Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

The Pet Fish Canon, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Journal of Law and Policy

Inspired by the work of the late Professor Larry Solan, this article proposes that judges recognize as one of the textualist canons of statutory construction a “pet fish” canon. Such a canon would posit that when an ordinary reader would understand two or more words to yield a meaning that is different than the sum of the two words defined separately, the statutory interpreter should not disaggregate them. The Roberts Court has already followed such a linguistic precept in some statutory cases, and this article proposes that the Court recognize this as a canon considered at least as seriously as …

Grammar & Syntax Arguments On The Roberts Court, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Journal of Law and Policy

In his excellent book, The Language of Judges, Professor Solan demonstrates how judges use grammatical or linguistic arguments to avoid acknowledging statutory ambiguity—and how they often get the grammar or linguistics wrong. Since his book was published, textualism has become the dominant interpretive approach on the U.S. Supreme Court—and we have seen increasingly prominent battles involving grammatical devices and rules. This comment takes Professor Solan’s analysis as a jumping off point to evaluate how grammar and linguistic arguments are employed on the modern Supreme Court, in the age of textualism. The comment offers a brief empirical and doctrinal assessment of …

Roger Williams University 2024 President's Report: A Message From President Miaoulis, Roger Williams University

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

How Speech-Language Pathologists Can Collaborate With A Well-Meaning Judiciary To Improve Jury Instructions, Lillian N. Stiegler, Rebecca L. Parker

Journal of Interprofessional Practice and Collaboration

Abstract

Purpose: Many U.S. adults are called upon to fulfill civic responsibilities through jury duty. Jury participation is a responsibility, but it is also a privilege that ensures the balance of power between government and citizens. Problems arise when jury instructions are presented using complex language that challenges the comprehension of laypersons with and without language and literacy differences, negatively influencing the juror’s participation experience and trial outcomes. In spite of plain language mandates and clear findings regarding the average literacy abilities of U.S. adults, much of the legal community persists in the use of difficult jury instructions.

Method: Academic …

Opening Brief For Plaintiff-Appellant, Roe V. Marshall University Board Of Governors, Ryan M. Donovan, J. Zak Ritchie, Madeline H. Meth, Gregory Bowe, Erin Hunter, Sarah Monahan

Faculty Scholarship

Issues Presented:

Title IX prohibits schools from responding with deliberate indifference to student-on-student sexual harassment that interferes with, or threatens to interfere with, a victim’s education. It also prohibits schools from retaliating against students who engage in Title IX protected activity, such as reporting an assault. Here, another Marshall student sexually assaulted Roe at an offcampus residence near Marshall’s campus. Roe reported the assault and other instances of student-on-student relationship abuse. In the assault’s aftermath, Roe missed classes and limited her time on campus because she was afraid of encountering her assailant. Her grades suffered. Marshall did not address the …

Librarian Office Hours For 1l Research Memos, Cardozo Law Library

2024–2025 Flyers

Monday, November 4 - Thursday, November 14th

Law Library Blog (November 2024): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Should Legal Writing Professors Continue To Teach Traditional Legal Citation Rules For Parentheticals Despite The Increased Usage Of (Cleaned Up) Parentheticals?, Donna L. Eng

UF Law Faculty Publications

With the rise of (cleaned up) citations from practitioners and courts, Legal Writing Professors should continue to teach traditional legal citation rules for parentheticals. Teaching traditional legal citations for parentheticals will not only prepare students for the real world of legal writing expected by many courts, but will also help them to avoid ethical pitfalls that may result from the use of (cleaned up) citations. The author also calls for a return to the use of traditional legal citation rules for parentheticals to mitigate any further impacts on the evolution of jurisprudence, and to comply with a lawyer’s ethical duty …

Whither The Monograph?: Changes To The Aba Standards On Library And Information Resources And Their Unintended Consequences For Legal Scholarship, Nicholas Mignanelli

Northwestern Law Journal des Refusés

No abstract provided.

