State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Covid-19 And Energy Justice: Utility Bill Relief In Virginia, Joel B. Eisen

University of Richmond Law Review

Energy justice has captured national attention as scholars have spotlighted inequities in energy production and distribution activities, energy and utility regulation, and the clean energy transition. Within this broader context, this Article reflects on the successes and setbacks for the movement toward energy justice through a case study focusing on legislative, executive, and regulatory attempts between 2020 and 2022 to provide relief for Virginia utility customers harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Article begins by defining the problem of energy insecurity and demonstrating that the pandemic exacerbated existing energy insecurity for vulnerable citizens of Virginia. It then traces the efforts …

Criminal Law And Procedure, Brittany A. Dunn-Pirio, Timothy J. Huffstutter, Mason D. Williams, Robin M. Nagel, Tanner M. Russo

University of Richmond Law Review

This Article surveys recent developments in criminal procedure and law in Virginia. Because of space limitations, the authors have limited their discussion to the most significant published appellate decisions and legislation.

Interpreting State Statutes In Federal Court, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

This Article addresses a problem that potentially arises whenever a federal court encounters a state statute. When interpreting the state statute, should the federal court use the state’s methods of statutory interpretation—the state’s canons of construction, its rules about the use of legislative history, and the like—or should the court instead use federal methods of statutory interpretation? The question is interesting as a matter of theory, and it is practically significant because different jurisdictions have somewhat different interpretive approaches. In addressing itself to this problem, the Article makes two contributions. First, it shows, as a normative matter, that federal courts …

Improving (And Avoiding) Interstate Interpretive Encounters, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

State courts often encounter the statutes of other states. Any encounter with another state’s statutes raises an interesting but inconspicuous question about choice of law. In particular, the interstate encounter presents a choice of interpretive law. Despite some universal practices in statutory interpretation, there are methodological differences across jurisdictions—both at the level of overall approach and in the details of particular interpretive canons. When a state court encounters the statute of a sister state, may the forum state use its own interpretive methods or must it instead use the methods of the enacting state?

The existing doctrine on this choice-of-law …

Brief For Amicus Curiae Professor Derek T. Muller In Support Of Respondents, Daniel M. Sullivan, Daniel M. Horowitz, Derek T. Muller

Court Briefs

No. 21-1271
Timothy K. Moore v. Rebecca Harper

On Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of North Carolina

From the Summary of Argument

The petition for certiorari in this case presents the question whether the phrase “Legislature thereof” in the Elections Clause of the Constitution bars state courts from regulating the contours of Congressional redistricting pursuant to state constitutions. But Congress has spoken, too. It has regulated the manner of drawing congressional districts by federal statute. See 2 U.S.C. § 2c. Congressional redistricting in a State now takes place pursuant to this federal statutory directive, which contemplates a role …

Wake Up And Smell The Smog: The Third Circuit Provides Clarity On Cercla's Federally Permitted Release Reporting Exemption In Clean Air Council V. United States Steel Corp., Zachary Lawlor

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Climate Change And The Threat To U.S. Jails And Prisons, Laurie L. Levenson

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Dicamba Is Gone With The Wind: The Ninth Circuit Blows Life Into Fifra In National Family Farm Coalition V. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Timothy Howley Keith

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Wishing To Be Part Of That Court: How The Supreme Court's Decision In Bp P.L.C. V. Mayor Of Baltimore Lets Energy Companies Wander Free And Drown The Shore Up Above, Natalie Poirier

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Blocking Nature's Vulnerable Calls For Help: The Tenth Circuit Dials Into The Telecommunications Act's Federal Environmental Preemption Clause In Santa Fe Alliance V. City Of Santa Fe, Samantha Speiss

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Cle Working Paper No. 3/2022--What Is The Test For Interlocutory Injunctions Affecting Homeless Encampments? A Critique Of Vancouver Fraser Port Authority V Brett And Associated Case Law, Stepan Wood

Centre for Law and the Environment

Vancouver Fraser Port Authority v Brett (VFPA v Brett), decided in 2020, marked a new low in judicial responses to the intersecting crises of housing, homelessness, poverty, toxic drugs, mental health, racism and colonialism. By dropping to the ground the already low bar for granting interlocutory injunctions to evict homeless encampments from publicly owned land i n BC, this decision invites a critical assessment of BC courts’ approach to homeless encampment injunctions. In this paper I present the first comprehensive survey of 21st century BC homeless encampment interlocutory injunction applications, which shows that they have an extremely high …

Recent Developments: Att'y Grievance Comm'n Of Md. V. Jackson, Victoria Garner

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments: Pabst Breweing Co. V. Frederick P. Winner, Ltd., Shiloh Shassian

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments: Park Plus, Inc. V. Palisades Of Towson, Brandon Ewing

