State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Loss Of Earning Capcity Benefits In The Community Property Jurisdiction - How Do You Figure., Aloysius A. Leopold

St. Mary's Law Journal

In the interest of uniformity, benefits for the loss of earning capacity should be subject to the same legal principle when determining marital property rights, regardless of the context in which those rights arise. However, courts throughout the United States have relied upon four different methods to determine title to loss of earning capacity benefits upon divorce. These approaches include the unitary approach, the analytic approach, the mechanistic approach, and the case-by-case approach. Because the determination of title to benefits varies tremendously, the need for certainty in this area of the law is necessary particularly in light of the Texas …

Why Did Voters Reject Michigan's Physician-Assisted Suicide Initiative?, Yale Kamisar

Articles

In November 1997, when Oregon voters reaffirmed their support for doctor-assisted suicide, some commentators called it a turning point for the "right to die" movement. But the lopsided defeat of a similar proposal in Michigan is a better barometer: in general, assisted suicide continues to fare badly in the political arena.

Why The Proposal To Legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide In Michigan Failed, Yale Kamisar

Articles

Some commentators and participants in the national debate over physician-assisted suicide (PAS) made much of the fact that in 1997 Oregon voters reaffirmed their support for assisted suicide by a much larger margin than the initial 1994 vote. The state legislature had put the initiative (which had initially passed by a 5149% vote) back on the ballot for an unprecedented second vote. This time the initiative was reaffirmed overwhelmingly, 60-40%. Barbara Coombs Lee, Executive Director of Compassion in Dying (an organization that counsels people considering PAS and one of the plaintiffs in Washington v. Glucksberg, 1997), hailed the second Oregon …

Who's In Control? The Courts, The Legislature And The Public In Colorado's School Finance Debate, Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus, Drew Dunphy

Faculty Scholarship

Colorado's school finance story touches on a number of themes familiar to students of school finance litigation: a struggle between those supporting greater resources and those favoring lower taxes; a shift in focus from equity to adequacy; and the difficulty of fostering an informed, widespread dialogue on school finance given the complexity of the funding system. At the same time, certain factors particular to Colorado – a seeming conflict in the state constitution, a number of strict constitutional amendments, and an unusually strong tradition of local control – have dramatically shaped the state's reform process. With a pending lawsuit seeking …

Preemption: The Federal Employees Health Benefit Act(Fehba): Why The Oklahoma Supreme Court Was Wrong In Allowing State Claims In Kincade V. Group Health Services, Matthew P. Sallusti

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Municipal Home Rule In New York: Tobacco Control At The Local Level,, Laura Hermer

Faculty Scholarship

This paper will examine the nature and scope of the ability of both municipalities and local public health departments to govern the local sale, use, availability and advertising of tobacco products in the context of New York state law and the recent Multistate Settlement Agreement.

Part I will begin with a description of municipalities in New York and a summary of the provisions of article 9 of the New York Constitution and section 10 of the state Municipal Home Rule Law, which delimit spheres in which municipalities may act without state interference and others in which the state may act …

Board Of Optometry, Jane K. Babin

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Public Utilities Commission, Andrew Noceto, Jonathan Steer, Todd N. Tappe, R. C. Fellmeth

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Impact Of The Capital Markets On Real Estate Law And Practice, 32 J. Marshall L. Rev. 269 (1999), Michael H. Schill

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Courtroom: Spoilation Of Evidence In Illinois, 32 J. Marshall L. Rev. 325 (1999), Kristin Adamski

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Arkansas Practice Materials Ii: A Selective Annotated Bibliography, Kathryn C. Fitzhugh

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Compliance Audits: The Arkansas Experience, Timothy T. Jones, Walter G. Wright Jr., Mary Ellen Ternes

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

None For The Road: Addressing The Problem Of Uninsured Vehicles And Drivers In Arkansas, Phillip D. Oliver

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Zoning Restrictions On Location Of Adult Businesses, Alan C. Weinstein

