Law and Politics Commons^™

Dignity And The Free Press, Erin C. Carroll

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

As American institutions wither and die, those who believe in their importance must reflect and rebuild. One institution worthy of sustained attention is the free press. Divorced from government by design, the press can benefit from efforts to reinvigorate and reinvent it in ways that institutions more directly under the federal government’s thumb cannot. To best undertake these efforts, we need a richer understanding of why a free press is vital. Articulating the values that underlie the need for this institution is necessary not only to build the most robust free press, but also to best exercise our freedoms as …

Antidiscrimination, Not Anti-Dei: The Real Story Of The Supreme Court's Recent Title Vii Precedent, Madeline H. Meth

Faculty Scholarship

For several years, my colleague and I had been litigating employment discrimination cases with facts that shocked our friends and family. For example, we fought Dallas County over a women-work-the-weekend policy that required women detention officers to work weekends while male colleagues took the weekends off. Likewise, we challenged the City of Cleveland when it moved our client, an emergency medical services supervisor, from the day shift to the night shift explicitly because he is Black. Then, in April 2024, in one of our client’s cases, Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overruled the …

Climate Lies And Unjust Profits, Vanessa Casado-Pérez, Yotam Kaplan, Yael Lifshitz, Niv Meyerson

Faculty Scholarship

The climate crisis has reached a perilous tipping point. Our entrenched reliance on fossil fuels remains unchecked, as fossil fuel corporations wield their power to block meaningful reform and entrench their profits. The political horizon offers little relief—an incoming administration is poised to dismantle vital environmental protections, stripping away the few safeguards that stand between us and climate catastrophe.

In this grim landscape, communities across the nation are turning to the courts with renewed urgency, seeking justice and reform through climate litigation. Yet past efforts have fallen short, stymied by two formidable barriers. First, by centering on greenhouse gas emissions …

Plea Bargain Skepticism When Companies Kill People, Peter R. Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX airplanes fell from the sky, killing 346 people—one of the deadliest corporate crimes in U.S. history. Instead of taking the case to trial, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) addressed the matter by using two different alternative dispute resolution vehicles. First, Boeing was given a three-year deferred prosecution agree-ment. That deal was canceled when DOJ determined the company had breached it. Next, Boeing was given a plea bargain. This Article argues that federal courts, which are empowered to approve or reject plea deals, should be skeptical when the government turns to …

Black Labor Matters, Michael Z. Green

Faculty Scholarship

Black and organized workers increasingly find themselves threatened by two key outside forces: one seeking to stop anti-racism efforts via diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices and the other curtailing employees’ union organizing. This Article argues that a response must be grounded in uniquely local strategies by two specific worker coalitions. One coalition–the New Black Workers Movement (NBWM)–arose from Black Lives Matter civil rights protests in 2020 that captivated the workplace and heightened awareness about anti-Blackness and concerns of systemic racism. The other coalition–the New Labor Workers Movement (NLWM)–developed in 2020 as a workplace response to a global pandemic that …

Defining Civil Rico's "Injury To Business Or Property" Requirement: The Supreme Court Takes A Few Steps, Says It Punts, But Actually Fumbles, Randy D. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Throughout its history, the RICO statute has presented lawyers with something of an interpretive parlor game. It is indefinite along multiple dimensions and thereby given multiple interpretations, even down to the word level. In Medical Marijuana v. Horn, the Supreme Court set out to define one of RICO's civil-standing provisions: Namely, whether the statute's "injury to business or property" requirement can be satisfied when a plaintiff suffers both economic and personal injuries. In a 5-4 decision, members of the Court engaged in an interpretive battle over the meaning of the phrase and succeeded only in holding that civil RICO does …

Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover: Using State Constitutions To Escape The Dead Hand Of Article V, Meg Penrose

Faculty Scholarship

Thomas Jefferson believed that “the earth always belongs to the living generation.” His constitutional approach would empower twenty-first century Americans to decide twenty-first century problems regularly determined by the United States Supreme Court. Article V, the formal method for constitutional change, seemingly relegates these decisions to the Supreme Court because amending the federal Constitution is nearly impossible.

