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Unfinished Liberties, Inevitable Balancing, Sherif Girgis

Journal Articles

From the Article

In constitutional liberties cases, the Supreme Court has tried to reduce balancing, understood loosely to mean determining a right’s contours based on sweeping political-moral considerations, not just text and history. It fears that today’s balancing would displace a balance struck by the Founders. Balancing is indeed problematic—but this campaign to end it is bound to fail. Though avoidable for many constitutional rights, balancing is inevitable for general liberties like religion, the Second Amendment, and speech. This inevitability arises not from gaps in text or history but from these liberties’ special role.

General liberties are irreducibly open-ended—not reducible …

Mapping Trends In Gender-Inclusive Legal Language Between Circuit Courts In The United States, Juliette M. Rhinow

Student Publications

This study examines the use of gender-inclusive legal language in federal circuit court opinions in the United States between 2020 and 2024, with a focus on how judicial political ideology influences linguistic behaviors. Drawing on postmodern feminist theory and utilizing content analysis, the research compares six federal circuit courts by coding 46 court opinions for inclusive and exclusive linguistic practices related to transgender and non-binary individuals. Inclusive practices included the use of self-identified names and pronouns, affirming decisions, and acknowledgment of transgender identities, while exclusive practices involved misgendering, outdated terminology, and restrictive rulings. Results show that progressive circuits demonstrated significantly …

Unto The (Data) Breach, Charlotte A. Tschider

University of Richmond Law Review

Since the early 2000s, U.S. courts have begun hearing “data breach” liability cases, the inevitable result of a growing internet- connected technology infrastructure. The relatively recent develop- ment of case law signals a body of law in development, stunted by significant limiting factors that prevent the coalescence of legal principles. To date, no holistic empirical exploration of data breach cases has offered sufficient detail to explore these factors. This descriptive empirical study analyzes, in detail, 225 data breach cases from 2005–2022, reviewing these cases over an extended period to descriptively identify key trends and changes within a bona fide data …

Congressional Outsiders And Textualist Non Sequitur, Chun Hin Jeffrey Tsoi

University of Richmond Law Review

In Congressional Insiders and Outsiders, Amy Coney Barrett distinguished between “congressional insider” approaches like process-based theories (i.e., drawing interpretive resources from Congress’s procedures and practices) and “congressional outsider” approaches like textualism (i.e., drawing interpretive resources exclusively from ordinary meaning of the statutory text). According to Barrett, textualists would find an “outsider” approach normatively superior because courts should be faithful agents of the people, who do not usually have inside knowledge of Congress. This embodies a distinctive type of defense for textualism, which I call “outsider textualism,” based not on statutory text as the compromise drawn in Congress, but instead on …

The Problem Of Biased Precedents, Ronen Avraham, Issachar Rosen-Zvi

Cardozo Law Review

This Article addresses the problem ofbiased precedents, wherein sophisticated repeat players, often corporate and state entities armed with superior resources and a vested interest in shaping the law, manipulate legal proceedings to systematically establish self-advantageous precedents. Specifically, by strategically choosing to litigate cases they anticipate will lead to favorable precedents and settling those expected to produce unfavorable outcomes, these players systematically bias the law over time to their advantage, at the expense of one-shot parties and society at large. The problem of biased precedents challenges the commonly held view about the efficiency and fairness of the legal system and raises …

The Purpose Of The Preliminary Injunction, Samuel L. Bray

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article explores a reshaping of the preliminary injunction that is occurring in the federal courts. A preliminary injunction is designed to be a “hold in place” order, blocking actions by the parties that would undermine the efficacy of the court’s remedial options. But the preliminary injunction is becoming a device for accelerating the merits decision. Instead of a four-factor test for preliminary relief, increasingly there is one factor: the merits. This Article critiques this transformation, and it argues that the preliminary injunction should be recentered on the protection of the court’s remedial options.

