Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Defining Deference: Impacts Of Abandoning Chevron On Emerging Technology Governance And Administrative Law, R. Aubrey Davis Iii

Seattle University Law Review

Emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), often lead to unforeseen legal outcomes. Notable abuses in areas such as facial recognition, employment bias, and housing discrimination are well known. However, legislative responses to these issues either have been largely reactive or there has been no legislative response at all. In lieu of legislation, agencies have sought to fill the gap. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently proposed a rule mandating voter notification for all AI-generated political phone calls citing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 as authority. However, the TCPA was originally passed to curtail telemarketing, not …

Intellectual Property Or Modern Folklore? The Problem With Open Gaming Licenses In Tabletop Gaming, Rosie Midget

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses how courts and legislatures should address “Open Gaming Licenses” commonly attached to tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), which game publishers use to promote a false image of accessibility—misleading consumers and building goodwill from the misunderstanding. Part I discusses what TTRPGs are, including the defining features of the hobby and culture surrounding it, as well as the unique interplay between publishers and players. Part II explores the question of which elements in a TTRPG system may be subject to copyright protection. Part III examines these elements in practice using Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons TTRPG as a …

Federal Tax Immunity And The Legal Incidence Of The Maine Sales Tax: Gamage V. Halperin, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

Established constitutional doctrine grants the federal government immunity from state taxation. Application of this doctrine ordinarily depends upon the "legal incidence" of the state tax. A state tax imposed directly on the United States or on one of its instrumentalities violates the immunity of the federal government. Gamage v. Halperin raised the issue of whether a sale partly subsidized by the federal government is entitled to constitutional immunity from a state sales tax, at least to the extent of the government's share of the tax. Taxation of a federally subsidized sale presents difficult problems of federal tax immunity. The threshold …

The Hidden Cost Of State Income Tax Repeal: A Case Study Of The West Virginia Neighborhood Investment Program Credit, Elaine Waterhouse Wilson

West Virginia Law Review

In March 2023, West Virginia significantly cut its personal income tax rates and paved a path toward the full repeal of the personal income tax. This repeal would directly impact West Virginia’s nonprofit sector and reduce charitable giving because it would render West Virginia’s Neighborhood Investment Program (“NIP”) tax credit ineffective. NIP tax credits have been the primary charitable tax incentive in the state’s income tax code and have been widely supported by nonprofits. This Article argues that if the NIP credit program incentivizes charitable giving, then state income tax repeal comes with a hidden cost—the cost of lost revenues …

Texas' Ev Tax: Right Or Wrong?, Andrew Ponce

Posters - 2025

This poster was created for the 5th annual Research Showcase. From the poster:

Texas passed SB505 in, May 2023.

Enacted in September 2023.

SB505 → $200 annual fee (bundled with the $50.75 auto registration). Additional $400 fee for initial EV purchase. This would mean the EV owners pay for their two years of ownership upfront.

Critics say SB505 targets EV’s and disincentivizes a greener societal approach.

Does this law unfairly target EV’s and/or does it make owning an EV more expensive than gas-powered?

Revving Up Or Stalling Out? Examining The Effectiveness Of Electric Vehicles In Combating Climate Change, Meghan E. Miller Termat

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Re-Imagining Tomorrow: A Technology, Innovation Law, And Ethics Symposium On Addictive Technology And Children, Margaret Chon

Seattle University Law Review

In this Foreword, Professor Margaret Chon introduces Seattle University's Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) program, the 2024 TILE Symposium, and Dr. Gaia Bernstein’s Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies.

Keynote Address: The Movement To Protect Kids From Addictive Technologies, Gaia Bernstein

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, I describe my personal journey starting with a school outreach program I created in 2017 to address technology overuse among kids. While I initially advocated for self-help methods, I grew to recognize that the tech industry bore responsibility. This realization led me to write Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, which focused on collective action to pressure the tech industry to redesign its addictive products.

I then describe the movement to control addictive technologies and protect kids, which has gained momentum since the end of the pandemic. This movement combines grassroots parent activism with legal-political action. …

Moral Panic Or Public Health Crisis? Lessons From Drugs And Gambling For “Addictive” Design, Matthew B. Lawrence, Haomin (Kevin) Yan

Seattle University Law Review

Alcohol, automobiles, guns, lottery, loot boxes, meat, music, opioid painkillers, processed foods, prop bets, slot machines, television, tobacco, violent video games. Over the last century each of these has been subject to concerns—some might even say “moral panics”—from parents and policymakers about avoidable harms to kids and adults. In some cases we look back with the benefit of hindsight and dismiss those concerns as naïve or moralistic. In others we look back at them as justified or as having come too late to check an expanding industry before it did unfathomable harm while growing so powerful that it became all …

Responding To Digital Addiction, Ned Snow

Seattle University Law Review

In Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, Professor Gaia Bernstein calls our attention to the growing problem of digital addiction. Digital addiction may sound like something out of a science-fiction novel or something that does not raise the same sort of real-life practical concerns as are present in a physical health crisis or an economic decline. But as Bernstein presents the evidence, we learn that the consequences of digital addiction can be just as harmful as a serious disease or a financial depression. Cognitive development disorders, anxiety, emotional depression, social isolation, and other mental health ills can be debilitating—as much …