Unfortunately, our fixation on federal constitutional law often eclipses the power of state constitutional law. State constitutions balance our relatively static federal Constitution with responsive state governments. There is no need to debate what the Framers thought about modern issues when Americans can …

Court-Stripping, Court-Packing, And Court Defying: Revisiting The Supreme Court’S Essential Functions, Curtis A. Bradley, Neil S. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

The "essential functions thesis" is one of the most famous structural arguments in the field of federal courts. The thesis, which has been endorsed by a number of prominent scholars and the executive branch, posits that there are implicit, structural limits on Congress's authority to "strip" the Supreme Court of its appellate jurisdiction. Court-stripping, the thesis contends, is not allowed if it would undermine the essential functions of the Court-in particular, maintaining the supremacy and uniformity of federal law. In this Article, we revisit that thesis with three goals in mind. First, we aim to show that the structural arguments …

Groundwater Laws And Regulations: Survey Of Twenty-One U.S. States, Rebekah Acosta-Hueston, Abigail Adkins, Khadija Alibhai, Olivia Alland, Matthew C. Allen, Dan Archibald, Jeffrey Berk, John Broussard, Justin Cias, Bradford Eckhart, Blakely Fahning, Jackson Field, Michael Flores, Ellen Earl Gillis, Emma Golightly, Merrick Hayashi, David Hernandez, Kate Keithley, Matthew Maslanka, Erin Milliken, Lucas Mylet, Abigail Nichols, James O’Donnell, James Osteen, Connor Pabich, Cheryl Patterson, Rhyan Phillips, Sarah Rathmell, Margaret Reed, Laura Smith, Kelsi Sorrells, Brooke Thoendel, Ani Tookoian, Sandhya Wagle, Margaret Ward, Mackenzie Watson, Carolyn Wheeler, Ashley Wilde

EENRS Program Reports & Publications

This report constitutes the third and final volume in an ongoing project designed to explore and articulate the groundwater quantity laws and regulations of all fifty U.S. states that could then be used for comparative research. This particular report presents surveys for twenty-one states from across the country. The first volume featured thirteen state surveys while the second volume contained sixteen additional state surveys. Both can be found on the project website at: https://www.law.tamu.edu/US-Groundwater-Laws.

Professor Gabriel Eckstein at Texas A&M University School of Law and Professor Amy Hardberger at Texas Tech University School of Law developed an analytical rubric …

Trust In Government: How Sex, Race, And Ideology Shape Confidence In State And National Officials, Holden A. Mattison

Honors Theses

This research examines how sex, race, and political ideology shape individual trust in state and national government officials, with a particular focus on Mississippi as a case study. Drawing on data from the Mississippi Poll (2010-2014) and the 2024 American National Election Study (ANES), the research analyzes both bivariate and multivariate relationships to assess how demographic and ideological factors influence political trust across institutional levels. The findings reveal that race and ideology are significant predictors of trust at the state level, while sex has little effect. Whites and conservatives are generally more likely to express trust in state officials, whereas …

It's The Night Of The Living Deepfakes: The Threat Of Deepfakes On The Film Industry, Neki Shero

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

تقييم قانون التنظيم القضائي في ضوء المعايير الدوليّة, رينا قسطنطين

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

This study examines Lebanon’s Law on the Organization of the Judicial Court System, adopted by the Chamber of Deputies on July 31, 2025, and returned to the Chamber by the President of the Republic for further discussion, on September 5, 2025. It represents one of the most significant judicial reform initiatives since the Taif Agreement of 1989. The study traces the evolution of the Law’s provisions in successive drafts in light of the recommendations of the Venice Commission – the advisory body to the Council of Europe – and international standards regarding both institutional and individual judicial independence. The article …

