State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Criminal Law In Crisis, Benjamin Levin

University of Colorado Law Review Forum

In this Essay, I offer a brief account of how the COVID-19 pandemic lays bare the realities and structural flaws of the carceral state. I provide two primary examples or illustrations, but they are not meant to serve as an exhaustive list. Rather, by highlighting these issues, problems, or (perhaps) features, I mean to suggest that this moment of crisis should serve not just as an opportunity to marshal resources to address the pandemic, but also as a chance to address the harsh realities of the U.S. criminal system. Further, my claim isn’t that criminal law is in some way …

Voting By Mail: Issues And Resources, Virginia A. Neisler

Law Librarian Scholarship

As the world navigates the worst pandemic in living memory, America has been faced with the prospect of holding a federal presidential election amid a public health crisis. In the spring of 2020, when the coronavirus began to spread rapidly in the United States, election officials in many states opted to extend absentee voting deadlines or postpone elections altogether to reduce the risk of disease transmission. In anticipation of a resurgence of COVID-19 in the fall, the scheduled November election has caused concern for many officials who have searched for potential solutions to make the upcoming presidential election safer.

State Vehicle Electrification Mandates And Federal Preemption, Matthew N. Metz, Janelle London

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

By requiring that new vehicles sold after a certain date be electric, states can lower drivers’ vehicle operating costs, boost local employment, and lower electric rates. But there’s a widespread perception that states can’t take advantage of these opportunities because a state vehicle electrification mandate would be preempted by federal law.

Not so.

While the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA) prohibits state regulations “relating to” the control of emissions in motor vehicles, and the Federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) prohibits state regulations “related to” fuel economy standards, there is a strong rationale for federal courts to reject preemption …

Incrementalist Vs. Maximalist Reform: Solitary Confinement Case Studies, Margo Schlanger

Articles

Among criminal justice reformers, it has long been hotly contested whether moderate reform helps or harms more efforts to achieve more thoroughgoing change. With respect to solitary confinement, do partial and ameliorative measures undermine the goal of solitary confinement abolition? Or do reformist campaigns advance—albeit incrementally—that ultimate goal? Call this a debate between “incrementalists” and “maximalists.” I offer this Essay as an appeal for empirical rather than aesthetic inquiry into the question. After summarizing nationwide reform litigation efforts that began in the 1970s, I try to shed some factual light by examining solitary reform efforts in two states, Massachusetts and …

Discerning A Dignitary Offense: The Concept Of Equal 'Public Rights' During Reconstruction, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

The mountain of modern interpretation to which the language of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution has been subjected tends to overshadow the multiple concepts of antidiscrimination that were actually circulating at the time of its drafting. Moreover, as authors on race and law have pointed out, Congress itself lacked any African American representatives during the 1866–68 moment of transitional justice. The subsequent development of a “state action doctrine” limiting the reach of federal civil rights enforcement, in turn, eclipsed important contemporary understandings of the harms that Reconstruction-era initiatives sought to combat. In contrast to the oblique language …

22nd Annual Open Government Summit: Office Of The Attorney General: Access To Public Records Act & Open Meetings Act, Attorney General State Of Rhode Island

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Winks, Whispers, And Prosecutorial Discretion In Rural Iowa, 1925-1928, Emily Prifogle

Articles

Through the eyes of Charles Pendleton’s memoirs, this article walks through a rural community with a county attorney to consider how race, religion, gender, and sexuality influenced rural prosecutorial discretion in the early twentieth century. Rural communities like those in Buena Vista County, Iowa, where the article is centered, experienced “the law” through distinctly isolated geographies and social networks that lacked anonymity and thus shaped available methods of conflict resolution. But anonymity did not mean homogeneity. Ethnic, racial, and religious diversity created divisions within a community where social distance between individuals was small. Both onymity and diversity shaped who should …

California: A New Golden Hub Of International Commercial Arbitration?, Tiffany Luu