The Ai Doppelgänger Dilemma: Cloned Voices In The Music Industry, Elizabeth Shields

Seattle University Law Review

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been an influx of “voice clones”—deep-learning algorithms that create synthetic speech to realistically mimic human voices. Celebrities and, in particular, music artists, have been subjected to the proliferation of AI voice clones on social media platforms like TikTok and streaming platforms such as Spotify. Despite music utilizing AI voice clones having amassed much popularity, this technology can be harmful and highly invasive to musicians whose livelihoods often depend on their distinct voices. While legal scholars have attempted to articulate various rights that could protect a person’s voice, individuals are largely …

Let The Sunshine In: Crafting Constitutional Transparency Regulations For Content Moderation, Caitlin Ring Carlson

Seattle University Law Review

In response to public concern about the impact of social media, legislators in some U.S. states have developed laws to regulate the process of content moderation. Many include mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements, some of which courts have already deemed an unconstitutional infringement on social media platforms’ right to free expression. This article explores the parameters for crafting constitutional social media transparency regulations using existing U.S. media policy and insights from recent legal challenges. The resulting analysis identifies content neutral transparency requirements that mandate the disclosure of purely factual, non-controversial information as those most likely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Specifically, …

This Is Not A Game: The Addictive Allure Of Digital Companions, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have become an inescapable part of modern childhood, reshaping education, leisure activities, entertainment, and social interaction. From AI-powered tutors that adapt to individual learning styles to emotionally responsive chatbots that simulate human companionship, these systems promise unprecedented personalization, cognitive stimulation, and social support. However, these benefits mask significant risks that remain unregulated and inadequately addressed.

Although adults are also susceptible to forming deep emotional bonds with AI companions—often trusting them as if they possessed genuine understanding and empathy—children are particularly vulnerable. Their misplaced trust can more severely distort social development, weaken critical thinking, and foster unhealthy …

Beyond Blinders And Boomerangs: Assessing State Business Taxation, David Gamage

Faculty Publications

Karl A. Frieden’s article, “Wearing Blinders in the Debate Over Business’s ‘Fair Share’ of State Taxes” and his subsequent article, “The Boomerang Effect of the Business ‘Fair Share’ Tax Debate,” jointly contend that progressive calls to strengthen state corporate income taxes (CITs) are misguided because businesses allegedly overpay certain other state and local taxes. This essay argues that, while Frieden does raise some valid points about the efficiency of specific tax design choices, his core argument fundamentally misconstrues the central issues: the ultimate incidence of business taxes, the pursuit of equity and efficiency, and the importance of combating harmful tax …

The Samuel & Ronnie Heyman Center On Corporate Governance Invites You To: Taxes Vs Tariffs, Heyman Center On Corporate Governance, Cardozo Business Law Society, Luís Calderón Gómez, Harlan Grant Cohen, Scott Maberry, Maria Celis, Gregory Spak

2025 Event Invitations

Market participants are preparing for the tax and trade policies pursued by the second Trump administration. Regarding taxes, proposals include making expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions permanent, ending green energy subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act, and exempting certain income from taxation. Proposed tariffs range from retaliatory measures-in-kind to targeting Chinese market participation to a universal 20% import tariff. On the campaign trail, the President often presented these proposals as part of a shift of financial burdens from domestic taxpayers to foreign companies. In a panel discussion with tax and trade experts, we will seek to determine the …

What's Important To Write About? A Century Of Washington Law Review Topics, Hugh Spitzer

Washington Law Review

This Article examines the topics of all lead articles in Washington Law Review during its past ninety-eight years of publication. The analysis illustrates the changing interests of legal academics, student editors, and the working lawyers and judges who have read and used the articles over a century. For its first fifty years, the journal focused on general topics of interest to practitioners, Washington law matters, business and tax law, and government regulation. Other topics, such as legal and judicial system reform, constitutional law, and comparative and international law, were present in modest numbers. In its second half century, Washington Law …

Overloading The 1% “Circuit Breaker”: The Indiana Tax Court Constitutionally Expands Curtilage, Andrew W. Swain

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

In its 2024 decision, Sawlani v. Lake County Assessor, the Indiana Tax Court reviewed the constitutionality of the Indiana General Assembly’s statutory limit of the constitutionally prescribed 1% tax cap to only one acre of land—curtilage—surrounding the taxpayer’s principal place of residence. The Tax Court held the legislature’s limitation unconstitutional, finding no verbiage in the relevant constitutional provision that justified limiting the tax cap to just one acre. This Article critically examines the Court’s decision in Sawlani, arguing that the ruling represents a significant departure from established judicial principles and legislative intent, undermining the legislature’s authority and introducing …

Formulary Apportionment: A New Framework For Personal Income Taxation, Andrew Appleby