في معنى استقلالية السلطة القضائية وتجلياتها, رزق زغيب

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

The independence of the judiciary in Lebanon, as constitutionally guaranteed, carries a particular meaning that is embodied exclusively in the judicial function performed by any sitting judge issuing rulings in the name of the Lebanese people. The Constitution that elevates the judiciary to the level of a power does not provide itself for guarantees akin to the legislative and executive branches. Rather, it entrusts the determination of judicial safeguards to the legislature, under the oversight of the Constitutional Council. The Council has consistently interpreted these safeguards as measures that protect judges in the exercise of their functions by removing any …

La Qualification Du Génocide À Gaza : Portée Juridique Et Enjeux Internationaux, Farah Safi

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

Genocide embodies the ultimate transgression of international law and exposes the limits of its effectiveness. Based on the 1948 Convention, its legal framework rests on two constitutive elements, – material and mental – whose interaction determines the recognition of the crime. Recent jurisprudence and contemporary cases in Gaza highlight the tension between legal clarity and political failure. Beyond punishment, prevention and the duty to ensure respect for international humanitarian law emerge as the core challenges of a system in crisis, where the survival of law now depends on its capacity to restrain power. This confrontation raises a fundamental question about …

Les Responsables Politiques Devant La Justice : Réflexions À Partir De L’Expérience Française, Bertrand Mathieu

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

This article studies the liability and accountability regimes potentially applicable to political authorities in France and in Lebanon. After insisting on the specific features of liability applied to the head of State, ministers, national representatives and judges in the French system, the author tackles the same issues under Lebanese law, particularly in the difficult circumstances following the Beirut port explosion.

La Neutralité : Notion De Droit International Et Positionnement Politique De L’Etat, Aida Azar

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

In international law, the concept of neutrality refers to the situation of a State that intends to remain uninvolved in armed conflicts. It is linked to the law of war and follows a specific legal framework that includes rights granted to neutral countries as well as duties imposed upon them, primarily abstention and impartiality. However, neutrality can be dissociated from war and can consist, in times of peace, of avoiding any actions that could draw a State into a conflict or a dispute between foreign powers. In such cases, it corresponds to a political stance of the State. Whether it …

قراءة في أحكام قانون انتخاب أعضاء مجلس النواب رقم ٢٠١٧/٤٤, رزق زغيب

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

By virtue of the new law on the Election of the Members of Parliament number 44 promulgated on June 17, 2017 and for the first time in its one hundred years history, Lebanon has adopted the proportional representation electoral system with a closed list and a preferential vote according to the greatest remainders. It is not surprising to note that the adoption of a specific electoral system is never considered in general as an innocent choice. This choice is controlled by the wishes of the governing political classes which aim though a new law on elections to achieve specific goals …

Constitutional Theory At A Catholic University, J. Joel Alicea

Catholic University Law Review

I argue that the study of constitutional theory is ideally suited to benefit from the intellectual climate of a Catholic university. To make that argument, I address three questions. First, in what ways does constitutional theory benefit from the intellectual disposition of a Catholic university? Second, what might be the potential drawbacks or risks involved in studying constitutional theory at a Catholic university? And finally, how can one gain the benefits of being a constitutional theorist at a Catholic university while avoiding any potential risks that attend that setting?

Transparency In Third-Party Litigation Funding: A Pathway To Protect America’S National Security Interests, Madison D. Gonzalez

Catholic University Law Review

Third-party litigation funding (TPLF) has opened the courtroom doors for many Americans who may otherwise not be able to afford to seek justice in America’s civil court system. The democratization of the civil court system has benefitted many Americans but the lack of transparency as to the true identities of those behind the litigation has sparked concerns that America’s foreign adversaries may weaponize TPLF to harm America’s national security interests through lengthy and costly litigation. To address this threat, Congress and state legislatures have begun to explore policy changes to increase transparency in TPLF. Several states have adopted disclosure requirements …