Legislation Commons^™

S22rs Sgr No. 2 (Gambling), Harris Quadir, Adam Dohrenwend

Student Senate Enrolled Legislation

A Resolution

To urge and request LSU Administration and LSU Athletic Administration to refrain from encouraging LSU students in gambling practices

The "Divisive Concepts" Laws And Americans Of Asian Descent, Ilhyung Lee

SMU Law Review Forum

In the past year, a number of states have enacted laws that prohibit public schools from teaching certain lessons about race. The main target of these laws appears to be “critical race theory,” once a theory advanced in legal academia that has now become a “catchall term” for discussions of race and racism. The states mean business and seek to enforce their new or proposed laws by prohibiting state funding for teaching the banned content, withholding funding to local educational agencies or schools in violation, subjecting offending teachers to disciplinary action, and allowing those aggrieved to bring an action at …

California And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Statutory Employee Classification Scheme, Richard H. Gilliland Iii

Washington and Lee Law Review

The battle over worker classification between state governments, on the one hand, and gig economy companies, on the other, has raged since at least the first time someone ordered an Uber. Nowhere has this battle played out more prominently in recent years than in California. In 2019, the state legislature passed AB 5, a bill which adopted a stringent independent contractor standard and effectively classified all gig economy workers as employees of the companies whose apps they use to find work. AB 5’s ripple effects were enormous—the significant popularity of gig economy apps among consumers launched what might have been …

Rwu Law News: The Newsletter Of Roger Williams University School Of Law, Michael M. Bowden, Gregory W. Bowman, Brooklyn Crockton

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Equality: How Regressive Laws Can Advance Progressive Ends, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

Since the fall of 2020, right-wing forces have targeted Critical Race Theory ("CR T') through a sustained disinformation campaign. This offensive has deployed anti-CRT rhetoric to justify a host of "Backlash Bills" designed to chill conversations about race and racism in the classroom. Concerned stakeholders have assailed these laws as morally bankrupt and legally suspect. These responses are natural and appropriate. But challenging a bill's moral or legal mooring is insufficient to counter a primary purpose of this legislative onslaught: to further erode, within our public discourse and collective consciousness, the ability to distinguish between racism and antiracism. To meet …

Racist History And The Second Amendment: A Critical Commentary, Patrick J. Charles

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

It is an honor and a pleasure to help the American UniversityLegislationandPolicy Brief carry on its fine tradition of scholarly inquiry into important issues facing the nation, the legislatures and the public policy arena. AULPB is an important forum within WCL for student authors to examine cutting edge, timely issues. It is also a focal point, beyond the bounds of the WCL campus, for authors to consider a broad range of pressing issues that combine law and policy questions.

Overview Of Bicameral Legislatures’ Potential Impact On The Executive Selection Process, Kyle Kopchak

Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design

Bicameral legislature is a common constitutional design model, with bicameral legislatures making up roughly 41 percent of all legislatures worldwide. As of April 2014, 79 bicameral and 113 unicameral systems were recorded in the database of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. In general, “bicameralism is more common in federal, large, and presidential states, while unicameralism is more common in unitary, small, parliamentary ones”. Bicameral systems operate two legislative chambers, both of which play a role in drafting and passing national legislation. However, each house often fulfills a unique role in the legislative process and is usually elected by different methods. Proponents of …

National Scenic Trails, Pipelines, & Ferc: Examining Pipeline Certification After United States Forest Service V. Cowpasture River Forest Preservation Association, Caitlin M. Doak

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Pulling The Trigger On Hunting Regulations For Lead Ammunition, Lydia Shields

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Two Rwu Law Lawmakers Fight To 'Let R.I. Vote' 03-24-2022, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The National Flood Insurance Program: Why Government-Backed Flood Insurance Is Drowning In Debt, Louis Masi

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Tijuana River Valley Pollution: How The Environmental Protection Agency Expects To End A Ninety-Year Environmental And Public Health Crisis, Andrew Simmons

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

First In The South: Cannabis Legalization In Virginia, Jm Pedini, Cassidy Crockett-Verba

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In 2021, Virginia made history when it became the first state in the

South to legalize cannabis for responsible use by adults. Though legalization

is now the law of the land, which today includes personal possession

and cultivation, there remains much work to be done before Virginians are

able to legally purchase cannabis outside of the medical program. Concerns

over social equity provisions, retail sales dates, and the reenactment

clauses added during the 2021 legislative session have drastically slowed

the process of expanding the regulated marketplace to adult-use consumers.

