanism was introduced in the 1981 Criminal Procedure Code (Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Acara Pidana, KUHAP) and re-regulated in the 2025 KUHAP. However, numerous studies and focus group discussion with legal scholars and law enforcement officers have documented structural weaknesses in Praperadilan, prompting calls to reform judicial scrutiny in order to more effectively limit law enforcement authority and protect the human rights of individuals involved in criminal proceedings. During the Reform era (2004–2025), proposals …

Mengadili Kepentingan Umum: Korporatisme Pengadilan Dalam Proyek Strategis Nasional (Psn), Agung Wardana, I Kadek Sudiarsana, Yogi Paramitha Dewi

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

The implementation of National Strategic Projects (NSP) often leads to conflict. Projects that are claimed to be developments in the public interest are challenged by affected communities and civil society organisations in various ways, including through litigation. However, in the legal studies literature, studies on NSP issues tend to be analysed through a normative analysis focusing on development for the public interest. The article examines court decisions concerning NSP to understand how courts provide their deliberations of the cases, a perspective that enriches knowledge about NSP. This article shows how the corporatist relationship between the executive power and the judiciary, …

Religious Persecution In Communist Albania Through Constitutional And Legal Acts, Sadik Haxhiu, Besard Belegu, Artan Fejzullahu

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Following the victory of the communist regime in 1944, the new Albanian state built its institutions on a materialist worldview that stood in direct opposition to the universal principles of freedom of conscience and religious belief. The state progressively restricted religious practice until it banned it altogether. This anti-religious campaign proceeded along two tracks: anti-religious political propaganda and the adoption of legal acts prohibiting the practice of religion. A 1967 decree-law banned religious belief outright, and the 1976 Constitution declared Albania the first atheist state in the world. This paper is based on an analysis of legal acts, scholarly literature, …

Geduldig's Footnote: Five-Plus Decades Of State Courts Reckoning With Federal Pregnancy Discrimination Doctrine, Martha F. Davis

Northwestern University Law Review

In Geduldig v. Aiello (1974), the U.S. Supreme Court held that pregnancy discrimination does not constitute sex discrimination. The decision’s constitutional logic has recently been applied in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and United States v. Skrmetti. Yet over five decades, state courts have overwhelmingly rejected Geduldig’s rationale—both in construing state employment discrimination statutes and in interpreting state constitutional equality provisions. Courts in at least sixteen states have rejected Geduldig’s rationale in construing state employment discrimination laws, while only four states have followed it. Of the ten states with Equal Rights Amendments that have addressed whether …

State Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosure Laws And The Dormant Commerce Clause: Leveraging The State Interest In Protecting Residents From Deception To Pass The Pike Balancing Test, Matthew Macphail

Northwestern University Law Review

Misleading corporate claims about greenhouse gas emissions pose a high risk of consumer deception, as there is currently no uniform federal standard governing how companies must measure or disclose those emissions. Without a national regulatory scheme, firms can selectively report, use inconsistent methodologies, or market vague “carbon neutral” claims, making it difficult for consumers to assess accuracy or compare companies’ representations.

In 2023, California introduced legislation requiring companies doing business in the state to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to bring transparency to this area. But such state-level mandates face a constitutional obstacle: the Dormant Commerce Clause, …

Textual (In)Difference In State Search-And-Seizure Provisions, Quinn Yeargain

Northwestern University Law Review

Over the past 250 years, state constitutional drafters have refined the scope of rights and liberties protected by their constitutions’ texts. Today, all state constitutions include a search-and-seizure provision—and though only a minority follow the layout, text, and context of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, most of them bear a striking resemblance to it. However, textual variations abound. Some of them may seem minor, like using the word “possessions” instead of “effects,” or mandating that warrants describe their intended targets “as nearly as may be” instead of requiring that they “particularly describ[e]” them. But others, like the addition …

The New Economic Liberties, Daniel B. Rodriguez

Northwestern University Law Review

Despite the lack of serious interrogation at the federal constitutional level of economic regulations, there continues to be a fairly robust, energetic attention at the level of state constitutional law to so-called economic liberties. In a number of key cases, including, for example, matters involving occupational licensing, state courts have looked to unique features of their respective state constitutions to assess whether and to what extent regulations undertaken under the police power go too far. The rationales for evaluating and, in some cases, invalidating regulations under economic liberties principles are creative, and also controversial. The development of new interpretive approaches …

Child Labor And State Constitutionalism, Andrew Hammond, Helen Hershkoff

Northwestern University Law Review

Almost ninety years after Congress banned “oppressive” child labor as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers are pushing state legislatures to let them put children to work in dangerous poultry plants, at hazardous construction sites, and during late shifts on school nights. Perversely, calls to rollback federal protections are camouflaged in the rhetoric of parents’ rights, casting child labor regulation as intrusive, paternalistic, and even socialist—echoing the same corporate arguments used a century ago when the Child Labor Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went down in defeat. These arguments mask the desperate economic circumstances of a parent claiming …

State Constitutional Rights And Judicial Power, Zachary D. Clopton

Northwestern University Law Review

On the one hand, we are in a moment when interest in state courts and state constitutional law is growing. Especially, though not exclusively, among those who question the Supreme Court of the United States, there are increasing calls for state supreme courts to rely on state constitutions to expand rights. On the other hand, we are in a moment when interest in reducing the power of the courts is growing. Especially, though not exclusively, among those who question the Supreme Court of the United States, there are increasingly calls for reining in judicial power.

This Essay is not an …

Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.