Maurer School Of Law Professor, Iu Vice President Elected President Of The American Society Of Comparative Law, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

The American Society of Comparative Law has elected Indiana University Maurer School of Law Professor Hannah L. Buxbaum as its next president, the organization announced last week at its annual meeting.

Buxbaum is an internationally recognized scholar in the areas of private international law and international litigation and jurisdiction, and has most recently served as vice president of the ASCL. She is the John E. Schiller Chair in Legal Ethics at the Law School as well as Indiana University’s Vice President for International Affairs.

Opening Brief For Plaintiff-Appellant Brandon Velez, Stephen T. Martin, Seth J. Hipple, Madeline H. Meth, Elise Chigier, Bilal Mubarack, Daniel Siemers

Faculty Scholarship

Reasons Why Oral Argument Should Be Heard: Oral argument would significantly aid this Court. This appeal presents important questions about what constitutes excessive force, retaliatory arrest, and unlawful failure to train police officers. Oral argument would allow the Court to investigate the complex facts at issue and the elements of these claims.

Oliva Elected To American Law Institute, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Jenn Oliva, Professor of Law and Val Nolan Faculty Fellow, has been elected to the American Law Institute, the organization announced yesterday (Oct. 4).

She becomes the 18th member of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law faculty to earn the prestigious recognition.

“This is a tremendous honor for Professor Oliva and we are proud to have her on our faculty,” said Indiana Law Dean Christiana Ochoa, who holds an ex officio role with the ALI. “Since Jenn joined us in 2023 she’s quickly become an invaluable member of the Maurer community and we’re thrilled to see her recognized.”

A Century Of Scholarship: University Of Arkansas School Of Law Faculty Scholarship 1924–2023, Steven R. Probst

Arkansas Scholarly Editions

Steven R. Probst’s bibliography A Century of Scholarship: University of Arkansas School of Law Faculty Scholarship 1924–2023 marks an important anniversary: the 2024 centennial of the U of A School of Law. To honor this occasion, Probst has assembled, through extensive archival research, the list of publications that U of A law faculty have authored over the course of the school’s hundred-year history. A Century of Scholarship is a testament to the invaluable scholarly contributions of these extraordinary thinkers who have shaped our legal landscape.

Panel Discussion: Balancing Scholarship, Teaching And Service To Succeed On The Tenure Track – A Workshop For Pretenure Colleagues And Faculty Aspirants, Brenda Smith

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In imagining the National People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, the planning committee brainstormed about the theme of the conference and the scope of panels and opportunities that would capture the breadth and vibrancy of scholarship by faculty of color. An antecedent, however, to that scholarship is the entry, success, and thriving of faculty of color in the academy.

Finding The Thinkable Thoughts, Beth H. Wilensky

Reviews

When John B. West developed his legal classification system in the 1880s, he likely didn’t anticipate that his system of indexing the law would persist into the twenty-first century. But persist it has, and flourished, most prominently in the form of Westlaw’s headnote and key number system. West’s index built on several precursors, but it was his version, West’s American Digest, that established the foundations of the classification system that most modern legal researchers use today, in one form or another.

This history—of the late-nineteenth-century fascination with indexing—and much more is told in charming detail in Dennis Duncan’s Index, A …

Teaching Bias In The Current Cultural Climate: Sample Exercises For A Legal Writing Class, Ben Fernandez

UF Law Faculty Publications

The American Bar Association now requires law schools to provide "education to law students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism." But how can a law professor navigate these challenges in the current cultural climate fraught with polarizing divisiveness? In this present-day charged atmosphere, law students may be particularly sensitive to statements they perceive as offensive and may seek accountability for such remarks. Implicit bias and micro-aggressions can reveal biases that are unconscious and unintentional. How then can a law professor make students feel comfortable discussing these important and relevant topics in class?

Blind Grading Gives Law Schools 20/20 Vision, Amy H. Soled

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

There has been a big push to revamp legal education. Many have argued that after years of doing things the same way, it is time to change. While there is validity for the need for reform, educators should embrace the one thing legal education has gotten right: anonymous or blind grading. This Essay makes the case that blind grading should not only remain in legal education, but every law school course should adopt it, including writing and clinical courses. Only through blind grading can law schools better succeed in the ABA mandated goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Grades are …

Vertical Restraints In An Amazon World, Martin Edwards

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Vertical restraints are a peculiarity, even among the dizzying array of contracts subject to antitrust scrutiny. While current law treats vertical restraints permissively, antitrust reformers have added this permissive treatment of vertical restraints to their list of proposed reforms. The reformers have softly proposed that courts apply a presumption of illegality standard for vertical restraints— greater scrutiny than the current standard, the rule of reason. This Article argues that doing so is inadvisable.

Producers and their consumers both want the same thing: the best overall product experience for the money. The critical economic functions of vertical restraints are to enable …

Contempt: The Original Judicial Cheat Code, Ryan L. Scott

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The judicial contempt power challenges the fundamental rights enshrined in America’s Constitution. Imagine spending eight years in federal prison with no right to a jury trial or a court appointed attorney. Your only reprieve is the discretion of the judge who is imprisoning you. Meaningful appeals and even habeas corpus actions are generally not available remedies. Instead, what was originally justified as an inherent power of the court, necessary to maintain order and decorum, is increasingly used for trivial offenses or to incarcerate individuals for far longer than their possible crimes would otherwise warrant.

Despite widespread instances of abuse of …

The Outer Limits Of Digital Privacy Protections: A Review Of The Privacy Fallacy, Michael Conklin

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

An Updated Practical Guide To Taking And Defending Depositions, Gary S. Gildin

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The deposition offers a singular opportunity to handcuff the deponent to an irreversible script. Consequently, both the attorney taking the deposition and defending counsel must prepare for and conduct the deposition with equal if not greater care than the trial.

Traditionally, lawyers have used the deposition to discover facts relating to the legal elements and the credibility, perception, and recollection of the witness. However, recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as to how the brain makes decisions have revealed a different genre of evidence that will drive how the trier of fact will decide the case. Today an attorney taking a deposition …

The Liv Golf V. Pga Tour Antitrust Case As A Case Study In Federal Civil Procedure, Michael J. Dube

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This Article uses LIV Golf Inc. v. PGA Tour, Inc., a sophisticated and headline-grabbing antitrust matter, as a means of instantiating federal civil procedure concepts. The first Part of this Article addresses the unsuccessful motion for a temporary restraining order that in many ways shaped how the litigation proceeded. The second Part examines the dance that is discovery through a focus on a drawn-out dispute regarding a single interrogatory. The final Part drills down on a more novel discovery dispute that began the path towards settlement, namely whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 and related common-law doctrine …

Want To Solve Labor Shortages? Relaxing The Child Labor Law Is Not The Answer, Yi Wu

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Recently, the United States has been engaged in a nationwide debate over loosening regulations regarding children’s employment. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets restrictions on the working hours of children under 16 and prohibits their employment in certain hazardous positions. However, some states, such as Iowa, Ohio, Arkansas, and Wisconsin, have either passed or are considering legislation allowing children to work longer hours or in potentially dangerous conditions in response to labor shortages. These new state laws conflict with existing federal regulations. This Comment discusses why states should refrain from relaxing their child labor laws to permit children to …

Panel Discussion: So You Want To Publish A Book?, Suzanne Kim, Steven W. Bender, Angela J. Davis, Susan D. Carle, Clara Platter, Katheryn Russell-Brown

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Reaching wide and varied audiences for our academic work through book publishing served as the focus on this pipeline program panel. Through a dynamic conversation among leaders in book publishing from the academic and editorial sectors, we discussed the nuts and bolts of book publishing.