With many key components requiring reenactment by the 2022 General Assembly …

A Year Of Monumental Change: A Review Of Virginia's 2021 General Assembly Regular And Special Sessions, Andrew Mullen

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Between the abolition of the death penalty and the continued fallout from

the COVID-19 pandemic, the Virginia General Assembly had a full plate of

legislative priorities in 2021. This Article will provide a summary of the major

bills that were introduced, passed, or that failed during the 2021 Regular

and Special Sessions. The other articles within this issue cover the following

topics in depth: reproductive justice, criminal justice legal reform, housing

policy concerns during the pandemic, cannabis legalization, and environmental

justice. This Article summarizes legislation grouped in the following

parts: I. Civil and Criminal law, II. Education, III. Labor and …

Courting Prom Night Voters, Spencer Ryan Lockwood

Texas A&M Law Review

A creature of state law, voter registration is a point of national contention and a subject that frequents partisan debate. Federal legislation—meant to unsew a patchwork quilt of discriminatory practices against voters—complicated the voter registration process. States have changed their voter registration laws in the wake of Supreme Court opinions and prolonged litigation. But an opportunity endures for states to take further accountability for their younger voting-age populations without more federal intervention. By amending their election codes to require that high school graduates choose whether to register to vote, states can act as legislative laboratories and court their prom night …

Big Little Lies: How Loopholes In The Small Business Act Allow Large Businesses To Profit, Halley Townsend

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

The Small Business Administration (SBA) was established by Congress to create and administer programs to help small businesses compete in the national economy. But far too often, large, sophisticated firms profit from SBA programs meant to assist the little guy. Currently, Congress legislates specific programs tailored towards one type of small business, and the SBA is responsible for implementing the program. This process has resulted in loopholes in the SBA’s enabling act that permit powerful businesses to qualify for SBA programs. This result is the opposite of what Congress intended.

Part II provides background and the history of the SBA. …

Disgust And Guns: Conduct, Identity, And Second Amendment Animus, William D. Araiza

Northwestern University Law Review

In Second Amendment Animus, Professor Jacob Charles examines whether the burgeoning doctrine of unconstitutional animus should play any role in adjudicating Second Amendment claims. This Essay responds to Professor Charles’s important work. While it concludes that he is likely correct to reject animus as a grounding for Second Amendment claims, it points out areas where the analysis is more nuanced than he suggests. After considering Professor Charles’s analysis, the Essay examines the Second Amendment animus issue through the theoretical lens provided by Professor Martha Nussbaum’s work on disgust as a motivating factor for the types of exclusionary and subordinating …

A Twisted Fate: How California's Premier Environmental Law Has Worsened The State's Housing Crisis, And How To Fix It, Noah Dewitt

Pepperdine Law Review

California, the iconic Golden State, holds the infamous record for the largest population of people experiencing homelessness in the United States. These record-setting numbers have been steadily on the rise for decades and are due in large part to the state’s severe housing shortage, which is currently just under one million housing units. From those directly experiencing homelessness to those living in the country’s most expensive zip codes, the compounding economic and social impacts of the crisis touch every Californian. The extent of the crisis is not lost on California’s leaders, but despite countless initiatives on both the state and …

Whither The Lofty Goals Of The Environmental Laws?: Can Statutory Directives Restore Purposivism When We Are All Textualists Now?, Stephen M. Johnson

Pepperdine Law Review

Congress set ambitious goals to protect public health and the environment when it enacted the federal environmental laws through bipartisan efforts in the 1970s. For many years, the federal courts interpreted the environmental laws to carry out those enacted purposes. Over time, however, courts greatly reduced their focus on the environmental and public health purposes of the environmental laws when interpreting those statutes due to the rise in textualism, the declining influence of the Chevron doctrine, and the increasing willingness of courts to defer to agency underenforcement of statutory responsibilities across all regulatory statutes. In 2020, the Environmental Protection Network, …

Why Arkansas Act 710 Was Upheld, And Will Be Again, Mark Goldfeder

Arkansas Law Review

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. - ironically, not Mark Twain The recent Eighth Circuit ruling in Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip, the lawsuit revolving around an Arkansas antidiscrimination bill, has led to a lot of (at best) confusion or (at worst) purposeful obfuscation by people unwilling or unable to differentiate between procedural issues and the constitutional merits of a case. In other words, reports of the bill’s death have been very much exaggerated.

Is Title Vii An "Anti-Discrimination" Law?, Anuj C. Desai

University of Colorado Law Review Forum

No abstract provided.

