Legislation Commons^™

Letting The Kids Run Wild: Free-Range Parenting And The (De)Regulation Of Child Protective Services, Fenja R. Schick-Malone

Washington and Lee Law Review

Families in the United States suffer from a removal epidemic. The child welfare framework allows unnecessary and harmful intervention into family and parenting matters, traditionally left to the discretion of the parent. Many states allow Child Protective Services (“CPS”) to investigate, intervene, and permanently separate a child from their parents for innocuous activities such as letting the child play outside unattended. This especially affects low-income and minority families.

To prevent CPS from unnecessarily intervening in a family’s decision to let their children engage in independent, unsupervised activities, Utah passed a “free-range” parenting act (“Act”) in 2018. The Act explicitly excludes …

History Of Federal International Education Policy (1900-2024): A Four-Dimensional View In Action, Winda Wastu Melati

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation examines the history of the evolution of United States international education policy from 1900 to 2024, employing document analysis methodology to explore key themes that have shaped its trajectory. The study utilizes Cooper et al.'s (2004) Four-Dimensional View of Policy theory (normative, structural, constituentive, and technical) to analyze the complex interplay between diplomatic objectives, economic considerations, national security concerns, immigration, internationalization of higher education, and international students in the United States. The research traces major policy shifts from early initiatives like the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program to post-9/11 security measures and recent administrative changes by examining primary sources …

We Shall Overcome: The Evolution Of Quotas In The Land Of The Free And The Home Of Samba, Stella Emery Santana

Seattle University Law Review

When were voices given to the voiceless? When will education be permitted to all? When will we need to protest no more? It’s the twenty-first century, and the fight for equity in higher education remains a challenge to peoples all over the world. While students in the United States must deal with the increase in loans, in Brazil, only around 20% of youth between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four have a higher education degree.

The primary objective of this Article is to conduct an in-depth comparative analysis of the development, implementation, and legal adjudication of educational quota systems within …

Pacific Islands And The U.S. Military: The Legal Borderlands Of The Environmental Movement, Sonia Lei

Seattle University Law Review

Climate change remains an urgent, ongoing global issue that requires critical examination of institutional polluters. This includes the world’s largest institutional consumer of petroleum: the United States military. The Department of Defense (DoD) is a massive institution with little oversight, a carbon footprint spanning the globe, a budget greater than the next ten largest nations combined, and overly generous exemptions to environmental regulations and carbon reduction targets. This Comment examines how this lack of accountability and oversight plays out in the context of three Pacific islands that have hosted U.S. military bases for decades. By considering the environmental impact of …

Breaking Algorithmic Immunity: Why Section 230 Immunity May Not Extend To Recommendation Algorithms, Max Del Real

Washington Law Review Online

In the mid-1990s, internet experiences were underwhelming by today’s standards, despite the breakthrough technologies at their core. When a person logged on to the internet, they were met with a static experience. No matter who you were, where you were, or how you accessed a particular website, it rendered a consistent page. Today, internet experiences are personalized, dynamic, and vast—a far cry from the digital landscape of just a few decades ago. While today’s internet is unrecognizable compared with its early predecessors, many of its governing laws remain materially unaltered. In particular, section 230 of the Communications Act, which passed …

Taking Care Of Our Future: Considering Gender In Juvenile Reentry Reform, Delaney J. Dibble

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Origin Stories: The Three Godmothers Of Title Ix, Susan Ware

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Re Block Island Power Co., 288 A.3d 589 (R.I. 2023)., Alexandra N. Lebeau

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sun, Surf, And Suppression: Unconstitutional Voting Restrictions In Rhode Island Beach Enclaves, David Marks

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Open Hunting Season: Black Bodies As A Threatened Species, Mark C. Grafenreed

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

Tracing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 provides striking parallels with the historical, legal, and cultural aspects of bondage mapped upon Black bodies. The United States Congress promulgated the Endangered Species Act to protect and conserve threatened and endangered wildlife species. However, this gives rise to a serious moral dilemma and cognitive dissonance in that nearly 1,500 wildlife species benefit from the Endangered Species Act's protections. At the same time, Black bodies disproportionately suffer without similar federal protections. Congress has strengthened the Endangered Species Act's force through four amendments since its inception, even while there have been mounting threats to …

Removing Statistical Discrimination In Personal Injury And Wrongful Death Compensation In Rhode Island, Natalie Deangelis, Colleen P. Murphy

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why I Will Not Stop Teaching Law Students To Think Critically About Race: The Attack On Teaching About The Role Of Race In Law, Leroy Pernell