We are indebted, for this important dialogue, to American University Washington College of Law, NPOC, and all the conference’s co-sponsoring schools. We particularly want to thank Vice Dean Susan Carle of American University Washington College of Law, whose idea it was to host this panel. We were joined by the following expert book authors for …

From The Editors, Robert Dinerstein, Ezra Rosser

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This issue includes articles, conference transcripts, and book reviews that date to 2019. The woeful delay is solely the result of our own editorial failure, and we wish to apologize on behalf of the Journal to our readers and to the many contributing authors who put their trust in us. Rest assured that procedures have been established to prevent reoccurrence of such unacceptable time lags. But do know that we appreciate having fallen far short of professional standards in this instance.

Too Little Too Late: Why The Environmental Justice Problems Caused By The Army Corps's Nationwide Permits Program Run Much Deeper Than Permit 12, Travis O. Brandon

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ review of Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12) is insufficient to remedy the deeper environmental justice defects embedded within the Nationwide Permit Program as a whole. NWP 12, which facilitates expedited authorization of oil and natural gas pipeline crossings under § 404 of the Clean Water Act, has enabled the construction of fossil fuel infrastructure with minimal site-specific environmental review and no meaningful opportunity for public comment. Drawing on theories of procedural environmental justice, the Article contends that the structure of the Nationwide Permit Program systematically disadvantages communities of color …

Hidden Until The End: The Need To Inform Medicaid Enrollees Of Estate Recovery Costs Before Their Death, Ashley Bassel Griffith

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the Medicaid estate recovery program and argues that its current notice framework fails to provide meaningful disclosure to Medicaid enrollees regarding the financial consequences of long-term services and supports (LTSS) coverage. Although Medicaid insures approximately one in five individuals in the United States, it uniquely requires certain beneficiaries—primarily individuals age fifty-five or older receiving LTSS—to repay covered costs from their estates after death. Federal law mandates recovery but does not require states to inform applicants or enrollees of anticipated or accrued estate recovery costs during their lifetimes. As a result, families frequently receive notice of substantial recovery …

Common Measures Of Vaccination Intention Generate Substantially Different Estimates That Can Reduce Predictive Validity, Jessica Fishman, K. Aleks Schaefer, Daniel Scheitrum, Christopher Robertson, Dolores Albarracin

Faculty Scholarship

Surveys often estimate vaccination intentions using dichotomous ("Yes"/"No") or trichotomous ("Yes," "Unsure," "No") response options presented in different orders. Do survey results depend on these variations? This controlled experiment randomized participants to dichotomous or trichotomous measures of vaccine intentions (with “Yes” and “No” options presented in different orders). Intentions were measured separately for COVID-19, its booster, and influenza vaccines. Among a sample of U.S. adults (N = 4,764), estimates of vaccine intention varied as much as 37.5 ± 17.4 percentage points as a function of the dichotomous or trichotomous response set. Among participants who had not received the COVID-19 vaccine, …

Contracting Hoop Dreams: Using Sports Law To Teach Transactional Practice, Cody Jacobs

Faculty Scholarship

One of the places I find the most joy in teaching legal writing is problem development—writing compelling factual scenarios that give students interesting legal issues to work through is rewarding and fun.  The best prompts will motivate students to really jump into their role representing their client and encourage them to think about the “big picture”—how the law ties into social, political, and economic structures in society at large.  Much has been written about the best ways to do this in the context of litigation assignments (briefs, memos, etc.), but there has been less discussion about problem creation in the …

Reply Brief For Plaintiff-Appellant Rocky Freeman, Madeline H. Meth

Faculty Scholarship

Because the Probation Office “dropped the ball,” JA199, false information remained in Rocky Freeman’s pre-sentence report for years. The Bureau of Prisons knew or should have known that it was relying on an inaccurate PSR. Yet, it failed to take any action to obtain correct information until Freeman discovered that BOP had been treating him as if he were a contract killer who had murdered two victims—effectively punishing him for acquitted conduct contrary to a court order. Instead of designating Freeman to the lowest-security-level facility for which he was qualified within 500 miles of his family, the United States sent …