Response To Petition For Rehearing En Banc, Felicia M. Sonmez V. Wp Company Llc Et Al, Madeline H. Meth, Brian Wolfman, Becca Steinberg, Regina Wong, Elizabeth Brownstein, Nathaniel Allen Deacon

Faculty Scholarship

Felicia Sonmez alleges that the Washington Post violated the D.C. Human Rights Act by banning her from covering certain stories because she is a woman and a sexual-assault survivor. Op. 2-3. After finding Sonmez’s detailed allegations plausible, a panel of this Court rejected as premature the Post’s First Amendment defense that its decision was driven not by discrimination but by a desire to maintain an appearance of objectivity. Op. 4. Because “what actually motivated the Post editors to impose the bans on Sonmez is a factual question,” the panel held, the Post’s First Amendment defense could not be resolved on …

Brennan And State Constitutions, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The former Great Gorge Playboy Resort in New Jersey seems an unlikely place to help form a jurisprudential movement toward reliance on state constitutions to protect civil rights and liberties.

One need only turn back the clock to 1976 to find the story of one of the most significant moments in the rise of state constitutions. Anyone who is steeped in this movement is likely familiar with the lead article in the January 1977 issue of the Harvard Law Review, “State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual Rights.” The author was U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr.

Benchmarked For Arbitration: Work Avoidance As An Explanation For Why Judges Have Become Increasingly Favorable Toward Compelled Arbitration, Michael Conklin

Pepperdine Law Review

The clear trajectory over the last 100 years has been for judges to become increasingly more favorable toward sending disputes to compelled arbitration and enforcing arbitration awards. This results in a modern widespread proliferation of compelled arbitration that has become increasingly controversial. Some have alleged that the steady trend toward courts favoring compelled arbitration is the result of a corresponding building up of trust among judges in the arbitration process. This Article posits an alternative theory: Namely, judges face immense incentives to clear their dockets, and compelled arbitration is a highly efficient tool to that end. Exploring the historical trajectory …

Quo Vadis Hak Atas Kesehatan Reproduksi: Analisis Rekonstruksi Pengaturan Aborsi Di Indonesia (Perbandingan Hukum Indonesia Dengan Perancis), Dian Kencana Putri, Erna Dyah Kusumawati

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Pembatasan akses aborsi di Indonesia menyebabkan banyak perempuan dengan kehamilan tidak diinginkan terpaksa berhadapan dengan hukum. Pembatasan aborsi yang mengakibatkan kriminalisasi ini dapat menyebabkan dilema moral bagi banyak perempuan yang mengalami kehamilan tidak diinginkan. Padahal aborsi berpotensi terjadi pada setiap perempuan berusia produktif di Indonesia. Aborsi di Indonesia merupakan tindakan ilegal dan aborsi hanya dapat dilakukan dalam dua kondisi saja, yakni kedaruratan medis dan kehamilan yang disebabkan perkosaan. Artikel ini menganalisa bagaimana sebenarnya substansi aborsi dapat dimasukkan pada kategori hak kesehatan reproduksi perempuan dan mengapa negara Indonesia perlu mengubah kebijakan dan hukum mengenai aborsi. Untuk melihat seberapa pentingnya negara harus …

Konstitusionalitas Model Putusan Bawaslu Dalam Penyelesaian Pelanggaran Administratif Pemilu, Muhammad Rifai Yusuf, Syarif Hidayat

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

As one of the institutions that carries out quasi-judicial functions in the field of general elections, Bawaslu could issue a decision through an adjudication process. In 2017, Bawaslu was criticized for its several decisions in the Sipol case held by the KPU for the registration of participants in the 2019 general elections, mainly because it was considered that Bawaslu equated its position with the Supreme Court by assessing that Sipol in the KPU Regulation was not in line with the Election Law. In 2024, decisions on election administrative violations appear to be softer or seem to avoid the same potential …

Orientasi Rigid Dan Moderat Dalam Penafsiran Original Intent Dan Praktiknya Di Indonesia, Muhammad Alwi Khoiri Ramdani, Susi Dwi Harijanto, Lailani Sungkar

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Metode original intent lazimnya menghasilkan penafsiran yang bersifat rigid sesuai niat perumusnya. Selama konstitusi tidak diubah, maka tafsiran original intent pun tidak berubah. Namun penggunaan metode penafsiran original intent di Indonesia dapat menghasilkan pemaknaan yang berbeda/berubah meskipun ketentuan konstitusi dan perumusnya tidak berganti. Hal ini terjadi karena terdapat perkembangan pemikiran dalam penerapan metode penafsiran original intent. Penelitian ini membahas mengenai perkembangan pemikiran tersebut dan menganalisa pola penerapan metode original intent dalam penafsiran konstitusi yang dilakukan oleh Mahkamah Konstitusi di Indonesia. Ini merupakan penelitian doktriner dengan pendekatan konsep dan kasus. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perkembangan pemikiran dalam penerapan metode penafsiran …

Evaluasi Implementasi Putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi Terhadap Desain Surat Suara Calon Tunggal Dalam Pilkada, Enika Maya Oktavia, Rizki Maulana Syafei, Tsalis Khoirul Fatna

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The phenomenon of single candidates in regional elections in Indonesia has created a dilemma in applying democratic principles, especially regarding ballot design that often confuses voters. The Constitutional Court’s Decision Number 100/PUU-XIII/2015 mandated a plebiscite design with “agree” or “disagree” options for single candidates. However, in practice, this design has been distorted with the presence of a blank box without adequate explanation. This study aims to evaluate the extent to which the discrepancy between the Constitutional Court's decision and actual ballot design practices affects voter understanding and the quality of democracy. This study employs a normative juridical method with a …

Keith Allen Harward's Wrongful Conviction, Matthias Pearce

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Keith Allen Harward served 33 years in prison in Virginia for a rape and murder (The Innocence Project, 2025). The main evidence for his conviction was bite marks found on the rape victim’s legs. Someone broke into a house and murdered a man and raped the man’s wife. The rape victim described the man who had assaulted her, saying he was wearing a sailor’s outfit. A shipyard security guard nearby reported a man in a blood-spattered E-3 sailor’s uniform. Dental records of all E-3s were obtained and tested, and Harward was identified as the assailant (Keith Allen HARWARD v. COMMONWEALTH …

Attorney Perceptions Of Plea-Bargaining, Sarah K. Edelen

Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how criminal prosecutors and defense attorneys describe the negotiation process of plea-bargains, and the roles and discretion they exercise during it. Additionally, plea-bargaining is not well understood by many members of the public, so this research allows the public to gain insight and knowledge into the process. This study consisted of in-depth, qualitative interviews with both prosecutors and defense attorneys. The results of the study were analyzed through a content analysis. Overall, it was found that the way the plea-bargaining process is described through the existing literature differs …

In Memoriam Harry P. Glassman, L. Kinvin Wroth, Daniel E. Wathen, Gerald F. Petruccelli, Melvyn H. Zarr

Maine Law Review

Harry Paul Glassman was a remarkable lawyer, scholar, teacher, judge, colleague, and friend, whose untimely death has been deeply felt by all who knew him. The editors of the Maine Law Review have brought together in this issue a wide-ranging and moving col- lection of essays that illuminates each of these aspects of Harry's multifaceted life.

The Regulatory Triad: Reimagining Environmental Law In The Post-Chevron Era, Shai Stern, Itay Biton

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Get Your Act Together: The Alternative Fines Act In Federal Prosecutions Of Corporate Environmental Crimes, Josiah B. Harmar

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Quo Vadis Desain Pengamanan Hakim Dari Perbuatan Merendahkan Kehormatan Dan Keluhuran Martabat Hakim (Pmkh) Di Indonesia, Zainatul Ilmiyah

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Judges, as the main judicial actors in law enforcement, have an independent nature, both in terms of institutions and in terms of determining their decisions. However, in exercising their authority, judges are often faced with the risk of injury, both physical and psychological, by the public, who are not satisfied with the decisions made by the judges. With an empirical legal research method and using a conceptual approach, statute approach, and comparative approach, this study aims to find the best form in the design of an institutional model for judge and court security units. In this study, it was found …

The Trump Administration’S Recent Removals To El Salvador Violate The Prohibition On Transfer To Torture, Rebecca Ingber, Scott Roehm

Online Publications

Several of our colleagues have already provided excellent analyses of the fast-evolving legal and factual questions presented by President Donald Trump’s pretextual and abusive invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to transfer to El Salvador 238 Venezuelan men who it alleges are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. We are writing to flag a separate issue that this case has created, one that applies to anyone removed from the United States under any authority: the administration is sending people to a country where there is a quite significant risk they will be abused. Whatever the authority the administration might …