Litigation Commons^™

Modeling Narrowest Grounds, Maxwell Stearns

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court’s doctrinal statements governing nonmajority opinions demonstrate inconsistencies and confusion belied by the Justices’ behaviors modeling the narrowest grounds doctrine. And yet, lower courts are bound by stated doctrine, beginning with Marks v. United States, not rules of construction inferred from judicial conduct. This Article simplifies the narrowest grounds rule, reconciling doctrinal formulations with observed behaviors, avoiding the implicit command: “Watch what we do, not what we say.”

The two most recent cases considering Marks, Ramos v. Louisiana and Hughes v. United States, obfuscate three central features: (1) when the doctrine does or does not …

Frivolous Defenses, Thomas D. Russell

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article is about civil procedure, torts, insurance, litigation, and professional ethics. This is an empirical piece with data drawn from a sample of 356 answers to 298 complaints in car crash lawsuits to identify various ways that, I argue, insurance defense lawyers evade the rules of civil procedure and, frankly, act unprofessionally.

The empirical center of this piece examines 356 answers in car crash personal injury cases in Colorado’s district courts. First, I situate these cases within dispute pyramid elements including the total number of miles-traveled within Colorado and also with respect to the volume of civil litigation.

The …

Masthead, Jtaa Editors

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Federal Legislation Needed To Settle Student-Athlete Name, Image, Likeness Issue, Dylan Akers

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Rock And Hard Place Arguments, Jareb Gleckel, Grace Brosofsky

Seattle University Law Review

This Article explores what we coin “rock and hard place” (RHP) arguments in the law, and it aims to motivate mission-driven plaintiffs to seek out such arguments in their cases. The RHP argument structure helps plaintiffs win cases even when the court views that outcome as unfavorable.

We begin by dissecting RHP dilemmas that have long existed in the American legal system. As Part I reveals, prosecutors and law enforcement officials have often taken advantage of RHP dilemmas and used them as a tool to persuade criminal defendants to forfeit their constitutional rights, confess, or give up the chance to …

The Alarming Legality Of Security Manipulation Through Shareholder Proposals, Artem M. Joukov, Samantha M. Caspar

Seattle University Law Review

Shareholder proposals attract attention from scholars in finance and economics because they present an opportunity to study both quasidemocratic decision-making at the corporate level and the impact of this decision-making on firm outcomes. These studies capture the effect of various proposals but rarely address whether regulations should allow many of them in the first place due to the possibility of stock price manipulation. Recent changes to shareholder proposal rules, adopted in September 2020, sought to address the potential for exploitation that some proposals create (but ultimately failed to do so). This Article shows the potential for apparently legal stock price …

Neither Safe, Nor Legal, Nor Rare: The D.C. Circuit’S Use Of The Doctrine Of Ratification To Shield Agency Action From Appointments Clause Challenges, Damien M. Schiff

Seattle University Law Review

Key to the constitutional design of the federal government is the separation of powers. An important support for that separation is the Appointments Clause, which governs how officers of the United States are installed in their positions. Although the separation of powers generally, and the Appointments Clause specifically, support democratically accountable government, they also protect individual citizens against abusive government power. But without a judicial remedy, such protection is ineffectual—a mere parchment barrier.

Such has become the fate of the Appointments Clause in the D.C. Circuit, thanks to that court’s adoption—and zealous employment—of the rule that agency action, otherwise unconstitutional …

Unpacking Third-Party Standing, Curtis A. Bradley, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

Third-party standing is relevant to a wide range of constitutional and statutory cases. The Supreme Court has said that, to assert such standing, a litigant must ordinarily have a close relationship with the right holder and the right holder must face obstacles to suing on their own behalf. Yet the Court does not seem to apply that test consistently, and commentators have long critiqued the third-party standing doctrine as incoherent. This Article argues that much of the doctrine’s perceived incoherence stems from the Supreme Court’s attempt to capture, in a single principle, disparate scenarios raising distinct problems of both theory …

Beyond Qualified Immunity, Fred O. Smith Jr.