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Addressing Parental Denial Of Gender Dysphoria Treatment Under Maryland's Child Abuse And Neglect Laws, Olga Petrovskikh

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

To Fight The Battle, First You Need Warriors: Edward Garrison Draper, Everett Waring, And The Quest For Maryland's First Black Lawyer, John G. Browning

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments: Harris V. State, Kaitlyn Lyons

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments: In Re D.D., Donald Waldron

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Constitutionality Of Baltimore City's Local Hiring Ordinance, R. Stark Merrifield Iv

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Time To Define The Objectively Reasonable Officer: How Maryland's Use Of Force Statute Supplies Measureable Standards To Protect Fourth Amendment Rights, Chelsea Roberts

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Off-Reservation Treaty Hunting Rights, The Restatement, And The Stevens Treaties, Ann E. Tweedy

Washington Law Review

The underdevelopment of the law of off-reservation treaty hunting and gathering poses challenges for treatises like the groundbreaking Restatement of the Law of American Indians (“Restatement”). With particular attention to sections 83 and 6 of the Restatement, this Article explores those challenges and offers some solutions for dealing with them in subsequent editions of the Restatement. Specifically, this Article explores the potential usefulness of historical law in interpreting treaties, the need to tie treaty interpretation to the language of the treaty when an explicit right is at issue, the proper application of the reserved rights doctrine and the Indian canons, …

Tribal Sovereignty And Economic Efficiency Versus The Courts, Robert J. Miller

Washington Law Review

American Indian reservations are the poorest parts of the United States, and a higher percentage of Indian families across the country live below the poverty line than any other ethnic or racial sector. Indian nations and Indian peoples also suffer from the highest unemployment rates in the country and have the highest substandard housing rates. The vast majority of the over three hundred Indian reservations and the Alaska Native villages do not have functioning economies. This lack of economic activity starves tribal governments of the tax revenues that governments need to function. In response, Indian nations create and operate business …

Checking Out Indefinitely: Supporting Survivors Of Sex Trafficking Alongside Training And Education For Lodging Employees, Alyssa M. Grzesiak

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

There are roughly five million victims of sex trafficking in the United States. Over the course of a decade, over 3,500 instances of human trafficking involved a hotel or motel. Traffickers are relying on unaware lodging establishment employees, as well as complicit employees and managers, to successfully carry out their crimes. Despite the vital role the lodging industry plays in human trafficking, only seven states have implemented mandatory training for hotel and motel employees. This Note posits that the implementation of mandatory training and education programs for employees of lodging establishments could increase awareness and responsiveness to human trafficking, thus …

Frontiers In Regulating Building Emissions: An Agenda For Cities, Danielle Spiegel-Feld

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Recent developments in Congress and the Supreme Court have highlighted the folly of relying solely on the federal government to contain global climate change. If the United States is to help rein in the climate crisis, state and local governments will need to accelerate their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In many urban areas, where most Americans now live, the most important step that local governments can take to curtail these emissions is to reduce energy use in buildings. Recognizing this, a number of American cities have adopted building performance standards (“BPSs”) in recent years, which limit the annual …

Dislocating The Separation Of Powers State ‘Thumb’ On The Biden Sustainability Initiatives & Law, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

President Biden enacted his unprecedented large Infrastructure law to make what President Biden calls a “once-in-a-generation investment” to modernize U.S. infrastructure by rapidly deploying sustainable renewable power generation technology. As the primary U.S. federal law to address climate change before the world exceeds a ‘tipping point’ of uncontrolled warming, this Infrastructure law must not be impaired or frustrated by any other government actions. However, inferior levels of local government now are interceding, placing their legal ‘thumbs’ on and legally blocking implementation of Biden Administration sustainable Infrastructure. This article analyzes the legal conflicts posed by hundreds of state and local governments …

Recasting The Second Fiddle: The Need For A Clear Line Of Lieutenant Gubernatorial Succession, T. Quinn Yeargain

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments: Murphy V. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., Alexandra Mitchell

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

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.

Giving Heroes Their Shields: Providing More Immunity To The Healthcare Industry During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Gabriella Levine

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

The year is 2022. We are experiencing a global pandemic and economic uncertainty. And while traffic might have improved, as many work remotely and socially distance, everything else is unknown as people are face-to-face with death. The future has never looked bleaker.

As of September 12, 2022, there were 1,044,461 Coronavirus (“COVID-19”) related deaths and 94,973,074 reported COVID-19 cases in the United States (“U.S.”). The effects of COVID-19 impacted people who contracted the disease, family members who lost someone, and people at risk who have been in isolation for over one year.

Another group that has been heavily affected …

The Deep South’S Constitutional Con, Lynn Uzzell

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.