Litigation Commons^™

The Justiciability Of Cancelled Patents, Greg Reilly

Washington and Lee Law Review

The recent expansion of the Patent Office’s power to invalidate issued patents raises a coordination problem when there is concurrent litigation, particularly where the federal courts have already upheld the patent’s validity. The Federal Circuit has concluded that Patent Office cancellation extinguishes litigation pending at any stage and requires vacating prior decisions in the case. This rule is widely criticized on doctrinal, policy, and separation of powers grounds. Yet the Federal Circuit has reached (almost) the right outcome, except for the wrong reasons. Both the Federal Circuit and its critics overlook that the Federal Circuit’s rule reflects a straightforward application …

Massachusetts V. Epa: A Pyrrhic Victory For Climate Change Litigation, Andrew J. Biggs

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Driving Diverse Representation Of Diverse Classes, Alissa Del Riego

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Why have federal courts overwhelmingly appointed white men to represent diverse consumer classes? Rule 23(g) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires courts to appoint the attorneys “best able to represent the interests of class members” to serve as class counsel. But courts’ recurrent conclusion that white men best fit the federally mandated job description not only gives the appearance of discrimination, but harms class members that suffer from outcomes plagued by groupthink and cognitive biases. This Article sets out to uncover why white male repeat players continue to dominate class counsel appointments and proposes a practical and immediately …

Civil Rights Law Equity: An Introduction To A Theory Of What Civil Rights Has Become, John Valery White

Scholarly Works

This Article argues that civil rights law is better understood as civil rights equity. It contends that the four-decade-long project of restricting civil rights litigation has shaped civil rights jurisprudence into a contemporary version of traditional equity. For years commentators have noted the low success rates of civil rights suits and debated the propriety of increasingly restrictive procedural and substantive doctrines. Activists have lost faith in civil rights litigation as an effective tool for social change, instead seeking change in administrative forums, or by asserting political pressure through social media and activism to compel policy change. As for civil rights …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Hernández V. Mesa: A Case For A More Meaningful Partnership With The Inter-American Commission On Human Rights, Peyton Jacobsen

Seattle University Law Review

Through an in-depth examination of Hernández, the Inter-American Human Rights System, and the success of Mexico’s partnership with said system, this Note will make a case for embracing human rights bodies— specifically, the Inter-American System on Human Rights—as an appropriate and necessary check on the structures that form the United States government. Part I will look closely at the reasoning and judicially created doctrine that guided the decision in Hernández, with the goal of providing a better understanding of the complicated path through the courts that led to a seemingly straightforward yet unsatisfying result. Part II will illustrate the scope …

2022 Data Updates Accompanying Andrea Fenster & Margo Schlanger, Slamming The Courthouse Door: 25 Years Of Evidence For Repealing The Prison Litigation Reform Act, Prison Policy Initiative, Margo Schlanger, German Marquez Alcala

Other Publications

This entry is for underlying data, excel versions, and replication code for tables included in Fenster, Andrea and Margo Schlanger. "Slamming the Courthouse Door: 25 years of evidence for repealing the Prison Litigation Reform Act." Prison Policy Initiative (2021) found at https://repository.law.umich.edu/other/173/

This 2022 data update is supplemented by 2022 BJS Court Orders files and supercedes the 2021 data update found in this repository./

2022 Data Update For Slamming The Courthouse Door Table F: Incidence Of Court Orders, Margo Schlanger, German Marquez Alcala

Other Publications

This dataset encompasses Table F: Incidence of Court Orders, Local Jails and State Prisons, 1983-2006, 2019 and the underlying data, excel versions, and replication code for this table.

This data accompanies:

Fenster, Andrea and Margo Schlanger. "Slamming the Courthouse Door: 25 years of evidence for repealing the Prison Litigation Reform Act." Prison Policy Initiative (2021). https://repository.law.umich.edu/other/173/

Along with the 2022 Data Update Files, this file supersedes the 2021 Data update found in this repository.

To Participate And Elect: Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act At 40, Ellen D. Katz, Brian Remlinger, Andrew Dziedzic, Brooke Simone, Jordan Schuler

Other Publications

This paper provides an overview of cases decided under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act between September 1, 1982 and December 31, 2021. It updates our 2006 study documenting Section 2 litigation through 2005. Of note is the substantial decline in the number of Section 2 cases decided and diminished success for the plaintiffs who bring them. While recent litigation (including Brnovich and Merrill v. Milligan) suggests that Section 2 is likely to occupy, at best, a diminished role in future electoral disputes, this paper shows that Section 2’s reach had already declined significantly prior to recent disputes. …

Brief Of Black Women Law Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Students For Fair Admissions, Inc. V. President And Fellows Of Harvard College And Univ. Of N.C., Suzette Malveaux

Scholarly Articles

Amici are Black women law scholars who, based on their professional and personal experiences, share a deeply rooted commitment to defending the legality of race-conscious admissions policies in educational institutions across the country. They submit this brief to present their unique and vital perspective on the history, constitutionality, and importance of race-conscious programs like those adopted by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (“UNC”).