Pepperdine Law Review

Increased post-pandemic remote working arrangements and interstate migration have upended existing personal income taxation regimes. For decades, the current paradigm has proved to be an imperfect but workable means to determine which state has the prevailing claim to impose tax on a particular item of income. The individual’s state of residence has a residual claim to all the individual’s worldwide income but defers to the state in which the income is derived if such a state is determinable. To that end, the state of residence typically provides a credit for income taxes paid on a source basis to other states. …

Through A Glass Darkly: How Securities Disclosures Give A Distorted View Of The Economy, Gerald F. Davis

Seattle University Law Review

Our understanding of the American economy often relies on stylized facts derived from mandatory disclosures by listed corporations. Data vendors like Standard & Poor’s vacuum up 10Ks and proxy statements into databases, and scholars distill these into tentative maps. This may have been adequate for a postwar economy centered on asset-heavy manufacturers, but it is increasingly out of step with an information-based economy. Companies listed on the stock market are fewer in number and less representative than they were, light in tangible assets and people, and heavy on IP. Basic facts such as what industry they are in are increasingly …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Seattle University Law Review

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …

Shareholder Expression In A Time Of Heightened Political Tension, Aaron A. Dhir

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, I provide context for my forthcoming research project on shareholder proposals and racial equity audits. Since the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, progressive shareholder actors have increasingly used the proposal mechanism to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice-related goals. These proposals have frequently gone beyond requesting the usual corporate fare of diversity trainings, intersectionality workshops, affinity groups, etc. Instead, a more ambitious type of proposal asks corporate America to conduct racial equity audits, defined as “an independent, objective and holistic analysis of a company’s policies, practices, products, services and efforts to combat systemic racism …

Corporate Governance Speech, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

The State has always regulated the intra-firm communications that make corporate governance possible, most commonly by mandating disclosures of information by a corporation to its shareholders. Some such laws are labeled “securities regulation,” but securities regulation is a broad category that extends to speech by actors who are outside the corporate enterprise as well. Also, the conventional securities regulation category does not capture all such laws; other examples, including informationforcing mandates, can be found in state corporate law. This Article uses the term “corporate governance speech” to describe the communications among shareholders, directors, and officers through which corporate governance is …

Dark Accounting Matter, Colleen Honigsberg

Seattle University Law Review

Physicists calculate that approximately 85% of the matter in the universe is composed of “dark matter” that “does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation and is therefore difficult to detect.” The S&P 500 currently trades at a price-to-book value of 4.2, suggesting that book value accounts for less than 20% of the S&P 500’s market value. The remaining 80% appears nowhere in these firms’ balance sheets—it is invisible to contemporary accounting techniques and constitutes “dark accounting matter.”

Some “dark accounting matter” is composed of factors commonly described as components of “ESG.” Human capital, for example, is an intangible asset …

The Employees’ Dilemma: Balancing Internal Reporting, Whistleblowing, And Insider Trading Risks, Geeyoung Min

Seattle University Law Review

The Essay examines how recent developments in insider trading regulations and whistleblower reward programs can lead to unintended and counterproductive results of discouraging employees from using internal reporting channels within corporate compliance programs. While the presence of a robust and well-functioning corporate compliance program is a critical factor both in mitigating the level of public enforcement actions against companies and in protecting corporate managers from liability in private litigation, these programs often provide little incentive for employees to report potential misconduct internally.

Corporate compliance programs are designed to promote the upward information flow within the company, which is essential for …

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Seattle University Law Review

A variety of businesses now cite 303 Creative when seeking First Amendment protection for their refusal to serve certain customers based on those customers’ protected class status. How this litigation will play out remains to be seen. But future courts need not, and should not, repeat the 303 Creative Court’s misunderstanding of how the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions actually works.

Part I of this Essay explains the Court’s longstanding understanding of the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions, and then describes the Court’s failure to engage with this precedent in 303 Creative. Part II then identifies the 303 Creative decision’s …

Money Moves: Taxing The Wealthy At The State Level, David Gamage, Brian D. Galle, Darien Shanske

Faculty Publications

It's widely understood today that inequality is a major social problem that in turn contributes to other crises. By most accounts, tax systems are supposed to be our engines of equality. Yet in today’s United States, state and local tax systems mostly do the opposite: they take a greater percentage of the resources of the poor and middle class than of the rich.

Perhaps surprisingly, the traditional view among fiscal policy experts has been that this state of affairs is correct. In this standard account, only national governments should impose progressive or redistributive taxes. While acknowledging that there would be …

Green Dividends: A Case Study In Green Dividends And The Conditions For Private Ordering Solutions, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay introduces a novel private ordering solution to facilitate corporate investments in pro-social and environmental initiatives: Green dividends. Green dividends are an optional increase in shareholder dividends that are returned to the company to be reinvested in environmental initiatives or kept by a shareholder.

Green dividends pose an alternative to the current gridlocked debate that corporations can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and shouldn’t even try to act in pro-social or environmental ways. Turning the common refrains on their head converts each narrative into an element for a successful private ordering solution: authority, accountability, shareholder buy-in, and government- backed enforcement. With Green …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …