State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Expanding Access To Justice Through Regulatory Reform And Innovation: Arizona Lessons From The Past, Present, And Future, Samuel A. Thumma

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dignity Defended, Privacy Preserved: A Call For Improved Legal Safeguards To Shield Victims Of Intimate Crimes From Public Scrutiny, Madeline E. Brown

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Stitch Incoming: Lindke V. Freed’S Impact On Social-Media-Blocking Litigation, Clare R. Norins, Mark L. Bailey

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Since at least 2016, social-media-blocking litigation against government officials who censor their online critics has been an evolving battleground for First Amendment rights of free speech and petition. In 2024, the United States Supreme Court issued its first substantive opinion on social media blocking, holding that government officials’ social media activity, even on a personal account, constitutes state action triggering constitutional scrutiny if (1) the official possessed actual authority to speak on the State’s behalf, and (2) purported to exercise that authority when she spoke on social media.

In this Article, we explain the Court’s novel two-part test for determining …

The Fashion Regulation Fight, Eliot L. Force

Capstones

Fast fashion is a rising global phenomenon with terrible consequences for the environment and laborers across the world. In the US, fashion-specific environmental and labor regulation is practically non-existent at the federal level, but some individual states have begun proposing fashion regulation bills with the aim of curbing the industry’s harms. But in every state where these regulations have been proposed, powerful industry trade groups and companies have been fighting back against those proposed regulations, with much success, through lobbying. As climate change gets worse and the fashion industry’s practices remain unchanged, the need for regulation only becomes greater, but …

Group Homes For The Mentally Retarded In Maine: Legislative Intent And Administrative Process, James C. Hunt

Maine Law Review

Historically, mentally retarded citizens of Maine have been confined to Pineland Center, the state's principal institution for the mentally retarded. In 1975 a class action suit, Wuori v. Zitnay, was filed in federal district court on behalf of "involuntarily confined" Pineland residents and "conditionally released" residents "in need of care . . . in a humane and healthful . . . environment." Three years later agencies and officials of the State of Maine entered into a consent judgment which laid down a "comprehensive plan designed to bring about speedy and meaningful relief" to the plaintiff class. The relief granted was …

Home Rule And The Pre-Emption Doctrine: The Relationship Between State And Local Government In Maine, Robert W. Bower Jr.

Maine Law Review

The legal relationship between a state government and a municipal government determines the powers and responsibilities of these two political entities. In Maine this relationship is complex and uncertain due to ambiguities in the constitutional and statutory scheme governing it and due to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court's narrow and inconsistent interpretation of that scheme. This Comment discusses the various methods for delegating power to municipalities, including the traditional method which was used in Maine prior to 1970. In addition, this Comment examines the "home rule" scheme enacted in 1970 and its subsequent judicial interpretation and application. Any statutory or …

A Uniform Choice? Esas And The State Right To Education, Hadiah C. Mabry

Notre Dame Law Review

Education savings accounts (ESAs) are on the rise. Just since 2023, ESAs have been on the legislative docket in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Montana, Ohio, Texas, Tennessee, and Wyoming, with ESAs already active in eleven other states. These programs provide funds directly to parents on a per-child basis which can be used on any number of educational pursuits. While ESAs are relatively young in the world of school choice, they are also the natural outgrowth of a greater push toward educational freedom for parents. They join the ranks of more established programs like school vouchers, tax credits, and charter schools.

Unlike …

Roving Extraterritoriality: The Murky Doctrine On State Laws Regulating Absent Citizens, Leo Schlueter

Notre Dame Law Review

It is generally agreed that sovereigns have the power to punish the crimes of their citizens abroad, at least in some situations. But sovereigns rarely exercise this power, and its contours are not well understood. This is especially true in the context of American federalism. It is unclear to what degree states have retained their sovereign extraterritorial powers, and the Supreme Court has never had occasion to fully explain their limits. Recent political developments, however, make it plausible that the question will soon arise. This Note attempts to provide some insight into the future debate over state criminal extraterritorial jurisdiction …

The Constitutional Case Against State-Controlled Fact-Checking: A Case Comment On Kunal Kamra V. Union Of India, Abhinav Ravi, Aravind Sundar

