Legislation Commons^™

Researching The U.S. Senate Presidential Nominee Confirmation Process, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

The beginning of 2025 has seen renewed public attention and emphasis on the constitutionally mandated U.S. Senate confirmation process. This stems from the beginning of the second Trump Administration as its nominees navigate this process. The presentation provides historical background on this process, demonstrates what nominees, Senate oversight committees, and the full Senate in administering this process and enables readers to find out how to access information resources documenting this process. The confirmation process continues throughout presidential administrations and may involve little public attention and controversy or acute public attention and controversy. The contrasting 2025 confirmation experiences of Secretary of …

Flag Fever: Adoption Of New State Flags, Brian Craig

The Guardianship Journal

Several states are experiencing flag fever, and it just might be contagious. Minnesota and Utah adopted new state flags that took effect in the first half of 2024. After years of debate, the new Utah state flag officially took effect on March 9, 2024. The Minnesota state flag officially became law on May 11, 2024, replacing a controversial flag that some people called racist and ugly. Other states are also considering new flag designs. Many states still incorporate their “seal on a bedsheet” designs that are difficult to distinguish from other states and lack good attributes for flag design. The …

Uptier Debt Exchange Transactions: A Winner-Take-All Battle In The Leveraged Loan Market, Angela Chang

Brooklyn Law Review

This Note explores the legal implications of uptier debt exchange transactions (UDETs) in the syndicated loan market. These transactions are restructuring strategies that allow distressed companies to exchange existing debt for “superpriority” debt, often to the detriment of excluded creditors. The Bankruptcy Code aims to balance debtor relief with creditor rights, but, as this Note demonstrates, UDETs exploit ambiguities in credit agreements to shift priorities in favor of certain lenders. This Note examines the pivotal case of In re Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC, a decision which highlighted the need for creditors to reassess whether the flexibility of their credit agreements …

Unveiling Injustice: An Analysis Of Irc Section 7430 And The Quest For Fairness In Taxpayer Administrative And Judicial Proceedings With The Irs, Kevin T. White, Tammy W. Cowart, Roger Lirely

Brooklyn Law Review

The American rule and doctrine of sovereign immunity are serious barriers affecting access to justice for individuals and small businesses. In this Article, we explore the legislative history of and evolution of the amendments to section 7430 of the Internal Revenue Code, which allows prevailing taxpayers in tax proceedings who meet certain substantive and procedural requirements to recover their attorneys’ fees and costs. We also examine in depth the requirements under section 7430 for recovering administrative and litigation costs, looking at select judicial decisions at how these requirements have been applied, including decisions applying the statutory limitations on attorneys’ fees …

Conduits For Crime: How The Us Art Industry Has Become A Market Ripe For Financial Crime, Sage Espindola

Brooklyn Law Review

The US art market is the largest in the world, with an estimated total worth of $67.8 billion. In the last decade, art market transactions have skyrocketed in value, with works like Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi selling at auction for $450 million, making it the most expensive individual work to ever be sold. However, unlike other markets that handle similarly high-value assets and commodities, the US art market is largely unregulated. The lack of adequate formal regulation, coupled with a culture of anonymity, has allowed for the US art market to become a hotbed for financial crime, such as …

The Extraordinary Extension Of The Video Privacy Protection Act: Why The “Ordinary Course Of Business” Of An Analog Era Is Anything But Ordinary In The Digital World, Elizabeth Gemdjian

Brooklyn Law Review

In the last dozen years, a wide range of companies—from streaming platforms to consumer goods brands to nonprofits—have been the target of lawsuits under an idiosyncratic, outdated law: the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (VPPA). The VPPA focuses only on consumers’ privacy related to video content; it prohibits a party that has data on a consumer’s video viewing history, along with personally identifiable information about that consumer, from disclosing that information without the consumer’s consent. While the VPPA did not get much attention in court until recently, in the past decade, the volume of VPPA-related claims has exploded. This …

Locational Data And The Public Interest, William A. Herbert, Micahel Goodchild, Richard Appelbaum, Jeremy Crampton, Gary Langham, Krzysztof Janowicz, Mei-Po Kwan, Katina Michael, Lisa Schamess

Publications and Research

This article presents a paper developed by the AAG Organizing Committee on Locational Information and the Public Interest through a summit held in Santa Barbara, California in June 2022. The summit resulted in goals and ideas for addressing the issues that arise from the present environment for geodata, whereby public, private, and third-sector entities can tap into publicly available locational information with relatively little regulation on its access or use. The Committee articulates four goals: (1) develop a research agenda extending across disciplines, (2) outline educational resources and strategies to guide ethical practice, (3) devise a pathway to increase public …