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This year's report concentrates on recent legal developments concerning regulation of the location of "adult entertainment businesses." Such regulations raise serious constitutional issues because the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression extends to non-obscene sexually oriented media. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has established that local government may single out adult businesses for special regulatory treatment in the form of locational restrictions if the local government can show a substantial public interest in regulating such businesses unrelated to the suppression of speech and if the regulations allow for "reasonable alternative avenues of communication," which essentially translates into a reasonable …

State Regulation Of Federal Prosecutors: The Impact On Contact With Represented Persons In Virginia, Robert H. Burger

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The first section of this paper analyzes the ethics rule promulgated by the Department of Justice. The DOJ rule governs those circumstances in which federal prosecutors may communicate with individuals known to be represented by counsel, without the consent of such counsel. The second and third sections of this paper discuss the judicial and statutory rejection of the DOJ rule respectively. First, in O'Keefe v. McDonnell Douglas," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reasoned that the DOJ lacked authority to promulgate their ethics rule. As a result of this conclusion, the Eighth Circuit held the DOJ rule …

Justification By Faith, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

In June 1997 a sixteen-year-old girl named Shannon Nixon began to feel ill. Her parents belonged to the Faith Tabernacle Church, one of a number of American sects which believe that illness should be treated spiritually rather than medically. Accordingly, the Nixons prayed for Shannon and took her to be anointed at their church. Shannon reported that she felt better and that the spiritual treatment had gained her her victory-her recovery. Before long, however, Shannon again felt ill. She became weaker and weaker and then fell into a coma. A few hours later she died. An autopsy revealed that she …

Family Law And Gay And Lesbian Family Issues In The Twentieth Century, David L. Chambers, Nancy D. Polikoff

Articles

Over these thirty years, lesbians and gay men have increasingly challenged conventional definitions of marriage and the family. In this brief article, we tell the story of gay people and family law in the United States across this period. We divide our discussion into two sections: issues regarding the recognition of the same-sex couple relationship and issues regarding gay men and lesbians as parents. These issues overlap, of course, but since family law discussions commonly treat adult-adult issues of all sorts separately from parent-child issues, we believe it convenient and helpful to do so as well.

Trial Preparation, Barbara Mcquade

Book Chapters

Trial preparation should begin with a careful review of the current law applicable to the case and a consideration of what legal and factual arguments will be presented to the jury. Such a review is often done in connection with the preparation of a court-ordered final pretrial order or the preparation of a trial brief. Even where such documents are not required by the court, an outline of the applicable law and the critical evidence expected to be put forth in the trial is vital to trial preparation.

As soon as possible before the scheduled trial date, you should consider …

The Constitution And Reconstitution Of The Standing Doctrine Comment., Laveta Casdorph

St. Mary's Law Journal

The most effective response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s construction of Article III standards will be to revise citizen suit statutes to reaffirm its important role in giving the injured citizen a voice against the administrative state. With the rise of the administrative state in the late 1930s and 40s, the Court developed a conservative doctrine of standing to protect New Deal legislation from court-based attacks. As individual constitutional rights expanded, standing rules were liberalized, allowing litigants to challenge the actions and decisions of administrative agencies more easily. Congress passed numerous environmental statutes containing “citizen suit” provisions in the 1960s …

Retrofitting Unemployment Insurance To Cover Temporary Workers, Sachin Pandya

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

State And Federal Constitutional Law Developments, Rosalie Levinson

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Board Of Pharmacy, Nicole Slanker

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

America's Preoccupation With Ethics In Government Essay., Vincent R. Johnson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Many Americans today expect that the law can, should, and will be used to ensure a level playing field in public life. Americans expect the law to eliminate, insofar as possible, any unfair advantage that might be gained through the use of special connections to those who exercise the power of government. There are numerous rules applicable to judges, lawyers, and public officials that each seek to promote equal treatment for all persons by limiting the ability of persons to use special connections and privileged relationships to gain an advantage in public affairs. There were two threads of development in …