Masthead, Jtaa Editors

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Sacrificing Justice For “Simplicity”: Inequitable Protection Of Medical Providers In Malpractice Cases Exacerbated By Abandoning The Substantial Factor Test, Michayla Woodward

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Strengthening Schools’ Ability To Combat Cyberbullying In Denying Students’ First Amendment Challenge—Doe V. Hopkinton Pub. Schs., 19 F.4th 493 (1st Cir. 2021), Rebecca Brownell

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Jtaa Editors

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Jtaa Editors

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Criminal Procedure—Night At The Museum: The Balance Between Learning From History And Maintaining The Secrecy Surrounding Grand Jury Proceedings—Lepore V. United States (In Re Order Directing Release Of Recs.), 27 F.4th 94 (1st Cir. 2022), Jessica Vedrani

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Civil Procedure—The Need For Effect-Based Personal Jurisdiction In Trademark Litigation—Motus, Llc V. Cardata Consultants, Llc, 23 F.4th 115 (1st Cir. 2022), Ian Mcreynolds

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Education Law—A Child Left Behind: Exploring Failures In Effective Iep Implementation—Lamar Consol. Indep. Sch. Dist. V. J.T., 577 F. Supp. 3d 599 (S.D. Tex. 2021), Katie Groves

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Protecting Post-Dobbs Abortion-Seeking Minors In A Judicial Bypass System—Doe Ex Rel. Rothert V. Chapman, 30 F.4th 766 (8th Cir. 2022), Meaghan Rose Costello

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

The Negative Impact Of Service Member And Veteran Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) Rating Or Specter Of Ptsd On Child Custody Arrangements, Erhan Bedestani

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

The Promise And Perils Of Private Enforcement, Luke P. Norris

Law Faculty Publications

A new crop of private enforcement suits is sprouting up across the country. These laws permit people to bring enforcement actions against those who aid or induce abortions, against schools that permit transgender students to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identities, and against schools that permit transgender students to play on sports teams consistent with their gender identities. Similar laws permit people to bring enforcement actions against schools that teach critical race theory and against those who sell restricted firearms. State legislatures are considering a host of laws modeled on these examples, along with other novel regimes. These are …

The Spirit Of The Law In The Anthropocene: A Massachusetts V. Environmental Protection Agency Casenote, Victoria Depalma

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Excessive Fee Litigation In Light Of Hughes V. Northwestern University, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Books and Chapters

On September 11, 2006, Jerry Schlichter, a personal injury lawyer from St. Louis, Missouri, rocked the 401(k) plan market by filing a flurry of lawsuits against major corporations alleging that their 401(k) plans were paying excessive fees for plan administration and asset management that harmed employees in violation of their fiduciary duties under ERISA. Between 2006 and 2007, 31 excessive fee suits were filed by Schlichter and other firms. Following several large settlements, including a $62 million settlement by Lockheed Martin, a second wave of excessive fee litigation began in 2015 with more than 50 suits filed in both 2016 …

Koback V. Municipal Employees’ Retirement System Of R.I., 252 A.3d 1247 (R.I. 2021), Morgan E. Hedly

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Finality Of Unmodified Appellate Commissioner Rulings In Washington State, Aurora R. Bearse

Washington Law Review Online

In Washington appellate courts, unelected court commissioners handle most of the motion practice. Some motions are minor and mostly procedural, but other motions touch on the scope of the appeal or its merits. Because commissioners have the power to shape the course of an appeal, the Washington Rules of Appellate Procedure allow parties to internally appeal any commissioner decision to a panel of elected judges, via what is called a “motion to modify” under RAP 17.7. If a panel modifies a commissioner’s ruling, the panel’s decision becomes the final decision of the court on that issue. Similarly, multiple opinions recognize …

Patent Inconsistency, Saurabh Vishnubhakat

Indiana Law Journal

Despite the promise of efficiency through the use of expert agency adjudication in U.S. patent law, administrative substitution continues to fall short. In a variety of ways, the decade-old system of Patent Office adjudication is simply an additional place to litigate rather than the robust technocratic alternative it was meant to be. These problems have arisen from important defects in the statutory design, but also from the enormous expansion and ascendancy of the Patent Office itself. Moreover, while duplicative litigation over patent validity is recognized and criticized, its scale and scope has eluded detailed empirical analysis until now. This Article …

"On The Eve Of Destruction": Courts Confronting The Climate Emergency, Mary Christina Wood

Indiana Law Journal

In the dim and smokey twilight, with only bare necessities in tow, a family rushes to escape the wildfire racing toward them. Elsewhere, a household evacuates just ahead of a category five hurricane, perhaps not for the first time. Along the coastlines, countless others are resigned to looking on as their homesites erode into the inexorably rising surf. At this moment, millions of Americans are forced to reckon with the horrors of the climate catastrophe, and the number of such people who now viscerally grasp our grim climate reality grows every day. Even the judges of this nation prove no …

Creativity For The Common Good: The Case For Fair Use Of Prosthetics Patents, Roxanneh Mousavi

Seattle University Law Review

This Note examines how patent law inhibits accessibility to prosthetics, and how a fair use defense for patent infringement will make them more widely accessible. Part I will explain the basics of patent law, including its history, scope, and process of infringement. Part II will discuss the fair use defense against copyright and trademark infringement and explain why this defense should also be enforceable for patent infringement. Part III will provide an overview of 3D printing. Part IV will focus on 3D prosthetics, specifically on the story of two young prosthetic recipients, Griffin Matuszek and Evie Lambert. Finally, Part V …

Federal Courts’ Recalcitrance In Refusing To Certify State Law Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance Issues, Christopher French

Faculty Scholarship

Over 2,000 COVID-19 business interruption insurance cases have been filed in state and federal courts the past two years with most of the cases filed in or removed to federal courts. The cases are governed by state law. Rather than certify the novel state law issues presented in the cases to the respective state supreme courts that ultimately will determine the law applicable in the cases, each of the eight federal circuit courts to issue decisions on the merits in such cases to date has done so by making an Erie guess regarding how the controlling state supreme courts would …

How Do Lawyer Disciplinary Agencies Enforce Rules Against Litigation Misconduct? Or Do They? Results Of A Case Study And A National Survey Of Disciplinary Counsel, Jona Goldschmidt

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.