National Law School of India Review

The Bombay High Court in Kunal Kamra v Union of India struck down the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023, which had established a centralised fact-checking unit to issue takedown orders against social media posts that were identified as “fake or false or misleading”. The Rules threatened the safe harbour protection of social media intermediaries for failing to adhere to such takedown orders. The Court held that the establishment of the fact-check unit violates the rights of free speech, profession and equality under the Indian Constitution. This article explores the free speech implications of …

Local Government, Jacob Stalvey O'Neal, Russell A. Britt, Mathis L. Gales, Jennifer Dorminey Herzog, Nicholas A. Kinsley, M.Blake Walker

Mercer Law Review

As usual, the Survey saw multiple published cases involving the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Georgia courts clarified multiple sovereign immunity waivers, including waivers for injunctive and declaratory relief claims, waivers for nuisance claims, and waivers for claims involving negligent uses of government vehicles. This Article attempts to summarize the highlights and noteworthy cases.

Zoning And Land Use Law, Newton M. Galloway, Steven L. Jones, Joshua Williams

Mercer Law Review

For the first time since 2017, the cases reviewed for the Zoning and Land Use Law Survey did not focus on judicial decisions attempting to transform legislative zoning decisions into quasi-judicial actions. ...

For this Survey period, attention shifts to the impact of State v. SASS Group, LLC, the first case arising after the 2020 amendment to the Georgia Constitution of 1983 in which Georgia voters approved a constitutional amendment (the Amendment) which permitted a limited waiver of the state’s sovereign immunity for declaratory judgment claims seeking a judicial determination that an action of a governmental official was unconstitutional. …

Nil: How Third-Party Businesses Exploit Collegiate Student-Athletes With Impunity, Matthew Glogower

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

While there are numerous state NIL (name, image, and likeness) laws protecting student-athletes from economic exploitation, there is no federal law which offers universal protection, nationwide, to student-athletes. State NIL laws offer some protections for student-athletes from exploitation by colleges, universities, and boosters, but there is no protection for student-athletes who sign NIL deals with for-profit third-party businesses. These NIL deals, between the student-athlete and third-party businesses, make up the majority of NIL agreements. Section 6 of the proposed College Athlete Economic Freedom Act (“CAEFA”), titled “Enforcement Provisions,” aims to codify federal protection for student-athletes against colleges, universities, and boosters, …

After Further Review: Are Ncaa Conferences Now Subject To Antitrust Liability?, Madison Huberman

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Following the Alston decision, the landscape of college athletics has undergone significant transformation. Although the Supreme Court in Alston previously determined that individual conferences lacked power over the relevant market, this is no longer true for all conferences. This note explores the potential antitrust liability facing individual NCAA conferences in the post-Alston era. It reviews the NCAA’s historical context, its member institutions, and the variations in membership across Divisions and sports. The analysis then shifts to the current state of college athletics, including NIL policies, conference realignment, and media rights deals. The note further assesses whether certain conferences are susceptible …

The Enduring Relevance Of Congress Despite The Court's Shift To “Ordinary Reader” Statutory Interpretation, Abbe R. Gluck, Laila M. Robbins

Journal of Law and Policy

Has Congress become irrelevant to statutory interpretation? The dominant theoretical and doctrinal paradigm in American statutory interpretation has always been the conversation between Congress and the courts. Today, however, the Court’s new, second-generation textualists claim they have left Congress behind. They argue they have changed textualism’s perspective, from an “insider” perspective focused on Congress’s textual choices, to an “outsider” perspective based on how “ordinary people” read statutes. The Court’s self-professed shift away from a legiscentric approach, if true, would be a seismic shift in the conception of the judicial role. Whereas judges and scholars—including first-generation textualists—had for a century focused …

The Broad Church Of Modern Textualism, Nicole Steitz, Brian G. Slocum, Kevin Tobia

Journal of Law and Policy

Nearly thirty years ago, Justice Scalia’s Tanner lectures branded Holy Trinity Church v. United States (1892) as the anti-textualist archetype, a decision trumping the text’s plain meaning with a suspect judicial investigation of the law’s purpose or spirit. And so Holy Trinity seemed, until Gales and Solan’s groundbreaking empirical study supported an alternative reading of the key statutory term (“labor or service”) that would avoid this conflict between text and purpose. Taking inspiration from Gales and Solan, we reconsider Holy Trinity using the precepts of modern textualism, with its increased emphasis on context, pragmatics, anti-literalism, legal meaning, holistic meaning, non-compositionality, …

The Pet Fish Canon, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Journal of Law and Policy

Inspired by the work of the late Professor Larry Solan, this article proposes that judges recognize as one of the textualist canons of statutory construction a “pet fish” canon. Such a canon would posit that when an ordinary reader would understand two or more words to yield a meaning that is different than the sum of the two words defined separately, the statutory interpreter should not disaggregate them. The Roberts Court has already followed such a linguistic precept in some statutory cases, and this article proposes that the Court recognize this as a canon considered at least as seriously as …

Grammar & Syntax Arguments On The Roberts Court, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Journal of Law and Policy

In his excellent book, The Language of Judges, Professor Solan demonstrates how judges use grammatical or linguistic arguments to avoid acknowledging statutory ambiguity—and how they often get the grammar or linguistics wrong. Since his book was published, textualism has become the dominant interpretive approach on the U.S. Supreme Court—and we have seen increasingly prominent battles involving grammatical devices and rules. This comment takes Professor Solan’s analysis as a jumping off point to evaluate how grammar and linguistic arguments are employed on the modern Supreme Court, in the age of textualism. The comment offers a brief empirical and doctrinal assessment of …

"Major Questions" About Preemption, Kamaile A.N. Turčan

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Chevron's 51 Imperfect Solutions., Christopher J. Walker, Neena Menon

Articles

In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the judicial deference federal agencies previously received for their statutory interpretations, overturning the Court’s landmark 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. While Chevron was never binding on state courts, where the balance of powers and state constitutions may require different or no deference to agencies, numerous states have adopted Chevron deference, Skidmore weight, or similar deference regimes for judicial review of agency legal interpretations. Despite these developments, little scholarly attention has been paid to how and why states have developed administrative law’s deference doctrines, how the …

Foundation, Challenges And Approaches To Deepen Brics Science, Technology And Innovation Cooperation In Context Of Brics Enlargement, Xiu Yang, Haitao Chen, Ci Fang, Ziran Jiang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Deepening international science and technology innovation (STI) cooperation among BRICS countries is of great significance for empowering Global South and building a global S&T community. This study takes the ten BRICS countries in the expanded membership as the research object, deeply analyzes on deepening international STI cooperation among BRICS countries, and puts forward approaches and suggestions. Research indicates that BRICS countries have established a long-term, stable, and mature mechanism of international STI cooperation that provides an institutional guarantee for deepening international STI cooperation among BRICS countries. The rising impact of STI competence, the expanded scale of STI network, and increasingly …

Liberty And Equality Under The First Amendment: Scrutinizing Book Bans Through An Equal Protection Framework, Sarah Ryan

Brooklyn Law Review

While the constitutional text refers only to liberty, equality has been recognized as an implicit principle of the First Amendment. The guarantee of free speech ensures an equal opportunity for every voice to be heard. As school book bans proliferate, the consistent targeting of titles containing themes of race or LGBTQIA+ identity reveals a discriminatory motivation on the part of state actors. The resultant infringement on students’ right to receive information, as well as the unequal treatment of particularly-themed content would seemingly run afoul of both the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause. Given the broad discretion granted to …

A Long Road Ahead: Examining The Constitutionality Of New York City’S Congestion Pricing Plan, Emily Dulberg

Brooklyn Law Review

New York City attempted to implement New York’s first congestion pricing scheme, the Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP). The CBDTP was paused by Governor Kathy Hochul amidst concerns that the scheme will have negative impacts on families who have not financially recovered from the pandemic. The CBDTP sought to charge drivers a fee each time they entered the Central Business District (CBD), an area below 60th Street in Manhattan. The purpose of this plan was to raise funds for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to improve mass transit while simultaneously decreasing pollution and traffic congestion in New York City. …

A Delicate Balance: Adopting The French Court Of Cassation's Dual Criminality Interpretation, Matthew Hosler

Et Cetera

This Note recommends potential language to be added to various States’ criminal codes to incorporate the French Court of Cassation’s interpretation of the Dual Criminality requirement for prosecutions under universal jurisdiction. This recommendation stems from research into the concept of universal jurisdiction, leading to the discovery of the May 2023 Court of Cassation’s decision that created a pathway for countries to have jurisdiction over specific international crimes despite the crime being committed in another country. Specifically, this Note details the history of universal jurisdiction and its dual criminality requirement from the 17th century to modern times. Next, the Note details …

The Last Word On The Ohio Constitution, Jonathan L. Entin

Et Cetera

This essay offers a detailed overview of Steinglass & Scarselli’s significantly revised and expanded second edition of The Ohio Constitution, the leading analysis of that subject. The essay explores some broad themes, including judicial review, judicial independence, the relationship between the judiciary and the political branches of Ohio government, separation of powers, race and gender, the new judicial federalism, and the process for amending the Ohio Constitution. The book is an extraordinary resource for the Ohio bench and bar as well as for the general public. The essay explains why that is so and suggests that readers will use this …

Education’S Inextricable Ties To Democracy: Brown V. Board Of Education And Its Democratic Aspirations, Kayla Griffin Green

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 27, 2023, Cleveland State Law Review hosted an in-person Symposium to convene academics, legal practitioners, community advocates, and judges for a robust and timely conversation about democracy’s promise and the fight for its future. This Symposium piece will reiterate some of the conversations by panelists discussing the use of law to become Guardians of Justice, the relationship between education and democracy, and the Ohio Constitution as a tool for recapturing the state’s democratic values.

Shadows Of The Crown: The Virtue Of Equilibrium In American Sovereign Immunity, William T. Olmstead

Cleveland State Law Review

Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the federal and state governments of the United States cannot be sued or prosecuted unless they voluntarily waive their own impunity. In recent decades, the Supreme Court has expanded the scope of the sovereign immunity of the state governments. This Note argues that such an expansion is a profound and shortsighted mistake. It proposes that the most effective way to balance governmental functionality with civic accountability is to pass and ratify a constitutional amendment that solidifies national sovereign immunity and abolishes state sovereign immunity. It argues that such action is necessary to ensure the …

Custodians Of Civility, Defenders Of Democracy, Guardians Of Justice, Lee Fisher

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 27, 2023, Cleveland State Law Review hosted an in-person Symposium to convene academics, legal practitioners, community advocates, and judges for a robust and timely conversation about democracy’s promise and the fight for its future. This Symposium piece will reiterate some of the conversations by panelists discussing the use of law to become Guardians of Justice, the relationship between education and democracy, and the Ohio Constitution as a tool for recapturing the state’s democratic values.

Democracy & The Ohio Constitution – Recapturing The Innovative Spirit Of The 1912 Ohio Constitutional Convention, Melody J. Stewart

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 27, 2023, Cleveland State Law Review hosted an in-person Symposium to convene academics, legal practitioners, community advocates, and judges for a robust and timely conversation about democracy’s promise and the fight for its future. This Symposium piece will reiterate some of the conversations by panelists discussing the use of law to become Guardians of Justice, the relationship between education and democracy, and the Ohio Constitution as a tool for recapturing the state’s democratic values.

Threading The Needle In Extreme Partisan Gerrymandering Cases, Michael Gentithes

Cleveland State Law Review

Recent Supreme Court jurisprudence paints a grim picture for future reform to address extreme partisan gerrymandering. The decisions in Rucho v. Common Cause and Moore v. Harper appear to foreclose progress at both the federal and state level. Reformers must neither create unmanageable legal standards for adjudication in federal litigation, nor ask state courts to transgress ordinary bounds of judicial review when interpreting state laws that might address gerrymandering.

But there remains a path forward that focuses on clear and detailed state constitutional mandates to curb gerrymandering practices. Beneath their rhetoric, these decisions support clear legal rules over broader democratic …

A Proposal To Rebalance Direct Democracy In The Ohio Constitution, Mark Wagoner

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 27, 2023, Cleveland State Law Review hosted an in-person Symposium to convene academics, legal practitioners, community advocates, and judges for a robust and timely conversation about democracy’s promise and the fight for its future. This Symposium piece will reiterate some of the conversations by panelists discussing the use of law to become Guardians of Justice, the relationship between education and democracy, and the Ohio Constitution as a tool for recapturing the state’s democratic values.