Delivery Drivers Deserve The Whole Package: Package Delivery Drivers And The Transportation Worker Exemption Of The Federal Arbitration Act, Evan Kelly

Catholic University Law Review

Package delivery is a ubiquitous part of modern American life, and package delivery driving is a fast-growing occupation in the United States. These drivers work long hours in a fast-paced, highly regimented environment, and because of arbitration agreements they are made to sign, they often cannot go to court to settle disputes with their employers. Under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), these arbitration agreements are generally “valid, irrevocable, and enforceable.” However, the FAA includes an exemption (known as the “Transportation Worker exemption”) that excludes arbitration agreements in “contracts of employment for seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of worker …

The Blockbuster Amendment To Cplr 2106 Permitting Any Person To Submit An Affirmation In Lieu Of An Affidavit, Patrick M. Connors

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Traditionally, the affidavit has been the foremost source of proof on motions in New York State courts. Effective January 1, 2024, New York Civil Practice Law and Rules (“CPLR”) 2106 was substantially amended to allow any person to submit an affirmation in lieu of an affidavit, “with the same force and effect.” This is the most significant change to the CPLR in the twenty-first century and will impact many areas of civil procedure.

As those who have already grappled with the amendment to CPLR 2106 know, there are now numerous issues relating to the legislation that will need to …

The Constitutional Problems With Delegating Legislative Power To College Sports, Sam C. Ehrlich

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Part I of this Article discusses the current landscape of college sports, discussing why the NCAA has sought federal litigation to better control the industry and what legislative efforts are underway to potentially grant those wishes. Part II then reviews case law that defines the contours of the private non-delegation doctrine, focusing on the Amtrak litigation and National HBPA and how those two strings of cases place NCAA-related legislative efforts in constitutional peril. Part III will then closely review the currently proposed legislation that would, if passed, grant regulatory power to the NCAA or a new private entity, …

Do Ais Dream Of Electric Boards?, Robert J. Rhee

Northwestern University Law Review

When artificial intelligence (AI) acquires self-awareness, agency, and unique intelligence, it will attain ontological personhood. Management of firms by AI would be technologically and economically feasible. The law could confer upon AI the status of legal personhood, as it did upon traditional business firms in the past, thus dispensing with the need for inserting AI as property within the legal boundary of a firm. As a separate and distinct entity, AI could function independently as a manager in the way that legal or natural persons do today: i.e., AI as director, officer, partner, member, or manager. Such a future is …

The Need For Antiracist Education Amid Trends Toward Totalitarianism And A Constitutional Crisis, Julnasha Morehead

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Case For Prison Education Reform, Natasha Yousefi

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Are Social Rights Really Unachievable? Rethinking Social Rights Advancement Through Court-Triggered Institutional Innovations, Maria Emilia Mamberti

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Board

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

State Legislatures And Trans* Genocide (?) In The United States, Shannon Fyfe

Scholarly Articles

Certain state legislatures in the United States have targeted trans* people and other members of the queer community through an onslaught of legislative efforts since early 2020. Many of these efforts have targeted trans* youth specifically, by banning or limiting their access to gender-affirming care. As I have shown, gender-affirming care is necessary health care for trans* youth and is crucial for their mental and physical health and well-being. Some have argued that these legislative efforts targeting trans* youth are genocidal, that they are intentionally aimed at destroying the trans* community. I agree that the harm experienced by the trans* …

Cover Page, Masthead, And Table Of Contents

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Deficiencies In The Judicial Classification Of Cryptocurrencies Indicating The Need For Legislative Alternatives, Ethan Johnson

Journal of Legislation

The cryptocurrency industry is desperate for regulatory clarification, which would stabilize and secure cryptocurrency and, ultimately, promote increased investment. How the United States ultimately chooses to pursue cryptocurrency regulation has massive implications for future investment and the development of this technology. Disagreement over how to classify cryptocurrency under the investment contract test created in SEC v. Howey, including the recent Second Circuit split, has led to calls for resolving legislation. Cryptocurrency legislation has recently been passed by the European Union, and there are currently proposals for legislation before Congress in the United States.

This Note considers the context surrounding …

The Great War (Taylor's Version): Examining The New Era Of Recording Artists & Master Recording Ownership, Victoria B. Villanueva

Journal of Legislation

In 2019, Taylor Swift took to social media to voice her unease with the recent sale of her entire master recording catalogue to Ithaca Holdings, a sale that allegedly occurred without her explicit permission. Following a series of negotiations, holdouts, and ultimate deadlock, Swift made the critical and costly decision to re-record and re-release each of those six albums under her sole ownership in an effort to reclaim them as her own work—re-recordings publicly denoted by “Taylor’s Version”. This highly-publicized feud brought to the public’s attention a decades-long conflict between the recording artist and the recording company, one that has …