Journal Publications

As someone who has been involved in legal education teaching for over 40 years and as someone who was drawn to legal education as an alternative to a career more directly devoted to litigation concerning racial justice, so that others might be encouraged to explore critically both what race has meant to our legal system and how we might collectively counter its negative influence, the “Stop W.O.K.E act” presents a real and present danger. Thus, in August of 2022 I agreed to be the lead named plaintiff in Pernell, et. al. v. Florida Board of Governors of the State University …

Cyberflashing: Exposing Oklahoma’S Legal Loophole, Sara Wray

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Lawlessness Of Sackett V. Epa, William W. Buzbee

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

When the Supreme Court speaks on a disputed statutory interpretation question, its words and edicts undoubtedly are the final judicial word, binding lower courts and the executive branch. Its majority opinions are the law. But the Court’s opinions can nonetheless be assessed for how well they hew to fundamental elements of respect for the rule of law. In particular, law-respecting versus law-neglecting or lawless judicial work by the Court can be assessed in the statutory interpretation, regulatory, and separation of power realms against the following key criteria, which in turn are based on some basic rule of law tenets: analysis …

Fears, Faith, And Facts In Environmental Law, William W. Buzbee

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Environmental law has long been shaped by both the particular nature of environmental harms and by the actors and institutions that cause such harms or can address them. This nation’s environmental statutes remain far from perfect, and a comprehensive law tailored to the challenges of climate change is still elusive. Nonetheless, America’s environmental laws provide lofty, express protective purposes and findings about reasons for their enactment. They also clearly state health and environmental goals, provide tailored criteria for action, and utilize procedures and diverse regulatory tools that reflect nuanced choices.

But the news is far from good. Despite the ambitious …

Black Maternal Mortality Rate: Improving Outcomes For Black Mothers Using Legislation That Reverses The Effects Of Structural Racism In Medicine, Ashley Pattain

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Migration And Survival: The Birds Do It, The Bees Do It, Why Can’T We Do It?, Meredith Bensen

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Critical Race Theory Model Measure And Implementation In Curriculum, Taifha Natalee Alexander, Ahilan Arulanantham

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This memorandum aims to explain the purpose of the following model measure. The proposed legislation would preserve the freedom of teachers to teach—and students to learn—about racism, including its history and on-going effects in this country. It does this by providing a framework through which state governments can encourage the teaching and learning of Critical Race Theory ("CRT") principles as a lens through which to teach and learn about racial inequality in America, its history, and its current manifestations, to enhance K-12 public school curricula.

We believe the model measure should be of interest to a broad range of …

The Consumer’S Choice To Boycott, Agnes Bresee

Seattle University Law Review

In the wake of employees losing their jobs upon voicing their political opinions concerning Israel, Harvard and Columbia law students’ job offers being rescinded upon expressing support for Palestine, and the names and social media profiles of individuals who support Palestine being collected and listed on Canary Mission, such backlash may leave many Americans wondering what form of resistance to settler-colonialist apartheid is acceptable in the twenty-first century. Recently, the movement to collectively boycott brands like Starbucks, which sued its Worker’s Union for a tweet expressing support for Palestine; Disney, which donated money to Israel; and McDonald’s, where a location …

Use Of Collaborative Governance In Passing Effective Abortion Laws In Texas To Decrease Rates Of Injury, Criminal Penalties, And Civil Litigation, Nowshin Nawal

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

No abstract provided.

A Different Approach To Agency Theory And Implications For Esg, Jonathan Bonham, Amoray Riggs-Cragun

Seattle University Law Review

In conventional agency theory, the agent is modeled as exerting unobservable “effort” that influences the distribution over outcomes the principal cares about. Recent papers instead allow the agent to choose the entire distribution, an assumption that better describes the extensive and flexible control that CEOs have over firm outcomes. Under this assumption, the optimal contract rewards the agent directly for outcomes the principal cares about, rather than for what those outcomes reveal about the agent’s effort. This article briefly summarizes this new agency model and discusses its implications for contracting on ESG activities.

Overseeing The Administrative State, Jill E. Fisch

Seattle University Law Review

In a series of recent cases, the Supreme Court has reduced the regulatory power of the Administrative State. Pending cases offer vehicles for the Court to go still further. Although the Court’s skepticism of administrative agencies may be rooted in Constitutional principles or political expediency, this Article explores another possible explanation—a shift in the nature of agencies and their regulatory role. As Pritchard and Thompson detail in their important book, A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court was initially skeptical of agency power, jeopardizing Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)’s ambitious New Deal plan. The Court’s acceptance …

The Sec, The Supreme Court, And The Administrative State, Paul G. Mahoney

Seattle University Law Review

Pritchard and Thompson have given those of us who study the SEC and the securities laws much food for thought. Their methodological focus is on the internal dynamics of the Court’s deliberations, on which they have done detailed and valuable work. The Court did not, however, operate in a vacuum. Intellectual trends in economics and law over the past century can also help us understand the SEC’s fortunes in the federal courts and make predictions about its future.

