Law and Politics Commons^™

Reverse Nullification And Executive Discretion, Michael T. Morley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Failure Of Substance And A Failure Of Process: The Circular Odyssey Of Oklahoma's Corporate Law Amendments In 2010, 2012, And 2013, Steven Cleveland

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Judicial Selection In Congress’ Lame Duck Session, Carl W. Tobias

Indiana Law Journal

This Article first scrutinizes the Obama Administration confirmation and nomination processes. It then critically explores selection and concludes that Republican obstruction instigated the most open positions the longest time. Because this deficiency undermines swift, economical, and fair case resolution, the Article suggests ideas to promptly decrease the remaining unoccupied judgeships after the session commences.

Citizens Disunited: Mccutcheon V. Federal Election Commission, Adam Lamparello

Indiana Law Journal

The wealthy are democracy’s darlings, the middle class are its stepchildren, and the poor are its orphans. Corporate giants line the pockets of senatorial candidates—and purchase influence—while average citizens walk into a polling station and cast a largely symbolic vote. Stated simply, money creates a soft inequality by dominating the political process. Like the “soft bigotry of low expectations,”69 the soft inequality embedded in our political system has created a liberty gap between the prosperous and the poor. McCutcheon was an opportunity to bridge this gap. Instead, the Court enshrined the status quo by holding that Congress could only regulate …

California's Foreign Relations, Christopher Gaarder

CMC Senior Theses

Globalization has significantly increased the number of stakeholders in transnational issues in recent decades. The typical list of the new players in global affairs often includes non-state actors like non-governmental organizations, multinational corporations, and international organizations. Sub-national governments, however, have been given relatively little attention even though they, too, have a significant interest and ability to shape the increasing flow of capital, goods, services, people, and ideas that has so profoundly influenced the global political economy in recent decades. California, arguably the most significant among sub-national governments – its economy would be seventh or eighth in the world at $2.2 …

From Integrity Agency To Accountability Network: The Political Economy Of Public Sector Oversight In Canada, Jamie Baxter

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The federal integrity agencies that are delegated collective responsibility for public sector oversight in Canada face a common challenge to stabilize their ongoing independence from political control. While Parliament has delegated to these agencies key oversight functions that demand some degree of structural independence, they remain vulnerable to shifting political preferences and to an increasingly partisan national politics. This Article uses a political economy framework to theorize the objectives that shape political preferences for agency independence in Canada, and to suggest that structural innovations in the form of 'accountability networks' may provide one strategy to help stabilize those preferences over …

Litigating State Interests: Attorneys General As Amici, Margaret H. Lemos, Kevin M. Quinn

Faculty Articles

An important strain of federalism scholarship locates the primary value of federalism in how it carves up the political landscape, allowing groups that are out of power at the national level to flourish—and, significantly, to govern—in the states. On that account, partisanship, rather than a commitment to state authority as such, motivates state actors to act as checks on federal power. Our study examines partisan motivation in one area where state actors can, and do, advocate on behalf of state power: the Supreme Court. We compiled data on state amicus filings in Supreme Court cases from the 1979–2013 Terms and …

Reynolds Reconsidered, Guy-Uriel E. Charles, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Litigating State Interests: Attorneys General As Amici, Margaret H. Lemos, Kevin M. Quinn

Faculty Scholarship

An important strain of federalism scholarship locates the primary value of federalism in how it carves up the political landscape, allowing groups that are out of power at the national level to flourish—and, significantly, to govern—in the states. On that account, partisanship, rather than a commitment to state authority as such, motivates state actors to act as checks on federal power. Our study examines partisan motivation in one area where state actors can, and do, advocate on behalf of state power: the Supreme Court. We compiled data on state amicus filings in Supreme Court cases from the 1979–2013 Terms and …

Hunting And The Second Amendment, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

Debates about the meaning and scope of the Second Amendment have traditionally focused on whether it protects the keeping and bearing of arms for self-defense, prevention of tyranny, maintenance of the militia, or some combination of those three things. But roughly half of American gun-owners identify hunting or sport shooting as their primary reason for owning a gun. And while much public rhetoric suggests that these activities fall within the scope of the Second Amendment, some of the most committed gun-rights advocates insist that the Amendment “ain’t about hunting” and that, no matter their heritage and value, such activities are …

Social Capital At The Capitol: A Social Network Analysis Of Interest Group Influence In The 111th Congress, Steven A. Martin

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation builds on existing scholarship in political science and political sociology to explore the influence of interest groups in legislative action networks. The primary theoretical insight is that as the number of interest group affiliations between two members of Congress increases, so does the frequency with which they forge other sorts of social ties necessary to advance the interests of their interest group constituencies. In particular, the analysis looks at interest group donation strategies, legislative co-sponsorships, and roll-call votes during the 111^th Congress (2009-2010). The analysis uses social network analysis methods to create network models of 19 different …

