State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Preemption Of State Fraudulent Transfer Law By The Bankruptcy Code, David G. Carlson

Articles

The article argues that state law tort claims based on fraudulent transfers are preempted by the Bankruptcy Code. It contends that allowing such tort claims to persist interferes with a bankruptcy trustee's ability to achieve universal settlements and recover assets, as the trustee cannot guarantee immunity from third-party tort liabilities.

From Waiver To Shield: The Routine Misapplication Of The Federal Tort Claims Act’S Discretionary Function Exception, Alexander Sitnikov

Cardozo Law Review

When a pedestrian trips and falls on a defective sidewalk, liability usually turns on negligence. But when the property surrounding the sidewalk belongs to the federal government, tort liability often vanishes altogether. This result is just one of the many shortcomings of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) and one of its most controversial and heavily litigated provisions: the discretionary function exception (“DFE”). This Note explores the current judicial interpretations of the FTCA and DFE, which often work in conjunction with state laws and federal regulations. Despite the central public policy rationale and congressional intent surrounding the FTCA and its …

Sidewalk Living, Michael C. Pollack

Articles

In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit a city from enforcing a criminal ban on encampments on public property such as parks and sidewalks. But even if municipalities are now permitted to use tactics such as policing, encampment clearing, arrests, and imprisonment, these are not the right ways to address the problems of public homelessness.

Instead, homelessness must be understood as one of many conflicts over limited public space. At its best, vibrant sidewalk life enhances communities and local economies. But at its worst, every use of these finite …

Data Sanctuaries: Rethinking Technological Progress To Preserve Federalism, Nathan S. Lee

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

Why are sanctuary states and cities in the present moment largely failing to protect immigrants and other vulnerable people from federal enforcement of an agenda based on mass deportation and fear? While federalism was painted during the Civil Rights Era as a weapon of states to protect policies of discrimination and segregation, federalism was also a powerful tool used by Northern States before the Civil War to resist Southern and federal laws enabling the dehumanizing capture and transport offugitive slaves (or suspected fugitive slaves). What has changed in the passing years to make federalism seem like such a thin concept, …

Property Rights V. Taxpayer Rights: The Battle Over Tax Foreclosures, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Edward A. And Doris Zelinsky In The Appellate Division, Third Department, New York Supreme Court, Edward A. Zelinsky, Doris Zelinsky

Amicus Briefs

To combat COVID, New York in 2020 forbade an out-of-state employee like the petitioner to commute into his New York office, forcing him to instead work at his home in Connecticut. New York now takes the remarkable position that it can tax the income Governor Cuomo forced this out-of-state employee to earn at his home exclusively outside New York. That position is as wrong as it sounds.

Both as a matter of New York law and of federal constitutional law under the Due Process and dormant Commerce Clauses, New York may not tax the income the petitioner earned exclusively at …

Michelle Adams On Detroit, The Supreme Court, And School Segregation, Floersheimer Center For Constitutional Democracy, Black Law Students Association (Blsa), Alexander A. Reinert, Michelle Adams, James Foreman Jr.

2025 Event Invitations

Join us for a special evening with Michelle Adams, the Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, and former Cardozo Professor, as she discusses her acclaimed new book The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for School Desegregation.

The Containment, Floersheimer Center For Constitutional Democracy, Black Law Students Association (Blsa), Alexander Reinert, Michellle Adams, James Forman Jr.

2025–2026 Flyers

Join us for a special evening with Michelle Adams, the Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, and former Cardozo Professor, as she discusses her acclaimed new book The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for School Desegregation.

The End(S) Of Bankruptcy Exceptionalism: Purdue Pharma And The Problem Of Social Debt, Jonathan C. Lipson, Pamela Foohey

Cardozo Law Review

The Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision in the controversial chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization of opioid-maker Purdue Pharma ends the use of nonconsensual third-party “releases,” which discharge (eliminate) liabilities of nondebtors who may share liability with a corporate debtor. Although the majority opinion is correct that the Bankruptcy Code does not permit this, it failed to recognize the problematic exceptionalism of the lower courts which approved those releases or the “social” qualities of Purdue Pharma’s mass tort liability.

Bankruptcy exceptionalism has been a contested concept since it emerged over fifteen years ago and reflects a willingness to bend the rule of …

P*Law 2025: Access To Housing Justice: Eviction Diversion Programs, Center For Public Service Law, Public Interest Law Student Association (Pilsa), Nathaniel Newman, Julia Leibman

2024–2025 Flyers

A panel discussion on eviction diversion programs and access to housing justice, held on January 28 in Room 1008. The event featured speakers from the National Center for State Courts, Center for Justice Innovation, Urban Justice Center, and Mobilization for Justice. Moderated by Nathenial Newman and Julia Leibman, both Cardozo Law Class of 2027.

Equitable Incorporation: How History And Tradition Can Progressively Redefine The Fourteenth Amendment, Robert D'Alessandro

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The Fourteenth Amendment, designed to ensure equality before the law, has been misinterpreted by the Supreme Court through its incorporation doctrine, leading to rulings that harm marginalized communities. The article advocates for "Equitable Incorporation," a doctrine requiring courts to consider the impact of their decisions on historically discriminated groups, ensuring the Amendment's purpose of equity and justice is upheld. This approach would necessitate the incorporation of unincorporated rights and reinterpret existing ones to reflect the Amendment's equitable intent.

The U Visa: A Remedy For Vulnerable Immigrants Scammed By Unscrupulous Attorneys, Jennifer Piñeros

Cardozo Law Review

As of 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that there are eleven million unauthorized immigrants† living in the United States. Due to limited resources, DHS has taken the position that it “cannot respond to all immigration violations or remove all persons unlawfully [residing] in the United States.” Congress has failed to enact comprehensive immigration reform, despite numerous attempts, since the Reagan administration. This leaves the unauthorized population in a limbo often characterized as “living in the shadows”—relegated to fading into the background so as to not draw the attention of immigration enforcement authorities. Immigration status impacts many …

Brief For Amici Curiae New York State Legal Scholars In Support Of Defendants-Respondents, Wilfred U. Codrington Iii, Michael Pollack

Amicus Briefs

This document presents a legal brief submitted by amici curiae in a case involving prominent Republican plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of New York State's absentee voting provisions. The brief emphasizes the fundamental importance of voting as enshrined in the New York Constitution, particularly Article II, which guarantees suffrage to all qualified citizens. It argues that the Constitution's democracy principle supports broad access to the electoral process, countering the plaintiffs' claims that the absentee voting provisions are overly restrictive. The amici curiae assert that the legislative authority to expand voting access is consistent with the overarching democratic commitments of the Constitution. …

Unprincipled All The Way Down, Wilfred U. Codrington Iii

Articles

In 2006, the Supreme Court issued an emergency stay order in Purcell v. Gonzalez. Sparing in words and inattentive to the realities on the ground, the opinion nevertheless made a reasonable and understandable assertion: prior to issuing relief, courts presiding over elections should take into account any harms that judicial orders might cause, particularly in the lead-up to voting, alongside other considerations unique to elections. The statement was general enough to mollify the masses in the short-term. But over the long haul, it has proven to be a vehicle through which important election decisions might be made in less than …

Digital Barter Taxes: A Legal Defense, Young Ran (Christine) Kim, Darien Shanske

Articles

This short essay, aimed at state legislators, defends digital barter taxes from the most common legal objections.

Digital Barter Taxes Are Good Tax Policy, Young Ran (Christine) Kim, Darien Shanske

Articles

This short essay, aimed at state legislators, argues that digital barter taxes are good tax policy.

Sidewalk Government, Michael C. Pollack

Articles

This Article is about one of the most used, least studied spaces in the country: the sidewalk.

It is easy to think of sidewalks simply as spaces for pedestrians, and that is exactly how most scholars, policymakers, and laws treat them. But this view is fundamentally mistaken. In big cities and small towns, sidewalks are also where we gather, demonstrate, dine, exercise, rest, and shop. They are host to commerce and infrastructure. They are spaces of public access and sources of private obligation. And in all of these things, sidewalks are sites of under-appreciated conflict. The centrality of sidewalks in …

Against Gap-Filling, Noah C. Chauvin

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

Legal scholars delight in gap-filling. They frequently claim that their works have identified a gap in the literature and to have filled (or begun filling) that gap. However, all too often, these same papers fail to explain why the gap needed to be filled at all. Indeed, despite a robust tradition of meta-scholarship, the legal literature is largely devoid of a theory of academic gap-filling. This essay fills that gap, arguing that gap-filling for the sake of gap-filling is an error for three interconnected reasons. First, gaps might exist for a good reason. Second, concern with gap-filling is often a …

Mission Impossible? The Case For Municipal Tort Liability Reform In A Post-Valdez World, Shelley Wu

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Fees And Fines As Stategraft, Rebekah Diller, Mitali Nagrecha, Alicia Bannon

Articles

In A Theory of Stategraft, Bernadette Atuahene advances the concept of “stategraft” to describe situations in which “state agents transfer property from persons to the state in violation of the state’s own laws or basic human rights.” This Essay delineates the ways in which criminal legal system fees and fines can be characterized as stategraft and explores the value of this concept for social movements. In many ways, the stategraft frame, with its focus on illegality, fits well with much of the litigation and advocacy against unconstitutional fees-and-fines practices that have occurred over the last decade. Exposing illegal practices …

No Sense Of Decency, Kathryn E. Miller

Articles

For nearly seventy years, the Court has assessed Eighth Amendment claims by evaluating “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” In this Article, I examine the evolving standards of decency test, which has long been a punching bag for critics on both the right and the left. Criticism of the doctrine has been fierce, but largely academic until recent years. Some fault the test for being too majoritarian, while others argue that it provides few constraints on the Justices’ discretion, permitting their personal predilections to rule the day. For many, the test is seen …

Easing Evictions: The Need For Mediation And Formal Eviction Guidelines Between New York City Landlords And Rent-Stabilized Tenants, Halle Jaffe

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

No abstract provided.

All The Way To Hell: An Artist's Legal Descent Into The Underworld Of Oil And Gas, Madison S. Marlow

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Eliza Evans’ project, All the Way to Hell, employs a novel legal strategy to challenge Oklahoma’s permissive fracking regulations by fragmenting mineral rights among thousands of co-owners, aiming to disrupt the forced pooling process. While her approach highlights systemic legal and environmental issues, the state’s industry-friendly framework and regulatory capture present significant barriers to meaningful change. The note argues that Evans’ activism underscores the need for legislative reform to balance individual property rights with environmental protection.

The Ftc's "Made In America" Enforcement Policy Is Too Stringent For Small Businesses To Comply With, Jamie Cutler

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note argues that the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) "Made in America" policy is overly stringent and disproportionately burdensome for small businesses. The policy requires products labeled as "Made in America" to contain "all or virtually all" parts and processing from the U.S., a standard that is often ambiguous, economically prohibitive, and misaligned with consumer perceptions. The note contends that this strict enforcement creates a "Hobson's choice" for small businesses, making it infeasible for them to comply without suffering financial harm or reputational damage. It advocates for lowering the threshold to allow more flexibility, which would support small businesses, promote …

Oral Argument In Moore V. Harper And The Perils Of Finding “Compromise” On The Independent State Legislature Theory, Katherine A. Shaw

Online Publications

The Supreme Court’s cert grant last June in Moore v. Harper was an ominous note on which to end an explosive term. The grant seemed to broadcast an openness to embracing what’s known as the “independent state legislature theory,” or ISLT. It is a once-fringe idea that the U.S. Constitution, and in particular Article I’s “elections clause,” grants to state legislatures alone, and withholds from other state entities (think: courts and constitutions), the power to regulate elections for federal office.

Hamptons Aesthetics Vs. Shinnecock Rights: How The Federal Government Is Failing To Protect Indigenous Sovereignty From State Judicial Infringement, Lindsay M. Brocki

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the conflict between the Shinnecock Nation's sovereignty and state interference, highlighting the federal government's failure to protect indigenous sovereignty. It uses the Shinnecock Nation's legal battle over billboards as a case study to argue for stronger federal protection against state encroachment.

The Firearm Preemption Phenomenon, Rachel Simon

Cardozo Law Review

Forty-five states have adopted express preemption statutes curtailing or entirely prohibiting local gun regulation, and several jurisdictions now threaten localities with penalties for violating such restrictions. These measures have been remarkably effective in reducing the breadth and variety of gun laws nationwide, but their consequences have only just begun to attract attention. Public debates over guns tend to center on the Second Amendment while overlooking state-level obstacles to local lawmaking, and the scholarship on state-local preemption lacks an analysis devoted exclusively to the gun-policy space.

To fill these gaps, this Article provides a comprehensive account of the firearm preemption phenomenon. …

"A Mystifying And Distorting Factor": The Electoral College And American Democracy, Katherine A. Shaw

Articles

A Review of Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College. By Jesse Wegman.

Court Packing As An Antidote, Rivka Weill

Cardozo Law Review

Court packing is considered the nuclear weapon that may unleash total chaos on the American constitutional system. Even in the face of a highly controversial appointment process to the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2020 presidential election season, scholars caution against the wisdom and utility of resorting to court packing. This Essay makes three bold arguments: First, a President may nominate a candidate to the Supreme Court at any time, including their last year in office; this is true both empirically and normatively. It is the Senate’s responsibility to ensure the people’s will is not frustrated. Second, never since the …

Court Packing Is A Chimera, Brian L. Frye

Cardozo Law Review

The dream of the 1930s is alive in Washington. Democrats see Republicans hemorrhaging voters as Trump struggles with the economy and the pandemic and are salivating at the prospect of retaking not only the White House, but also the Senate. Of course, you should never sell a bearskin until you’ve caught the bear. But even a blowout victory can’t get Democrats the prize they really want, a Supreme Court majority. So, in back-to-the-future fashion, many progressives are pushing the idea of court packing. After all, in politics, rules are made to be broken.