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article will explore 2018 SB 766’s impact on International Commercial Arbitration (ICA) within California and will propose initiatives to help California ascend in the list as a preferred seat of ICA. Part II provides the background context of ICA and its use in California. Part III explores the benefits of increasing the use of ICAs seated in California. Part IV suggests ways lawyers and the legal arbitration community can assist in making California a more attractive seat of ICA among international and domestic jurisdictions. Finally, Part V concludes by describing the effect that SB 766 and proposed initiatives will …

Solving The First Mile/ Last Mile Problem: Electric Scooter And Dockless Bicycles Are Positioned To Provide Relief To Commuters Struggling With A Daily Commute, Kelly Grosshuesch

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Commuters in cities across the United States struggle to find ease in their daily commute. Public transportation no longer provides residents with an adequate and reliable source of transportation.1 For many commuters, getting to and from nodes of public transportation is difficult and a deterrent from using public or shared transportation instead of driving.2 This, therefore, increases vehicle congestion and car emissions in cities. While multiple new technologies and innovations have emerged to attempt to help commuters with the trip to and from public transportation, most have fallen short.3 But two new innovations that have gained major popularity among consumers, …

Environmental Federalism As Forum Shopping, Cale Jaffe

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Public policy advocates of all stripes—litigators, politicians, or newspaper columnists—invoke principles of federalism when they are imploring Congress to respect limits imposed by Article I, and when they are insisting that a state legislature accede to the supremacy of a duly enacted national law, invoking Article VI. Yet historically, application of the term, “federalism,” at least in the context of environmental law, has been driven far more by pragmatic considerations than constitutional ones.

This pragmatic approach should not be surprising because, at its core, federalism simply asks what is the right level of government to solve a given problem. After …

It's A Trap!: Responsible Enforcement Of Texas Disaster Evacuation Orders, William S. Gribble

Student Scholarship

We see emergencies within our lives and communities every day without much fanfare. However, when emergencies impact entire neighborhoods, communities, or regions, they become disasters. Depending on its severity, residents can be forced to flee in search of safety. Texas has had nearly five times the annual average of federal disaster declarations than that of any other state in the union. To manage emergencies and disasters, Texas law affords local governments numerous powers, including the authority to order evacuations. While many states have a single mechanism to enforce evacuation orders, Texas has both a civil (recovery of rescue expenses) and …

Playing Politics With Executions Abuse Of Executive Discretion, Joanmarie Davoli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

In The Midst Of Change, A Few Truths Remain—A Review Of Trazenfeld And Jarvis’S Florida Legal Malpractice Law, Jan L. Jacobowitz Ms.

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Abstract forthcoming.

Another Collateral Consequence: Kicking The Victim When She’S Down, Lauren N. Hancock

Washington and Lee Law Review

Every state has a victim compensation fund that provides financial relief to victims of crime who have no other way to pay for medical expenses, funeral costs, crime scene cleanup, or other costs associated with the crime. States impose their own eligibility requirements to determine which victims can receive funding. Six states prohibit victims with certain criminal histories from obtaining compensation. This means that innocent victims of crime are left with nowhere to turn because of something that they already “paid” for. This leaves victims, who are likely already in a financially precarious situation due to their felon status, with …

Mccleary V. State And The Washington State Supreme Court's Retention Of Jurisdiction—A Success Story For Washington Public Schools?, Jessica R. Burns

Seattle University Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Micro-Housing In Seattle Update: Combating “Seattle-Ization”, Taylor Haines

Seattle University Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Misconduct: New York’S Creation Of A Watchdog Commission, Danielle Robinson

Brooklyn Law Review

Prosecutors play an integral role in America’s inherently adversarial criminal justice system and thus have a significant impact on the individual liberties of accused citizens. Therefore, they have long since been subject to continuous scrutiny by the public, which in turn leads to criticism of state legislatures for not addressing the issue. The state of New York attempted to meet this challenge of prosecutorial misconduct head-on as part of a multi-pronged criminal justice reform agenda with the creation of a first-in-the-nation commission on prosecutorial conduct (CPC). At this point in time, the CPC has been held unconstitutional. This note will …

The People’S Business: The Case For Amending New York Civil Rights Law Section 50-A, Jeffrey T. Hazelton

Brooklyn Law Review

For more than forty years, New York Civil Rights Law section 50-a has harmed New Yorkers by shielding the release of police officers’ “personnel records,” including in the aftermath of substantiated complaints of misconduct. With the aid of numerous New York Court Appeals decisions, this statute progressively transformed from a relatively nuanced protection for testifying officers during trial, to its ultimate status as an outright bar to virtually all public disclosures. In fact, the New York Court Appeals has even held that section 50-a supersedes New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), thereby prohibiting even redacted FOIL disclosures. By prioritizing …

Limited Scope Lottery: Playing The Odds On Your Ability To Withdraw, Lianne S. Pinchuk

Brooklyn Law Review

Limited scope representation, also called unbundled representation, has become widespread and widely used over the past three decades. While the American Bar Association has amended its model rules to expressly permit such representation, it failed to amend its model rules governing withdrawal. Some states have been more proactive than others in confronting potential withdrawal issues in limited scope representation. Those states that have attempted to remedy the withdrawal/termination issues have created specific rules governing limited scope engagements allowing for easier withdrawal by attorneys in such matters. Neither New York nor the American Bar Association have promulgated rules (or model rules) …

Federal Ignorance And The Battle For Supervised Injection Sites, Ben Longnecker

University of Miami Law Review

From 1999 to 2017, over 400,000 people have died from opioid overdoses. The federal government recognizes the opioid epidemic as a crisis, yet it has failed to slow the surge of overdose deaths. Some states are, therefore, looking at the implementation of supervised injection sites. There are over 100 supervised injection sites around the world in twelve different countries, and these sites have produced hopeful data on counteracting the opioid crisis’s negative societal effects. However, the federal government has seemingly ignored any empirical evidence and continues to threaten state-sponsored supervised injection sites with criminal prosecution. This Note argues that any …

A Cure For Every Ill? Remedies For “Pathological” Arbitration Clauses, Harout J. Samra, Ramya Ramachanderan

University of Miami Law Review

Defective arbitration and dispute resolution clauses—widely called “pathological clauses”—may undermine parties’ intent to seek recourse to arbitration rather than the courts. Questions concerning the existence and validity of arbitration clauses are subject to state contract law despite the wide sweep of the Federal Arbitration Act. This Article examines selected common “pathologies” and reviews recent court decisions, including from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and its constituent federal district courts, concerning the enforcement of such clauses.

Which Law Is Supreme? The Interplay Between The New York Convention And The Mccarran-Ferguson Act, Brian A. Briz, César Mejía-Dueñas

University of Miami Law Review

The McCarran-Ferguson Act was enacted in 1945 to safeguard the rights of the states to regulate the business of insurance. It provides that acts of Congress not specifically related to the business of insurance are superseded by state laws that regulate the business of insurance. In 1970, the United States ratified the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention). Congress enacted Chapter 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act to implement the New York Convention. The New York Convention requires courts to recognize and enforce both private agreements to arbitrate and arbitration awards made …

Unmasking The Villain: Exposing Scammers’ Identities To Defeat Harmful Calls, Katherine Teng

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Since 1991, Congress has attempted to limit unwanted phone calls through legislative efforts. However, past and current laws remain ineffective as scam call complaints continue to increase while the harm of these calls remains severe. Currently, the laws affecting telecommunication regulation focus on reactive measures rather than preventative solutions. Most recently, Congress has passed the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, which will require telecommunication companies to implement SHAKEN/STIR technology to end scam calls before they reach consumers. While this is the most progressive legislation addressing scam calls, this Note will suggest that phone numbers be registered to …

Saving Small Business From The Big Impact Of Data Breach: A Tiered Federal Approach To Data Protection Law, Nadia Udeshi

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Small businesses provide a significant positive impact on the American economy. However, the current fragmented federal and state data protection and breach notification legal scheme puts the viability of small businesses at risk. While the probability of data breaches occurring continues to increase, small businesses lack the financial and technological resources to contend with the various state and federal laws that impose different monetary penalties and remedial requirements in the event of such breaches. To preserve the viability of small businesses, Congress should enact a centralized, multi-tiered federal data protection and breach notification framework that preempts state laws, imposes minimum …

“Estonia’S Gift To The World”: The Implementation Of A Blockchain Protocol For Corporate Governance In New York, Sydney Lauren Abualy

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The traditional procedures of corporate governance are not designed to resolve issues related to close outcomes of corporate votes, empty voting practices, the proxy voting protocol, verification of shareholder identities, and access to corporate records. Blockchain technology allows all corporate shareholders to participate in corporate governance more conveniently, with increased transparency, on a secure network. Estonia sought to revolutionize corporate governance by facilitating the development of a blockchain based e-voting protocol for shareholders of companies listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange to vote in shareholder meetings. After unsuccessful attempts, New York stands well behind other states, such as Delaware, in …

South Dakota V. Wayfair: An Ill-Conceived Blow To The Free Flow Of Interstate Commerce, Revel Shinn Atkinson

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

For more than a century, brick-and-mortar retailers have been losing local customers—first with the rise of mail-order houses and then more acutely with the rapid growth of online retail. As a result, states have noticed a significant loss in sales tax revenue. While an equivalent amount of tax is typically still owed to the state in the form of a use tax, which is to be remitted to the state by the customer, because these taxes are not automatically collected at the time of the sale, customers have overwhelmingly elected not to pay them. In an effort to recover this …

Civil Procedure Update 2020: New Mexico Annual Judicial Conclave, Verónica C. Gonzales, George Bach

Faculty Scholarship

These materials are part of a presentation on civil procedure given to magistrate, district, appellate, and tribal court judges, justices, and staff attorneys in New Mexico courts. These materials include the language of approved and proposed amendments to the state and federal rules of civil procedure as well as summaries of relevant appellate cases issued by the New Mexico Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation between May 1, 2019 to May 1, 2020.

• Amendments to the New Mexico Rules of Civil Procedure include NMRA Rule …

Opportunity In Ohio: Rethinking Northeast Ohio's Opportunity Zones With Local Legislation, Patrick J. Lipaj

Cleveland State Law Review

Welcome to Census Tract 1186.02! Here, in a small sliver of Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood, tucked between Superior and Hough Avenues, you will uncover a lot. You will discover a rich history of the city’s ethnic and cultural roots. You will also find gang violence, underperforming schools, a median household income of $9,526, and a poverty rate of 66.5 percent. Something you will not find in 1186.02 is investment. Private or public, money is not flowing in to 1186.02 and it has not for a long time. The substantial toll of continuous underinvestment on the residents of this neighborhood, one of …

A Lottery Ticket Is An Express Written Contract And The General Assembly Waived Their Own Instrumentality From Sovereign Immunity!, Forrest F. Schrum Iv

Mercer Law Review

The creation of an express written contract occurs every day. These are contracts documented on an instrument where two parties agree to performing certain actions or preventing a party from performing, and they allow these parties to be liable to the other if one were to breach the contract. For an express written contract, the right to sue for breach of contract is so vital that when the General Assembly created the Georgia Constitution, a clause was added that precludes Georgia and all entities/instrumentalities within, to use sovereign immunity to avoid litigation. If Georgia or the entities/instrumentalities of the state …

Beat The Heat: Texas’S Need To Reduce Summer Temperatures In Offender Housing, Mary E. Adair

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s lack of air conditioning in offender housing areas is a violation of the Eighth Amendment and deprives offenders of humane living conditions. Unlike most Texans, offenders housed in the TDCJ are unable to adequately protect themselves from the higher, prolonged summer temperatures. Most Texas prisons do not provide air conditioning or other types of cooling systems in offender housing areas, so offenders are at the mercy of the elements with little protection against heat-related illnesses. Several jurisdictions, other than Texas, have recognized extreme temperatures in housing areas can lead to constitutional violations because the …