The Conflation Of Ethnicity And Religion In Malaysia: A Reflection, Mahmood Chandia, Kartina A. Choong

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

According to the Malaysian Constitution, a "Malay" is one who, among other things, professes the religion of Islam. All Malays are, by legal definition, at least Muslims and they are not at liberty to leave Islam since a renunciation of the Islamic faith is tantamount to a renunciation of one's legally defined ethnic identity. This constitutional conflation of ethnicity and religion, which also serves the purpose of uniting the Malays and advancing their socio-economic interests, has been a distinct feature of the social landscape of the country since 1957, when it gained independence from British rule. This Article seeks to …

Political Uncertainty And The Market For Ipos, Jay B. Kesten, Murat C. Mungan

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Corporate Political Contributions As Bad Faith, Joseph K. Leahy

University of Colorado Law Review

A shareholder who objects to a corporate political contribution can file a derivative lawsuit to challenge that contribution as a breach of management's duty of loyalty to the corporation. Such a lawsuit will face long odds, however, if it is founded upon a traditional theory for breach of the duty of loyalty, like waste or self-dealing. Yet, there is a better theory for a shareholder to employ when filing suit to challenge a corporate political contribution: bad faith.

Bad faith is a better basis for challenging a corporate political contribution than either waste or self-dealing because bad faith is a …

Formality And Informality In Cost-Benefit Analysis, Amy Sinden

Utah Law Review

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is usually treated as a monolith. In fact, the term can refer to a broad variety of decisionmaking practices, ranging from a qualitative comparison of pros and cons to a highly formalized and technical method grounded in economic theory that monetizes both costs and benefits, discounts to present net value, and locates the point at which the marginal benefits curve crosses the marginal costs curve. This article develops a typology that helps to conceptualize the multiple varieties of CBA along a formality-informality spectrum. It then uses this typology to analyze the treatment of CBA by the academic …

Infiltration Or Immigration: The Legality Of Israeli Immigration Policy Regarding African Asylum Seekers, Eliott Rimon

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note argues that while Israel has the right to control migration from Africa, its current legal framework for handling refugees and asylum seekers is inadequate and often unconstitutional. It calls for legislative reforms to ensure a just and systematic approach that balances national security with human rights, emphasizing the need for international cooperation to share the refugee burden.

Quebec's Bill 1: A Case Study In Anti-Corruption Legislation And The Barriers To Evidence-Based Law-Making, Graham Steele

LLM Theses

Corruption is a significant problem around the world. Large-scale public works projects are especially prone to corruption. Much international effort has been devoted to fighting corruption, but the impact of these efforts is debatable. Public-sector procurement in the Canadian province of Quebec has, since 2009, been beset by scandal. After defeat of the Liberal government in 2012, the first bill introduced by the new Parti Québécois government was an anti-corruption measure. The heart of Bill 1 is a system by which construction contractors have to demonstrate "integrity" in order to bid on public contracts. Quebec's lawmakers could have looked to …

Government Speech And Political Courage, Helen Norton

Publications

This short essay addresses Walker v. Texas Div., Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc., in which a divided Court upheld Texas's rejection of the Sons of Confederate Veterans' request for a specialty license plate that featured the Confederate flag. Although it agrees with the majority that specialty license plates can -- and often do -- reflect the government's own expression that the government should remain free to control without running afoul of the First Amendment, it argues that the Walker Court missed an important opportunity to refine its government speech doctrine. Not only has the Court yet to settle on a …

Rethinking Immigration’S Mandatory Detention Regime: Politics, Profit, And The Meaning Of “Custody”, Philip L. Torrey

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Immigration detention in the United States is a crisis that needs immediate attention. U.S. immigration detention facilities hold a staggering number of persons. Widely believed to have the largest immigration detention population in the world, the United States detained approximately 478,000 foreign nationals in Fiscal Year 2012. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency responsible for immigration enforcement, boasts that the figure is “an all-time high.” In some ways, these numbers are unsurprising, considering that the United States incarcerates approximately one in every one hundred adults within its borders—a rate five to ten times higher than any other Westernized …

Reorienting Restorative Justice: Initiating A New Dialogue Of Rights Consciousness, Community Empowerment And Politicization, Thalia González

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

For the last three decades scholars have explored the practice of restorative justice as a crime control mechanism in a multitude of settings. Much of the discourse has focused on restorative justice as an alternative to traditional punitive and retributive criminal justice processes. Whether restorative or punitive, criminal justice processes that seek to address harm are not apart, above, or outside social, cultural and political relations. This Article seeks to initiate a new dialogue of justice and argues that the ontology of restorative justice should to be viewed to include a liberatory moment of politicization focused on promoting equality and …