Resolving The Mult-Fractional Deed Dilemma - Conc.Ord Oil Co. V. Pennzoil Exploration & (And) Production Co. Recent Development, Noelle C. Letteri

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

From Little Acorns Great Oaks Grow: The Constitutionality Of Protecting Minors From Harmful Internet Material In Public Libraries Comment., Kimberly S. Keller

St. Mary's Law Journal

Congress should focus on the receiver's end of Internet transmissions to overcome the anonymity and transmogrification elements of the Internet to protect minors from harmful material. Throughout the years, librarians have struggled with monitoring minors’ access to the accumulating number of controversial texts in the library. The Internet’s unique infrastructure affords librarians virtually no opportunity for the pre-shelf review available with books and videos. Congress enacted the Communications Decency Act (CDA) in 1996 in an attempt to protect minors from the underbelly of the internet. The United States Supreme Court, in Reno v. ACLU, struck down the CDA ruling that …

Keeping The Promise: Establishing Nontransferable Election Systems In Jurisdictions Covered By Section Four Of The Voting Rights Act., Adam J. Cohen

St. Mary's Law Journal

Jurisdictions covered by the Voting Rights Act (VRA or the Act) need to impose multimember districting and non-transferable election systems. The VRA was enacted in 1965 to enforce the promise of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution: the right to vote shall not be abridged on the basis of race. The Act requires any change in election procedures to be approved in advance so that states are not able to continuously disenfranchise voters based on race by simply changing election procedures. Either the District Court for the District of Columbia or the Attorney General of the United States …

Breard, Printz, And The Treaty Power, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article considers whether the anti-commandeering principle of New York v. United States and Printz v. United States applies to exercises of the Treaty Power. It illustrates the problem with an analysis of the treaty provision involved in Breard v. Greene, 118 S. Ct. 1352 (1998), which requires state officials to notify certain aliens they arrest that they have a right to consult with their consul. Whether exercises of the treaty power are subject to the commandeering prohibition depends on the resolution of two ambiguities in the Supreme Court's anti-commandeering doctrine. The first concerns the distinction between commandeering and …

Texas Rule Of Evidence 503: Defining Scope Of Employment For Corporations Comment., Craig W. Saunders

St. Mary's Law Journal

The attorney-corporate client privilege should be regarded as encompassing only communications made to the corporation’s counsel by employees in the scope of their employment. The Supreme Court of Texas and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the merger of the Civil and Criminal Rules of Evidence. The merger became effective on March 1, 1998 and is now known as the Texas Rules of Evidence. Although the civil and criminal rules often mirror each other, one monumental change is in the new version of Rule 503. This new version significantly alters the analysis used in a corporate context and determines …

State Regulation Of Federal Prosecutors: The Impact On Contact With Represented Persons In Virginia, Robert H. Burger

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

The first section of this paper analyzes the ethics rule promulgated by the Department of Justice. The DOJ rule governs those circumstances in which federal prosecutors may communicate with individuals known to be represented by counsel, without the consent of such counsel. The second and third sections of this paper discuss the judicial and statutory rejection of the DOJ rule respectively. First, in O'Keefe v. McDonnell Douglas," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reasoned that the DOJ lacked authority to promulgate their ethics rule. As a result of this conclusion, the Eighth Circuit held the DOJ rule …

Law's Territory (A History Of Jurisdiction), Richard T. Ford

Michigan Law Review

Pop quiz: New York City. The United Kingdom. The East Bay Area Municipal Utilities District. Kwazulu, South Africa. The Cathedral of Notre Dame. The State of California. Vatican City. Switzerland. The American Embassy in the U.S.S.R. What do the foregoing items have in common? Answer: they are, or were, all territorial jurisdictions. A thesis of this Article is that territorial jurisdictions - the rigidly mapped territories within which formally defined legal powers are exercised by formally organized governmental institutions - are relatively new and intuitively surprising technological developments. New, because until the development of modern cartography, legal authority generally followed …