A Hard Pill To Swallow: The Abysmal Mental Health Standards Of Detained Immigrant Children In The United States, Rama Bankesly

Seattle University Law Review

After setting foot into the U.S., unaccompanied children must learn to navigate academic and legal systems while receiving little support and carrying the heavy burden of effects of trauma on their mental health. They need access to mental health care from qualified professionals, but as this Comment will explain, they systematically fail to receive care, as can be seen in cases like Doe v. Shenandoah Valley Juv. Ctr. Comm’n. In Shenandoah, an unaccompanied child arrived in the U.S. and was placed in a facility that failed to provide remotely adequate mental health care and in fact was subjected …

Interpretive Divergence In The New York Court Of Appeals, Ethan J. Leib

Faculty Scholarship

This Article focuses attention on the New York Court of Appeals, which is decidedly formalist about contract interpretation but decidedly contextualist about statutory interpretation. It explores some recent exemplary cases to show where the New York Court of Appeals tends to land in what turns out to be, for this court at least, two different battlefields in the law of interpretation. Finding that there is “interpretive divergence” between statutory and contract cases, the Article then reflects on the practice of divergence more generally, revisiting assumptions about why anyone might have thought harmonization was sensible in the first place.

The Supreme Court And The Challenges For Fiscal Federalism: Mineral Area Development Authority V Steel Authority Of India, Sanyukta Chowdhury, Amit Chowdhury

National Law School Journal

This case comment analyses the 2024 Supreme Court judgement in Mineral Area Development Authority v Steel Authority of India, in which the court upheld the states’ power to tax mineral rights and mineral-bearing land. The authors discuss the issues involved, the approach of the bench towards interpretation, and the implications for the parties to the case and other stakeholders. They argue that while fiscal federalism is crucial to India’s constitutional scheme, the bench had limited leeway in deciding the case on this basis due to the absence of legal, doctrinal, and factual clarity.

The Debt Limit, Conor Clarke

Scholarship@WashULaw

Every couple of years, it seems, the debt limit shows up to wreak havoc in American law and public finance. By capping the face value of government securities that can be “outstanding at one time,” the statutory limit regularly threatens the Treasury’s ability to raise the revenue needed to fund required government spending. Brinksmanship over the limit has shut down the government, cost the country billions of dollars, and mired financial markets in uncertainty. And yet, despite its obvious and longstanding importance, the limit remains poorly understood. Commentators attribute its beginnings to 1917 and 1941, before which it is assumed …

The Battle Over Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion And Critical Race Theory In Florida: A Case Study On The Stop W.O.K.E. Act, Grace Anne Castelin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Accelerating from 2022 and continuing through 2024, the state of Florida has experienced significant policy changes, particularly within the realm of higher education and affairs of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Many progressive officials, experts, and activists assert arguments that the state is on the verge of evolving into an authoritarian regime while many illiberal policies are being produced through the Florida legislature and current executive leadership—social and economic sectors are consequently threatened in order to maintain political oppression. The Stop W.O.K.E. Act has served as a catalyst for shifting the state's political stance on DEI, culminating in a chain …

The Chinese Balloon Incident And Partisanism In International Law, Samuli Seppänen

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

This Article discusses the implications of the February 2023 Chinese balloon incident for understanding Chinese foreign policy elites' approaches to international law. It argues that the Chinese balloon incident fits the perception of a globally ambitious and activist China. At the same time, the ethically ambiguous context offoreign surveillance flights problematizes the stark dichotomies between authoritarian and liberal approaches to international law. Chinese legal arguments in the Chinese balloon incident followed the Cold War-era playbook of diplomatic exchanges on unauthorized flights in foreign airspace. Moreover, the Chinese commentary on U.S. conduct in the Chinese balloon incident in some ways resembled …

Congress Is An It: A New View Of Legislative History, Brian D. Feinstein

Emory Law Journal

Prominent judges and scholars have long challenged the use of legislative history in statutory interpretation. Critics point to the privileged role that supposedly unrepresentative committee chairs play in the production of legislative history and a perceived inability to aggregate individual lawmakers’ intentions. These features, the argument goes, cast doubt on the reliability of committee reports, floor speeches, and the like as windows into congressional intent. This critique even comes with a pithy framing: using legislative history to interpret statutes is misguided because “Congress is a ‘they,’ not an ‘it.’”

This widely adopted expression, although appropriate in previous congressional epochs, …