How Public Health Informed Lawmaking Would Address The Rising Synthetic Opioid Death Toll, Jennifer S. Bard

Brooklyn Law Review

The sharply rising deaths associated with use of synthetic opioids in the United States highlight the failure of a legislative strategy focused on reducing the availability of prescription opioids. However, since synthetic opioids prescribed for pain relief have never been a major contributor to either developing opioid dependence or dying from opioid use, it is not surprising that these measures have not only failed to reduce deaths, but have also caused considerable harm to people in need of pain relief. Yet reversing them and taking a public health approach focused on preventing the most serious harms associated with synthetic opioids …

The Un Security Council And The Saga Of “Global Legislation”, Gadi Ezra

International Law Studies

The release of the UN Security Council from the “veto chains” that characterized the Cold War has led it to intensively engage in a wide spectrum of conflicts and issues. This expanded activity has peaked around its “global legislation” attempts. Although often used in the legal literature, this term is vague and contested. Scholarly work occasionally discusses the Council’s alleged global legislation, but without initially offering a proper working definition of the term. Arguments both for and against are frequently laid incoherently and can roughly be divided into two types: those assessing the Council’s authority to engage in global legislation, …

Corporate Purpose And The Separation Of Powers, Benjamin T. Seymour

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

Despite its intense focus on inter-jurisdictional competition, corporate law scholarship has thus far overlooked the influence of inter-branch competition on business organizations. This Article shows how interbranch struggles for control over corporations catalyzed the advent of modern corporate law and helped propel Delaware to its dominant position in the market for corporate charters. For centuries, the legislature, judiciary, and executive vied for the decisive role in dictating the means and ends of corporations. Through the nineteenth century, competition among the branches produced a dysfunctional and volatile relationship between government and private enterprise, with each branch successively assuming a leading role …

Securing Gun Rights By Statute: The Right To Keep And Bear Arms Outside The Constitution, Jacob D. Charles

Michigan Law Review

In popular and professional discourse, debate about the right to keep and bear arms most often revolves around the Second Amendment. But that narrow reference ignores a vast and expansive nonconstitutional legal regime privileging guns and their owners. This collection of nonconstitutional gun rights confers broad powers and immunities on gun owners that go far beyond those required by the Constitution, like rights to bring guns on private property against an owner’s wishes and to carry a concealed firearm in public with no training or background check. This Article catalogues this set of expansive laws and critically assesses them. Unlike …

Women's Political Participation In Nevada, Brenda Cruz Gomez, Aika Dietz

Research Briefs

Nevada leads the nation with the first female-majority state legislatiure.

Critical Legal Studies And The Police, Nirej Sekhon

Cardozo Law Review

Constitutional police regulation is a complex tangle of substantive rights, remedies, and procedural rules. Together, they appear to scaffold a cohesive system of police restraint. Legal scholars tend to focus criticism on specific rules, impelled by faith that the system can be made to serve its core purpose: protecting civilians against police overreach and abuse. Drawing on critical legal studies, this Article contends that constitutional police regulation is incapable of realizing its putative purpose. Constitutional police regulation frames policing as a series of isolated, individual police-civilian encounters. This is compounded by the unpredictable interpretive interplay between substantive, remedial, and procedural …

Following The Yellow Burning Road To Oz: The Social And Economic Impact Of Opportunity Zones And Their Potential Expansion In California Amid Wildfires, Nicole Motamed

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This article will discuss the economic backdrop against which legislation was enacted to spur economic development in distressed areas, focusing on the creation of the Opportunity Zones program established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The first half of the article will provide an in-depth analysis of the Opportunity Zone incentive and consider its procedures and implications, including the tax benefits of the program and the necessary criteria to be qualified for its benefits. It will also present both the negative and positive impacts that have surfaced since the program’s inception and which have in …

How The Subprime Mortgage Crisis Sparked New Legislation And Changed The Way Millennials Purchase Real Estate, Troy T. Kramer

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This article will explore the Generation Y's approach to the real estate market and analyze how the Subprime Mortgage Crisis stunted Millennials’ economic development. It also analyzes what ways legislation has changed and government has influenced the economy since 2008 to prevent another free fall of the global economy and to protect consumers from predatory lending practices and under-regulation of the financial sector. Further, this article will analyze how Millennials differ from previous generations in their method of purchasing homes and investing in real estate—with a specific eye towards advances in technology. This article also gives advice to first-time homebuyers …