Michigan Law Review Online

I never watched the video. The descriptions themselves have always felt like enough. Traumatizing enough. Invasive enough. George Floyd, father of two, laying on the ground, as an unfazed officer kneeled on his neck for at least eight minutes and forty-six seconds. He pleaded for his life and cried out to his deceased mother until he met his inevitable death. His name should be said for the record before saying almost anything else. The recording of the chilling final minutes of his life is, in all probability, one of the impetuses for this multi-journal Reckoning and Reform Symposium.

2021 Data Updates Accompanying Andrea Fenster & Margo Schlanger, Slamming The Courthouse Door: 25 Years Of Evidence For Repealing The Prison Litigation Reform Act, Prison Policy Initiative, Margo Schlanger, German Marquez Alcala

Other Publications

This entry is for underlying data, excel versions, and replication code for tables included in Fenster, Andrea and Margo Schlanger. "Slamming the Courthouse Door: 25 years of evidence for repealing the Prison Litigation Reform Act." Prison Policy Initiative (2021) found at https://repository.law.umich.edu/other/173/

This 2021 data update is superceded by the 2022 data update and files related to the 2022 BJS Court Orders included in this repository.

The Demise Of The Law-Developing Function: A Case Study Of The Wisconsin Supreme Court, Skylar Reese Croy

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

The Death Of Abortion: If Roe V. Wade Is Overturned, Can The Right To Choose Be Upheld Under The Arguments Used To Establish An Individual’S Right To Physician-Assisted Suicide?, Jennifer Mccoy

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Seventh Circuit Upholds Buffer-Zone Ordinances To Protect Women Entering Healthcare Facilities From Sidewalk Counselors—Price V. City Of Chicago, 915 F.3d 1107 (7th Cir. 2019), Jamie Wells

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Housing Law—Not Over This Threshold: The Crisis Of Continued Housing Discrimination Against Queer Americans—Smith V. Avanti, 249 F. Supp. 3d 1194 (D. Colo. 2017), Cayla Keenan

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Narrowly Reading Law Enforcement Activity Exception To Privacy Act In Favor Of Privacy Rights—Garris V. Fbi, 937 F.3d 1284 (9th Cir. 2019), Megan Ryan

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Third Party Cross-Examination During Campus Misconduct Hearings Satisfies Due Process Requirement Under Fourteenth Amendment—Haidak V. Univ. Of Mass.- Amherst, 933 F.3d 56 (1st Cir. 2019), Kori Dean

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Big Pharma, Big Problems: Covid-19 Heightens Patent-Antitrust Tension Caused By Reverse Payments, Hannah M. Lasting

Seattle University Law Review

In the wake of COVID-19, pharmaceutical companies rushed to produce vaccinations and continue to work on developing treatments, while the tension caused by reverse payments intensifies between patent and antitrust law. Lawmakers must address this tension, and the current pandemic should serve as a catalyst to prompt reform at the legislative level. By amending the Hatch-Waxman Act, lawmakers can ease the increasing strain between patent and antitrust policy concerns. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court attempted to resolve this tension in its landmark decision, F.T.C. v. Actavis, but the tension remains as lower courts struggle to produce a uniform standard …

28 Usc § 1782 In Aid Of Foreign Arbitration: "A Tribunal By Any Other Name", Attilio M. Costabel

St. Thomas Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Clumsy Couple: The Problem Of Applying Model Rule 1.7 In Transactional Settings, Katelyn K. Leveque

Indiana Law Journal

The American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct (“Model Rules”) have long addressed conflicts of interest, with fluctuating degrees of stringency.1 For as long as the rules have been in place, legal scholars have grappled with how lawyers can work within the confines of the rules to serve their clients best, as well as how the rules might better align with what clients seek and expect from their legal representation. In their current form, the Model Rules address conflicts of interest in Rule 1.7. However, both this rule and the Model Rules more generally are not one size fits …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents and Special Thanks.